blogging our way to democratic wins in virginia beach
I like this new Virginia Beach Democratic Committee!
At its monthly business meeting tomorrow evening (Bayside Library, 7-9pm), the VBDC will be considering a resolution similar to that passed by the Arlington County Dems which condemns AG Ken Cuccinelli for suing the EPA over its climate change endangerment finding. The Arlington Resolution is below the fold.
I know that the Hampton Dems are also considering such a Resolution. This is terrific!
A double whammy has been delivered on the Navy with encroachment by land and encroachment by sea. “In one short day, the Governor and Legislature have delivered a gift wrapped package to the citizens of Florida. First, over the stated objections of the Navy and DoD, they passed the off shore drilling bill. Then, they cut funding for the joint land use program that was part of the concerted effort to retain the master jet base at NAS Oceana and of course the carriers and supporting ships in Norfolk. Way to go Legislature; makes one wonder why we even try here in Hampton Roads when our needs and requirements are simply paid lip service to the Grover Norquist inspired anti tax zealots. This one day was a debacle and will take years to mend, if ever.” – Mike Barrett commenting on recent Virginian-Pilot article.
Adding insult to injury, eight lemmings on the Virginia Beach City Council followed Gov. McDonnell off the cliff. “The Governor made me do it”, is Mayor Sessoms reply. That is so so sad.
Virginia’s offshore wind development better produce a lot of jobs to make up for all the lost jobs caused by the Navy packing up and leaving for Florida. Governor McDonnell is both the Pied Piper and the Emperor with No Clothes, for there are no jobs with drilling off Virginia. It’s a net loss with the Navy saying “Adios, Virginia”.
Damn the clean beaches and healthy seas,
Senator Frank Wagner has Big Oil to please.
Oh all the riches on him they’ll reward
With juicy big contracts to his polluting ship yard.
For he is Frank Wagner, Virginia’s Energy King!
How dare you speak out against uranium mining,
Don’t bother with silly citizen participation.
Only the rich have voices in policy decision.
Voice opposition to the plans he’s conspired?
He’ll go to your employer to get you fired.
Erupting in anger, getting red in the face,
Perhaps noticeable signs of a need for AA.
The road isn’t easy for Big Oil’s prostitute,
Those treehuggers in Virginia can be so resolute.
But who better to champion their greedy plans
Then a man fined $ for environmental violations.
One of 13 millionaires in the General Assembly,
Yet lobbyists still fund meals and junkettes to Norway.
They’ll pen the op-eds submitted in his name.
Hell, they write all his bills. It’s all just the same.
Fined $400k for ripping off the Navy,
Only the beginning for his dealings quite shady.
Especially versed in making shit up,
Frank’s latest scam may be his death cup.
Last week in committee he declared it with glee,
“I’ve worked out an agreement with NASA and DOD”.
Drill, baby, drill. Screw Sec. Salazar.
We’ll simply avoid certain blocks in the lease area.
Yet DOD officials involved with OCS matters
Deny such discussions, alleged agreement in shatters.
Avoiding certain areas is an unacceptable solution.
It’s illegal, lacks legal standing, violates constitution.
So let’s compel him to produce alleged DOD agreement,
Coz all along their opposition has been vehement.
It’s again typical of a Frank Wagner “truth”.
As the Navy stands between him and his pie-in-the-sky loot.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Speech Therapy | ||||
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Check out Bob McDonnell the Environmentalist??? McDonnell starts at 1:20. h/t Waldo Jaquith.
Okay Democrats… mark your calendars for Tuesday, June 8th! Six Republican candidates are vying for the chance to face Rep. Glenn Nye in the November general election 2010.
Fun fun! We’ll now have five months of Republican squabbling and mini-meltdowns over potential Democratic crossover voting. So which of the six should we vote for? Why not stir the pot early and often?
I think it would be great fun if Scott Taylor was the nominee. He and Nye look so much alike. Voters will be so confused.
Which one do I think would be the easiest for Nye to beat? I lean towards Kenny Golden. I’ve never shared as much as two words with the guy but I’ve seem him around enough to come to the conclusion that he will strike voters as a mean ol’ man who hates people. Whatever GOP candidates emerges will be very bloodied, and Kenny, if that nominee, will scare voters off with all that blood all over him.
Judging by the fact that a neighbor already has his yard sign up, that he’s clever enough to everyday have ads gracing my Facebook home page, and that he’s got an ugly long scrolling list of Republican endorsements on his website, I think the other 5 candidates will be “primarily” (ha… I made a pun) gunning for Scott Rigell. He’s Mr. Nice Guy apparently and already doing outreach to Democrats. He’ll likely have the money to be very two-faced. He’s all Dr. Jekyll right now with all the pro-life, pro-guns rah-rah on his website. What do you bet that Mr. Hyde emerges after he’s won the primary. We should screen shots of his site right now so we can remind voters of the true Scott Rigell.
Wow! Last night, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell demonstrated to the nation that he is indeed one of the sharpest tool in the Republican wood shed. What a good little obstructionist he is fast becoming! Now the whole country knows Virginia is a contributor to the Republican agenda to weigh down President Obama and his agenda to move forward with health care and immigration reform and clean energy job creation.
“Republicans have better ideas than Democrats”, he said. And thus now the entire country now knows that Virginia lives off by itself in a little tool shed distant from the working farm.
Writes Media Matters Action Network in their detailed “Fact Check” report: “While McDonnell’s face may be fresh, his speech repeated a slew of the same old, worn out, debunked Republican talking points.” They detail exactly how McDonnell was 1) wrong on economic recovery, 2) wrong on the budget deficit, 3) wrong on Republican “cooperation”, 4) wrong about Americans’ views toward health care, 5) wrong on the Republican health care “plan”, 6) wrong on energy, and 7) wrong on homeland security.
Virginia Democrats need to pound on McDonnell, repeatedly pointing out exactly how wrong he is. If he continues to be the log jam on our road to recovery we then need to find a way to work around him. Let’s break out of this dark tool shed.
In so much as Jeff McWaters is now my State Senator, I crossed my fingers in hopes that once elected, a true legislative representative would emerge – that underneath all the campaign crap was a thoughtful, considerate, responsible Virginian with the ambition of doing due diligence in service to all his constituents.
Nope. What was elected on Tuesday January 12 was not a statesman who would put aside most of the hyper-partisan campaign wrangling, seeking first to educate himself on the issues, holding close the best interest of all persons great and small that he now represents, and giving to fair and thoughtful consideration to all sides of an issue.
Nope. What got elected to represent us in the 8th district for the next four years is a 100% political hack.
These were McWater’s most disgraceful words last night as part of the Senate GOP response to Governor Kaine’s final speech before the General Assembly:
“With the assault on business from Washington in the form of Obamacare, card check and cap and trade, Virginia’s business-friendly policies will be even more important as a last line of defense.”
Gosh, Jeff. I’m surprised you forgot the required GOP mention of “death panels”.
So someone explain to me how I’m supposed to go to my State Senator with my concerns for global warming pollution and holding polluters responsible for their contributions to it. He has already written that concern off as an “assault on business”. I’m doomed before even opening my mouth to speak assuming I even get as far as actually having an appointment to meet.
I’ve had pretty much only Republicans representing me since May 1985 (Bill Mims, Joe May, Russ Potts, Terrie Suit, Ken Stolle, and Barry Knight). They very often voted straight “R” which was often contrary to what I wanted. But if I got to them before the fact, they at least pretended to be interested in hearing my side of the argument. And if I got to them after the contrary vote, they appeared honest in their attempt to explain their reasoning. It was bogus most of the time but it was sincere and they went to bed at night at least knowing one little constituent of theirs was watching and wasn’t happy.
But with Jeff McWaters, I’ll get the “take a hike, treehugger and don’t come back. I don’t have time for your nonsense as I’ve got fat cats to serve”.
The rumor on the street was that Sen. Frank Wagner was conniving to get VB Mayor Sessoms to rescind VB’s resolution opposing uranium mining in southwest Virginia. The Beach did so (as did the City of Chesapeake) as our drinking water supply comes from Lake Gaston which is in the area of the proposed uranium mining.
Although there is still currently a moratorium in the Commonwealth on uranium mining, a legislative subcommittee did order a study of it. The State has contracted with the National Academy of Sciences, it’ll take 1.5 years to complete and would otherwise cost our cash-strapped state $1.4 million. “No problem,” says the wealthy special interests who have been allowed to underwrite the “study”.
Assuming that NAS can be trusted to not sway results to the benefit of its underwriters, there is still a huge problem with their study. It’s not site specific! And Virginia Beach’s Thomas Leahy, the city’s public utilities director, knows it and he’s not afraid to act on his doubts. Virginia is not Utah after all, where uranium mining faces a dry, arid environment. We’re practically tropical – so moist and spongy – ergo great concern for the State’s “study”.
The Virginian-Pilot reported today that the City is preparing to commission their own study on the effects to our drinking water should uranium mining near Lake Gaston be allowed. It’ll cost upwards of $437,000. And Sen. Frank Wagner is shitting in his pants. Getting Virginia Beach to come round to seeing this his way has vanished in the haze. Ha!
I love one of the comments on the Pilot article online. “Who does Wagner represent, Virginia Beach or the uranium industry?”, writes Chris33. Umm… take a wild guess. The answer is the same as always.
Ha… went to Wikipedia to check on the spelling of “lackey” and got these apropos synonyms… “Bitch, ass-kisser, crawler, sycophant, toady, apple polisher, bootlicker, fawner, hanger-on, pawn, attendant, tool, instrument, parasite, cohort (chiefly U.S.), valet, menial, minion, footman, sycophant, yes-man, manservant, flunky, brown-noser, flatterer, groveler, groveller, truckler”.
WTF does Delegate-elect Ron Villanueva know about offshore drilling? Nothing! Yet according to yesterday’s Virginian-Pilot, the Republican “has filed a bill to clear the path for offshore oil and gas drilling”.
VB Mayor Sessoms for the first time pulled together his Mayor’s Alternative Energy Task Force in 2009. His goal was to weigh in all the options, which included dual presentations of offshore drilling. The pro-drilling from Sen. Frank Wagner and the anti-drilling from my boss with the Sierra Club. Was Villanueva there? No. Did Villanueva attend any of the Mayor’s energy task force meetings? No. Has Villanueva ever considered or otherwise sought out the opposing points to drilling? No. Does Villanueva always and in any way swallow it down for Frank Wagner? Yes.
Pathetic, Villanueva.
Hard to improve on this editorial in today’s Virginian-Pilot!
Here’s to the new year and hopes that the Pilot stays tight on McDonnell’s ass!
Visions of sugar plums have clouded the truth for Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell. An op ed in today’s Wall Street Journal starts to pop the bubble.
Julian Walker with the Virginian-Pilot has had prior conversations with Dr. James V. Koch, the alleged “source” of McDonnell’s magic drilling numbers. He tried again to reach him for a more recent response but failed. But Russell Gold with the Wall Street Journal was successful.
But what’s the proof that offshore drilling would be an economic boom for the commonwealth? Mr. McDonnell cites the following:
A 2005 study by a former president at Old Dominion University forecast that offshore natural gas production alone off of the Atlantic coast near Virginia would, over a 10-year period, likely create at least 2,578 new jobs, induce capital investment of $7.84 billion, yield $644 million in direct and indirect payroll, and result in $271 million in state and local taxes. The study also estimated that there could be up to 500 million barrels of oil in this lease area – enough to fuel all four million cars in Virginia for more than four years.
An internet search for the study came up blank. Messages with Mr. McDonnell’s transition team seeking to see the study were unreturned. We were dumbfounded until we got an email from James V. Koch, the study’s author.
But he wrote that it wasn’t really a study, at least not in the academic sense. Mr. Koch said he was asked to do a quick look at the issue. Since “I did not have time to parse Virginia’s situation in detail, I examined the experiences of Louisiana and a Canadian province” and extrapolated. The figures “were very rough estimates” and the topic would benefit from a detailed, thorough study.
By the way, even Mr. Koch couldn’t provide us with a copy of the study. It’s not the type of thing he puts on the resume, he said. “That does not suggest the quoted study was somehow deficient, only that it was quick work. I was not painting the Sistine Chapel,” he said.
This reinforces remarks made by Dr. Koch to Delegate Joe Bouchard on Sept. 29, 2009:
“My estimates were not a definitive study. That’s why I never published it and don’t include it in the list of studies I’ve completed. A lot more work needs to be done to produce a real study. It will need to take into account numerous other factors, including environmental costs. You may quote me on this.”
Del. Bouchard further summarizes Dr. Koch’s explanation: “MMS estimates of oil and gas reserves in the Virginia OCS area are based on wells off the coast of Nova Scotia, almost 1,000 miles away”. The “estimated benefits assume that Virginia develops the totality of the oil and gas infrastructure found in the Gulf Coast states”. We have nothing of the extremely expensive infrastructure necessary to support McDonnell’s fuzzy numbers.
It’s gonna be a long, long and silly four years!
If there was any doubt about what we were in for heading into this next General Assembly, they are completely eradicated after reading Blue Virginia’s post quoting our next Attorney General. We could of hoped that calling us environmentalists “watermelons”, as Cuccinelli did for being “green on the outside and commie red in the middle”, that this was just campaign talk. But as his recent newsletter reveals, the man is whackjob evil and we are in for some very hard times.
Here are a few highlights from out Attorney General-elect’s latest “Cuccinelli Compass.” Yes, Virginia, we really did elect this guy.
*The heading of the newsletter is “Isn’t Snow In the Middle of Global Warming Inconvenient?”
*He calls the delegates to the recent, international climate change conference in Copenhagen, “enraptured global warming radicals” and “the modern radical environmental movement headed by Al Gore.”
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*He warns that “The environmental arena may end up being an area of significant conflict with the Federal government during my term as AG, but only time will tell!”
It’s the “us vs. them” mentality that Cuccinelli is forcing that scares me most. I’ve only seen worse disdain for environmentalists emanated from Frank Wagner. How do we work with legislators who basically tell us to “fuck off”.
On December 16th, local Rep. Randy Forbes attended the Family Research Council “Prayercast” event lead by Lou Engle.
On June 5th, Engle was at Rock Church in Virginia Beach blessing Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich. (I haven’t been able to confirm whether or not Rep. Forbes’ attended that event).
According to Engle, homosexuality is caused by demons. He has called for acts of Christian martyrdom to stop abortion (domestic terrorism?) and has forecasted a second American civil war. Is that the kind of Christian Nation that Forbes envisions? Does that represent the views of the 4th District?
Last night, I got the most obnoxious email from Jeff McWaters’ campaign. Total disdain for any left-leaning residents in the 8th drips from it. What a small arrogant man!
In the almost 25 years that as an adult I have lived in Virginia, I have been represented overwhelmingly by Republicans (Joe May, Russ Potts, Bill Mims, Terrie Suit, Ken Stolle). Of course, we’ve had our differences of opinion, but in most instances I have been treated with at least some degree of respect. Even Barry Knight in his special election run to replace Terrie Suit acted decently about his Democratic opponent and those of us who didn’t support him. Not so with McWaters, which speaks volumes to the type of “representation” we’ll get with him. Good ol’ boys gone wild. Pathetic!
We hoped to be home now resting up for the holidays, but our work here at McWaters Campaign Headquarters is far from over. We want to be sure you are up-to-date with the latest campaign information so that you can spread the word as you visit with family and friends during the holiday season. We have spoken with many people who seem a bit confused about the election, assume that Jeff has already been elected, etc. so we want to make sure that you have the correct election information.
December 11th – A Democratic opponent entered the race at the very last minute before the deadline to file as a candidate and will be placed on the ballot on the January 12th Special Election.
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