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Jerry Kilgore, 2005: “Tim Kaine says that Adolf Hitler doesn’t qualify for the death penalty.”
Really? I guess someone should tell Tim Kaine.
Thank god it’s 2009 now and Republicans would never dream of nonchalantly invoking Hitler while criticizing a Democrat.
Filed under: Republicans, Tim Kaine | Tagged: Jerry Kilgore | Leave a Comment »
Early this year, Dels. Chris Saxman and Albert Pollard spoke up about the disadvantages posed by Virginia’s biennial budget. Saxman has left the House of Delegates for greener pastures, but the issue remains. And that’s the subject of Pollard’s first new report to 99th district constituents since winning reelection:
Since my autumn hiatus from writing columns, one thing is clear — Virginia continues to have a good news/bad news situation.
The good news is that Virginia is in far better shape than most states. We have and will continue to have a balanced budget and unlike California or New Jersey have not been overly reliant on debt.
The bad news is that we still have a significant shortfall in the present budget year.
Numbers for the September revenue have come in – indeed October numbers are due soon – and total general fund revenue collections fell 7.5 percent in September compared with September 2008 which was below September 2007. All major sources (except payroll withholding) fell from last September while individual refunds continued to run ahead of expectations.
With revenue down for the 4th consecutive year it is no surprise that Governor-elect McDonnell is going to have his hands full.
In my mind, the new Governor’s predicament is made worse by the way Virginia’s budget is shaped.
You see, Virginia is one of 20 states that has a two year budget but one of nine that has a two year budget heavily amended in the second year.
This means in the late fall, the Governor and his Cabinet Secretaries work together to prepare a proposed budget which reflects the present Administration’s priorities.
The Governor submits a budget bill to the General Assembly on or before December 20. This is a legal document and lists appropriations at a detailed line-item level.
Thus, Kaine is writing a document to reflect Virginia’s priorities for the first two years of the McDonnell administration. McDonnell, similarly, after enacting only one budget of his own will write the budget for the administration which follows his.
It is for these reasons, and more, that in January I will again file a bill to move Virginia to an annual budget. Fiscal transparency and accountability are the other major motivators in this effort.
To me, other reasons for these needed changes are obvious. The two-year budget creates a muddy picture of the state’s true finances. For instance, when a headline screams about a billion-dollar shortfall, is it a billion dollar annual shortfall, or is that spread over two years? When a leader talks about a $500 million cut, is it an annual cut or a biennial?
Since almost everybody thinks in an annual budget cycle — people’s personal budgets, church budgets, and business budgets are almost all annual — a two-year budget cycle can create considerable confusion even among policymakers. As members of the legislature, we see annual and biennial numbers interchanged in a way that — purposely or not — obfuscates the truth.
Obviously, without prudent the fiscal practices Virginia has, it doesn’t matter how you budget your money. But Virginia has been tight with the dollar – now we just need to get wiser about the process by which we allocate those dollars.
Delegate Albert Pollard, Jr., represents the 99th District, which consists of the counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland, King George and a portion of Caroline, in Virginia’s House of Delegates. You may contact his office in Lancaster Courthouse at (804) 462-5940 or visit his website at www.albertpollard.com.
Filed under: Albert Pollard, Economy, General Assembly, House of Delegates, Virginia, budget | Tagged: Chris Saxman | Leave a Comment »
The House Republicans anti-health care Klan rally on Thursday was a well attended event. I wasn’t surprised to see Eric Cantor on stage, I was surprised to see Frank Wolf. Rep. Wolf’s not a moderate, but he has to keep up that image in order to get reelected in a swing district every two years. At this event, House Minority Whip Cantor proudly proclaimed that, under his watch, not a single Republican would vote for the health care reform bill on Saturday night.
Well, as we all know by now, Rep. Anh Joseph Cao (R-LA) joined 219 Democrats in voting aye, bucking his caucus and making Cantor look like a jackass. But, according to The Alaska Dispatch, Cao had a little help:
Cao, the first Vietnamese American to serve in Congress and the first Republican to serve in his district since 1890, has been struggling with the health care vote. He wanted to do what was best for his district, he said, which is overwhelmingly in support of the bill, and has been signaling for weeks that he might vote for it if it contained an amendment that would restrict federal funding for abortion.
The GOP didn’t like that kind of talk. They wanted a united front against the bill, and had reportedly been pressuring him, hard.
Enter: Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
So Saturday night, our own Young, with all of his glowering presence, stood next to Cao during the whole vote and worked to protect him and keep the party leaders at bay. It worked. Cao reportedly didn’t want to be the deciding vote, but once it was sure to pass, with Young on one side, and another protectorate Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), on the other, Cao was free to be the lone Republican to vote ‘yea.’
I don’t know what’s stranger: the fact that two Republicans, Don Young and Frank Wolf, who were fervently opposed to the bill helped someone vote for it….or the fact that Cao actually needed physical protection from Cantor & co. to place the vote at all (after reading conservative’s reactions last night, Cao may need protection 24/7).
I know, maybe Cao was scared because he was afraid Cantor was carrying an actual whip?! Not to worry, Rep. Young has a few tricks up his sleeve too:
Young once brought a walrus penis to the House floor and whipped it around like a weapon.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Filed under: Congress, Health Care, eric cantor | Tagged: Frank Wolf, Joseph Cao, tea party | Leave a Comment »
Sen. Edd Houck told The Washington Post that he’d be “willing” to talk to Bob McDonnell about a place in his administration, likely as Secretary of Education. Since the Democrats hold a one vote majority in the State Senate, this proposed move could potentially swing control of the entire General Assembly over to the Republicans.
But before Democrats (and Independents who believe in checks and balances) freak out, there is no offer on the table. This is merely speculation. Houck is an educator by trade and McDonnell wouldn’t be the first to consider him for this position. Sen. Houck has gained more seniority in the Senate since the last time we elected the new Governor, making him less likely to accept now – if he hasn’t in the past. If Chuck Colgan doesn’t run for reelection in 2011, as some have speculated, Houck would be next in line to chair the all-powerful Finance Committee in 2012. Who would walk away from that?
But even if Houck does leave, it’s no guarantee Democrats lose control of the Senate. That’s because there will be two special elections to fill the seats of Sens. Ken Cuccinelli and Ken Stolle. Fortunately the Democrats have a deep bench in Fairfax Co. and Virginia Beach, giving them a fair shot at one or both of those races. If Houck did resign, a strong candidate like Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors Chairman Hap Connors would give the Democrats a good shot at holding onto that seat.
Likeliest scenario? Houck waits for the outcome of those races before making a decision, so it’s a moot point.
Filed under: Bob McDonnell, Edd Houck, General Assembly, Local Politics, Spotsylvania, State Senate, Virginia Governor | Leave a Comment »
Now that the votes are finally in from Lancaster County, the results are:
Albert Pollard: 11,855 votes – 52.19%
Catherine Crabill: 10,824 votes – 47.65%
The 4.5% margin of victory for Pollard in the 99th House District is his closest ever. And that includes his performance in the district during his losing bid for the State Senate vs. Richard Stuart in 2007.
A few things:
1) The only other time Pollard ran during a Governor’s race was in 2001, when Virginia narrowly elected Mark Warner. No other opponent Pollard has ever faced had coattails like Crabill did this year with Bob McDonnell’s blowout win.
2) Despite Pollard’s past successes, the 99th is still a very GOP-friendly district. But 2009 was particularly brutal for Democrats. Turnout this year in Virginia was the lowest in 40 years. This is mainly because Democrats stayed home, thanks in great part to a lackluster overall campaign from Creigh Deeds. This was a base election, and the Republican base came out to vote. These are folks who will line up like cattle and vote for the party’s nominee, no matter who, or what, it is.
3) Catherine Crabill was disowned by the RPV and the GOP ticket this year. So what? The Republican brand, even among conservatives, is god awful. And even after that, very few name Republicans stepped up to support Pollard over Crabill. I bet you could even make the argument that the Republican establishment abandoning her actually helped her bid for this seat. Hell, independents love any candidate for office that speaks ill of both major parties.
4) Crabill gained fame/infamy because of her remarks about resorting to the “bullet box,” if she failed at the ballot box. But, at the end of the day, Crabill is just your typical tea partier. Comments like these are common at any number of tea party events around the country, and these folks pretty much run the GOP nowadays. Yesterday House Republicans welcomed this freakshow to Capitol Hill with open arms. (A particularly shocking scene from that protest can be found here. As a Jew and an American, it just makes me fucking sick.)
5) There may have been a lot of hubbub over that Northumberland Co. tea party speech, but Crabill should be thankful that the media only fixated on that one comment. The most controversial thing she ever said didn’t gain nearly that amount of traction, which was nothing short of astonishing. I’m of course referring to her repeated statements that our federal government was directly responsible for the deadly Oklahoma City bo
mbing in 1995. The media ignored it, but conservative blogger Timothy Watson merely reprinted what she herself told The Washington Times back in ‘95. And it’s especially relevant because she stands by those comments to this day.
6) Because of the controversial nature of Crabill’s candidacy, she gained more fame and notoriety than any opponent Pollard has ever faced. And it didn’t cost her a dime.
7) Catherine Crabill admitted during the race that she’s a proud member of Glenn Beck’s dick army, and doesn’t know, or care about, local issues. But the reason the Republican base is so fired up this year is because of their anger about the direction of the country in general. Crabill didn’t know local issues, but a lot of voters didn’t care about local issues.
No matter how successful Crabill was at rounding up support from her tea party brethren amidst this brouhaha, Albert Pollard would not sink to her level. A lot of pols in his situation would have sent out massive fundraising blasts and repeated Crabill’s controversial comments every chance they got. Del. Pollard doesn’t play these games. He’d rather people vote for Albert Pollard the person, not Albert Pollard the politician. He probably had about an 80-85% chance of winning this thing no matter what he did, and he’s not a win at all costs kind of guy. Pollard trusts the voters. Maybe that’s to a fault…but he trusts them nonetheless. He’ll win or lose on his terms, not Catherine Crabills.
Filed under: Albert Pollard, Catherine Crabill, House of Delegates | 7 Comments »
If I wanted to bring down the GOP from the inside by writing this bill myself, this is what I would produce. The Washington Post writes:
The Republican alternative will have helped 3 million people secure coverage, which is barely keeping up with population growth. Compare that to the Democratic bill, which covers 36 million more people and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.
But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. According to CBO, the GOP’s alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan.
I don’t care what your political leanings are. If you prefer the Republican version to the Democrat’s bill, you have the IQ of a coat hanger.
Filed under: Congress, Health Care | 1 Comment »
AARP (as well as the AMA & American Cancer Society) endorses House health care reform bill:
Today AARP announced its endorsement of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) and the accompanying Medicare physician payment reform bill (H.R. 3961).
Nick Anderson, copyright 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
Filed under: Congress, Health Care | Tagged: AARP | Leave a Comment »
Considering what could have happened, I’m actually pretty happy about tonight. If you’d have told me that the Democrats would only lose 5 or 6 seats in the House of Delegates after this better than expected performance by the GOP ticket statewide, I’d think you were insane.
Republican candidates for Supervisor in Spotsylvania County, including former Board Chairman and Senate candidate Chris Yakawhateverthehellitis, went down in defeat despite a dominant performance by the GOP ticket in Spotsy. They ran against the VRE, and it cost them.
Republicans candidates for Supervisor in Stafford County all won, giving control of the Board back to the GOP. Inmate #283921, I mean Paul Milde, got just over 50% of the vote with Irene Egan and Paul Ortiz splitting the rest, swell. Mark Osborne made things a little interesting in Falmouth, but this was always Susan Stimpson’s race to lose.
Commonwealth’s Attorney LaBravia Jenkins was reelected in Fredericksburg despite a rough performance from the Democratic ticket in the city.
Albert Pollard survived despite a challenger that inspired people to go around the 99th district stealing signs and yelling in people’s face. The closeness of this race will no doubt lead to teabaggers* patting themselves on the back, but Catherine Crabill performed far, FAR worse than other Republicans on the ballot in this district (Pollard will probably increase his lead when the rest of the precincts report in).
* also, thank you teabaggers for helping Democrats win a congressional seat in upstate NY for the first time since the mid-1800’s!
Filed under: Democrats, General Assembly, House of Delegates, Local Politics, Northern Neck, Republicans, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Virginia | 13 Comments »
Filed under: Bob McDonnell | 4 Comments »
First, Despite anything else you may have heard or read, Pete Fields strongly endorses Doug Filler in the race for Supervisor in the Falmouth District.
Second, I received this via email today:
Thinking it was too late to be refuted, Hartwood supervisor candidate Gary Snellings put out an automated phone call today which simply lies about his record on taxes. In it, he claims the average homeowner’s tax went up 27% under his opponent, incumbent Joe Brito, but only 9% while he was supervisor.
The facts (from the Commissioner of the Revenue’s office) are below. They show that while the tax did indeed rise 27% during Brito’s term, it rose 36% under Snellings – four times the figure he is using. Perhaps Snellings is referring to the average annual increase during his term, while comparing it to the four-year figure for Brito. If so, that is a plainly dishonest comparison .
The record further shows that the great bulk of the increase during Brito’s term came when the chamber was under Republican control and Brito voted against the increase. (Snellings voted for the last tax rate imposed during his term.) Under Democratic control, the tax increase declined dramatically, to an average level below growth plus inflation. It further shows that the tax barely budged in the last year, up a mere 0.04%.
Snellings again attacked Brito for the cost-of-living pay raise enacted in 2008, the first rise in supervisor salaries in seven years. Yet Snellings has not pledged to give his share of the raise back. He has pledged to repeal the transportation impact fee on developers and the big business tax, which is levied by every locality in this region.
VALUE OF TRACTS OF LAND/IN COUNTY OF STAFFORD
BY SCOTT A. MAYAUSKY, COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE
CLASS CODE 2 (Residential property other than multi-family)
YEAR TOTAL TAX COUNT AVERAGE
2001 $ 49,846,373 35,492 $1,404
2005 77,335,347 40,368 1,903
2007 99,874,642 43,585 2,291
2008 108,167,724 44,670 2,421
2009 109,941,001 45,394 2,422
Increase during Snellings term (2001-05) 35.54%
Increase during Brito term (2005-2009) 27.27%
Increase, 1st half Brito term (Rep. control) 20.38%
Increase, 2nd half Brito term (Dem. control) 5.72%
Increase over last year (2008-09) 0.04%
Filed under: Stafford | Tagged: Gary Snellings, Joe Brito | 5 Comments »
At least as far as douchebags are concerned.
Filed under: Humor, Virginia | 4 Comments »
A fortnightly rant, FL-S style. With a big h/t to Mr. Don Maxey (wherever you are…), and to Marsha, the love of my life. We celebrate our 25th this coming week!
ALSO: to StaffordNorte, glad that you are on the mend!
I am not a gambler. I don’t like making serious predictions. And fuggetabout any notion of me making book on how things will turn out after Tuesday’s election.
Okay…I’ll offer this: in some of the races, we’ll all be surprised.
Regardless of who gets elected locally and statewide, I do think we Virginians are on the cusp of truly amazing changes that soon will affect every aspect of our lives.
Most of you know that I am a serious green business proponent. I truly believe that our future will be tied to how successful The Commonwealth of Virginia becomes in The New Green Economy. Virginia has the opportunity to lead the nation, heck…even the world, with breakthroughs in greentech/cleantech research and technology.
Silicon Valley, look out!
In his 2008 election victory, Sen. Mark Warner won the purplish Fredericksburg area with nearly 60 percent of the vote, on a 100% green economy platform.
And this year, both candidates for Virginia governor have rattled off serious-sounding talking points about green technology, green companies, and green jobs. And the guy I’m supporting for Guv – Creigh Deeds – is actually promoting my three-legged “Research Triangle” approach which proposes that our world-class institutions of higher education, state and municipal government, and high-tech businesses join forces to bring thousands of high-paying green jobs into our localities and make Virginia the world-leader in the research and development of green tech.
For the Research Triangle approach to work, we need to summon both tremendous will and large capital investments to open satellite campuses of Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, William & Mary, Hampton University, and other Virginia institutions of higher learning here in the Fredericksburg area. It should be noted that Hampton, an historically African-American institution, is replacing its dirty and inefficient 100+ year-old coal-fired plant. Its new state-of-the-art pollution-free geothermal plant will provide 100 percent of Hampton’s electrical power needs.
I am not at all self-congratulatory like that blogger – you know, the one that makes fun of the guy with the toupee - but I have to say I am very pleased that the Deeds campaign is running with the green business vision for the Commonwealth that I have, for the past 5 years, laid out on John Van Hoy’s local cable show Rappahannock Review and many times here on Fred2Blue.
Whether you truly believe in the New Green Economy or are stuck in that odious “Drill Baby, Drill!” mindset that says we need to suck dry the oil reserves off of Virginia’s coastline, you cannot deny that how we power our homes and cars, how we grow our food, how we live our lives is about to radically change to clean, green, and renewable.
I believe that our best days lie ahead. And I am thrilled for kids – like my 8-year-old daughter – that will surely benefit from all the green tech discoveries that are happening, and that have yet to happen.
The New Green Economy has provided me with a great personal and professional opportunity. For the first time in my career, I am integrating the way I earn a living with my over 30-year involvement in environmental causes. My executive recruiting business now has a green business focus. And, I am launching two new businesses to provide training and empowerment resources to green-minded business executives and non-executive professionals.
And I have drafted about 90 percent of my book on green business executive career development, due out sometime during First Quarter, 2010. I’ve written nearly 25,000 words (which is even longer than some of my Fred2Blue fortnightly rants). More on the book, soon.
My book, on green business executive career development, will hit Amazon and local book store shelves during the first quarter of 2010.
Thirty-one years ago – during my senior year in high school – I was approached by Mr. Don Maxey, my Physics teacher at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, Md.
Mr. Maxey had discovered a huge problem: a Montgomery County, Md. trap rock company was dumping tons of asbestos-laden serpentine rock into the Potomac River which was then and still is the source of all of Suburban Maryland’s and Washington D.C.’s drinking water. Mr. Maxey remembered that I had gotten to know our local Congressman, Rep. Newton Steers, and he asked that I press the Congressman to do whatever was necessary to stop the dumping, because asbestos is a known cancer-causing agent.
I picked up the phone and called Congressman Steers directly; 31 years ago, that was easy to do.
Three days later, Congressman Steers called me back to thank me for the heads-up on the trap rock company’s actions and to say that the dumping had stopped. He offered to write me a college recommendation letter, and I gladly accepted.
That teenage experience was empowering, life-changing. It pointed me to environmental and political activism. And now for me, it all comes together.
Happy Halloween!
Filed under: Creigh Deeds, Mark Warner, Sustainability, Virginia Governor, education, energy | Tagged: Creigh Deeds, green business, Green Economy, John van Hoy, Newton Steers, Research Triange | 2 Comments »
bigot:
From the Washington Post editorial, Mr. Cuccinelli’s bigotry:
As attorney general, he would be an embarrassment to Virginia.
KENNETH CUCCINELLI, the Republican candidate for Virginia state attorney general, believes it’s “appropriate” to formulate public policy on the premise that homosexuals engage in behavior that is “intrinsically wrong” and offensive to “natural law.” His comments — which retrofit the old rhetoric of racism, bias and intolerance in a new context — were made in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot, a newspaper in Norfolk.
Homosexual acts, said Mr. Cuccinelli, currently a state senator, are “intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law-based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. . . . They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society.”
Putting aside what Mr. Cuccinelli has to say about homosexuals when he’s not trying so hard to be polite, let’s call his comments what they are: bigotry.
….
I highly recommend reading this post from conservative blogger, Doug Mataconis:
I support Bob McDonnell. I think Bill Bolling has done a great job as Lieutenant Governor and deserves another term. At this point, though, I can’t in good conscience tell people to vote for Ken Cuccinelli and I can’t do it myself.
Ladies and gentlemen, your next Attorney General:
Filed under: GLBT, Ken Cuccinelli, Local Media, Steve Shannon, Virginia Attorney General | 2 Comments »
Filed under: Bill Bolling, Health Care, Jody Wagner, Virginia Lt. Governor | Leave a Comment »
