The Richmonder

Eric Cantor has a sad at the SOTU

2012-01-25T00:47:00.002-05:00

Just in case you wondered what it would look like if someone attended their own funeral, take a look at Eric Cantor's reaction to President Obama's plan to incentivize companies to bring jobs back to the United States. Eric Cantor bet against the United States, and he's none too happy that he's about to lose his bet.

Martin Bashir versus Joe Walsh

2012-01-24T23:45:00.000-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Right Wing Terrorists indicted in Alaska

2012-01-24T22:07:00.002-05:00

Right wing terrorists Schaeffer Cox, Coleman Barney, and Lonnie Vernon face additional charges related to their plan to wage war against the United States:

Schaeffer Cox and two of his followers in the Alaska Peacemaker Militia appeared in court on Monday expecting to file more motions to dismiss the charges against them. Instead they were greeted with additional indictments by a federal grand jury charging them with conspiring to kill government officials, including law enforcement officers.

According to the latest indictment, Cox and company did “knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully conspire and agree together” to “kill, with premeditation and malice aforethought, officers and employees of the United States, including law enforcement officers.”

The maximum sentence for the charges is life in prison.

Read the entire story at TPMuckraker.

Large, enthusiastic crowd turns out for Kaine office opening

2012-01-23T06:29:00.008-05:00

The crowd gathers: more than 400 Kaine supporters showed up

On a cold rainy Sunday just hours before NFL playoff games were scheduled to begin, a large and enthusiastic crowd of supporters braved the winter weather to join Tim Kaine in celebrating the opening of his Richmond campaign headquarters. The building is spacious, plenty of parking, centrally located, and very well suited for use as a campaign office.

Kaine's wife Anne Holton warmed up the crowd for about twelve minutes before Kaine himself took the stand to talk for half an hour. Afterwards, Kaine took questions from the press.

You can watch the entire program here or here.

After his speech, Kaine fielded questions from the press

Wayne Powell--Cantor's Democratic challenger--comments on Kaine versus Allen/Marshall

Video of Tim Kaine's Office Opening

2012-01-22T21:43:00.001-05:00

Richmond, VA - On January 22, 2012, Governor Tim Kaine opened his campaign headquarters in Richmond to local supporters. Governor Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton, addressed the crowd.

Virginia Progressive Caucus 2012 Legislative Agenda Release

2012-01-19T20:57:00.001-05:00

On January 19, 2012, members of the Progressive Caucus in the Virginia General Assembly announced their agenda for 2012. The Progressive Caucus has released policy goals in areas including education, reproductive health care, and immigration. Delegate Patrick Hope (D-Arlington), co-Chairman of the Progressive Caucus, said, "The legislative agenda of the Virginia Progressive Caucus will focus on policies that continue to promote Virginia's economic growth and protect civil liberties and freedoms. We will aggressively fight back attempts to undermine Virginia's ability to compete in the 21st century economy and take away hard fought gains in human and civil rights."

Obama's first ad of 2012

2012-01-18T21:18:00.001-05:00

The Republican establishment has played the Republican base for suckers

2012-01-18T20:03:00.003-05:00

The Republican establishment has managed to give the GOP nomination to Mitt Romney despite flaws that will bring Romney down if he is the Republican nominee. Here's just a small sample . . .

1) Romney profited from abortions. That's right social conservatives, the Republican establishment is going to ask you to vote for a guy who cashed in on abortion.

2) The reason Romney doesn't want to reveal his tax returns is that he has millions of dollars parked offshore in the Cayman Islands in tax shelters. Something tells me that independent American voters aren't going to be all that sympathetic to Romney dodging U.S. taxes with a foreign tax shelter.

So congratulations on your nominee, GOP base. Have fun casting your vote on March 6, 2012--in Virginia you can choose from Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. I think we all know you'll vote as you were told to vote.

McEachin responds to Republican redistricting bill

2012-01-17T16:58:00.007-05:00

Virginia State Senator Donald McEachin has come out swinging against the extreme, gerrymandered Republican redistricting plan. Last year, Republicans stalled and refused to agree to a fair compromise plan so that this year they could jam through their warped, gerrymandered plan. From Senator McEachin's office:

Senator McEachin Says Republicans Vote on Redistricting Again
Puts Partisan Power
Over the Interests of Virginians

Richmond – Senator A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) today issued this statement on the Senate Privileges and Elections committee vote on Congressional redistricting. Senator McEachin said, “Today the Republican Senators voted for a Congressional redistricting plan. This vote, this action, is unconstitutional. The Virginia Constitution, a document we all as legislators swear to uphold, clearly states that redistricting is to be done in years ending with 1 (2011) after the completion of the decennial census. The Republican had that opportunity last year but chose not to come to a resolution. Instead they decided to disregard the Constitution for their own partisan purposes.

“Just as the Senate Republicans chose partisan power and their own self-interest over the interests of Virginians when they chose to ignore the tied election results and seize power, they now they are now forcing a Congressional district map whose primary attribute is incumbent protection.

Last year, they had an opportunity to support Senator Locke’s (D-Hampton) legislation that would have created districts that are more competitive, more compact and fairer. Her plan would have given Virginians a real opportunity for competitive contested races for Congressional seats. Repeatedly, voters have said this is what they want, but the Republicans, once again, choose to ignore the wishes of Virginia voters. Instead, they have determined they would rather power grab, protect their incumbents and deprive Virginia voters of opportunities to make real choices.

# # #

"HB9: A Threat to Virginia's Voters"

2012-01-17T16:48:00.001-05:00

I visited the General Assembly this morning and attended the meeting of the Elections Subcommittee of the Privileges and Elections Committee of the House of Delegates. The subcommittee was considering several pieces of legislation, but I only had battery power enough to capture two of them. HB21 was not controversial and was quickly disposed of. Next, the subcommittee considered HB9. Here's how the bill is described on Richmond Sunlight:

Elections; voting procedures; voter identification requirements; provisional ballots. Provides that a voter who is unable to present one of the enumerated forms of identification may sign a sworn statement that he is the named registered voter he claims to be and then be allowed to vote a provisional ballot. Present law allows such a voter to vote an official rather than provisional ballot after signing such statement.

It sounds pretty innocuous, but nationwide the GOP is flooding state legislatures with bills like this one for the sole purpose of interfering with the American people's right to vote. The GOP's actions in this regard are shameful. The video is kind of slow going at first and the sound quality is poor, but if you are patient you can listen to a parade of concerned citizens who wanted to comment on the bill.

The room where the subcommittee met was far too small and the crowd of people who attended the stretched out into the hallway. The crowd included the Mayor of Richmond Dwight Jones and Councilwoman Ellen Robertson was among the commenters. Despite overwhelmingly negative responses to the bill, the GOP majority on the subcommittee voted to report the bill to the entire House Privileges and Elections Committee, so the bill advances.

Delegate Patrick Hope Proposes Car Tax Relief Plan

2012-01-17T11:06:00.006-05:00

Delegate Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) has introduced a plan to subsidize car tax relief by increasing taxes on tobacco products. From Delegate Hope's office:

Delegate Patrick Hope Announces Car Tax Relief

RICHMOND – Today, as the General Assembly begins its work for the 2012 legislative session, Del. Patrick Hope announced legislation that will raise the cigarette tax to $1.45 and dedicate the revenue to provide tax relief for Virginia families.

"What has stood in our way in the past has been a firm opposition to any tax increase of any kind,” said Delegate Hope. “What we're proposing today will cut in half the car tax at the expense of an out-dated policy that is one of our most significant public health threats we face."

Hope’s bill, HB 160 - will:
Raise the excise tax on cigarettes by $1.15, from $0.30 to the national average of $1.45;
Raise the excise tax on other tobacco products from 10% of the wholesale price to 50% of the wholesale price;
Direct 8% (approximately $23 million) to fund tobacco cessation and prevention programs in the Commonwealth.
Direct the remaining 92% of the revenue [approximately $265 million annually] to local governments to provide additional car tax relief.
Members of the public health community applauded the proposal to raise the cigarette tax. “The evidence is clear that increasing the price of cigarettes is one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking, especially among children and pregnant women,” said Keenan Caldwell, director of government relations for the American Cancer Society. “Preliminary evidence confirms that every state that has significantly increased its cigarette tax in recent years has enjoyed substantial increases in revenue, even while reducing cigarette sales. Virginia has nothing to lose and everything to gain from raising its cigarette tax.”

The Annual health care expenditures in Virginia directly caused by smoking are $2.08 billion, with $401 million covered by the state Medicaid program.

According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a $1.15 increase in Virginia’s cigarette tax would prevent more than 53,900 Virginia kids alive today from becoming smokers and prompt 56,700 adult smokers to quit, saving 32,600 Virginians from a premature, smoking-caused death.

“A significant tobacco tax increase combined with funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs will deliver the maximum health and economic benefit for Virginia. These steps will prevent kids from starting to smoke, help smokers quit, save lives, and save taxpayers money by reducing smoking-caused health care costs,” said Cathleen Smith Grzesiek, senior director of government relations for the American Heart Association.

Delegate Hope concluded that, "Prioritizing Virginia's tax code in this way makes perfect sense. Not only will we be able to provide significant tax relief to working middle-class families, it will save countless lives and reduce overall health care costs."
Patrick A. Hope is a Member of the Virginia General Assembly as the Delegate from the 47th District representing part of Arlington County. He serves on the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee and House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee.

# # #

Could Virginia GOP's extreme agenda make McDonnell an albatross around Romney's neck?

2012-01-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

Bob McDonnell has made no secret of the fact that he would like to be the GOP's next candidate for Vice President. With the way that the Republican primary process is playing out it's looking more and more like Mitt Romney is going to walk away with the top spot on the GOP ticket. That leads me to ask what impact having Bob McDonnell as his running mate would have on Mitt Romney's chances of winning?

There's an old political rule of thumb that says that during a primary contest a candidate will tend to direct his message towards his party's base so as to heighten his appeal among activists and primary voters, then, having won the nomination, the candidate will then tack towards the political center so as to appeal to as many independent voters as possible. The GOP primary is going to be won by appealing to the right; the presidency will be won by whomever can appeal to the center.

There's another political rule of thumb that says that a presidential candidate's first big decision once they've won their party's nomination is their selection of a running mate. Vice Presidents are selected, not elected--that's a key distinction. The candidate's selection of a running mate speaks volumes about their decision making process and can have a serious impact on their campaign's subsequent fortunes. John McCain's selection of the entirely unvetted and ethically troubled Sarah Palin showed McCain's tendency to make important decisions based on emotion rather than hard analysis. The string of Palin scandals that emerged after her selection helped drag McCain's campaign down to defeat.

If Mitt Romney selected Bob McDonnell as his running mate, what would that tell American voters about Mitt Romney?

If Mitt Romney selected Bob McDonnell it would show American voters that Mitt Romney was afraid that the Republican base was fractured and that he felt that he needed to tack hard right in order to reunify the Republican Party. At the precise moment in time when Romney should be reaching toward the political middle to win independent voters, a decision to select McDonnell would show that Romney still felt insecure about his own primary win, that his victory in the primary was still viewed as illegitimate by the Tea Party, Religious Right, or other factions within the GOP.

For Romney it would mean starting his own general election campaign by explaining McDonnell's graduate thesis to a national audience which might not be as blasé as Virginians used to Pat Robertson were in 2009. Romney and McDonnell would also have to stop and explain a list of newly enacted far right laws passed by the Virginia General Assembly this year and bearing McDonnell's signature as governor. The ink of McDonnell's signature will quite literally not be dry yet on a host of extreme Republican measures when the GOP gathers in Tampa, Florida on August 27, 2012 for their national convention.

That's the tradeoff that Romney will have to decide on. I think Bob McDonnell would be a pretty popular choice among the very hard right of the GOP base, but I also think that independent voters will be turned off by the extreme agenda being pursued on Virginia capitol square right now by the GOP majorities in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates. Every extreme measure that passes the GOP controlled General Assembly and is signed by Bob McDonnell this year will have to be explained (or explained away) by Mitt Romney.

Meet the GOP: John Andrew "Kip" Smith

2012-01-15T18:09:00.004-05:00

John Andrew "Kip" Smith wants to make welfare reciepients subject to random drug tests, but he thought he was above being asked to take one himself.

"Smith told the officer he’d had the beer 45 minutes earlier, and the officer asked him to blow into a hand-held “intoximeter”. The officer said the lawmaker refused, stating he would prefer to go to a clinic or the hospital to get tested.

The officer said Smith finally agreed to blow into the device. The report stated that Smith blew a .091., which is above the legal limit of .08."

Read the complete story at Think Progress. Maybe we should require random drug tests for Republican politicians.

And so it begins, the most powerful super pac of them all attacks . . .

2012-01-15T11:58:00.002-05:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The Republicans have brought this terrible wrath down upon themselves.

Breaking: challengers in ballot access case lose

2012-01-13T15:43:00.002-05:00

Perry, Gingrich, Santorum, and Huntsman are out of luck: they lost their case before a judge in Richmond today and will not be on the ballot for the Virginia Republican Presidential Primary. The judge in the case ruled today that they all accepted the rules beforehand and only challenged the rules after they'd blown it.

More details as they emerge.

Rick Santorum's father's family redder than marinara sauce

2012-01-12T19:59:00.007-05:00

Rick Santorum's "Commie" home town

Rick Santorum's "Commie" cousins wonder where he went wrong:

Those politics don’t play well in Riva del Garda, a community of ultraliberals. On the campaign trail, Santorum often touts his grandfather’s flight from Italy “to escape fascism,” but he has neglected to publicly mention their close ties with the Italian Communist Party. “Rick’s grandfather Pietro was a liberal man and he understood right away what was happening in Italy,” Mrs. Santorum told Oggi. “He was anti-fascist to the extreme, and the political climate in 1925 was stifling so he left for America. After a few years he returned to Italy with his wife and children, including Aldo, Rick’s father, who passed away late last year. It’s a shame he won’t have the joy to see his son’s success in his bid for the White House.” She goes on to explain how the family then became pillars of the Communist Party in Italy.

The matriarch lauds her distant relative as a “masterpiece” of the family, whom she calls a man of high intelligence and integrity. “He would be a great president,” she told Oggi. “But if he wants to make it, he will have to soften some of his positions. To take a stand against homosexuality or to oppose divorce is harmful. Principles count, but in politics one must have the capacity to be open-minded.”

The Oggi piece also quotes an angry cousin who preferred to voice his dissent anonymously, remembering the time when high-ranking Communist Party members frequented the Santorum household in Riva del Garda. “There are Santorums who would roll over in their graves to hear [Rick’s] rhetoric,” he said.

Read the rest at the Daily Beast.

Anne Holton Launches “Women for Kaine”

2012-01-12T17:08:00.000-05:00

Anne Holton, Shannon Taylor, and Tim Kaine

A press release from the campaign of Tim Kaine:

First Lady Anne Holton Launches “Women for Kaine”

Richmond, VA -Today, First Lady Anne Holton announced the formation of “Women for Kaine” with over 100 representatives from across the Commonwealth who support Tim Kaine’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate. This dynamic group of business and community leaders is just the beginning of a growing coalition that will help elect Kaine in November.

“We believe that women have a lot at stake in this election and want to send to Washington a Senator who will protect the interests of women,” said First Lady Holton. “Throughout his career in public service, my husband Tim has fought hard for equal rights and opportunities, economic growth, health care access and laws that prevent violence against women. Tim and I are tremendously proud of his record on the issues that matter to women and we look forward to sharing his record with all Virginians. As Tim continues his race for the U.S. Senate, ‘Women for Kaine’ will stand with him to keep advancing progress for women in this Commonwealth and in this country.”

In conjunction with the launch of Women for Kaine, Governor Kaine will hold a roundtable discussion tomorrow in Richmond with women business leaders to hear their ideas on ways to promote job creation and encourage economic growth.

Throughout his career, Governor Kaine has worked to advance rights and opportunities for women. As Lt. Governor, he introduced legislation to establish the General Assembly’s first sexual harassment policy. As Governor, Kaine made Virginia’s workforce more welcoming, representative, and fair by banning discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin, religion, age, or political affiliation in his first Executive Order. His gubernatorial appointments included four women cabinet secretaries, the first African American woman on the Virginia Court of Appeals, and numerous women as agency heads. He tripled the percentage of state discretionary spending on products and services purchased from small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses, and was a proud supporter of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act that finally passed Congress in 2009, ensuring equal pay for equal work. In the U.S. Senate he will be a strong advocate for economic policies that create opportunities and produce results for all Americans.

In addition, Governor Kaine has worked to improve the availability and quality of health care for women and their families. He was also a vocal supporter of the Affordable Care Act, which mandates free preventive health services (like mammograms) and prevents insurance companies from dropping women who get sick or pregnant. Even in a challenging economy, Governor Kaine proposed significant additional funding for state programs that help low-income and uninsured women receive prenatal and preventative care, including screenings for breast and cervical cancer. He enrolled record numbers of Virginia children in the Medicaid and FAMIS programs, fought for the 2007 federal expansion of SCHIP that offered health care to 4 million uninsured children, and increased enrollment in the state’s system of high-quality pre-k education by nearly 40%. Governor Kaine strongly supports the right of women to make their own health and reproductive decisions and opposes efforts to weaken or subvert the basic holding of Roe v. Wade. He seeks a reduction of unwanted pregnancies and abortions but understands that criminalizing women’s reproductive decisions is not the way to accomplish that goal.

As Governor, Tim Kaine was also a strong advocate for victims of domestic and sexual violence. In 2006, he convened the Governor’s Commission on Sexual Violence and implemented many of their recommendations throughout his term. Reforms included ending polygraph tests for victims of sexual assault, ending the practice of forcing women to pay for their own physical evidence recovery kits (PERK kits) when a sexual assault has occurred, and ensuring prompt transfer of protective orders to law enforcement.

Visit http://www.kaineforva.com/women to view a letter from Anne Holton, the Women for Kaine mission statement, and a list of leaders who’ve already joined the growing coalition.

###

Bob Marshall to challenge George F. Allen for GOP Senate nod

2012-01-12T16:37:00.004-05:00

Bob Marshall made it semi-official today:

Del. Bob Marshall, a Prince William Republican and one of the most conservative voices in the House of Delegates, said Thursday that he would run for U.S. Senate this year.

Marshall has started to collect signatures to get on the June ballot, and said he will open an account to start raising money soon. But he will wait to issue a formal announcement. “I need to finish a few mechanical steps,’’ he said.

Read the rest of Anita Kumar's post at the Washington Post.

A Marshall v. Allen contest would give Virginia's political junkies something to talk about. Marshall might even give Allen a contest. It would be a classic battle between a grassroots candidate with lots of activist support (Marshall) versus an establishment candidate with lots of skeletons and corporate money (Allen). I hope Marshall goes through with it.

Richmond Police not enforcing noise ordinance

2012-01-12T14:52:00.002-05:00

Bucket Boys with Drunks

Residents of Richmond's downtown area are suffering under a plague:

Through the window, the lights from the marquee outside the National concert hall shine. Drizzle falls to the steady sounds of drumstick meeting plastic bucket. "It's 12:30 a.m., and they're still playing," Jonathan Dice says.

The scene comes from a 32-second video that Dice shot from inside his condo a few days before Christmas. A resident of the renovated Miller & Rhoads condominiums on Broad Street, Dice says that despite laws regulating excessive noise, he and other residents often are awakened after midnight by the incessant pounding of street percussionists playing for money outside nearby performance venues.

Dice says he doesn't mind people making music on public streets. He's a recent transplant from busker-friendly Nashville, Tenn. "At a certain point, though, it becomes excessive," Dice says. He and other residents of Miller & Rhoads say their continuing complaints to Richmond police haven't deterred the bucket drummers.

Read the rest of the story at Style Weekly.

The "Bucket Boys" aren't just a problem on Broad Street--their cacophonous racket disturbs residents of Richmond all over downtown, Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom. I speak from experience as I live in Shockoe Slip and I've called in dozens of complaints against these thugs who set up their "drum kits" (collections of plastic buckets, metal pots, and trash can lids) at 1:00am in front of my apartment building and play until 2:30am.

These jokers' real game is to try and extort money from people trying to get sleep in order to move along to the next block. They have also been known to vandalize the cars of people who ask them to move and complain to the police. One of my neighbors, a med student at MCV, was driven from her apartment by "Bucket Boys" who insisted on playing underneath her window until 2:30am on a day when she was due to be at MCV at 5:00am to work a 15-hour shift saving lives.

The Richmond Police Department and Richmond City Council have really failed the residents of the 6th City Council District.

City of Richmond redistricting information released . . . sort of

2012-01-11T20:45:00.003-05:00

The City of Richmond quietly posted a large document dump of material related to Richmond's redistricting. There's a lot in the collection, but there doesn't seem to be a simple to read, single, detailed map of the new City Council districts. The documents are part of the city's Preclearance Submission package sent to the United States Department of Justice on January 10, 2012 under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

The Approved 2011 Richmond Decennial Voter District Redistricting District Boundary Plan can be found here, and it's possible to kind of puzzle out the proposed new districts by studying the maps in the back of the ordinance. What is needed is a single detailed map clearly laying out the new boundaries.

I narrowly missed being redistricted into the 7th from the 6th when Shockoe Bottom was transferred to the 7th. I am now one block inside the 6th district where I am ward chair for the Richmond City Democratic Committee. The 1st and the 5th districts remain unchanged.

Judge: Perry likely to win ballot access case

2012-01-10T16:39:00.007-05:00

A federal judge in Richmond, Virginia opened the door to the possibility that Rick Perry and several other GOP primary contestants could gain access to Virginia's Republican primary ballot.

The court finds that there is a strong likelihood that the court will find the residency requirement for petition circulators to be unconstitutional. The authorities make clear that circulating petitions for candidates is a form of protected speech, and that the Commonwealth is a heavy burden to justify the restriction on speech by showing not only that the limitation achieves a valid state interest but also that the limitation is no broader in scope than necessary to achieve that purpose

Read the court's complete order issued earlier today in the case of Perry v. Judd. The court ordered the defendants to stop printing ballots and sending out absentee ballots until a final decision is made.

A cat fetching a ball

2012-01-10T12:16:00.001-05:00

A video of my cat, Felix Whiskers, playing fetch in Richmond, Virginia in January 2012.

Jon Huntsman is on track to win the Republican nomination . . . in 2016

2012-01-09T18:05:00.001-05:00

Jon Huntsman is a smart man. He has a long list of accomplishments including two terms as governor of Utah and an ambassadorship to China. Huntsman is not a man to do foolish things. If Jon Huntsman was running for the Republican nomination in 2012, then he wouldn't have skipped the Iowa caucuses. But Huntsman is not running for the 2012 nomination, he's is angling for the nomination in 2016.

This primary season has seen most of the top-flight Republicans sit out the race. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Thune, and many other better prepared Republicans decided to stay on the sidelines this year. The actual Republican field this year is a remarkably poor one. Rick Perry simply isn't talented enough to be president. Newt Gingrich has more negative baggage than any other candidate for the presidency with the possible exception of Richard Nixon in 1972. Ron Paul is a fringe character who will never poll above 25%. Mitt Romney is a hopelessly compromised character who has been on both sides of every major issue and who is wildly out of touch with ordinary Americans, but he seems to be the choice of establishment Republicans who are smoothing the way for him. Romney will be the Republican nominee, and Obama will chew him up and spit him out.

Any intelligent politician, and John Huntsman is an intelligent politician, can look at the current Republican field and see that a victory over Barack Obama in November 2012 is highly unlikely. Eric Cantor has made "Republican" a dirty word in the mouths of many Americans, and Cantor's none-too-subtle attempts to forestall economic recovery seem to have failed. If the Democrats get off their asses and recruit good House candidates, this could be a very bad year for Tea Party Republicans.

Huntsman is not running to win in 2012; the pace of his campaign seems perfectly geared towards winning the Republican nomination in 2016. Huntsman avoided the time and expense necessary to compete in the Iowa caucus which he knew in advance he had no chance of winning and focused instead in New Hampshire where he could make a strong showing and increase name recognition. Realistically there was never any chance that Huntsman campaign would catch fire this year, but by building name recognition in New Hampshire he has made himself into a national figure. He is also learning the same lessons learned by Mitt Romney in 2008 during Romney's first run for the nomination. In 2016 Barack Obama will no longer be a candidate for the presidency. Huntsman will by then have been on the national stage for four years: on news programs and possibly publishing a book to keep his hand in. By the summer of 2015, Huntsman could be perfectly positioned to begin his run for the GOP nomination in 2016.

Body found in Great Ship Canal

2012-01-08T20:40:00.003-05:00

It seems likely tonight that a mystery is going to be solved, and not in a good way. Matthew Henry Williams disappeared on December 13, 2011. Today, walkers along Richmond's Great Ship Canal discovered a body in the drained canal near 21st and Dock Street where police have been searching for weeks. The canal had been drained as part of routine maintenance, revealing what police divers had been unable to find in the murky water. While we await confirmation as to the identity of the body, I walked down to the canal and took some pictures this afternoon.

UPDATE: The body has been confirmed to be Matthew Henry Williams, though in a strange twist Richmond police are saying that "foul play" is not suspected.

One of hundreds of posters spread by the Williams family in Shockoe Bottom.

The Great Ship Canal stands empty at 21st Street.

The Great Ship Canal below 28th street.

The Great Ship Canal's normal inhabitants wander in the shallows.

The flood wall gate at 17th Street was closed today, closing off water from Haxall's Canal.

Bob McDonnell as lame duck?

2012-01-08T10:33:00.003-05:00

Jeff Schapiro's column is worth a read today. Schapiro takes on Bob McDonnell's impending lame duck status in "The beginning of the end for McDonnell":

Wednesday's opening of the 2012 General Assembly marks the beginning of the end for McDonnell, the point in his four-year term at which there are more yesterdays than tomorrows.

It's a perilous time for McDonnell to become a lame duck. Because of the calendar, his influence is starting to fade. Worse, the GOP is showing signs of stress.

Read Jeff Schapiro's column at the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Weather forecast for GOP Debate

2012-01-07T21:24:00.001-05:00

I hope the good people of Manchester, New Hampshire are wearing their high boots tonight.

Chesterfield Democrats reorganize

2012-01-06T19:50:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday, January 4, 2012, the membership of the Chesterfield County Democratic Committee met and elected new officers for the next two years. Congratulations to new chairman Bernie Vogelgesang!

Democratic candidate for Congress Wayne Powell made a brief presentation to the committee.

Two of Tim Kaine's staffers appealed for help with the ballot petition drive.

A member of the committee makes a campaign speech.

A member of the committee appeals for unity as the committee moves forward.

A Powell supporter shows off her campaign literature.

Councilwoman Trammell's feud with Mayor leads to lie about RCDC

2012-01-06T15:20:00.002-05:00

Richmond Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell has had an ongoing feud with Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones for some time now. Trammell complains long and often that the mayor does not include her or consult with her or otherwise pay her the attention she believes to be her due. Her pursuit of that feud has now placed Trammell in an awkward position in regards to the Richmond City Democratic Committee.

I should pause here and make note of the fact that I am a member of RCDC and an eyewitness to much of what I am about to relate.

On December 18, 2011, the Richmond City Democratic Committee held its annual Rank & File Party and Mayor Jones graciously allowed RCDC to use his home to hold that event. All members of RCDC along with all Democrats holding elective office in the City of Richmond were invited to the event, including Reva M. Trammell. Trammell did not attend the RCDC Rank & File Party, instead she visited the Occupy Richmond encampment next door to the mayor's home at the home of Free Press owner Raymond Boone. I saw her there myself.

At some point after the party, Trammell spoke to some one (perhaps Mr. Boone himself) with the Free Press and Trammell was subsequently quoted in the Free Press claiming that she had not been invited to the party and that the mayor had snubbed her by not inviting her. That was not the case and today the RCDC's chairman, James "JayJay" Minor, issued the following statement.

Following RCDC's December 18, 2011 Rank and File Party, The Richmond Free Press published an article that quoted Councilwoman Reva Trammell. The article has given some RCDC members the impression that Councilwoman Trammell was not invited to attend our event. I want our members to know that not only did I send Councilwoman Trammell an invitation to attend, but I received a response from her regarding the event. I also had a phone conversation with her prior to the Rank and File Party--in fact, during that conversation she asked to be a patron of the event.

I can personally confirm the truth of JayJay's statement.

I can't speak to the substance of Reva Trammell's feud with Mayor Jones. Perhaps there is some valid reason why she is perpetually on the verge of bursting into tears or the increasingly unstable way she behaves in City Council meetings. But none of that justifies her portraying the RCDC in a false and negative light.

You would think that Councilwoman Trammell would have more respect for an organization that she literally begged in tears to endorse her just a few years ago--an endorsement decision the committee will be revisiting later this year as part of this year's election of both mayor and city council. Perhaps Trammell's behavior is her way of saying she does not wish to run for re-election.

Meet the GOP: Mike O’Neal edition

2012-01-06T13:41:00.002-05:00

Mike O’Neal, the Republican speaker of the house for the Kansas legislature, is a pretty nasty piece of work who likes to send "funny" e-mails:

The forwarded portion of the email also states, “I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing Mrs. YoMama a wonderful, long Hawaii Christmas vacation — at our expense, of course.” The Obamas spent the holidays in President Barack Obama’s home state of Hawaii.

A previous email from O’Neal quoted a Bible verse which he applied to the president saying, “Let his days be few and brief.”

You know, that sounds a little bit like a threat. I hope the Secret Service has a conversation with this guy.

"Live by the Newt, die by the Newt"

2012-01-04T11:29:00.004-05:00

The title of this post is a paraphrase of a statement from David Corn--"live by the Newt, perish by the Newt." Corn has a new piece at Mother Jones called "Newt the Destroyer":

Newt Gingrich has finally reached his destiny: destroyer of the GOP.

In a bitter and spiteful concession speech last night in Iowa—Kanye West could do no worse—the former House speaker, who finished fourth, signaled a shift in his mission. He would no longer be running to obtain the Republican presidential nomination; he would be campaigning to obliterate Mitt Romney. He would be Sherman; the former Massachusetts governor would be Georgia.

Newt Gingrich was in large part responsible for introducing the kind of slash and burn politics of personal destruction that the GOP has so completely embraced since 1992. It is something like poetic justice then that Newt should be the first prominent victim of the Citizens United decision that made it possible for a group of wealthy Romney backers to anonymously cut the legs out from under Gingrich's campaign just as it seemed he had a chance. It is likewise poetic justice that Gingrich seems poised to turn all his practiced nastiness against the de facto GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. Romney's nomination is all but assured, but Gingrich won't go quietly. He'll wreck Romney's campaign on the way out if he can.

Read "Newt the Destroyer" at Mother Jones.

Obama wins Iowa tonight

2012-01-03T20:31:00.002-05:00

It really doesn't matter if the Republicans vote for the guy who flip flops on everything or the guy who really hates gay people or the guy who published the racist newsletter for ten years. No matter who wins the caucus tonight, Obama has won the process because the Republican Party has swung so far to the right that they can't hope to appeal to the political center.

The lies Republicans tell

2011-12-30T17:38:00.008-05:00

The Republican Party isn't so much an association of like minded people devoted to promoting a certain political ideological point of view so much as a complex and surprisingly elaborate spider web of lies. Take Matt Romney's repetition of the lie that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States and hasn't proven his birthright as an American. When you stop and consider the privilege that Matt Romney was born into--born not with a silver or gold spoon, but a platinum spoon encrusted with diamonds in his mouth--and to think that Matt Romney presumes to spread lies about a guy who overcame real obstacles to become President of the United States, it's really pretty amazing. Matt Romney is beneath contempt.

Or take the lie that most Republicans go about spreading on a daily basis, that Barack Obama has created massive deficits. The New York Times disposed of that Republican lie back during the summer:

The second graph shows that under Mr. Bush, tax cuts and war spending were the biggest policy drivers of the swing from projected surpluses to deficits from 2002 to 2009. Budget estimates that didn’t foresee the recessions in 2001 and in 2008 and 2009 also contributed to deficits. Mr. Obama’s policies, taken out to 2017, add to deficits, but not by nearly as much.

A few lessons can be drawn from the numbers. First, the Bush tax cuts have had a huge damaging effect. If all of them expired as scheduled at the end of 2012, future deficits would be cut by about half, to sustainable levels. Second, a healthy budget requires a healthy economy; recessions wreak havoc by reducing tax revenue. Government has to spur demand and create jobs in a deep downturn, even though doing so worsens the deficit in the short run. Third, spending cuts alone will not close the gap. The chronic revenue shortfalls from serial tax cuts are simply too deep to fill with spending cuts alone. Taxes have to go up.

The "second graph" that the article mentions is reproduced at the top of the page. Make certain you visit the New York Times and read their entire article, "How the Deficit Got This Big." To say that it was Obama who created the deficit is, quite simply, a lie. Republicans who repeat this lie are liars.

I worry about the depth of dishonesty to which Republicans have allowed them to sink. No matter what the issue, large or small, if Republicans meet with a check or challenge from someone who does not agree with them, their very first instinct seems to be to lie, to trample on the letter and spirit of the 8th Commandment. At least, it's the 8th Commandment the way the Catholic Church numbers the commandments. Let's look at what the Catholic Church has to teach us regarding the 8th Commandment--"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant.

Every time a Republican tells a lie about Barack Obama, every time they repeat the calumny of birtherism, they violate the 8th Commandment.

Why single out Catholicism? Well for starters, they did a really good job of laying out what the 8th Commandment requires of us as Christians. For finishers, there are more than one so called "good Catholic" members of the Republican Party of Virginia who delight in going about condemning and judging others without living up to the standards laid out for them by their own church.

Consider a few lines taken from the Catholic catechism . . .

2479 Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.

2482 "A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving." The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: "You are of your father the devil, . . . there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.

2485 By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.

2486 Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to another. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every judgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent evils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships.

That last one, 2486, goes to the very heart of the Republican war against American society. By piling lie after lie after lie on top of each other, the Republican Party has become "destructive of society."

It's hard to say what could be done to reverse this trend, since the Republican Party seems to be beyond shame. No mere recitation of their error--their sin--seems to be enough to recall them to a sense of what they owe society in terms of truthfulness and personal honor.

Romney campaign plays "Birther" card

2011-12-30T16:35:00.000-05:00

For the tiny handful of people out there who still suffer under the delusion that Mitt Romney is somehow different from the rest of the GOP field, that he is more "electable" because he won't resort to the nastiness and dog-whistle racism employed by so many of his GOP contemporaries, the time has come to stop kidding yourselves.

Earlier today, while serving as a campaign surrogate for his father in New Hampshire, Matt Romney told a crowd of voters that his father would release his tax returns when Barack Obama released his birth certificate. There are really only two possibilities here. Either Matt Romney actually believes in "birtherism" with all its racist implications, or the Romney family is willing to appeal to birtherism while knowing it is both false and racist. The Romneys are either racists or they are simply willing to say or do anything, no matter how despicable, in order to win the White House.

Watch the video of Craig Romney's remarks by clicking here.

In the context of the moment, it would appear that the second of these two possibilities is the truth. What Craig Romney is trying to do is deflect attention from the fact that if nominated, Mitt Romney would be the first major party candidate for the presidency since Watergate to refuse to release his income tax returns. Clearly, Mitt Romney has something to hide.

"Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses": Der Spiegel's Marc Pitzke holds a mirror up to the GOP

2011-12-30T11:30:00.004-05:00

Der Spiegel's Marc Pitzke has a must read column online at Der Spiegel International entitled "A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses." Pizke is a German writer and photographer living in New York City, and in his column he provides a startlingly clear-eyed and objective description of the Republican Party's remarkably dysfunctional primary process. Pitzke's thesis is straightforward: the Republican field has been so bad it has actually damaged the reputation of the United States:

It's true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it's just not that funny anymore. In fact, it's utterly horrifying.

It's horrifying because these eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They're ruining the reputation of the United States.

Pitzke addresses several of the GOP candidates individually, like this scourging of Newt Gingrich:

Pompous and blustering, Gingrich gets away with this humdinger as well as with selling himself as a Washington outsider -- despite having made millions of dollars as a lobbyist in Washington. At least the man's got chutzpah.

The hypocrisy doesn't end here. Gingrich claims moral authority on issues such as the "sanctity of marriage," yet he's been divorced twice. He sprang the divorce on his first wife while she was sick with cancer. (His supporters' excuse: It's been 31 years, and she's still alive.) He cheated on his second wife just as he was pressing ahead with Bill Clinton's impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky affair, unaware of the irony. The woman he cheated with, by the way, was one of his House aides and 23 years his junior -- and is now his perpetually smiling third wife.

Ouch. Read what Pitzke had to say about the others at Der Spiegel International.

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Roanoke Times notes loyalty oath heavy burden for Ron Paul supporters

2011-12-30T07:54:00.004-05:00

The Roanoke Times has an editorial this morning that notes the heavy burden that the Republican Party of Virginia's loyalty lays upon supporters of Ron Paul. In "GOP demands party loyalty," the Roanoke Times editorial board calls the loyalty oath a demand for "fealty."

Backers of Paul could be in a particularly tough bind. Paul has not ruled out running as an independent if he does not receive the nomination. Those who would follow him with their votes in November cannot honestly sign the oath, for they do not intend to support the party's nominee no matter who he is.

The Republican ballot might be light on candidates in March with only Paul and Romney having secured spots, but voters will face a real choice when they go to the polling places. Do they agree to be mindless party loyalists or keep their options open to decide for themselves whom to support in November?

The GOP's loyalty oath is aimed squarely at supporters of Ron Paul, seeking to either exclude them from the primary--and thus throw the election to Mitt Romney--or to lay a burden of honor upon them to vote for someone radically different than Ron Paul--again, probably Mitt Romney--in the general election.

Paul and Romney are two very different kinds of candidates--different kinds of people actually--and I find it hard to believe that a really committed Ron Paul supporter would ever be enthused about having to fulfill a pledge to vote for Willard "Mitt" Romney. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Virginia's righty-sphere flocking to Ron Paul

2011-12-29T23:33:00.003-05:00

Virginia's righty-sphere is stampeding to support Ron Paul, in spite of revelations about Paul's extreme past and all the nutty things that went into his "newsletter."

But don't take my word for it--consider what Jon Huntsman has to say about Ron Paul: just watch the video.

The fix is in for Virginia's GOP primary

2011-12-28T20:45:00.002-05:00

The fix is in; the other shoe has dropped--the Republican establishment of Virginia has selected the "winner" of the state's 50 delegates. The first step was a last minute change in the Republican Party of Virginia's ballot petition rules in November 2011. This change excluded every GOP front runner from the Virginia GOP's primary except for establishment favorite Mitt Romney and Libertarian favorite son Ron Paul.

For Virginia's establishment Republicans, the threat presented by a Ron Paul insurgency was too great to tolerate. It was for that reason that the Republican Party of Virginia issued the following rule for the upcoming GOP primary: citizens wishing to vote in the Republican primary will be required to sign a "loyalty oath" requiring them to vote for the Republican nominee in the general election, regardless of who that might be. This requirement is a transparent move against Libertarian Ron Paul, a candidate who simultaneously threatens to bring non-traditional conservatives into the GOP while also threatening to leave the GOP and run as a third party Libertarian.

The March 6, 2012 Republican primary in Virginia is now all but irrelevant. The RPV's leadership has already picked its winner: Willard "Mitt" Romney. The fix is in, you read it here first--the 2012 GOP ticket will be Romney-McDonnell.

Was Mitt Romney tipped off about changes to the Republican Party of Virginia's ballot rules?

2011-12-26T18:25:00.003-05:00

Was the Virginia Republican Party's ballot access fiasco an inside job?

A growing number of bloggers on the right side of the blogosphere are talking about a recent change in the Virginia GOP's method of verifying ballot petition signatures. I'm not going to reproduce or quote their arguments here because that would mean linking to a lot right wing blogs I don't want to link to. Let me summarize.

The long and the short of it is that the Republican Party of Virginia supposedly changed its own internal rules for validating signatures in November 2011, but didn't go out of its way to notify all the various campaigns. The Virginia law in question is an unusual one in that it sets a minimum number of valid signatures that must be gathered, but it delegates the task of counting and validating those signatures to the respective parties: Republicans count signatures for Republicans and Democrats for Democrats. That gives each party a great deal of latitude when it comes to accepting candidates for its own primary ballot.

Until quite recently, the GOP apparently only made the most cursory inquiry into the validity of individual signatures, but in November 2011, a decision was made to examine signatures much more closely, unless a candidate submitted 15,000 signatures--as opposed to the 10,000 minimum.

The question is, did someone within the RPV tip off the Romney campaign, but not the other campaigns?

The assumption here is that Ron Paul would have gotten his 15,000 signatures in any case because he has such an energized volunteer base. Because of this, Ron Paul seems to be getting a "pass" from righty bloggers.

No, the question seems to be whether Romney--as the establishment GOP candidate--was tipped off by someone in the RPV "establishment," while the campaigns of movement conservatives like Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry were kept in the dark. So some are now asking, was the Virginia Republican Party's ballot access fiasco an inside job?

Gingrich lied about the circumstances of his first divorce

2011-12-26T12:42:00.002-05:00

More bad news for Newt Gingrich:

Newt Gingrich claims that it was his first wife, not Gingrich himself, who wanted their divorce in 1980, but court documents obtained by CNN appear to show otherwise.

Virginia Republicans dodged a bullet when Gingrich failed make it onto the ballot.

Merry Christmas from the Richmonder

2011-12-25T22:00:00.002-05:00

Wishing all of you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

--The Richmonder

In defense of Virginia's ballot petitions

2011-12-24T12:35:00.001-05:00

The Richmond Times Dispatch has an article up on its website about Newt Gingrich complaining about Virginia's system of requiring the collection and submission of signatures on ballot petitions in order for a candidate's name to appear on the ballot for a primary in Virginia.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign is attacking the system in Virginia that will keep him off the state's Republican presidential primary ballot.

The state GOP says Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to submit the required 10,000 signatures to appear on the March 6 Super Tuesday ballot. It's a setback for Gingrich, who has surged in popularity but struggled to organize his campaign.

The Gingrich campaign says Virginia has a "failed system."

In truth, nothing could have demonstrated Gingrich's unfitness for the presidency more than this relatively mild organizational hurdle. Gingrich is a sloppy, undisciplined candidate who doesn't bother to read or follow the rules. Well Mr. Speaker, the rules apply to everyone, including you.

It's a rare day indeed when I can wholeheartedly endorse anything from the right side of Virginia's blogosphere, but today is such a day. In plain language Norm Leahy makes clear the useful purpose served by the Virginia process:

A hardened cynic might say this result exposes those campaigns for what they are: glorified book tours. And in Newt Gingrich’s case, that’s probably more true than people realize. In his appearance earlier this week in Short Pump, Gingrich took pains to mention his forthcoming book on George Washington’s experience at Yorktown.

Is that too cynical? Not really. The State Board of Elections first notified the presidential campaigns on March 6th of the ballot access requirements. The campaigns have had since July 1st to collect the signatures they needed. They even had the great good fortune of having a statewide election in Virginia this November plus the annual gathering of Republican activists in early December to gather signatures.

Leahy is absolutely, 100% correct in his assessment regarding the value of ballot petitions. They very effectively weed out the serious from the unserious--the people who are more concerned with book sales or auditioning for a job at Fox News.

I have participated in organizing one petition drive, that of Jim Webb in 2006. With much less time, and with only one paid staff person, the Webb campaign successfully collected significantly more than the necessary minimum of signatures. While some campaigns resort to paying collectors something in the neighborhood of a $1 per signature, the Webb campaign did not pay for a single signature, so it can't even be said that money is a barrier to entry in the Virginia system. All a candidate needs is a committed group of campaign workers, either paid or volunteer, who are willing and able to carry out a basic organizational task.

A candidate that lacks the ability to read the rules, follow the rules, muster the supporters, and carry out this simple task--which is somewhat less complicated than staging say, a large state-wide bake sale--is probably not qualified to be the leader of the free world. And certainly that applies most especially to Newt Gingrich.

The Richmond City Democratic Committee has issued a call to caucus

2011-12-24T11:19:00.003-05:00

As part of its biannual reorganization, the Richmond City Democratic Committee has issued a call to caucus. The RCDC is authorized to have 219 members. For complete details and rules, click here to go to the RCDC's website.

Martin Bashir skewers Eric Cantor

2011-12-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

While Boehner takes the hit, make no mistake: Eric Cantor was behind the attempt to kill the extension of the payroll tax cut.

Eric Cantor hands Barack Obama re-election on silver platter

2011-12-22T17:02:00.003-05:00

After trying to block extension of the payroll tax cut that benefits 160 million ordinary Americans, Eric Cantor and his Tea Party cronies have caved in to the overwhelming pressure from his own party--but not before they handed Barack Obama re-election neatly wrapped with a Christmas bow.

With the clock running down, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had worked out a face saving compromise that would have allowed extension of the payroll tax cut without much loss of face for the GOP. Then Eric Cantor obligingly stepped and blew up the deal, playing Mr. Potter to Barack Obama's George Bailey. Obama played his role with all the earnestness of James Stewart, for once sticking to his guns and refusing to back down. For two days the American people have been treated to a spectacle of Republican hypocrisy: the Republican Party made it clear that tax cuts are only for the very wealthy and the GOP was more than happy to raise taxes on the middle class.

The Republican Party held out just long enough for Barack Obama to make it crystal clear that it was Obama and the Democratic Party who were fighting for ordinary Americans.

So thanks for the early Christmas present Mr. Cantor--we're going to put Obama's second term to a very good use.

Cantor's payroll tax cut extension blunder threatens GOP

2011-12-21T22:54:00.002-05:00

Analysis of the disaster overtaking the Republican Party from Keith Olbermann and Brian Beutler.

Kaine and Allen responses to payroll tax cut extension show real contrast

2011-12-21T13:28:00.010-05:00

The payroll tax cut extension debate going on in Congress right now has elicited responses from U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and George Allen that allow us to draw a stark contrast between the two men. First, here is Kaine's statement:

"This is exactly why the American people are fed up with Congress and why we need more leaders in Washington who know how to find common ground. Both parties have known for nearly a year that the payroll tax cut would expire this month. Rather than taking proactive steps to reach an agreement in a timely manner, Congress engaged in partisan jockeying and delay tactics. Too many in Washington view every vote as an opportunity to forward a partisan agenda. For months, I've urged Congress to seek common ground on an extension of this tax cut which economists believe is essential to our continued growth and economic recovery. I am puzzled by George Allen's unwillingness to publicly support an extension of the payroll tax cut. I urge him to set partisanship aside and join me in calling for a resolution to extend this tax cut for 160 million Americans."

Kaine's focus is on getting an extension of a tax cut for 160 million working Americans, a cut that many of them need just to make ends meet.

In contrast, George F. Allen has refused to address the question of a payroll tax cut extension. Allen's sole concern during this debate--expressed in press releases dated December 14, 2011 and December 17, 2011--is that the Keystone XL Pipeline get approval as part of any deal. While Kaine seeks to advance the needs of more than half of all Americans, George Allen is only lobbying for the narrow interests of the tiny handful of super wealthy oil magnates, the same people who have been bankrolling Allen for years.

Tim Kaine is going to work for ordinary Virginians and Americans. If elected, Kaine will be a voice in Congress for the middle class.

In stark contrast to Kaine, George F. Allen continues to lobby for his oil industry clients. Allen is President of George Allen Strategies, a lobbying firm in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. He also heads the American Energy Freedom Center, a conservative "think tank" affiliated with the Institute for Energy Research. I put "think tank" in quotes because the American Energy Freedom Center has nothing to do with thinking: it is in fact nothing more than a conduit for influence peddling. It's not for nothing that George Allen calls himself "Baby Newt," because Allen has been living off the largesse of the oil industry in much the same way that Newt Gingrich managed to sponge millions of dollars from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

George Allen hasn't figured out that he's supposed to be running for a Senate seat--instead he's continued to work as a lobbyist and influence peddler for the oil industry.

The contrast is clear and the choice is simple. If you think ordinary Americans need more of a voice in Congress, then you should support Tim Kaine. If you think that big oil companies and influence peddlers need more power in Washington, DC, then George F. Allen is your man.

Allen lacks discipline, hates talking to voters

2011-12-21T12:30:00.000-05:00

Youtube is not George F. Allen's friend, in fact technology in general doesn't seem to be his strong point. In the Youtube clip above, Allen finishes up a webcast with a handful of supporters and then, thinking the camera is off, continues speaking, calling his performance "torturous." Look at the pained expression on his face: Allen is not happy. He isn't ready for this campaign and he knows it. His heart isn't in it. George F. Allen knows he is going to be drubbed by Tim Kaine next year.

Tim Kaine is highly disciplined on the campaign trail, loves to meet people, and loves to do retail politics. Tim Kaine basically defines the term "happy warrior."

The Republican Party of Virginia is going to regret renominating this retread.

Hat tip to Lowell for uploading this video.

DPVA hits George "Baby Newt" Gingrich

2011-12-21T11:56:00.000-05:00

It rhymes with "Rucking Pass Mole"

2011-12-20T22:15:00.000-05:00

More bad video for Newt Gingrich in Iowa. And this is the GOP's putative front runner?

A melancholy mystery hangs over Shockoe Bottom

2011-12-20T21:05:00.002-05:00

The Williams family and friends have plastered Shockoe Bottom with posters

One week ago tonight, on Tuesday December 13, 2011, Matthew Henry "Chucky" Williams disappeared somewhere between his apartment at 1900 East Cary Street and a nightclub called "The Lucky Buddha," located at 1421 East Cary Street in Richmond, Virginia. The Richmond Times Dispatch explains:

Williams disappeared under suspicious circumstances on Tuesday night within a few hours after leaving Lucky Buddha, and police suspect he is a victim of foul play.

Surveillance cameras show Williams entering his apartment building, the Lofts at Canal Walk at 1900 E. Cary St., with three unknown males at 10 p.m. Tuesday and leaving with them an hour later.

A few hours later, about 1 a.m., two of the same men returned without Williams and were captured by surveillance video breaking into Williams’ apartment and leaving with his TV and a video-game console, said Dionne Waugh, a police spokeswoman.

Since then, Richmond Police have arrested three men in connection with the case and have spent at least two days searching the Kanawha Canal with divers.

On Sunday, December 18, 2011, I retraced Williams' steps at approximately the same time of night as his disappearance five nights before and I shot this sequence of photographs.

The sign of "The Lucky Buddha"

"The Lucky Buddha"

Looking East from "The Lucky Buddha"

The 1500 block of East Cary Street

The 1600 block of East Cary Street

Looking East from "Bottom's Up"

The 1700 block of East Cary Street

The 1800 block of East Cary Street

1900 East Cary Street, Mr. William's apartment building

The entrance to 1900 East Cary Street, where a security camera caught the suspects

If you have any information about this case, then for God's sake call the Richmond Police Department’s Tipsline at 514-TIPS (8477) or Crime Stoppers at 780-1000. Citizens may also text Crime Stoppers at 274637, using the key word “ITip” followed by any information you may have regarding Mr. William's disappearance. Hopefully we can, as a community, bring some closure to Mr. William's family.

Eric Cantor blocks payroll tax cut extension for middle class

2011-12-20T16:32:00.006-05:00

For purely partisan reasons, Eric Cantor has blocked a payroll tax cut extension for the middle class. Cantor is holding out for sweetheart deals for his corporate backers and the super wealthy. Millions of Americans are just barely making it. Cantor's callous gaming of the system on behalf of the super wealthy could send millions of Americans of the edge into financial failure and poverty.

President Obama commented on the blockage of the payroll tax cut extension, see the video above. Cantor's actions are nothing less than a betrayal of working Americans and he did it for no other reason than to wring more special favors out of Congress for the super wealthy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Message to Congress on the Concentration of Economic Power"

2011-12-20T13:42:00.003-05:00

The concepts in this speech from 1938 are even more true today.

Message to Congress on the Concentration of Economic Power

Franklin D. Roosevelt
April 29, 1938
To the Congress of the United States:

Unhappy events abroad have re-taught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people.

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe, if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.

Both lessons hit home.

Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing. This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.

[I] The Growing Concentration of Economic Power

Statistics of the Bureau of Internal Revenue reveal the following amazing figures for 1935:

Ownership of corporate assets: Of all corporations reporting from every part of the nation, one-tenth of 1 percent of them owned 52 percent of the assets of all of them.

And to clinch the point: Of all corporations reporting, less than 5 percent of them owned 87 percent of all assets of all of them.

Income and profits of corporations: Of all the corporations reporting from every part of the country, one-tenth of 1 percent of them earned 50 percent of the net income of all of them.

And to clinch the point: Of all the manufacturing corporations reporting, less than 4 percent of them earned 84 percent of all the net profits of all of them.

The statistical history of modern times proves that in times of depression concentration of business speeds up. Bigger business then has larger opportunity to grow still bigger at the expense of smaller competitors who are weakened by financial adversity.

The danger of this centralization in a handful of huge corporations is not reduced or eliminated, as is sometimes urged, by the wide public distribution of their securities. The mere number of security holders gives little clue to the size of their individual holdings or to their actual ability to have a voice in the management. In fact, the concentration of stock ownership of corporations in the hands of a tiny minority of the population matches the concentration of corporate assets.

The year 1929 was a banner year for distribution of stock ownership.

But in that year three-tenths of 1 percent of our population received 78 percent of the dividends reported by individuals. This has roughly the same effect as if, out of every 300 persons in our population, one person received 78 cents out of every dollar of corporate dividends, while the other 299 persons divided up the other 22 cents between them.

The effect of this concentration is reflected in the distribution of national income.

A recent study by the National Resources Committee shows that in 1935-36:

Forty-seven percent of all American families and single individuals living alone had incomes of less than $1,000 for the year; and at the other end of the ladder a little less than 1 percent of the nation’s families received incomes which in dollars and cents reached the same total as the incomes of the 47 percent at the bottom.

Furthermore, to drive the point home, the Bureau of Internal Revenue reports that estate-tax returns in 1936 show that --

Thirty-three percent of the property which was passed by inheritance was found in only 4 percent of all the reporting estates. (And the figures of concentration would be far more impressive, if we included all the smaller estates which, under the law, do not have to report.)

We believe in a way of living in which political democracy and free private enterprise for profit should serve and protect each other -- to insure a maximum of human liberty, not for a few, but for all.

It has been well said that, “The freest government, if it could exist, would not be long acceptable if the tendency of the laws were to create a rapid accumulation of property in few hands and to render the great mass of the population dependent and penniless.”

Today many Americans ask the uneasy question: Is the vociferation that our liberties are in danger justified by the facts?

Today’s answer on the part of average men and women in every part of the country is far more accurate than it would have been in 1929 for the very simple reason that during the past 9 years we have been doing a lot of common-sense thinking. Their answer is that if there is that danger, it comes from that concentrated private economic power which is struggling so hard to master our democratic government. It will not come, as some (by no means all) of the possessors of that private power would make the people believe -- from our democratic government itself.

[II] Financial Control Over Industry

Even these statistics I have cited do not measure the actual degree of concentration of control over American industry.

Close financial control, through interlocking spheres of influence over channels of investment and through the use of financial devices like holding companies and strategic minority interests, creates close control of the business policies of enterprises which masquerade as independent units.

That heavy hand of integrated financial and management control lies upon large and strategic areas of American industry. The small businessman is unfortunately being driven into a less and less independent position in American life. You and I must admit that.

Private enterprise is ceasing to be free enterprise and is becoming a cluster of private collectivisms; masking itself as a system of free enterprise after the American model, it is in fact becoming a concealed cartel system after the European model.

We all want efficient industrial growth and the advantages of mass production. No one suggests that we return to the hand loom or hand forge. A series of processes involved in turning out a given manufactured product may well require one or more huge mass-production plants. Modern efficiency may call for this. But modern efficient mass production is not furthered by a central control, which destroys competition between industrial plants each capable of efficient mass production while operating as separate units. Industrial efficiency does not have to mean industrial empire building.

And industrial empire building, unfortunately, has evolved into banker control of industry. We oppose that.

Such control does not offer safety for the investing public. Investment judgment requires the disinterested appraisal of other people’s management. It becomes blurred and distorted if it is combined with the conflicting duty of controlling the management it is supposed to judge.

Interlocking financial controls have taken from American business much of its traditional virility, independence, adaptability, and daring -- without compensating advantages. They have not given the stability they promised.

Business enterprise needs new vitality and the flexibility that comes from the diversified efforts, independent judgments, and vibrant energies of thousands upon thousands of independent businessmen.

The individual must be encouraged to exercise his own judgment and to venture his own small savings, not in stock gambling but in new enterprise investment. Men will dare to compete against men but not against giants.

[III] The Decline of Competition and Its Effects on Employment

In output per man or machine we are the most efficient industrial nation on earth.

In the matter of complete mutual employment of capital and labor we are among the least efficient.

……

One of the primary causes of our present difficulties lies in the disappearance of price competition in many industrial fields, particularly in basic manufacture where concentrated economic power is most evident -- and where rigid prices and fluctuating pay rolls are general.

[IV] Competition Does Not Mean Exploitation

Competition, of course, like all other good things, can be carried to excess. Competition should not extend to fields where it has demonstrably bad social and economic consequences. The exploitation of child labor, the chiseling of workers’ wages, the stretching of workers’ hours, are not necessary, fair, or proper methods of competition. I have consistently urged a Federal wages-and-hours bill to take the minimum decencies of life for the working man and woman out of the field of competition.

It is, of course, necessary to operate the competitive system of free enterprise intelligently. In gaging the market for their wares, businessmen, like farmers, should be given all possible information by government and by their own associations so that they may act with knowledge, and not on impulse. Serious problems of temporary over-production can and should be avoided by disseminating information that will discourage the production of more goods than the current markets can possibly absorb or the accumulation of dangerously large inventories for which there is obvious need.

It is, of course, necessary to encourage rises in the level of those competitive prices, such as agricultural prices, which must rise to put our price structure into more workable balance and make the debt burden more tolerable. Many such competitive prices are now too low.

It may at times be necessary to give special treatment to chronically sick industries which have deteriorated too far for natural revival, especially those which have a public or quasi-public character.

But generally over the field of industry and finance we must revive and strengthen competition if we wish to preserve and make workable our traditional system of free private enterprise.

The justification of private profit is private risk. We cannot safely make America safe for the businessman who does not want to take the burdens and risks of being a businessman.

[V] The Choice Before Us

Examination of methods of conducting and controlling private enterprise which keep it from furnishing jobs or income or opportunity for one-third of the population is long overdue on the part of those who sincerely want to preserve the system of private enterprise for profit.

No people, least of all a democratic people, will be content to go without work or to accept some standard of living which obviously and woefully falls short of their capacity to produce. No people, least of all a people with our traditions of personal liberty, will endure the slow erosion of opportunity for the common man, the oppressive sense of helplessness under the domination of a few, which are overshadowing our whole economic life.

A discerning magazine of business has editorially pointed out that big-business collectivism in industry compels an ultimate collectivism in government.

The power of a few to manage the economic life of the nation must be diffused among the many or be transferred to the public and its democratically responsible government. If prices are to be managed and administered, if the nation’s business is to be allotted by plan and not by competition, that power should not be vested in any private group or cartel, however benevolent its professions profess to be.

Those people, in and out of the halls of government, who encourage the growing restriction of competition either by active efforts or by passive resistance to sincere attempts to change the trend, are shouldering a terrific responsibility. Consciously or unconsciously they are working for centralized business and financial control. Consciously or unconsciously they are therefore either working for control of the government itself by business and finance or the other alternative -- a growing concentration of public power in the government to cope with such concentration of private power.

The enforcement of free competition is the least regulation business can expect.

[VI] Program

The traditional approach to the problems I have discussed has been through the antitrust laws. That approach we do not propose to abandon. On the contrary, although we must recognize the inadequacies of the existing laws, we seek to enforce them so that the public shall not be deprived of such protection as they afford. To enforce them properly requires thorough investigation not only to discover such violations as may exist but to avoid hit-and-miss prosecutions harmful to business and government alike. To provide for the proper and fair enforcement of the existing antitrust laws I shall submit, through the Budget, recommendations for a deficiency appropriation of $200,000 for the Department of Justice.

But the existing antitrust laws are inadequate -- most importantly because of new financial economic conditions with which they are powerless to cope.

The Sherman Act was passed nearly 40 years ago. The Clayton and Federal Trade commission Acts were passed over 20 years ago. We have had considerable experience under those acts. In the meantime we have had a chance to observe the practical operation of large-scale industry and to learn many things about the competitive system which we did not know in those days.

We have witnessed the merging-out of effective competition in many fields of enterprise. We have learned that the so-called competitive system works differently in an industry where there are many independent units, from the way it works in an industry where a few large producers dominate the market.

We have also learned that a realistic system of business regulation has to reach more than consciously immoral acts. The community is interested in economic results. It must be protected from economic as well as moral wrongs. We must find practical controls over blind economic forces as well as over blindly selfish men.

Government can deal and should deal with blindly selfish men. But that is a comparatively small part -- the easier part -- of our problem. The larger, more important and more difficult part of our problem is to deal with men who are not selfish and who are good citizens, but who cannot see the social and economic consequences of their actions in a modern economically interdependent community. They fail to grasp the significance of some of our most vital social and economic problems because they see them only in the light of their own personal experience and not in perspective with the experience of other men and other industries. They therefore fail to see these problems for the nation as a whole.

To meet the situation I have described, there should be a thorough study of the concentration of economic power in American industry and the effect of that concentration upon the decline of competition. There should be an examination of the existing price system and the price policies of industry, to determine their effect upon the general level of trade, upon employment, upon long-term profits, and upon consumption. The study should not be confined to the traditional antitrust field. The effects of tax, patent, and other government policies cannot be ignored.……

No man of good faith will misinterpret these proposals. They derive from the oldest American traditions. Concentration of economic power in the few and the resulting unemployment of labor and capital are inescapable problems for a modern “private enterprise” democracy. I do not believe that we are so lacking in stability that we will lose faith in our own way of living just because we seek to find out how to make that way of living work more effectively.

This program should appeal to the honest common sense of every independent businessman interested primarily in running his own business at a profit rather than in controlling the business of other men.

It is not intended as the beginning of any ill-considered “trust-busting” activity which lacks proper consideration for economic results. It is a program to preserve private enterprise for profit by keeping it free enough to be able to utilize all our resources of capital and labor at a profit.

It is a program whose basic purpose is to stop the progress of collectivism in business and turn business back to the democratic competitive order.

It is a program whose basic thesis is not that the system of free private enterprise for profit has failed in this generation, but that it has not yet been tried.

Once it is realized that business monopoly in America paralyzes the system of free enterprise on which it is grafted, and is as fatal to those who manipulate it as to the people who suffer beneath its impositions, action by the government to eliminate these artificial restraints will be welcomed by industry throughout the nation.

For idle factories and idle workers profit no man.

Politifact's "Lie of the Year" is in fact, a lie

2011-12-20T12:04:00.007-05:00

Paul Krugman has a must read column in the New York Times entitled "Politifact, R.I.P.":

This is really awful. Politifact, which is supposed to police false claims in politics, has announced its Lie of the Year — and it’s a statement that happens to be true, the claim that Republicans have voted to end Medicare.

Steve Benen in the link above explains it, but let me just repeat the basics. Republicans voted to replace Medicare with a voucher system to buy private insurance — and not just that, a voucher system in which the value of the vouchers would systematically lag the cost of health care, so that there was no guarantee that seniors would even be able to afford private insurance.

Read the complete column at the New York Times.

It seems pretty clear that Politifact's pronouncements have to be taken with a grain of salt. The claim that the Republicans aren't trying to do away with Medicare is so blatantly false on its face that we give Politifact a "pants on fire" rating for calling this the "Lie of the Year."

RCDC Rank and File Party

2011-12-18T19:53:00.003-05:00

This evening the Richmond City Democratic Committee held its annual Rank and File party. The event was an intimate potluck dinner at the home of Richmond's mayor, the Honorable Dwight C. Jones and a fundraiser for the committee. The event was well attended and the mayor's home was packed with committee members, city council members, General Assembly members, U.S Representative Bobby Scott, friends, and family.

To see the complete photo album from this event, click here.

Statement of Tim Kaine on the passing of Sophie Ann Salley

2011-12-17T18:39:00.000-05:00

From Tim Kaine's campaign:

Tim Kaine Statement on Death of Sophie Ann Salley

Richmond, VA -Tim Kaine released the following statement on the death of Richmond-area Democratic activist Sophie Ann Salley:

"I first met Sophie Salley at a polling place long ago and saw her subsequently at countless party meetings, candidate meet and greets, conventions and election season barbecues. I was thrilled to have her at our campaign's first volunteer night just last week. Her enthusiastic love of policy, politics and the Democratic Party separated her from the many who can't be bothered with the institutions that we create to make "by of and for the people" real. She pursued her passion with a smile on her face and with no rancor toward anyone with different views. Sophie believed politics was not just necessary but good so long as citizens take their own end of the bargain seriously. I join many others who will miss her dearly."

Sophie Ann Salley has passed away

2011-12-17T13:45:00.004-05:00

Sophie Ann Salley with Tim Kaine in December 2005

Our friend and fellow Richmond City Democratic Committee Member Sophie Ann Salley has passed away. Sophie Ann was an RCDC member and officer for many years. Funeral arrangements will be announced soon. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Sophie Ann Salley receives an RCDC award in June 2011

Two new Democrats take office in Henrico County!

2011-12-15T21:11:00.003-05:00

Shannon Taylor takes her oath of office

Earlier today, I had the happy privilege of attending the investiture of two of my clients. Shannon Taylor took the oath of office as Henrico County's next Commonwealth's Attorney and Tyrone Nelson took the oath of office as the next member of Henrico's Board of Supervisors for the Varina magisterial district. Shannon is the first woman ever elected as Commonwealth's Attorney for Henrico County. Tyrone is only the second African American elected to Henrico's Board of Supervisors, and the first to be elected from the Varina district. I am very proud to have worked for and supported these two talented individuals and I celebrate the barriers they have broken down this year. I know that they will both provide exceptional service to their constituents. Congratulations to Shannon and Tyrone!

Shannon Taylor signs her oath of office

A judge certifies Shannon Taylor's oath of office

Shannon with her parents, after taking her oath of office

Tyrone Nelson taking the oath of office

Tyrone Nelson signing his oath of office

Tyrone Nelson with his family after taking his oath of office

Shannon with family, after her investiture

Shannon with her parents and two of her political advisors--Michael Brown (left) and Rhett Walker (right)

Part of Henrico's "Dream Team"--from left: Michael Brown, Lamont Bagby, Shannon Taylor, Tyrone Nelson, and Rhett Walker

Proud member of the "Liberal Elite"

2011-12-15T07:22:00.000-05:00

My Liberal Identity

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at
About.com Political Humor

Book Review: The Power Broker

2011-12-14T20:25:00.000-05:00

I recently finished reading Robert Caro's amazing biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker. Like Caro's other political biographies, The Power Broker is required reading for anyone wanting to understand American government and the uses (and misuses) of power.

Robert Moses was a civil servant, someone never elected to any office, but he somehow managed to build an empire within the bureaucracy of New York State and New York City. In his years in power, Moses built an amazing array of public works. But Moses had a dark side as well: an obsession with power and a habit of abusing that power to take revenge on anyone who crossed him.

The Power Broker is required reading for anyone who wants to better understand how the different kinds of power in American life--federal, state, and local--interact and how one man was able to manipulate those systems to stay in power for more than four decades.

The fourth and final volume of Caro's epic biography of Lyndon B. Johnson is due out next year. Entitled The Passage of Power, the new book is due to be released on May 1, 2012.

Photos from Court End Christmas

2011-12-12T12:09:00.004-05:00

Ricky Robertson leads a one-horse open sleigh

Yesterday, the Historic Richmond Foundation celebrated the 25th year of its popular Court End Christmas event. Several Federal era and ante-bellum buildings and museums in the Court End district were open for free tours and several musical groups performed at venues along the way. Here are a few photos from the festivities.

The rear of the Wickham House

A children' chorus performs in Court End

Confederate re-enactors at the Museum of the Confederacy

MCV's Egyptian Building

Monumental Chuch

A choral group performs in Monumental Church

George F. Allen caught in another lie

2011-12-12T11:36:00.005-05:00

George F. Allen's masters in the oil industry have had him going about spreading a lie about a supposed U.S. government loan to Brazil to finance oil drilling. Like so much of the nonsense from this cowboy without cattle, it's simply not true, as Politifact declared last week:

Allen says the U.S. government lent $2 billion to Petrobras, the state-owned oil company of Brazil.

He is referring to a preliminary agreement by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent federal agency, to consider offering up to $2 billion in financing to help Petrobras buy American goods and services.

In 2010, Ex-Im agreed to guarantee a $308 million private loan made to Petrobras by JPMorgan Chase. There were no other transactions, and Ex-Im’s agreement with Petrobras expired this April.

The bottom line is that that Ex-Im did not directly lend any money to Petrobras. We rate Allen’s statement False.

Allen is on notice: if he repeats this lie again then he should receive a "pants on fire" designation from Politifact. The tracker, blogger, or reporter who can catch Allen spreading this lie now, even after he's been corrected, should have a pretty good story.

James Center Christmas Lights

2011-12-10T15:12:00.002-05:00

Police identify Virginia Tech shooter as "Ross Truett Ashley"

2011-12-09T19:38:00.003-05:00

The police have finally identified the the shooter in the most recent Virginia Tech shooting as Ross Truett Ashley, a part-time Radford University student from Spotsylvania County.

Right Wing terrorists nabbed in Mississippi

2011-12-09T15:43:00.003-05:00

Members of a Right Wing terrorist group have been arrested in connection with a Tuesday night attack on three people in Gautier, Mississippi.

Two members of a Christian paramilitary group called “The Savior Unit” were charged with kidnapping and burglary for allegedly conducting a home invasion while clad in ski-masks, military garb and bullet-proof vests.

Michael Shaun Schaffran, 32, and Cody Jacob Rogers, 18, were arrested after allegedly breaking into a home on Tuesday night in Gautier, Mississippi. They were each charged with three counts of kidnapping and burglary of an occupied house, the Sun-Herald reports.

George Allen's disastrous debate performance

2011-12-09T11:24:00.008-05:00

The Kaine campaign has done a good job of collecting all the reviews of former Senator George F. Allen's performance in his first debate against Tim Kaine in the battle for Jim Webb's U.S. Senate seat, so I'm taking the liberty of simply copying the entire press release--with links--below. The most charitable thing that can be said about Allen is that he is terribly rusty and out of practice. The most hopeful thing for Republicans to focus on is that the election is still nearly eleven months away, so perhaps there is time for Allen to get his groove back.

But the reality is that George F. Allen is a bully who tends to cave when someone challenges him. Jim Webb challenged him in 2006, and Tim Kaine is going to challenge Allen every minute of every day. Allen can't intimidate Tim Kaine. And as for finding his groove, well, George F. Allen has been active in politics as a candidate since 1979. If he hasn't figured out how to debate effectively by now then it may be a matter of lack of talent rather than lack of practice.

KAINE WINS FIRST DEBATE BY FOCUSING ON RESULTS,
HOLDING ALLEN ACCOUNTABLE FOR RECORD

Richmond, VA -The reviews are in and it's clear that Tim Kaine won his first debate with former Senator George Allen by emphasizing his approach to developing a 21st century economy, his proven record of fiscal responsibility and his ability to bridge political divides by seeking common ground. He also held Allen accountable for repeatedly employing rhetoric that does not match his record. In contrast, Allen’s performance was full of half-hearted defenses of his big spending record and a string of partisan barbs that show he is out of step on the issues that matter to Virginia families and businesses. But, you don't have to take our word for it. Read Politico's analysis declaring "Kaine emerged the victor.”

Please see below for key coverage and analysis from Wednesday's debate.

Kaine won the debate by emphasizing his proven record of fiscal responsibility and seeking common ground:

“The first impression I had after the 90-minute sparring session between Tim Kaine and George Allen in Richmond on Wednesday was that Kaine emerged the victor.” [Politico, 12/8/11]

“Kaine is a more disciplined and pointed debater, relentlessly returning to two core arguments: 1) Allen has little fiscal credibility to launch critiques on the Obama agenda because of his own voting record. 2)Allen is more partisan and represents the politics of division, whereas Kaine represents balance who will play well with others.” [Politico, 12/8/11]

“[Kaine] stressed the need to “win the talent war”by investing in education and immigration reform among other measures.” [Richmond Times Dispatch, 12/7/11]
“Kaine… expressed a passion for developing more alternative energy initiatives which is also a lucrative industry.” [Danville Register & Bee, 12/7/11]

“Kaine (a former governor and DNC chairman) pitched himself as a moderate political leader, mentioning frequently that he cut state spending by $5 billion during his time as governor, while simultaneously making investments in infrastructure and human development.” [Talking Points Memo,12/7/11]

“After Allen explained his rationale behind proposing a voluntary flat tax as an alternative to the “complicated, convoluted and costly” current structure, Kaine faulted Allen for his “equally complicated” answer. Kaine’s response was sharper. He said he agreed with the concept of tax simplification and quickly pivoted back to Allen’s record, calling it a roadblock to reform.” [Politico, 12/7/11]

“Discussing Mr. Kaine’s performance in the debate, Mr. [Bob] Holsworth said one side of the Democrat’s political approach is the “bridge-builder.” [Washington Times, 12/7/11]

“Kaine opened saying the atmosphere in Washington, with its partisan bickering and ideological entrenchment, needed to change and lawmakers must work together to solve the country's problems. "As a U.S. senator, I don't care whether the group of bipartisan senators is a gang of 14, six or one, I'm going to be with them putting the nation first," Kaine said.” [Daily Press, 12/7/11]

"Kaine, meanwhile, went hard on offense against Allen's record as senator, faulting him and other Senate Republicans for putting policies in place that created the economic conditions that the Obama administration had to deal with when Obama took office." [Hotline On Call, 12/7/11]

Allen admitted responsibility for Congress' spending binge, showed his colors as a “do one thing, say another” politician, and gave voters no reason to elect him to a second term in the U.S. Senate.

"On the other hand, Allen — who had a penchant for rambling through answers, which resulted in less effective attacks — failed to issue an equally compelling rebuttal defending his own tenure in the Senate. In fact at one point, he offered a glaring concession during a back and forth. “When Tim talks about spending in the years I was in the Senate, yeah, it was a problem in those years." [Politico,12/8/11]

"Allen had more stumbles… He dodged a direct answer when Kaine asked him why he’d voted to increase his own pay, failed to provide the rate for his proposed national flat tax and fumbled through an explanation of how his “personhood amendment” — which would define life as beginning at conception — would not ban such contraceptives as the morning-after pill.” [The Hill, 12/7/11]

“Kaine repeatedly chastised Allen for supporting increased spending during his one term in the Senate, which ended in 2006 when he lost to now-Sen. Jim Webb (D), who is retiring.” [Roll Call, 12/7/11]

"Kaine says the national debt increased by $16,000 every second Allen served in the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2007. The actual number, from the day Allen entered the Senate to the day he left, is $15,555.38 per second. Kaine reasonably rounded up. Allen voted for budgets that increased the debt by $16,896.68 a second. We rate Kaine’s statement True." [Politifact Virginia, 12/8/11]

"Mr. Allen acknowledged that Republicans under former President George W. Bush had contributed to the nation’s fiscal woes. “Spending was bad previously, there’s no doubt about it,” Mr. Allen said,” [Washington Times, 12/8/11]

"And that’s assuming the Republican nominee will be George Allen, former occupant of the seat and one of several Republicans vying for the nomination. Allen’s come under fire from several tea party-affiliated candidates as being part of the culture of corruption in Washington…” [News Advance,12/9/11]

"A member of the U.S. Senate for six years, Allen voted for four hikes in the federal debt ceiling, for the No Child Left Behind Act (which tea partiers cite as an unwarranted intrusion into local education), for three congressional pay hikes and the costly Medicare prescription drug benefit." [News Advance,12/9/11]

"And tellingly, Republican candidate Tim Donner sent out a news release touting those very hits against Allen that Kaine landed as evidence of Allen’s unfitness for the nomination. Allen, Donner and Jamie Radtke (another tea party activist running for the nomination) have argued, is just another co-opted Washington politician who’s part of the problem, not the solution." [News Advance, 12/9/11]

"Republicans, moreso than Democrats, should be worried that Allen could emerge a weakened foe for Kaine in a year that control of the U.S. Senate could well hinge on Virginia." [News Advance, 12/9/11]

“There was one major gaffe, in which Allen seemed not to understand neither how birth control pills work nor the full impact of a “personhood amendment” he is promoting… Kaine set him straight…” [Washington Post, 12/7/11]

“Allen had a fumble on some basic science.” [Talking Points Memo, 12/7/11]

“Following an answer to a question about his support for a fair tax in which Allen rambled some, Kaine said that Allen's answer "was equally complicated" as the tax code and that Allen's reluctance to pin himself to an exact percentage was "instructive."” [Roll Call, 12/7/11]

The GOP unleashes its War on Christmas

2011-12-09T08:40:00.003-05:00

Why do Republicans hate Christmas so much? Why are they ashamed to celebrate Christmas? Why are they only having a generic "Holiday" party? Because they hate the Baby Jesus, that's why.

Palin slapped with $386,000 ethics fine

2011-12-09T06:49:00.002-05:00

Sarah Palin has been slapped with a $386,000 ethics fine:

Nearly a year after she quit her governorship of Alaska, Sarah Palin was found guilty today of another breach of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act involving her so-called Alaska Fund Trust (AFT), which she established as a private "legal defense fund" while governor.

Timothy Petumenos, independent counsel for the Alaska Personnel Board (and ironically, the same independent counsel who issued the Troopergate findings nearly two years ago while Palin was the GOP vice-presidential nominee), presented the state's Findings, Consent Decree and Settlement Agreement this afternoon from the perfectly named Adventure Room of the Captain Cook Hotel in downtown Anchorage.

Wow, that's bigger then the ethics fine Newt Gingrich had to pay. Read the complete story at Huffington Post.

George Allen lost the debate yesterday, and probably the election

2011-12-08T17:58:00.003-05:00

I was unable to watch yesterday's debate live--some of us have day jobs. I was surprised that anyone thought it was a good idea to have a debate this early in the campaign season, and having a debate in the middle of the day when ordinary citizens can't watch is a bad idea. Now, instead of being able to watch the debate in its entirety, those of us with day jobs are forced to settle for the scraps and excerpts the media chooses to feed us.

Fortunately, the media deigned to provide us with the most relevant 4 minutes and 43 seconds: an exchange between Kaine and Allen over the continuing relevance of the "Macaca" incident.

The exchange was triggered by a question from NBC 12's Ryan Nobles, who went after Kaine over an offhand remark from a Kaine campaign spokesman who said yesterday that Allen's "Macaca" gaffe was "fair game." Nobles sounds angry and snippy and seems to be trying to bully Kaine into agreeing not to talk about the "Macaca" incident. If Nobles was trying to do George F. Allen a favor, he failed miserably. Nobles' question swung the door wide open for Kaine to discuss in excruciating detail not just "Macaca," but Allen's entire, long career of boorish behavior.

Allen's response was revealing: a bizarre string of anecdotes designed to change the subject. Allen is severely damaged goods. He still hasn't found a way to address the "Macaca" incident--or the rest of his obnoxious past career-- and that's going to haunt him in this campaign. If Allen can't find a way to put "Macaca" behind him, he'll never win this race.

Richmond Christmas Parade 2011

2011-12-04T12:14:00.003-05:00

A few snapshots from this year's Richmond Christmas Parade.

Richmond's Grand Illumination 2011

2011-12-03T09:16:00.003-05:00

A few snapshots from last night's Grand Illumination in Richmond, Virginia. The lights are on and the Christmas Season is officially upon us!

Meeting announcement for Richmond City Democratic Committee

2011-12-02T08:22:00.004-05:00

The following events and meetings have been added to the Richmond City Democratic Committee's calendar.

Monday, December 5 · 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Richmond City Democratic Committee meeting
Suntrust Building, 919 E. Main St., 4th Fl.

Please join us to discuss the upcoming Rank and File party and the RCDC reorganization. This will be our December RCDC meeting.

Sunday, December 18, 2011, 4pm
Richmond Democrats Rank and File Party

RCDC will have a Rank and File party at the home of Mayor Dwight C. Jones, 5210 Beddington Road, Richmond, VA 23234. This is RCDC's party for all of our Rank and File volunteers who step up to do campaign work and handle committee responsibilities.

Congressman Bobby Scott will join us.
Further details and additional guest speakers to be announced.

Tickets: $20
Patron: $50
Sponsor: $100
Benefactor: $250

Monday, January 9, 2012
Unassembled Caucus to elect members of the Richmond City Democratic Committee
Call to Caucus will be distributed soon.

Tree Lighting at the Jefferson Hotel 2011

2011-11-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

A few snapshots from the festivities at the Jefferson Hotel last night to help my fellow Richmonders get into the Christmas spirit. Don't forget: Richmond's Grand Illumination is this Friday at 6:00 PM sharp. Get there early if you want a good spot to watch the fun!

Richmond Tea Party above the law, demands preferential treatment

2011-11-29T07:25:00.005-05:00

It's an old story: people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. A few weeks ago, the Richmond Tea Party sent a bill to the City of Richmond demanding that Richmond refund fees that the Richmond Tea Party had paid for large tax day rallies in Kanawha Plaza Park. Now the Tea Party is complaining because the city went back and checked the Tea Party's account (probably in preparation to issuing the refund requested) and discovered that the Richmond Tea Party had failed to file required tax returns.

The city, as a matter of routine, sent the Richmond Tea Party a letter (seen above) requesting that the group provide copies of its tax filings. This is routine. If you ask any government taxing authority for a refund they are going to pull up your account to see exactly what your status is. They are going to verify your claim and check to see if they owe you more money or if you have any outstanding liabilities that you haven't paid.

The Richmond Tea Party has been loudly demanding that the laws of the City of Richmond be applied impartially, but now they are upset that those laws are being applied to them. Apparently all Richmonders are equal, but some Richmonders are more equal than others.

The Richmond Tea Party's claim of differential treatment doesn't stand up to serious scrutiny. Underlying their complaint is the false claim that the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement are essentially the same thing. The standard trope to employ in this case is to say that comparing the two groups is like comparing "apples and oranges." That comparison does not come close to capturing the difference between the two groups. Comparing Occupy Richmond to the Richmond Tea Party is like comparing apples to . . . motor oil.

Occupy Richmond is a loosely organized group of individuals: it has not filed any incorporation papers that I know of. As a result, when the City of Richmond engages Occupy Richmond, from a legal standpoint it is engaging a multitude of individuals. The Richmond Tea Party is an incorporated, centrally organized group with a top down leadership style. Both organizations have the strengths and weaknesses of their chosen forms.

The strength of Occupy Richmond is its fluidity. Its weaknesses are its inability to quickly make a decision and act on it. Because it is an ever-changing group of individuals, legally the City of Richmond must act against them as individuals, as it did when it arrested several Occupy Richmond members on October 31, 2011. Occupy Richmond will "pay" for its occupation of Kanawha Plaza through the individual fines and penalties--including jail time--incurred by its individual members.

The strengths of the Tea Party of Richmond include its centralized management, its ability to raise lots of cash--much of it from corporate donors, and its limited liability conferred by its status as a corporation. In exchange for certain fees and responsibilities, the Richmond Tea Party gets to be treated as a person for many if not most legal purposes. In exchange for all the privileges and rights that come with incorporation--including the special rights conferred by the Citizens United decision--a corporation also has many responsibilities. The Richmond Tea Party's weaknesses include the fact that it is required by federal, state, and local laws to file tax returns, reports, and other paperwork. Another weakness is that corporations are required to have addresses and registered agents for service of process. When the City of Richmond wants to engage in law enforcement against the Richmond Tea Party it doesn't have to raid its campsite at 1:00 AM--all Richmond has to do is send a registered letter.

It is clear from the comparison above that Occupy Richmond and the Richmond Tea Party are--legally speaking--very different things: like comparing apples to motor oil. And if these two groups are different in terms of what they are, so too are the laws they are alleged to have violated very different.

Certain individual Occupy Richmond activists have been arrested and charged with sleeping overnight in a public park. The City of Richmond is enforcing that law against the individuals who broke the law and refused to leave the park. The Richmond Tea Party appears to have fallen behind in its filing of tax returns and other paperwork. The City of Richmond is enforcing the laws that apply to the Richmond Tea Party as a corporation. Both Occupy Richmond and the Richmond Tea Party are being treated appropriately by the city in accordance with their different legal status as a group of individuals on the one hand, and a corporation on the other.

The Richmond Tea Party has enjoyed a few weeks of criticizing Occupy Richmond as scofflaws, but it appears now that the Richmond Tea Party may have broken some laws itself. I for one hope that the city's audit of the Richmond Tea Party is complete and thorough, because after all, we have to apply the law equally to everyone and the The Richmond Tea Party shouldn't think it deserves special treatment.

William Butler Yeats: "The Second Coming"

2011-11-28T21:41:00.003-05:00

THE SECOND COMING

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Required Reading: "Restoration of the Union"

2011-11-27T14:29:00.003-05:00

The Fredericksburg Free Lance Star has a must read op-ed by Gary W. Gallagher, the John L. Nau III professor of history at the University of Virginia, entitled "Restoration of the Union."

As we enter the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the importance of the Union Cause within a mid-19th-century context has disappeared almost completely from popular understanding of the conflict. The most highly charged political word of the mid-19th-century era, "Union" literally has no meaning apart from labor-related issues for most Americans.

Yet a failure to grasp the centrality of the concept "Union" to the wartime generation prevents informed answers to crucial questions: Why did loyal citizens fight so hard and long? What did they hope to achieve through all their sacrifice and effort?

Much of our society's current (mis)understanding of the American Civil War is the result of too much focus on the South's war aims and point of view. Not enough time and attention is devoted to understanding the reasons why Unionists fought to preserve the United States against its domestic enemies.

Read "Restoration of the Union" at Fredericksburg's Free Lance Star's website, Fredericksburg.com.

USNS Medgar Evers: long may she serve

2011-11-26T17:08:00.003-05:00

The navy has a new support vessel today:

USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE-13) is a Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship of the United States Navy, named in honor of World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers (1925–63). The Navy announced the naming on 9 October 2009. National Steel and Shipbuilding Company started construction on 15 April 2010, and laid her keel on 26 October 2010 in San Diego. Gina Buzby, wife of Rear Admiral Mark Buzby, MSC commander, was the keel-laying ceremony honoree.

Medgar Evers was launched on 29 October 2011, and christened on 12 November, sponsored by Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams.

The GOP is the party of lies

2011-11-26T12:42:00.003-05:00

There is a new "old" saying that goes something like this: "If you repeat a lie often enough, then you are probably a Republican." Exhibit #1, phony chain e-mails. Republicans love to use phony chain e-mails to spread their lies:

Nonpartisan debunkers such as FactCheck.org, Snopes.com, PolitiFact.com, Emery and The Washington Post’s Fact Checker have been chasing down these tales and dousing them like three-alarm fires for years. (There’s even a chain e-mail that paints Snopes as a liberal cover-up for the White House.) It’s often difficult for these myth-busters to say with certainty where a falsehood began. But the numbers are clear.

Of the 79 chain e-mails about national politics deemed false by PolitiFact since 2007, only four were aimed at Republicans. Almost all of the rest concern Obama or other Democrats. The claims range from daffy (the White House renaming Christmas trees as “holiday trees”) to serious (the health-care law granting all illegal immigrants free care).

Read the the rest of this article at The Washington Post.

These days, to be a Republican, you have to be rich, a liar, or very gullible.

Boehner allied lobbying firm offers to smear Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-26T07:19:00.001-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Brian Moran lies to FCDC

2011-11-23T18:52:00.003-05:00

Ben Tribbett points out the falsehoods spread by Brian Moran at the latest Fairfax County Democratic Committee Meeting. Moran flat out lied to the FCDC about candidate recruitment:

In Fairfax, Moran allowed two state legislative candidates to run without Democratic opposition. Tim Hugo would be very difficult to defeat in his district, but Moran also allowed Tom Rust to run without Democratic opposition. Rust's district was carried byBarack Obama, Mark Warner, Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon in 2008/2009 and performed 14 points better in margin that the state for Creigh Deeds. Local Democratic turncoatStevens Miller even got 46% here in 2009 versus Rust.
I'm not surprised that Moran lied to FCDC to try to save his own hide- but I am surprised that he did so in such a stupid way. Why would you claim in a county with a heavily Democratic seat that went uncontested that only strong GOP seats were left unopposed? Is Moran this stupid, or just so arrogant that he thought no one in the crowd noticed?

Read the complete story at Not Larry Sabato.

If DPVA wants to begin to rebuild, it will rid itself of Moran and much of the paid staff at RCDC. I doubt very much that we will see any real change in the near future.

Romney will try to lie himself into nomination and presidency

2011-11-23T18:35:00.001-05:00

The Romney campaign has shamelessly declared its intention to lie itself into the Republican nomination and the U.S. Presidency.

Corrupt GOP Congressman tries to shout down citizen

2011-11-23T18:31:00.000-05:00

Don Young (R) shows his ignorance--Young is owned by corporate interests.

Robertson: Is Mac and Cheese a "Black Thing"?

2011-11-23T18:23:00.001-05:00

What the h . . . ?"

Robert Reich: "The REAL Public Nuisance"

2011-11-23T15:04:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney In His Own Words (And By His Own Standard)

2011-11-23T06:56:00.000-05:00

Required Reading: "How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich"

2011-11-22T21:37:00.002-05:00

This week's must read is from Rolling Stone magazine: Tim Dickinson's "How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich."

Today's Republican Party may revere Reagan as the patron saint of low taxation. But the party of Reagan – which understood that higher taxes on the rich are sometimes required to cure ruinous deficits – is dead and gone. Instead, the modern GOP has undergone a radical transformation, reorganizing itself around a grotesque proposition: that the wealthy should grow wealthier still, whatever the consequences for the rest of us.

Modern-day Republicans have become, quite simply, the Party of the One Percent – the Party of the Rich.

"The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job in our democracy, which is to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility," says David Stockman, who served as budget director under Reagan. "They're on an anti-tax jihad – one that benefits the prosperous classes."

Read the complete story at Rolling Stone.

Why Occupy Richmond failed

2011-11-12T20:05:00.004-05:00

General Assembly in Kanawha Plaza

Four weeks ago tonight the Occupy Richmond movement decided to occupy Kanawha Plaza in downtown Richmond. It seems much longer. Thirteen days ago, the occupation came to a sudden end when the Richmond Police Department raided the Occupy Richmond encampment and unceremoniously bulldozed their tents and other supplies before loading them into dump trucks and carting them away. Tonight Kanawha Plaza stands empty except for one or two homeless people who have returned to the park.

Meeting Under the Trees

After the raid I was curious as to what the "occupiers" would do, whether they would try to return or what their next step would be. Indeed, I had been following the occupation movement since early in October, attending their meetings and listening, though not participating. I was curious--as a fellow political organizer-- about their tactics and message. As I watched them try to organize and decide where they would occupy I found myself sympathetic to their desire to protest the corporate takeover of government, but skeptical about their methods of organization.

Their meetings were a bit like watching grass grow. Hours would pass as they talked the most minor point to death. It took them more than a week to decide to camp in Kanawha Plaza, in spite of the fact that Kanawha was the most obvious place in Richmond to attempt such a demonstration. This inability to make key decisions within a reasonable amount of time was one of the factors that would ultimately doom the group's occupation of Kanawha Plaza.

The Occupy Richmond Camp

The other factor was the presence within the group of certain individuals who exhibited signs of mental illness, including paranoia and various cognitive disorders. Although these people were only a tiny fraction of those involved with Occupy Richmond, they would exercise a disproportionate influence on its fate. Early in the occupation of Kanawha Plaza there were two really striking things going on: 1) an almost total lack of police interest in the encampment; and 2) a constant whisper campaign encouraging the belief that the police were going to sweep down on Kanawha Plaza at any moment and violently suppress the demonstration.

But for more than two weeks the police did not come. Early on the morning of October 31, 2011, the Richmond Police finally broke up the encampment in decisive fashion after two weeks of hesitation. What drove Mayor Dwight Jones' decision to finally order the clearance of the park?

A Sign of the Times

Ultimately Occupy Richmond failed because it was unable to act as quickly as its most paranoid and delusional hangers-on were able to act. What Occupy Richmond needed was to obtain permission to continue to camp in Kanawha Plaza, in spite of a city ordinance that forbade camping in Richmond City parks. Occupy Richmond had a decent chance of obtaining such permission if it had only phrased its request properly and put it to Richmond City Council in a respectful way. But Occupy Richmond seemed unable to reach a decision to act, unable to appoint a spokesperson until it was too late.

Before Occupy Richmond could act, others acted for them. One delusional individual took it upon himself to contact the Richmond Police, including senior police officers, and began to issue "orders" to the police, declaring himself their superior by virtue of his citizenship and generally holding himself out to the police as the group's spokesperson. On Monday, October 24, 2011, Richmond City Council met and one of the issues they discussed was what the city should do about the Occupy Richmond encampment. I watched that meeting on local access television and I was surprised to see a second person who appeared to be mentally ill denouncing city council on behalf of Occupy Richmond. No other genuine representative of Occupy Richmond attended the meeting, so City Council drew its conclusions about the group largely based on the words and actions of a single individual who was not authorized to speak on their behalf.

The Empty Park

While Occupy Richmond dithered, these individuals spoke on its behalf and alienated the Richmond Police Department and City Council. The results were predictable. Councilman Marty Jewell offered a poorly conceived and written resolution purporting to allow the encampment to continue, but the resolution was laden with a lot of unnecessary rhetoric that would have endorsed Occupy Richmond, rather than merely permitting it. If they had been approached properly, City Council might have allowed Occupy Richmond to continue, but they were nowhere near being willing to endorse it, as Marty Jewell's resolution would have required them to do. Jewell's resolution failed and was withdrawn by its author.

The Empty Fountain

Another week would pass before the Richmond Police carried out a carefully planned and coordinated raid on Occupy Richmond at 1:00 am on October 31, 2011, but the protesters' failure to communicate effectively with local government--coupled with their failure to prevent others from speaking for them--effectively doomed the Kanawha Plaza encampment.

Detritus from Occupy Richmond

Since the raid, Occupy Richmond has degenerated into a disorganized remnant. When the Occupy Richmond movement began it seemed to be dedicated to the larger goal of protesting corporate influence on government, particularly the federal government. Instead, it has become bogged down in a squabble with local government over the "right" to camp in city parks.

Occupy Richmond had a chance to gain permission to camp in the city's parks, but they blew it and they need to accept that fact. Richmond isn't New York City: the laws are different here. Kanawha Plaza is not Zuccotti Park. New York City has about eight million people--Metro Richmond, including the counties immediately bordering it, has about one million. New York City is the city that never sleeps; Richmond goes to sleep about 10:00 pm on school nights. That's just reality.

Instead of slavishly trying to imitate Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Richmond needs to get creative and find a way of protesting that matches the laws and culture of Richmond, Virginia. Occupy Wall Street has an encampment. If Occupy Richmond wants to continue it needs to accept that it will have to be more mobile. New Yorkers can take the subway to Occupy Wall Street; Occupy Richmond needs to recognize that it may need to commute, not camp.

Can Occupy Richmond reinvent itself and effectively promote the message of the 99%? That remains to be seen, but if they want to move forward they need to let go of the "right" to camp and refocus their message on opposing the corporate takeover of government.

Local Democrats Taylor and Nelson win in Henrico!

2011-11-08T22:12:00.002-05:00

Two gutsy Henrico Democrats have delivered victory to the Democratic Party tonight. Shannon Taylor will be the next Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney and Tyrone Nelson will be putting Varina first as the Varina District's next County Supervisor!

The Henrico County "Dream Team" has swept every race they contested!

Polls are closed and results are coming in now

2011-11-08T19:30:00.004-05:00

Well, it was a beautiful day for off-year General Assembly and Local elections. I voted early this morning in Richmond's 6th ward where two out of three races (McEachin and McClellan) were uncontested.

The polls are closed and results are starting to come in. Tonight I'll be watching Henrico County closely. This year I worked on two local races for Democrats Shannon Taylor and Tyrone Nelson. Taylor is in a three way race for Commonwealth's Attorney while Nelson is in a three way race for Varina District Supervisor.

Stay tuned as we watch tonight's results unfold!

8:14 pm:

Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney

24 precincts of 92 reporting
Geary (R) 17.49%
Taylor (D) 45.80%
Janis (I) 36.27%

Varina District Supervisor

7 precincts of 19 reporting
Donati (R) 38.96%
Nelson (D) 48.89%
Haller (I) 11.27%

Get out and vote!

2011-11-08T07:22:00.003-05:00

I'm off to cast my vote and then I'm heading out to my day job. Call your friends and family, get the message out: vote!

Hard hitting ad takes on Mitt Romney

2011-11-06T07:26:00.001-05:00

A really crushing attack ad previews what we have to look forward to next year.

New Patricia Phillips mailer leaked

2011-11-05T21:26:00.003-04:00

Republican Patricia Phillips continues to tout her support for veterans--here's the latest effort from her crackerjack campaign literature squad.

Republican candidate demands more respect for Soviet Russian veterans!

2011-11-05T15:52:00.002-04:00

Republican Patricia Phillips feels like Soviet Russian military veterans don't get the respect they deserve.

Shannon Taylor files ethics complaint with Virginia Bar Association over Bill Janis' false attacks

2011-11-03T14:05:00.001-04:00

Lawyers are supposed to tell the truth in their professional lives, but are the rules different when a lawyer runs for political office? Bill Janis is a licensed Virginia attorney running for Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney--a position that involves supervises all of Henrico's criminal prosecutors.

Convincing voters that he is more qualified than his competitors is a stretch because he has no experience as a prosecutor whatsoever: Janis has never prosecuted anyone. One of Janis' competitors--Shannon Taylor--is an extremely experienced prosecutor with over twelve years of experience. Janis apparently felt that he couldn't match Taylor's experience and so he determined to defame her with an accusation he knew to be false when he made it.

Is it okay for a lawyer to lie in the course of a political campaign, especially when they are running for a postion that involves administering the law?

Shannon Taylor thinks Bill Janis has crossed the line and has committed unethical behavior. She has filed a complaint with the Virginia Bar Association. From the Taylor for CA Campaign:

Taylor Files Bar Complaint About
Janis’ Egregious Misrepresentation

Henrico –Shannon Taylor, Democratic candidate for Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney, today reported that she has filed a Virginia Bar Complaint, under the “Rules of Professional Conduct”, Rule 8.4, about an attorney misrepresenting another lawyer’s behavior in an unethical way in regard to Bill Janis. Ms Taylor said, “Under Rule 8.3a, as an attorney following the Professional Guidelines, I am reporting this violation. In his political attack mailers, Mr. Janis is in violation of rule 8.4 which states that it is an abuse of the Rules of Professional Conduct to accuse a fellow attorney of unethical behavior when the accuser knows it to be false.

“I have spoken with the Virginia State Bar and I have filed the complaint online as is the process.

“Mr. Janis should be well aware of the judicial opinion that absolved me of any ethical conflict whatsoever. However, if he is so ignorant that he was not aware and did not do the elementary research to read the opinion, I informed him publicly last week. Since that time, he has continued to promulgate the same outrageous misrepresentation of the truth and therefore, he continues to be in flagrant violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

“An attorney who cannot follow his own professions’ ethical guidelines is not suited to be Commonwealth’s Attorney, the person charged with the safety and security of a locality and the highest attorney within the County. Instead, Mr. Janis has shown himself to be in willful defiance of basic ethical standards and totally unqualified for the position.

“The judge who wrote this ruling stating clearly that I had no ethical conflict, is a renowned expert on ethical conduct, having been a drafter of the very Rules of professional Conduct by which lawyers are supposed to comply.

“I am confident the Virginia State Bar will rule appropriately and will recognize the serious and complete ethical violation of Rule 8.4 that Mr. Janis has incurred. I eagerly await their ruling.

“Mr. Janis may feel that the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern attorneys can be ignored in a political campaign, but he is wrong. It is high time that those who are subject to slanderous attacks that sully their professional reputations speak up and that is why I feel compelled to file this complaint. Just because it is a political campaign does not give anyone the right to violate rules and attempt to destroy earned reputations.

Mr. Janis, I put you and anyone else on notice. I will not stand by and have my years of hard work and well-earned reputation destroyed by your political machinations.

###

Mayor Dwight Jones suppresses Occupy Richmond protest

2011-10-31T08:12:00.004-04:00

Last night at 1:00 am while I was asleep just a few blocks away, Mayor Dwight Jones had the Richmond Police Department raid the encampment of Occupy Richmond in Kanawha Plaza. Happily there was no violence or injuries reported. Police asked the protesters to leave and most did. A handful allowed themselves to be arrested as a gesture of civil disobedience.

It's hard to say what the long term effects of Occupy Richmond will be. Will they reorganize and find a way to continue their protest? Will they become politically active? Or will they simply walk away, more alienated from society than ever?

To me, Jones' action was a political blunder. The protesters were peaceful and orderly throughout their protest. They harmed no one and provided a safety valve, allowing disaffected people to vent their frustrations in a peaceful way. Carrying out the raid in the middle of the night and using bulldozers to destroy the campers' possessions was heavy-handed and extreme to say the very least. Richmond is a liberal city, and Jones may have unnecessarily offended a part of his base.

You can read about the raid at Occupy Richmond's website.

Must Read: "What's wrong with Washington?: Eric Cantor"

2011-10-31T06:53:00.003-04:00

This letter to the editor nails it: Eric Cantor is at the root of Washington, DC's failures.

Our credit downgrade to AA+: While Obama and some Republican leaders sought a “grand bargain” to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion and place our country on a fiscally sustainable path, Cantor undermined the bipartisan negotiations by refusing to compromise on his extreme anti-tax ideology. His willingness to risk national default for partisan gain proved frightening; Standard & Poor’s cited political dysfunction as a primary reason for our credit downgrade.

Interfering with disaster aid: When tornadoes, floods and hurricanes devastated communities across the country, Cantor tried to make emergency assistance contingent on cuts elsewhere in the budget. It says something about Cantor’s priorities when families that have lost their homes and livelihoods must wait for assistance until House Republicans have finished their Washington-style bickering.

Comments about Occupy Wall Street: Cantor recently referred to the movement as “growing mobs” and accused its supporters of “pitting Americans against Americans.” As a Tea Party favorite who ought to understand grassroots activism, it is particularly disappointing that Cantor would respond to legitimate concerns about economic inequality in this country with little more than name-calling and allegations of class warfare.

Ties to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff: Cantor accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Abramoff and his affiliates. In 2006, after the scope of Abramoff’s corruption became public (including his seeming efforts to influence public officials with campaign contributions, overseas golf trips and expensive gifts), Cantor gave about $10,000 of Abramoff-related money to charity.

Taxpayer-funded self-promotion: Cantor is producing a series of new flashy videos, known as “Snapshot of the Leader,” for his government website. While the videos are certainly artsy, they offer nothing in the way of substantive policy information that would further democratic discourse. For someone bent on cutting programs to reduce government spending, this video series would seem like a good place to start.

On second thought, this letter only scrapes the surface. As bad as this letter makes him sound, the real Eric Cantor is far worse.

Republicans' Hypocrisy and the Spread of "Politics Of Division"

2011-10-30T16:35:00.002-04:00

The truth about the politics of division.

Shannon Taylor calls out Bill Janis for mistatements

2011-10-29T19:01:00.004-04:00

The Taylor for CA Campaign is hammering Bill Janis for his dishonest attacks.

Taylor Demands Retraction and Apology
for Egregious Misrepresentation by Janis;
Says Janis Has Shown Himself to be
Remarkably Ignorant of the Law or Incredibly Dishonest

Henrico – Shannon Taylor, Democratic candidate for Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney, today demanded that Bill Janis retract and apologize for his egregious misrepresentation on his campaign's recent attack mailer . “I was not involved as Mr. Janis states, and there is a US District Court opinion, a matter of public record, that shows I was not involved."

"I can only draw one of two conclusions from Mr. Janis' gross mischaracterization to the citizens of Henrico . Either he intentionally tried to mislead the voters in a despicably dishonest manner to further his political career, or Mr. Janis is so ignorant and so ill-prepared that he didn’t do the very basic research that one could expect of even a first year law student - to research the material and see that this issue was adjudicated and I was found to not be involved. This kind of ignorance and sloppiness is unacceptable for any law student, let alone attorneys and certainly not acceptable for someone who aspires to be Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney, a position that is critical to the safety and security of our community.

“Finding this public record is not difficult. For those of you who are not first year law students, there are two very simple methods. Either call the appropriate court clerk’s office and ask or use a lawyer’s Pacer account and do beginner research. This opinion is easily accessible, easily obtained and easily read. It is shocking that Mr. Janis does not know this most basic procedure.

“However, perhaps worse, is that Mr. Janis did know but chose to ignore the US Court opinion that completely demonstrated my lack of involvement in the case. That level of cynicism, of willingness to conceal the truth from the voters, to complete abdicate any responsibility for the truth or honesty, is totally unacceptable.

“This is the lowest level of politics and exactly what, legitimately, makes the voters disgusted by the political process. Mr. Janis has shown himself to be remarkably ignorant or incredibly dishonest. Either way, I demand an apology and a retraction.

“The voters of Henrico deserve better than this win-at-all-cost approach to acquiring political power. They have seen more than enough character assassination and political gamesmanship over the past several months. They deserve a Commonwealth’s Attorney who can and will do the research and a Commonwealth’s Attorney who will deal honestly and ethically with them. Would you want someone making decisions on prosecuting homicides or rapes who can’t even do first year legal research or chooses not to?”

###

David Bernard: principled environmentalist for Virginia's Senate

2011-10-27T18:37:00.005-04:00

If you drive down Monument Avenue in the next few weeks you may notice a large sign promoting the candidacy of David Bernard for the 10th District seat in the Virginia State Senate. David Bernard has been waging a gutsy campaign against incumbent Senator John Watkins. David Bernard is a principled environmentalist fighting to protect Virginia's rivers against the many threats they face, not least of which is contamination from uranium mining which many Republicans favor approving.

Learn more about David Bernard for Senate by visiting his website.

Understanding how Conservatives lie

2011-10-26T20:38:00.002-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A pretty amazing example of how conservatives use lies and fake photos to try and change public policy.

Occupy Richmond completes its first week

2011-10-23T08:49:00.004-04:00

Occupy Richmond, my neighbors up the street in Kanawha Plaza, have completed their first week of occupation and protest. If you are interested in helping, visiting, or donating to Occupy Richmond, then visit their homepage and check out their daily updates.