The latest in a long line of far-right-wing extremists to endorse 10th CD Republican candidate Barbara Comstock is this guy - John Bolton. A few highlights from Bolton's illustrious career include:
*Bolton "supported the Vietnam War but enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard to avoid being sent overseas, and consequently did not serve in Vietnam. He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book 'I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.'"
*"He was a 'protege' of conservative North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms." Note that Helms was also a vicious homophobe and racist.
*Bolton "was also involved in the Iran-Contra affair and shepherding the judicial nomination process for Antonin Scalia."
*Bolton "pushed for reduced funding for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program to halt the proliferation of nuclear materials."
*"Bolton is alleged by Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman to have played a role in encouraging the inclusion of statement that British Intelligence had determined Iraq attempted to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address."
*Bolton "caused a controversy on December 17, 2012 when he claimed on Greta Van Susteren's show on Fox News that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faked a concussion to avoid testifying before Congress regarding the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Bolton stated 'When you don't want to go to a meeting or conference or an event you have a 'diplomatic illness.'"
*"Bolton has long spoken in favor of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK), "an armed Islamic group with Marxist leanings"which has long been on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations."
*Bolton recently asserted that President Obama "has done nothing to avenge Chris Stevens's death" and claiming that Benghazi represented the "paradigm of the Obama doctrine's failure."
In short, John Bolton's a warmonger, a right-wing extremist, and basically a nutjob. Which makes him typical of several Barbara Comstock endorsers, including our old friend, right-wing hate radio host Mark Levin; Brent Bozell (who called President Obama "a skinny ghetto crackhead"); etc. The fact that Comstock's proud of Bolton's endorsement speaks volumes...
With this announcement (see image to the right; click to embiggen), I can now cross one 8th CD Democratic candidate (Bruce Shuttleworth) off my list for possible consideration. Why? Try a few of these on for size.
*Dennis Kucinich is a 9/11 "truther, which is about as insane and extreme as you can get in this country. See this video where Kucinich asks the audience, "how many of you believe the whole story about 9/11 has not been told? See, this is something that has to be taken seriously..." WTF?And here's crazy Kucinich yet again feeding this lunacy: "Do we see a pattern here? 9/11? Katrina? They knew something was going to happen and they didn't act." As if all that's not bad enough, Kucinich also was the ONLY member of Congress to "vote against a symbolic resolution to recognize September 11 as a day of remembrance, extend sympathies to those who lost their lives and their families and honor emergency workers and the U.S. armed forces." That's just totally FUBAR -- unpatriotic and appalling, among other adjective I could come up with. At the minimum, Kucinich owes the 9/11 families, and the country, an apology for his disgusting behavior. But of course he won't, because he's a conspiracy theory nutjob.
*Want more Kucinich nuttiness? How about his fawning praise for Venezuela's (now deceased) left-wing dictator Hugo Chavez? Back in 2004, Kucinich wrote: "I congratulate President Hugo Chavez on his decisive victory. President Chavez's victory is a victory for the people of Venezuela and for the democratic process. Today's results demonstrate the people of Venezuela's confidence in President Chavez and his presidency. I will work to ensure that this Administration recognizes that the people of Venezuela have spoken, and that the United States government now must show its support for the people of Venezuela and President Chavez." Kucinich added in a letter to his pal Chavez:
The world knows that you are achieving something remarkable in Venezuela: you are investing your country's vast oil wealth in ways that benefit everyone, not just small minority of well-connected elites. Over the last year your government's literacy campaign taught one million Venezuelans to read. And today, millions of others are benefiting from the governments investment in job training, small businesses and health care.
[...]
We are committed to doing what we can, as U.S. citizens, to heal those relationships and encourage Congress and the White House to see Venezuela not only as a model democracy but also as a model of how a country's oil wealth can be used to benefit all of its people.
Hahahahahaha. Seriously?!? A "model democracy?" I mean, it is simply beyond words how f'ed up this is. I don't even know where to start...
*Oh, and Kucinich also apologized for then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's indendiary anti-Israel rhetoric "by insisting that Iran's anti-Zionist leader is not seeking to exterminate Israel." Even worse, Kucinich "and Texas Republican Ron Paul -- also a presidential aspirant -- were the only House members to vote against a June 20 resolution condemning the Iranian leader and asking the U.N. Security Council to take up charges alleging violations of genocide conventions."
The 2014 Virginia legislative session wrapped up this weekend, sort of. Legislators still have to return to work out a budget deal, and in six weeks they will be back again to consider any bills vetoed or amended by the governor. But it's still a good time to survey the battlefield.
Advocates of enlightened energy policy march into session every January bright-eyed and optimistic, only to become mired in the slough of despond. We watch the best bills die, while bills we thought too backward to survive the light of day flourish like an invasive species. Yet even in Virginia, the past few years have produced glimmers of hope that suggest a slowly shifting mindset among legislators.
There is, for example, a growing movement in favor of solar energy that is as strong on the Republican right as it is on the Democratic left. They haven't quite formed a Solar Caucus yet, but you might say we are beginning to see a Solar Consensus.
Last year, after a long battle, this consensus produced a law specifically allowing some third-party-owned solar and wind projects, a critical step for nonprofits to install solar economically. This year, the legislature removed the second major hurdle to these projects, local "machinery and tools" taxes on solar equipment that would have made third-party-owned projects impossible in most Virginia jurisdictions. Assuming the Governor signs, SB 418 and HB 1239 take effect January 1, 2015.
In a near-rerun of two years ago, Senator Chap Petersen's SB 222, nullifying homeowner bans on solar, passed the House and Senate. Back then Governor McDonnell surprised us all by vetoing similar legislation, an action not expected from Governor McAuliffe.
This past Saturday, the regularly-scheduled Virginia General Assembly session ended, without a budget and with nary a significant accomplishment to its name. Sure, Virginia Senate Democrats put out a cheery press release - significantly off message, if you ask me - "celebrat{ing} legislative accomplishments," but you'd be hard pressed to find many. Let's go through the panoply of (mostly) #FAIL.
Education Believe it or not, two decent - albeit relatively small-bore - bills (SB 270 and SB 324) by Senator John Miller (D) actually passed both the Senate and House. The General Assembly also passed the unwise "Sea of Japan" bill. The big failure, of course, was that thanks to Republicans' refusal to compromise on Medicaid expansion, we have no budget. That means we do not have, as the Virginia Education Association explained: "Medicaid Expansion {which} will free up $1.3 billion dollars in General Fund dollars over the next 7 years, some of which can be used for funding our schools." We also don't have increased compensation for teachers. Nor do we have State health plan; participation by local school divisions, which "could save millions of dollars in the years ahead," savings which "could be used to provide needed school funding." Thanks a lot Republicans - for nothing! #GOPFAIL
Elections Almost complete failure on this front. For instance, SB 158 ("Provides for a statewide referendum on the question of whether a bipartisan advisory commission should be created to propose redistricting plans for the House of Delegates, state Senate, and congressional districts.") passed the Democratic-controlled Senate but was killed in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. Same deal with SB 16 ("Provides that persons age 65 or older on the day of an election for which an absentee ballot is requested are entitled to vote absentee."). Meanwhile, there's no sign of any move to restore ex-felons' right to vote (e.g., Greg Habeeb's HB 7 got nowhere). Nor is there any sign of ditching ridiculous/unnecessary voter ID legislation (e.g., HB 564 was killed in the Republican-controlled House, as was HB 83). Lame.
Environment Two decent bills - hybrid tax repeal and some needed fixes to Virginia's fatally-flawed Renewable Portfolio Standard actually passed. Other than that...nada, basically. For instance, there are no signs of any serious effort to make Virginia the "energy capital of the East Coast" by jump-starting a clean energy revolution in this state, as is happening in so many other states. As usual, as evidenced with this bill, Dominion "Global Warming Starts Here" Power continues to rule the roost in Richmond, to all our detriment. There was also no movement to institute policies to encourage distributed energy, such as net metering, or to incentivize energy efficiency (e.g., via "decoupling"), etc, etc. Let alone any serious effort to put a price on carbon emissions or to deal with global warming and other "externalities" from dirty energy (e.g., mountaintop removal coal mining). We could go on all day here, but the bottom line is that there are a gazillion things that need to be done, yet essentially none of them got done this year. Or any year. And it's overwhelmingly the fault of Republicans, plus a few coal-bought-and-paid-for Democrats. #massivefail
Ethics If any year was the the year to enact serious ethics reform in Virginia, 2014 was it, following Bob McDonnell's (and Ken Cuccinelli's) recent scandals and ethical "issues." Yet what did we get instead? A complete joke of a bill that was "riddled with loopholes and {which} softens a penalty for lying in disclosures". Great job, huh? And the cesspool of corruption in Richmond continues on its merry way...#FAIL
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, March 10. As for the image, note that even the most rabid conservatives - young ones, particularly - appear to support legalization of marijuana. The times they are a changin'!
While Virginia exports of agricultural and forestry products approaching $3 billion last year is impressive, there is a downside. To a large extent, it is a function of geography and climate. Virginia has not positioned itself to take advantage of the bountiful harvest. Much more impressive would be sustainable jobs.
Bob McDonnell didn't make this happen under his watch. The convergence of conditions, largely out of human hands, did. And though you can claim that there is some correlation between this outcome and jobs, any additional employment is at the margin and highly susceptible to the vagaries of weather. So this is a moment when another man who told us he had a jobs plan, Governor McAuliffe, can step forward to show the world how to turn this advantage into something that can shield the state in the lean years.
As long as these products are shipped off to other places to be processed, ignoring the potential benefit resulting from jobs that are immune to weather, this portion of the economy will remain as vulnerable as any backwater that is content with shipping off raw materials for processing until they are exhausted. And then what?
It is the transformation of raw materials that creates wealth. In Virginia some of this does occur; sometimes due to force of circumstance. Hams keep and ship over long distances better than pigs, for instance. The grapes that we harvest are generally economical to grow because they reap a premium when transformed into wine. But we should not be satisfied when so much of the raw agricultural and forestry production in Virginia goes off to other lands where labor is rewarded for the potential that is unlocked there.
Production of end-products is not dependent upon Virginia agricultural conditions. If Virginia has a bad harvest as a result of drought or pestilence or whatever, there's always someplace else to find raw materials. If transformation of raw materials happens to be in Virginia, then the port continues to operate (and is potentially busier with the import of materials) and end product continues to be produced and sold. We are positioned to assist the sectors which are suffering misfortune to sustain them for the future good years.
So let's learn from this moment. We should all look forward to initiatives coming out of the McAuliffe administration that will leverage our great agricultural and forestry fortune. It certainly didn't happen under the other jobs governor.
I had a chance to chat this morning with Catherine Read, potential candidate for Democratic Party of Virginia Chair. Prior to our discussion, I had listened to Catherine's radio interview on WRIR Radio in Richmond, which is what's referenced in my first comment. Catherine Read felt that our conversation might work well, with a bit of editing, on Blue Virginia as an "interview." I agreed, as it lays out a number of ideas for reforming and building DPVA which Catherine and I strongly agree about. Enjoy!
Lowell: Nice job with Paul Goldman, etc. on WRIR radio.
Catherine: Thanks Lowell. For me, this goes beyond the narrow issue of a single nominee. I would like to keep the party intact and move forward. I was saying to Tom {Greeson} last night there should be a resolution presented at the meeting on Saturday that states the commitment of the DPVA Chair to the core values of the party. And it should apply to EVERY Chair - not just this one. The position should have certain obligations that go with it - regardless of the person holding it. Perhaps with the commitments to the Party's core values spelled out, we won't have this issue in the future. It's just a wild and crazy thought, and I'm not the only one suggesting that.
Lowell: Good idea. You said, "I would like to keep the party intact and move forward." I'm more concerned about making the party more effective. As you pointed out in the WRIR interview, we picked up a net of ZERO seats in the House this past year despite sweeping all three statewide offices. What can be done to fix that situation?
Catherine: I'm passionate on this subject. Doing more of what's not working is not the answer. We are actually focusing too much time and energy on a secondary issue. Namely: WHO is Chair is actually secondary to the fact that he or she will be sitting at the head of an organization that needs to evaluate if it is accomplishing what it was designed to do. I wish there was as much interest across the Commonwealth in figuring out a better way of organizing the state party as there has been in blocking the Jones nomination.
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, March 9. Oh, and that image helps explain why I stopped watching or listening to the Sunday talk shows several years ago. All (white male) Republicans all the time.
It could have been about mental health or affordable care, but this General Assembly session accomplished favors for the former Governor and itself. John L. Brownlee must be silently gloating. His client will benefit from what turns out is the real Virginia Way. To heck with becoming Attorney General.
What the General Assembly accomplished was to provide tacit approval of almost every unethical act Bob McDonnell, or any one of themselves, committed, ever. Mr. Brownlee, a former U.S. attorney, is a more than competent lawyer and he appreciates that the omission of specific restrictions from the "ethics bill" allows him to argue that those activities are condoned.
Some may not remember, but Bob McDonnell's attorney aspired to statewide office. He was cut off at the knees by Ken Cuccinelli, a centrist by comparison. Turns out it is better to have lost and lived to join a very good law firm than to have won and become such a pariah that the only way to earn a living is to bleed the paranoid. It's unfortunate that we'll never know if Brownlee had the stuff to tango with Jonnie Williams. What we do know is that his defense of McDonnell will be that nothing McDonnell did was unethical, at least anything he is charged with, or it would have been included in the ethics bill passed by legislators with the benefit of hindsight.
What is even more unfortunate is that politicians that take advantage of the Virginia Way to fatten their wallets (or purchase personal automobiles with campaign contributions) will continue to thrive. Frankly, there's no luxury like that of candidates willing to subsidize their lifestyle with campaign funds that the state of Virginia treats as their own. And if elected to office, why hire a staff when no one can be more valuable on your staff than yourself? Where's any reasonable standard for behavior, path for remedy, or process to enforce/punish?
So, bravo General Assembly, you may have made John L. Brownlee's case winnable.
Superb statement by Del. Rob Krupicka (D-Alexandria).
Delegate Krupicka statement on nomination of Dwight Jones Delegate Krupicka issues statement on Governor's nomination of Mayor Jones for DPVA Chair
I do not support the statement of the House Democratic Caucus on the nomination of Dwight Jones for chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia.
The battles for equality and human rights in our time have been fought over years and decades. The specific objectives of those battles change and evolve, as we get closer to the ultimate ideal of freedom and equality that we seek. Accordingly, the goals of LGBT equality have moved as our country has moved closer to true equality for all. We are at the threshold of accomplishing the goal of marriage equality; a goal that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Every Statewide office holder, countless activists, community leaders, and now an emerging majority of our citizenry have pushed, suffered and strived for this goal.
Mayor Jones has a strong and impressive record of support on civil rights and a wide range of issues of benefit to the LGBT community. His apparent unwillingness to embrace marriage equality, however, at a time when that goal is at the forefront of this struggle, casts a shadow over these efforts. Disregard or dismissal of the importance of marriage equality to the overall fight for LGBT equality calls into question the commitment our party has to the goal of equality.
The Mayor is a good, fair person, without bias and his impressive record of service on countless issues speaks loudly. I hope and pray that his evolution on the question of marriage equality is near. I encourage him to engage with faith and other leaders in the LGBT community.
Marriage equality does not force one faith or another to endorse a marriage. What it does though, in the true spirit of religious freedom, is allow faith and non-faith communities to come to their own conclusions and to practice their own beliefs.
For those of us waiting at the threshold of marriage equality, there is always room for others to join us. We need leaders committed to maintaining and building support for this issue.
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, March 8. Also, check out the weekly address by President Obama, in which he "reiterates his call for Congress to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10."
Even by E.W. Jackson's low, low standards, his latest ravings are seriously unhinged. Jackson's key points:
*LGBT Americans standing up for their equal rights under our Constitution are actually, in Jackson's view, the ones who are the persecutors and even bigots, making it "a liability to be a Bible-believing Christian in America."
*Homosexuality is wrong, in Jackson's learned view, because it says so in the Bible. Of course, Jackson fails to mention the gazillion things in the Bible that we would never even think of adhering to today, like the 76 things banned in Leviticus (e.g., eating fat or shellfish or pork, going to church within 33 days after giving birth to a boy or 66 days after giving birth to a girl, mixing fabrics in clothing, sleeping with another man's slave - yes there was lots of slavery in the Bible's time, trimming your beard, selling land permanently...).
*Being told you can't discriminate against people you don't like raises the questions: "Is recognition of legitimate First Amendment interests a thing of the past? Is the Providence of God in which our Founding Fathers so deeply believed to be cast on the ash heap of history?"
*"{H}omosexual behavior cannot be compared with the color of one's skin, no matter how vigorously elites try to conflate them." Actually, the scientific evidence indicates that homosexuality has a genetic basis, just as the color of one's skin does.
*"{I}n spite of liberals and homosexual activists slanderously likening our stand to slavery and Jim Crow, we will continue to love them and, at the same time, oppose their efforts to make us bow to same-sex marriage." Ee gads, now E.W.'s really getting worked into a fine lather.
*In conclusion: "In the past, standing up for the truth of God's word has cost Christians their jobs, businesses, reputations and even their lives. It may come to that again, but we will never be silent, and we will not bow." That's right, the "rising tide of homosexual intolerance" - as the headline of Jackson's op-ed reads - could ultimately cost Christians their lives.
And yes, this lunatic really WAS nominated by Virginia Republicans to be their candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Seriously, they really did that. Remind me again, why does anybody take this party in any way seriously?
Read more at Right Wing Watch, and recall that Iran-Contra Scandal convicted felon Oliver North last year endorsed Frank Luntz protege Pete Snyder for Lieutenant Governor. Let's keep that in mind come 2017, if/when Snyder runs for LG or Governor...
It must be tough being an elected Virginia Democrat; with Governor McAuliffe leaning on you to support his choice for the Virginia Party Chair. No matter where you stand or how this turns out, Terry will be there when the smoke clears. There is no public option. Tough business, this.
So really, the support for Dwight Jones coming from elected officials must be severely discounted. Many of them don't have a vote in this selection or have regularly failed to attend Central Committee meetings, so there they have no say either. And at this point, after the Boyd Marcus maneuver, they cannot be certain if there would be any consequences if Jones does not become Party Chair. The vote is closer than many will acknowledge and a secret ballot provides cover for the principled stand.
"Should Jones assume the chairmanship, it will be interesting to see how Democrats finesse painting Republicans as intolerant for embracing a view their own head of the party shares." - Richmond Times Dispatch Editorial
On the face, some pretty savvy members of the General Assembly have come across as illogically rationalizing their support for Mayor Jones. Calling the objections a litmus test or saying Jones is being denigrated is about the only way you can respond when your Party's Governor has leaned in on you. Rejection of litmus tests applies more appropriately to candidates for elected office, not to the face of the party. And what does it mean when you say Jones should get a pass because the Governor is at fault for the selection? If Dwight Jones aspires to be Governor, this may be his Waterloo. His choices are not what he wants them to be. They are to announce an incredible revelation or to step away. If he becomes Party Chair, he will spend four years documenting his inability to deliver on promises. Unlike unsubstantiated claims of $40 million in capital investment, failures to fill seats in the House of Delegates and state Senate are readily evident. Bad posture for one who will want to claim effective stewardship.
For someone with a reputation in Washington as a teller of hard truths, no one tells more obvious lies than Paul Ryan. When he went on national television to accept the GOP vice presidential nomination in 2012, his speech was loaded with lies. Most bizarrely but perhaps also the most tellingly, Ryan falsely claimed to have run a very fast marathon time. Paul Ryan will lie about anything, at any time, big or small.
So when he went before the extreme conservative CPAC conference yesterday and told a second-hand tale of a child who said his free school lunch made him feel less loved than kids with a brown-bag lunch, it was no surprise that fact-checkers immediately proved it to be a brazen lie:
Here at The Fact Checker, we often deal with situations in which people misspeak. We certainly don't try to place gotcha. But this is a different order of magnitude. Anderson, in congressional testimony, represented that she spoke to this child-and then ripped the tale out of its original context. That's certainly worthy of Four Pinocchios.
But what about Ryan? Should he get a pass because he heard this from a witness before Congress? It really depends on the circumstances. In this case, he referenced the story in a major speech. The burden always falls on the speaker and we believe politicians need to check the facts in any prepared remarks.
In this case, apparently, the story was too good to check. But a simple inquiry would have determined that the person telling the story actually is an advocate for the federal programs that Ryan now claims leaves people with "a full stomach and an empty soul." So he also earns Four Pinocchios.
Ryan's disdain for the working class needs to be put to any Republican Congressional candidate who claims to be moderate: Would you vote for the Ryan Budget and its attempts to gut the social safety net and food and health assistance for low-income families? Would you let students go hungry to teach them a lesson?
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The latest in a long line of far-right-wing extremists to endorse 10th CD Republican candidate Barbara Comstock is 
This past Saturday, the regularly-scheduled Virginia General Assembly session ended, without a budget and with nary a significant accomplishment to its name. Sure, Virginia Senate Democrats 
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, March 10. As for the image, note that even the most rabid conservatives - young ones, particularly - appear to support legalization of marijuana. The times they are a changin'!
While Virginia exports of agricultural and forestry products approaching 
I had a chance to chat this morning with Catherine Read, potential candidate for Democratic Party of Virginia Chair. Prior to our discussion, I had listened to Catherine's 
It could have been about mental health or affordable care, but this General Assembly session accomplished favors for the former Governor and itself. John L. Brownlee must be silently gloating. His client will benefit from what turns out is the real Virginia Way. To heck with becoming Attorney General.
Even by E.W. Jackson's low, low standards, 
It must be tough being an elected Virginia Democrat; with Governor McAuliffe leaning on you to support his choice for the Virginia Party Chair. No matter where you stand or how this turns out, Terry will be there when the smoke clears. There is no public option. Tough business, this.
For someone with a 
