My wife April engaged recently in an act of civil disobedience in furtherance of the effort to block the Keystone XL Pipeline, largely out of concern about climate change. (In the picture, April is the one with the blue bag around her neck.)

Now April has written a piece (“Imprisonment-More Punishing than You Might Think”), which I commend to your attention, on her experience with the justice system. It is one particular aspect of her experience that I want to say something about here.  

In her piece, April mentions that she and evidently everyone else who gets arrested for anything in Washington, D. C., is required to take a drug test.  Her point is made in the context of the system’s apparent inclination to humiliate those over whom it has power: in particular, each person is required to pee into a cup, and to do so in the presence of a guard.

My point is about another dimension of the abuse of power this represents. Why should the simple fact of being caught up in the system strip an American citizen of the protection against “unreasonable search”?  

Why should a “crime” that implies nothing whatever about the likelihood of her being involved in the use of illegal drugs –like an act of civil disobedience against a corporation that had produced a fraudulent report for the government, hiding its conflict of interest — remove the usual requirement that the police authorities must have “probable cause” before the they are entitled to invade an American’s right of privacy?

(How widespread in America is this apparent policy of treating any arrest as a license to make that person’s body a battleground in our national war against drugs?)

Here’s what it looks like to me.  My guess is that two toxic and ugly things have combined here.  

One is our national obsession with the war on drugs, which has been a disaster and which reflects some of the deep follies of our national culture about how to deal with human problems –demonizing rather than understanding things, punishing rather than healing, etc.

The other is a tendency –the description of which is part of the heart of April’s piece– for the criminal justice system to abuse its power. For some people and some organizations, apparently, having people under one’s control affords temptations that should be resisted more than they are.

It is important for a society to deal with the problem of crime.  It is no less important that it be dealt with wisely and justly.

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, September 7. Also, check out President Obama’s weekly address, in which he “makes the case for limited and targeted military action to hold the Assad regime accountable for its violation of international norms prohibiting the use of chemical weapons.”

*U.S., China, And G-20 Nations Take Big Step Forward To Regulate Potent Greenhouse Gases (A bit of encouraging news on what is, by far, the #1 problem facing humanity – global warming.)

*Syria crisis: No clear winner in Russia-US G20 duel (All I know is, George W. Bush was wildly wrong when he said he looked into Putin’s soul and liked what he saw. The fact is, Putin has always been a nasty, anti-American, amoral, KGB thug, and likely always will be.)

*Obama poses question for Congress, electorate on Syria

*Syria begs question of America’s role in the world (Gotta love Republicans who like to thump their chest about America as the “exceptional nation,” but then when there’s a Democrat in the White House, they suddenly turn isolationist. Bizarre.)

*Abbott Poised to Win Power in Australia Election (Bad, bad news.)

*Cuccinelli wades in on Syria?! (Right-wing Republican columnist Jennifer Rubin rips Ken Cuccinelli and says his latest stunt – acting like the Governor of Virginia has a role in U.S. foreign policy, even after he’s fought the federal government tooth and nail for 4 years –  “reminds us why many people don’t want him as governor.”)

*Cuccinelli impersonator hired by liberal super PAC causes stir at Virgina Beach aquarium

*Mann joins McAuliffe on campaign trail in Charlottesville, again (Meanwhile, over in Cuckoo Land, Ken Cuccinelli continues to actually DENY climate science! Next up, Cuccinelli denies gravity and photosynthesis, just for the heck of it.)

*Sen. Kaine holds roundtable with veterans in Norfolk

*Despite delegate’s plea, gay Va. Guard couples will get benefits

*Even the Unskewed Polls Guy Thinks Ken Cuccinelli Might Be Losing in Virginia (Hahahaha.)

*Sarvis Optimistic in Governor’s Race Despite Disadvantages (Sarvis is an excellent choice for any Republican who can’t abide corrupt, extremist Ken Cuccinelli.)

*Virginia turns away from solitary confinement

*Va. high court rejects challenge to Alexandria waterfront plan

*NASA’s robotic explorer to moon lifts off from Virginia’s Eastern Shore

*A super Saturday followed by and an only slightly less stellar Sunday

*Nats muster only 2 hits, fall 7-0 to Miami (So…Dan Haren got off to a horrible start to the season, was placed on the disabled list, recovered nicely for a while, and now has fallen apart again. Not good.)

( – promoted by lowkell)

And the winner is . . . Dominion Power!

Okay, you knew that. Dominion had the deck so stacked in its favor for Wednesday’s Virginia offshore wind lease auction that the question everyone was asking at the end wasn’t “who won?” but “who bid against Dominion, and why did they bother?”

The answer to the first question proved to be Charlottesville-based Apex Energy, a far more experienced player in the wind industry-but one without Dominion’s lock on the Virginia power market.

There was much to criticize about the auction format and the process that led inevitably to Dominion’s win, but this historic step is still hugely exciting for offshore wind advocates. If Dominion follows through on the commitment it just made to develop offshore wind, Virginia will be a winner, too.

That “if” has a lot of people worried, given that Dominion is both a participant in the offshore wind industry and one of its loudest detractors. Company executives talk about their desire to develop the lease area, and also their opinion that offshore wind energy is way too expensive to succeed. Often they make both points in the same conversation.

Observers can’t help wondering why a company would pour money into a venture if it doesn’t believe it can sell its own product. Two possible reasons come to mind: one, because it is willing to gamble on political and market changes that will make its venture successful after all; or two, because by spending the money to win the lease, the company prevents any competitor from occupying the space. One is gutsy, the other is evil. It is possible for both to be true.

So what did Dominion win? The lease area, a 112,800-acre swath of ocean beginning more than 23 miles off Virginia Beach, is expected to support at least 2,000 megawatts of wind turbines-enough to power about 700,000 homes. It’s the second Wind Energy Area to be auctioned off in the U.S.; the first lies off Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and was auctioned off in August.

Under rules set by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the entire Virginia area was treated as one tract (a bad idea, in the view of advocates and industry members who aren’t Dominion, because it further reduced competition). Dominion won with a high bid of $1.6 million.

A formal announcement of the winning bid is expected in October, following federal antitrust review. As the winning bidder, Dominion will have five years to conduct the studies required for development of the area, with interim deadlines including submission of a Site Assessment Plan next summer.

After the five years is up, Dominion could decide not to proceed, releasing the area for BOEM to offer in a new auction. That result would be an unqualified disaster for Virginia’s ability to develop an offshore wind industry here. With states to the north proceeding, we would lose not just construction jobs, but the entire supply chain, and likely the marine services as well. Many thousands of jobs now ride on Dominion following through.

If Dominion decides to proceed, it will have to submit a Construction and Operations Plan at least six months before the expiration of the five-year site assessment period-that is, by the summer of 2018. BOEM will then evaluate the plan in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, producing an Environmental Impact Statement in 18-24 months, before construction can begin. That timeline puts construction underway no later than 2020, with electricity from the first turbines flowing by 2022.

The process doesn’t have to take as long as this; Deepwater Wind, which won the two leases in the Rhode Island/Massachusetts area last month, says construction there “could begin as early as 2017, with commercial operations by 2018.”

But Dominion had previously indicated its preference for the slowest possible approach. The company’s original idea was to build some wind turbines, think about it for a while, and five years later start all over again. Then five years later, round three. Another five years, round four. So 20 years on, if Dominion liked what it saw each time, Virginia would finally have its 2,000 megawatts.

In accordance with this plan, Dominion’s surrogate, the Virginia government, asked BOEM to make the lease term for Virginia’s Wind Energy Area 45 years instead of 25.

Other developers and the environmental community cried foul, pointing out that such an approach would mean a generation would be born, grow up and go off to college before we had all our wind turbines-hardly the way to build an industry or stave off climate change.

BOEM conceded half a loaf and agreed to a 33-year term that allows time for a phased approach, but a faster one. The agency expects the construction plan will consist of four, two-year phases, ensuring completion of the build-out in 8 years-or by 2028, to be followed by 25 years of operation.

We can only hope that BOEM’s confidence is not misplaced. Dominion employees have said candidly that right now, under current market conditions, the company has no intention of actually building offshore wind turbines.

What will it take to change its mind? The company talks about costs and the difficulty of getting approval from Virginia regulators. It seems likely that the company will follow through with construction only if some combination of events happens in the next few years:

*Continuing advancements in technology bring the cost of offshore wind energy down. Already the latest cost estimates put offshore wind power well below the sky-high figures Dominion cites.

*Congress or the EPA tackles climate change through incentives for renewable energy (or disincentives for fossil fuels);

*The Virginia government passes legislation to create a market in Virginia for offshore wind power;

*Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC), which regulates utilities, alters the way it views renewable energy.

Of these contingencies, the last might be the hardest. The SCC seems to believe the public interest is served only by providing the cheapest possible electricity available today. It shows no interest in climate change, or the pollution costs of fossil fuels, or long-term price stability, or job creation, or asthma rates. Ignoring the actual language of the Virginia Code, it declared this summer that Virginia law doesn’t require it to consider the environment in evaluating a new electric generation facility.

But the offshore wind industry is now off and running in the U.S., and the only question is whether Virginia wants to be part of it. On that answer depend thousands of jobs for our residents, an abundant source of stably-priced energy, and Virginia’s ability to move beyond fossil fuels in the face of climate change.

Virginians overwhelmingly want to move forward on offshore wind; now our challenge will be to make it happen.

( – promoted by lowkell)

Cross posted from  Doctors for America.

On October 1st, just 25 days away, millions of uninsured Americans will have the opportunity to purchase their own health insurance that will go into effect January 1, 2014.  They will be able to do so without the fear of being denied due to poor health or pre-existing conditions.  They will be able to do so without fear of paying discriminatory pricing due to their gender.  They will be able to purchase insurance without the threat of missing something in the fine print, and will obtain coverage with guaranteed benefits that will allow them to work with a doctor to improve their health.  

If you are uninsured, and want to get ready for enrollment now, start here.

We have known all of the above for quite some time, despite the doom-and-gloom messaging of opponents of the ACA.  Thanks to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), we now know “Obamacare” will be able to stand by the “Affordable” in the official title of the law, “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”  This week, KFF released the results of a 17 states + DC study to find out what insurance will cost on the newly formed exchanges.  The costs are below expectations, notably lower than the Congressional Budget Office itself predicted. 

I wish I could stop writing here, but this study only tells part of the story.  As this study is very good news for the uninsured consumer in those 18 marketplaces, we are still awaiting to hear about rates in the 33 states yet to publish the rates insurance companies will be offering.  The 18 marketplaces that have published their insurance rates are largely states that have been actively working to implement the ACA. Most have set up their own exchanges, rather than relying on the federal government to do it for them.  There is an abundance of evidence that some states are actively undermining the law, and their residents will likely pay the price. 

So, while residents of Maryland will enjoy some of the lowest cost insurance in the nation, those who live in Florida will be left without an advocate in their state capitol to fight for better prices.   

This will be a major challenge for the media, in my humble opinion.  Will they explain to readers, viewers and listeners that Floridians pay more than Marylanders thanks to the decisions of their elected state officials?  Will the statements of politicians be refuted with fact?  So far, I have not seen many accurate pieces of reporting on this issue.  It’s a shame.  Citizens ought to know what their elected officials are doing to protect them from unfair prices and corporate abuses. 

Rest assured, though, that although the rollout of every new major program has its difficulties, time will allow for corrections and improvements and millions of Americans will someday have access to affordable, comprehensive, non-discriminatory health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act.  

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Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, September 6. I don’t know about you, but I just want to know what renowned foreign policy Ken Cuccinelli has to say about U.S. policy towards Syria. Why? Because that is SO relevant to being Governor of Virginia, of course (which must be why Cooch keeps commenting on Syria; either that, or he’s just flailing around as usual). Finally, the photo is of Del. Scott Surovell in Newport News last night with Democratic House of Delegates candidate Rob Farinholt, “working his butt off in the 94th District!”

*Obama, from Russia, urges U.S. lawmakers to back strike on Syria (I’d say the chances of the House voting for this right now stand no higher than 20%, and falling fast. The majority of the American people, for a variety of reasons, simply don’t want to do this.)

*Kaine won’t back Syria action if Congress says no

*Obama cancels LA trip as ‘no’ votes on Syria resolution pile up

*Rep. Gerald E. Connolly faces constituents’ ire in making the case for striking Syria

*Without Warning, 57,000 Virginians Could Have Their Voter Registrations Cancelled

*RTD Editorial: The AG bails (“In the sodomy case, the AG plows mulishly ahead in the face of repeated judicial rebuffs. Yet in the schools case, he is refusing to defend a new statute against lawsuits that have not yet even been filed. The two cases present quite a contrast – and a highly unflattering one at that.”)

*Ken Cuccinelli opposes Syria intervention, hits Terry McAuliffe for not taking position (Just bizarre. What on earth does this have to do with being Governor of Virginia?!? Of course, Kookinelli has spent the past 4 years focused on fighting the federal government, not on helping Virginia, so what else would we expect from him?)

*A fair, transparent path to justice (“On Thursday, the Virginia Death Penalty Assessment Team reiterated the need to adopt standards in the way police identify and interview witnesses and suspects.”)

*Woman in anti-McAuliffe ad says she was misled about filming (Slimy move by the Cooch campaign.)

*RGA, DGA spend big on Virginia governor’s race

*Cuccinelli, McAuliffe pitch campaign plans in former Gov. Wilder’s class

*Cuccinelli, McAuliffe get audience – Wilder’s class

*McDonnell says Virginia National Guard will provide benefits to gay couples (Good news.)

*Fracking Limits for Virginia Forest Spark Debate on Water

*Stop starving urban highways (“Now that state leaders have approved funding, they should restore construction aid for municipal roads.”)

*Salem VA Medical Center will soon use solar power (“The panels can provide about 10 percent of the medical center’s electricity needs.”)

*Smith Mountain Lake mansion tied to Ken Cuccinelli is sold (“The Smith Mountain Lake mansion that Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie Williams lent to his friend Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has been sold.”)

*An autumnal preview today, but summer will make a quick comeback

*Jayson Werth’s resurgence erases doubts, including his own