( – promoted by lowkell)

Hey Virginia, remember Sen. Dick Black? You know, our favorite state Senator who as former Delegate became infamous for handing out plastic fetuses on the floor, dismissing the concept of marital rape and referring to contraception as “baby pesticides“? Well, he’s back. And after his most recent comments, I doubt you’ll forget him again.

This Tuesday, as hundreds of pro-choice Virginians rallied at the Capitol to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Sen. Dick Black took to the floor and actually compared Virginia’s abortion clinics to “Auschwitz”.  Let me repeat that. Forty years after abortion became legal in the United States, Sen. Black likened what is a constitutional, safe, and common medical procedure to NAZI GERMANY. Watch the video.

This is nothing short of appalling.   Not only are Senator Black’s comments extremely offensive to my family and the families of the millions of people (yes – living, breathing, thinking, loving people) who were senselessly killed in the tragedy of the Holocaust, this sort of attack is part of a troubling and ever-expanding strategy to demonize the women of Virginia and the doctors who serve them.

In honor of 40 years of Roe v. Wade, please donate $40 to NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia in Sen. Black’s name. We will send him a personal letter from you demanding an apology, and of course, thank him for the generous contribution made on his behalf.

Sen. Dick Black is not an outlier – not some sort of “bad apple” who happened to put his foot in his mouth. As is obvious after watching the Virginia General Assembly launch attack after attack on women’s health,  plenty of others in the Statehouse hold a similar disdain for a woman’s right to choose when and whether to have children. In fact, there are undoubtedly those in Virginia’s government who wouldn’t hesitate to join the Senator in comparing reproductive health to mass genocide and trained physicians to murderers.

We can’t forget: forty years ago, women in Virginia and across the country were ingesting lye, hitting themselves with baseball bats, and throwing themselves down the stairs in order to end a pregnancy. Now, forty years after Roe v. Wade codified safe, legal abortion care, lawmakers like Sen. Black will stop at nothing to bring us back.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia will not go back. We will not allow women to die without access to reproductive healthcare, and we will not allow lawmakers like Sen. Black to impose their dangerous ideals onto the women and families of the Commonwealth.

Please join us in continuing this fight. Donate $40 to NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia in honor of forty years of Roe v. Wade,  and we will send Senator Black a personal letter from you demanding an immediate apology.

Thank you for everything you do.

Alena Yarmosky

Advocacy & Communications Manager, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia

Anyone who looks Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan for more than about 2 seconds – or, if you REALLY want to study it, you could spend the time most Virginians sit stuck in traffic every day – quickly concludes that it’s inadequate, that the numbers don’t even come close to adding up, and that it’s bad public policy on a number of levels (e.g., why would we want to CUT fossil fuel taxes when the #1 problem facing humanity is global warming?!?). In short, McDonnell’s latest transportation “plan” is smoke and mirrors, just like McDonnell’s previous transportation “plans” – privatizing liquor stores, offshore oil drilling, tollbooths at the North Carolina border, pixie dust and unicorns, whatever. As we say on Twitter, it’s a big-time #FAIL!

But don’t take my word for it, or the word of many transportation experts in Virginia, or most Virginia Democrats. Now, we’ve got a study by the Commonwealth Institute – the goal of which is to “[provide] credible, independent and accessible information and analyses of fiscal and economic issues facing Virginia with particular attention to the impacts on low- and moderate-income persons” – which should put the nail in the coffin of McDonnell’s monstrosity. Here’s the bottom line:

The governor’s proposal to address Virginia’s transportation crisis has two major flaws under its hood. It derives more than two-thirds of its revenue from sources that are tentative, at best. And, even assuming the plan is approved as the governor envisions, it falls far short of what Virginia needs to repair and maintain existing roads, bridges and other infrastructure that businesses rely on to get their goods to market and that commuters need to get to work, school and other places.

• More than 60 percent of the funding comes from two sources that face extremely uncertain political futures
• Even if the proposal were to pass, the estimated revenue falls over $800 million short of VDOT’s two-year need. Take out the uncertain revenue, and the proposal would cover just 21 percent of the funding VDOT estimates it needs over the next two years.

Over 60 percent of the $3.2 billion in new resources fueling the governor’s proposal would come from two sources: the diversion of existing sales tax revenue and the diversion of new  revenue generated from proposed federal legislation, known as the Marketplace Equity Act, that would allow Virginia to tax online sales. Both face extremely uncertain political futures. If they fail to pan out, the plan stalls, leaving the governor’s proposed solution out of gas.

In other words, as the Commonwealth Institute points out, McDonnell’s “plan” (using the word very loosely) is running on “mostly fumes.” Not to mention that it completely lacks any vision for transportation in Virginia, beyond more of the same ol’ same ol’ – sprawl, gridlock, and pollution as far as the eye can see. Also not to mention that it removes a key linkage between the usage of our state’s transportation infrastructure, and those who pay for that transportation infrastructure. Last I checked, that’s about as un-conservative as you can get (see the super-“conservative” Wall Street Journal editorial on how “the gas-tax-for-sales-tax swap violates the user pays principle of sound tax policy”). As I said earlier, it’s a #FAIL for Bob McDonnell no matter how you look at it.

( – promoted by lowkell)

by Paul Goldman

If the VA GOP would stay up nights figuring out how to develop a winning message, instead of coming up with backroom schemes to negate the results of our elections, they might be threats to win the governorship in 2013 and the presidency in 2016. But this would require actually trying to develop sensible solutions to real problems. As Governor McDonnell concedes, it would likely require eliminating inefficiencies in our laws to better balance the need for funds to do such things as fix a crumbling infrastructure, and potholes in our educational system.

But why fix a real problem when you can avoid responsibility by rigging the rules of the game in your favor?

The latest case in point: The Virginia Senate Republicans’ most radical power grab yet, an attempt to reverse the results of the 2016 presidential election. But you say: “Paul, get a grip, this is only 2013, even Virginia Senate Republicans don’t have that kind of pull with God.” I don’t know: Didn’t legendary Republican Jerry Falwell say God was a Republican?

But if they don’t have God’s ear, surely they have been given a sneak peak into UVA Virginia Professor Larry Sabato’s legendary crystal ball. What does it say? All things being equal, the 2016 GOP presidential candidate figures to lose Virginia once again. Without those crucial 13 electoral votes, the party’s chances of winning the White House are not likely to be any better than in 2012.

So what are the Republicans, beginning to look more and more like the Whigs of the 1850’s, to do? Surely not the hard work to get better grades from voters. Why not simply change the way they grade the test?

 

Enter then, the latest VA GOP Senate legislation, sponsored by Southwestern Republican State Senator Charlie Carrico. He claims the state’s long-standing “winner take all” system of allocating all of the state’s electoral college votes to the winner of the statewide popular balloting is unfair to his rural constituents.

But if that were true, then why isn’t he likewise trying to change the way we pick the governor? The same arguments apply. Why not do it by allocating votes per CD or House district? There is no federal Constitutional requirement mandating popular election of a governor.

Perhaps that’s next for Republicans. But right now, the boys club is focusing on changing the way Virginia allocates our 13 electoral votes in the 2016.

As Professor Mark Rozell of George Mason would point out, you don’t need to take his widely respected graduate school seminar to learn the political math.

This past November, President Barack Obama got all of Virginia’s 13 electoral votes by winning a narrow popular majority. Yet even the hapless Mitt Romney managed to carry 7 of the state’s 11 Congressional districts.

This is likely to happen again in 2016, all things being equal. Thus the GOP reasons: If VA’s electoral votes were instead allocated by the method used in Maine and Nebraska, the Republican candidate could “win” Virginia even while losing! Let me explain.

In those two states, the candidate getting the most popular votes statewide gets 2 electors. This equates to the state’s two U.S. Senators. All the rest are allocated based on which candidate wins the most popular votes in each congressional district irrespective of whether that candidate loses the overall statewide vote.

How would this math have worked in 2012 here in Virginia? Since Obama won only 4 Congressional districts, and Romney took the rest, this would radically alter the electoral college math as such: the GOP nominee would have been awarded 7 electoral votes, and the president only 6!

Meaning: Instead of Obama getting a net 13 electoral vote win in Virginia, the hapless Mr. Romney would have actually received a net 1 margin!

Or put another way: The inept Romney-Ryan campaign, despite incredible strategy mistakes, would have “won” Virginia.

To be sure, the Electoral College system of electing our president has long been controversial. Virginian James Madison, generally considered the “father” of the U.S. Constitution, personally preferred a direct popular vote if I remember correctly. The Electoral College system itself emerged as a compromise.

Folklore says the small states demanded the system, fearful any popular vote approach would give larger states too much power. However this is not the whole story. Small states like Delaware surely agreed with the folklore.

But what is forgotten 226 years later is the following: the use of the electoral college system enhanced the power of the slave states over the free states. The 3/5 clause in the Constitution is one of the document’s understudied parts. While slaves would not count in a popular vote scenario, they counted big time under the electoral college system because of the mathematical role the clause played in determining a state’s congressional delegation. The 3/5 clause counted a slave as 3/5 of a person for purposes of determining the state’s population when it came to dividing up the House of Representatives.

Thus the big losers in the Electoral College were the Northern free states: the big winners the small states and the slave states. Madison understood, as did Bostonian John Adams.

As a matter of personal belief, I would go to the direct election of the president, the way we elect our governor. However, there is no “right” way to elect a president in terms of pure theory. Why? Right now, the right to vote is controlled in large measure by individual state laws, both de jure and de facto. Thus, going to a “straight” popular vote for President doesn’t guarantee all Americans are treated equally.

Like it or not, whatever system a country chooses is a mixture of philosophy in its purest form and politics often in its rawest form. This is the practical reality.

So in that regard, it is neither “right” nor “wrong” to have a “winner take all” system as opposed to the type of math being proposed by Senator Carrico.

However, whatever your personal or philosophical choice, there is one constant: the law. As Justice Holmes said, it is the only thing between us and the jungle. It is also, in terms of changing Virginia’s allocation of electoral votes, the one thing Virginia Republicans appear to have forgotten.

Namely, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The VRA is a major reason the state’s 11 congressional districts are gerrymandered in their current form. The same for the districts of the House of Delegates and State Senate.

Why? The VRA’s main purpose is to prevent backroom political schemes which “dilute” the power of the state’s minority voters. It does this by setting as a marker the state of Virginia’s electoral statutes and practices at the time of the passage of the VRA. Any change is not lawful if it runs afoul of the VRA’s mandate to prevent any “dilution.”

Even those of us who still count using our fingers can figure out the self-evident: minority voters supplied the margin of the President’s winning Virginia’s 13 electoral votes. Thus if you adopt the Carrico plan, the power to determine who gets these votes is hugely “diluted” from a net 13 win to a net 1 loss based on 2012. But even if you assume other vote patterns, there is one constant stat: any chance to the “winner take all” approach will reduce the power of minority voters at the presidential level in Virginia compared to the present.

Moreover, the VRA itself, by mandating the creation of a majority minority district (Bobby Scott’s 2nd district) has created this very situation. Thus it would be “Alice in Wonderland” for the VRA to mandate the current congressional districts, but at the same time be “jake” with using those CDs as the basis of a scheme to “dilute” minority vote power at the presidential level.

Whatever the merits of Mr. Carrico’s approach – I will leave you to debate this point – it is unlawful under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended.

Again, if Republicans would put all that energy into fixing real problems, as opposed to creating new illegal ones, they might prove to be a threat in 2013 and 2016.

But Democrats can rest easy for now: the GOP wants to emulate the Whigs, the party Abraham Lincoln quit (before it folded), as opposed to the Republican Party he joined  – and led to victory.

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, January 24. Also, check out Stephen Colbert’s “Alpha Dog of the Week – Virginia State Senate Republicans.” Heh.

*Pentagon to allow women in combat, possibly starting this year (Long overdue!)

*Clinton delivers forceful defense on Benghazi (Hillary made her Republican persecutors look petty, vindictive, small, uninformed, angry, unprofessional, and several other unprintable adjectives…)

*Clinton storms Capitol Hill (“In the Benghazi hearings, she served up a potent brew of righteous outrage.”)

*Senate panel debates bill to allocate Va. electoral votes by congressional district (Have I mentioned recently that Republicans are anti-democratic, small “d,” as well as vicious, relentless, etc?)

*Gun show bill dead for this year, negotiations continue

*Editorial: A sense of urgency on transportation (“Gov. Bob McDonnell’s road plan is flawed but some good ideas should be preserved in a final deal.”)

*GOP redistricting ploy lands Va. on late-night TV again

*Va. House Speaker holds key to redistricting vote (Does this give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? Hmmmm.)

*Stewart cheers Va. Senate redistricting (Shocker, eh? Now if he could only deport all the brown people, he’d really be happy!)

*Democrats Grumbling About Obama Lobbying Shop (“Fred Hudson, vice chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, said OFA would inevitably weaken the traditional party structure.”)

*Rebranded Obama campaign group causes frustration for DNC (“‘We’re not quite clear on what exactly OFA is going to be doing. We saw an email [announcement] just like everyone else saw an email the other day,’ [Virginia Democratic Party vice-chairwoman Gaylene] Kanoyton said. ‘I had no advance warning.'”)

*Wanted: Area leaders who have enough political courage to back Metro’s plans

*Redistricting in Virginia Hurts Blacks, Democrats Say

*Senator’s stay in committee purgatory almost over

*Cantor: Debt Ceiling Vote ‘First Step’ Toward Resolving Fiscal Crisis (The debt ceiling vote should be routine. This is NOT a way to run a great nation like ours.)

*Biden heads to Richmond on Friday to talk gun proposals with Kaine

*Sen. Mark Warner supports decision to lift ban on women in combat roles

*New poll shows tight race for Virginia governor (This sounds about right, but in general I don’t trust CNU’s polling outfit…)

*Jeff’s Notes: McDonnell’s road trip

*Study: Virginia goes greenest among states (We need to be doing a LOT more of this!)

*Eugenics survivors seek compensation

*House panel votes down citizen review of SOLs

*Film, tourism industries thank Virginia legislators (How touching: thanks for the corporate welfare, guys! LOL)

*Menhaden makes legislative leap

*Metro proposes major upgrade to D.C. transit

*D.C. area forecast: Flakes end early but still numbingly cold, next snow chance late Friday

Did you know that the 53 US Senators demanding that President Obama build the Keystone Pipeline got an average $551,051 from the oil lobby, a total of $27,500,000 altogether (according to 350.org)? That’s a pretty staggering amount, isn’t it? It’s a sad commentary in this post-Citizens United country.

And know who one of those senators is?  You guessed it, the best friend oil friendly Americans for Prosperity has, Mark Warner of Virginia.  So he’s not only doing the bidding of right-wing hatchet-man and enemy of Social security and Medicare, Peter Peterson, on the budget.  He’s also helping out the Koch’s and the rest of the oil lobby.  

Here’s the list of the sell-outs to big oil.  And note they all oversell jobs, which won’t produce may local jobs along the route and won’t produce nearly as many jobs overall as promised. Nor will the energy be used for the US. It’s Canada’s oil, remember?  And it is headed for China, not the US. So, I wonder, how will this resolve our supposed “need” for more fossil fuel, as opposed to renewable energy?  

John Hoeven (R-N.D.)

Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

Rob Portman (R-Ohio)

Jerry Moran (R-Kan.)

Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)

Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)

Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.)

Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)

John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)

Mike Johanns (R-Neb.)

Deb Fischer (R-Neb.)

Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)

Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)

Dan Coats (R-Ind.)

Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

David Vitter (R-La.)

John Cornyn (R-Texas)

James Risch (R-Idaho)

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)

Richard Burr (R-N.C.)

Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)

Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)

Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)

John McCain (R-Ariz.)

Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)

Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.)

Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)

Susan Collins (R-Maine)

John Thune (R-S.D.)

Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

Mike Lee (R-Utah)

Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)

John Boozman (R-Ark.)

Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

Tim Scott (R-S.C.)

Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)

Dean Heller (R-Nev.)

Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)

Mark Begich (D-Alaska)

Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.)

Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.)

Mary Landrieu (D-La.)

Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)

Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)

Mark Warner (D-Va.)

Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)

Kay Hagan (D-N.C.)

We can’t short cut our way out of our energy problems with Canada’s tar-sands oil and a dirty pipeline sending gas to China. But the above senators won’t tell you that.

And. finally, even the Koch brothers own study shows the effect of our dependence on fossil fuels, a 2.5 degree warming of the planet. PS thanks, Tim Kaine, for not signing.  

Boehner is truly eye-roll worthy. And not just at the inaugural lunch. Today the GOP passed a whopping three-month extension of the debt ceiling. (Don’t do us any favors.) Once again its “leaders” show what pathetic unprincipled sore losers they are. Once again they contrived another artificial deadline so they can use extortion one more time. What an embarrassment! Even a small drop in our rating has big consequences for the interest the US must pay on its debt.  They are potentially costing us all more and increasing the deficit when they play with our nation’s credit rating. And they won’t stop.  Despite the stock market’s reacting favorably today, it will likely be another roller-coaster ride as the Duo of Dumbness toy with America’s future.

The GOP and their corporate lords like to talk about uncertainty, the very uncertainty their antics create. They are the problem. They are one of the biggest reasons for fluctuation in the stock market this past year.  And then they blame the uncertainty on President Obama, and of course, Europe! It is getting old.  

It doesn’t get more Mickey Mouse than John Boehner. His and Can’t-or’s behavior demonstrates they do not know how to run a House of Congress.  They cannot behave like responsible citizens who know better than to play with the good faith and credit of the US. What unbelievably unpatriotic people they are to toy with the country’s financial credit rating this way.

One of these days (soon) more of the public will see Boehner, Can’t-or and the whole sorry lot for what they are. And it won’t matter how much they have gerrymandered the several states. The public will kick them the hell out on their backsides.

President Obama has cut 2.6 trillion in just over a year. He has actually begun to reduce the deficit, brought to us mostly by the GOP and its previous failed presidency. The Bushies fiddled while the economy imploded taking nearly a year to respond. But it isn’t enough for Boehner and Can’t-or and never will be.  

If the American people let them have an earful on their trips home and in their offices (via emails, website forms and phone calls) and if Americans use lobby days and town halls to make their voices heard, perhaps the Dynamic Duo of Duplicity and Dumbness  will get a grip. But don’t count on it. Toss em out. 2013 looms in Virginia and 2016 begins now.  

From Sen. Mark Herring:

Leesburg – Two important pieces of public safety legislation sponsored by Democratic candidate for Attorney General State Senator Mark Herring (Loudoun & Fairfax) advanced through the Senate Courts of Justice Committee this afternoon.

The first bill, SB 1063, criminalizes stalking through electronic means, specifically through text and picture messaging.

“With technological advances in communication comes the potential for new crimes involving electronic and telephone communication,” Herring stated. “Studies show that stalking by texting has become a growing problem and Virginia needs to join the growing number of other states who that are taking action to protect our citizens.”

Continuing his leadership in the General Assembly on the issue of designer drugs, Senator Herring introduced SB 1083 to criminalize newly identified chemical compounds of “bath salts.”

“Designer drugs like bath salts continue to threaten the health and safety of our young people in Virginia,” Herring stated. “We have succeeded in raising awareness about the dangers of these chemicals and getting them off the shelves of legitimate businesses.  However, we must remain vigilant in giving law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to go after them as criminals who create new compounds designed to skirt our laws.”