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Top 12 Most Popular Blue Virginia Posts of 2012

By
lowkell
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0

Courtesy of Google Analytics, here are the top 12 Blue Virginia blog posts, in terms of visits, for 2012. The major themes: the “war on women,” the UVA fiasco (great work Helen Dragas!), the NRA, Republican voter fraud, Republican extremism and racism. Enjoy!

1. Albo Says Wife Spurned Sex After Hearing GOP’s Transvaginal Ultrasound Plan: Ben Tribbett flags this clip from the Virginia General Assembly floor of Del. Dave Albo (R-Fairfax). Del. Albo took to the House floor to describe how his wife spurned his advances after seeing a story about the Virginia GOP’s efforts to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds.

2. Photos: Symbolic Lynching of “Nobama” at Bull Run Park This Weekend: As you can see, what the photos depict is a chair – apparently a reference to the bizarre, rambling Clint Eastwood “dialogue” with “President Obama” in an empty chair at the Republican Convention a few weeks ago – strung up in a tree by a rope. The chair features, ever-so-creatively, a sign that says “Nobama.” Get it? No Obama=”Nobama.’ Hahaha.

3. LG Bill Bolling: Dems Should Apologize for Speaking Up for Women’s Rights, Against Excessive Force: Just remember this story if Bolling tries to run for governor as a “moderate,” “independent,” or whatever in 2013.

4. Image: Republicans then. Republicans now.: This one’s actually just a comment, an image of Republicans “then” (Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ike) and “now” (crazy Michele Bachmann, John BONEr, and teahadist nut Sarah Palin). ‘Nuff said.

5. Can UVA Rector Helen Dragas Survive? Could the UVA Mess Help Allen and Cuccinelli?: Paul Goldman writes, “In the long term, the firing of University of Virignia President Teresa Sullivan will be seen as a seminal event in the growing debate over the future of education in the Commonwealth. Helen Dragas, the rector of UVA, and Ms. Sullivan, the ousted UVA President, apparently represent opposing schools of thought on the future of higher education and how to fund it.”

6. Why Was UVA President Teresa Sullivan Fired? The For-Profit “Education” Theory: An interesting hypothesis by UVA Alum Anne-Marie Angelo.

7. Sen. McEachin Calls for Virginia Investigation into Voter Registration Forms Trashing Case: Republicans really love to “project,” psychologically speaking, as they themselves do the things they accuse Democrats of wanting to do. Paging Dr. Freud! Paging Dr. Freud!

8. Hilarious: VA Right-Wingnut Sen. Ryan McDougle Gets a Taste of His Own (Transvaginal) Medicine!: Ryan McDougle (R-Mechanicsville) gets a well-deserved earful over his support for trans-vaginal ultrasound legislation.

9. Virginia Women’s “Strike Force” Condemns Speaker Howell for “Demeaning Rhetoric” Towards Women: Virginia Speaker Bill Howell (R, of course) proves that there’s no limit to his – and his party’s – condescension, arrogance, and misogyny.

10. Virginia Election Results 2012: Live Blog: Good riddance to Willard “Mitt” Romney and of course to our old friend George “Felix Macacawitz” Allen. The only bummer of Election Day 2012 was that Republican gerrymandering in the House of Representatives managed to keep John BONEr as Speaker, for the time being anyway, despite being outvoted by 1.2 million nationwide. Ah, Democracy…Republican style.

11. Serious problems in one really cool map: Serious problems for Republicans, that is.

12. Who Funds the NRA?: Elaine in Roanoke explains that “The NRA is nothing more than a front for corporate money spent to enlarge markets and  profits, no different than the bogus Smokers Rights Groups that were created secretly by major tobacco companies Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.”

Virginia News Headlines: Sunday Morning

By
lowkell
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7

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, December 23.

*Five myths about gun control (For instance: 1. “Single issues rarely determine electoral outcomes, and guns are no exception;” and 3. “schools are remarkably safe for kids – safer than their homes or the streets”)

*Senators Say NRA’s Press Conference Meant To Shift Focus Away From Gun Control Measures

*Connecticut School Officials Blast NRA’s Reaction To Newtown

*Boehner faces a political cliff over budget fracas in Washington

*Steps to stop the gun carnage

*Democratic House Candidates Now Have A Nearly 1.2 Million Vote Lead Over The Republicans (“Yet, despite clearly losing the popular vote, Republicans will control nearly 54 percent of the seats in the House in the 113th Congress.” Here in Virginia, it’s even worse: an 8-3 Republican majority despite Barack Obama and Tim Kaine both winning the state. Go Gerrymandering? Not!)

*Could Virginia get a 12th congressional seat after 2020?

*Why Obama isn’t caving

*Schapiro: ‘Twas two nights before Christmas … (In which T-Mac and Cuckoo drag race, and Bolling gets to be governor after all? LOL)

*For U-Va.’s provost, the attempted ouster of president was time to lead

*Virginia GOP plans ahead for 2013 (Del. Bob “Marshall is not particularly interested in being reined in. If Republicans don’t take bold stands on issues like abortion and gun rights, he said, ‘what brand do the Republicans have?'”)

*Warner: ‘We’re really playing with fire’ (Only if “we” is defined as “House Republicans.” It’s most definitely NOT – repeat, NOT! – “both parties.”)

*‘Tebow bill’ gaining support in Virginia

*Arlington cemetery expansion threatens 890 trees

*Metro’s Silver Line plan will mean adjustments for many riders

*InsideNoVA.com will continue under new owner

*Snow, possibly in time for the holidays

*RGIII gets final clearance to start

Kaplan/Washington Post #2 on the 2012 Media “Hack List”

By
lowkell
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2

I’m glad to see that the increasingly abysmal Washington Post, aka the “Kaplan Post,” is getting the honor it so richly deserves; namely, being named #2 on the 2012 Salon “Hack List”. As the Post’s Chris Cillizza likes to say, “congrats…or something!” LOL

The Post can’t decide if it’s local or national, with editors and publishers offering a series of conflicting and contradictory statements of intent over the last decade. The paper closed its major national bureaus a few years ago, but it also fails to extensively cover local news. What it seems to think it should be is a newspaper dedicated to covering politics and the federal government. D.C. already has three or four of those, which would seem to suffice, but politics is the paper’s brand, and what brings national traffic to the website.

The Washington Post has the worst opinion section of any major newspaper in the country. It’s actually baffling to me how bad it is. It doesn’t seem that difficult to simply not publish a bunch of liars, hacks and incredibly boring old men, but the Post can’t seem to figure it out.

Receiving specific mention for being “liars” and “hacks” are:

1) Climate change denier and all-around liar George Will, who “predicted Romney would win 321 electoral votes.” Bottom line: nobody who denies science, whether it’s about the climate or evolution or gravity or whatever, should be writing regularly on the opinion pages of what purports to be (but increasingly is anything but) a major newspaper. #FAIL

2) Charles Krauthammer, who “spent the election (and the preceding four years) nattering about Obama’s imaginary “apology tour” and pretending the return of the borrowed Churchill bust was a “snub” to Great Britain and claiming that Romney handily and clearly won all three debates and pretending Obama is a far-left radical who is putting America on the road to ‘European-style social democracy…exactly the same bullshit as Rush and Dinesh D’Souza.” It’s sad, because years and years ago I used to like Krauthammer, but he’s sunk into a vicious, nasty, increasingly unhinged old age. It’s sad, really, but the bottom line is he shouldn’t be writing for a serious newspaper of any kind. Get him outta there!

3) Finally, of course we can’t forget the most abysmal, unprofessional, despicable, lying, hackish “writer” (using the word VERY loosely) at the Kaplan Post: Jennifer Rubin. As Salon’s Alex Pareen puts it: Rubin “effectively admitted to shilling for Romney, and writing things she knew to be inaccurate, in her role as ostensibly an independent conservative commentator. It should’ve been hugely embarrassing for the Post, and Fred Hiatt, the man who hired her. No one seems to care.”

Unfortunately, as I’ve pointed out previously and as Pareen concludes here, the Post isn’t ditching these “writers” despite their demonstrable (and demonstrated, time and again) incessant lying, unprofessionalism, willful ignorance, and overall hackitude. Why not? Because, as Pareen puts it, “there are simply never any professional consequences for being constantly wrong or dishonest” in today’s “American punditocracy.” Ugh.

P.S. Pareen doesn’t even mention the incessant, relentless attempts at setting conventional wisdom “narrative” by the Post, and the fact that in 2012 at least, they were wrong about nearly everything. No, the Romney-Obama race wasn’t a “dead heat.” No, Romney didn’t have “momentum” (except perhaps for a week or two after the first debate). No, the Republican Party isn’t a normal, conservative party anymore – it’s a bunch of John Birch Society  loons and extremists. No, the Post’s preferred pollsters weren’t any better – in fact they were worse! – than many robopolls and even internet polling. No, inside-the-Beltway “conventional wisdom” doesn’t bear any connection to what most people really think, let alone to the policy choices we need to be making. Etc, etc.

P.P.S. I’m off to read about the winner of 2012’s “hack list” competition – Politico. A well-deserved, albeit dubious, honor no doubt.

Something We Can All Agree On This Holiday Season?

By
lowkell
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1



When the right-wing, Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, the Romney-endorsing New York Daily News, the conservative commentator Joe Scarborough, former RNC Chair Michael Steele, the vast majority of Democrats, and probably a ton of independents as well, all agree that the NRA, and its CEO Wayne LaPierre, are nuts, it seems like they might just be onto something. Of course, by that same reasoning, then Bob McDonnell is nuts as well, given that he doesn’t appear to disagree with LaPierre on anything. Same with Ken Kookinelli, of course. Where do Republicans FIND these people, anyway?!?

Virginia News Headlines: Saturday Morning

By
lowkell
-
1

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, December 22.

*Kerry Named for the Role of a Lifetime

*Obama turns focus to getting stopgap deal

*Bitter fight over taxes sends Republican Party into chaos

*‘Plan B’ collapses; House approves Cantor bill on spending reductions (Can’tor’s bill would be devastating for the country, for Virginia, and for his district. Not that he cares.)

*John Boehner’s animal House

*Education groups: Guns in teachers’ hands not the answer

*Democrats Slam NRA’s Response To School Shooting

*Everything You Need To Know About The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre (Among other things, LaPierre called law enforcement officials “jackbooted thugs.” He’s a nutjob and a fascist.)

*‘Debt ceiling roulette’: Sen. Warner sounds off on ‘cliff’ deal

*Virginia GOP names new executive director

*Griffith responds to new EPA boiler standards (Griffith denies climate science and is a tool of the fossil fuel industry. He should not be listened to on anything.)

*Potential Hampton Roads ports strike is less than 10 days away

*Atheist group’s billboards in Roanoke area draw strong reaction

*Federal employees to get Christmas Eve off

*Nationals want an answer soon from Adam LaRoche

On the issue of arming people in schools

By
teacherken
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5

BUSHMASTER AR-15I oppose putting more guns into schools

A policeman with a sidearm will be no match for someone with the AR-15 Bushmaster shown above. I do not want to turn our schools into armed camps.

I wrote a version of this as a comment in an on-line discussion about Terry McAuliffe’s proposal to place armed policemen in every school in the Commonwealth. Since then we have had a parallel proposal from Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association to have armed NRA trained volunteers in every school. Governor McDonnell has argued for training school personnel to carry weapons as a means of keeping students secure. All three are wrong.

Keep in mind there was an armed policeman at Columbine.

Keep in mind that the Fort Hood shooting took place in the midst of a heavily armed military base.

And keep in mind that just as LaPierre was holding a press conference, a man was walking down a highway in rural Pennsylvania shooting people.  He killed three and wounded several others, including State Policemen, before he himself died.

The best use of policemen in schools is the building of relationships.

Please continue as I offer my thoughts beneath the fold.  I write this as an educator, someone who had military training with firearms, and someone who is well aware of how unprepared even trained police are to handle a situation like Columbine or Sandy Springs Elementary.

Since I am back in the classroom in an inner city school in DC which has a DC police officer there on a 1/2 time basis, and since I taught for 13 years in a high school in PG County where the local community (City of Greenbelt) assigned a resource officer there starting about 17 years ago, perhaps I am in a position to comment about things like the recent proposals such as that of Terry McAuliffe.

One officer per each elementary school may well not be cost effective.  At Eleanor Roosevelt we had from 2400-3200 students during my tenure there.  Many elementary schools in Virginia have at most a couple of hundred kids.

AT ERHS we had two other school security people who were not armed but were authorized to make arrests on school property and at school bus stops.  I saw several such arrests take place during my tenure, including putting a girl in handcuffs at the door to my room when they inspected her bag and found 90 grams of marijuana.  

The real security is less the one armed person – let’s be frank, even if that officer is wearing body armor a head shot takes him out and certain readily available rounds will go right through that armor.

The issue is less protection from the outside than it is an additional resource who builds relationships with kids and thus finds out when there are possible internal problems.  Remember, Columbine was not attacked from the outside, but by disaffected kids who attended that school.  It is rare that something like that does not get noticed by other kids and what prevents more such tragedies is when kids tell adults.  That is how a possible tragedy was just averted at Laurel High School.

Remember the attack on the Capitol by the insane guy who was off his meds?  He shot and killed TWO armed US Capitol Police.  Just having an armed policeman does not solve the problem.

The idea of having more guns in schools is frightening.  First, even most policemen are NOT trained for how to fire in a crisis situation – their qualification is using stationary targets without adrenaline pumping.  Even trained police sometimes get tunnel vision – the way a quarterback does on a receiver and failing to notice the defensive back who promptly picks off his pass.

What kind of ammunition?  If it is NOT frangible, then even if shooting a real threat, the chance of a through and through hitting a bystander and/or ricocheting around is significant.  If a frangible round is used, anyone hit by that round is probably going to die because of the internal injuries before you could transport them to a hospital, hell, before you could respond an ambulance.

There are some schools where it is necessary to have metal detectors and x-ray machines.  I teach in one now, although our staff are not searched or checked, so were one of us beserk we could easily get a weapon in.  

One man tried to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb.  Now we all have to take our shoes off.  But we are not all checked for every kind of explosive, and someone determined to get a bomb on board still has a high probability of succeeding.  Meanwhile the rest of us are discomforted and inconvenienced.

When they first starting requiring metal detectors I pointed out to a friend in federal law enforcement that I could easily get a weapon on board. A knife made of obsidian would NOT trip a metal detector, and actually holds a sharper edge/point that almost all metal cutting instruments, which is why some are used in very delicate surgery. I pointed out that the handle/hilt could be my heel and I could pull it out of my shoe – this is about 3 decades ago.

If I could find ways of beating the system, I am sure someone determined could still do so.

I think Terry McAuliffe is taking a position of political expediency, which while not as bad as McDonnell urging the arming of school personnel, is still stupid.

We should remember that the vast majority of school shootings – and workplace shootings – are not done by random outsiders, as was the case last Friday. Most school and workplace shootings occur because of perceived grievances by members of those communities. If we want to keep our schools safe the last thing we need is more guns in schools – and colleges.

I remember an off-the-record conversation with one state’s top law enforcement official after Virginia Tech, when one of us asked him if he thought have students or teachers armed could have stopped the tragedy. Himself the owner of many guns he argued it would have made it worse. What if an undercover officer pulled out a gun, might someone else shoot him? If you think this is a stretch, remember that at Tucson Jared Loughner had been disarmed while he was reloading by unarmed civilians. A man with a concealed carry permit came out of the market, saw a man with a gun, unholstered his weapon and took off the safety and was about to fire when he realized the man holding the gun had taken it away from the shooter.

Remember the collateral damage by trained policemen last year in New York City when a lot of civilians were hit by police rounds.

As a long-time teacher, who has taught in the comfortable suburbs of Arlington Virginia and now teaches in an inner city DC school, the presence of additional guns does not make students – or faculty – feel any more safe.

There is a role for police in some school settings. But it is not one of total security. It is a physical impossibility at a school the size of Eleanor Roosevelt to operate normally with total security – we had more than 20 temporary buildings outside, and too many entrances to be checking every person going in and out. We depended upon common sense actions by the adults in the building to direct outsiders to the main entrance to check in. On a college campus are we going to have only one entrance to each building, secured by a metal detector and an armed guard.

As a teacher i want to assure the safety of my students. I want my fellow staff members to feel secure. Our building contains in two schools running from 6th grade up fewer students than we had in one grade at Eleanor Roosevelt. It is possible for us to operate with only two entrances, to have students and visitors go through metal detectors. We only xray at the entrance used by the high school students, we hand inspect bags at the entrance used by the middle school students.

More guards or armed people or police – these do NOT address the issue of too many guns with too much firepower too easily accessible to people who might do us harm.

Yes we need to address mental health issues.

We are less than 5% of the world’s population, yet we have over half of the world’s firearms.

We also have the highest rate in the world of deaths from firearms of any industrialized nation.

We may have violent video games, but so does Japan, yet they have NO mass shootings and the national total of gun deaths in a country with a population of over 100 million is less than that of some major US cities.

It is our gun culture that we must address and address honestly if we truly want to keep our school children safe. We certainly do NOT want more guns in schools.

Video: President Obama Delivers a Statement on the Fiscal Cliff

By
lowkell
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1

Preposterous Proposals Proliferate

By
Dan Sullivan
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10

We’re living a cartoon. One character puts up his dukes and the adversary pulls out brass knuckles, then escalation each in turn through a knife, pistol, rifle, machinegun, cannon, tank… It goes where arming and armoring schools goes: no constructive advantage. Cost without benefit other than political cover.

Governor McDonnell legitimizing the concept of arming more personnel inside schools demonstrates his narrow experience and linear, attritionist approach to the issues raised by the violence at Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech. This is understandable. As an army intelligence officer raised and trained in the era of a set piece battlespace, he is comfortable with templates and minor tactics against local threats. His cohort, Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13th), lacks even that experience with conceptual threats. Marshall’s hobbies, weight lifting, gardening, and photography, might give him time to contemplate but do nothing to qualify him to defend our children or us. But both of these fellows do demonstrate the ability to push hot buttons even if they are unconcerned about the consequences they initiate.

Nattering nabobs such as them attract attention. Some of that from Democrats who either think they must say something or are afraid of saying nothing even if they have nothing to add. At least the Republicans are expressing a core value, no matter how wrongheaded it is. The Democrats on board with this idea sound as hollow as their self-serving position. Disappointing.

Reducing the security of children to talking points about arming teachers and adding resource officers limits the debate, ignores the broader issues, and potentially places children in substantially greater danger. Look, I have the greatest respect for teachers but they are not public safety employees and many are unsuited for this responsibility. Adding a resource officer to the soup definitely secures the few square feet occupied at any given moment, but has McDonnell, Marshall, or any of them actually been inside a school lately? Those resource officers are there for and deal with a lot of student issues not related to invasion; issues that do not occur in elementary schools. Unless we go back to one room schoolhouses, these ideas are just lipstick on a pig.  

Suggesting the discussion about school security begin with a conclusion already framed is either intellectual deficiency or blatant dishonesty. The discussion should begin with a threat analysis. Guns constitute only one aspect of that discussion. One thing that we have learned about hardening targets is that perpetrators are not so linear that they will cooperate by attacking whatever strength we put in place. So, while security is important, we can’t secure against every inevitability.

Beyond being able to defend against a threat, we must identify and disable it. As shameful as it is, we have to admit that our greatest threat is not some organized and politically motivated adversary. You remember shame: it’s that thing that many conservatives say our society lacks. So they should be happy to embrace the concept of introspection. It is our own citizens who have perpetrated the domestic violence that is our immediate concern. So how do we counter that without violating the values we hold so dear?

Well, to begin, we must recognize there are limits on the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution.  For another, we understand that those freedoms carry obligations; even those guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Though defenders of gun rights want to believe Charlton Heston brought this one down from the mountain, there is a historical context for it they conveniently misread. There are practical aspects of the defense against a tyrannical government they simply ignore. And indeed, arming only those whose duty is to specifically protect against that tyranny provides even greater security.

See, the problem is that the time preceding the sainted framers drawing up the Constitution, there were insurgents who had armed themselves in rebellion. Ever wonder why an arms clause wasn’t originally present? There being no federal army or standing state militias or willingness to pay for them, private militias were raised by those whose interest was to protect their own property. Private armies and vigilante bands are not so different. Indeed one private army seized a state armory without authority. So which is legitimate? One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, or so we have been told. And in this regard, the use of the term “militia” in the amendment informs at a minimum that the framers were not enthusiastic about a free for all and were concerned with legitimacy.

When one freedom begins to infringe upon the freedoms of others, and the current application of the Second Amendment does, it is time for reasonable restrictions. And one of those is a restriction against gun ownership by the irresponsible and the incompetent.

Guaranteeing the availability and proliferation of arms is not the same as guaranteeing freedom. Arming everyone does nothing to disarm those who threaten a civil society.

And right now the march that should have fueled reform is threatened by those practiced at obfuscation and distraction.  

Jim Moran: NRA Press Conference “appalling,” “galling,” an “overreach” that “may well backfire”

By
lowkell
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6

Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th, VA) responds to the NRA press conference a little while ago, calling it “appalling,” “galling,” and an “overreach” that “may well backfire on them as the public reviews Mr. LaPierre’s statements.” Let’s hope.

“The NRA’s press conference was appalling. Even more firearms are not the solution to reducing gun violence.

“Preventing gun-related massacres, like what occurred at Virginia Tech and in Newtown, Connecticut, requires a comprehensive approach that includes tackling mental health issues, looking at ways to better secure our schools, and changing our culture of violence. But perhaps more importantly, it means tackling the gun epidemic in this country with sensible gun safety reforms. The NRA attempted to completely shirk their responsibility to that key piece of this puzzle. It was galling, and an overreach, and it may well backfire on them as the public reviews Mr. LaPierre’s statements.”

A few more thoughts: “Any doubts that the NRA has been overtaken by paranoid, conspiracy theorists who live in a cartoon world of good guys and bad guys had to be put to rest by the appalling press conference just held by the organization’s executive vice president Wayne LaPierre…It would be very difficult to overstate the appalling insensitivity LaPierre showed; the paranoia, the victimhood, the passing of blame onto every other possible entity-Congress, the people who fight the NRA, the video game manufacturers, Hollywood, the medical community.”

Video: Reason #1 Why We All Should Be Glad John Kerry Will Be Our Next Secretary of State

By
lowkell
-
1



Yes, I realize that the White House sets policy, but to the extent that our next Secretary of State, John Kerry, can exert his influence to push for forceful action on global warming, that’s a great thing. The bottom line is this: global warming is by FAR the most important issue facing humanity, including the United States, right now. Despite disinformation to the contrary, we’re talking 10 degrees Fahrenheit warming, which would be utterly catastrophic, if we don’t start slashing greenhouse gas emissions ASAP. That’s why it should go without saying that we need people like John Kerry in positions of power to DO something about this dire situation right away. Plus, as an added bonus, Kerry’s strong on pretty much every other issue most of us care about. So, great choice by President Obama, even if took a meandering/winding path to come to fruition.

P.S. Kerry’s also been a big proponent of clean energy, which hopefully means he’ll do what he can to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from being built.

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