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Audio: Jeannemarie Davis’ Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Interview on the Kojo Nnamdi Show

By
lowkell
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6

Wow, what a debacle for Republican LG candidate (and former State Senator) Jeannemarie Davis (formerly Devolites Davis — last we left her in 2007, we were busy helping Chap Petersen unseat her from the State Senate). Let’s start at the beginning of the interview, where she mangles WAMU radio host Kojo Nnamdi’s name, calling him “Kwame” for whatever reason. Hahahaha.

Next, head to the “flip” for more of Davis’ radio interview debacle today. It’s quite amusing to hear her claim that the mandatory ultrasound bill is actually voluntary, that Republicans are actually the better party for the middle class, that Virginia Republican candidates are all one big happy family, that differences in the General Assembly aren’t about party or ideology at all but are all regional in nature, etc, etc. Of course, Jeannemarie Davis has 0.000000000% chance of winning at a GOP convention dominated by the hard right wing, but if she wants to waste her time and money, for the next few months, I suppose it’s her time and money to waste. Meanwhile, enjoy the interview excerpts! 🙂

The first video is Jeannemarie Davis on abortion, transvaginal ultrasound, etc. At the beginning, Davis jokes uncomfortably that she’d rather talk about the Redskins moving to Washington (or probably ANY other subject) than social issues. No wonder why, as social moderates/liberals/”RINO”s like her clearly have no place in today’s hard-right-wing, extreme Republican Party. Anyway, Davis goes on to claim that “everybody realizes” abortion’s not going to become illegal in this country (barring Roe vs. Wade being repealed), completely downplaying/ignoring/poo-poo’ing the relentless war on women’s reproductive freedom being waged by her party. Davis then proceeds to claim that the transvaginal ultrasound bill “impeded” (she meant “intruded” but mangled it, just as she mangled Kojo’s name) into a woman’s life, but that the current external ultrasound law is voluntary, not intrusive, and is important to “help women to understand…what it is they are about to do”. Other than being incredibly patronizing, Davis appears to be wrong on the facts as well: according to this article, “The new bill makes the transvaginal ultrasound voluntary but requires an external, non-invasive, ultrasound.” Hmmmmm.

The next video has Jeannemarie Davis evading a question about Ken Cuccinelli and the fact that her party has gone off the right wing deep end (which, by the way, is why her husband, Tom Davis, decided to ditch his run for the U.S. Senate nomination in 2008). Also hilarious is Davis claiming that there are very few divisions in the Virginia General Assembly, and almost all of them are regional NOT partisan or ideological in nature. Yeah, right! So why do we all think there are ideological and partisan divisions in the Virginia General Assembly? In Jeannemarie Davis’ view, it’s all the media’s fault. Riiiiight! Then there’s the caller who (correctly) rips Republicans for being totally for the wealthy, and Jeannemarie Davis lashing out and claiming: 1) Republicans are only for the wealthy at the federal, not the state, level; 2) the middle class is being “struck upside the head” by Democrats; and 3) Republicans are actually the party of the middle class. Hahahahaha.

Finally, here Jeannemarie Davis is, laughably attempting to argue that Virginia Republican LG candidates – and really, all Virginia Republican candidates – are one big happy family. Deservedly, political reporter Tom Sherwood snorts and snickers at her for that one. Davis also appears to be arguing (I say “appears” because she’s not the most articulate person in the world) that rural candidates, like Creigh Deeds, don’t have the capacity to connect with people in urban/suburban areas like northern Virginia. Can we say “incredibly insulting?” She also seems to make the case that Republicans are better off that Bill Bolling dropped out and that Ken Cuccinelli won’t be contested for the gubernatorial nomination. Uh huh.

So that was Jeannemarie Davis’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad interview on the Kojo Nnamdi Show this afternoon. Unfortunately for Davis, things aren’t likely to get much better in coming months for her (doomed) candidacy for LG.  

Video: AFSCME, SEIU, NEA Urge Sen. Warner to Stand Firm Against Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid

By
lowkell
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2



Where I come from on this is simple: before we even begin to talk about cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, we have to do the following.

1. Let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans. That certainly includes the estate tax, which is arguably the most progressive tax of all.

2. Ensure that the ratio of spending cuts to tax increases is 1:1 or, preferably, much lower than that.

3. I agree with Simpson-Bowles that capital gains and dividends should be taxed as normal income, not given preferential rates, allowing super-rich people like Mitt Romney to pay far lower rates than ordinary, working Americans (e.g., violating the “Buffett Rule,” and the Reagan rule for that matter).

4. Eliminate all subsidies to fossil fuels and other “bads,” like the corn ethanol boondoggle.

5. Institute a carbon tax – one large enough to make a big difference on CO2 emissions – immediately in order to avoid the “climate cliff” we’re about to plunge over, disastrously. I don’t care if this is revenue neutral or not, but if it’s not, some of that money can go for deficit reduction.

6. The only cuts to domestic discretionary program spending, which makes up a miniscule percentage of the budget and is NOT the cause of the federal deficit, should be to military spending. Why do we need to spend more than the next 10 countries combined? Can anyone justify that?

7. Cap deductions for home mortgage interest and other things that mostly wealthy people benefit from. Why should we be subsidizing them to buy multi-million-dollar mansions?

8. Raise the current $110,000 cap on payroll (“FICA”) withholding. Why should someone making $100 million only pay taxes on the first $100,000 and not on the remaining $99,900,000?

Once all that’s done, then IF we still have a budget deficit problem (which is highly unlikely), then we can talk about cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits. And even in that case, we should only be talking about cuts that don’t hurt the poor, working class, or middle class Americans. We should also be continuing to figure out ways to “bend the health care cost curve” in this country, but most likely we first need to see how full implementation of “Obamacare” works out before we move in that direction. Still, is there any good reason why we don’t have a robust public option?

EMILY’S LIST and The Farm Team announce training

By
The Farm Team
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0

The Farm Team is pleased to announce that we are partnering with EMILY’s List to offer three training opportunities in Virginia for pro-choice Democratic women and their key campaign staff in the next few months.

We hope you will share this invitation with any current women officeholders or future candidates that would benefit from this training.

As you may know, EMILY’s List is a political donor network and political resource for pro-choice Democratic women candidates. EMILY’s List has initiated a program designed to recruit and train women to run for and serve in elected office in the states.

Whether a pro-choice Democratic woman is currently serving on the school board, or in the General Assembly, or just beginning to think about running for elective office, we are certain this training will provide her with the skills and inspiration needed to successfully run for office.

We will hold our first training in Lynchburg on Monday, December 17th 2012.  The RSVP link for the first event is http://emilyslist.org/take-act…

The program, including materials and meals is free, however space is limited. Partial participation is not possible – you must make a commitment to attend the full program in order to be allocated a seat at the training.

Future trainings will be held Monday, January 14th in Northern Virginia and Friday, February 8th in Williamsburg. Stay tuned for details and RSVP links for those dates.

If you have any questions, or would like further details, please contact Jessica Byrd at 202-326-1400 or jbyrd@emilyslist.org or Julie Copeland of The Farm Team at 804-272-5955 or farmteam.va@gmail.com

BLS: Despite Superstorm Sandy, Unemployment Rate Drops to 7.7% (lowest in 4 years)

By
lowkell
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0

Great news:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. economy added 146,000 jobs in November, nearly double the projections. What’s more, the overall unemployment rate dropped to 7.7%, its lowest point in four years.

[…]

To be sure, 146,000 jobs isn’t evidence of a robust economic recovery, but given Sandy-generated expectations, the figures come as a pleasant surprise

Now, just imagine how good things would be if: a) we hadn’t gotten into the “Great Recession” in the first place under George W. Bush’s administration; b) Republicans hadn’t been obstructionists the entire first four years of President Obama’s first term; c) Republicans hadn’t caused the U.S. credit rating to be downgraded; d) Republicans hadn’t created the very “uncertainty” they decry; and e) we hadn’t had the public sector job losses we had, thanks to Republican refusal to provide more aid to the states? By the way, what ever happened to that supposed “socialist” (actually an Eisenhower/George HW Bush-style moderate through and through) Barack Obama destroying the economy? Yeah, that’s why the stock market doubled, the housing market’s rebounding, unemployment is way down from its Great Recession peak, consumer spending is up, etc., etc. Not that Republicans will easily abandon their narrative of that scary black/Muslim/Kenyan/radical/blahblahblah in the White House, but they really should check out this thing called “reality” once in a while, I strongly recommend it! 😉

Virginia News Headlines: Friday Morning

By
lowkell
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2

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, December 7 (a date that shall live in infamy, according to FDR).

*Debt Ceiling Bluff Called By Harry Reid, Leaving Mitch McConnell To Filibuster Himself (The absurdity of Republicans’ misuse of the filibuster takes on comic dimensions, courtesy of one of the slimiest members of that fine body, Mitch McConnell.)

*Good riddance, Mr. DeMint (One of the only things I can ever recall the egregiously bad Jennifer Rubin writing that actually made a relatively coherent, based-in-truth case for something.)

*Kaine says his campaign showed positive ads work (Perhaps they worked in Tim Kaine’s race, hard to know, but most campaign folks believe that NEGATIVE ads are what really work. Hard to say, as the record is mixed.)

*McDonnell still wary on state exchange, Medicaid expansion (You can be wary all you want, Bob, but as governor you still have to put your big-boy pants on and deal with it!)

*McDonnell said U.S. uncertainty requires conservative Va. budget

*Kaine Calls For Higher Taxes For Rich, Spending Cuts

*Virginia’s Kaine backs changes to filibustering (“Says he’d favor it regardless of party”)

*Sen. Warner: 80% Chance U.S. Will Avoid Fiscal Cliff (The only way we will avoid it is if Republicans start to seriously negotiate, something they’ve been unwilling to do up until now. The clock’s ticking…)

*Terry McAuliffe, Democratic hope (“Love him or hate him, Bill and Hill’s buddy is the only thing standing between the state and a Tea Party governor”)

*McDonnell expresses support for Cuccinelli’s 2013 bid

*Kaine: Porta-Potty dream summed up election

*Va. activists remain wary of Cuccinelli administration (Weird headline: people are a lot more than “wary” of this homophobic wacko)

*McAuliffe explains opening plant in Mississippi not Virginia (Not to Ryan Nobles: “Democrat” and “Democratic” should be capitalized; “its” is the possessive form not “it’s”)

*McAuliffe’s car company never finished Virginia incentive application (Interesting story, although also riddled with typos…)

*Wind offers a cleaner future

*White House crasher to campaign for governor in Hampton Roads

*Capitol Day recap: uranium and health care debates loom

*Editorial: Tighten the texting law

*Conflict of interest charges raised over Arlington transit vote (It’s amazing, when I raised this about Barbara Favola’s multiple conflicts of interest, the reaction I got from the County Board was hostility. Now, Board member Libby Garvey is raising a conflict of interest with fellow Board member Chris Zimmerman. We’ll see what the reaction is this time…)

*Va. Sen.-elect Tim Kaine reaches out, across aisle to fellow freshman Ted Cruz of Texas (Hahahaha, almost 24 hours later, they’ve STILL got this as “Timothy F. Kaine.” The Post sucks.)

Bruce Bartlett v the Fringe-anomic Republican Percenters

By
KathyinBlacksburg
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0

Bruce Bartlett appeared on Elliot Spitzer tonight to discuss the budget negotiations.  He not only said President Obama was right regarding the path he has taken.  He said the President should have gone further in rebuilding our infrastructure. (We here at BV have been saying that too.)

Dan Burger of Patriotic Millionaires also spoke with Spitzer..

Diane Rehm Has Become the Most Useless Talk Show Host Ever

By
KathyinBlacksburg
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1

A mere shadow of her former self, Diane Rehm once had a spine, heart and courage. She questioned and challenged guests, and even served as one of the key skeptics in the runup to the Iraq war (based upon lies). Now she is the worst radio show host in America. I remember painting the outside of my house during the runup to the Iraq war and during the early days of the war itself. And each day I painted, I listened to Diane each day.  

But in recent years, she has let vocal GOP ideologues bully and talk over other guests while making false statements, bashing ordinary Americans, conspiring to harm them, and otherwise doing the bidding of the 1%. So too, she sloughed off the role of a skeptical host yesterday in a show addressing hunger in America. Diane acted non-skeptically, asked almost nothing, and  challenged nothing. If she asked a question it was completely idiotic, such as, “Where does the food (for food banks) come from?” Americans were thus uninformed and even dis-informed because she lets guests get away with complete fabrications and alternate-universe notions of what is actually happening in our country. Why is she still taking up the airwaves? Why not just skip the intermediary and let the ever-polemic Steven Moore have his own show?

Yesterday, she pretended to offer a serious discussion on hunger in America. Instead, what she offered was some sort of cruel joke. I have never been on food stamps and I have never been obese, but I was offended by the outrageous crap coming from her show and under its banner. It was worse than offensive.  

She sat idly as Steven Moore, once a Club for Growth hack and now a member of the WSJ editorial board, belittled poor people. The bastard does this right before the holidays with true (Charles) Dickensian flourish. But the modern-day Scrooge had no Tiny Tim-inspired better day. Talk about the “worst of times.” He claimed those on food stamps did not need food, but rather they had too much of it. Make the man do a Food Stamp Challenge now!

The proof, he suggested, was in obesity in America. He implied the poor and working poor were all obese. He suggested America should scrap food stamps. And he proceeded to lie about the same old welfare-to-work and food stamps lies the GOP tried to get away with before the election.  

God, it gets old.  And there is Diane out-Charley-Rose-ing Charlie Rose. It’s pitiful. The airwaves are a public resource. It’s time NPR take back the two precious hours the Diane Rehm Show takes up. I am not alone in questioning Rehm’s handling of this show. She needs to retire-and soon. In the meantime, the Diane Rehm Show is a load of bull and it is the public getting reamed by its content.

Who is “Timothy F. Kaine?”

By
lowkell
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2

Last I checked, our Senator-elect's name was Timothy Michael Kaine, or Timothy M. Kaine for short. For whatever reason, the Kaplan/Washington Post seems to think otherwise (see below).  And yes, I realize that may seem like a minor mistake or even petty to point out, but from what I can tell, it's symptomatic of a broad decline in standards of all kinds – from typos to factual errors to lazy/bad journalism to an almost complete lack of journalistic ethics – at the Post over the past few years. As for the Post's coverage of Virginia politics, it's declined sharply in recent months, both in terms of quality and quantity (for more on that topic, see here). Coming into a critically important Virginia election year, it's not a comforting thought that the Post's institutional knowledge of the Virginia political scene is thinner than a book discussing Ken Cuccinelli's progressive policy positions.  Heh.

Posted at 12:44 PM ET, 12/06/2012

Va. Sen.-elect Tim Kaine reaches out, across aisle to fellow freshman Ted Cruz of Texas

By Errin Haines

Sen.-elect Timothy F. Kaine (D-Va.) has a new Republican BFF: fellow freshman Ted Cruz of Texas. 

Monday: Join Us For Caroling Against Cuts

By
ProgressVA
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0



This Monday, you can help make a difference in protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and ending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2%. We’re joining with progressives from across the Commonwealth to “Carol Against Cuts” at Senator Warner’s offices in Norfolk, Vienna, and Roanoke. Can you join us?

Congress is trying to reach a deal by the end of the year to keep us from falling off the “fiscal cliff”. Help us make sure any deal puts middle class families first by protecting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and raising revenue by letting the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% expire.

Event details and links to RSVP below.

Carol Against Cuts: Vienna

When: Monday, December 10th from 11:45am – 1pm

Where: Tyson’s Corner Center: 1961 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, VA 22102

Senator Warner’s Vienna office: 8000 Towers Crescent Drive Suite 200. Vienna, Virginia 22182

We will gather at 11:45 at the mall entrance to the right of Nordstrom’s (when facing the building from the parking lot) at Tyson’s Corner Center. We’ll practice our carols and sing to shoppers at Tysons Corner Center for 30 minutes before walking down the street to Senator Warner’s nearby office to share our musical message and deliver comments to the Senator’s staff.

RSVP to join us in Tyson’s Corner.

Carol Against Cuts: Norfolk

When: Monday, December 10th from 11:45am – 1pm

Where: Senator Warner’s Norfolk office: 101 W. Main Street Suite 4900 Norfolk, VA 23510

We will gather on the sidewalk outside to share our carols with downtown workers on their lunch break before heading up to the Senator’s office to share our musical message and deliver comments to the Senator’s staff.

RSVP to join us in Norfolk.

Candlelight vigil against cuts

When: Monday, December 10th from 4:30pm – 5:30pm

Where: Senator Warner’s Roanoke office: 129B Salem Ave., SW, Roanoke, VA 24011

RSVP to join us in Roanoke.

Video: Northern Virginia Family Explains “What $2,000 Means to My Family”

By
lowkell
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1



“Tiffany, who lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, son and parents, talks about what paying $2,000 more in taxes next year would mean to her family. Tell us your story at” http://www.whitehouse.gov/My2k

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