U.S. economic growth picked up in the third quarter, boosted by stronger consumer spending, an improving housing sector and increased defense spending.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic health, grew at an annual rate of 2% from July to September, the Commerce Department said Friday, faster than the 1.3% in the second quarter.
So, let’s review: with Republicans hell bent on making Obama “fail,” unemployment is down, 5 million private sector jobs have been created in the last 30+ months, the auto industry’s alive and well, the housing market’s bouncing back, Al Qaeda is decimated/bin Laden is dead, health care coverage has been expanded for tens of millions of Americans, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has been ended (good riddance!), the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for Women has been signed, Great Depression II has been averted, Wall Street reforms have been put in place/the financial sector has been saved from ruin, cancer has been cured… Oh wait, the last one isn’t true, so definitely don’t vote for Obama. Ha. 🙂
Richmond, VA – Over the past two weeks, Tim Kaine has racked up an impressive slate of endorsements from papers all across Virginia. In key battlegrounds like Fairfax, Loudoun, Hampton Roads, and Richmond, papers have praised Kaine for his steady leadership of Virginia in tough fiscal times, his ability to work across the aisle with leaders of both parties, and his specific, issue-oriented campaign for the U.S. Senate. As the Fairfax Times wrote, Tim Kaine “has what it takes to lead in tight fiscal times.” And, the Virginian-Pilot summed up the choice for voters in this election, saying: “Which candidate would work effectively in Congress with Republicans and Democrats, with President Barack Obama or with a President Mitt Romney? Without a doubt, the answer is Tim Kaine.”
In contrast, those same papers have called out George Allen for helping to “dig the massive fiscal ditch in which the country is mired,” for his career-long reputation as “a force of divisiveness,” and his “fuzzy” statements on key issues of the day.
Please see below for what these newspapers have to say about Kaine:
“The contrast in character and intellect is even more stark. On those grounds, Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, is a better choice by leaps and bounds than Mr. Allen, a Republican.”
“Mr. Allen paints himself as a fiscal conservative, but general fund spending jumped when he was governor, in the boom years of the ’90s. It was flat during Mr. Kaine’s term, which coincided with the sharp economic downturn of 2008-09.”
“Moreover, by embracing the Bush-era tax cuts and opposing their repeal, Mr. Allen helped dig the massive fiscal ditch in which this country is mired.”
“Mr. Kaine, admired as governor for his straight talk and civility, guided the state sure-handedly through the worst months of the recession.”
“[Kaine] made judicious budget cuts forced on him by plummeting revenue — for which Mr. Allen is now attacking him — while pursuing goals he’d set as a candidate, including broadening access to early childhood education.”
“In a Congress seized by partisan acrimony, Mr. Allen, who once pledged to knock Democrats’ “soft teeth down their whiny throats,” would be a force for divisiveness. Mr. Kaine, like his mentor Sen. Mark Warner, has the potential to be a deal-maker. That’s more what the Senate needs.”
“In one such exchange, it was apparent that Mr. Allen did not understand how birth-control pills work nor the implications of “personhood” legislation he supports, which declares that life begins at the moment of conception.”
“[Kaine] favors a balanced approach to deficit-cutting. He would allow Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to expire — he’d set the bar at incomes of $500,000 a year, twice the level proposed by the Obama administration”
“Mr. Allen favors a different approach, having signed a pledge never to raise taxes, thereby allowing ideology — and specifically anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist — to trump bipartisan compromise.”
“[Allen] offers only fuzzy ideas for charting a path toward a balanced budget: cutting regulations(but which ones?), goosing the oil and gas industries (which are already booming) and implementing enormous phased-in spending cuts — again unspecified.”
“Mr. Allen and the anonymous, deep-pocketed allies who have paid for the barrage of TV ads against Mr. Kaine have traded in distortions.”
“Tim Kaine, not afraid to ask voters to sacrifice and think long-term, would make a distinguished U.S. senator in the best Virginia tradition.”
“…even Virginia newspapers that normally support Republicans are this year endorsing Tim Kaine – for his learned and thoughtful approach.”
“[Allen] continues to say things that echo more like soundbites for an audition on angry talk radiothan as serious, credible, deliberative debating points for responsible governance.”
“Nor is this a very gentlemanly thing to say about the opposition political party: “Let’s enjoy knocking their soft teeth down their whining throats!”…But Kaine’s opponent, George Allen, the Republican nominee, actually did say those things. It’s an exact quote.”
“Which candidate would work effectively in Congress with Republicans and Democrats, with President Barack Obama or with a President Mitt Romney? Without a doubt, the answer is Tim Kaine.”
“During the past year, the former Richmond mayor, lieutenant governor and governor has crisscrossed the commonwealth pledging to find common ground and serve as a bridge for the partisan differences paralyzing Washington.”
“Deficit reduction is his priority, and he has advocated a compromise…”
“Kaine is willing and able, unlike his opponent, to discuss in detail his plans on those matters and others critical to people here and across the country.”
“But Allen's record from his single six-year term in the Senate, starting in 2001, is plagued with the kinds of votes that are toxic to any fiscally responsible voter, as well as the candidate Allen now claims to be…”
“The only candidate in this race offering an effective, collaborative approach – and realistic solutions – is Tim Kaine.“
“Gov. Kaine was faced with a more challenging scenario during his tenure, which saw the beginnings of the economic recession. It was a time for tough choices, which forced him to cut the state budget by $5 [b]illion, but there was still the opportunity for an investment in education. The end result was Virginia maintaining its bond rating and its Forbes rank as best state” in business.”
“[Kaine] has demonstrated a unique intellectual agility and an openness to new ideas and approaches that the country needs.”
“In a choice between two former governors, the current economic landscape leaves us favoring the one with experience dealing in hard economic times. We endorse Tim Kaine.”
“Kaine is among the finest public servants we know.”
“We strongly recommend that effort be put to getting out the vote for President Obama and Gov. Kaine.” “The choice between moving forward or backward extends to more than economic policy, it applies to social values…”
“…wanton lack of oversight on the spending for two wars (one completely unnecessary and even criminal) and on Wall Street's unrestrained excess…Romney and Allen are both associated with those years and policies.”
“We are struck by Kaine’s willingness to work with the GOP should he be elected”
“On education, the former governor has a stellar record… during his time at the State Capitol, early childhood programs grew by 40 percent.“
“Kaine should be able to continue Webb’s efforts as a protector of the Old Dominion’s veterans and service personnel. He was governor while two wars were going on and members of Virginia’s National Guard were deploying, and he knows how important defense contracting is to the state’s economy.”
“…[Kaine] would do everything he can for the Armed Forces.”
“Throughout his remarkable 18-year political career, we have strongly endorsed the candidacies of Tim Kaine.“
“…[Mr.Kaine] has significantly built on the Holton legacy by uncommonly standing up for equal rights, along with social and economic justice.”
“George Allen, whose disgraceful record clearly shows that he…[is] only concerned about getting President Obama out of the White House and turning the clock back on hard-earned civil rights gains.”
“Kaine’s campaign was driven more by ideas and solutions than partisanship and personal attacks. As governor, he got high marks for straight talk and problem-solving.”
“Allen has proven adept at lobbing grenades in Kaine’s direction…What he’s proven less adept at is providing details — details on how he’d grow the economy, add jobs and reduce the deficit.”
“Faced with massive revenue shortfalls during his last three years as governor, he [Kaine] worked with legislators on both sides of the aisle to cut more than $5 billion and balanced the budget. He did all that while finding money to expand pre-kindergarten participation by 40 percent and passing a $1.5 billion bond package for Virginia’s universities and community colleges.”
“Tim Kaine also has proven he has what it takes to lead in tight fiscal times and is the best choice for the U.S. Senate”
*McDonnell stumps for Allen, downplays disagreement (“McDonnell and many other Republicans took the same position on the deal that Kaine did, calling it an unpalatable but necessary step to keep the nation from defaulting on its credit.”)
*Editorial: In the best Virginia tradition (“It is no surprise, then, that even Virginia newspapers that normally support Republicans are this year endorsing Tim Kaine – for his learned and thoughtful approach.”)
*Side effects of AG’S activism (“Political power often tempts elected officials to overreach, but rarely does the abuse of authority cause the kind of injury Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s has inflicted on the state Board of Health.”)
I’m pretty sure everyone knows that the Boss did an appearance last week in Ohio with the Big Dog (or did the Big Dog do an appearance with the Boss? That’s a tough call determining who was topping that bill!).
In any event, since Bruce was going to be here in Charlottesville for a concert Tuesday night at the JPJ (a concert that, unfortunately, I was unable to attend), there was hope we might see a similar rally here. Hey, the Boss was here, and we are a swing state, so…
And sure enough, the Obama campaign put out word this weekend that Bruce would do a free concert/get-out-the-vote rally at the Pavilion on the Downtown Mall.
Getting tickets on Sunday was easy enough, and on Tuesday, a beautiful Central Virginia autumn afternoon, me, Mrs. aznew, and Jonah, the most junior aznew (he’s 12) headed down to the Mall. Sure, we had to pull him out of school early to get there in time, but we have our priorities straight.
I didn’t have a great vantage point to judge crowd size, but based on other gatherings I’ve seen at the Pavilion, it looked like at least 3,000 to 4,000. The crowd was enthusiastic, but not necessarily political. Many people were clearly there just to see Springsteen, which of course was the idea behind the rally, namely, to deliver the “get out and vote” message to people who otherwise would not attend a political event.
Virginia doesn’t offer early voting in the same way as Ohio – here in the Commonwealth, you need to have a reason for needing to vote early, you can’t just do it as a matter of right – but volunteers were on hand to help people vote early if they needed to once the rally was over.
But, in truth, just planting the idea in people’s minds will get some of them out to the polls on Election Day who otherwise might not go.
Much more on the flip, including video of the Boss
There were a number of speakers and videos before the Boss came on aimed at getting people to vote for President Obama, but finally, Gov. Tim Kaine came on to introduce Bruce. Before doing so, of course, he made short speech.
“I am here today to support the reelection of Barack Obama,” Gov. Kaine said. “We’re not just gonna make it happen. We’re gonna make sure it happens not in spite of Virginia, but because of Virginia.”
Folks, if President Obama wins Virginia, it is game, set and match. Simple as that. There is simply no path for Romney to win this election if he doesn’t win Virginia. We may not be part of the President’s so-called “firewall” in the mid-West, but we could have the privilege of perhaps being the state that seals Romney’s defeat.
How great would that feel on Nov. 7?
But I digress.
I won’t go into detail about the Boss’ show, except to say that it was great. The set was basically the same one he did in Ohio with Clinton (if you saw that), except he seemed to have added a few more verses to the Obama campaign song he’s been writing, and he substituted The River for Youngstown, for obvious reasons. So, the set was as follows:
No Surrender
Promised Land
Obama Campaign Song
The River
We Take Care Of Our Own
Thunder Road
My words couldn’t do the show justice, but, Hell, they don’t have to. Judge for yourself. Here is a video of the show, well worth a half-hour of your time if you can spare it – just some really beautiful, quintessentially American music here, courtesy of Obama For America:
Seriously, the fact that we have artists like the Boss who care so deeply for social and economic justice, and express it so profoundly, is one of the things that make me proud to be an American.
I am thankful to the Boss not just for writing and performing such beautiful music, but more importantly for caring enough about his country to put in the time and effort to appear at a rally only a few hours before he has to perform at a concert — not a small or easy thing – to help President Obama get re-elected.
Here’s how I see it. If Bruce can do this for us, the least we can do is take a small amount of time on Nov. 6 to make sure we all get out and vote.
But, in reality, that’s not enough. Look, if you’re reading Blue Virginia, I assume you’re going to vote.
What we all need to do is to make sure all of our family members vote. We need to talk to our neighbors, and make sure that they vote. Talk to our friends, and make sure they vote. Talk to our kids teachers and make sure they go out and vote. E-mail people we have not e-mailed in years and say, “Hi. Hey, go vote, will-ya?”
Remember, if the President wins Virginia, he wins the election. It is as simple as that.
Ask yourself, do you really want to be referring to “President Romney” for the next four years? Do you?
Less than two weeks away from the election, the Virginia State Board of Elections website, in the midst of a “convenient” remodel, features broken links and missing pages essential to the transparency necessary for confidence in the Virginia outcome. Election night, we might not have a window on Virginia results.
There has been a transition to a new user interface across state agencies. Not uncommon are the sort of errors you find on the General Assembly pages or even on the SBE site. But, now? A year after a most dramatic redistricting left Virginia voters confused and disoriented? A month after most of us received our new voter registration cards that would have lessened last year’s confusion but were issued over this year’s criticism of a new voter identification law? Some things are just too coincidental to be coincidence.
For now some of the links on the Results and Reports user interface function only after insistent manipulation. Some don’t seem to function at all. And none of the reports have been moved to the “updated system.”
We are currentlly (sic) in the process of converting our results from our former system to this system. If you would like to view results in the meantime, please go to our Results page. – SBE elections results page
The perfect explanation for an election day “malfunction?” Have the Republicans found their 2012 Florida?
FYI, there are a number of updates to the Patrick Moran/James O’Keefe/voter fraud story which broke yesterday. First off, ArlNow – which has been on top of this story, big time (much more so than the area’s corporate media outlets) – reported late this afternoon that “The Arlington County Police Department has opened a criminal investigation into a video of Patrick Moran, son of Rep. Jim Moran and former field director of his reelection campaign.” In addition, ArlNow quotes an Arlington County Police Department spokesman that “[a]ll parties will be involved in the investigation,” and that “‘it would be irresponsible’ to not investigate the video.” I agree 100%; good work by the Arlington County Police Department.
Second, the Jim Moran for Congress campaign released a statement a little earlier this evening:
Our campaign welcomes a thorough investigation and we will fully cooperate. The incident involving Patrick was an unfortunate situation. While clearly lacking good judgment, Patrick’s unsolicited interaction with a right wing political operative seeking to trap him in a damaging conversation did not constitute an unlawful action. We are confident this unwelcome chapter in the campaign will be quickly and favorably closed.
Third, here’s a statement from Rep. Moran personally, also released a bit earlier this evening:
Congressman Moran released the following statement regarding Patrick Moran and the O’Keefe video:
“I don’t condone the actions of the right wing organization in question, but I recognize that this incident is teaching Patrick a tough lesson early in life. I know that my son’s intention was to deflect the line of questioning by this trained political operative bent on goading him into a specific response.
“But the fact remains that the conversation drifted into discussions that reflected a serious error in judgment that Patrick wishes he could take back.
“In life, if we learn from our mistakes, we move forward stronger, wiser, and committed to ensuring they are not repeated. I know Patrick will come out of this tough situation a better man for it.”
Hopefully, the Moran campaign is right that Patrick Moran comes out “wiser” from this, and more importantly from a political perspective, that this case “will be quickly and favorably closed.” For now, though, it’s in the hands of law enforcement authorities, as well it should be. Stay tuned…
This story by The Hill, about how “[a] number of Senate candidates have not cut their ties to companies with vested interests in legislation the contenders could be voting on, should they be elected,” has the right idea but is poorly executed at best. Thus, all we get on George Allen, who has glaring, egregious conflicts of interest, is the following boilerplate, including a whitewashing statement by the Allen campaign. #FAIL
Allen earned $350,000 last year from George Allen Strategies, a Beltway-based firm he launched after he lost his Senate reelection bid in 2006 that employs a former Allen staffer who is a registered lobbyist.
“Clients of Gov. Allen’s firm have already been properly disclosed on his personal financial disclosure statements that have been publicly filed with the U.S. Senate. If elected to the U.S. Senate, George Allen Strategies will no longer be in operation,” said Allen spokeswoman Katie Wright when asked about which clients Allen’s company is currently advising. The forms were filed in May.
Allen and former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) are locked in a tight race.
That’s it? Seriously? That’s what “reporting” passes for these days? And they wonder why the corporate media’s dying? So lame. In fact, if The Hill had done a bit more work on this, and/or if they had had the cojones to push a little harder, they would have told their readers that:
*Allen didn’t have to submit financial disclosure reports before he started running for the U.S. Senate this time around, so there’s nothing about his clients in earlier years, and the financial disclosure form only requires that he list sources of income who gave him more than $5,000 during the reporting period. Wow, that’s really helpful. Not.
*Allen goes to great lengths to hide the real sources of his money; for instance listing Navigators Global, itself a giant lobbying firm, as one of his consulting clients, thus allowing no way to see who his ultimate clients really are. Clever, clever!
*Allen is on the Board of Directors of several companies which could benefit from congressional action in their favor.
*The last time Allen got elected, back in 2000, he failed to disclose stock options he still owned from a corporate board he had served on (Xybernaut — see here for more on that sordid story!). Xybernaut was a government contractor, and Allen wrote a letter on their behalf while he owned their stock (which he, again, failed to disclose). Since then that company has gone bankrupt and their top management indicted for money laundering, etc.
Does any of this give you a warm and fuzzy feeling about George Allen, let alone make you want to vote for him? No, I didn’t think so. Does all of this make you wish the media would do its job and really dig into Allen’s sleaziness? Yes, but don’t hold your breath; they’re too busy working on their phoney narratives about “Mitt’s comeback” (which isn’t happening) and other assorted bull****, instead of doing their actual jobs. Meanwhile, the George Allens of the world get away with…well, not murder, but some really bad stuff.
A Massachusetts judge has unsealed the divorce case of Tom v Maureen Stemberg. Transcripts will be forthcoming. Meanwhile, a good deal is already known. As this article reveals, Mitt lied under oath to benefit a friend and business associate.
When Willard Mittens Romney meddles in people’s marriages, as he did when a bishop of the Mormon Church, he’d go to the home of the family and order them to do as he declared they must. That is abuse of power. And that is bad enough. But it is a different thing all together when Mittens goes to court and lies under oath to screw his friend’s wife in divorce court by claiming the company (Staples) was worth less than it was. Then Mitt and Tom Stemberg went to Goldman Sachs and got much more for it.
This case matters because it goes to Mitt Romney’s honesty, credibility and character. It also matters because Tom Stemberg gave a speech at the RNC convention and advises Mitt Romney on health care, the cruel irony of which is found below. Bain Capital had invested in Staples. Mitt sat on Staples Board of Directors. It also matters that Mr. Stemberg, Staples CEO, is a spokesperson on the campaign trail for Mitt Romney. But there is more. While at the same time advising Willard Mittens Romney on health care issues, Stemberg canceled his wife’s health insurance policy, despite the fact that she had cancer and MS.
Notice the double standard. The Romneys played for sympathy for Ann Romney. But it’s ironic that Ann Romney claimed she needs a tax-deductible horse because of her MS, while another sufferer of the very same disease and cancer should be screwed out of what was hers because of Mitt’s lies. And when Mitt’s very own health adviser, Tom Stemberg, canceled his sick wife’s health insurance to punish her in the divorce proceedings, there is something really ugly going on. Yes, there is evil in the world. And that evil is purposely harming others.
See here for more:
Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, October 26.
I’m pretty sure everyone knows that the Boss did an appearance last week in Ohio with the Big Dog (or did the Big Dog do an appearance with the Boss? That’s a tough call determining who was topping that bill!).
Less than two weeks away from the election, the Virginia State Board of Elections website, in the midst of a “convenient” remodel, features broken links and missing pages essential to the transparency necessary for confidence in the Virginia outcome. Election night, we might not have a window on Virginia results.
FYI, there are a number of updates to the 
