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Philip Van Cleave compares Cooch to Sarah Brady and Bill Clinton

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You’ve just got to laugh at this one.

To compare arch-conservative Ken Cuccinelli to Sarah Brady, who is virtually seen as the mother of the modern gun-control movement — now those are practically fighting words among gun owners.

But that’s exactly one of the shots Philip Van Cleave, the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, leveled at Attorney General Cuccinelli on Wednesday for the AG’s defense of George Mason University’s on-campus gun ban.

Van Cleave’s email blast was entitled: “Et tu, Cuccinelli?”

Van Cleave goes on to excoriate Cooch for “fear mongering” and – worst of all – being “‘Clintonesque’ for making a ‘for the children’ emotional argument.”  

Great stuff, grab some popcorn!

Webb’s Stance on DADT No Surprise

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I’m not at all surprised by the position that Sen. Jim Webb appears to be taking on the compromise presently being sought in Congress for the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gays serving.  

Sen. Webb told reporters that he was leaning against voting for the compromise, which would immediately end DADT legally but would allow the military to take the time it deems necessary to implement the new policy.

“If you look at what the White House said and you look at what Secretary Gates said, they both said they would prefer to go through the process that Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates announced in February. I don’t see any reason to preempt that process,” Webb stated yesterday.

When he was asked if he would vote “no” when the Senate Armed Services Committee takes a vote on the proposed legislation, Webb refused to say. The way things are shaping up, Webb’s opposition won’t stop the legislation…that is, if Sen. Nelson of Florida joins Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska in voting “aye.”

Why am I not surprised about Sen. Webb’s position on the matter?  

Well, anyone who has talked with Jim Webb for any length of time knows that he is, first and foremost, a man who respects the military chain of command. After all, he served in the Marines, including combat during the Vietnam War, receiving a Silver Star, the Navy Cross, and two Purple Hearts. Plus, he served as secretary of the navy during the Reagan administration. He came from a military family himself and graduated from the Naval Academy. He’s military…through and through.

What would have surprised me more would have been if Jim Webb had agreed to the proposed DADT compromise after hearing that the Commander in Chief, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Defense preferred to follow the original plan of study before any change was made.

For a man raised by a career military father who also made the military an integral part of his own life, the decision Jim Webb reached is no surprise to me.

(I also remember on several occasions meeting Jim Webb’s driver during the campaign that resulted in his election to the U.S. Senate, a man who had served in Webb’s unit in Vietnam. Mac left his job in Tennessee and came to “enlist” in the Webb campaign for the duration. That sort of comradeship and loyalty is what the military receives back from Sen. Webb, as well. So…I am not at all surprised by his views on the proposed policy change.)

More Eugene Delgaudio Insanity, Homophobic Bigotry

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Eugene Delgaudio once again embarrasses himself, and I would hope Loudoun County Republicans, with his insane antics. Now, he’s upset that “President Obama has nominated a radical ally of the Homosexual Lobby to sit on the Supreme Court,” that said nominee is “a rock solid vote for Homosexual Marriage and to uphold Thought Control,” and that she may even be “a homosexual.”

Do people like Eugene Delgaudio really exist? Yes, but they’re usually in a padded room, surrounded by men in white coats.

Live Video: BP’s “Top Kill” Attempt Underway

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(UPDATE: Success?   – promoted by lowkell)

Live Videos by Ustream

UPDATE: Also, see the ABC News live feed of what’s going on.

UPDATE #2: CCAN (Chesapeake Climate Action Network) has issued a statement on President Obama’s cancellation of Lease Sale 220.

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network applauds President Obama for taking the much-needed and prudent step of canceling Lease Sale 220, proposed for 50 miles off Virginia’s coast. Canceling the lease sale is an important first step towards what Virginia ultimately needs:  a permanent ban on offshore oil drilling along Virginia’s coasts and a sharpened focus on promoting offshore wind and other forms of clean, safe energy.

Now is the time to develop Virginia’s clean offshore energy resource: Wind power. The commonwealth could easily get 10 percent of its electricity from offshore windmills, creating up to 10,000 jobs and enough power to run 3.6 million electric cars, with no threat of environmental or economic devastation.

Oil drilling can never be made entirely safe, and the consequences – as we now vividly see – can be catastrophic. The Hampton Roads area is home to the world’s largest Naval Station and relies heavily on tourism. An oil spill off of Virginia’s coast would be devastating not only to the environment but also to the economy. Industry and government estimates say there is untapped oil off the Virginia coast equal to just 6 to 24 days’ worth of national demand. The risks of drilling are far too great for a potential reward that is far too small.

Governor Bob McDonnell wants to make Virginia the energy capital of the East Coast. We agree. Instead of recklessly drilling for oil, Virginia should lead the nation in offshore wind power. Virginians want windmills, not oil spills.

UPDATE #3: The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club has issued a statement. I’ve posted it after the “flip.”

UPDATE #4: Environment Virginia has a statement as well, after the “flip.”

From the Sierra Club

The economic and environmental disaster that is currently unfolding on the Gulf Coast underscores the inherent and unavoidable risks that would come with drilling off Virginia’s coast – risks that have been well known for many years. It’s unfortunate that it took a disaster such as this to finally bring to light just how mistaken it would be to drill off Virginia’s coast.

Coupled with the recent Department of Defense report warning that Lease Sale 220 would cause unacceptable interference with critically important test and training conducted off the coast of Virginia, we urge Governor McDonnell to change his focus from oil to wind and put the state’s full resources behind developing the offshore wind potential off our coast. Governor McDonnell could really make Virginia the energy capital of the east coast by pursuing clean renewable offshore wind energy and the thousands of jobs this new industry will generate.

From Environment Virginia

“Today’s announcement by the Obama administration is an enormous victory for Virginia’s coast.  Sensitive coastal areas such as the Chesapeake Bay and Assateague Island, as well as the plants and animals that rely on a healthy ocean have been spared the threat of oil spills. Our thriving coastal economy, which produces more than $3 billion for the Commonwealth annually, is more secure with the cancellation of Lease Sale 220.

Environment Virginia is pleased that President Obama has realized that oil drilling continues to be a dirty and dangerous business and has decided to cancel these wrong-headed lease sales.  However, our beaches will not be safe until the President permanently bans drilling off the coast of Virginia and in all coastal areas that are currently being drilled.

The BP oil spill is a stark reminder of the enormous environmental impacts of our dependence on oil.  Now is the time for us to move away from the dirty fossil fuels of the past and towards a future powered by clean energy.

We know that there will be those who oppose today’s announcement, including Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.  The question remains for Governor Bob McDonnell – will he choose to lead on clean energy, or will he continue to beat the drum for his corporate allies in the oil industry.

Today is an opportunity for Virginia and the country to move away from fossil fuels.  We can safely power America with the wind that blows off our shores, the sun that beams down on our rooftops and by improving our energy efficiency.  Environment Virginia looks forward to working with both the Obama and McDonnell administrations to do just that.

My Two Cents: Stop Big Oil’s Assault on America

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Watch the aerial maps.  See the terrible more-than-a-“slick” move closer and closer to the coast, spreading wider and deeper toward Alabama’s coast.  The dreaded Loop Current’s is poised to snare the oil and push it toward Florida and the Eastern Seaboard.  What’s to become of us at the dirty hands of BP? They’re fast getting away with the homicide of the American continent.  Is the Gulf Disaster eco-terroism-by-neglect? Do these companies really believe that if they destroy everything in their path, that there will be anything left for their version of commerce? Do they not get that they are destroying themselves along with the rest of us?

Corporatists and Republicans (which are mostly the same thing) have flagrantly abused the term eco-terrorist. They’ve wantonly misapplied the term to anyone who cares about the environment and works within the system to protect it. That there are some fringe fanatics who are, in fact, eco-terrorists does not justify the wrongful overlay of defamatory labels on a huge sector of Americans who believe resource protection is simply good stewardship of our country. But, like everything else they hypocritically decry, it is the radical so-called “right,” and the corporations which love them, which increasingly morph into something approaching eco-terrorism.  This spill may not have been directly intentional, but it happened by intentional neglect. And the result is analogous to a homicide, a homicide of our nation’s coastline, its fishing, its tourist industries, and even, potentially much more… but their “solution” is even less regulation.  

And this comes from the former company of the previous Vice President of the US, who had better not “rear his head” in “our airspace” to condemn anyone else, ever again. Indeed, the radical “right” seems more interested in making excuses, defending Big Oil and continuing the free pass for BP. You wouldn’t want to “interfere” with business (snark). A British multinational (BP), Transocean, and Halliburton are fast destroying us.  This happens at the hands of a a company from a country of a supposed ally.  Where are they?

Even as the GOP corporatists lie about their party, which gets more than 65% of the oil industry’s donations (71% in the past year), and try to blame everyone else, they cannot escape the fact that it is Halliburton which is tied to this devastation, Halliburton, to which the former VP of these United States and Halliburton’s former CEO as well, gave a Halliburton and BP a free pass.  And yet they fulminate on. Given recent history, any of us could have told them that the company is run by fools and exploiters.  The same people who FUBAR’d this country after 9-11 have done it again.  And they have the nerve to call anyone else an eco-terrorist.

All the while, we know that once an off-shore spill off Saudi Arabia resulted in numerous tanker ships all changing direction, heading for that country, to siphon up and later clean the oil-water mess. Where are all the tankers now?  The US stands alone.

The United States sold its soul to the oil devil.  Why, a former BP oil exec is Deputy Sec of the Interior!  Such insider fox-in-the-hen-house “management,” must stop.  Yet our own admin appointed her.  

Though much of the groundwork for this disaster was in place long before President Obama took office, now he needs to act much more aggressively to solve this crisis and increase the wall between corporations and the agencies that are supposed to provide oversight of them.  

It is true that the Inspector General reports (the most recent two of them) found fault in the previous administration.  I do not expect the President to resolve all the corruption and reverse all the dismantling conducted by the previous administration within a year or so.  But Thursday is at least a day (possibly a month) late to impose new needed regs.

In the President’s defense, I also believe that much of the positive work he is doing has been unreported or misreported by the media, which likes soundbites rather than real coverage (“Plug the damn hole,” it quoted the President, but carried little honest coverage of what was being done constructively).  Rather the “reporters,” at least most of them, have served as pawns of the corporate media, blaming him, while, at the same time, exonerating the real culprits and quietly wanting him to do nothing to upset the corporate ad buyers and their revenue stream.  

I also believe that while Obama is not to blame for this, should he continue to conduct business as usual, including fund raising, then he would make a serious blunder, which may hurt him in 2012. The time for aggressive action is more than upon us.  At the same time, the time for worrying about politics is gone.  

We don’t need troops on the border in AZ.  (We need border patrol.)  We need to focus on this rather than on building the case for war in Iran or North Korea.  This is a national emergency and we need to act like it.  We need all hands on deck.

Oil execs are too corrupt, manipulative and selfish to dispatch sufficient help our way.  They could be of enormous help in siphoning the oil destroying the coastline of the Gulf and threatening ultimately the Eastern Seaboard. In the absence of the oil industry doing the right thing and dispatching vessels themselves, the president should temporarily nationalize enough tankers and direct them to the area.  Should the disaster destroy the Eastern Seaboard, then the crisis in America will be more vast than many people have contemplated (which is bad enough).

Additionally, BP should be banished from operation in the United States.  It wont’ be, but it should be.  It has bought and insinuated itself everywhere, even the flagship University of California at Berkley, where the conglomerate, hoping for a makeover of its image and ownership of research, spent $500,000,000 buying a University research program.  

Please, President Obama, we are under attack by the willful neglect of an irresponsible industry.  The time to defend us is NOW.  The time to fund raise is definitely not (now).

Will I Have Reason to Thank Gov. McDonnell?

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(Let’s hope that Bob McDonnell follows through on his promises in this area.  Good luck! – promoted by lowkell)

We learned last week that the McDonnell administration is changing its policies on restoration of rights for nonviolent ex-felons like myself. As some readers here are aware, my application was denied in 2008 by Gov. Kaine on the grounds that I had traffic tickets.  But thanks to the new policy, I am able to reapply now instead of waiting until this fall.

Yesterday, I drove to Richmond to hand-deliver my application to Micah Womack, Restoration of Rights Director at the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office. He looked at my application, which was accompanied by a letter (not an essay) and supporting documents, and said that “everything appears to be in order.”  I asked him about the traffic ticket issue and he told me they are no longer using tickets as a reason to deny people, although they do look at the DMV records.  

I’m in a “wait and see” mode right now.  If they process the application in 60 days, as they said they would, and if my rights are actually restored, then I will have reason to thank Governor McDonnell for taking steps in the right direction (although I disagree with the process of having to petition the Governor in the first place). However, all of their policy announcements with regard to rights restoration would be meaningless if they found a petty reason to deny me again.  

This brings up another question. Now that traffic tickets are no longer an impediment to rights restoration, will those who agreed with the former policy (including at least one progressive blogger) still insist that I shouldn’t have my rights restored – even though I haven’t had a ticket since Oct. ’08?  

A Few Words About Botswana

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Danielle Nierenberg is blogging everyday from across Africa for the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet blog. She is also writing with her partner Bernard Pollack at her personal blog: BorderJumpers.

As we talked to locals in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital city, people were so proud to talk about the things they love about their country.

“We are free here, our country is so peaceful, you don’t have to be afraid,” said one.

“You can criticize the government, you have free speech, free elections,” said another.

Botswana is indeed an incredible country.

Home to not only the most beautiful wildlife we’ve seen yet, including elephants, giraffes, impala, kudu, and warthogs, Botswana is also where we’ve met some of the friendliest people. And it is one of the most vibrant political democracies we’ve seen so far, a nation proud of its peace and stability.

More than diamonds, people in Botswana consider water their most precious resource. This landlocked country’s national flag is blue to symbolize the element and it even named it currency “pula” or “rain.” Nearly everywhere you go in the country-including public toilets, sinks and showers-you see signs asking you to curb your consumption of water. These signs are tied to a massive national education and advertising campaign geared towards creating a general consciousness about the obligation as individuals to conserve water.

We visited a project helping to conserve another one of Botswana’s precious resources: wildlife. The Mokolodi Wildlife Reserve teaches the community about conserving and protecting wildlife and the environment, while also educating students about permaculture. By growing indigenous vegetables, recycling water for irrigation, and using organic fertilizers-including elephant dung-the Reserve’s Education Center is demonstrating how to grow nutritious food with very little water or chemical inputs.

We can learn a lot from Botswana on the importance of conservation. Here are two simple techniques they are using to curb consumption of energy and resources:

1. All electrical outlets-from the city to the countryside-come with an on/off switch. While this switch might sound simple, how many times have you seen these in the United States (instead of just having to unplug everything)? Televisions, alarm clocks, air conditioners, and other appliances are programmed to withstand these power shifts and they don’t have to be reset when the power is turned back on.

2. We’ve all seen plastic bags on the side of the road or in trash bins- taking many lifetimes to biodegrade – and doing irrevocable damage to the environment. While a few U.S. cities – such as Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington DC have implemented a small fee – or even an altogether ban- for plastic bags, we were impressed that Botswana has already implemented a surprisingly high (by local stands) national fee for their use or purchase. As a result, people bring their own bags to the grocery store or use no bag at all. Check out this interesting page on plastic bags by the Worldwatch Institute.

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DPVA “Shocked” McDonnell is “so cavalier about Malek’s past”

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From the Democratic Party of Virginia:

Cranwell: “Bob McDonnell should do his homework”

Yesterday in an interview on WTOP’s “Ask the Governor,” Bob McDonnell indicated that he didn’t know much about the man who he tapped to chair his newly formed Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring.  

When asked by Mark Plotkin about Malek’s controversial past, Governor McDonnell claimed “I didn’t know about his background,” which includes a $100,000 personal fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission for efforts by his company, Thayer Capital Partners, to defraud the State of Connecticut’s Pension Fund. McDonnell went on to defend Malek, claiming he is the “kind of people I want.”

“I’m shocked about two things,” said C. Richard Cranwell, Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia.  “One, the governor has no vetting process for critical appointments and two, the Governor is so cavalier about Malek’s past”

Governor McDonnell’s statement that business leaders “often” have regulatory violations like this is perhaps the most troubling.  “The fact that our Governor is unconcerned by Fred Malek’s involvement in a scandal that jeopardized state employees’ retirement funds is alarming,” said Cranwell.  “To have someone with this type of history undertake a massive restructuring and reforming initiative of state government borders on insulting to the people of Virginia.”

Cranwell continued, “I don’t know which is worse, knowing about Malek’s past and appointing him to this position anyway, or not taking the time to investigate someone you are appointing to such an important position.  If it were me, I’d have done my homework.”

By the way, there is no good reason for a Democrat to be on Malek’s commission. Frankly, right now, Democrats on that commission are simply being used as cover for McDonnell and Malek.  That needs to stop.

PPP: “Tea-Party Candidacy” Could Guarantee Perriello Reelection

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Let’s hope that Public Policy Polling is right about this.

Politico reports that in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District Tea Party activist Jeffrey Clark will run as an independent if moderate Republican Robert Hurt wins his party’s nomination to take on Tom Perriello.

How serious would a Clark candidacy be? When we polled the district in early February we found that a generic Tea Party candidate would pull 19%. Perriello received 44% and Hurt 27% in such a scenario.

[…]

…even if 48% is the best [Perriello] can get to in an off year election that would still put him over the top if Clark got just 5% from Hurt’s disaffected supporters…

In other words, go Jeffrey Clark! 🙂