If you haven’t kept up with what’s been happening with the proposed slave museum, this Washington Post article, reprinted in today’s Virginian-Pilot, gives a lot of the background. Not only is the museum in bankruptcy, but Wilder has stopped talking to people about it, including not talking to those who donated artifacts.

What has happened to those artifacts is the thing that bothers me the most.

So much of black history has been lost over the years, because much of it relied on oral history. I still remember watching “Roots” as a kid and being amazed that a family had passed the story of Kunta Kinte through its generations. While I know I am the descendent of slaves on both sides of my family, my ability trace my own roots is limited by the lack of records.

To be able to see the artifacts, such as the mask that Wilder is holding in the photo above (see the slideshow here), is to see a history that wasn’t written down, that was, in many ways, whitewashed. As I said in an earlier post, history is written by the victors.

Wilder, who is pretty good at talking about a lot of other things, does the black community a disservice by not talking about the museum, by not letting all of us know what happened to the donations. Those artifacts need to be returned to their donors or, at the very least, contributed to another museum, where they can be seen by all. (I don’t count this as “talking.”)

I have no idea whether they have the space for it but the perfect place for all of the artifacts would be Fort Monroe, as mentioned in this 2011 editorial.

Whatever is decided, the sooner it is, the better. For all of us.

I watched the story unfold and read a lot of very strong opinions on the subject on both sides following the articles in the paper. One supporter of Komen’s decision to cut of funding said something that I found to be correct and directly to the point for me. They said it was the Komen’s money and they should do with it what they wished.  That is true in my opinion. Once I give money to an organization, I am trusting them to administrator it with the same criteria in the past which was why I choose to donate to them. I tend to be very picky on who I donate money to, anyway. Researching them on charity search engine, looking at what they have accomplished and what percentage goes to administrative.  So that is why the writer’s comment really made me think. I always buy the pink ribbon products and also sponsor my friends who do the fund-raisers for the pink events.  This amount is trivial to the overall budget of the Komen foundation, of course,but this little contribution is my part. So if I am unhappy with how an organization is being run it is easier for me to switch to some other organization.  This is not the case once I am dead and they have the more significant amount left in my will. This actually was my concern.

The Komen foundation hired Karen Handel as a Senior Vice President.  She has always stated she is pro-life and does not support Planned Parenthood. She never has hidden her personal beliefs in this manner. Now it seems like this whole issue is being linked to her specifically,  calling for her termination. However, Komen President Elizabeth Thompson and CEO  Nancy Brinker knew how strong her personal beliefs were when she was hired. Now some groups are suggesting that Thompson apparently knew that Planned Parenthood was the only organization affected by the new rules. So it came down to for me was the organization’s future. Is this organization in the future likely to be more concerned about women’s overall health or more concerned with their personal beliefs?  Instead of worrying about which it is, I will just move my money to another organization.  Not supporting the Komen foundation does not mean you don’t support education, testing and hopefully the curing of breast cancer. They do not own the color pink nor the concern for breast cancer.

In Virginia there is an organization known as Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation (VBCF) which several of my friends donate to.  Their slogan Educate, Advocate, Eradicate best exemplifies VBCF’s strategy in the battle against this epidemic. They are the people who brought the state the pink breast cancer license plates.

However, I am giving my money to Planned Parenthood. The reason is they are concerned for all women’s health issues and I have had friends die from female issues/cancers related to other areas than breast. They also help the poor get screenings, advice and help. My mother ran a health center for over 30 years which specifically targeted the underserved. This is something I have seen first hand and you really can not relate to it if you are able to drive to your doctor hand them your insurance card and say I don’t feel well.  That is not an option for a lot of people. So that is why I have decided to switch my donations to Planned Parenthood. Also I am hoping that Planned Parenthood will get enough of funding to keep their proposed mobile van for mammograms and screenings. I believe especially when dealing with the undeserved you can help more if you can get to them.

Again my little donations won’t even be noticed by the Komen foundation. Even if some of my friends decide to change it is likely not to be noticed.  It is worth noting that Planned Parenthood has seen a significant increase in donations as well at the Komen foundation has raised a significant amount from the anti-abortion people.  So maybe people taking sides has helped both organizations. I just know that I feel better about my choice now that this has come to light.

Angie that is the best explanation I can give you from my personal point of view.

A quick look at some of the stories and other stuff from the past week.

Scott Rigell disavows tax pledge
2nd Congressional district representative Scott Rigell has stepped away from his no-taxes pledge. Needless to say, there are some folks who are unhappy about that, including two letters printed in today’s paper (1, 2). There’s not much that Rigell and I agree on, but stepping away from the idiotic pledge is one of them. Kudos to Rigell for showing some independence of thought.

Komen vs Planned Parenthood
Over the course of a few days, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation went from one of the most respected organizations to one of the most reviled. It was a PR mistake of epic proportions. No surprise that they backtracked on the decision to continue making grants to PP, but theirs is a brand ruined, because political hacks, including Ari Fleischer, made a poor decision. And, for the record, abortion services represent only 3% of the services provided by PP.

Meanness in the General Assembly
Unless you are a social conservative, the actions so far in the Virginia General Assembly have been nothing short of mean. When conservatives like Kerry Dougherty call you out, you know you’ve gone too far. Between abortion and voter suppression bills, what has this General Assembly accomplished? I feel like Ed Schultz – where are the jobs?

Best joke of the week

Next week on the Apprentice: Trump and Romney try to fire 243,000 people to account for today's job numbers report.—
Don Mark (@DonMarkRVA) February 03, 2012

Sabato calls it a “Newt-mare,” a spin on the word nightmare. If Gingrich is the nominee, it’s not just the presidency that Republicans lose, but a lot of those seats they picked up in Congress in 2010. That fear may very well be driving people to link up behind Romney.

I’d like to urge Republicans to support Gingrich but I can’t. There’s simply too much time between now and November and anything could happen. The last thing I’d want is having this megalomaniac as president. I don’t get the sense that Romney is the authoritarian that Gingrich is.

Obviously, I’d prefer that neither of them become president.

I don’t put much stock in the 2011 estimated return – way too much guessing going on there.

I haven’t had time to go through them all, but what quickly jumped out at me was the 13.9% effective tax rate (total tax paid of $3,009,766 divided by total income of $21,661,344). Let’s just say that my total income was significantly less than the total tax paid and my effective rate was higher than that – and that doesn’t include my contributions to Social Security and Medicare. That’s what happens when the source of income is from qualified dividends and capital gains, which receive a preferential rate over ordinary income, like wages and interest.

In last night’s debate, Romney questioned Newt Gingrich on his 0% rate for capital gains, which would virtually wipe out Ronmey’s tax liability. Gingrich says yes, he wants that rate for those people because they are the “job creators.” Looking at Romney’s tax return I see only one job created: they have a household employee that was paid a total of $20,603. Um, that isn’t much job creation to justify a zero tax rate, now is it?

I’ll look at the returns a little closer when I have more time. And as of this writing, none of the stories written about the returns are worthy of linking to since they all just repeat the same topline information.

Hirschbiel kickoff

Businessman Paul Hirschbiel officially announced his candidacy in the 2nd Congressional district today. The picture at left was taken from the campaign’s Facebook page and includes Sen. Mark Warner and former LG candidate Jody Wagner.

I was unable to attend but local TV station, WVEC, was there. Below is their report.

A quick look at some of the stories and other stuff from the past week.

VA Republican primary: still Romney v Paul
This was my lead last Saturday but it appears it is now final. Rick Perry appealed the judge’s ruling but the appeal was denied. Absentee ballots have been printed and voting has begun. Oh, and that stupid loyalty oath is gone.

Republican primary field narrows further
Perry was the originator of the lawsuit but Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman, and Michelle Bachmann joined in. Bachmann was gone after Iowa. This week, two more Republican candidates dropped out: Huntsman on Monday and Perry on Friday. Santorum, despite his official Iowa win, will be the next to go. I expect he’ll finish a distant fourth in today’s primary in South Carolina. Gingrich, whose race-baiting is fueling this latest surge, is in it for a while, although I still expect Romney to the be nominee. Gingrich garnered Perry’s endorsement (for what it’s worth) while Huntsman endorsed Romney, as did our governor, Bob McDonnell. As for Ron Paul – well, he’s not going anywhere. I expect him to take it all the way to the convention.

Speaking of Iowa – having watched some of the coverage on caucus night, and then seeing that they lost some of the precincts’ ballots, I think it’s time for them to give up the “first in the nation” position.

Congressional redistricting headed to the governor’s desk
Both the Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate have passed the incumbent-protection congressional redistricting bill. A couple of tweets from yesterday:

Under GOP VA map, none of 11 CDs are between D+5 & R+5 in Cook PVI. #VA10 Wolf (R) goes R+2 -> R+5, #VA11 Connelly (D) goes D+2 -> D+6—
Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) January 20, 2012

Only non-solid incumbent in our VA ratings is #VA02 Rigell, who is Likely R. VA = perfect example of competitive state, uncompetitive lines—
Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) January 20, 2012

Yep. But at least I live in VA-02. Democratic candidate Paul Hirschbiel, already on the DCC’s Red to Blue list, will officially kick off his campaign Monday.

Uranium ban to stay in place
At least until regulations can be written. This might take a while.

Passenger rail coming to Norfolk
By the end of the year, passenger rail service from Norfolk will restart. I am really looking forward to this. I think it would be kinda cool to take the train to Richmond (although I haven’t figured out how I’d get from Staples Mill into downtown Richmond).

Taxes
No, not Newt Gingrich’s (pdf – the one I’d like to see is Gingrich Holdings, Inc.,  by the way) or Mitt Romney’s (no link because he hasn’t released them yet) but your taxes. It’s time to think about them. The IRS announced a new Free File option that is open to everyone, regardless of income: fillable forms. And the Virginia Department of Taxation has followed suit. Electronic filing of tax returns began this week. The federal tax filing deadline is April 17.

Goodbyes
Once a fixture in my childhood neighborhood, I distinctly recall an item my godmother purchased for me from Mugler’s: a plaid shirt-shaped jacket that was popular with the kids back then. It was one of the few times that I ventured into the store, although I walked past it daily, mostly prior to its move up the street. I really didn’t know that it wasn’t located in Phoebus anymore until I read that the store is closing. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

R&B singer Etta James died yesterday. Another beautiful voice gone. Here is a live version of her singing perhaps her best-known song, At Last.

Playoffs
After going 1-for-4 last weekend, I hope no one puts much stock in my football picks anymore Nevertheless, I’m picking the Patriots over the Ravens and the 49ers over the Giants. (Have I mentioned how much I dislike Eli Manning? )

Effective? Time will tell. But for now, it seems some in Washington are listening.

The “Stop Censorship” ribbon will remain on the site. If you click on it, you will be taken to a site that allows you to contact your Senator about the January 24th vote.

Censorship is not an American trait.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that the site will be blacked out for just 12 hours, from 8am to 8pm. We will not be off-line; rather, the fine folks here at wordpress.com have designed a wonderful front that includes information about the bills.

A quick look at some of the stories and other stuff from the past week.

VA Republican primary: still Romney v Paul
The week started off with a ruling by Judge John Gibney to delay the printing of the ballots for the March 6 primary. When he put the ruling in writing the next day, it appeared that his final order might be in favor of the plaintiffs. (Rick Perry had filed the lawsuit but was joined by Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Michelle Bachmann, the latter three having not even bothered to turn in any petitions.) That was not to be. Friday, the judge heard the arguments in the case and ruled that Perry, et al, had waited too long to fight the rules (pdf).

General Assembly back in session: Republicans in charge
The General Assembly convened Wednesday. To the surprise of no one, Republicans in the Senate claimed control of that chamber. With the large majority in the House, Republicans are now in complete control of Virginia’s government. Despite the exhortation of Gov. Bob McDonnell in his State of the Commonwealth address that Republicans not “be arrogant” and not “overreach,” I simply don’t see that moderation coming to fruition. Elections have consequences, and how Republicans act with their control might just come back to bite them in November.

Republicans in charge: fast-track for congressional redistricting
I have to say I didn’t see this one coming, although I mentioned it as being on the table in my op-ed this week. I just didn’t think they would get to it as quickly as they did, with the first committee vote coming on the opening day of session. The bill has passed the House, but not without some division amongst the members of the black caucus. I have seen the memo – and my first response was that was something that needed to be spoken to the members of the VLBC, not committed to writing, simply because I knew it would end up in a story somewhere. The black caucus is a minority within a minority – and the need to stick together on the big issues cannot be overstated. But next time, I hope this kind of conversation takes place in the caucus meetings.

Bob Marshall is in!
Delegate Bob Marshall, author of HB1, the personhood bill, is running for the U.S. Senate. Marshall, who nearly pulled off an upset in the 2008 Republican convention for Senate, is entering an already crowded primary field. If nothing else, it’s going to be fun to watch Marshall debate front-runner George Allen.

Transparency? Um, no
The finance committee of the Portsmouth School Board canceled its meeting on the budget, rather than allow a Virginian-Pilot reporter to attend. When those who are supposed to represent us are afraid of the media, something’s very wrong. “Stop treating residents with contempt.” And the media, too.

Missing
The latest addition to the Virginian-Pilot editorial board, Michelle Washington, wrote a nice piece earlier this week about the lack of women in public life. Women, as I learned during the 2008 Democratic presidential contest, can be our own worst enemies. The sentiment of that woman she quoted in the story was one I heard far too often from women who would not support Hillary Clinton. If you substituted black for women in the article, you’d find a similar sentiment. There’s a name for it: internalized oppression.

Missing, part 2
Speaking of missing, I attended the Norfolk Forum Tuesday night and the speaker was University of Richmond president Dr. Edward L. Ayers. Ayers is a historian and an expert on the Civil War, the topic of his remarks. I don’t recall a speaker ever not having received a standing ovation before, but Ayers didn’t. Perhaps his blunt talk on the causes of the war made his overwhelmingly white audience uncomfortable.

Playoffs
My picks for the NFL playoffs this week: Saints over the 49ers, Patriots over the Broncos, Texans over the Ravens and Packers over the Giants.

I think it’s always good to hear what candidates would do if elected, not that most of these guys have a snowball’s chance of that happening. Truthfully, I expect the field to winnow rather quickly. At some point in the not-too-distant future, the anti-Romney’s are going to figure out that only one of them can actually carry that mantle. Sorry, Max, but that person is not going to be Ron Paul, although as one of two candidates not in the running to be ABR, I expect him to hang around for a while.

The other candidate not in the running to be ABR is Jon Huntsman. I think Huntsman is actually the best candidate on the Republican side. Except for his embrace of the Paul Ryan budget, he seems to really get it. But I’ll be surprised if he makes it past Florida. (The 2012 primary calendar is here.) Look for him to make another run in 2016, though.

So that leaves Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry. Will Perry even make it to Florida? I don’t know. But he’s incapable of being ABR. Santorum had his moment in the sun in Iowa – and I expect that will be his high water mark.

Speaking of Santorum – I found his remarks Sunday on secularism to be quite interesting. On the issue of Pakistan, Santorum said:

They are not a theocracy. And we’re very hopeful of — of maintaining a — a more secular state than — than is in place today.

But when speaking of the U.S. and President Obama, Santorum said:

… he knows works because he has a secular ideology that is against the traditions of our country and what works.

So Santorum hopes that Pakistan is secular but doesn’t want that for us? Color me confused.

Anyway – Santorum is soon to be gone, leaving Gingrich as the standard bearer.

And that’s where things are going to get interesting. I think Romney and Gingrich are going to slug it out for a while – although not in Virginia.This trailer is just the beginning:

Ouch!

Once we get past March, the proportional allocation of delegates gives way to winner-take-all. Romney, who I expect will win the nomination, won’t have it locked up by then. The prize on April 3 is Texas – and Rick Perry will be relevant again. Who he endorses may very well influence the outcome there.

I can tell you: it’s a heck of a lot more fun watching the primaries from this side than it was in 2008.

Wait, he is voting on abortion bills that will go nowhere, while his constituents lose their houses and have lost their livelihoods and can’t afford even the necessities?

Welcome to the 112th Congress, where the Republicans stonewall everything but socially conservative legislation in the House. Bills that will go nowhere, that Robert Hurt has voted affirmatively on, bills that deal mostly with abortion, contraception, women’s rights to determine her health decisions, and more.

Lots of time has been wasted, and unless they are putting on a show, the Republicans seem to scratch their heads and wonder why all those bills die in the Senate, and then vote and pass more of them (going nowhere).

While people in Martinsville, Danville and many other localities suffer at the hand of this cruel economy wrought by Bush, Robert Hurt and his colleagues have decided to do nothing to improve job creation. They say that the bills they pass are “jobs bills”, but they are 100% centered around business and what the House can do to make it easier for businesses to do business.

This is a nice idea, but totally wrong and totally misguided.

Right now, we don’t need Ned to start a cabinet shop and hire two people. We need large, well established businesses to open locations in the 5th District. For instance, IKEA has a factory in the southern part of the district.

We need 20 more IKEA-sized business to come to the 5th District and provide hundreds of jobs. 15.6% unemployment is inexcusable. This climate is tearing at the very fabric that makes the localities, the 5th District, and Virginia a great place to live and raise a family.

When Virgil Goode promised all those great jobs in Martinsville early in the last decade, people believed him and made decisions accordingly. MZM turned out to be a bust, and Goode himself was found to have taken boatloads of money from Mitchell Wade (now a convicted felon) and his employees. (straw donations, company requirement)

Do we really have to wait now and see what another Republican who just follows orders will do to improve the plight of all the residents of the 5th District? We have an opportunity in November to go back to the kind of independent thinking and unbought representation we had before Robert Hurt. What I mean of course, is electing a Democrat to that seat.

After all, we can’t afford to wait for another MZM or other calamity brought on by Robert Hurt. We need help now.

It was a hoot to watch the folks count the caucus votes, all handwritten on slips of green paper. The votes were tallied on a legal pad, by hand. They punched the numbers into a calculator, as they calculated the percentages that each candidate received. At one point, there was a minor disagreement over what the calculator results meant: is that 3% or point 3%? Reminded me of my students

Then I watched them call in the results to the headquarters. The woman on the other end obviously had the candidates listed in alphabetically order, which seemed to trip up the caller a bit. When the woman asked for the vote totals for Herman Cain, he looked truly confused, as no one in his caucus had voted for Cain.

All in all, I’m glad the hype over Iowa is done. Now to move on to the next hype: New Hampshire

Newt Gingrich has done a whole lot of huffing and puffing but has yet to actually file any legal action to be included. I suspect he won’t; after all, he already looked like an idiot by saying he was going to pursue a write-in campaign – which he can’t do under Virginia law. He followed up that “oops” with another – claiming that “fraud” on the part of one signature-gatherer cost him a place on the ballot. A number of reports coming out of the RPV during the counting process indicated that Gingrich petitions lacking addresses were tossed. Is that “fraud”? Or a simple misunderstanding of the process by the State Board of Elections, the RPV and those gathering signatures?

The section of Virginia code relating to the presidential primary is § 24.2-545. While the code says that the SBE is charged with designing the petition form, nowhere in that section is there a requirement that addresses be included. It does appear in § 24.2-506, but that section clearly does not apply to presidential primaries – note that the office is not listed there. If the RPV did toss Gingrich petitions because of the lack of addresses, I believe they erred.

The truth, though, is that the petition deadline and requisite certification was poorly timed. There is no reason why this process was scheduled to take place over the Christmas holiday. It wasn’t the number of signatures that created this problem – after all, as this editorial points out, it’s going to take 12,000 petition signatures to force a vote on elected school boards in Norfolk – it was the timing. There was no time, for example, for a candidate to challenge the reasons the petitions were discarded.

And maybe, just maybe, one person would not have lost her life.

In all honesty, I expected the Republican Party of Virginia to find a way to put these two on the ballot, despite their failure to obtain the necessary signatures. After all, the certification lies with the RPV, and what constitutes sufficiency is left in their hands. The RPV has, instead, dug its heels in. There is no time, as others have said, for legislative action, despite efforts on the part of some to pursue it.

As the result, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will appear on the March 6 primary ballot.

To add insult to injury, the RPV has decided to invoke the “loyalty oath” provisions allowed under the code. Supposedly, State Central voted on December 3 – just days outside of the 90-day window – to include this, even though the SBE didn’t vote on it until yesterday. Personally, I find that rather curious, because if this was the case, how come we are just hearing about it now? Rare is the occasion where a bombshell like this escapes notice of everybody. But I have confirmed with someone that I trust who was there that the vote did occur. Guess they were good about keeping it quiet.

Even worse, though, is that the provision even exists in the code. How can you ask all Virginia taxpayers to pay for a primary and then only allow some to participate? I have no problem with closed primaries – as long as the parties pay for them themselves.

I know this isn’t the first time that loyalty oaths were required: they were also used in the 2000 Republican presidential primary. While I don’t remember signing it, I must have as I did vote in that primary. And as long as I’m paying for it, I intend to vote in this one, too.

I’ve heard all the arguments about Republicans choose their own candidate – and I ain’t buying them. My reason for voting in March 2012 is the same as my reason for voting in 2000: somebody is going to win the presidency in November and I’d like that person to be the best choice possible.

No, my vote will not go to the candidate I think is the easiest to beat. That’s not my style. Without knowing what things will look like in November 2012, my vote will go to the candidate who I think is best suited to be president of all of us.

I believed in 2000 that John McCain as president was preferable to George Bush, even though I hoped that Al Gore was going to win. Had he made the ballot, my vote in March would have gone to Jon Huntsman, because of the entire Republican field, I believe him to be the best choice.

I don’t know how I’m going to vote in March with just Romney and Paul on the ballot. But, loyalty oath be damned, I intend to. Because the possibility exists that one of those guys could be elected president. And as a taxpayer in Virginia, I intend to have my voice be heard in the process.

UPDATE: Since writing this, I have received information that the Gingrich petitions were tossed for reasons other than just addresses. In fact, my sources say that it was fraud, that names and addresses were copied from some source – maybe a phone book – all in the same handwriting. In addition, I’m told that Perry turned in maybe 2,000 signatures, not the 6,000 he claimed in his lawsuit nor the 11,911 first reported.

The relevant code section allowing this is here.

But wait! The code says:

The requirements applicable to a party’s primary shall be determined at least 90 days prior to the primary date and certified to, and approved by, the State Board.

Given that the primary is March 6, it seems that would mean that this should have been done by December 6 or so.

So not only is it unenforceable, it seems to be illegal.

UPDATE: As NotCatherineCrabill mentions below, the Republican State Central Committee approved this at their meeting on December 3. Further, I am told that the SBE parses the sentence above to mean that the 90 days applies only to the party’s action, and not theirs. So while the oath remains unenforceable, it appears to be legal.

But Gingrich wasn’t the only candidate who failed to make the ballot. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose campaign thus far had seemed to be deficient in brainpower, charisma and debating skills, but not in money or organizational expertise, also failed to turn in enough signatures to qualify.

Michele Bachmann, John Huntsman and Rick Santorum didn’t bother to turn in any signatures. Not much of a surprise for the latter two. They’ve just been hanging around. Neither has gotten a bump as the Republican’s “flavor of the month” to be the Not-Mitt Romney candidate. Hell, even Donald Trump got a bump and he never got in.

In fact, only Romney and septuagenarian Libertarian Ron Paul made the ballot. The first is the definition of the smooth, well organized, Establishment Republican. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling heads his campaign in Virginia and there wasn’t much chance he wouldn’t get the necessary signatures. The second is a cult figure who has never won much besides straw polls, but his Paulistas can manage a signature gathering campaign.

While Gingrich and, to a lesser extent, Perry and Bachmann have been whining about how tough Virginia’s ballot access laws are — they require 10,000 signatures, including 400 from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts — the fact is everyone knew what the rules were from the jump.

And how hard can it be? In 2008 Democratic candidates like Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich, neither of whom were exactly at the crest of a rising tide, made it onto Virginia’s ballot.

They had help though. The Democratic Party of Virginia gathered signatures for all of the candidates at various events. The Republican Party of Virginia didn’t make that kind of effort this year. They aren’t required to, of course, but it might have helped.

Republican incompetency has taken a good deal of fun out of what could have been a very exciting year in politics here.

Because, if all the candidates — of at least the ones with some following (sorry Huntsman and Santorum) — had made it on to the ballot, the Virginia Republican Primary might have been very important.

Because, if Romney has some early defeats — and poll numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina suggest that he might — Virginia, where the Lt. Gov. Bolling chairs his campaign, might have been the state where Romney rallied and took control of the race. Virginia played that role for George W. Bush in 2000 and John McCain in 2008.

It can’t play that role this time because, with only the quirky Paul n opposition, nobody will pay much attention to Virginia. The only thing of consequence that could happen here now is an embarrassing Romney defeat. That’s unlikely. But remember Paul’s cultists are going to vote no matter how hopeless the situation looks. And Virginia is an open primary state and, with an incumbent Democratic president in office, Virginia Democrats really don’t have anything better to do on Primary Day than go out and vote for Paul in an attempt to humiliate the Republican front-runner.

And, through the rise and inevitable fall of each “Anti-Mitt” candidate, Bachmann and Perry and Herman Caine and Gingrich and maybe even Paul, Romney has been unable to seal the deal with more than 25 to 30% of Republican primary voters.

Gingrich put on a brave front and promised a write-in campaign. Until someone told him Virginia doesn’t allow write-ins in a primary. Then, there was talk of legislation in the General Assembly to change that.

I doubt that will happen for three reasons:

1. It would require emergency legislation that would require the consent of a super-majority of the General Assembly. Democrats — and Republicans supporting Romney or Paul — don’t have any reason to do Gingrich and company any favors.

2. In the unlikely event it passed the General Assembly, Gov. McDonnell would have to sign it. I’m pretty sure Bolling would take up permanent residence in the governor’s outer office to make sure that didn’t happen.

3. There’s a reason that Virginia has a rule against write-ins in primaries. We’re an open primary state, with no registration by party. Suppose we allowed write-in votes next year. Suppose 400,000 Republicans show up and 40% of them write in Gingrich and Romney gets 30% of the vote and Paul gets 15% and Perry gets 10% and Bachmann gets 5%. Then suppose 200,000 Democrats, who don’t have anything better to do that day, show up and all of them vote for Barack Obama. Obama wins the Virginia Republican Primary.

Is that going to happen? No.
We’re just going to have a barely-noticed contest between Romney and Paul.
And we could have been a contender…if any of the other Republicans were as well-organized as the Dennis Kucinich campaign in 2008.

Actually, there were quite a few debates in 2007, as this list shows. The difference seems to be two-fold: first, a lot of those debates were not broadcast for a national viewing audience. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the media played a much bigger role in deciding who the nominees would be.

This year, perhaps due to the continuing demise in influence of the mainstream media, there has been no consensus on who the nominee should be. No real meme has developed, leading, I think, to the Republican electorate changing its mind constantly on who should be their standard bearer. (To get some idea of this, watch this Republican focus group from NoVA earlier this month.) They are pretty much united behind one idea, though: beat Obama in 2012.

I find this pretty funny since so many of them played an “anybody but Hillary Clinton” game in 2008. Having settled on their nominee early, some Republicans spent a lot of energy playing this game.

Democrats will be able to return the favor in 2012, should they choose to. I’ve already heard some – including Nancy Pelosi, in an interview last night – say that Democrats shouldn’t engage in such behavior. Essentially she said let Republicans choose their nominee.

Yeah, right.

Democrats sit on the sidelines in the nominating process to their own peril, both in 2012 and in 2013 here in Virginia. We have no way of knowing what the situation will look like by Election Day, and it behooves us to have a say in who the next president – and governor – will be.

Just as the Republicans did in 2008 – and in 2009 here in Virginia.

We all live here. We all should be able to express our opinion on who should lead us – not only once the field has narrowed but in the process of narrowing the field.

In an interview with the Farmville Herald published on October 6, 2011, Robert Hurt answered the questions of Ken Woodley, the Editor of that publication.

The interview was interspersed with Woodley’s comments, which makes it harder to pay attention to the meat of the interview. Woodley has a love affair with one line sentences/paragraphs, something which bugs me to no end.

Enough about the newspaper (which is in the 5th District, located in Prince Edward County in Farmville.) On to the interview and my take on it.

Hurt seems to talk only about businesses when he talks about the economy. He mentions the bills that have backed up waiting for the Senate to act on them. There is “so much” opportunity to cut expenditures. He sounds like a campaign commercial, almost indistinguishable from during his term.

A balanced budget is one of the congressman’s high priorities. With no consideration of how we got to this place of economic calamity, talk of balancing the budget is spoken of in the same breath as cutting taxes on the wealthy. This is a fairy-tale proposal.

“I don’t want to hear excuses but I will tell you that my frustration is compounded by the fact that since January on the House side we’ve taken very serious, serious, serious action in terms of trying to promote job creation. We’ve sent dozens of bills from the House side down to the Senate and Harry Reid and the United States Senate haven’t done anything. These are jobs bills that are stacking up. These are bills that would make it easier and less costly for people to run a business, to stay in business, and make it more attractive for them to hire and reinvest…”

Look at the way a “jobs” bill is described. Bills that “…would make it easier and less costly for people to run a business…” Who will be running this business? There are so many unemployed, so many struggling just to remain in their houses. Since the upper end of the income spectrum is where this is really aimed, why lie about it?

The richest of the rich are who are targeted by Republican lawmakers. They recite the mantra, “taxes are bad” and go about their way to taking money from education and other worthy programs, like the law enforcement in your communities. The richest citizens need another $30,000 tax cut? This is clearly not in sync with reality.

Just like Robert Hurt, Cantor, Forbes, Wolf, Griffith and the rest, the script calls for more tax cuts, so that’s what they are pushing.

Grover Norquist would have the groupthink no other way. Robert Hurt knows where his orders come from. Look at his record, it is almost a mirror of many others. No votes on what his district needs, yes on motions to reconsider in order to gut a competing bill. Don’t watch the sausage being made.

This one was included in last Friday’s paper:

And this one was in Wednesday’s paper:

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words

As always, click to enlarge.

The Virginian-Pilot has printed a four-part series on the ever-dwindling witnesses to this horrible event, culminating with today’s article. Well worth a read.

For realists, the true story of the Civil War illuminates the problem of ostensibly sober-minded compromise with powerful, and intractable, evil.

OMG, Virginia.

Social Security has been under attack by the House in this congress. Every lame-brained idea you can think of. Privatize it. Change the eligibility age. And on and on. They see it as a ready source of money to paper over holes in their budgets. Millions of people see it as a significant portion of their retirement, paid into over the years of working.

There are interesting charts with the article, which illustrate the statistics. Here are a few of the many quotes:

Social Security payments are particularly important to rural counties and small cities because the money is largely spent in the community. “The seniors who get these payments are primarily going to spend their money locally,” said Mark Partridge, a rural economist at Ohio State University. “And they are a key reason why some communities are still viable. If this money dried up, there wouldn’t be a lot of these small towns.”

Judith Stallmann, an economist at the University of Missouri, explained that Social Security payments help generate the sales that keep a rural business afloat.

“We find that Social Security income can be the difference between success and failure for some local businesses,” Stallmann said. “If you took away, say, 10 percent of the demand, would that local business be able to remain open? Often it’s that 10 percent that keeps them going. Social Security is providing that margin.”

Here are some interesting links for you to check the figures yourself.

Missisippi State University findings for Virginia

Interactive map and downloads of information

Al Sharpton says we should ignore the latest from Rush Limbaugh. I rarely agree with anything Sharpton has to say and this time is no different. Perhaps he’s just trying to protect his job, having morphed from the outspoken radical to what I call an acceptable Negro.

The old Sharpton would have been shouting from the rooftops.

The new Shaprton is just plain wrong.

“What is so hard to understand about this woman being booed?” he [Limbaugh] said, calling her “Mooch-elle.” “We don’t like paying millions of dollars for Mrs. Obama’s vacations,” he said, also complaining about her exhortations about nutrition and exercise. Nascar fans, he said, “understand it’s a little bit of a waste. They understand it’s a little bit of uppity-ism.”

Limbaugh knew exactly what he was saying and to not call him out just means there will be more and more overtly racist attacks. Death threats have prompted presidential candidate Herman Cain to obtain Secret Service protection, the first of any of the Republican candidates. It’s probably not a coincidence: after all, Barack Obama received a Secret Service detail earlier than any candidate in history.

Is Cain “uppity” too? Or does that only apply to “their” blacks?

The IT revolution has upended established power structures in politics and industry, injecting new vitality into staid businesses and democratizing access to knowledge and influence. College students, especially the least well-off among them, will be better off when the same forces are realized in higher education. And it should be progressives who are working to make that happen.

There are a lot of things you can say about Chohany as a candidate. Based on recent debate performances, you might say he’s not ready for prime time. You might say he’s a stalking horse for Sen. Tommy Norment (R-3rd) and that if he’s elected Norment will effectively have two votes in the Senate. (Although if we were going to give a Republican senator two votes, I’d argue that Norment — who at least understands the importance of governance — isn’t a bad choice. I’d rather he had two votes than Sen. Steve Newman.).

But the odd thing that some people are saying about Chohany is that he’s RINO (Republican In Name Only).

I’m not sure on what basis anybody is saying this. Is it guilt by association because he’s an ally of Norment, who has also been called a RINO?

Because, on the issues, Chohany seems to meet all the Republican litmus tests. He’s pro-life, pro-gun and anti-tax. He’s tried a straddle on gay rights, but it’s the same straddle that Virginia Republicans, and voters, let Gov. Bob McDonnell get away with.

Are guns or abortion what got Chohany (or Norment) into politics? No. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t Republicans.

This stupidity has gone so far that some in the right-wing blogosphere are calling for a write-in campaign for Tricia Stall. In case you don’t remember Ms. Stall, she’s a right-wing Republican who took out another “RINO”, Sen. Marty Williams in a primary in 2007 only to lose to Miller in the general election. She lost that election in a 1st District that was far more Republican than the current configuration. Tricia Stall not only has no chance to win as a write-in, she couldn’t win if she was on the ballot. She couldn’t come close. A vote for her is a vote for John Miller.

Chohany might win. More likely, given the nature of the district now, he won’t  But at least he stands a chance.

That’s why the Republican Party put up a candidate closer to the middle like Chohany.

Is Chohany a Tea Partier? Well, no. He and Norment are both Chamber of Commerce Republicans. Which is to say that they are what Republicans always were for most of the 20th Century, people who are primarily concerned with low taxes and less government regulation and believe that what’s good for the business is good for the country.

Until about 1980, Chamber of Commerce Republicans were basically the only kind of Republicans. Even Ronald Reagan, the poster child of the “movement conservatives,” was mostly interested in keeping taxes low and cutting government regulations. Sure, he gave some lip service to the social issues that move Christian Conservatives, but he didn’t do anything about them.

And not every Republican needs to. It’s hard for me to see how the Virginia Republican Party is better for having purged folks like former Delegates Panny Rhodes and Preston Bryant or former Sen. John Chichester, people who certainly were Republicans in the sense of what Republican meant from Dwight Eisenhower through the first George Bush and were among the most thoughtful legislators in Richmond but somehow weren’t Republican enough for Virginia purists.

If Republicans have decided that every nominee has to be a Tea Partier, or a 2nd Amendment zealot or a home schooler or a proselytizing abortion opponent, the Republican Party is going to change drastically from what we’ve known it as. It’s going to lead to a lot more candidates like Tricia Stall and Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle. And, I’d argue that it’s going to mean they win a lot less elections.

Because those Chamber of Commerce Republicans who irritate the GOP base, like center-right Democratic moderates who irritate the Democratic base, are the only representatives of their party that many moderate independents — who hold the swing vote in most contested elections — will vote for.

Republicans are playing out this silly melodrama on the national stage as well. Former pizza company executive Herman Cain has become the latest weekly favorite in the “Please God, stop us before we nominate Mitt Romney” sweepstakes.

Republicans have a problem. Since Romney was the runner-up to John McCain for the nomination in 2008, it’s his “turn” to run for president. That’s usually the way Republicans pick their nominee. But Romney so offends the base — he’s flip-flopped on abortion and he backed a state-level version of health care reform as governor of Massachusetts that included the individual mandate that Republicans hate (although it was originally their idea). Romney was the front-runner in most early polls. That’s sent more conservative Republicans on the quest for a “Great Right Hope” for 2012 that’s already churned through Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. It led some Republicans to hope that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie would jump in the race, even though he has more “moderate baggage” than Romney and other to wish that Sarah Palin would quit her reality-TV star gig to run.

The funny thing about this is that Romney has consistently run better in head-to-head polls against President Barack Obama than other Republicans — although even he runs less well than “generic Republican.”

I think Romney would stand a pretty good chance of beating Obama next year. I don’t think any of the other announced Republicans — or the unannounced Palin — would.

It will be interesting to see if Republicans decide they’d rather win than be “Right.”

Cross posted at Virginia Pundit.

It’s a very handy compilation of money listed from all 50 states that goes to professionals in the form of promotional items (pens, clipboards, etc) and dinners, to other items of value.

This is an ongoing project to which data is added as it is received. Some companies have begun to volunteer the information, while others wait for a deadline or drag the process out to wait as long as possible.

Let’s look at two companies, both of whose giveaways are from the time frame of Q3-4 2009 to the present. Eli Lilly and Pfizer companies alone list over $465 million of money or promotional products given to medical professionals nationwide. (Pfizer – $259.6m, Lilly – $206.1m)

As I was looking at available materials for this article, another source popped up. This time a writer for ProPublica wrote on the Washington Current blog (owned by Scott Nance) that the government has missed a deadline for drafting rules for the disclosure of this sort of information. To quote Marian Wang of ProPublica, the deadline “…came and went quietly and without any explanation from the Obama Administration.”

The rule drafting was to take place by October 1, 2011.

I recommend both these sites for information and also the figures by state and by doctor of money given to medical professionals by those in industry. Here are the current data for the Commonwealth (all 10 pages worth). The results of this survey are being constantly updated, so visit often for the latest information.

Resources
The Washington Current Blog
ProPublica

Without revealing too much of the article, let’s just say that it’s not going to be easy to get out of the mess we’re in. And it’s not going to happen quickly.

Everyone knows that all striving occurs in a social context, so all attainments are conditioned by their context.

No, George, everyone doesn’t know. Witness the number of people who are constantly berating the poor, saying that they should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Or how about those people who puff out their chests and say that they are “self-made?” There is a disconnect in our society, one that fails to acknowledge that it is because of it that they are able to accomplish. Warren was right – and what she said bears repeating:

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. . . . You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea — God bless, keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

But Will doubles down on liberals with arrogance in this statement:

Many members of the liberal intelligentsia, that herd of independent minds, agree that other Americans comprise a malleable, hence vulnerable, herd whose “false consciousness” is imposed by corporate America. Therefore the herd needs kindly, paternal supervision by a cohort of protective herders.

Hmm, let’s see. Cigarette smoking was glorified on TV for years. There was an appeal to the “herd,” to use Will’s term, by showing ads that made it cool and sexy. No one can deny the effect of the tobacco companies, aka “corporate America,” on the people. It wasn’t until the hazards of smoking were uncovered – after years of coverup by the tobacco companies – that smoking dropped off. Would you have preferred, Mr. Will, that more people died from lung cancer?

Just because the American people didn’t buy an Edsel doesn’t mean they don’t buy corporate advertising every day of the week. One need look no further than political advertising to see how easily the public can be misled.

But this statement from Will had to be the worst:

It is conservatism, not liberalism, that takes society seriously.

And that’s where George Will and his ilk really miss the boat. Liberalism and conservatism are two ways of looking at and approaching the same problem. I could argue that conservatism – especially in its bastardized form – doesn’t take society seriously with just two words: Grover Norquist. But I’m unwilling to make a such a blanket statement.

This is what’s wrong with political discourse today. It is far easier to use shorthand to describe positions than to clearly make a coherent argument. It is much easier to throw stones than to try to offer solutions.

Shame on George Will.

Teaching at ODU has reinforced for me that there has to be some way of encouraging (enticing?) the younger generation to read newspapers or somehow otherwise get news. I asked my students how many of them read the newspaper. Only a couple – out of 200 – read it.

Trying to relate accounting to something that the students can relate to is always a challenge. Trying to relate it to current events is almost impossible when the students are unaware of what is going on around them. Case in point: one of my students shares the name of a politico who has been in the news a lot. I mentioned it to her and she said she was wondering why her name was trending one day on Twitter. Thought it was cool – but she didn’t know why it was trending.

This wasn’t always the case. I’m back in the classroom after an eight-year absence and it seems this group of students appear to be further removed from the news than ever. It should not be a surprise, then, that younger people are unreliable voters.

Maybe they’ll grow into it. For all our sakes, I sure hope so. But if in the interim the sources of information disappear, they will have nothing to grow into.

Equally interesting to note is that a 2013 gubernatorial candidate doesn’t rate a link in the VPAP clips. (Yes, I’m going to keep banging away at them for restricting content until they figure out how to open it up to be more inclusive.)

The first was written John-Henry Doucette, who remains in Norfolk although not in the newspaper business. He argues that it is not newspapers that people need; instead, it is the newsgathering capability:

… I think we need to stop talking about saving specific businesses and start talking about defending our capability to gather news that is in the public interest.

Doucette continues to advocate for some type of public financing of these newsgathering activities.

The second was written by Olivia Hubert-Allen, who left The Pilot earlier this year and now works for The Baltimore Sun. That paper has recently adopted a paywall, which seems to be the trend these days and is definitely something I wish The Pilot would consider. She raises several significant points about the value of newspapers, including this one:

Big media still plays an important part in the local news ecosystem.

Even if you’ve never opened an edition of The Baltimore Sun or visited the website, you have still been impacted by its journalism. … The Sun functions as an extension of many of those smaller newsrooms. Stories originally uncovered by Sun reporters end up on nightly newscasts and rehashed on the local blogosphere.

Two different conclusions to the conundrum of what to do about newspapers. My own thoughts are published in today’s Pilot, which I will post about tomorrow.

Citizens of Virginia Beach to Call on Lawmakers to Reject Offshore Drilling

Rally one of thousands across the globe calling for move away from fossil fuels

Virginia Beach, VA – On Saturday, September 24, 2011, residents of Virginia Beach and neighboring communities will flex literal muscles in a call for responsible solutions to our energy needs. Coming on bikes, on roller skates, or on foot, they will converge on the oceanfront to oppose offshore oil drilling and encourage
government officials and Dominion to work quickly to develop offshore wind farms instead.

Part of the Moving Planet day of action organized by 350.org, the rally will begin next to a mock oil spill and end at a mock wind farm to symbolize the shift participants want to see in the real world.

What: Rally to oppose offshore drilling and support renewable energy

Who: Oceana
Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Virginia Sierra Club
Ecocycling
Local business sponsors CROC’S Bistro and Abbey Road Pub & Restaurant
Former delegate Joe Bouchard, who will lead the ride

Where: Virginia Beach Oceanfront

Ride will start at 40th Street and proceed down the bike path adjacent to the
boardwalk to 17th Street.

When: Saturday, September 24, 2011, 11:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m. – arrival, sign-in, and speakers
11:30 a.m. – ride leaves starting line
11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – riders expected to reach finish line at 17th Street

Visuals: Mock oil spill at 40th Street and citizens in hazmat suits “cleaning it up”
Mock wind farm at 17th Street with rows of three foot tall model wind turbines
Dozens of citizens on bikes wearing brightly colored T-shirts

The event in Virginia Beach is part of a worldwide day of action calling for a
fossil fuel-free world. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to participate
by moving their bodies toward solutions to climate change in nearly 2,000 events
across the globe ranging from 5 mile hikes to 350 hour bike rides. In Virginia, the
Virginia Beach ride will join events taking place in Alexandria, Fairfax,
Harrisonburg, and Richmond.

Former governors Allen & Kaine - from the Richmond Times Dispatch

All of those involved, especially the Associated Press and the candidates, have literally bumped their heads in scheduling a debate between presumptive party nominees for Senate George Allen and Tim Kaine.

Oh, sure – the press covered their backsides by saying “eligible participants include any declared candidates that average 15 percent or better in published, non-candidate primary polls and have raised at least 20 percent as much money as their party’s frontrunner by the end of October.”

And, as expected, the candidates deny placing any restrictions on who could participate in the debate.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh – perhaps it really is the responsibility of the press to pick and choose winners. After all, this isn’t the first time.

Look – will Allen and Kaine be their party’s nominee? Probably. But until the process plays itself out and the voters have spoken, which means after the party primaries, this debate should not be taking place.

Period.

For the record, there are five Republicans and three Democrats vying for their party’s nomination. The Republicans are Allen, Jaime Radtke, E. W. Jackson, Tim Donner and Dave McCormick. The Democrats are Kaine, Julien Modica, and Courtney Lynch.

UPDATE Fri am: The Virginian-Pilot editorial board weighs in on this in favor of inclusion. Um, when your own members are against the proposal, don’t you think yo need to reconsider?

And I loved Walt Taylor’s cartoon in the paper this morning.

Good riddance.

This Cal Thomas article was reprinted in Sunday’s Virginian-Pilot. (So much for the “liberal bias” of the newspaper.) It was this sentence that caught my eye:

If we want smaller government, we will have to pick up the slack.

And that’s the piece that so many of the smaller government people miss. Personal responsibility only goes so far. There are some things that are outside of the control of the individual.

Consider this article, also from Sunday’s paper, in which the writer speaks of having to make the decision between “not paying a bill or giving up some medication.” Which should she choose?

Or how about the baby boomers who are discovering their 401(k) savings aren’t enough to retire on? “Some people were done in by the twin collapses of the housing and stock markets,” the article says. Just how are individuals supposed to control the housing and stock markets?

Were it not for the Foodbank, the lady in the first article may have gone hungry. The Foodbank relies on donations in order to feed people, and its donors have bit hit by the recession, too. Poverty is at its highest since 1983 and the typical U.S. family got poorer over the last decade.

Although I’m not a smaller government advocate, I try to do my share because it’s the right thing to do. I contribute my money to non-profits, including the Foodbank. I also contribute my time and my talents to a number of non-profit organizations, including the YWCA.

The next time I hear somebody say “smaller government,” I want to hear how they personally are helping to pick up the slack.

• Bill Clinton coming to raise money for Virginia Senate Democrats.
• Rick Perry coming to raise money for Republican Party of Virginia
• Excerpts from the taped interviews of Jackie Kennedy
• Nearly 1 in 6 Americans are in poverty
• 1 in 4 homes with mortgages in Hampton Roads are underwater
• Cuccinelli may have covered it but Norfolk will allow mural of Virtus with bare breast

Election Day in Virginia is November 8. What have you done to help your candidate today?

… this:

I’m not much of a traveler, mainly because I dislike car trips and my other half hates to fly. But about fifteen years ago, we flew to New York for a weekend with a very good friend of ours. While there, we took in the sights of the city, a show (Miss Saigon) and generally had a wonderful time. We spent a little time down in the Village, which was where I bought the picture you see here from one of the many sidewalk artists we ran across. I chose this particular picture for a couple of reasons. One, it captured the essence of the city. Second, it matched the decor of my family room

All these years later, the picture still hangs in my home, although today it brings back a different image. One of what was – before September 11, 2001. I still recall the phone call that I got that morning, telling me to turn on the TV. I watched in horror as the second plane approached and then hit the second tower. Here, on American soil, terrorists had attacked. I had a hard time believing what I was seeing. How could this be? I sat glued to the TV the rest of the day, and the next, as more information came to light about this.

It wasn’t just New York. These crazies also attacked the Pentagon. How could this have happened? Sure, we all read about terrorist attacks on other countries, but how could it happen here? Little by little, the details began to emerge. There was a fourth plane, one that may have been headed to the White House but crashed in Pennsylvania instead.

New words were added to our vocabulary – Al Quaida, Osama Bin Laden. We relearned the definition of an old one – hero. We came together as a country, unlike any time since World War II. We were united in our grief for the loss of lives so senselessly, in our anger that someone would dare to attack us on our own soil – and in our fear that such a thing could happen again.

On this, the fifth anniversary of the attacks, let us remember what it felt like to be a united nation, one in which we were all just Americans. Let us strive to re-establish that unity, and throw off the fear. Let us not forget those who perished, for no other reason than that they were Americans.

And let us vow to bring to justice the man behind the attacks.

My post from 9/11/07 is here. And from 9/11/08 here. Two years ago was the last time I commented on this anniversary, but I really had nothing to say.

Today the man whose actions forever changed us is dead. But just as dead as Osama Bin Laden is the unity we experienced on that day ten years ago. Not even his death could bring us together again.

I guess we know who won.

Oh yeah – and Congressman Scott announced that he will not be running for Senate, removing the biggest obstacle to former governor Tim Kaine’s path to the Democratic nomination.

From the USDOL:

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Yeah, that.

Since it was published, we’ve learned that Majority Leader Eric Cantor “voted against an amendment to an emergency supplemental bill for disaster aid that would have ‘fully offset’ the cost of that supplemental with ‘a proportional reduction of FY05 discretionary funding’ elsewhere.”

And we’ve learned that Gov. Bob McDonnell disagreed with Cantor’s stance on offsetting more resources for FEMA with cuts elsewhere, saying:

For the FEMA money that’s going to flow, it’s up to them on how they get it. I don’t think it’s the time to get into that [deficit] debate.

Finally, we’ve learned that we were all mistaken about Cantor’s stance: we have this AP story, in which Cantor “says he never suggested that disaster funds for victims of Hurricane Irene should be held up by budget concerns.”

Really?

“Yes, we’re going to find the money. We’re just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to do so.”

Can’t get any clearer than that.

You know, if Cantor has come around to the idea that we – the government being us – have to spend money sometimes when people are in need (a point I tried to make in last week’s op-ed), then I’m totally OK with his flip-flop on this

There’s really a simple answer to the deficit, one that Congressman Bobby Scott has been saying for a while now: let the Bush-era tax cuts expire. In a recent press release, Scott said:

The estimated savings of this (debt ceiling) deal only pay for half of the cost of extending all of the Bush-era tax cuts for another decade.

PolitiFact Virginia vetted that statement and found it to be true.

There really isn’t any way to have your cake and eat it, too. Either everything gets cut, including defense and entitlements, or taxes go up. Pick your poison.

I’d prefer we just let those tax cuts expire.