Richmond, Va. —
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli joined eight other states today in support of Arizona’s new immigration law.
The amicus brief, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, defends Arizona’s and all states’ authority to enforce federal immigration laws along with the federal government. This is particularly true because of the selective and lack of enforcement by the federal government, the brief states.
“While much of border enforcement is left to the federal government, federal law expressly allows states to arrest people who are not legally present in the United States,” Cuccinelli said in a statement.
“Arizona’s law doesn’t change any of this. That’s why we are stunned that the government has sued Arizona.”
The Arizona, set to take effect July 29, requires officers, while enforcing other laws, to question a person’s immigration status if there’s a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally.
It also makes it a crime for legal immigrants not to carry documentation of their status in the U.S.
The Obama administration has filed suit against the Arizona law, contending that federal law pre-empts the Arizona statute. It seeks an injunction against its enforcement.
How many briefs and law suits has the AG files since his inauguration? More importantly, how much has all of this cost? Those $350 filing fees are going to add up.
RICHMOND — At a news conference last week at Northrop Grumman’s Rosslyn offices, where a panoramic view of Washington loomed outside a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell ticked off the reasons he thinks the giant defense contractor chose to locate its new corporate headquarters in the commonwealth.
He cited the state’s low corporate tax rate, its business-friendly regulations and right-to-work laws that prohibit requiring employees to join unions.
One factor the Republican didn’t mention: The massive flow of federal spending that provides the core of Northrop’s business and has made it the nation’s 61st-largest company.
McDonnell has been a leading voice in railing against rising federal spending. But lost amid the calls for Washington to freeze or reduce spending is this twist: Although most economists agree that mounting federal debt could be dangerous to the national economy, Virginia has thrived on Washington’s decade-long spending spree, according to analyses done by professors at Virginia colleges.
Ten cents of every federal procurement dollar spent anywhere on Earth is spent in Virginia. More than 15,000 Virginia companies hold federal contracts, a number that has almost tripled since 2001. Total federal spending — from salaries to outsourced contracts — has more than doubled, to $118 billion, since 2000, as homeland security and defense spending skyrocketed in response to the 2001 terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 2008, it accounted for about 30 percent of Virginia’s entire economy.
Federal dollars have filtered through the rest of the economy, too, helping to build the high-tech Dulles corridor and funding new homes and cars for federal workers and contractors and meals at local restaurants. The billions have helped fuel the economic boom cycles of the past decade and have cushioned the blow of the recent recession, particularly in Northern Virginia, where the unemployment rate has stayed stubbornly below 6 percent, less than the state and national rates.
“We have a rich uncle, I like to remind people — Uncle Sam,” said Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.
Maybe Cuccinelli shouldn’t be trying so hard to piss off the feds. It sounds like Virginia is riding the old gravy train. To have less than 6% unemployment in this economy is enviable. To be getting 10 cents of every federal procurement dollar spent anywhere on earth is quite an accomplishment.
Much as McDonnell probably won’t like sharing the limelight, much of Virginia’s pro-business reputation was developed and nurtured by people like Mark Warner. Under the Kaine administration, Virginia was voted the number one state to do business in. McDonnell is savvy and should continue the tradition of attracting and maintaining businesses and a robust economy. He just needs to rein in his attorney general since much of that business originates with federal contracting.
Apparently AG Ken Cuccinelli feels the Goddess Virtue is revealing too much wardrobe malfunction on the Virginia State Seal. He is now handing out pins with less …errr….cleavage? It sounds like he has been listening to too many Iranian clerics for his own good.
Traditional Virginia SealCuccinelli Goddess Virtue
The Cuccinelli goddess is more modest. Perhaps he is trying to prevent earthquakes like that wacko in the middle east.
Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi angered women’s groups around the world on Monday when he claimed that promiscuous women were responsible for literally making the earth move.
“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Sedighi said.
“What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?” he asked during a prayer sermon on Friday. “There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.”
So is Ken is trying to prevent our own Boob-quake here in Virginia with his new pins? Is he like the Taliban or something? The Virginia State Seal has the goddess Virtue vanquishing a tyrant. Sic Semper Tyrannis: Thus always to tryrants. Not that most NORMAL people have ever noticed, but her left breast is slighly exposed, in goddess warrior like fashion–classical art and all.
The Norfolk Pilot states:
When the new design came up at a staff meeting, workers in attendance said Cuccinelli joked that it converts a risqué image into a PG one.
The joke might be on him, said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.
“When you ask to be ridiculed, it usually happens. And it will happen here, nationally,” he said. “This is classical art, for goodness’ sake.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that Cuccinelli has found himself in a punch line since taking office. The conservative Republican made Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in March after he advised state colleges and universities they lack the legal authority to protect gay employees from discrimination.
“You can’t be gay in college?” host Jon Stewart asked in mock disbelief. “That’s the whole point of going to college!”
If the jokes start to fly, Cuccinelli can’t say he didn’t see it coming, Sabato said – not after what happened in 2002, when U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered drapes installed to cover partially nude statues at the Justice Department. “Ashcroft had one excuse: it hadn’t been done before and he wasn’t prepared for the critical onslaught that he faced,” Sabato said. “Cuccinelli has no excuse at all. He knows what’s coming because of what happened to Ashcroft. You can only conclude that he enjoys being the center of pointless controversy.”
Efforts to reach Cuccinelli on Friday were unsuccessful.
His spokesman, Brian Gottstein, said the pin was paid for by Cuccinelli’s political action committee, not with taxpayer funds. He acknowledged that the attorney general has pointed out Virtus’ “more modest attire,” adding that the rendition chosen by his boss “harkens back to an older version of the seal.”
The Great Seal of the Commonwealth is a two-sided image dates back to the year 1776.
The Code of Virginia stands firmly on its description of the State Seal:
The side depicted on the state flag features Virtus standing victoriously over Tyranny, a male figure prone on the ground in defeat, his crown fallen from his head. Beneath him is the motto Sic Semper Tyrannis: Thus Always to Tyrants.
Click the link for exact wording.
Now we know why Taliban Cooch is sending out those beg letters! He needs to buy new pins to hand out with Goddess Virtue fully clothed. He appears to have little regard for Virginia traditions, the Virginia Constitution, and anything past his own sense of misguided morality. Perhaps he is now an ‘earther’ in addition to being a birther. You know, one of those people who think showing breasts causes earthquakes.
When is our AG going to stop with the circus sideshow stuff? He just has too many attention seeking behaviors for most Virginians. Larry Sabato is correct. The Cooch’s behavior is juvenile and distracting from real governance. Meanwhile, Virginians anxiously await being the butt of yet more jokes on late night comedy.
Now the AG Ken Cuccinelli is ready to file his third lawsuit against the United States of America. This time his is suing the EPA because they have said greenhouse gases and carbon emissions are harmful. According to Lychburg’s News and Advance:
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli stands ready to take more legal action against the federal government if the Environmental Protection Agency announces new fuel economy standards for vehicles Wednesday, he said in Lynchburg on Tuesday.
Cuccinelli has sued the EPA over its finding that greenhouse gases harm people, and if it issues regulations Wednesday that are based on that finding, “We will sue them again,” he told the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Virginia’s Democratic Party renewed its accusations Tuesday that two Cuccinelli lawsuits against the federal government over global warming and health care are wasting the state’s resources “to wage a personal, political fight.”
Apparently the AG missed seeing our atheletes disembark from the plane in Bejing 2 summers ago. Some of them were wearing gas masks because of the horrible air quality in that city. Where does the AG think that smog comes from? Could it be the millions of cars in that city?
What stance will out BOCS take on his new lawsuit? Will they be sending him atta-boy letters on Prince William County Board of Supervisors letterhead? At least one supervisors feels he was looking out for the people of Prince William County during the last letter of praise that went out to the AG. Will they be willing to look out for us now, since we live in one of the most impacted emissions areas? Will there be a directive for the AG, Cuccinelli to knock it off on our behalf?
The AG says these lawsuits only cost the $385 filing fee. Yea. Right. Is he also ignoring that we are all Americans and what the cost is double? We will pay the Virginia fees and the United States fees. Perhaps the AG forgot we are Americans. Meanwhile, I am not unconvinced that the AG ran for office just to advance his personal agenda and that we have given him the platform to do it. I have to get used to this new idea that carbon emissions and green house gas emissions are good for me. Why don’t I just go back to smoking?
