~~~~~Rumors~~~~~

MoonHowler

The telephone has rung off the hook today with tidbits and rumors.  The email box has been chock full.  Where to begin….

The Lion and Bull in Haymarket  was the place of Carl Genthner’s kick off campaign for Gainesville Supervisor.  There was a welcoming committee for all who came to meet Mr. Genthner.  It seems that some of the current Gainesville Supervisor’s staff were sitting right outside the meeting room to check out who all was going in and to give a little stare down to the guests.   Fans (Thanks you Mr. Supervisor, thank you) were also there for the official stare down.

correction: there were NO CURRENT staff members from Supervisor’s Stirrups office at Carl Genthner’s kick offevent

Like minded political support was there for Mr. Genthner.

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Corey Stewart proposes to use addition county funds for his pet projects to curry some favors.  More information should be forthcoming.

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A Dark Blog–A certain blogmeister removed an inflammatory but sizzling exposé about a certain senate macaca candidate and a past RNC chair from his blog.  Did he out-sleaze himself or is there a touch of chivalry still alive?   Do Republicans really practice cannibalism?  It seemed like it reading that exposé.  Now should that person win the party nomination for the Senate, how does one undo the image planted in the minds of Virginians that the gentleman is a home-wrecker and an adulterer?  White-out just won’t cut it.

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BOCS–What former BOCS member might be challenging the remaining lady on the board?  Rumors abound.

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BOCS (2)–What supervisor needs to prepare outgoing email more carefully?

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Residents- Some residents think that the new magisterial district boundary lines are going to split up families.  Are some lines running right through the middle of someone’s home?

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Updates:

Blogosphere:  A local blogger has announced his/her candidacy for House of Delegates.

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Feel free to add to the rumor mill.  Things are getting interesting for sure.  We might just need a bookie before election day rolls around.

Governor “Pat Robertson” McDonnell inserts his values

MoonHowler

Something strange has happened that I don’t quite understand.  It seems the governor of Virginia has added an amendment to a bill approved by the General Assembly.  How does this work?  Why is the executive branch able to do legislative tasks?  Here is what happened:

 

Washington Post:

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Robert F. Mc­Don­nell has added an amendment restricting insurance coverage for abortion into a bill approved by the General Assembly establishing a health insurance exchange as part of the federal health-care overhaul.

The health insurance exchange would be managed by the state and allow individuals and some small businesses to pool together to buy insurance at lower rates. Some who cannot afford insurance would receive government subsidies.

Under the federal law, states were given the option of creating their own exchanges or using ones operated by the federal government.

The bill approved by the General Assembly stated Virginia’s intent to create its own exchange, and directed state regulators to figure out how to run it.

After the bill reached Mc­Don­nell (R) for his signature, he added an amendment that would prohibit any insurance plan offered as part of the exchange from including coverage for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.

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More join protest against mandated 150 minutes PE time

MoonHowler

Washington Post:

Three statewide education groups are joining with the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League to urge Gov. Bob Mc­Don­nell (R) to veto a bill that requires elementary and middle schools to offer 150 minutes of physical education a week.

Fairfax County Schools have been voicing concern.  The three new educational groups urging the governor to veto include:

… the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Education Association and the Virginia School Boards Association have joined with the local government groups to make the same arguments. 

Their letter to the governor states the following:

“We recognize that the bill’s intent of fighting childhood obesity is a laudable goal.  We ask, however, that you exercise your discretion to veto this bill because of two major concerns: (1) the bill imposes a substantial unfunded mandate on school divisions and localities and (2) due to time constraints and other requirements imposed on the public schools, the bill’s implementation will pose very significant instructional and practical problems,” they write in a letter to Mc­Don­nell.

Basically, most buildings don’t have the facilities to comply with what would be the new law.  Very few elementary schools have gyms.  Scheduling is already difficult at middle schools.  Most jurisdictions simply don’t have the money to comply or to retrofit new gym facilities.  They certainly don’t have the money to hire new PE teachers. 

Parent groups are meanwhile lobbying Gov. McDonnell to sign the bill into law to help curb childhood obesity.  No one denies that kids need more exercise.  However, Virginia legislators really didn’t look at the reality of how to implement their new law or who was going to pay for it.  According the the WaPo, this is the most hotly contested of all of the 1600 bills passed this session.  Right now, jurisdictions and school systems are viewing the PE Bill as just another unfunded mandate. 

 

The ‘what ifs’ of 2012

MoonHowler

Richmond Times Dispatch:

New polling pegs a potential U.S. Senate contest between former Govs. George Allen and Timothy M. Kaine as a dead heat.

The first survey by Public Policy Polling since Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., announced that he won’t seek re-election shows Allen, a Republican, and Kaine, a Democrat, tied at 47 percent with 6 percent undecided.

Kaine, who has said he will make a decision on whether to run for the seat early this month, registers a higher favorability rating than Allen, with 46 percent to Allen’s 39 percent.

46-39 doesn’t quite seem like a dead heat to me, but you know those polls.  Yea/Nay depending on who you like.  Let’s take a look at some other variables.  Kaine might not want to run. He was sitting back minding his own business being DNC chair, when Webb announced he was retiring after one term.  What other Democrats could step up to the plate?  There is always former Rep. Rich Boucher.  How about former Rep. Tom Perriello?  Both of these men were knocked out of office at midterms.

…[T]he poll showed Allen beating two other Democrats mentioned as a possibility. Allen bests former Rep. Rick Boucher, 47-42, and former Rep. Tom Perriello, 48-41, in the survey. Boucher and Perriello were casualties of a Republican surge in the November midterms.

How about Republican contenders who might oust Allen in a primary or convention?  Both Jaime Radthke and Delegate Bob Marshall’s names have been mentioned.

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Capital Squawk: The Awards Show

MoonHowler

The Richmond Times-Dispatch host Jim Nolan hands out the inaugural Squawkie Awards as the session draws to a close. The ceremony is entertaining and funny. Of course, there is the oily aroma of Virginia politics.

The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to the Democratic leaderhship in the Senate.  You can guess why.

Enjoy.  You will never guess who gets the Best Picture Squawkie, Citizen Kane!  Will he or won’t he? 

Giles County reposts the 10 Commandments

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com

PEARISBURG, VA. – Nearly 12 years ago, in the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School, officials quietly posted the Ten Commandments on the walls of Giles County public schools. It was a natural reaction, said residents of this rural county peppered with churches, to such an alarming moral breakdown.

There the commandments stayed, within nondescript frames that also featured the first page of the U.S. Constitution, stirring little controversy until December. That’s when an anonymous complaint prompted the superintendent to order the removal of the displays. The decision sparked such passionate community backlash that the county school board voted to post them again in January.

Giles County is down on the Virginia/West Virginia border, just for a location.  It is in the heart of Virginia’s bible belt.  In fact, it is so bible belt that they run a bible bus to Christian classes during the school day, according to the WaPo:

The district also runs a so-called “Bible Bus” so that students can get privately organized Christian instruction off site during the middle of the school day.

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Virginia lawmakers approve 150 minutes for PE

MoonHowler

All that’s needed is a governor’s signature and Virginia will have yet another unfunded mandate.  Starting in 2014, all elementary and middle schools must provide 150 minutes of PE per week for students.  Half-day kindergarten students would be exempt.  This change would be most significant in elementary schools where only 10% of schools meet the state standard.  Recess would not be allowed to substitute for PE.

Not everyone likes the new law.  The VEA opposes the bill.  Several school systems oppose it also.  According to the Washington Post:

But some school district officials oppose the looming requirement – to be implemented in 2014 – saying it could extend the school day, lead to cuts in arts and music classes, or increase costs because additional teachers would be needed.

“Schools can’t be expected to solve all of society’s problems,” said Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale, who lobbied against the legislation.

Naturally, educators are concerned about PE cutting in to instructional time for academics. One of the biggest problems is where to hold PE classes during inclement weather.  Many elementary schools simply lack facilities to have phyical activities going on inside the building.  Most schools do not have gyms and often use the cafeteria when lunch isn’t being served.  That’s going to be a problem. 

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VA ABC Stores safe, at least for this year

MoonHowler

The Washington Times:

Legislation to sell Virginia’s state-owned liquor stores and devote the proceeds to transportation won’t pass this session.

Sen. Mark Obenshain effectively withdrew his measure Tuesday to divest the state of its Alcoholic Beverage Control stores.

Mr. Obenshain, Harrisonburg Republican, said he did it so Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell could study the measure, which was a pillar of the transportation funding plan he advanced in his successful campaign last year.

Mr. Obenshain said the bill would await a special session on transportation, should Mr. McDonnell call one, or next year’s regular session.

Mr. McDonnell claimed that selling the state-owned liquor retailers would generate about $500 million for transportation, an estimate many experts question.

Thanks to Chris for bringing this hot off the press story to my attention.  I keep hearing that Virginia should not be in the business of selling liquor.  It was good enough for those Virginians coming off of Prohibition.  It was good enough for our parents, grandparents and great grandparents,  If those are Republican values, then keep them elsewhere.

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Family Life Education Bill passes out of committee–heads to full Senate vote

MoonHowler

On Thursday, members of the Senate Education and Health committee voted to report SB 967: Family Life Education Standards of Learning by a vote of 11-4. This was a huge victory but the first step of many to getting this common-sense legislation signed into law.

On Monday, the entire Senate will vote on this legislation.

Family life education. Requires each school division to implement the standards of learning for the family life education program promulgated by the Board of Education, or a family life education program consistent with the guidelines developed by the Board, which shall have the goals of reducing the incidence of pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and substance abuse among teenagers. Any curricula or materials used must be evidence-based and supported by peer reviewed medical research.

As I understand it, this legislation would do away with schools being coerced into using bogus materials that present voodoo pseudo science as medical evidence. I once sat through several classes of abstinence education.  It was foolish and the kids all laughed at it.  There were virginity pledges, rings, and other gimmicks that really didn’t address sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and the responsibilities involved in becoming sexually active at an early age.  Those types of ‘classes’ are better for church groups and within the family.  They are not appropriate for public education.  This bill protects our children from pseudo science being presented as fact.

Please write to your state senator and encourage him or her to support SB 967.  Accurate information never hurt anyone.

Senator Colgan’s email:

[email protected]

 

Low Hanging Fruit

MoonHowler

The other day, I got an email from Delegate Jackson Miller, trumpeting all the work he is doing to stop illegal immigration.  I expected to read that he had taken up personal vigil down on the border considering all the fanfare.  Such was not the case.  In part, his email stated:

 

During the 2011 Virginia General Assembly Session, we will be debating many issues that are important to the Commonwealth, but one issue of particular significance to me is illegal immigration.  As a former police officer with almost two decades of experience, I have seen firsthand the effect that illegal immigration can have on a community.  As your Delegate, I am working hard to find solutions to the many issues and challenges that illegal immigration has presented in our communities and in our Commonwealth.  

 Recently, I appeared on Fox News Channel’s morning program, Fox & Friends, to defend a bill on which I am a co-patron.  This bill, HB1465,   (click for full text)  stipulates that illegal aliens will not be eligible for admission to Virginia’s colleges and universities.  Higher education is a privilege, not a right, and placement in Virginia’s colleges and universities has become increasingly difficult for legal residents of our state to obtain.  This bill will require that all prospective students submit appropriate documentation showing proof of citizenship or a student visa for eligibility for enrollment. 

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Virginia Proposed Anti-Bully Legislation

MoonHowler

From the Washington Post, Virginia Politics Blog:

NoVa. delegates push anti-bullying legislation

By Rosalind S. Helderman

Two Northern Virginia Democrats are sponsoring legislation to attempt to curb teen bullying, a topic that’s received heightened national attention due to a spate of suicides of teenagers who had been targeted by classmates.

Del. Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington) is proposing a billthat would make egregious bullying a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to 1 year in jail and a $2,500 fine. Ebbin cited the case of York County high school student Christian Taylor, who committed suicide in May.

Taylor’s mother has said she complained to school officials and local sheriff’s deputies that the 16-year old was being bullied but they did little to help. The local sheriff’s office has said it investigated her complaints and turned them over to school officials after determining no laws had been broken. In a wrongful death suit she has filed against local officials, Taylor’s mother indicates that her son’s bully allegedly told him before his death: “You need to just go ahead and kill yourself and get it over with.”

Ebbin’s bill would define bullying as “recklessly or intentionally endangering the health or safety of a student by exposing the student repeatedly, and over time, to physical aggression or intimidation, whether through direct physical contact or through the use of information or communication technology, resulting in bodily injury or other harm to person or property.” It would also give victims the right to sue those who have bullied them.

 

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Minting our own Funny Money

MoonHowler

Sideshow Bobby is at it again.  This time he wants to mint our own money here in Virginia–Not real money but not exactly funny money either.  Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13)  wants to not only mint our own coins but he also wants to establish a bank of Virginia.  From insidenova.com:

The 20-year veteran plans to introduce legislation during the Jan. 12 session of the General Assembly that would call for the Commonwealth to study minting its own coins in order to compete with what he calls “the monopoly of the Federal Reserve System.”

“We can’t mint money, but we can mint gold and silver coins,” Marshall said Wednesday night. “It sounds like a small difference, but it is a difference legally. If you look closely on a [dollar] bill, it doesn’t say that it’s money. It says it is legal tender ‘for all debts, public and private.’”

Marshall said that the Federal Reserve has created inflation that is detrimental to the economy because there is no competition in terms of payment.

“When you have a monopoly, you can do what ever you want,” he said of the Reserve.
The minting of gold and silver coins, which he compared to that of companies making commemorative coins, is something states can legally do as long as the coins meet the weight requirements.

And minting coins is just the first step.

“Obviously, it won’t always be convenient to carry around gold and silver coins,” Marshall said. “You could set up a debit system where you’d have a claim of gold or silver deposited with the trustee.”

Marshall would also like to see a bank of Virginia established.

What will Bob Marshall think of next?  Where is the features, advantages, benefits plan?  What’s in it for Virginians?  Is this just another way to get sued by the feds?  Marshall and Cuccinelli are the Frick and Frack of Virginia politics.  Next thing I know he will come up with a secessionist plan all our very own. 

Delegate Marshall need to go to Richmond and work on jobs and transportation.  He needs to figure out ways to support education and repay the VRS fund.  He needs to help his colleagues develop a plan to lure companies into Virginia to pump up our economy.  We don’t need bad publicity to drive them away.  He and the AG seem to be trying to out do each other on extremist plans to embarrass the state.  What is he thinking?!! 

Virginia protects businesses rather than homeowners

MoonHowler

Since the housing crash three years ago, Maryland and DC have moved to protect the homeowner.  This move only seems fair in light of some of of the shoddy practices  employed  by some  mortgage companies and banks.  While foreclosure laws changed to protect the homeowner in Maryland and DC, things have moved the opposite direction in Virginia. 

According to the Washington Post:

Last year, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law making it easier for lenders to defend themselves when accused of giving homeowners too little warning of impending foreclosures.

The process moves so quickly in Virginia – one of the fastest states in the nation – that homeowners can receive less than two weeks’ notice that their house is about to be sold on the courthouse steps.

That confronts homeowners with an almost impossible deadline. To get a court to stop the sale in that narrow window, they must gather evidence, file a lawsuit and potentially post a bond with the court that could total thousands of dollars. Instead of trying to find a lawyer and prepare a suit, many borrowers run out the clock trying to deal with their lender.

At a time when lenders have been cutting corners and using phony documents to seize huge numbers of houses, the hurdles can be insurmountable, according to lawyers, consumer advocates and borrowers who have tried to save their homes.

“There’s no question that people are losing their homes when they should not be,” said James W. “Jay” Speer, executive director of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, which is part of a legal-aid network.

In many states, homeowners facing foreclosure automatically get a day in court, a chance to tell a judge why they should keep their homes. The judicial process provides at least a modest check on error and abuse.

But in Virginia and 28 other states, as well as the District, according to the RealtyTrac foreclosure information service, borrowers have no such luck. They face “nonjudicial” foreclosure processes, meaning lenders can foreclose without going through the courts.

It looks like our Virginia legislators  have some work to do once they hit Richmond in January.  They need to be protecting the homeowner against what often has been really bad business practice.  It is now time for our delegates to get over worrying about who might be looking at their butt or who might be in the market for some crotchless panties in Old Town Manassas and get on with the business  of protecting Virginians.   All needed to ignore the whinings and pinings of Corey Stewart and just tell him to STFU, and that they are too busy to worry about his nonsense.  Then they need to get busy and protect Virginia homeowners from unscupulous lenders. 

Virginians are getting screwed.  Time for legislators to protect the citizens rather than giving the banks and mortgage companies, many who aren’t even based in Virginia, the execution’s axe to finish off the homeowners. 

More information from Washington Post

Marshall’s ‘Luv Canals’ Don’t extend to Gays in the National Guard

MoonHowler

Give it a rest, Side-Show Bob.  Del. Marshall must think Virginia won the Civil War and that the Old Dominion is not part of the United States. 

It seems that Marshall wants gays banned from the Virginia National Guard.  He says history is on his side.  According to the News and Messenger:

Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, said he will introduce legislation in the 2011 General Assembly that would prevent gays from serving openly in the Virginia National Guard.

He said he has history on his side.

According to numerous Internet sources, Lt.  Gotthold Frederick Enslin was drummed out of the Continental Army on sodomy charges in 1778.

“The policy started with George Washington. This is not something that’s brand new, but the press has largely ignored it because they don’t read history,” Marshall said.

Policies restricting gays from serving in the military have been in place since Lt. Enslin was dismissed.

Marshall said the recent repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy — put in place by President Bill Clinton — was simply President Barack Obama’s appeasement of the left wing of the Democratic party.

Perhaps Marshall would like to see what the Log Cabin Republicans have to say about all this?  Were they against repeal of DADT?  Marshall’s logic is flawed.  George Washington’s family owned slaves also.  Much has changed since Washington’s day.  Hell, they even let the little woman vote nowadays. 

Marshall droned on:

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McDonnell Ups the Pension Ante

MoonHowler

Governor McDonnell has just upped the ante with the VRS, the Virginia pension fund.  He gets off on the wrong foot by saying that the pension fund has been problematic for years and years.  That simply is not true according to reports over the years from outside sources and independent audits.  VRS has only come under fire in recent years, specifically after the crash of 2008.    McDonnell’s attempts to paint the plan as compromised and unsustainable are purely political. 

McDonnell has outlined his plan which will affect nearly 90,000 state employees, according to the Washington Post:

RICHMOND – Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) proposed Thursday that 87,000 state employees begin making annual 5 percent contributions – the first in nearly three decades – to the state’s retirement fund as a way to shore up the commonwealth’s pension system.

Virginia is one of only four states where government workers make no annual contributions to their retirement fund, the result of a 27-year-old deal in which the state agreed to pick up employee costs in lieu of a pay raise in 1983.

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