Find out how Cooch took $55,000 from the disgraced "U.S. Navy Veterans Association," in apparent exchange for his promise to get the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs (which had "notified Thompson's group that it no longer qualified for an exemption from state registration requirements") off the group's back. Can we say "pay-to-play?" Find out more.
Thanks to you and your hard work, the uranium industry did not have the votes in the General Assembly to introduce a bill to lift the ban. On January 19th, Gov. McDonnell was forced to concede that a report from the National Academy of Sciences identified "important questions related to the health and safety of workers, the public, and the environment." As a result, the ban will stay in place for 2012.
At the same time, however, Gov. McDonnell directed Virginia's health, mining and environmental agencies to draft "conceptual regulations" for the General Assembly to consider in 2013. Governor McDonnell's directive to create a draft statute and regulations, behind closed doors, is the first step toward lifting the ban.
The uranium industry has yet to show the citizens of Virginia that uranium mining can be done safely, and our legislators have not answered the fundamental public policy question: does Virginia want to take on the long-term economic and public health burden of mining uranium and storing millions of tons of toxic waste in our state?
No shocker here: we already knew that Bob McDonnell was on the side of the richest of the rich, the millionaires versus their secretaries, etc. Still, it's nice to hear McDonnell outright admit this viewpoint - radical redistribution of wealth from the richest 1% of Americans to everyone else -- on tee-vee. So yeah, McDonnell deserves a Nobel Price...for rare but refreshing honesty by a Republican't! LOL
Bob McDonnell just proved once again how much smarter of a politician he is than Ken Cuccinelli. While Cuccy is like the gung-ho Marine who's always the first to rush into battle -- and hence the first to get shot -- Gov. Bob actually thinks and aims before pulling the trigger.
Today's case in point: uranium mining, about which the governor decided not to lift Virginia's current ban this year. Instead, he's directing state agencies to develop a "regulatory roadmap" and creating a workgroup to study the site in Pittsylvania County where Virginia Uranium is seeking to dig up the radioactive stuff.
It's a clever move, essentially a strategic retreat to allow the corporate-owned party to regroup and plan out how to give the uranium lobby most of what it wants a little further down the road. And it managed to stir the pot enough that Virginia Uranium supported the delay while the Virginia League of Conservation Voters criticized the governor for preempting legislative debate.
Seriously, this is not a joke. Bob McDonnell really "stand(s) with Scott" Walker, who just had more than a million people sign a petition to remove him from office for his war against working people, his war on voting rights, his alleged favoritism and patronage, his love affair with the Koch brothers, etc., etc. Basically, Scott Walker is one of the worst governors in America, and one of the most unpopular, and Bob McDonnell is leaping to his defense - standing with him, in fact. That really says it all about Bob McDonnell, I'd say.
Great response by Senators McEachin and Barker to Gov. McDonnell's budget. The bottom line, according to McEachin and Barker: "we are concerned that aspects of the budget Governor McDonnell has put forth will damage Virginia and our economy by cutting hundreds of millions from public education and critical initiatives for children and families."
Senator McEachin and Senator Barker Respond to State of the Commonwealth Address Democrats Vow to Protect Public Education Funding
(Richmond, VA) Newly-elected Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) and Senator George Barker (D-Fairfax) delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Commonwealth Address this evening, calling for both parties to come together to protect funding for our public schools.
Senators Barker and McEachin expressed Democrats' desire to keep doing things the "Virginia Way", putting problem-solving above partisan bickering. But both senators expressed grave concern with the deep cuts the Governor is proposing to public education, including cuts to Pre-Kindergarten programs and to cost-to-compete education funding, and with his desire to divert General Fund money, money which funds public education, to pay for transportation projects.
Text of Senator McEachin and Senator Barker's Remarks
EMBARGOED UNTIL 7:45 PM
Bob McDonnell has announced his educational priorities for the upcoming General Assembly session, and if he gets his way, teachers and students will be big losers. The governor already has proposed a budget that takes money away from education and shovels it into road maintenance. Now, he is proposing doing away with teacher tenure, meaning that all teachers - no matter how competent or experienced - would have to prove every year that they deserved a job.
Adding insult to injury, McDonnell also wants to build upon his ALEC-drafted legislation that passed last year creating "virtual schools" in Virginia. ALEC is a corporate-run and financed group that writes model legislation for state politicians who are beholden to those corporations for contributions and junkets. HB 1388 and SB 738, which were introduced at McDonnell's request and signed into law, encourages school divisions to contract with private, for-profit virtual school companies and replace teachers with computer programs for student instruction. The model for that law came from ALEC's educational task force, which just happens to be headed by a corporation that sells virtual school programs.
It's easy to summarize Bob McDonnell's anti-public-education program. He believes in raiding education funding, attacking teachers by eliminating tenure protection, and shifting state education dollars to untested charter schools and for-profit virtual school companies as much as possible.
The Virginia Sierra Club responds to Gov. McDonnell's "Energy Policy and Budget Initiatives" (see on the "flip"), released earlier today. I agree with the Sierra Club's assessment: McDonnell's approach does not acknowledge environmental reality, weakens an already weak, voluntary "Renewable Portfolio Standard" - exactly the opposite of the direction we need to be going - and is simply inadequate in every way to the energy and environmental challenges we face as a state and as a nation. As with the rest of his governorship, Bob McDonnell's initiatives always end up with reminding us of that old, comic tag line: where's the beef? In this case, it's a nothing burger.
Statement of Glen Besa, Virginia Director for Sierra Club in response to Governor McDonnell's Energy Policy Initiatives
The "all of the above" approach to energy policy touted by Governor McDonnell fails to acknowledge the hard reality of a changing climate and the vulnerability of Virginia to its impacts from hurricanes and droughts to sea level rise. The economic vitality of the Hampton Roads region is second only to New Orleans in vulnerability to sea level rise.
The Governor's package of legislation includes two weakening amendments to the already broken voluntary renewable energy standard that this past year rewarded Dominion Virginia Power with $76 million in increased utility rates despite the fact that the utility has not built one wind or solar facility in the state.
With legislation the devil is always in the details, and until we actually read the bills we are concerned with the legislation related to mining and natural gas development. Branded as promoting improved safety in mining, any efforts to expand development of fossil fuels ignores the reality of climate change. At the same time, despite the claim of an "all of the above" approach, we see too few initiatives to advance wind and solar. We are pleased that the Governor has allocated $500,000 devoted to supporting offshore wind power although we note this far less that is needed. We also are pleased the Governor is moving forward with alternatively fueled vehicles in the state fleet using federal funds available to the state.
Gov. Scrooge Bob McDonnell just finished presenting his budget for Virginia, and it's as bad or worse than most of us thought it would be. A few lowlights:
*There are no new revenues in the budget {UPDATE: I'm informed that there's an increased drivers license fee, which could raise a few million dollars a year -- still utterly inconsequential in the context of an $85 billion two-year budget, but it's worth mentioning for accuracy's sake) which means that everything's a zero-sum game. Remember that, as you analyze the budget: if there's an increase in one area, there has to be a decrease in another.
*No new revenues also means continuing to starve transportation (have fun stewing in gridlock for many more years to come), failing to replace federal "stimulus" funds that are now ending, and absolutely nailing Medicaid ("$258.6 million saved by not funding inflation costs for hospital rates under Medicaid").
*The budget hurts kids, foolishly and counterproductively taking "$81 million from gutting Democratic former Gov. Tim Kaine's Virginia Preschool Initiative." That's really, really stupid, as pre-k is one of the most effective ways to get kids learning early. Why on earth would McDonnell cut that?
*Meanwhile, note that the wealthiest Virginians and most powerful corporations aren't asked to pay any more. And note that there are no cuts to corporate welfare (e.g., coal, movies, wine, you name it -- even the space industry gets some holiday goodies!) in this budget, despite the fact that this largesse costs Virginia tens of millions (or more) per year, for mostly no good public policy reason. Priorities, priorities, I suppose.
Bottom line: this is a classic Teapublican't budget -- hurting the poor, the elderly, the young, the most vulnerable, while protecting the gravy train rich people and corporations are riding on. It's disgusting, but it's also not surprising, given that this IS the Republican Way after all. Ebenezer Scrooge had nothing on these guys when it comes to cold-heartedness and selfishness.
P.S. The House Democrats' press release is on the "flip." I'm not sure how they can "vow" anything, given that there are only 32 of them in the 100-member House of Delegates, but alrighty...
Two dubious legacies are already emerging as the hallmarks of Bob McDonnell's tenure as governor. The first, certainly not entirely his fault, is the burgeoning shortfall in the Virginia Retirement System, which now is only funded at 68% of its future liabilities. The second is a failing transportation system with an inadequate revenue stream to maintain and modernize it, even as McDonnell happily acquiesced to a phony transportation plan driven by debt, much of it to be paid back with future federal road money, money certain to be cut in subsequent federal budgets.
Get ready for one consequence from the VRS shortfall in the next session of the General Assembly. Now that the GOP controls all of state government, I fully expect some form of defined contribution (401k) VRS retirement plan to pass the General Assembly.That's how the state will deal with its past irresponsibility. All the risk and vagaries of the stock market will be shifted onto future retirees, while state services will suffer to pay back some of the past VRS fund borrowing.
As for transportation, the Republican aversion to paying for necessary vital services with tax revenue means that McDonnell is punting the continuing crisis in transportation down the field to a successor. By using the typical Republican ploy of borrow and spend, McDonnell has assured that he won't have to solve that problem, one that has been screaming for a solution for years.
So, get ready Virginia. Federal budget cutbacks will have serious consequences for our state, felt most severely in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. The two biggest money problems in the state have been swept under the rug yet again. Meanwhile, our state tax system has loopholes and tax expenditures almost equal to the revenue the state does collect. All of this means there is a fiscal train wreck in our future, especially if voters continue to elect Republicans.
The Better Choices for Virginia Coalition, of which ProgressVA is a member, gathered in Richmond today to tell Governor McDonnell that Virginians need a budget plan with a balanced approach that cuts tax loopholes and not jobs.Their release reports,
"With the Governor preparing to unveil his plan for the upcoming budget next week, the more than 40 organizations that comprise the growing Better Choices coalition want him to protect and create jobs instead of making deep cuts to schools, health care, public safety and other key building blocks for a strong economy."
Better Choices not only presented the Governor today with an enlarged petition, signed by today's rally's attendees, but also with more than 1,300 petitions signed by Virginians from across the Commonwealth calling for a balanced approach to the budget. McDonnell's cuts-only mentality threatens Virginia families and hurts our economic recovery.
Virginia Budget Facts:
Virginia has a roughly $1 billion gap over the next 2 years and relying on a cuts-only approach to essential services will likely hurt Virginia's ability to create jobs and grow the economy. (Better Choices for Virginia, December 15, 2011)
With control of executive offices, the House, and half of the Senate, Virginia Republicans are set to do the National Rifle Association's bidding by trying to repeal what's left of Virginia's already-weak gun laws:
A handful of pro-gun bills is already in the works. Del. Mark Cole, R-Fredericksburg, filed a bill last week that bars localities from offering incentives to gun owners to surrender their firearms and another banning clerks from releasing the names of individuals who have permits to carry concealed handguns. [...]
The top target for pro-gun groups is lifting Virginia's limit of one handgun purchase per month.
The NRA has given $16,140 to Virginia state-level political campaigns this year alone - not a penny of it going to Democrats. The NRA has poured a staggering $628,648 into Virginia campaigns since 1996. Gov. Bob McDonnell used to support the extremely reasonable one handgun a month limit. But that was before he needed the NRA's support for his national political ambitions.
"Republicans are going to be responsible for what comes out and whatever results from the decisions they make," said Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington. "In all likelihood they will become law. People should get ready for the wild, wild West here in Virginia, and I'm not sure that's what people voted for when they went to the booths in November."
This is not about hunting (I think we actually need more of that), and it's not about self-protection. It's about fighting a paranoid culture war that thinks any reasonable gun safety rules are the same thing as Muslim commie terrorists running through the streets stealing our guns, forcing our children to gay marry & setting fire to our churches. Why would you need more than one handgun a month, other than the convenience of being able to massacre more people without stopping to reload?
Crossposted at ProgressVA. Over the weekend, the Washington Post took a hard look at the virtual school company K12 Inc., which is based in Virginia. Popular with conservatives, their controversial virtual classrooms allow students to take lessons at home without physically going to a school. The firm is controversial because their students don't perform as well as those enrolled in public schools even though the company receives the same amount from the state, per pupil, as brick and mortar schools.
While the entire article is worth reading, near the end the piece shares how the politically savvy company got things done in Virginia: they gave a lot of money to Bob McDonnell. The Post reports, "McDonnell has received $55,000 in campaign contributions from K12 or its executives since 2009, including a $15,000 payment to his political action committee this month." For that he, "successfully promoted legislation to authorize full-time virtual schools in 2010. K12 was the only private company present during talks to craft that legislation." That legislation is based off templates written by the conservative, corporate-front group ALEC.A full list of K12's campaign contributions can be found here on VPAP.org.
I received an email from Bob McDonnell's office a few minutes ago with his "appointments to three Virginia boards and commissions." One that immediately jumped out at me was the following:
Caren Merrick of McLean, Partner with Bibury Partners to the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority
All I can say is, if you thought MWAA was bad now (which it is!), wait until this unqualified right winger gets on there. Things won't get any better, that's for sure.
UPDATE: A Democratic friend of mine adds the following comments, which I think are both highly relevant and spot-on.
This is part of a long-developing pattern in which the dysfunction of the MWAA Board, and their poor decisions, not only has brought us those bad decisions themselves, but also has brought us an erosion of NOVA and Democratic control over MWAA. The McDonnell appointees are going to start "taking it" to the do-nothing mis-managers on the MWAA Board.
In addition, one of the biggest messaging failures of the MWAA board was their failure to agree upon, and relentlessly promote month in and month out, year in and year out, the need for a dedicated revenue stream for Metro. Episodically and periodically, they did this, but they were never willing to stick with it and explain in easily understandable terms exactly what was going to happen to the system if it didn't get this dedicated revenue stream: inability to replace capital assets as they wore out, etc.
UPDATE: My Dem friend adds, " The messaging problem as to this second point is primarily the fault of WMATA (not MWAA). However, the governance of both MWAA and WMATA has been dysfunctional; both have made poor decisions, and the poor decisions of MWAA have really come into focus with respect to its decisions about the Metro Silver line construction project."
Today, in recognition of his perilous policies and monstrous mismanagement, ProgressVA awarded Governor Bob McDonnell our first annual "Turkey of the Year" Award. To commemorate the occasion, we delivered a turkey to the Governor's office in Richmond this morning.
There are a multitude of reasons McDonnell deserves this award this year. Our resolution conferring upon him this honor reads, in part,
"Whereas, as Governor, McDonnell has cut millions of dollars from education, public safety, and social service programs, and...Whereas, Governor McDonnell insisted on closing Virginia's budget deficit through a cuts-only approach that ignores closing tax loopholes that benefit his corporate donors, and Whereas, approximately 64% of Virginia corporations pay no corporate income tax while middle class families pay their fair share and Governor McDonnell has proposed no remedy."
The Coalition for Smarter Growth warns Gov. Bob McDonnell's transportation plans will only add more cars from sprawling new developments to Virginia's existing traffic problems:
The state is borrowing $3 billion in state and federal funds on top of their normal annual spending for transportation, and we'll be paying this back for years. We should be setting smart priorities, but instead, VDOT is:
Reviving the controversial Outer Beltway through historic landscapes at Manassas Battlefield -- the first ten miles of which could cost $250 million to $475 million -- instead of focusing on fixing existing commuter routes in Northern Virginia.
Shifting $200 million in statewide money to a bypass in Charlottesville that won't fix major local traffic problems.
Giving $750 million of our tax dollars to subsidize a private toll road (Route 460) through empty farmland southeast of Richmond.
Meanwhile, when asked to help fund critical Tysons Corner transportation needs, the Examiner reports that "Virginia's Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton warned Fairfax to look elsewhere for cash."
It's not surprising Bob McDonnell's pandering to developers - he's gotten more than $5 million in campaign cash from developers, real estate & construction, by a wide margin his biggest source of private sector contributions. The Coalition for Smarter Growth has a 10-step transportation agenda for Northern Virginia - really radical stuff, like "Bring our local elected officials back to the table in transportation decision making."
Our faith in Virginians and Americans should be renewed by the results of the elections yesterday. The wave of popular fear may be ebbing. Though the Virginia outcome could be better, our progressive ship is not on the shoals. However, we cannot stand idle while the DPVA finds its voice.
Elaine and her commenters have outlined many positive aspects of elections across America yesterday. There are other indicators that the Republicans and the Tea Party have overplayed their hands. Anecdotally, phone bank volunteers in campaigns noted that they often heard complaints about the tone of calls from the other side and the over-the-top rhetoric. And there is a trend back toward discussions of local issues away from the divisive and sometimes irrelevant national debate.
Until this fall, Sinclair Communications in the Norfolk market featured two all day, all night, wall-to-wall radio talk-fests featuring almost exclusive drum beating for "conservative ideas." But a few weeks ago one station, was completely transformed and the other broadly reformatted. Gone are Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz (both completely from the market), and others. One former talk-radio station is now Funny 850, almost exclusively comedy with some time for sports shows smattered here and there. On the other station, WNIS, local talk programming has been expanded from a low of 3 hours daily to 6. Based upon the volume of callers, it appears a successful venture. The much hailed "free market" seems to have discounted appeals to fear, hate, and loathing.
Right now is the time to be pressing our case hard, making our voices heard across Virginia. But there is no DPVA strategy to develop, maintain, and reinforce a message; to call out the Virginia Republicans for their obfuscation and downright fabricated accomplishments (see Bob McDonnell); to remind us and everyone what we stand for. The frustration expressed by Peter Rousselot is commonly held; just look at the comments to his diary. For some time there has been no consistent message or spokesperson at all. So it is important that we speak out here and wherever we can until the DPVA regains a voice and begins to represent Virginia Democrats rather than Virginia Democratic office holders.
Great speech, too bad it isn't really what the REAL Bob McDonnell had to say. Instead, this is "Virginia Sierra Club activist Daryl Downing giv[ing] the clean energy speech Bob McDonnell should have given (but did not) at the Governor's Conference on Energy in Richmond." For his part, McDonnell did the usual Republican/corporate tool "drill baby drill" and "mine baby mine" routine -- back to the 19th and early 20th centuries, in other words. Such visionaries, these Republican'ts. (snark)
The always on-point David Alpert GreaterGreaterWashington nails Bob McDonnell, and deservedly so, for escalating his ongoing war on smart growth/transit-oriented development. What McDonnell's doing here is almost the exact definition of "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," aka "insanity." It's also a guaranteed way not only to keep us addicted to dirty, expensive fossil fuels, but actually to increase that dependency when we should be moving in the exact opposite direction. Here's an excerpt from Alpert's article, but definitely read the entire thing:
...[Virginia's] making a U-turn as the Commonwealth Transportation Board threw out the new standards at a meeting last week.
This step is just one of many from Virginia statewide agencies in recent days that decisively push toward a 1950s view of growth, one which neglects established communities and crumbling infrastructure in favor of brand-new sprawl in the farmlands which ultimately creates even more traffic.
State officials are giving the thumbs down to Metro, light rail and bus transit in favor of highway lane expansion, skipping small but significant improvements that help neighborhoods or key growth areas like Tysons Corner to instead spend billions on megaprojects that drive the region farther apart, and lose focus on key repair needs while weakening the street connectivity standards.
I'm tempted to go, except that, appropriately enough, I have no desire to battle the insane traffic to get to this meeting. And if you think it's bad now, just imagine how awful it will be if sprawl-crazy, anti-smart-growth, ignorant ideologues and corporate tools like Bob McDonnell and Bob Chase's Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance get their way. Ugh.
Del. Kaye Kory (D-Fairfax) asked me to post the following:
OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR MCDONNELL: DON'T ENDANGER OUR WATER SUPPLY!
Dear Governor:
I urge you to cancel your short-sighted plans to withdraw Virginia from the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB). Virginia has benefitted greatly from its 70 year membership in this Commission. I seriously doubt that our
Commonwealth would have accomplished on its own what it has achieved as a Commission member--activities ranging from pollution monitoring to shad restoration.
The money saved in Commission dues, about $150,000 annually, is truly a pittance compared with what we receive as a Commission member: research and long-range planning aimed at keeping the Potomac a vibrant and healthy resource, a resource upon which more than 1/5 of Virginia's residents depend. The planning for the region's long-term water requirements,the monitoring and coordination of the regional supply of usable water to Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland are functions that Virginia cannot perform alone. All this cooperative work would be jepordized were Virginia to withdraw from the ICPRB. Virginia has been a mainstay of support for the ICPRB since its inception in 1940, largely because it alone has nearly 40% of the river's total drainage area. Therefore, it is uncertain whether the Commission could continue to exist without Virginia's membership. Certainly the co-operative water sharing covenant operative in times of drought would not continue.
Finally, I firmly believe that because some potential uranium mining sites would drain into the Occoquan and on into the Potomac, we should be seeking, not discarding, the technical capabilities and expertise available through the ICPRB as we face this vitally important environmental question in the upcoming session of the General Assembly.
The Progressive Point is ProgressVA's daily message email featuring the top VA news of the day and the corresponding progressive message. Crossposted at ProgressVA
Progressive Point: Governor McDonnell wants to have it both ways: touting Virginia's recovering economy while justifying more draconian budget cuts with slow economic growth. Virginia's economy is slowly getting back on its feet but ordinary Virginians are still feeling the pain. Virginia's income gap is rapidly growing but instead of supporting struggling Virginians, Governor McDonnell is insisting on more cuts to vital services like education and public safety. We cannot continue to balance the budget on the backs of educators, nurses, and firefighters, while pushing our obligations off onto struggling localities. We can't cut our way to prosperity. Virginians want a balanced approach that prioritizes investment in our future to get our economy back on track.
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Bob McDonnell just proved once again how much smarter of a politician he is than Ken Cuccinelli. While Cuccy is like the gung-ho Marine who's always the first to rush into battle -- and hence the first to get shot -- Gov. Bob actually thinks and aims before pulling the trigger.
The Virginia Sierra Club responds to Gov. McDonnell's "Energy Policy and Budget Initiatives" (see on the "flip"), released earlier today. I agree with the Sierra Club's assessment: McDonnell's approach does not acknowledge environmental reality, weakens an already weak, voluntary "Renewable Portfolio Standard" - exactly the opposite of the direction we need to be going - and is simply inadequate in every way to the energy and environmental challenges we face as a state and as a nation. As with the rest of his governorship, Bob McDonnell's initiatives always end up with reminding us of that old, comic tag line: where's the beef? In this case, it's a nothing burger.
Gov. 
Two dubious legacies are already emerging as the hallmarks of Bob McDonnell's tenure as governor. The first, certainly not entirely his fault, is the burgeoning 
The 
Our faith in Virginians and Americans should be renewed by the results of the elections yesterday. The wave of popular fear may be ebbing. Though the Virginia outcome could be better, our progressive ship is not on the shoals. However, we cannot stand idle while the DPVA finds its voice.
The always on-point David Alpert 
