I won't be diplomatic about Democratic candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe's change of face regarding offshore oil drilling. In an about face that dovetailed both U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and Mark Warner's (Virginia) bill to overturn the federal hold on offshore drilling in coastal waters, McAuliffe expressed support for offshore drilling for oil.
Previously, McAuliffe expressed his support for exploratory drilling for natural gas, not oil. With his Democratic pals pushing to throw more oil and natural gas rigs into America's coastal waters, McAuliffe has adjudged that the political winds are ripe for a political change of face and a stab in the back to environmentally conscious Virginians who so ardently backed his candidacy.
"Terry believes we need to support coal workers, both through increased exports throughout the world, and workforce training to ensure that displaced workers can find new careers," McAuliffe spokesman Josh Schwerin said. "The fact is, we need an all of the above energy policy that focuses on increasing renewable energy like wind and solar while supporting existing Virginia industries."
Support coal workers, WTF?! I have a bitter pill I'd like the coal industry and its employees to swallow: your time is up, so get over it and find jobs elsewhere.
We elect politicians to make decisions. When they refuse to take a stand, it's our job to hold them accountable.
Yet somehow that rule seems to have a huge loophole when it comes to energy. Because the one thing politicians across the spectrum seem to agree on is the need for an "all of the above" energy policy. And we allow them to get away with this cop-out.
"All of the above" is not a policy, it is the absence of a policy. Have you ever heard of an "all of the above" foreign policy? Maybe an "all of the above" economic policy? How about an "all of the above" policy on abortion? Such things sound absurd because they are.
Granted, politics and government often leave us with policies that incorporate opposing positions, once we've ground through the process of give-and-take. But rarely does anyone start with an "all of the above" position. It's where you may end up after you've tried to protect your ground while giving away as little of your positions, and your soul, as you can. If you start with "all of the above" as your position, you're pretty much guaranteed to get nothing.
Remember that famous quote from Martin Luther King? "I have a dream...of an 'all of the above' civil rights policy where we simultaneously protect and deny the rights of all Americans." Me neither.
In an effort to put more holes in Virginia soil to extract materials millions of years old, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are renewing their attempts to lift the federal hold on oil and gas drilling in Virginia's coastal waters.
But wait, here comes the political cover! According to The Virginian-Pilot, Warner and Kaine each "vowed" they wouldn't continue their attempts to lift the federal moratorium on oil and gas drilling unless the Commonwealth received a sizable share of the of the oil and gas revenue that would accrue in the future. Under current law, all such profits would go into federal coffers. How this provision came into effect is also a legislative oddity.
For Virginians who are more concerned about the environment than extracting a finite resource that Virginia and the rest of the country could do without, this renewed push by Senators Warner and Kaine come as another disappointing political move by two supposedly "blue" politicians.
(Mark Warner richly deserves this not just because of his egregious votes yesterday, but for his constant bashing of progressives, for his support of mountaintop removal coal mining and the Keystone XL pipeline, etc. Also note, I added the photo, courtesy of DonkeyHotey's Flickr stream. - promoted by lowkell)
Mark Warner voted against the assault weapons ban. Mark Warner voted against limiting the size of magazines. Mark Warner is the most popular political figure in Virginia, and could have voted for both measures without in any way jeopardizing his reelection in 2014
Mark Warner is from a state that saw the slaughter at Virginia Tech. Cho used both ten and fifteen round magazines for his two handguns. Think how much damage he did. Think how much more he might have been able to do had he had 30 round magazines and had to change less frequently.
I have been involved in Democratic politics in Virginia including at a statewide level. Mark Warner is considered the 800 pound gorilla of Virginia Democratic politics. In a sense my taking this stand may make me toxic in Virginia politics.
I don't care.
It does not matter that neither of these amendments were going to pass. I rely on the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:
There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
It matters not to me whether Mark Warner believes the baloney of the gun lobby or merely lacks the guts to stand up for what is right. What is right is to stop the slaughter.
If you are unwilling to step up to that, I am unwilling to offer you my support, my money or my vote.
Self-styled "centrist" Democratic senators like Tim Kaine and Mark Warner say they recognize climate reality and support action to cut carbon pollution. But ... then they see polls that show the public is split on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline ... and feel pressure from Very Serious People in Washington who won't say no to anything the oil, gas and coal industries want ... and think, maybe we can have both? Get credit for support this current & specific polluting pipeline AND burnish climate bona fides by hand-waving towards some future & not yet existent climate effort?
No. Climate action isn't just about the easy & popular things, like clean energy and energy efficiency. It's also about the hard things, like saying no to oil and coal barons who may spend lots of money to try to defeat you in your next re-election campaign. You can't claim to support climate action, but wilt like corn caught in a global warming-fueled drought every time big polluters come asking for a favor.
Either folks like Tim Kaine and Mark Warner support climate action. Or they support Keystone XL and don't really care about things like confronting superstorms like Sandy or protecting our natural resources for future generations. They can't have it both ways.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) signed yet another letter today urging President Obama & Secretary of State John Kerry to approve the Keystone XL pipeline even before a public health, wildlife & climate review can be completed. Why the panic? Whose interests would approving Keystone XL even if it fails review serve?
Building the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline wouldn't solve any of our energy problems - and would make the climate crisis much, much worse. That's hard to explain to people who don't follow politics. Even with Congressional approval ratings at all-time lows, people assume there must be SOMETHING in it for Virginia ... right? Our members of Congress wouldn't just go along with a terrible deal without asking hard questions ... right? But Keystone XL really IS that bad of a deal:
Tomorrow at noon, Virginians are gathering at Senator Warner's Norfolk and Vienna offices to "Carol Against Cuts". ProgressVA, the Virginia AFL-CIO, Virginia Organizing, Move On, AARP, Alliance for Retired Americans, SEIU, and fellow progressives from cross the Commonwealth will reprise well-known holiday melodies with new lyrics, such as such as "Oh Fiscal Cliff" to the tune of "O' Christmas Tree".
Our caroling events are part of our statewide day of action asking Virginia's representatives to protect Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in the fiscal cliff negotiations while letting the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% expire. We will also visit Senator Warner's office in Roanoke for a candlelight vigil later in the day.
We will be posting pictures, videos, and updates from the events throughout the day - so be sure to check back. Also, if you can please join us, we'd love to have your support and hear your voice.
Three weeks ago tonight, we rejoiced that we had elected President Barak Obama to a second term and retained the US Senate. We ousted numerous Neanderthal wingers. And the people had spoken a resounding "No!" to those who would continue the massive tax giveaways to the millionaires and billionaires. We went to bed around 2:30 AM. Not four hours later the minions of Peter Peterson were at it again, as if no election had ever taken place. They were on every news outlet chanting the contrivance of the "fiscal cliff," which doesn't exist except for their own making. They want "austerity" for all of us (but not them). On one radio and TV show after another, they took aim at the very heart of the people's budget. And so on it went.
The cast of characters was long. I'll name a few names. As this Huffington Post article tells it, the CEO Council demands cuts to the poor, elderly, and the hungry while reaping billions in government tax breaks, contracts and even/especially bailouts. They're engaged in a zero-sum game.
The worst offender, though, is the architect of the faux debt crisis. Peter Peterson, conservative GOP partisan and founder of the Blackstone Group, Center for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) and Americans for Prosperity (AFP), blanketed the networks with disinformation and propaganda. Many ads messaged directly or indirectly against president Obama and Democrats. Through CRFB and AFP he's poured 30 million into the campaign to rip off you and me to benefit rich people like himself.
You need to watch this video to see what a "strong" statement of support US Senator Mark Warner (Yes, D-VA) gives for president Obama (not!). In the video, Warner addresses Democrats rallying in Buena Vista, VA. First, he toots his own horn, "For 20 years I've been coming almost every year to Buena Vista to kick off the fall campaign..."
He then admits it's "One of the most important" campaigns. It determines, "What kind of campaigns we're going to have going forward." But "it doesn't help Democracy when we've got millions of negative campaign ads from folks we don't know tearing each other down." Here we go on the false equivalence again.
At the end of these sixty four days, our country's going to have to come together. True. But Warner is actually acting sanctimonious here and trying to elevate himself as better than anyone else.
"I personally hope that President Obama is going to be re-elected," said Warner. "But whether you vote for President Obama or Governor Romney...." My God, he is at a Democratic rally. He hopes, but doesn't explain why its so important to re-elect President Obama. Can he not make a better case than that. I could and I am not even a politician. I have not been in the US Senate, sent there by the hard work of the DEMOCRATIC Party and people like us.
Warner became governor on our backs. His campaign was one of the hardest I ever worked on. We poured it on. We fought for every single vote. And you'd better believe he wasn't talking the false equivalence then.
Last week I lamented that Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) chose to distance himself from the President of his own party. Warner had claimed false equivalence between the campaign of division and racist hate being waged by the GOP and the campaign on the facts, record, and differences between platforms waged by the Democratic Party and President Obama. And Warner tried to feign superiority to a president, who as a matter of fact has stuck to the issues, facts, AND the record of one Mitt Romney, job destroyer and debt creator. That is a matter of fact (see ElaineinRoanoke's diary on the subject of debt creation yesterday).
I can't emphasize enough how gutless it was to do such a thing when any US Senator, with a safe seat and who is not up for re-election this time (Warner), or one who is about to retire (Webb), should have had the President's back. Were folks like Warner, Webb and others to stand up as a TEAM against such hate, only the most unhinged would dare utter the kind of garbage that run-of-the-mill Republicans are now doing. Now they can get away with saying with utter impunity what previously only the worst racists in America would say. What was merely implied (not that that is acceptable either) is stated outright. The kind of racism which defeated Harvey Gant in his campaign to unseat the uber racist Jesse helms, has become "mainstream GOP."
Now attacks upon the President for his being of a different race, the pretense that he is not a citizen and the suggestion of "otherness" (statements that he is "not one of us," "doesn't understand what it means to be an American," or even claims he is "unAmerican") is skillfully used by a GOP on hate-based "steroids." Though there are more whites on welfare, the myth of African Americans as the main welfare recipients persists and is easily fed. Every speech is crafted to present to the American people lies about Obama's welfare-to-work efforts, which actually move MORE, not fewer, people to work. The lies are right out of the Ronald Reagan Southern Strategy playbook. Every effort at building the "otherness" myth is designed to elicit voter racism.
Please take a look at Mark Warner being Warner in a way that is just so hurtful to Dems this year. Says he:
I think it's going to be very close. I know he's got problems in SW Virginia He's doing better in Eastern and Northern Virginia.
And I'll tell you this much, I'm supporting President Obama, but I also am awful tired of all the negative ads. I wish we wouldn't be spending 2 billion dollars on tv tearing each other down. That money could be used for interstate 81 and scholarships. Hopefully, we'll get through this election like we've gotten through all the others and get back to solving our country's problems, especially the debt and deficit.
He just cannot seem to help himself. He can't endorse the president without trying to distance himself at the same time. He can't talk about health care reform without saying there's a lot that needs to be fixed (in the Affordable Care Act).
His effort to create out of nothing a false equivalence between the two parties regarding negative ads is appalling. The GOP lie machine spins the lies faster than we can rebut them. But Warner pretends both parties are doing it. He also implies that it's "negative" to refute a pile of lies. I call it necessary. And there is nothing wrong with that. Such a false equivalence is cowardly, shameful, and self-serving. Lying down and playing dead will not work. And putting up only "positive" ads won't work either.
Along the way, Warner panders to Bristol Motor Speedway fans, coal, enemies of "ObamaCare," and Peter Peterson's "deficit" hawkeroos. (Hawkeroos are two-faced show-offs who like to prattle away at how spending conscious they are. But they won't make the rich pay their fair share. No, sir.)
What is really disconcerting is his self-adulating self-absorption. He is posturing every minute. Warner's myth of the "radical center" is really all about such posturing and it's also about trying to reinvent as virtuous all those things he doesn't stand for, but should, like enabling the EPA to keep our air and water clean. Or helping the 99% as opposed to the wealthy who don't need more tax cuts. It is as if he's out there saying, "Look at me. I'm better than all of you. I am especially better than President Obama." (No, you are not, Mark.)
UPDATE 11:58am: Warner & Webb voted with Sen. Inhofe. Disgraceful. Fortunately, 53 other senators stood up for public health & killed the bill.
Not only is Sen. Jim Inhofe's bill to block new Environmental Protection Agency mercury standards horrible public policy that would kill a lot of people, a new United Technologies/National Journal poll finds it's wildly unpopular with voters:
A new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll finds that 57 percent of the public supports a recently-finalized Environmental Protection Agency rule controlling mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants as long as companies are given more time to comply.
The poll found that a similar majority-55 percent-thinks EPA should be able to control greenhouse-gas emissions that most scientists agree cause climate change. Just slightly more than one-third of the public-36 percent-said Congress should stop EPA from such regulation. A federal court is expected to rule soon on whether the agency is within its right to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.
The poll's findings put a majority of Americans out of step with Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., who is sponsoring a measure coming up for a vote on Wednesday that would nullify EPA's mercury rule entirely. Just under 20 percent of survey respondents said the Senate should vote to uphold the rule as it stands now, while only 14 percent said the Senate should vote to get rid of it.
Again, I'd ask Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb: This is a hard call? Really? Which part is a tough call, the part where it lets corporate polluters profit by treating America's air and water like an open sewer? The part where people with asthma die? Or the part where it's incredibly bad politics?
Today, the Senate is expected to vote on a bill by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) to block the Environmental Protection Agency from setting science-based standards for mercury and other toxic pollutants. That Sen. Mark Warner & Sen. Jim Webb are considered "swing votes" by the coal mining industry is a sad statement about how the Democratic Party of Virginia remains pathetically in the back pocket of the coal industry.
Pollution from coal-fired power plants is a major cause of asthma attacks. Historically in America, rather than address those causes, we enjoy "cheap" electricity, then let people get sick - 20 million Americans a year have asthma attacks, with 2 million of those being treated in the emergency room, and 5,000 people a year dying. Economists call those people externalities - costs that don't show up on your power bill.
Thirteen years after public health and conservation groups started pushing the Clinton administration to strengthen clean air standards, the Obama administration finally delivered last December, unveiling new rules. But electric utilities and their allies, led by Sen. Inhofe, are trying to block the rule, giving $9,313,822 to Congress so far this cycle alone (61% to Republicans). Virginia parents, despite their inability to write the large checks demanded in this post-Citizens United world, are fighting back:
McDonnell and the Republicans assassinated it. Jeff Shapiro eulogizes it. Tucker Martin tried to resurrect it in a tweet, hailing Colgan's surrender. But in the end, Governor McDonnell's singular focus on self-promotion has turned our legislature into a congressional clone. Governor McDonnell yells rather than leads; just another wannabe bully.
Virginia has received quite a few headlines these last few months. And it's not been about the best state to do business; it's not been about the best place to raise a child. It's been about ultrasound and the socially conservative overreach agenda that the Republicans pursued in the General Assembly session. -Toscano
Two things have become characteristic of Virginia Republicans. They confuse power with leadership and they are more interested in their own ambitions than the welfare of the Commonwealth. This is distinct and different than the Democrats who have been in power and that is clear in both the Jeff Shapiro piece and the descriptions of this session by state Senator Creigh Deeds (D-25th) and Democratic Minority Whip, Delegate David Toscano (D-57th). Contrast the eras of Gilmore and McDonnell with that of Warner and Kaine.
The Republican races for governor, LG and AG are off and running. Among Democrats? Not so much.
Considering what a disaster the last Democratic contest for governor turned out to be, you may think it a good thing for our primary race to be postponed a bit. So let me tell you why it isn't.
What Virginia Democrats desperately need right now is leadership. We haven't and won't get much of it from leaders in the General Assembly. Legislative leaders tend not to be particularly visionary or inspiring while they're busy trading votes, getting feted by lobbyists and trying to supplement their measly salaries of $18,000 a year.
Beyond that, DPVA is generally hurting for leadership. Brian Moran's tenure has been uninspiring and compromised by his day job as a lobbyist for a questionable industry. Dick Saslaw can certainly be a tough leader, but sadly one who seems to spend as much time fighting for Republican priorities (like pro-industry energy policies) as Democratic ones.
Virginia Beach's Miracle at 24th Street has turned into something of a celebration. But it uncovered local and national friction points thought resolved by most. It opened a window on the readiness of the local government to respond and the character of many of the local leaders.
Make no mistake, the amazing efforts of first responders, fire, police, and Emergency Medical Services, frame this event. Yesterday City Councilman Bill DeSteph was out early passing along the good news. He had been at the site until late Friday evening and he was exuberant as he commended the performance of all involved and the news he had just received that all the residents had been accounted for. He described details of the process he'd observed the prior evening including putting floor wax down at the scene to capture carbon fibers from the wreckage. And he was proud of the community response providing housing and assistance to those displaced.
It's a combination of miracle and a combination of training and professionalism. You really understand what these people go through and how they're selected and why they're selected. It's situations like this. And that goes for the first responders who run into fire when everyone else is running away. - Mike Imprevento
The navy has indicated a catastrophic mechanical failure may be at issue in this mishap. There could be many other factors such as a bird strike or, less likely, foreign debris on the runway that can cause a structural issue (recall the crash of the Concorde where metal that had fallen off another aircraft caused the catastrophe). It might also be a hydraulic or electrical failure. Yesterday on his local radio program, Mike Imprevento helped provide a broader context to the entire event with guests New York attorney Daniel O. Rose, former naval aviator who practices aviation, maritime, and products liability law and local media personality Joel Rubin.
Here we go again. For the third time in the past twelve years, a Republican-controlled legislature has ended its regular session without a budget. Since budgets cover a two-year period, that means that half the time since the millennium legislators have bickered, blustered and delayed the most important function of state government.
In 2004, Mark Warner faced a fiscal train wreck after his Republican predecessor Jim Gilmore had gotten his unfunded "no car tax" through the Republican-controlled legislature. The state simply didn't have the money to reimburse localities for lost revenue from the car tax. The mere mention of a tax increase got a hysterical response from GOP legislators. It took a special session for Warner and a few GOP moderates in the State Senate to finally get revenue increases and a budget. Of course, the upshot of that was those moderate Republicans got "purged" in primaries, helping to create the partisan insanity that is contemporary Virginia governance.
In 2006, after the Republican-controlled General Assembly once again failed to pass a budget, Democrat Tim Kaine called for a special session that continued until that June. GOP intransigence brought the state to a near shutdown of government by an impasse caused by what has become a familiar unresolved crisis in the state, how to fund necessary transportation projects.
This year, the hot-heads in Richmond focused like a laser on what they obviously thought was most important: abortion, contraception, and attacks on public school teachers. Result: no budget.
Parents, and Virginians who remember Dr. Suess from your youth, I'll bet you thought Green Eggs and Ham was mostly about eating things that are good for you. But, proving the politicians sometimes let no opportunity go unused, US Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)wants you to believe it is really about trying his radical centrism. "It's good for you!" (Not!)
"Do you know what this story is about?" he asked the preschoolers, one of whom responded, matter of factly, "Green eggs and ham."
"Well, yes, it's about green eggs and ham. It's also about the fact that sometimes when your mom or your dad gives you some food, and you say, I don't want to like that, I don't want to try that, you should try it, because sometimes it might be good," Warner said.
And now the message for the rest of us.
"Green Eggs and Ham meant that sometimes you've got to try stuff that at first you think you might not like. Maybe I can take Green Eggs and Ham back with me to Washington and try to see if we can get the Democrats to try some of the Republican ideas, and the Republicans to try some of the Democrat ideas, and just like Dr. Seuss wrote in Green Eggs and Ham, they might actually find that they like the other guys' ideas," Warner said.
Nice try. Does he even know that Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) was a liberal FDR Democrat? Reading to kids is good. But this was a little forced, juvenile, embarrassing, insulting, and a lot WRONG.
This gets interesting at around 11:38 of the video. According to Professor Sabato, "believe it or not there does appear to be some substance to [the rumor that Mark Warner might run for governor in 2013]." Why? Three good reasons: 1) "what sane person wouldn't be [frustrated with the U.S. Senate]"; 2) he enjoyed the governorship "a great deal"; 3) the governorship is a better platform to run for president than the U.S. Senate.
Also intriguing, if Warner runs and wins (which I assume he would), he gets to appoint his own successor to the U.S. Senate. As Professor Sabato says, "it's not a bad deal at all if Senator Warner decides to go for it." Nope, and it wouldn't be a bad deal for Virginia, as a Warner candidacy would almost guarantee that we wouldn't have to suffer through the horrors of Governor Kookinelli (not to mention LG Corey Stewart and AG Mark Obenshain for 4 years, plus a Republican-controlled General Assembly). Shuddderrrrrr. Heck, the more I think about this, and as much as I'm a Terry McAuliffe fan, I'm tempted (mostly kidding here) to start a "Draft Mark Warner for Governor" movement. Anyone interested?
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is part of a Congressional delegation visiting India this week exploring business, trade, defense & cultural relationships. But today the 6'2" senator took a break to play a little basketball with 5'3" former Washington Bullets player Muggsy Bogues at New Delhi's Modern School:
Activities included a Junior NBA clinic for 75 local young people, led by Muggsy Bogues, followed by an exhibition game between two teams from the Mahindra NBA challenge youth league.
"It was great to see these Indian youngsters developing a love for the American invention of basketball," Senator Warner said. "I've played basketball my entire life, and even though I'm not especially good at it, the sport promotes fitness and teaches you a lot about teamwork. I think basketball might take-off in India."
I'm sure those children are only giggling at Sen. Warner's misfortune for being caught without the proper footwear to fully compete for this jump ball ... right?
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Cross-posted at 
Cross-posted from that great revenue generator 
Mark Warner voted against the assault weapons ban. Mark Warner voted against limiting the size of magazines. Mark Warner is the most popular political figure in Virginia, and could have voted for both measures without in any way jeopardizing his reelection in 2014
The Republican races for governor, LG and AG are off and running. Among Democrats? Not so much.
Virginia Beach's Miracle at 24th Street has turned into something of a celebration. But it uncovered local and national friction points thought resolved by most. It opened a window on the readiness of the local government to respond and the character of many of the local leaders.
Parents, and Virginians who remember Dr. Suess from your youth, I'll bet you thought Green Eggs and Ham was mostly about eating things that are good for you. But, proving the politicians sometimes let no opportunity go unused, US Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)wants you to believe it is really about trying his radical centrism. "It's good for you!" (Not!)
