Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, February 9. Also see the video of President Obama's weekly address, in which he "urges Congress to act to avoid a series of harmful and automatic cuts-called a sequester-from going into effect that would hurt our economy and the middle class and threaten thousands of American jobs."
P.S. Also, gotta love this one: Americans love the individual components of "Obamacare," yet don't support "Obamacare." Why not? If there's any logic here, it's because they don't like that (in)famous conservative Republican idea, the "individual mandate," which most health care economists believe is essential to making the individual pieces - no preexisting condition exclusions, no lifetime caps, etc. - work. Other than that, of course, the reason Americans oppose "Obamacare" is that it's been demonized relentlessly by the right-wing media (e.g., Fox, Rush) and not defended strongly enough by Democrats. Now, the ultra-partisan, Scalia/Thomas/Alito/Roberts Supreme Court will have its say. Can't wait.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, June 24. Also, check out the ad by PrioritiesUSA, which clearly and powerfully explains why "If Mitt Romney wins, the middle class loses."
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, June 23. Also check out President Obama's weekly address, in which he "discusses the urgent need for Congress to act now on two common sense measures to help middle class families: preventing interest rates on federal student loans from going up and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job."
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, June 22. Also, check out the new Obama ad, which focuses on equal pay for women, something Romney doesn't appear to care about and/or believe in.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, June 21. Also, check out Jeff Schapiro's take on the "U.Va. soap opera."
P.S. Also, see Obama Leads In Poll As Voters View Romney As Out Of Touch ("Obama leads Romney 53 percent to 40 percent among likely voters"). My guess is that this one's an outlier, although nothing jumps out at me in terms of the sample (e.g., a 5-point Dem advantage, compared to a 10-point Dem advantage in the May Kaplan Post poll and a 7-point Dem advantage in the May WSJ poll).
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, June 19. Also, check out Ed Schultz as he skewers Willard for his cowardice, duplicity, etc. on the DREAM Act - and in general.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, June 16 (as usual, about 1 or 1 1/2 hours before VPAP comes out with theirs). Also, check out President Obama's weekly address, in which he "tells the American people that the stalemate in Washington is holding our economy back during this make-or-break moment for the middle class."
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, June 14. Also, check out Jeff Schapiro's take on Tim Kaine vs. George Allen.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, June 13. Also, check out the video of Republican U.S. Senate nominee George Allen talking about his "positive, constructive ideas." For instance, there's...uh...and...uh...and...oh forget it; "Felix" is all nasty and negative (when he's not whoring for corporate interests), all the time.
It's 7 pm, and polls are now closed. Which races are you watching? On the Republican side, I'm curious how big a victory George Allen will have over multiple opponents (as Paul Goldman wrote the other day, it's all about expectations, with anything under 50% a #FAIL and anything over 60% a successful evening for "Felix"). I'm also interested in which Republican will be selected to lose to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11th) in November. On the Democratic side, I'm curious whether Rep. Jim Moran will surpass 80% of the vote against Bruce Shuttleworth. Finally, there are local races, like the Alexandria City Council Democratic primary. Anyway, stay tuned...results are coming shortly.
UPDATE 9:26 pm: With 25 of 27 precincts counted in Alexandria, it's Lovain, Wilson, Silberberg, Pepper, Smedberg, and Chapman for the Top 6. That's looking like it will probably be the final results, barring a late charge by Menjivar. In other news, George Allen is winning with 65% of the vote; Goodlatte, Cantor, and Perkins all won big time, as did Randy Forbes. Oh, and Jim Moran is winning big, 74%-26%.
UPDATE 9:20 pm: With 23 precincts reporting in Alexandria, it's now Lovain, Wilson, Silberberg, Pepper, Smedberg and Chapman for the Top 6, with Menjivar trailing by 123 votes in 7th place.
UPDATE 9:03 pm: Sean Holihan has conceded in the Alexandria City Council race, saying "we worked our butts off but we came up short."
UPDATE 9:00 pm: With 19 precincts counted, Lovain, Silberberg, Pepper, Wilson, Smedberg, and Chapman for the Top 6. Increasingly, those look like the winners, but we'll see...still votes to count.
UPDATE 8:44 pm: With 15 precincts counted, it's now Pepper, Wilson, Lovain, Silberberg, Smedberg, and Chapman for the Top 6. After that, it's Menjivar in 7th, then Moshenberg and Holihan tied for 8th.
UPDATE 8:34 pm: With 12 precincts reporting in Alexandria, it's now Pepper, Wilson, Smedberg, Silberberg, Lovain, and Menjivar in the Top 6. Then, it's Chapman, Moshenberg, Holihan, and Peabody.
UPDATE 8:24 pm: With 9 precincts reporting in Alexandria (out of 27), the top 6 are Justin M. Wilson (9.0%), Paul C. Smedberg (8.9%), Timothy B. Lovain (8.49%), Redella S. "Del" Pepper (8.45%), Allison Silberberg (8.1%), and Victoria A. Menjivar (7.9%). After that, it's Sammie Moshenberg (7.4%), John Chapman (7.4%), Sean Holihan (7.0%), and Arthur Peabody, Jr. (6.6%).
UPDATE 8:12 pm: Goodlatte's going to end up winning by nearly a 2:1 margin in the 6th CD. Can'tor's at about 80% of the vote with 94% counted in the 7th. Perkins is beating Vaughn 63%-37% with 35% counted in the 11th CD. And Allen's holding at 65%, with Radtke at 24% and the other two well under 10%.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, June 12 -- election day (polls are open from 6 am to 7 pm). Make sure you exercise your right, and in my view, your duty as a citizen of the United States, to vote. Finally, check out the graphic, and remember the next time you see one of those 100% false ads about the "job-killing debt" or whatever, that: a) Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush are mostly responsible for racking it up; and b) Romney would make the situation a LOT worse if, god forbid, he were elected president. In short, those ads are a actually a strong, albeit unintentional (and also false, as I don't believe there's any serious evidence that debt, per se, "kills jobs"), argument NOT to vote for Willard.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, June 11. Also, check out the video from the final minutes of the DPVA convention on June 2, it's amusing and also goes with the first story below, by Virginia reporter David Sherfinski (yes, I know it's the Moonie Times, but David's an excellent reporter and jobs are hard to find in that industry).
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, June 9. Also, check out President Obama's weekly address, in which he "urges Congress to take action now to put our teachers back to work in classrooms, because the best predictor of individual and American success in this economy is a good education." In contrast, as you can see below, Willard "Mitt" Romney thinks that teachers, firefighters, and police officers are not real jobs and should be cut. Amazing.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, June 8. Also, check out famed conservative Republican activist Richard Viguerie talking about how George Allen hasn't confessed his political sins from the time he was in the Senate, racking up debt like there's no tomorrow: "I haven't heard [Allen] say that he's done wrong, that he's sorry he did it, and he's not going to do it again...so why should we think that he'll have any different behavior?" Great question. Any answers from Allen backers? Nope, didn't think so.
The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog and a community blog. We invite everyone to comment here, but please be aware that profanity, personal attacks, bigotry, insults, rudeness, frequent unsupported or off-point statements, and "trolling" (NOTE: that includes outright lies, whether about climate science, or what other people said, or whatever) are not permitted and, if continued, will lead to banning. For more on trolling, see the Daily Kos FAQs. Also note that diaries may be deleted if they do not contain at least 2 solid paragraphs of original text; if not, please use the comments section of a relevant diary. For more on writing diaries, click here. Thanks, and enjoy!
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, June 20.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, June 17.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, June 15.
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, June 12 -- election day (polls are open from 6 am to 7 pm). Make sure you exercise your right, and in my view, your duty as a citizen of the United States, to vote. Finally, check out the graphic, and remember the next time you see one of those 100% false ads about the "job-killing debt" or whatever, that: a) Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush are mostly responsible for racking it up; and b) Romney would make the situation a LOT worse if, god forbid, he were elected president. In short, those ads are a actually a strong, albeit unintentional (and also false, as I don't believe there's any serious evidence that debt, per se, "kills jobs"), argument NOT to vote for Willard.
