Bob McDonnell was sworn in as Virginia's 71st governor yesterday in front of an enthusiastic Richmond crowd. I'll save my criticisms for another post, because frankly I don't envy him. He's walking into a storm of problems that any governor of either party would have a tough time facing. Moreover, I don't think anyone who watched last fall's campaign would deny that he and his campaign earned it. They worked their buts off, ran a smart campaign and made a case that won Virginians' support. So today, congratulations are in order. I truly hope Gov. McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bolling and Attorney General Cuccinelli can make some sense of this catastrophic economy and bring Virginia through as a stronger state.
I actually thought it was a pretty great speech, and it can be viewed here; for some reason I can't embed it successfully.
Congratulations, McDonnell and the Republicans. Good luck, and we'll be seeing you in the fall.
At Gov. Kaine's final State of the Commonwealth Address this past Wednesday night, he pointed out one of the biggest problems facing Virginia and the biggest roadblock (pun unavoidable) to addressing that problem: Transportation and the Republicans, respectively. From the speech:
The largest obstacle to solving our transportation needs is a philosophy, espoused by some, that it is always wrong to raise taxes or fees. Thank goodness that previous state leaders did not hold that view—if they had, we would have no community college system, dirtier rivers, a lackluster school system and even fewer roads. Virginia is a state with a very favorable tax burden and we should do all we can to keep it that way. But, no state or nation can maintain its economic edge with a declining infrastructure. Eventually, we need leadership in this collective body to find a path toward responsible advances in road investments.
Our incoming governor is one of those who espouses that philosophy. In a WDBJ-7 interview, House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong brought home in very real terms what that means for Southside residents, saying, "There are huge transportation needs that aren't being met and sooner or later you're going to feel that." Armstrong went on to reference the real harm that will come from a lack of revenue--not just more congestion in NoVa and Hampton Roads, but lost opportunity in rural communities.
For a long time now, we've been promised that Interstate 73 would be built and US 58 would finally be four-laned from Stuart to Hillsville. We've been given more IOUs than we can count, and we're starting to lose track of them. I-73 would run through Henry and Franklin counties on its way from South Carolina to the northern tip of Michigan; a fully four-laned US 58 would skirt the North Carolina border from the Port of Virginia all the way out into the heartland. Those two road projects could give the Southside a fighting chance to get back on its feet and finally start growing again.
Sadly, it looks like Bob McDonnell and Richmond Republicans are about to hand out another stack of IOUs. Kaine and Armstrong are absolutely right--no one likes taxes, and we should do everything we can to keep them as low as possible. But there comes a point when there's nothing left to cut. There comes a point when doing nothing costs a lot more than investing in the future.
It looks as if the Republican circular firing squad is in full swing here in Virginia's Fifth District.
Last week, State Sen. Robert Hurt's campaign said it was likely that they will raise money during the upcoming General Assembly session. Under state law, it is illegal for legislators to accept money for state-level campaigns during the session; since Hurt is running for a federal office, that law will not apply to him. Though he's not technically breaking any laws, raising money during the session would certainly fly in the face of those ethics rules, and that point was not lost on the Verga camp, which promptly let him have it:
"Does anyone think that a lobbyist in Richmond wouldn’t give Hurt a donation to his federal campaign in an attempt to influence him?" said Matt Mackowiak, a Verga consultant. "It might be legal under the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law."
Couple that with today's press release from the Verga camp and you've got a veritable catfight:
"On Senator Hurt's brand new website he has the bold-faced lie that he has 'consistently opposed tax increases that did not put the people first.' Does he think that the people are dumb enough to forget that he voted to raise your taxes by $1.4 billion, the largest tax increase in Virginia history, and he even tried to raise taxes unconstitutionally? Shame on Senator Hurt for belittling the citizens of the 5th District who certainly haven't forgotten as we are still paying for his tax hikes daily. People are tired of career politicians like Senator Hurt who distort their atrocious record to further their own aspirations."
Senator Hurt has voted 6 times for higher taxes. Below is a summary of those votes:
In 2002, Hurt Voted To Increase The Excise Tax On Soft Drinks. "Increases the amount of tax in the current top bracket from $6,000 to $7,200 for gross receipts exceeding $10,000,000 but not more than $25,000,000. It also adds two additional brackets: for gross receipts exceeding $25,000,000 but not more than $50,000,000, the tax is $18,000 and for gross receipts exceeding $50,000,000 the tax is $33,000. The soft drink excise tax is imposed on every wholesaler or distributor of carbonated soft drinks." (HB 193, Passed, 84-Y; 12-N, 01/24/02, Hurt Voted Yea)
In 2004, Hurt Voted Against Lower Tax Rates For Businesses. "Phases in lower rates based on growth for each of the four BPOL categories by five cents and allows only a $25 fee rather than $50, for businesses that start up in the last six months of a taxable year. These changes are effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2005." (HB 461, Defeated: 38-Y; 60-N, 02/17/04, Hurt Voted Nay)
In 2004, Hurt Voted For The Omnibus Tax Bill Proposed By Mark Warner That Raised Virginia's Taxes. (HB 5018, Passed: 52-Y; 46-N, 04/13/04, Hurt Voted Yea)
In 2006, Hurt Voted To Increase The Fees In Order To Obtain A Hunting Permit In State Forests. "Increases the fees to obtain a hunting permit or a trapping permit in a state forest from $10 to $15." (HB 260, Passed: 89-Y; 9-N, 01/23/06, Hurt Voted Yea)
In 2006, Hurt Voted For A Bill That "Conforms The Amount Of Virginia Estate Tax Due From An Estate To The Maximum Amount Of The Federal Estate Tax Credit For State Estate Taxes..." (HB 40, Passed: 93-Y; 7-N, 02/02/06, Hurt Voted Yea)
In 2007, Hurt Voted For Tim Kaine's Unconstitutional Transportation Bill that Would Have Imposed Taxation Without Representation Through Unelected Regional Taxing Authorities. It Also Imposed A Diesel Tax Increase. (HB 3202, Passed: 64-Y; 34-N, Hurt Voted Yea)
Wow, them's fightin' words, and that's quite an impressive list. So Verga's beef with Hurt is that he helped Mark Warner balance the state budget and asked millionaires to pay their fair share, i.e. the estate tax. I'm curious as to how Mr. Verga expects to pay teachers, soldiers, sailors, cops and road workers if not with tax revenue.
If his campaign finance practices are any indication, then maybe he'll pay them out-of-pocket. Last week, CQ Politics reported that Laurence Verga has loaned himself nearly $227,000 since the end of December 2009. It's certainly his prerogative to do that, but it should offer some perspective on his campaign's claims about his fundraising prowess.
Two things are becoming very clear about this race: Verga is taking great pains to establish himself as the anti-Hurt, and Hurt is on the verge of pulling a Creigh Deeds and trying to run a front-porch campaign. I guess we'll see if there are enough Tea Partiers at the primary to torpedo Hurt's ambitions.
Here's a live performance of Beulah's "Night is the Day Turned Inside Out." Take a listen to this clip and know why Beulah became known as "the best band you've never heard" back in the early 2000s.
This video is from the DVD A Good Band is Easy to Kill, which followed Beulah during one of its last tours. The song is the closer for their 2001 release, The Coast is Never Clear, which I highly recommend--standouts from that album are "Hey Brother," "A Good Man is Easy to Kill," and "What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades." They do an excellent job of blending trumpets, flutes and even dulcimers with compelling indie pop. In 2003, the band released Yoko to critical acclaim, and a lot of reviewers said it was their best yet--I highly recommend that one too, and if you're interested in purchasing any of their records, please visit their website or check on iTunes.
Sadly, years on the road and the demands of their growing families ultimately led Beulah to call it quits in 2004. To this day I'm bummed that these guys never became a household name--in a time when mediocrity is allowed to pollute the airwaves, it would be nice for a truly great band to make it big every once in a while. I suppose the decaying major record labels are too risk-averse to pursue anything outside their set formula these days--does anyone really think today's Capitol Records executives would have the foresight to sign the Beatles? No one should be surprised that their business model is going down in flames. Fie on the labels and everything they stand for. There, that's my rant for this post.
Nevertheless, Beulah built (and continues to build) quite a following among small-label music lovers, and lead singer Miles Kurosky is set to release a solo album in March. If you like what you hear of Beulah, be sure to check out his website and keep an eye out for that record. Thanks for reading, and see you next Music Monday.
Here's a lighthearted story for your Sunday afternoon. From the Charlottesville Daily Progress:
This time both sides won. The Union and Confederate cavalry commanders who engaged in a horseback scuffle as they re-enacted the Battle of Stanardsville were found not guilty of reciprocal assault charges in Greene County General District Court on Wednesday.
During the scuffle, the Confederate commander, Doug Nalls, lost his hat and fired his revolver. At issue was whether the hat was knocked from his head by a blow from Joseph Ferguson, his Union counterpart; whether Nalls fired his gun deliberately; and which happened first. Greene County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ronald Morris said he thought there was evidence to support assault charges against both men. “What went on here went way beyond what was authorized,” he said. What wasn’t in dispute was the bad blood between the two men, even before the battle began. According to Confederate witnesses, the two had sparred verbally in the hours before the battle.
But here's the best part:
One re-enactor, Michael Kamei, testified that the Union commander used terms to the effect of “blaggard” and “knave.”
No, wait, this is the best part:
The Confederate colonel’s father, Wayne Nalls, testified that he waded into the fray on foot, to try to separate the men. “And I told them both to shut up,” he said.
Basically, there's nothing about this that isn't hilarious.
I headed down to Mary's Diner in Danville this morning and had the privilege of seeing Joe the Plumber endorse Lawrence Verga for Congress. There were about 15 to 20 people in attendance, which was pretty good considering the time of day, the temperature, and the $25 fee to get in. Verga had some very professional literature, bumper stickers and a banner behind the podium, as well as a couple of staffers. In short, it feels like he has his act together--especially when you consider his online presence. It's clear to me that he's in this for the long haul, and I wouldn't expect him to be dropping out anytime soon. He seemed to have a pretty good response from the crowd--I would put him as one of the frontrunners to become the anti-Hurt in this nomination.
There are quite a few YouTube clips to go through, so here's a short rundown if you don't have time to watch them all: according to Verga, the country is headed in a terrible direction due to Obama/Dems in Congress; Tom is an accomplice, but the biggest problem right now is the GOP establishment backing a "liberal" candidate (Sen. Robert Hurt). Verga is an unabashed supply-side, Reaganomics, business conservative. How do you bring back jobs? Easy, cut the corporate tax rate. He says he's the only true conservative candidate who can pull off a win and "make change" in Washington. Re-claiming the term much?
Here's the first clip, followed by a Q&A session. The speech was preceded by an invocation in which an audience member thanked God for his "alliance to the United States" and asked for guidance in taking back the country from people who are "trying to take our freedoms." For the sake of privacy and YouTube time constraints, that part is not included in the video; other than that, the clips are pretty complete:
And the Q&A:
Then it was time for Joe the Plumber. He spoke for a good long while, and it had sort of a stream-of-consciousness feel. Nevertheless, he came across as very folksy and related well to the people in the room.
Part 1:
Part 2:
I sat next to Joe during Verga's speech and had the opportunity to talk to him a bit afterward. He asked if I was a blogger and if so, what my views were. Wanting to be above-board, I told him that I'm a left-of-center blogger. He was very nice about it and we had a brief, respectful conversation about policy--I told him I thought our problems have a lot more to do with trade agreements than corporate taxes, and it seemed like he sort of nodded. We shook hands and I left. Anyway, I was encouraged that there are at least a few times when Tea Partiers and Progressives can talk instead of yell.
Back in November, I attended a meeting of the Henry County Democratic Committee. At that meeting, the County Dems voted unanimously to adopt a resolution merging with the Martinsville committee. I just got back from the first meeting of the Martinsville-Henry County Democratic Committee, where the merger became official and officers took their seats.
This is an encouraging sign, and one that has lessons for localities all over Virginia--dividing committees might have made sense back in the 70s and 80s, when population growth and differing electoral climates made the city and county more distinct. Now that times have changed, that redundancy simply doesn't make sense, and it causes all sorts of headaches for unsuspecting field organizers who come into our area to campaign. I suspect a lot of money, time and headaches could be saved if Virginia became a state of cooperative regions instead of fiefdoms. A Southside regional authority could coordinate landfills and recycling much more efficiently, and might even save money on education and law enforcement. Not to mention the potential benefits of a Southside economic development alliance that could brand and recruit for the whole region.
Here's to a united front in Martinsville and Henry County, and here's to getting back on our feet. Let's start by re-electing Tom!
In today's Senate, 55 votes isn't enough to "win," or anything close to it; it's enough to get you five votes away from the 60 votes you need to shut down a filibuster. Only then, in most cases, can a law be passed. The modern Senate is a radically different institution than the Senate of the 1960s, and the dysfunction exhibited in its debate over health care -- the absence of bipartisanship, the use of the filibuster to obstruct progress rather than protect debate, the ability of any given senator to hold the bill hostage to his or her demands -- has convinced many, both inside and outside the chamber, that it needs to be fixed.
This might seem an odd moment to argue that the Senate is fundamentally broken and repairs should top our list of priorities. After all, the Senate passed a $900 billion health-care bill Thursday morning. But consider the context: Arlen Specter's defection from the Republican Party earlier this year gave Democrats 60 votes in the Senate -- a larger majority than either party has had since the '70s. Democrats also controlled the House and the presidency, and were working in the aftermath of a financial crisis that occurred on a Republican president's watch. This was a test of whether a party could govern when everything was stacked in its favor.
The answer seems to be, well, not really. (My emphasis)
He's absolutely right. The once-noble U.S. Senate has become one of the most undemocratic institutions in the country. We now have a system where every single senator possesses, in effect, veto power. The fact that a handful of senators can kill legislation supported by huge majorities in the House (which is by definition closer to the will of the people) should infuriate you regardless of your party affiliation. Simply put, the current Senate rules are a slap in the face to the separation of powers that the Constitution so carefully constructed, and we have to change those rules.
There is no shortage of reform proposals floating around, but I'll point out a few I think are worth looking at.
First of all, the cloture threshold should either be lowered to 55 or the filibuster should be done away with entirely. The idea that we should have a supermajority requirement for anything other than a constitutional amendment is simply preposterous.
The Senate must become more representative by population. I think this is one of the biggest factors in creating deadlock. When our nation was founded, the Senate was elected by state legislatures and it therefore made sense for each state to be equally represented. Now that we elect senators directly, the old arrangement defies Supreme Court precedent--in Reynolds v. Sims, the Court held that state legislatures have to be apportioned by population. The "one-person-one-vote" rule has stuck, and rightly so--without it, small counties could outvote big cities despite population disparities as big as 41-1, and Henry County voters would essentially have "more" of a vote than Fairfax County voters. But that is still happening at the Federal level, and it seems fundamentally unfair that Wyoming and the Dakotas can together outvote New York, Texas and California.
As a solution to the above problem, Larry Sabato has suggested adding as many as two senators to the largest states, thereby creating a more representative Senate. No state would lose senators, but some states would end up with a total of three or four. I think this is an idea worth considering, and it has the advantage of being workable since nobody stands to lose representation.
This is an idea I haven't heard anyone else mention, so I'm claiming it as a 220 South exclusive. I say we keep the current two-senators per state setup, but add 100 National Senators to be elected at large from one nationwide district. This would be party-list proportional representation as is done in some European nations: instead of voting for an individual candidate, you would just vote for a party. The seats would then be assigned by proportion of the national vote--if your party wins 55% of the vote, then you've got 55 shiny new senators. This system would preserve the states' current equality while truly honoring the one-person-one-vote principle. Those senators would have purely national issues at heart, and they wouldn't have to worry about bringing home the bacon to their states.
Oh, and House members should have a four-year term. This constant campaign crap is ridiculous.
The first Music Monday of 2010 has a local flavor, featuring Martinsville musicians (and my friends) Doug & Telisha Williams. From their recent album by the same name, here's "Ghost of the Knoxville Girl."
The song is an answer to the Louvin Brothers song "The Knoxville Girl." In that song, a woman is murdered by her jealous lover. This song is based on the idea that the woman's ghost has become a protector--she hangs around and exacts revenge on abusive husbands and boyfriends so that other women do not suffer her fate. It's a really creative and empowering idea for a song, and they pull it off expertly.
Doug & Telisha Williams are a husband-and-wife duo who have released three albums and tour relentlessly around the country. They're Martinsville natives who still live in the city, and they're very involved in revitalizing the area through the arts. Even their latest album was homegrown--it was recorded at nearby Snow Creek Sound with full instrumentation and backing from an impressive list of musicians. They've played a number of shows at Martinsville's Rives Theatre, including the most recent Jingle Bell Jamboree.
A quick Google search will show that The Ghost of the Knoxville Girl album has gotten quite a few props across the interwebs, and it's one I recommend highly. You can learn more about their music at their website. On top of all that, they're really cool people, so if you like what you saw, go check them out.
I hope you had a great New Year's celebration, and hopefully you've all recovered from whatever shenanigans might have occurred.
It's now time for the first 220 South blog post of 2010, and it's a doozie. From Southside Central, which said about all there is to say about this story--I'm not sure I can improve on it, so here goes:
Remember “Joe The Plumber”? He’s coming to Virginia to support a 5th District Candidate. This article is brought to you by the “We Can’t Make This Crap Up” Department.
Joseph Wurzelbacher is coming to Arch’s Frozen Yogurt in Charlottesville on Friday to help raise money for Laurence Verga. You can attend the reception for only $25 (!). But you want a “private signed photo session”, don’t you? Well, you’re in luck, folks! That’s all yours for the Low $ale of the Century price of just $50!
Verga (and the other candidates) are doing anything that they can to raise money, but this event is quite bizarre. Let’s take a look at the potential hilarity… C-List political celebrity, frozen yogurt shop, middle of January. Well, at least the frozen yogurt shop will have plenty of space inside to fit all of the people that flock to this one (at least 5, I’m guessing).
It would be a cold day in hell before I’d head to this fundraiser. But come to think of it, being in a frozen yogurt shop with Joe the Plumber in Charlottesville in the middle of January probably would be an apt description of a cold day in hell.
Hah, well said. I'm curious to see how this plays out for Verga, at least in the eyes of the teabaggers. Does Joe the Plumber still have any sort of resonance or credibility with the Republican base, and will those good vibes help the Vergmeister's street cred?
I have to hand Verga some props on this one--even if they don't raise a huge amount of money, it may be a smart move in terms of earned media coverage. I would bet Arch's will get a visit from at least a few Charlottesville stations, and if nothing else it shows that his staff is thinking creatively.
