Deal or No Deal?

Tom Perriello is the first-term Democratic Congressman from the Charlottesville area of Virginia.  He voted for the Democratic health care plan.  Just as he promised when he ran against die-hard conservative 5th District incumbent Virgil Goode last year, and won by fewer than 800 votes.

Not only did he keep his promise, Perriello did some other very innovative things, like holding public meetings, seeking input from his constituents, and even explaining his vote publicly to his constituents, by way of a telephone town hall with 8000 participants.

As a consequence, Perriello’s become a special target of conservatives.  Today tea-party-ers bussed into his district plan to burn him in effigy.

Perriello’s spokeswoman offered a refreshing explanation: “He didn’t come to Congress to get re-elected.” If he keeps saying outrageously honest stuff like that, Tom Perriello is going to need all the friends he can get.

In contrast, our 2nd District “Democratic” Congressman Glenn Nye met with health insurance salesmen at their convention, billed it as a “civil town hall meeting,” then voted against his party’s health care legislation.  He didn’t meet with his constituents.  He didn’t seek their input.  He did not even come out of hiding when he broke his campaign promise to support health care reform, instead resorting to a press release and a one-sentence mumble about “cost control.”  Apparently, Nye thinks voting like a Republican will prevent Republicans from mounting a strong challenge against him in 2010.  Well, good luck with that.

Perriello’s courage is all the more admirable when contrasted with the abject cowardice and duplicity of Glenn Nye.

We have a modest proposal.  Let’s trade representatives.  Would it stop the 5th District tea-party-ers?  Well, maybe not, but it would confound them as they try to figure out whose side Nye is on.  And it sure would make those of us who got Glenn Nye elected in the 2nd District happy to have a principled representative in Congress–even for one term.  Of course, a person of integrity won’t come cheap.  So we may have to throw in a few things to make the trade more attractive.

What would it take to sweeten the deal and get them to take Glenn Nye off our hands and send Tom Perriello our way?

How about a scenic fishing pier, slightly damaged?  Or a talkative, megalomaniacal televangelist, friendly with the new governor?  (Comes complete with his own satellite dish and foot in mouth!)  We could throw in a pair of souvenir presidential coattails, found in the bottom of a Congressman’s laundry hamper!  An antique bridge or tunnel perhaps?  Whaddya say, Charlottesville?  Deal or no deal?

Can “Virginia Beach’s Own” Prevent Drowning?

Another morning in Hampton Roads.  The Midtown Tunnel is closed.  The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel is backed up, although a VDOT spokeswoman cheerfully denied the video evidence on TV and maintained that the system is “flowing beautifully.”  High Street, Crawford Parkway, and other access roads to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital, courts, and municipal buildings are flooded.  In Norfolk, access to our main trauma center is limited by tidal flooding.  Streets are under water, littered with abandoned cars.  To the west, the James River Bridge is closed because of city street flooding.  The Monitor-Merrimac Tunnel is congested in both directions as exits and alternative routes clog due to flooding.  To the south, the Great Bridge Bridge and Dominion Boulevard are closed.  The Steel Bridge is closed.  The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel has severe wind restrictions and may close soon.  Of course, we lost the Jordan Bridge to neglect long ago.

And all this from a “mere” Nor’easter.  With 5 to 8 inches of rain so far.  ”Only” 20-30 mile per hour winds with 50 mph gusts.  We have not tried to evacuate anyone from coastal areas.  Reading the list above, what would your evacuation route be, exactly?  What if this were a hurricane?  How would you get out?

Roads, tunnels and bridges are not a “nice to have” around here.  Transportation is a life and death issue.  We have been pretending for 20 years that roads will just build themselves if we close our eyes and wish hard enough.

Now we’ve elected a new governor  who touted himself as “Virginia Beach’s Own” Bob McDonnell.  Thank goodness!  Finally, we have someone in power in Richmond with our interests at heart.  With McDonnell plus senior Republican power brokers like Bob Purkey and Bob Tata in key committee positions, our transportation problems will soon be over!

What?  McDonnell thinks the problem can be solved by offshore oil, public/private partnerships, and taking money from the many other things the state already can’t pay for? All without raising anybody’s taxes?  The plan?  Soon the bridge and tunnel fairy will visit us, sprinkle adequate roads, bridges and tunnels throughout our area and we’ll all live happily ever after.

Until then, buy a snorkle.

Go Ahead, Jump

Here’s Glenn Nye’s campaign website on health care before the election:

The American health care system offers the best care available in the world, the best trained doctors and highest quality technology. We must make that system accessible and affordable so all Americans can enjoy good medical care. We need to ensure that all Americans can see a doctor when needed – both when they are sick and for preventive care that keeps people healthy in the first place. By providing coverage for the 47 million uninsured Americans, we can bring down costs, preserve choice, and maintain the best system in the world.

That was Glenn Nye’s stated position on health care reform before the 2008 election, after the 2008 election, and right up until we quoted it in this post on September 5, 2009.

Here’s Glenn Nye’s position on health care reform yesterday, when the long-promised health care legislation that will make the health care system accessible and affordable, ensure that all Americans can see a doctor when needed, provide coverage for uninsured Americans, bring down costs, preserve choice, and maintain the “best system in the world” finally came up for a vote:

U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd District, which includes Virginia Beach and part of Norfolk, announced earlier Saturday that although the legislation achieves many of his goals for health care reform, he planned to vote against the bill because it doesn’t reduce long-term health care costs.

 

Here’s Glenn Nye’s campaign website this morning, after Glenn Nye voted against that important, long-promised health care legislation late last night:

The page cannot be found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Please try the following:

Make sure that the Web site address displayed in the address bar of your browser is spelled and formatted correctly.
If you reached this page by clicking a link, contact the Web site administrator to alert them that the link is incorrectly formatted.
Click the Back button to try another link.
HTTP Error 404 – File or directory not found.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

Technical Information (for support personnel)

Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title search for the words HTTP and 404.
Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and search for topics titled Web Site Setup, Common Administrative Tasks, and About Custom Error Messages

Speculation abounds that Glenn Nye will jump to the Republican party.

Hey, Glenn?

Go ahead, jump.

It will save the cost of a primary.

Every Vote Counts!

Don’t think your vote makes a difference?  Ever get so cynical you just want to write in “none of the above?”

Well, we hope you didn’t do that in the 21st House District race in Virginia Beach.  Democratic Incumbent Delegate Bobby Mathieson and Republican challenger Ron Villanueva were separated by just 16 votes out of 15, 357 cast in Tuesday’s election.  That’s less than the number of write-in votes (33).  So if you voted for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck or “None of the Above,” shame on you.  You wasted your vote and could have actually decided this race.  If you ever needed proof that every vote is crucial, this race is it.

Meanwhile, in Southern Shores, North Carolina, in an odd twist, a write-in candidate defeated the incumbent head of the town council.  The incumbent was the only name on the ballot, but the write-in candidate won by 28 votes. Isn’t democracy interesting?  Again, proof that every vote counts, especially in a small local election.

Speaking of which, Virginia Beach will have a stealthy, off-cycle special election to fill former State Senator Ken Stolle’s vacant Senate seat.  Republicans have two, well-funded candidates in the field fighting for the seat.  Democrats have yet to field a candidate.  Turnout is likely to be very low.  Every single vote will be magnified in importance.

People died to give you the right to vote.  Exercise your rights vigorously and hold politicians accountable.  Always VOTE!

McDonnell vs. Deeds: It Matters

If Bob McDonnell wins the Governor’s Mansion in Virginia, he’s told us what he’ll do. Words matter, and even though McDonnell says his views have changed since he wrote his Christian Broadcasting Network Law School thesis, he hasn’t said HOW they’ve changed. They might have gotten much worse.

McDonnell called the separation of church and state “conventional folklore“ in his thesis.  He has not repudiated that view.  Imagine a governor reviewing bills for veto or making appointments from Pat Robertson’s ideological perspective.

McDonnell opposed equal pay for equal work while in the legislature and stated in his thesis that working women are “detrimental to the family.” He has not explained his current views.  He has only pointed out that his mother worked, he encouraged his wife and daughters to work, and treated some female subordinates in his office well. Women not personally acquainted with, or related to, a Governor McDonnell are left to wonder where they might stand.

And yes, Bob McDonnell called the Supreme Court decision legalizing contraception for married couples “among the harshest blows to the American family and traditional morality.”

McDonnell makes clear in his thesis that he believes the education of children is not properly a civic function, and should be left to the family.  Thus, one is left to question his commitment to public education.  Given the hash of tortured logic, butchered English, and faulty history in his thesis one wonders if he took advantage of his exposure to education, or if CBN law school just taught him a new approach.

McDonnell has a transportation plan.  It involves using revenue from offshore oil.  Revenue that doesn’t exist, and would optimistically come on line many years after his term expires.  His next best plan for revenue is to raid the general fund which is already strapped to pay for education, public safety, mental health, Medicaid and other obligations, but he has not said what he would cut.  Then he touts public/private partnerships, but doesn’t say where Virginia would get the public money in that equation.  McDonnell accuses Deeds of having no transportation plan.  Given the comparison, we like Deeds’ plan better.

McDonnell says he is from Fairfax, Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Virginia Beach.  Creigh Deeds says he’s from Bath County.  He’s always been from Bath County.  On the theory that to know where you’re going, it helps to know where you’ve been, Deeds is the clear choice.

McDonnell says he will be a “jobs Governor.”  He’ll make Virginia “more friendly for business.”  Can lenders find better interest rates than unlimited?  Can businesses find a friendlier climate than one which allows legislators to be directly employed by the businesses they represent before regulatory boards?  Can utilities find a better regulatory environment than a state government that, when asked to jump, replies, “how high?”  We can’t wait to see Governor McDonnell’s definition of “friendly,” but it probably rhymes with “schmivatize.”

If a national healthcare plan passes with any type of opt-in/opt-out option for individual states, do you picture a Governor McDonnell opting in?  Elections have consequences.

The bottom line on Tuesday is that we can go backward to fighting Pat Robertson’s divisive battles on social issues, or we can go forward to face the hard choices on substantive problems that Virginia will face over the next four years.

What They Said!

In an editorial replete with wonderful vocabulary words like “equivocation,” “insipidity,” and “banalities,” this morning’s Virginian-Pilot nails it, endorsing Creigh Deeds for Governor.

While decrying Deeds’ “chaotic campaign,” the Pilot points to the number one issue in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia: transportation.

The Pilot aptly describes Republican Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan as

a chain-link fence of stall tactics designed to distract voters into believing that progress is being made. . . . Under a Gov. McDonnell, transportation advocates would waste four years clawing their way over, under and around barriers erected by the state’s top elected official.

. . . .

McDonnell may be a more persuasive leader, but he is asking Virginia to follow him down a dead-end road. If he is governor, he will spend four years churning out spreadsheets with fantasy forecasts and writing stern letters to the president, Congress, state legislators and city councils demanding that they do something to save him from his own inertia.

As we said before, roads are life or death around here. Anyone who has attempted to inch their way to and through our region’s tunnels need only imagine what would happen in a hurricane evacuation.

While stopping short of an “effusive endorsement” of Creigh Deeds, the Virginian-Pilot editorial posits that

the Republican has too often flinched in the face of push-back from absolutists within his party.

and that

McDonnell’s inability to resist divisive social issues could result in real harm to law-abiding Virginians with whom he should have no quarrel.

In our view, this gives the affable-sounding Republican candidate, Bob McDonnell, way too much unearned credit for good intentions.

The hard-right Republican has told us, in no uncertain terms, that he is not only against equal rights for gay people, but also against equal rights for women. In fact, Bob McDonnell thinks working women are

ultimately detrimental to the family.

Like most people, we were surprised to learn that Bob McDonnell is against contraception for unmarried people. Heck, we were shocked to learn that Bob McDonnell is against contraception for married couples. Bob McDonnell thinks that Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited states from charging married couples with the crime of using birth control, is

among the harshest blows to the American family and traditional morality.

Bob McDonnell recently voted against equal pay for equal work, a decades-old issue on which there should now be no controversy whatsoever. In the past and in the current election cycle, Bob McDonnell took donations from the Eagle Forum, a fringe-right organization founded by none other than professional female woman-hater Phyllis Schlafly.

Just a couple of months ago, Bob McDonnell mischaracterized the subject of his controversial 1989 Christian Broadcasting Network thesis as “welfare policy.” In fact, the thesis was an unbalanced attack on any child care policy whatsoever. The thesis advocated that Republicans deal with the cause of family problems (working women), not just treat the symptoms (the child care shortage). It prescribed a host of punitive sanctions against fornicators, cohabitators, homosexuals, and yes, women.

The problem is not that Bob McDonnell gives in to absolutists, that he fails to resist the temptation of divisive social issues, that he listens to discredited ideologues like his longtime mentor, televangelist Pat Robertson. No, the problem is that Bob McDonnell himself is an a absolutist, divisive ideologue who, if given free reign, will demonstrate, once again, why Thomas Jefferson cautioned that we need a wall of separation between church and state.
Creigh Deeds is an honest, common-sense moderate who will deliver on his promises on transportation, education, and jobs.

Please, for your sake and for the sake of all Virginians, vote for Creigh Deeds on Tuesday, November 3rd.

Health Care Headline: Reid Steals Fruit

As the two houses of Congress count the votes and pound out final bills, a story in today’s Virginian-Pilot chronicles how tense the negotiations can get. Patience is wearing thin. Are “patients” factoring into the discussion? Very punny.

We are told of a White House meeting debating a final bill that can meet the 60-vote threshold to forestall a Republican filibuster. Senators, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, met with the President.  While no final outcome was reached, this nugget was deemed newsworthy by those dogged news hounds at the AP:

“An awkward meeting with Obama in the Oval Office Thursday evening illustrated just how far senators are from putting those pieces together. The only takeaway not likely to be disputed: Reid grabbed an apple on the way out.”

Is it any wonder we don’t have health care reform yet?

What You May Have Missed

All the fuss about the “Balloon Boy” hoax is getting a little, um, nauseating. Here’s the kid story of the week that should have gotten all that attention:

Ten year old Kyle Forbes, a Houston Boy Scout who is autistic, saved the life of his art teacher on Tuesday, performing the Heimlich maneuver when Sheri Lowe choked on an apple.

Kyle: “Before I was like a normal kid, always getting picked on, but then, I was like a superhero, everybody was cheering me.”

His teacher: “Tell me not to cry.”

As of this morning, Kyle’s video on youtube has 781 views. Balloon Boy Falcon Heene’s video has 1,742,845. Please watch.

There Is No Truth To the Rumor . . .

Every Friday, we take a look around and debunk gossip, bust urban legends, and, we hope, give you a little smile to start your weekend.

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that “balloon boy” Falcon Heene vomiting on two national morning shows is definitive proof that his parents care more about publicity than their child.  But it sure proves where the morning shows’ priorities are when they broadcast it.  Kudos all around, “adults!”

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Rush Limbaugh was dropped from his group’s bid to buy the NFL’s St. Louis Rams franchise because he’s a conservative.  Rush was asked to leave after he asked his partners which of them would get to “buy and sell” the players.  It’s trade, Rush, trade.

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell has modified his claim that he will be a “jobs governor” now that his thesis has been widely read.  As long as those jobs don’t involve dispensing contraceptives or women working (which is a detriment to the family), he’ll be the “jobs governor.”  By the way, who decided it was OK for Bob to work outside the home?

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine is the most important vote in the Senate.  Now it remains to be seen if Harry Reid can make a bill out of the stew served up by Max Baucus and Snowe’s friends on the Finance Committee.  ”Mebbe”, as they say in Maine, “yeh cahn’t get thayuh from heeyah.”

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize puts a crimp in the plans of the Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs who are rooting for him to fail.  It won’t slow them down a bit.  But it does prove that there’s a whole world of people rooting for him to succeed.

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that if the World Series ends up as a New York Yankees/Philadelphia Phillies match-up, the games will have to be moved to a neutral, warm weather site.  Like Miami.  Why not? The fans from both cities are already there.

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Sarah Palin, inspired by Rush Limbaugh, is trying to buy the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League.  As a former “hockey mom,” it’s a perfect fit.  Her first marketing idea?  Outdoor hockey!  Worked great in Alaska, you betcha!

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that North Carolina GOP Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-Intolerance) and three colleagues are asking the Sergeant at Arms and Justice Department to investigate the religious affiliation of all interns on Capitol Hill.  Nope.  Just the Muslim ones.

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that Alex Lange, the four-month-old baby denied health insurance coverage due to his “pre-existing condition” of obesity, finally obtained coverage after he agreed to work out three times a week.  As soon as he learns to walk.

There Is No Truth To the Rumor that the SEC just hired a 29-year-old Goldman Sachs executive as the “top cop” in its enforcement division.  What?  That’s true?  Did they want someone who’d be alive in case Bernie Madoff survived his prison term?  All this, and now the hardware store is sold out of torches and pitchforks?

Can We Have Health Care Reform Now?

Now that Max Baucus and his Finance Committee fiefdom have had their summer of self-love, can we get on with it, and have health care reform? Apparently, Baucus saw the final vote as an occasion for jokes.  Now that we have paid homage to Olympia Snowe as the Most Important Senator of the Century as she became the pivotal vote (?) in a 14-9 committee vote to pass a fifth bill into the legislative mix, one must ask, “Can we have health care reform now?

The most amazing turn of events this week was not Olympia Snowe’s vote, but the timing of the American Health Insurance Plans’ (AHIP, an industry lobby) blast at the Finance Committee’s bill.  Just before the vote, AHIP let slip that they were about to release a report that the bill would “force” the industry to raise everyone’s premiums by at least $4000.  Poor health insurers . . .

Here we have an industry that wrote major portions of the committee’s legislation, spent the summer gutting every provision they didn’t like, spent millions in ad dollars and lobbying money, lined up all their Republican minions to vote against it, and at the last minute they drop a bomb on Max Baucus, the best friend they ever had?  Now, that’s chutzpah.  As Congressman Anthony Weiner said, their report makes the best case for the public option we’ve heard all summer.

It’s been a rough week for the health insurance industry.  In Colorado, a healthy four-month old, breast-fed infant was denied coverage for obesity as a “pre-existing” condition.  Of course, the adverse decision was quickly overturned once the company diligently investigated the facts.  What were the relevant facts?  His father happened to be an anchor on the local NBC news affiliate and could publicly humiliate Rocky Mountain Health Plans for their absurd decision.

What would have happened if his father’s name was Jose Schmoe, the car mechanic’s kid? Nothing.

Little Alex Lange got health insurance because someone told his story.  Everyone has a story about a relative or friend (or themselves) who got sick or injured and lost out because of our out-of-whack health care/health insurance system.  Call your Congressman and Senator, tell your story.  Write them, demand health care reform, with a real, substantive, public option.

Let Congress know that unless reform passes now, the next campaign will be to end Congress’ free health care. Look at Chuck Grassley.  This year, he got $223,600 from the health care industry to kill health care reform.  It is estimated there are 277,100 people without health insurance in his state. Does Grassley really need free health care?  We just can’t afford their socialized medicine anymore if they don’t understand what their constituents are going through.

Tell Congress your story.  Make sure they know we’re watching.  And be sure to ask:  Can we have health care reform now?