We Inspire, But Do We Aspire?

Two stories caught our eye today, as we woke from our Thanksgiving nap.

In the Philippines, Ismael Mangudadatu successfully filed his candidate certificate for governor.  So what’s the big deal?

Monday, a caravan of vehicles carrying 57 people, including Mangudadatu’s wife, two sisters, supporters and journalists were massacred and their bodies dumped into mass graves in an apparent attempt to discourage him from running against the incumbent, Andal Ampatuan, who has run unopposed for years.  The caravan was on the way to to file the certificate, confident that Andal Ampatuan’s forces would not strike innocents in such a brazen manner.  They were wrong.  Faced with a potential military strike, Ampatuan turned himself in to authorities, protesting his innocence in the slaughter.

Mangudadatu vows only death will keep him from running.  Attention Congress:  This is what political courage looks like.

In Iran, authorities have confiscated the Nobel Peace Prize medal of Iranian judge Shirin Ebadi.  They removed the medal from her safe deposit box, froze her assets, harassed and threatened her family, and demanded back taxes on the Nobel prize money (which, by Iranian law, is tax-exempt).  Friends are worried about her husband, who was arrested and beaten in the fall.  The government is also trying to confiscate her home.  Ebadi’s crime?  She was out of the country when the presidential election was stolen, and she has spoken out about the government crackdown.  She won the Peace Prize for speaking out against human rights violations from within Iran.

It would be nice to see Ebadi invited to the White House or to the State of the Union address, just to emphasize that we value the fight for basic human rights.

In America, we take the blessings of liberty for granted. So-called real freedom-lovin’ Americans shout “You lie!” at those trying to make ours a more perfect union, or push books dishing mindless dirt at political opponents, too, also, you betcha!  Those who entered office with high ideals get so caught up trying to rescue the economy they soft pedal human rights when facing our creditors.

Here, freedom has morphed into a politics of “he who shouts loudest wins.”  If you can’t shout loud enough, scare the largest number of people into irrational beliefs to distract them from finding common ground to solve our pressing problems.  Meanwhile, moneyed interests buy the influence they need to protect themselves from both sides of the political spectrum, common interest be damned.  We squander the processes our founders gave us to reach common ground by exploiting the opportunities for delay, diversion and distraction, and then deplore the apathy generated thereby.  Rights go unexercised and interest atrophies, magnifying the influence of lobbyists, shouters, and nuts.

But elsewhere, the gifts Madison and Jefferson wrote about so eloquently, and the mechanisms they left to us, still inspire people to acts of amazing courage in the face of tyranny and repression.

Don’t Even Talk About Health Care!

That’s what they’re saying. That’s what 40 unanimous Republican Senators, and any Democratic or “independent” Senator who might join them, are saying today by voting against even debating the Senate health care reform bill. We don’t want to talk about it.

These grown men and women are saying that the prospect of providing health insurance security to most Americans is so scary, so dangerous, we can’t even debate it on the floor of the Senate. This is the same Senate chamber where issues of war and peace are routinely considered. Where torture of human beings has been discussed as if it was a partisan game–not an affront to our Constitutional fiber. Where Terry Schiavo’s medical condition was diagnosed via remote TV by one Republican Senator. Where a President lied us into a war against Iraq we still haven’t paid for, and now his accomplices bleat about the cost of insuring (gasp!) Americans via a public option (for which they’d pay a premium).

What are they so afraid of? Why is Mitch McConnell (left, recently, at right, February 2nd) scared of his own shadow? That reform might work? That the current 20% of the country that calls itself Republican might shrink? Or people might realize that “No” is not a viable political strategy?

How will the country improve if the Republicans and their spineless blue dog allies succeed? It won’t. Big Health Care will still kill patients by denial of care, denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, and unaffordable and increasing premiums, and will handsomely reward the Senators who killed this bill. The Senators will continue to enjoy their government-run health care, untouched by the problems faced by their constituents.  And our failure to address health care will continue to hurt middle class workers, stifle recovery, and make us less competitive with the rest of the industrialized world.

Let’s hope Harry Reid can round up 60 votes today, or that the next Majority Leader can. Because if this bill fails on a simple procedural vote, the next health reform bill needs to remove government-run health care from those who are so opposed to it.  Now that would save some real money!

Can we talk about it?

Who Would Jesus Assassinate?

Once again, the so-called “christian” right has it wrong.  Now, along with t-shirts portraying President Obama as The Joker or as Chairman Mao, you can buy bumper stickers, coffee mugs and t-shirts (even teddy bears!) with the seemingly innocent message “Pray for Obama:  Psalm 109:8.”

What’s wrong with urging people to pray for our President, you ask?

Psalm 109:8 reads:  ”Let his days be few; let another take his office.”  The following verse says, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

Innocent?  No.  Christian?  Definitely not. Harmless free speech, or trolling for an assassin?

At first, people wondered if this was a joke.  But this is serious, folks.  Christians need to speak out.  The reputation of the church and Christianity is being hijacked by hate-filled people who view President Obama as a dangerous subhuman “Other” and wish him harm in the guise of prayer. This is an open invitation to a dangerous religious fanatic waiting for a “call.”

Last night, Frank Schaeffer appeared on the Rachel Maddow show and gave an impassioned plea as to why the appearance of this bumper sticker is not just harmless partisan rhetoric:

For most Christians, this Sunday (November 23rd) is Christ the King Sunday, or Reign of Christ Sunday, on the church calendar.  The lectionary followed by Roman Catholics and most Protestant denominations contains the Gospel reading from John 18:33-37, the words spoken by Jesus to Pontius Pilate before the crucifixion:

My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.

At the scene of Jesus’ arrest, some of His disciples wanted to resist violently and stage a rebellion (Matt 26:51-56).  Jesus didn’t hesitate to tell them that violent rebellion was not his purpose.  He said, “All who live by the sword will die by the sword.” Jesus chose to give his life on the cross, not to take over the government.

So may we suggest some alternatives to the coffee mugs and teddy bears that call for prayers for the early demise of the President?  How about Romans 13:1?

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Or 1Timothy 2:1-2?

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and holiness.

Or 1 Corinthians 13:1-2?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

To all those “christians” praying for the death of our President, just whose life do you think you are risking?

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?