Moonhowlings

The Right Wing extremists are all howling with delight over their boy Ken Cuccinelli socking it to them thar femi-nazis…..the pro-aborts.  It must be full moon.  Let’s take a look at what their glee is over:

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has given a ruling that has the potential of skirting around legislation that the General Assembly as refused to enact since the early 1980’s.  Attorney generals’ opinions are not legally binding, as court rulings are. 

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From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Gov. Bob McDonnell this week formally requested that the Department of Homeland Security authorize some Virginia State Police troopers to perform functions of federal immigration officers.

The request, which was sent in a letter dated Aug. 10 to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, follows conversations since February on the subject between McDonnell’s administration and federal authorities.

McDonnell is requesting that homeland security enters into a so-called 287g agreement with the state, a pact that at least seven jurisdictions in Virginia already have in some form.

“The [memorandum of understanding] would include how participating State Police personnel will be nominated, trained, authorized and supervised in performing the immigration enforcement functions specified in the agreement,” McDonnell writes in the letter released today by his office.

“We contemplate addressing those aliens who are engaged in major drug offenses or violent offenses such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and kidnapping, as well as DUI offenses.”

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Many people who have are in the know fear the enforcement end of private sales of booze.  Liquor stores are known to be rife with crime issues, including organized crime.  See what some Virginia law enforcement officers have to say about privatizing the ABC Stores.  McDonnell really needs to get off this campaign promise.  He is being a naive Nelly.  It isn’t good for Virginia.  The true conservative stand on selling the liquor stores is to tell McDonnell NO. 

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Ashland, Va. –

Ashland is a college town with one state-owned store for selling liquor.

Police Chief Douglas A. Goodman Jr. knows that probably would change if the Virginia General Assembly agrees to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to give up the state’s 76-year-old monopoly on the liquor business.

“There’s no doubt there would be an increase in outlets,” Goodman said. “I’m not aware of what the number is going to be.”

That’s a big question for local law-enforcement officials, who met with key members of the governor’s staff last week for a briefing on concerns about the potential effects of privatizing the liquor business on the communities they police.

Instead of 334 state-owned stores spaced across Virginia, local law-enforcement officials are uneasy about the prospect of 800 to 1,000 private liquor retailers, many of them concentrated in areas of high demand, trying to boost sales of spirits in a state where liquor consumption is relatively low.

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I was going to attempt to do a synopsis of this article in the Washington Post. It cannot be done. This article explains how Virgina will lose big bucks if the liquor stores are sold and they become private. Governor McDonnell doesn’t think the state should be involved in liquor sales. How  hypocritical. They sure don’t mind taking taxes from the sale of liquor. So I don’t even want to hear the moral indignation surrounding liquor sales. The Governor also suggests that revenue will be made up in taxes because more liquor will sell because it will be cheaper.

The logic here is simply …missing. Besides, do we want more liquor sold? How is that concept fitting in with the Guv’s supposed moral objections to the sale of liquor. He needs to run the state and leave the liquor stores alone. Virginia needs to just keep raking in the $245 million dollars it is currently making on profits and taxes. Governor McDonnell needs to do the math and get over this hold over from the evangelical Pat Robertson school regarding booze.

Make sure you check out the interactive graphic. It is very interesting.

From the Washington Post:

Virginia’s inner struggle to get off the scotch tax

RICHMOND — For drinkers, a fifth of Jack Daniel’s costs about the same wherever they buy it — about $25 in Virginia and the District, a couple of bucks less in Maryland. But for the governments that regulate that bottle, the difference is as stark as a sip and a chug.

In the District and most of Maryland, just a dollar or two from a fifth of Jack Daniel’s goes to government. But in Virginia, where whiskey and every other kind of liquor is sold in state-run stores, more than $13 of the retail price goes to the state.

As Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) prepares to call the legislature into a special session to consider privatizing the state’s 76-year monopoly on the sale of hard alcohol, he faces a hard economic fact: The liquor business has been exceptionally profitable for the commonwealth.

Every shot poured and every cocktail downed is another cha-ching for the state, and that translates into hundreds of millions of dollars a year that are used to fund schools, prisons and mental health facilities.

Even after paying all of the expenses involved — buying millions of cases from distilleries, paying more than 2,680 employees, keeping the lights on and the rent paid at 332 stores — Virginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control board deposited $248 million in liquor profits, as well as excise and sales taxes, into state coffers during fiscal 2009. And unlike nearly every other facet of government, the liquor business has proved to be essentially recession-proof, taking in $13.7 million more in fiscal 2009 than in 2008.

Regardless of the profits, McDonnell fundamentally believes that running the liquor business ought not to be a government function. He also believes that selling the system’s assets and new liquor licenses could bring in a one-time windfall of $300 million to $500 million, which he would use to improve the state’s ailing roads. A private system would also mean better selection and more convenient stores for consumers, he contends.

On Wednesday night, McDonnell held the first of a statewide series of town hall meetings in Roanoke, partly to sell the idea.

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From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. –

Gov. Bob McDonnell indicated today that he will try to sell ABC privatization to the General Assembly as “a windfall for transportation.”

The proceeds from the auction sale of ABC licenses — the state expects to realize $300 million to $500 million — will go entirely for road maintenance, McDonnell said.

He appeared on Washington radio station WTOP’s “Ask the Governor” program.

Asked about a recent VCU poll which showed him with a 48 percent approval rating — low by gubernatorial standards — McDonnell said it reflects the people’s concern about jobs and the economy.

He also said there are no plans to proceed with phasing out the personal property tax on cars and trucks because of the state’s current fiscal situation. The 2002 General Assembly froze the phase out was frozen at about 65 percent of the assessed value of vehicles.

– Tyler Whitley

Apparently McDonnell believes in flash in the pan money.  What will he do to make up all the money that the sale of liquor brings in to the state annually?  This seems like a George Bush live for today, hell with tomorrow kind of scheme to me, rather than carefully planning out a course of action to guarantee certain finances we can count on. 

Some of us don’t want to look like Maryland or DC with a liquor store on every corner.  I sure hope a certain someone cornered the governor last night and gave him a piece of her mind about Virginia tradition.

During the 2009 gubernatorial campaign, Bob McDonnell said he wanted to investigate selling Virginia’s state liquor stores to private owners.  Many of us went nuclear at the time but figured he would move on past that bad idea.  Apparently we thought wrong.  In fact, an article in the Washington Post slipped right past me on May 17.

From the WaPo, in its entirety:

Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration has been quietly meeting for months with members of the alcohol industry and others in the community who would be affected by his proposal to privatize liquor stores.

Eric Finkbeiner, the governor’s senior advisor for policy, has been talking informally with representatives from the Restaurant and Hospitality Association, Diageo Beverages, Miller Coors, Associated Distributors, Retail Merchants Association of Virginia, Virginia Wine Wholesalers, Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Beer Wholesalers Association, Total Wine, Virginia Wineries Association, Wine Institute, Sazerac (which owns Bowman Distilleries in Virginia), Virginia Retail Merchants Association, MADD, public safety organizations and faith-based groups.

McDonnell recently formed a commission on government reform and restructuring, which will consider, among other proposals how the state could sell the state’s 350 liquor stores, which he pledged to do on the campaign trail last year.

Finkbeiner and his working group will bring possible ideas to the commission, which is charged with providing initial recommendations to McDonnell by July 16, and writing a final report by Dec. 1.

McDonnell estimates the sale of the ABC stores could bring in as much as $500 million for much-needed road improvements, but his critics argue that any one-time proceeds would be offset by the permanent loss of $100 million in annual revenue that goes to other state services.

Last week, at a public forum focused to kick off the government reform effort, McDonnell said he would not support holding a referedum to decide whether the ABC stores should be privatized.

“For 70 years, we’ve distributed beer and wine in every 7-Eleven, every Food Lion. But we’ve controlled the distribution of spirits,” he told the crowd of more than 100 people. “From a free market stand point, it doesn’t make sense to continue to control only one part of the distribution.”

McDonnell will call the General Assembly back to Richmond this fall for a special session to approve his recommendations if he can build support for some of them. <

Virginia has a long history of having state stores that dates back to the end of prohibition in 1933.  The history and accompanying pictures can be found at the following link on the ABC website. 

 Additionally, Virginia  makes money off the state stores–lots of money and that money goes in to other programs.  See the 2009 annual report.  Download here.   (pdf)

What is McDonnell’s obsession with privatizing our state ABC stores?  Any private industry will have one objective–making money.  Virginia regulates the use of alcohol and its primary objective is not financial.  McDonnell will run in to a big fight if he continues with this tradition-breaking stupidity.

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Northrop Grumman is headed to Virginia. It is the 61st largest company in the United States and it is a huge defense contractor.

According to the Washington Post:

RICHMOND — At a news conference last week at Northrop Grumman’s Rosslyn offices, where a panoramic view of Washington loomed outside a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell ticked off the reasons he thinks the giant defense contractor chose to locate its new corporate headquarters in the commonwealth.

He cited the state’s low corporate tax rate, its business-friendly regulations and right-to-work laws that prohibit requiring employees to join unions.

One factor the Republican didn’t mention: The massive flow of federal spending that provides the core of Northrop’s business and has made it the nation’s 61st-largest company.

McDonnell has been a leading voice in railing against rising federal spending. But lost amid the calls for Washington to freeze or reduce spending is this twist: Although most economists agree that mounting federal debt could be dangerous to the national economy, Virginia has thrived on Washington’s decade-long spending spree, according to analyses done by professors at Virginia colleges.

Ten cents of every federal procurement dollar spent anywhere on Earth is spent in Virginia. More than 15,000 Virginia companies hold federal contracts, a number that has almost tripled since 2001. Total federal spending — from salaries to outsourced contracts — has more than doubled, to $118 billion, since 2000, as homeland security and defense spending skyrocketed in response to the 2001 terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 2008, it accounted for about 30 percent of Virginia’s entire economy.

Federal dollars have filtered through the rest of the economy, too, helping to build the high-tech Dulles corridor and funding new homes and cars for federal workers and contractors and meals at local restaurants. The billions have helped fuel the economic boom cycles of the past decade and have cushioned the blow of the recent recession, particularly in Northern Virginia, where the unemployment rate has stayed stubbornly below 6 percent, less than the state and national rates.

“We have a rich uncle, I like to remind people — Uncle Sam,” said Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.

Maybe Cuccinelli shouldn’t be trying so hard to piss off the feds. It sounds like Virginia is riding the old gravy train. To have less than 6% unemployment in this economy is enviable. To be getting 10 cents of every federal procurement dollar spent anywhere on earth is quite an accomplishment.

Much as McDonnell probably won’t like sharing the limelight, much of Virginia’s pro-business reputation was developed and nurtured by people like Mark Warner. Under the Kaine administration, Virginia was voted the number one state to do business in. McDonnell is savvy and should continue the tradition of attracting and maintaining businesses and a robust economy. He just needs to rein in his attorney general since much of that business originates with federal contracting.

Thanks to Governor Bob McDonnell for doing the right thing. He has signed the Trust Women/Respect Choice license plate into law and has maintained the funding for prevention services. $15 for each plate will go towards Planned Parenthood.

The license plate faced a three-month back and forth challenge in the General Assembly. Apparently some of our legislators confused reproductive rights with first amendment rights and tried all sorts of sneaky tricks to stop the stream of money into Planned Parenthood.

Virginia is one of only FOUR states to have a pro-choice license plate, let alone one with a funding stream supporting reproductive health care services.

Hat Tip to Governor McDonnell. Frankly, I am pleasantly surprised. This really was a free speech issue.

The governor can be emailed from the here. I have already emailed him a thank you.

artwork from c-ville.com

Civil Rights are defined as: the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury, the right to hold public office and the right to serve as a notary public. if someone is convicted of felony, then one loses these civil rights.   Virginia Constitution says, “No person who has been convicted of a felony shall be qualified to vote unless his civil rights have been restored by the governor.” There is no limitation on the governor’s power to restore rights, and no mention of having to report the names of such people to the General Assembly.

According to c-ville.com:

Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that do not automatically restore convicted felons’ civil rights. Most states restore these rights upon the completion of a prison sentence, probation or parole. In Virginia, felons convicted of a nonviolent offense must wait three years after completing all court obligations—sentencing, fines and probation—then file an application for the restoration of rights to the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

If your conviction is for a violent offense —or a drug manufacturing or distribution offense—the process is much more difficult.

The nonviolent offender’s application is two pages. The violent application is 12. Iachetta calls the violent felony forms cumbersome. “They’re horrible,” she says.

After waiting five years after all court obligations, a person convicted of a violent felony must obtain a burdensome collection of paperwork: a letter from your most recent probation or parole officer, copies of your pre- or post-sentence report, certified copies of every order of conviction and sentencing orders, three letters of reference and, to top it off, a personal letter to the Governor explaining your convictions and how your life has changed.

Iachetta says that roughly half of the people she sees who start the process don’t complete it.

“There’s got to be an easier way,” says Iachetta. “I don’t know at this point what it is. The process can be streamlined. That being said, until it happens, we’ve got to deal with what we’ve got.”

[Note:  Iachetta is Charlottesville's general registrar]

Governor Bob McDonnell has added another hoop for former felons to jump through. He is now proposing that those who want voting rights restored must write an essay outlining their contributions to society since their release, Civil Rights leaders and many others interested in prisoner rights, are outraged by this plan. They say it targets minorities, the poor and the under-educated and denies them of their civil rights. Others are cheering on McDonnell for ‘meaning business.’

McDonnell defends his own plan in the Washington Post:

McDonnell’s administration said the essay requirement is designed to put a human face on each applicant and to help staff members better understand each person’s situation.

“It gives all applicants the opportunity to have their cases heard and have their full stories told,” said Janet Polarek, secretary of the commonwealth, whose office handles the requests. “It’s an opportunity, not an obstacle.”

McDonnell is revamping the entire system for felons to have their rights restored as he works to make good on a campaign pledge to process every application within 90 days, considerably faster than any other administration in recent history.

“Under Republican and Democratic governors, they have had to wait six to 12 months — longer in some cases — to get an answer,” Polarek said. “Under the McDonnell administration, our goal is to restore the rights of everyone who has fulfilled their obligation in the most timely manner in Virginia’s recent history.”

For those who have difficulty with literacy, writing an essay seems like an immovable obstacle. Where in the Virginia Constitution can this kind of requirement be found?  Many prisoners and past prisoners suffer from the same malady; under-education plagues prisoners.  To ask someone with limited education to write an essay might just fall into the realm of cruel and unusual punishment.

Detailed Historical Information from the League of Women Voters in Fairfax