Moonhowlings

Is Fredericks actually saying that the tea party is going to cause the Republicans to crash and burn at the election? it sure sounds like it to me.

I am just not one to count chickens before they hatch.

The reality is, very few people are far right or far left anythings.  The people who win elections are those who appeal to the middle.  Elections are won and lost by the middle, not by the purists of either political extreme.

As I touched base with many of my Republican buds, I believe most of them were speechless.

I saw this happen many years ago, before there was such a thing as a tea party.  Ollie North and Michael Farris were somehow involved.  It was then I made my resolution to never attend another Republican convention, as a vendor or anything else.

Great balls of fire. You really have to be kidding me. I had to see it for myself.

I had read that Jackson also suggested that “enhanced interrogation” be codified and that members of the  CIA and Military would be protected from prosecution if they should use this method of questioning. I think that he suggested legalized torture. Have I misread something here?

Pardon me. This candidate is simply unacceptable. What WERE they thinking?

Did he compare Planned Parenthood to the KKK?

I think I’ll tiptoe on off and vote for Dr. Ralph Northam, thank you very much!

The Republican State Convention selected the following folks to challenge the Democrats in this year’s state elections.

Governor:  Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

Lt. Governor:  Bishop E.W. Jackson

Attorney General:  Senator Mark Obenshain

This is an extremely conservative ticket.  Make no mistake, the Democrats will point out the extremism.  It looks like its all about numbers now–who can get the most votes.  As far right as this slate is, the Democrats can be all over the spectrum.

There will be a Democratic primary on June 11th to decide who will represent the party for Lt. Governor and Attorney General.

At first I just thought it was an awkward situation getting a lot of attention…high roller Republicans buying in to a company to make healthy smoking.  Now I think it is a far more serious situation that involves influence peddling.

The Washingtonpost.com:

Williams offered the wedding gift at a time when Glen Allen, Va.-based Star Scientific, which makes a dietary supplement and facial cream under the brand name Anatabloc, was suing the state to challenge a property tax assessment.

The governor and his wife have been high-profile boosters for Star Scientific, which has lost money for 10 years and is the subject of a federal securities investigation and two shareholder lawsuits. Maureen McDonnell traveled to Florida to talk up Anatabloc to investors three days before the wedding, and she and the governor hosted a gathering at the mansion to mark the product’s arrival in stores.

Does the above paragraph send up red flags?  In Virginia, this behavior is not illegal but it sure is unethical to most of us.  McDonnell says the money was given to his daughter, even though he signed the contract and put down an $8,000 deposit which was later refunded to Mrs. McDonnell.    It all just sounds like weasel words at this point.

Read more…

Tres Amigos?

The name Star Scientific keeps popping up in the news and it always is attached, in some way, to both the current governor, Bob McDonnell, or the wannabe governor, Ken Cuccinelli.  This association is usually surrounded by the oft-unspoken words, OOOPS or I forgot.

The Governor attracted some attention by not declaring that the CEO of this company, one Jonnie Williams, paid $15k for his daughter’s wedding reception.  McDonnell said he didn’t declare it because the gift was to his daughter.  Well, so much for traditional values where the parents of the bride pay for the wedding.  Sorry Bob, but do you think Jonnie would have sprung for the bill if you weren’t the Guv of VA?

Ken Cuccinelli also has gotten into political hot water over this same company.  The latest is the fact that he failed to report some gifts, namely an almost $5000 vacation to William’s Smith Mountain  Lake vacation home and a catered turkey dinner.   Cuccinelli also admitted to forgetting to report a plane trip to NYC financed by Williams.  In all, Cuccinelli has received about $18,000 in gifts from the CEO of Star Scientific in the past 4 years.

$18,000 might not seem much to a high roller.  To put this amount in perspective, many seniors don’t even get $18,000 a year in social security benefits.  I guess it pays to be a Virginia high roller.  Cuccinelli also owned stock in Star Scientific.  This sure seems like a cozy relationship.  Star Scientific used to be named Star Tobacco.  It appears they make supplemental products, as in supplemental vitamins of a sort.

So the question still remains, what is this company and what does it want?  No one gives away this much money to politicians without wanting something, do they?  Meanwhile, will both Cuccinelli and McDonnell continue to reap the benefits of their respective high profile positions?

What is Star Scientific?

Further reading:

Richmond Times Dispatch

Washington Post

Washingtonexaminer.com:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is at odds with fellow Republicans over whether victims of the state’s involuntary sterilization program 50 years ago can sue the state for compensation.

The state’s top lawyer released a legal opinion recently that said the state can’t be sued in its own courts and therefore “it is unlikely that a claimant could successfully bring an action against the commonwealth for having been sterilized.”

That runs afoul of Republican lawmakers, who were pushing legislation earlier this year that would give $50,000 to each of the victims of a state eugenics program — at a total cost of $15.5 million. But lawmakers killed the bill, saying eugenics victims can sue the state so there’s no need to offer them payments. Cuccinelli’s opinion that they can’t sue revived prospects for the bill.

Read more…

AG refuses to resign while running for governor.

Washingtonpost.com:

SINCE WORLD WAR II, 10 of Virginia’s 11 attorneys general have run for governor. Nine of those 10, Democrats and Republicans alike, resigned to do so, and for good reason: They were loath to politicize an office whose effectiveness and prestige depend on making legal judgments untainted by politics.

Despite that wise precedent, Virginia’s current attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli II (R), has refused to follow suit. He has clung to his position even as he angled for his party’s gubernatorial nomination, bringing a cloud over his office and casting doubt on its ability to act impartially as the state’s legal counsel.

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Standing room only for many county residents

Apparently many Prince William County residents are extremely concerned about the negative impact of the proposed North/South Corridor, also called the Tri-County Parkway.  This roadway will pick up at Dumfries Road and run down the western end of Prince William Parkway.  The new road will begin and  follow Pageland to Route 50 in Loudoun County.  The actual details are still murky.   Apparently Supervisor Candland was only expecting a small crowd. Well, instead of around 50, there were 250, at least– standing room only in the cafeteria.

Residents were forced to look at maps that had little information, vague descriptions of how the road will function, and little to no firm dates of when the road will be built.  The VDOT segment of the meeting was incredibly boring, of little value and frustrating to say the least.

What was made abundantly clear, was the intent of the road  to “move traffic from 95 through to the Dulles Corridor because that is where the state has its priority in the economic engine of  Dulles Airport.”  Additionally there is a need “to move cargo trucks to Dulles”.

Read more…

Morning Joe Scarborough mocks Ken Cuccinelli over his radically extreme positions.  He particularly poked fun at Cooch who supposedly questioned getting his youngest child a social security number because “that’s how they track you down.”

Good grief!  That is extremist.  Fundamentalist LDS members out in the desert (remember Juniper Creek on big Love) believe tin foil hat stuff like that.

This is who wants to be our next governor?

Corey Stewart is apparently wants to save all defense spending while taking a chainsaw to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.  His latest email blast in his bid for Lt. Governor is shocking!  His own words:

There is no question our Federal Budget has ballooned to epic proportions, but arbitrarily slashing defense spending is the wrong way to try and reduce the federal deficit.

90,000 civilian Department of Defense employees will be furloughed; this alone will be a $648.8 million hit to the economy of Virginia.

If Washington wants to get serious about reigning in spending, they must go after entitlements. Entitlement programs currently occupy 62% of our federal budget, with 44% of that being comprised of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Those programs are increasing beyond the rate of inflation and, when combined with Obamacare, will eat up 18.5% of our national economic output.

Did he really use the words “go after?”  Does he realize that many senior citizens have only Social Security  to rely on?   Is he declaring a war on senior citizens and the poor?  It sure sounds like it.

Read more…

Del. Anderson is to be commended for getting this important piece of legislation headed towards becoming a law. One question–Is it against the law to do the myriad of other things people manage to do on cell phones while driving? Angry birds, paying your bills, etc can be just as distracting. I can see the defense now being that the driver was playing Words with Friends and not texting. I hope there are stop gaps so this cannot happen.

Character has often been describes as doing the right thing when no one is looking.  In the case of Speaker Howell, character is sometimes doing the right thing when everyone is looking and it takes courage.

Today Speaker Howell proved his mettle by voting the sneak Republican plan to redistrict not germane.  According to the Washington Post:

 House Speaker William J. Howell, one of Richmond’s most reliable Republican votes, bucked his own party Wednesday to derail a Senate redistricting plan that could have handed the GOP control of that chamber for decades.

Howell (Stafford) used a procedural ruling to kill the new Senate map, resisting pressure from his  caucus and Senate Republicans, who assured him that state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) was prepared to back the plan.

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Governor McDonnell continues to try to get his ell-conceived “educational reform” thought the General Assembly.

According to Loudountimes.com:

A measure obligating Virginia public schools to receive A through F grades passed the Virginia House of Delegates Feb. 4 in a 54-40 vote, despite objection from state education groups.

The bill is part of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s education reform plan. Under the proposed legislation, local school boards, in addition to establishing accreditation standards, must develop a grading system for their districts’ schools by Aug. 1. The grades schools received would be public.

Read more…

The State of Virginia might just be well on its way to making honest men and women out of all of us.  There is legislation, introduced by Sen. Adam Ebbin, to repeal the ban on unmarried couples living together.     Sen. Ebbin is the only openly gay legislator in Virginia.  I don’t believe, however, it is illegal for same sex couples to live together.  If that is the case, a whole lot of colleges are breaking the antiquated Virginia law when assigning student housing.  But I digress…..

Washingtonpost.com:

RICHMOND — A Senate panel on Monday unanimously advanced a bill to repeal an old law that makes it illegal for unmarried couples to live together in Virginia.

It is a misdemeanor in the state, under a law dating to the late 19th century, for “any persons, not married to each other, [to] lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together.”

Read more…

Washingtonpost.com

Republicans in Virginia and a handful of other battleground states are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral college in an attempt to counter recent success by Democrats.

In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them.

Read more…