Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Ultrasound Abortion

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Peter Galuszka| 11 Comments

By Peter Galuszka

Abortion is always a very unpleasant topic just as it must be horrendous for a woman to be in a position to make such as choice. Still, it is her constitutional right, the law of the land.

So, after years of trying, Virginia’s conservative legislators are on the verge of putting themselves, and the power of the state, in between a pregnant woman and her doctor with a measure that would require that an ultrasound examination be performed before the abortion takes place. In six other states that have such a provision, the mother would be “offered”  a chance to see the result although not  required to do so, according to Guttmacher Institute.

Experts agree that there’s no medical reason for an ultrasound in the first trimester of a pregnancy. Rather, such a requirement is a naked psychological ploy to assault the mother with feelings of guilt and play on her emotions to not go through the procedure. Even though abortion is legal within limits, this extra requirement would be both medieval and insulting. Not to mention sexist: men don’t have to endure such state-sanctionned manipulation.

In Virginia, however, women may soon have to. By an 8-7 vote, the Republican-controlled Education and Health Committee has endorsed the ultrasound requirement and have sent it to the full Senate, which, thanks to the GOP’s refusal to share power, it is likely to pass, given the 20-20 imbalance of power and Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling holding the deciding vote. Ultrasound bills are being pushed by Sen. Jill Vogel, R-Fauquier County and Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Roanoke County.

What’s so utterly hypocritical of many conservatives is how they pick and chose their fights. Most of the time, they are lecturing us that we need to get government and its regulations away from people’s everyday lives. We need smaller government and should leave as much as possible to personal choice.

But not when it comes to one of the most painful and personal decisions a woman makes. Swollen with their moral authority, they want to be there, dressed in a blue hospital gown beside the doctor, laying on a profound guilt trip to an experience that is most times already wracked with grief. They are assuming that women (not men) are too stupid to understand what abortion is despite their right to one that is bound by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The General Assembly needs to keep its nose out of the doctors’ offices. It needs to respect the intelligence of women to make a choice that is legally theirs to make.

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Posted in Abortion, Children and families, Courts and law, Health care, Insurance, Uncategorized

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Does Vlad Have the Right Idea?

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Peter Galuszka| 10 Comments

By Peter Galuszka

As conservatives argue about cutting deficits and keeping low taxes for the rich both in Virginia and nationally, a bigger question is coming up: does Vladimir I. Lenin actually have the answer?

Sounds strange, I know, but not if you read Britain’s center-right weekly business newsweekly, The Economist. In a leader titled, “The Rise of State Capitalism,” they note that the success of state-private economies in China and Singapore, countries such as Brazil and South Africa are flirting with the idea of turning back some of their privatization work and going more with state-owned companies.

As the magazine states: “With the West in a funk and emerging markets flourishing, the Chinese no longer see state-directed firms as a way station on the way to liberal capitalism; rather, they see it as a sustainable model.”

Also underscoring the success of state-influenced economies is a recent and startling Brookings Institution report that rates 200 global urban areas for their economic performance. Shanghai leads the list, followed by cities in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India and more in China. None is an example of traditional, U.S.-style market capitalism.

Indeed, you have to go pretty far down the list, to spot 19, to find the first U.S. city, which is Houston and that’s all petroleum money. Washington is No. 134. We don’t even get to the Old Dominion until No. 159 and Virginia Beach. Richmond is a stunningly bad No. 191, beating out only comatose Sacramento among U.S. cities.

The study should be a wakeup call to Baconauts and Boomergeddons everywhere that maybe they are barking up the wrong tree. Or maybe, even worse, they are completely clueless. At Mr. Jefferson’s Capitol, legislators are playing shell games with budgets to make Mickey D. McDonnell seem like a modern, Republican governor worthy of a vice presidential run. And, we’re screwing around with public private partnerships such as the massive U.S. 460-area highway to give private biz a cut and let them toll the crap out of the rest of us for years — all in the name of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan who left the scene more than 20 years ago.

While budget hawks complain about the big bad government and public spending on such things as social services and infrastructure, their beloved model is fading into the dust bin of history. I’m no China expert, but I, like everyone, was taken aback by the  modern, efficient cities of Shanghai and
Beijing when I visited in October. Unlike the U.S., transportation was clean, efficient and hassle free.

Of course, The Economist must stay true to its OxBridge roots and come out warning that state capitalism with a big spoon of Asian Mandarin sauce might not be the best strategy for the West. But the trends are jolting and deserve a look.

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Posted in Budget, Demographics, Economic development, Economy, Finance, Infrastructure, Labor & workforce, Planning, Taxes, The Economy, Uncategorized

Good Move on Uranium

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Peter Galuszka| 2 Comments

By Peter Galuszka

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has punted on the uranium controversy and that’s a good thing, assuming the General Assembly doesn’t lift the mining ban anyway.

There are simply too many unknowns about mining the tract owned by Virginia Uranium near Chatham and the state has no knowledge or regulations about mining the highly toxic and radioactive substance.

What’s more, there are big questions about whether it is needed. Market prices are stable and while developing countries such as China and India plan many new nuclear power stations, advanced economies such as Germany are scaling them back after the Fukushima disaster in Japan last year.

McDonnell’s decision comes despite an onslaught of expensive and extensive flackery by the local people who own the farms where the uranium deposit is located and the Canadians who actually control the company. The Virginia Public Access Project reports that Virginia Uranium has paid out more than $150,000 to political candidates and has hired five powerhouse Richmond-based PR firms. It paid all expenses for a dozen legislators who unwisely made a trip to France to see an abandoned uranium mine and who were treated to the delights of Paris on the way.

Virginia Uranium says it’s just dandy that McDonnell recommends delaying lifting the moratorium and continues its campaign, including a full page ad in the Richmond newspaper with drawings showing just how safely the tailings from the mine project would be stored.

The problem is that the issue isn’t just going away. If it doesn’t, the state will have to cough up money as schools go without to come up with regs. Virginia Uranium shouldn’t pay for them — they’d be tainted. But why should the state be burdened when it has so many other things on its “to pay” list?

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Posted in Agriculture & forestry, Disaster planning, Economic development, Economy, Environment, Finance, Land use, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Regulation, Uncategorized

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Deconstructing Virginia’s Primary Ballot Fiasco

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Groveton| 2 Comments


The Disappearing Candidates:  This year’s Republican Presidential Primary has opened the proverbial can of worms in Virginia.  Two prominent candidates, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, did not qualify to get on Virginia’s Republican primary ballot.  Many voters in Virginia are upset that they will not have the chance to consider Gingrich and Perry despite the fact that these two candidates are on virtually every other primary ballot in the country (Gingrich in Missouri may be another exception).  Virginia’s voters understandably wonder why this has happened in the Old Dominion.

A small bit of digging reveals that Virginia has America’s most onerous rules for getting on a presidential primary ballot.  Not only do the candidates have to acquire 10,000 validated signatures they also need a quota of signatures from each congressional district in the state.  By comparison, the next most onerous rules belong to Indiana which requires only 4,500 signatures.

Notice how my fingers never leave my hand.  There has been something of a backlash from both conservatives and liberals against this seeming incongruity in Virginia’s election laws.  Over at Black Velvet Bruce Li, conservative blogger Greg Letiecq wonders why there are only two candidates on the Republican primary ballot.  Meanwhile, at Blue Virginia, the spotlight is turned on to some questionable actions by Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling in this mess.

The reaction of our elected officials in Richmond has been more bizarre than usual (which is saying something).  Democratic State Senator Chap Petersen flip-flops in a recent blog post but ultimately concludes that, “Either way, the system is legitimate and weeds out the un-serious candidates.”  Del.Jackson Miller has taken to the comment sections of local blogs to add his support of the process citing numerous candidates from the past who have gotten on the ballot. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli first sought to overturn the ruling but then decided to accept it.  One imagines that John Kerry is sitting somewhere thinking of Ken Cuccinelli and smiling.

The question that seems to be universally missed is why we have this odd, outlier of a process in the first place. Why is Virginia, by leaps and bounds, the most difficult state on which to join a primary ballot?

How much is that Romney in the window?  The answer, as usual, comes from the willingness of our state legislature and other so-called elites in Richmond to sell out the citizens of Virginia in the furtherance of their personal political ambitions.

The primary season is a time where there is a new front-runner almost every day, leading candidates drop out when their libidos are proven to outweigh their common sense and money is “here today, gone tomorrow.”  Against this backdrop, a candidate facing an onerous state process must decide whether to establish his or her own organization in that state or go “hat in hand” to the establishment politicians and ask for help.  Virginia’s absurdly difficult primary ballot process is designed to send national politicians to Richmond to grovel for organizational support in getting on the ballot.  The kingmakers in Richmond are only too happy to sell out their constituents’ right to choose in order to further their personal political careers with politicians who just might become the next President of the United States.  The only cost is the right of Virginia voters to chose their own candidate for president.  And, in the minds of Richmond’s elite, that is a small cost indeed.

The new ambassador to North Korea.  One day in the future, a formerly prominent Virginia state politician will have lost a major election or timed out on a term limit.  That politician will be on the outside looking in.  Yet, lo and behold, that same pol will end up being appointed as an ambassador to some far off land or under secretary of some obscure federal department.  Who knows, he may even end up as the chairman of the national party or the candidate for Vice President of the United States.

And all it cost was your right to choose who you want to be on the ballot for President of the United States.

Is Area 51 in Virginia?  Am I a conspiracy theorist?  Is there some innocent explanation as to why Virginia is an outlier in the matter of primary balloting? Perhaps.  However, I have yet to hear a single member of our “ruling class” explain the benefits of being an outlier to the citizens of Virginia. But, if one of our “masters” in Richmond cares to comment, I’d also like to better understand the prohibition against write-in votes and the loyalty oath.

– DJ Rippert.

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Posted in 2012, Federal, Governance reform, Politics, Uncategorized

Virginia: Mother of Bad Ideas

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Peter Galuszka| 20 Comments

By Peter Galuszka

The Mother of Presidents is back at it again.

Through some legal quirk — typical for the Old Dominion — only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be on the ballot for the March 6 Republican primary. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry did not meet the state’s onerous requirement for 10,000 petition signatures including 400 from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts to get on the ballot.

Readers know that I am not generally sympathetic to Republican causes, but what’s happened to Gingrich and Perry is downright idiotic. Virginia is the only state that has such tough primary qualification rules. Indiana is the next strictest, which requires only 4,500 signatures.

Consider some of Virginia’s other strange laws and requirements. We are the only state in the nation that limits its governor to one term, meaning that Virginia only gets maybe three years max work out of a governor’s four-year term. By Year Three, the politician’s mind is already focused on what’s next.

During the Jim Crow era, Virginia was a legislative leader in racism. That wasn’t unusual for the South but the racism seemed to linger very long. Until it was struck down in the late 1960s, a state law made it a felony for a white person to marry an African-American so as to preserve racial purity.

Other bad ideas abound. Luckily, some don’t get to law. One absurd proposal a few years ago would have regulated how low someone could wear his or her pants and how much underwear could be displayed. Legislator Terry Kilgore is the master of strange-O laws. He’s proposed, for instance, tax breaks for people who have their cremated remains blasted into outer space from a commercial spaceport on Wallops Island.

The political nonsense continues with another oddity. Voters participating in the Republican primary are supposed to sign a “loyalty oath” that they will vote for whomever ends up running as the Republican presidential candidate. Wasn’t Virginia supposed to have been the Mother of the Bill of Rights? Besides being unconstitutional, the idea is also downright dumb. How can they enforce it?

Atty. Gen Kenneth Cuccinelli, who is running for governor in 2013 against the plans of the ruling state Republican Politburo, at first said he would try emergency legislative proposals to untie the mess. Then, however, he went along with the GOP Establishment and said that changing laws midstream would somehow be unfair to Romney and Paul. Go figure.

Legislative idiocy has been part of the state’s make-up for far too long. They make Virginians seem like Cooter of the Dukes of Hazzard. With all the state has going for it, one wonders why this nonsense just doesn’t go away.

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Posted in Courts and law, Electoral process, Politics, Regulation, Uncategorized

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HB19: Fly (What’s Left of) Me to the Moon

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Groveton| 5 Comments


2012: A space oddity.  I have long commented on the bizarre nature of Virginia’s General Assembly.  The annual General Assembly session in Richmond usually creates a sense of frustration and dismay among us voters.  In addition, it always provides ample material for comedy.  This year is no exception as Terry Kilgore (R – Scott County) has pre-filed legislation which would allow an individual income tax deduction for those opting to launch their cremated remains into orbit.  I am not making this up.  The bill can be found here.

Ground control to Major Terry.  Del. Kilgore’s proposed legislation would provide an $8,000 personal income tax exemption for those who elect to have their cremated remains launched into either Earth or lunar orbit.  And here’s the good news – you don’t actually have to die to get the deduction.  You just have to sign a contract with a Virginia spaceport to have your remains blasted into the cosmos.

Corporate welfare vs. corpse welfare.  Presumably, Del. Kilgore wants to drive a nail into the coffin of those who say that Virginia is not a modern society. He wants to kill the idea that Wallops Island is a lesser space base than Cape Canaveral.  Ashes to ashes, deduction to deduction.  You have to be as dead as Terry Kilgore’s political career to get into space with this proposed legislation.

Low budget cosmonaut.  I know what you are thinking, “A tax deduction is all well and good but how much will it cost to actually launch my cremated butt into orbit?”   A company named Celestis is already slinging people’s particles into the firmament.  Their price list allows for a final road trip at the affordable cost of between $2,995 and $12,500.  The higher price allows for the extra costs of launching into “deep space”.  For anybody considering this, please make it a point to wave to Terry Kilgore when you actually arrive in deep space.

Thinking outside the urn.  Terry Kilgore might be on to something here. Start with space ashes but then move to living people.  Pop them into a rocket and sell space sight-seeing tours.  Go into orbit and look down at the traffic chaos in Virginia caused by the General Assembly.  Virginia’s space port could even offer volume discounts for groups.  I wonder what Wallops Island would charge the taxpayers of Virginia for 140 one way seats into deep space?

Hat tip.  Greg Letiecq at Black Velvet Bruce Li.

By … Groveton

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Posted in Economic development, Entitlements, Politics, Technology, Transportation, Uncategorized

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Is Cuccinelli already “Pulling a Kaine”?

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Groveton| 10 Comments

Putting robodialers on hold.  The United States Congress is considering substantial changes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Passed in 1991, the TCPA provides many protections to consumers regarding the use of automated dialing systems, prerecorded voice messages, SMS messages and unsolicited faxes.  Many will remember with relief the day that the Act’s “Do Not Call” list was implemented.  It was one of those glorious moments when our government seemed to work.  The day before the DNC list, you were bombarded by people calling to get you to change long distance companies.  The day after the list … blissful silence.  Needless to say, anything government does right, it will undo.

Warning, Will Robinson!  The U.S. Congress is trying to cave in to the people who would take us back to the days of autodialers and unsolicited solicitations.  HR3035, with the sickly sweet title, “Mobile Information Act of 2011″  turns back the clock 20 years or so.  First, it narrows the definition of “automatic telephone number dialing system.”  In fact, it narrows the definition to old approaches rarely used today.  Many of today’s more sophisticated targeted dialers are excluded from regulation by this legislative trickery. Second, it grants consent for unsolicited calls each and every time you give your cell phone number to anybody.  Verbally or in writing, it matters not.  Give your cell phone number to a customer service rep?  You are now available for a lifetime of automated harassment.  Finally, the act “pretends to protect” by banning automated calls to cell phones, “unless the call is made for a commercial purpose that does not constitute a telephone solicitation.”  Your warranty expired.  It’s about to expire.  We’re just verifying your address.  There are many ways to advertise without being solicitous and the robots will use them all.

Cooch’s line goes dead.  This bill is so bad that it has actually united American politicians across the political divide.  The Attorneys General from 48 states and 6 U.S. territories signed a letter to Congress demanding that the bill be rejected.  48 states!  Now, which two states do you think missed the bus? Virginia and Nebraska.  You can read the letter here.  I have looked in the usual Internet spots for any commentary from Ken Cuccinelli as to why he declined to sign a letter that 48 out of 50 U..S Attorneys General signed.  Nothing.  Silence. If anybody knows of Mr. Cuccinelli’s thinking on this matter, please let me know.  Perhaps he’s providing this silence as solace for the day when our cell phones will start ringing off the hook.  Or, maybe he’s just asleep at the switch.

Pulling a Kaine.  Tim Kaine famously went AWOL from his job as Virginia’s governor in the midst of a paralyzing recession.  Gov. Kaine got a new job as the head of the Democratic National Committee while still governor.  He hit the road in Gulfstreams and Lear jets to keep America safe for Democrats.  It appears that AG Cuccinelli is doing the same thing.  Too busy popping off about Rail to Dulles to bother with the mundane tasks of the office to which he was elected.  Too busy running for governor to either join the AGs of 48 other states or declare why Virginians should relish the return of the robocallers.  At least Tim Kaine had the decency to wait until he was within eyesight of the end of his term.  Cooch is AWOL at just about the half way point.

By … Groveton

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Posted in 2011, Consumer protection, Courts and law, Federal, Politics, Uncategorized

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Almost Heaven — Western Virginia

Posted on November 17, 2011 by James A. Bacon| 2 Comments

Wahoos lament! According to Business Week, the best place to raise kids is… Blacksburg, Va.

Between the Alleghany Mountains and the Blue Ridge, Blacksburg is an upscale college town that is home to Virginia Tech. The area is known for education and lays claim to seven great public schools for the younger students.

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Posted in 2011, Uncategorized

What’s McDonnell Up To With Transportation?

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Peter Galuszka| 6 Comments

By Peter Galuszka

The McDonnell Administration is  taking a chain saw to policies that promote smarter, more efficient growth by axing  reforms to make neighborhoods connected and pushing design contracts that fast-track road construction and discourage public input.

Such are the conclusions drawn from two blog postings by David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington and Jim Bacon, publisher of this blog.

They detail how Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton are throttling reform-minded policies that recently put Virginia at the forefront of good planning. They are using the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB),  a 17-member panel appointed by the governor, as the spearhead to push their ideas on how subdivisions and roads should be built.

According to the Alpert blog, the CTB recently got rid of policies enacted in 2009 that would encourage to build new subdivisions that connect easily to secondary and primary roads. Up until then, planning in Virginia was of the usual 1950s model that erected countless cul de sacs without only a few roads outside the development.

The result forced people into a lifestyle dominated by automobiles that wasted time and gasoline as residents traveled to shop or work and caused more trouble for emergency workers such as police, fire or ambulance drivers trying to respond to a crisis.

Under former Gov. Tim Kaine, the CTB changed the rules in a way that put Virginia ahead of other states in planning concepts by adopting the connectivity policy. The CTB under McDonnell and Connaughton recently dumped the 2009 reforms. Why? My guess is to boost the interests of developers since McDonnell wants to be identified as “pro-business.”

The Bacon post is an investigative look at the controversial bypass of U.S. 29 in Charlottesville. His work was funded in part by the Piedmont Environmental Council but they did not edit the article. Bypass proposals have been contentious because they would tend to exacerbate traffic congestion on what is already the most crowded road in the university city. Business interests, notably manufacturers in cities such as Lynchburg and Danville, want the bypass to improve truck deliveries.

Connaughton’s goal is hastening development of the bypass. So, he pushed a “design-build” contract that is opposed to the way the state usually does construction project. In “design-build,” the contractor is also the designer and designs parts of the project as works goes along. The practice was once considered unethical by professional associations but it is has become widely adopted throughout the country. It can save money and quicken a project’s completion, but it can also lead to overruns and tends to limit public say about how a project looks.

The CTB bought the “design build” idea for the bypass, but according to the Bacon report, Connaughton did not mention that engineers at his own Department of Transportation had serious doubts about the $244 million cost estimates, believing they would run much higher. Their concerns were not reflected in information given to the board which approved the project.

The two excellent blog postings raise serious questions about exactly what McDonnell and Connaughton are doing. The state has just raised billions on the bond market for highway construction and is floating ideas for public-private roads such as a replacement for U.S. 460 in southeastern Virginia.

Connaughton is steamrolling the U.S. 460 highway just as he is on the U.S. 29 bypass. His concept took a hit recently when The Virginian-Pilot reported that a group of Tidewater politicians and business executives lobbied Connaughton to slow down on the road from Suffolk to Petersburg in favor of a third crossing in Hampton Roads, which they believe will do more to alleviate the water-locked region’s notorious congestion. Conaughton responded that the third crossing will cost twice as much as his pet road. There are problems with either plan. A third crossing would only dump traffic on clogged Interstate 64. Replacing U.S. 460 would create more exurban sprawl west of Suffolk, which has been the state’s fastest-growing city.

Playing it both ways as free-spenders and cost cutters, McDonnell and Connaughton are refusing to provide funding for the D.C. Metro Silver Line Phase II project which would help alleviate traffic congestion. And, Connaughton has shown his bare-knuckles management style by firing nearly the entire board of the Virginia Ports Authority in one quick putsch.

McDonnell, however, doesn’t have that much time in office left. What’s behind all of this?

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Posted in 2011, Budget, Economic development, Economy, Energy, Environment, Finance, Infrastructure, Land use, Taxes, Transportation, Uncategorized

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Richmond, VA: Startup South

Posted on October 24, 2011 by James A. Bacon| 5 Comments
Tobacco Row

Well, blow me away. Alex Madrigal, senior editor at the Atlantic, is touting Richmond as a regional center of innovation. “Richmond is blossoming into a tech hub thanks to a great research university, a big creative agency, and cheap, beautiful real estate,” reads the sub-head of the first in a series of articles.

The quality of life is high, real estate prices are reasonable and “the stock of homes is beautiful.” He credits Virginia Commonwealth University and the Martin Agency as being critical nodes in the innovation system. (I would add Capital One, which has recruited many talented people to the region, many of whom leave and start their own enterprises.)

Madrigal seems taken with the wealth of great urban neighborhoods and the old industrial buildings renovated into apartments, offices and cool start-up space. I eagerly await his upcoming posts.

– JAB

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