Bacon's Rebellion

Step aside, Virginia Tech, there’s a new top dog in the Virginia supercomputing space: the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The “Jefferson Lab,” as it’s known for short, has issued a press release boasting that it now lays claim to the fastest supercomputer in Virginia — and the 95th fastest in the world. Several years ago, Virginia Tech had won brief acclaim as home to the fastest supercomputer in the world. The honorific evidently doesn’t last very long, as universities and research institutions leapfrog each other with great regularity.

I guess not. Here’s the latest: Citing the budget shortfall (yeah, right) Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has cut $275,000 in state matching funds for for abstinence-only sex education programs. Quotes the Washington Post:

“The governor supports abstinence-based education, but the governor wants to see us funding programs that are evidenced-based,” said Skinner, who added that Virginia will now offer “more comprehensive” sex education.

Predictably, conservative legislators are working themselves into a state.

Meanwhile, oil shoots past $90 a barrel, Virginia continues to pour money into a transportation system designed for cheap fuel, schools continue to fail Virginia children, college tuitions continue to soar — as do salaries for college presidents (up 37 percent over five years for private institutions), health care costs are out of control, the dollar is plunging, the sub-prime mortgage debacle gets worse, and nuclear-armed Pakistan is descending into chaos.

The world seems so out of control, and the big problems seem so intractable, that I guess it’s only human nature to fixate on the little problems they have some influence over.

Gooze Views
Peter Galuszka

The devil is certainly in the details. One week ago, I wrote an opinion piece, questioning the figures used in a report by Chesterfield County trying to justify a claim that the county spent more than $2.1 million annually on illegal aliens. The report is a run-up to a hearing Nov. 14 on illegal immigration and whether the county should crack down. Curiously, the report gave no estimate of how many illegal aliens are actually in Chesterfield – the sine qua non for estimating costs on county services.

The report bugged me and a lot of others. Not only did my column generate more than four dozen responses, I got a call from Deputy County Administrator Rebecca Dickson (whose name I had badly misspelled). The county had directed me to her for more detailed explanation of where data in the Aug. 16 report by County Administrator James J.L. Steigmaier came from. I had tried and failed to reach Ms. Dickson, who now wanted to set me straight.

Before getting into specifics, let me say that Ms. Dickson is obviously a public servant trying to do a tough job fairly. She impressed upon me that the county staff is well aware of how racially loaded the issue of illegal immigration is. Counties such as Prince William have adopted strident anti “illegal” measures, but the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors (just shaken up in elections) hasn’t done anything yet.

After reviewing her explanation and tapping other sources, nonetheless, I have come to a few conclusions. First, Chesterfield’s figures are too suspect to justify any kind of crackdown at all. The grand harrumph about illegals is based on bad data, guesses and lots of anecdotes. The more I studied the Chesterfield report and did my own research, I came up with figures and views completely opposite or certainly nowhere as profound.

But that doesn’t solve the massive problems in Stegmaier’s report. For starters, officials in Chesterfield, population about 300,000, estimate that from 17,500 to 21,000 illegal aliens – all of them Hispanics — live in the county. This revelation came during an interview with Dickson and has never been made public, perhaps because the estimate is so flimsy.

The number is important because it is the basis of the $2.1 million cost estimate of the County’s total budget of $336 million. Ms. Dickson says that the cost numbers hold despite the uncertainty as to the total numbers of illegal aliens. To me, that defies logic.

In coming up with its alien guess, the County looked only at Hispanics and no other immigrant group. (Racial profiling, anyone?) The latest 2000 U.S. Census reported that 15,000 county residents checked the box “Hispanic” beside their names. Mind you, these people could be here legally or illegally. All they did was check a box on a chart. To this, Chesterfield officials add another 10,000 to 15,000 Hispanics. This was the brainchild of a “Hispanic cross functional team” that worked in the county two or three years ago, Dickson says. So, we are up to levels of 25,000 to 30,000 of Hispanics who are in the county legally or illegally, by the County’s count.

How do we know how many are here illegally? In Chesterfield, we guess and we come up with a whopping 70 percent, equating to about 17,500 to 20,000 illegals in all. Why 70 percent? According to Ms. Dickson: “Essentially this (aforementioned) team, indicated that anecdotally, they believed that about 70 percent of the Hispanic population was here illegally. That is how we got 70 percent.” The County did a second estimate based on massaging census figures another way and got a lower illegal population of 13,150.

“Ridiculous” is the reaction of Communication Director Jesus Moreno of the Falls Church-based advocacy group, The Hispanic Committee of Virginia. Moreno’s group uses figures from the nationally known Pew Research outfit, which estimates that of the 40 million Hispanics in the U.S., from 10 to 11 million are undocumented. If that ratio is common everywhere, then Chesterfield’s population of illegal Hispanics, assuming the totals are correct, is more like 4,000, or about one fifth of Chesterfield’s guess. Says Moreno: “I guess they knocked on the doors of 10 Hispanics and figured that seven people were illegal.”

To back the county’s methodology, Ms. Dickson directed me to a report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, which does studies for the General Assembly. In 2004, JLARC published a report on how “foreign-born” Virginians were faring. “Foreign born” could mean illegal but also could mean naturalized U.S. citizens or ones here with proper documents.

When I checked the report, I couldn’t find much to back Chesterfield’s estimates. In fact, I found just the opposite.

While the number of foreign-born residents increased statewide 83 percent from 1990 to 2000, the total amounted to about 570,279 or a small fraction of the total state population. Most, 41.3 percent, were from Asia with 33.3 percent from Latin America. This is interesting because Chesterfield chose only to study Hispanics, not Koreans, Indians, or Chinese for potential illegal status. And, the JLARC report cited only about 13,523 “foreign born” – legal or illegal of all backgrounds — residents in Chesterfield, which is hard to square with Dickson’s numbers. Even the county’s illegal Hispanic figures are way higher than these. However, from 1990 to 2000, Chesterfield’s “foreign-born” population did double.

To be sure, I called Phil Leone, executive director of JLARC. His group’s 2004 report could not find much negative impact from foreign born Virginians and noted that the report didn’t specifically look at illegals. “There wasn’t a great demand on services,” he said. Rather, he said, “the foreign born contribute immensely to the state economy.” Told of Chesterfield’s estimates of illegal Hispanics, he said, “They didn’t get that from our report. They may have read our report and made their own assumptions.”

Indeed, assumptions are not facts, but they sure play a role in politics. The illegal alien invasion has been an ugly rallying cry by state Republicans as they tried to make up for various failings in the Nov. 6 election. They were only partly successful, losing the Senate to the Democrats. In Northern Virginia, a key battleground, the GOP’s tactic may have worked in outer suburbs of Loudoun and Prince William, but failed in the inner suburbs of Arlington and Fairfax, which are much more diverse and have larger immigrant populations, The Washington Post notes.

Chesterfield is an outer, Republican suburb like Loudoun where many residents in the white majority are not used to diversity. Some are quick to scream “illegal” when confronted with non-English speaking, dark-skinned people.

Unfortunately, come the Nov. 14 hearing, many will probably vent their fears and their ignorance as they have been primed to do by their local GOP leaders. Fanning the flames will be Chesterfield’s badly flawed report. No doubt it will be cited as the Gospel truth by other Virginia localities as they form vigilante squads to fight the supposed alien invasion.

— November 12, 2007

The White Man’s Burden

Some estimated Chesterfield expenses for illegal immigrants:

— Juvenile Court. $3,048 annually handling an estimated 5 Juvenile Court. $3,048 annually handling an estimated 5 cent of all cases that involve illegal immigrant

— Circuit Court. $16,935 annually handling about 80 hours per week handling illegal immigrant cases.

— General District Court: 20 to 25 cases per week involving illegal immigrants totaling $64,300 annually, plus Spanish language services.

— $230,00 annually handling an average of six illegal immigrants in jail. Daily jail population can reach 400.

Data: Chesterfield County.

Peter Galuszka is a veteran journalist living in Chesterfield County.

(Photo credit: Maria Galuszka.)

© Copyright 2007 Bacon’s Rebellion. All rights reserved.

Once again, Virginia descends into intellectual anarchy as Bacon’s Rebellion roils the conventional wisdom and savages complacent assumptions. You can view the latest edition of the e-zine in its original format here and subscribe to the free e-mail here.

Or, if you’re too timid — too devoted to the comfortable, unexamined truths that guide your complacent life — to engage in the insurrectionary act of subscribing to the Rebellion, you can peruse our offering of opinions below:

Hidden Advantage
Flexible labor markets are Virginia’s unappreciated competitive edge. They speed the redeployment of workers from low value-added businesses to high-performance enterprises.
by James A. Bacon

Blow Against the Wind?
The political pros know that running with the numbers is better than running with the issues.
by Doug Koelemay

One More? Two More?
How many more years of political fraud must we endure? Here are some proposals to make the political system more responsive to the needs of a 21st-century polity.
by EM Risse

It Was Closer Than It Looked
The Democrats are crowing after their triumph over General Assembly Republicans. But their margin of victory was a lot closer than the newspaper headlines let on.
by Michael Thompson

Truth in Packaging
The CW says Republicans lost General Assembly seats last week because their candidates were too conservative. But look closely: “Moderates” were evicted, while those who stuck to their principles survived.
by Norm Leahy

The 70 percent solution
Virginians look to local government for solid data on issues like illegal immigration. But there is no evidence supporting Chesterfield County’s estimate that seven of 10 Hispanics in the county are there illegally.
by Peter Galuszka

If He Wasn’t Whining, Would We Notice Him At All?
Tom Davis is living proof that the “big tent” strategy is a loser for Republicans if it means conservatives are filing out the back door.
by John Taylor

Nice & Curious Questions
Weigh Stations in Virginia: Or How Heavy is That 18-Wheeler?
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

Here is the flier that set emotions aflame at Mary Washington University, according to anonymous comments on my previous post on this topic, “More Racism on Campus. What Am I Missing Here?”

The photograph captures a moment after the 2000 Michigan State University basketball team, showing a jubilant coach Tom Izzo embracing an emotional Mateen Cleaves after winning the NCAA championship. Cleaves was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four for his brilliant play. (I know nothing of such matters. If anyone has better information, please correct me.)

The photograph appears to be undoctored. (You can see a copy of it here on the viewimages.com website. And you can view a video here, the final scene of which shows Izzo and a crying Cleaves from a different angle.) Therefore, there shouldn’t be anything offensive or intolerant about the photograph itself. The outcry at Mary Washington, then, must have stemmed from the words used in conjunction with the photograph. What, then, do the words mean?

I interpret the words as drawing an analogy between college/professional sports and the institution of slavery. In the context of the photograph, “Slavery Reinstated” clearly suggests that the institution of slavery has been put back into effect in big money sports. The meaning of “Catch yourself a strong one” is more opaque. By a “strong one,” the author might be referring to a strong athlete/slave. By “catch,” the author might be referring to the act of enslavement.

While equating highly honored and compensated black athletes with slaves seems a stretch to me, politically “progressive” writers have made that very argument. In his book “Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete,” New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden “offers a charged assessment of the state of black athletes in America, using the pervasive metaphor of the plantation to describe a modern sports industry defined by white ownership and black labor,” according to Publishers Weekly.

Likewise, in “The Slave Side of Sunday,” former NFL player Anthony Prior examines the legacy of racism in professional sports. “We are not looked at as leaders, rather, just a labor force where the money is generated,” he writes. “Plantation capitalism is still alive today.”

So, once again, I raise the question, “Where’s the racism? Where’s the intolerance?” The white student who posted the flier appeared to be making a political statement — expressing a “progressive” political sensitivity that has been converted into books by major publishers, has been reviewed in the Mainstream Media and reflects the views of a number of African-Americans.

Am I missing something here?

As part of the ongoing dialogue on Bacon’s Rebellion about illegal immigration, I am perfectly willing to highlight facts and incidents that don’t conform to my “narrative” of the controversy. In past posts and comments, I have objected to those who stereotype the foes of illegal immigration (including myself, on occasion) as motivated by racial/ethnic prejudice, a tactic that I regard as a way to shut down the debate without even discussing the issues. I have asked commentators to show concrete examples of racist or prejudicial behavior, not simply assert it on the basis that the contras (if I’m allowed to use a Spanish word for an Anglo group) are white, middle-class suburbanites. If such behavior could be documented, I promised, I would condemn it.

In that spirit, I now bring to the attention of Bacon’s Rebellion readers an example of what may be indefensible behavior: intimidation of Hispanics, whom we have no reason to assume are not citizens, at the voting booth. Here’s what the Manassas Journal-Messenger reports this morning:

State police are investigating possible voter intimidation of some Hispanic residents that occurred outside a polling place in Gainesville.

Prince William County Registrar Betty Weimer said members of a group outside Stonewall Middle School were threatening to call the police Tuesday on Hispanics entering the polling place.

“There was a group of people out there with a camera yelling at our Hispanic voters that if they were illegal, they were going to be deported,” Weimer said.

In a separate incident, protesters allegedly objected to being given English-language assistance at the voting booth. It is important to remember, of course, that these cases are under investigation, and there are two sides to every story. There is no guarantee the incidents panned out as reported. However, if this report is accurate, the behavior is indefensible. Hispanic citizens have the same rights as every American, and that includes the right to vote free of intimidation. If the story is accurate, Prince William County needs to protect the rights of its Hispanic citizens.

Furthermore, anti-illegal activists should understand that they’re doing their cause no favors. The phenomenon of illegal immigration raises legitimate issues, but it doesn’t help anyone to create an environment of fear. Stereotyping Hispanics on the presumption that they might be illegal only gives ammunition to those who would sweep the illegal-immigration issue under the rug. Stick to the facts, guys. Obey the law. Don’t confirm your foes’ worst suspicions. I, for one, am not going to cover for you.

In an exciting convention battle with more than 1,000 participants, Del. Rob Wittman, a first-term lawmaker from the Northern Neck, won the Republican nomination to fill the congressional seat of the late Rep. Jo Ann Davis of Gloucester. Wittman, a state employee for the Division of Shellfish Sanitation, touted his experience in local government. He emerged as the winner of a free-for-all between 11 contenders, including Bacon’s Rebellion columnist James Bowden.

In the early stages of the convention, conservative Newport News businessman Paul Jost was deemed to have the edge. But his support eroded, and the momentum shifted to Wittman. Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Middlesex, told the Daily Press that there was a widespread concern that Jost was too conservative.”We’ve lost a number of elections because the candidates were too far to the right,” he said. “The forces that won here were the forces of moderation.”

Secular humanists can rest easy. Democracy is safe. Jim Bowden won’t have a chance to impose a theocracy on America after all. (To learn more about the Bowden menace, read the comments in “Jim Bowden: Not a Candidate for the Baby Kissers.”)

The latest uproar over racism in Virginia is taking place at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg. There has been a huge outcry over the following:

On Oct. 15, a freshman posted a flier, downloaded from the Internet, on the refrigerator of a dormitory lounge. As reported by the Free Lance-Star, the flier pictured a sobbing black basketball player with his white coach and reads, “Slavery reinstated: Catch yourself a strong one.”

I have a question: What does that mean? I can’t tell. The Free Lance-Star, the Times-Dispatch, NBC news and the college newspaper, The Bullet, all have reported on the incident but none have reproduced the image. Therefore, we lack crucial context in interpreting the flier. Supposedly, some white students found it funny. If there’s a joke, I don’t get it. If anything, it would seem that the flier is equating the status of black athletes with slaves. That’s a comparison that socially progressive sports writers have trotted out from time to time. But it’s just not clear. The words could mean something else entirely.

For the life of me, though, I can’t see anything that is self-evidently racist. I’ve been accused of being unable to see racism — when confronted with the bald facts, I hold my hands over my ears and loudly say, la la la la la la, I can’t hear you! Evidently, I am clueless once again, and I ask Bacon’s Rebellion readers to help me out.

Apparently, acting college president Rick Hurley had no trouble spotting the racism. The trouble began when MWU housekeepers encountered the flier and filed a complaint. Hurley was reported to be “livid” when he first heard about it. His reaction: “I wanted to see [the students responsible] thrown off campus. I don’t think they belong here,” he was quoted as saying in The Bullet. “It’s one of the ugliest, most awful things I’ve ever seen. I got choked up just looking at it.”

That’s strong language. Maybe the artwork in the flier appealed to derogatory racial stereotypes. If so, I don’t blame Hurley for getting upset. But if that’s the case, it hasn’t been reported. The news accounts are frustrating because nobody says exactly what they found offensive. They’re just offended, end of story. There have been rallies. Sensitivity forums are being organized. Professors are discussing the incident in classrooms. UMW has even upped its police presence in the dormitory where the flier was found.

One student associated with the flier has apologized for his “racial insensitivity” as well as conduct that he said was “uncalled for and completely out of line.” But that apparently isn’t the end of it. Reports NBC news: “The student who posted it is being charged with violating university policies and will be subject to possible disciplinary action by the campus judicial system.”

In a separate story, the Free Lance-Star interviewed Hurley:

The poster violates the school’s values, but it’s unclear when “you ask how you prosecute for violations of those values,” [Hurley] said in a telephone interview. Hurley will appoint a task force to make sure the rules are “as comprehensive as necessary to prosecute offenders to the extent legally possible when incidents occur.”

Also, he’s asking an advisory council to immediately form a university policy on how to deal with “bias-related” incidents. Some wondered why the administration didn’t react more decisively to the news.

He wouldn’t say whether the school’s current policies will hinder its prosecution of the student, whom he didn’t name. But he did say that the university must keep First Amendment rights in mind.

Well, that’s reassuring. Offenders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent legally possible for violating “community values,” but at least their “First Amendment rights” will be protected. When the administration does file charges, I hope it will at least specify how the flier offended community values. Otherwise, we’ll all just have to guess.

Unless I’m missing something — and I’m open to the possibility I am, given the incomplete description of the offending flier — my guess is that many white students will learn the wrong lesson: They’ll conclude that the whole notion of “tolerance” on campus is a joke, that certain views and actions are to be tolerated but others are not. I suspect that many will sullenly submit to the PC thought police, keep their opinions about race to themselves, and refuse to engage in the kind of healthy, open dialogue we need if we’re ever to achieve racial conciliation and understanding in this country.

Here’s how I tell if a music CD is any good. I pop it in the computer and listen to it as background music while I work. If I like a song, I’ll play it over. If the tunes leave me with a good feeling, I’ll play the whole album over. If some of the chords stick in my head, I know I’ve got a keeper. That’s what happened when I played “Cold Harbor,” a CD recently recorded by a local Richmond band, Schnitzel.

I’ve revolted against the least-common-denominator music packaged and hyped by the big record labels. I’m a big believer in supporting local artists, many of whom are just as talented as the musicians who get national air time. Once upon a time, you had to be young, hang out at nightclubs and stay up late to hear the local bands. Nowadays, you can find them online and order their CDs, many of which have remarkably good production values.

I have no idea whether Jim O’Brien, the band’s lead vocalist, guitarist and writer of most of its songs, has a shot of breaking into the big time. All I know is that I enjoyed listening to his lyrics, which are rooted in the Richmond area, and his clean, simple melodies, which linger in the memory. Schnitzel’s music wanders somewhere between rock and folk. If you’re looking for a fresh, easy-listening sound, then try Schnitzel. If you’re over 40, trust me, you’ll enjoy it more than 95 percent of what you hear on the radio.

Check out Schnitzel’s audio clips at CDBaby. If you have time for only one clip, I’d recommend “Truck Bedliner” or “Caroline.” (click link to play).

Bacon’s Rebellion columnist Jim Bowden is engaged in an eleven-way race for the Republic nomination to fill the House of Representatives seat left vacant upon the passing of Jo Ann Davis. Bacon’s Rebellion does not endorse candidates for office, but it would be churlish of us not to highlight the high-profile political activities of our contributors.

Love him or hate him, Bowden is truly a policy wonk’s candidate for office. Check out his campaign website. It’s loaded with content, outlining Bowden’s take on just about every issue under the sun. No vapid photos of him kissing babies, reading to school children or walking old ladies across the street. Especially helpful are the short video clips highlighting his spin on hot button issues from taxes and healthcare to illegal Immigration and what he calls World War IV.

Clearly, Bowden, who defines himself as a defense, fiscal and social conservative, does not shy away from controversial positions. No namby-pamby middle-of-the-roadism here. After this week’s chastening of the GOP in the General Assembly elections, it will be interesting to see what kind of candidate the Republican party activists nominate in tomorrow’s convention to run against the Dems.

Photovoltaic solar cells capture the public imagination as a renewable energy source for homeowners, but nothing beats geothermal heating/cooling for proven efficiency and reliability. My dad installed a geothermal system when he built a house in Norfolk some two decades ago. As far as I know, it has worked trouble-free all those years, quietly racking up savings on his heating and air conditioning bills.

Geothermal units function as heat pumps: They run water through underground tubes, absorb the constant 57- to 58-degree temperature found underground, recirculate the water into the house, and exchange the heat again. Although circulating the water does requires electricity, the system is three to four times more cost-effective than electric resistance heat.

From an electric-grid perspective, geothermal offers advantages over solar. Solar generates electricity intermittently — during the daytime only, and when clouds aren’t blocking the sun. When homeowners are generating more electricity than they need, they can sell it into the electric grid. The inherent unpredictability poses problems for power companies whose job it is to manage a stable grid. That’s why Dominion and other electric utilities want to restrict the contribution of solar energy to one percent of system capacity.

By contrast, geothermal is totally predictable. It runs evenly round the clock, and by its nature, it makes the biggest contribution when outdoor temperatures — and the demands on the electric grid — are at their extremes of heat and cold. Geothermal systems create a more stable and easily managed grid.

Geothermal isn’t high-tech, cool or glamorous in any way. You don’t even know it’s there. Which is another one of its selling points — geothermal systems are unobtrusive. They don’t violate homeowner covenants for unsightliness. The neighbors won’t complain. As Virginia investigates strategies to promote conservation and renewable fuels, it should take a good, hard look at geothermal.

As a practical matter, what can Virginia do?

1. Work out electric billing rates that reward homeowners for reducing peak electric loads. Right now, power companies charge the same for every kilowatt hour, regardless of the time of day. Charging higher rates during periods of peak load and lower rates for off-peak consumption will provide a strong financial incentive for homeowners to invest in systems, like geothermal, that moderate system demand.
2. Get some clarity, reflected in local ordinances, on when less expensive “open loop” systems are permissible. Clarke County recently denied a homeowner request to install an open loop system, which draws water from one well and discharges it into another, on the grounds that “they use more water and cause what they called ‘ponding and excessive runoff’ when no body of water was available to receive discharge,” reports the Clarke Times-Courier.

Here’s what not to do: Give homeowners a tax credit for installing the systems, as the state has already done with energy-efficient appliances. The state tax code already looks like it’s been peppered with buckshot. Tax credits of various kinds cost the state well over $1 billion a year in lost income tax revenue alone. The goal of public policy should not be to encourage geothermal regardless of the cost — it should be to encourage geothermal where it makes rational economic sense. The best way to do that is to create a rational tariff for electricity consumption and to clear away encumbrances from local ordinances.

(Image credit: Renewable Energy UK.)