Bacon's Rebellion

Jerry Kilgore has opened up a can of worms, accusing the “liberal press” of “defending a liberal soulmate” — Democrat Tim Kaine — from criticism of his opposition to the death penalty. (See Jeff Schapiro’s article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.)

I have two reactions. First, so what else is new? Second, that’s the way it is, quit whining and get over it.

Of course the Mainstream Media is biased. The only people who can’t see it are those who share the same mental framework for viewing the world as the journalists themselves. To liberals, reportorial coverage just looks normal. The rest of us can see the bias plainly. How do we know? Because we live in daily stupefaction at the spin put on the nightly news and front pages of the leading newspapers. We know there’s bias because we know that we’d write the same stories very differently, ignore stories that get replayed incessantly, and give greater weight to stories that the MSM doesn’t bother to cover.

The fact of bias in the national media is so blindingly obvious that I won’t bother to defend my statement any further. If you can’t see it, I’ll never convince you. It’s a conservative thing, you wouldn’t understand.

On the other hand, I would argue that local reporters tend to be less biased than their national counterparts. Yes, biases exist, but they’re not nearly as intrusive. While the national MSM, cloistered in liberal enclaves like Manhattan and Washington, D.C., ignores vast bodies of evidence that contradict its worldview, local journalists live amidst the mainstream culture, not in isolation from it. That tends to moderate their views. Furthermore, most local reporters, I’ve found, are fairly diligent about reporting both sides of a story. You might have to read a little deeper to read the pro-death penalty quotes, but they’ll be there in the article. There may be subtle bias in the way reporters write the leads and slant the story, but, honestly — and I can say this because I’m very sensitive to it — it’s not nearly as egregious as with the national media.

The true failing of local media, to my mind, is the superficiality of coverage, particularly of public policy issues. Political reporters are, by nature, generalists. They cannot become experts in every field of policy — taxes, budgets, transportation, health care, education, etc. So, they tend to engage in he said/she said reporting without making any great effort the claims being made. Regarding the death penalty debate, why isn’t the T-D’s Frank Green, who has won numerous national awards for his reporting on the death penalty, part of the team covering the debate? Why leave the issue to the generalists?

Kilgore is unhappy because his death penalty initiative isn’t giving him the traction he was looking for. But he shouldn’t blame the media. It’s like Democrats kvetching that Republicans raise more money. As Tom Silvestri, my old boss and now publisher of the Times-Dispatch, used to say about some intractable problem: “It is how it is.” The sub-text of his message was, you can pout about it, or you can work around it. A biased media is part of the background of any political campaign.

Reporters, no matter how liberal, are drawn to many elements of a story. They like conflict. They like human interest. And, yes, they strive to uphold a standard of objectivity and fairness in their coverage. They often fall short of that standard, but the existence of the standard does moderate their biases. Finally, I would add, the local MSM is not monolithic. Blogs provide a limited corrective. So does local talk radio.

Ultimately, the existence of a biased media puts the onus on the Kilgore campaign to craft and deliver its campaign messages in such a way as to penetrate the filters of the MSM. Jim Gilmore succeeded eight years ago, and George Allen did four years before him. It can be done.

It’s time for Phil R. to chime in, and where better than here on Bacon’s Rebellion?

The mailman brought me a bit of a surprise today, a copy of the fake Club for Growth mailing challenging Kilgore on taxes. But it is only sort of a fake, since it is based on a real Oct. 10 news release from the Club for Growth. You have to really hunt to find the Kaine for Governor disclaimer printed on the right side of Kilgore’s photo, but it’s there.

The best place to see it for yourself (if you are not on the Republican primary voter list like we are) is at the Washington Post’s blog. They have the full PDF posted. I’ve seen it discussed on a couple of other blogs as well. Our readers should chime in.

When I first saw it on line, I thought it was really from VCFG. Then I read today it was a Kaine mailing, but used real rhetoric questioning Kilgore on taxes from a Club for Growth news release. It even goes so far as to state that the text was originally “approved” by the Virginia Club for Growth — wouldn’t want anybody claiming plagarism or failure to disclose.

First thought, there Phil goes again — right in character, shooting at a Republican who doesn’t meet his measure of perfection and putting purity above victory. Second thought — how deceptive of the Kaine campaign. But it’s growing on me. As a tactician, it’s growing on me. In my reporting days I used to say that the meanest thing I ever did to a politican was quote him accurately.

This mailer is going in the permanent collection. It won’t change the outcome, but it will sow confusion and resentment on our side and it must be ruining somebody’s day. I hope it is causing the Club for Growth the most grief, frankly. To my D friends: A tip of the hat, guys — I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Another old rule of mine: Never underestimate the Republican Party’s gift for self-destruction.

One of the most imaginative legislators in Virginia today is Chris Saxman, the Republican delegate from Staunton. Saxman has devoted more energy than almost anyone else in the General Assembly to devise creative ways to reduce state spending. His latest brainstorm: Encourage college students to graduate early rather than drag out their educations for five or six years at public expense.

The State Council on Higher Education projects enrollment demand for in-state students to increase by more than 56,000 students by 2012; Virginia’s four-year institutions are expected to absorb 11 percent of that increase. State support covers roughly 68 percent of tuition and general fees for in-state students. Incredibly, there is no requirement for students to complete their educational requirements on time. Indeed, Saxman notes, it takes students five years on average to graduate. “By offering incentives to students to complete their undergraduate degrees in less than four years,” he says, “we will help to free up space for incoming students.”

Saxman’s idea: Provide students with graduate school scholarships if they graduate in three years from public four-year colleges and universities. In return, scholarship recipients would obligated to remain and work in the Commonwealth for a minimum period or pay back the cost of graduate school tuition. He is particularly keen on encouraging doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and other professionals in short supply to stay in the state.

Phyllis Palmiero, former director of SCHEV and a member of the Joint Subcommittee Higher Education Funding likes the idea. “Many students come to college with a number of college credits, some equivalent to a full year, however, they do not have the incentive to finish their degree early,” she says. “They prefer to remain with their class and ultimately enjoy their senior year. This is partly cultural and partly because there is no financial incentive to graduate early. Providing incentives or rewards for finishing early, such as graduate school scholarships, would certainly provide that incentive.”

Chris Craddock, a Republican candidate for a House of Delegates seat in western Fairfax County, has a little driving problem. The 27-year-old youth minister has racked up nine driving tickets over the past five years, including a citation last week for reckless driving, the Washington Post reports.

The politics of transportation could get interesting in the 2006 General Assembly if both Craddock and Republican gubernatorial nominee Jerry Kilgore win their races in November. Kilgore has proposed levying heavier fines on traffic scofflaws as a way of discouraging the kind of reckless behavior that causes traffic accidents and creates traffic gridlock. He also sees the fines as a revenue stream to pay for more road improvements.

Craddock’s Democratic opponent, Chuck Caputo, says the tickets show Craddock’s unfitness for office. But I rather like the idea of electing a politician who will help pay the cost of government out of his own pocket!

Here comes a new Mason-Dixon poll confirming the findings of earlier polls: The issues that matter to voters are the ones that impact their daily lives — not cultural wedge issues. The most important issues in this year’s governor’s race, as summarized in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:

21 % – education issues/public schools funding
17 % – state taxes/state spending
15 % – roads/traffic/transportation
8 % – economy/jobs/economic growth
7 % – crime/death penalty/criminal justice
6 % – leadership/character/personal qualities
5 % – moral issues/family values

One final plea: Would the gubernatorial candidates please focus their speeches, press releases and, above all, their campaign ads on the issues that matter to the electorate?

The RT-D reported: Clinton helps Kaine raise $1.5 million. The fundraisers were at a home in the Keswick area of Albemarle County and at a residence in McLean. Clinton made no public appearances.

Allies stump for Kaine, Kilgore

The WaPo reported: “We’re definitely excited to have him coming,” said Mo Elleithee, Kaine’s communications director. “The president is clearly someone who speaks to a lot of folks.”

Bill Clinton to Appear at Private Kaine Fundraisers

Excited to have him coming, but with no public appearances! No Mark Warner either!

Q. Where are the TV commercials with former President Bill Clinton touting Tim ‘the choirboy’ Kaine as the second coming of Governor Mollycoddle?

No doubt, Mo Elleithee and the Kaine campaign are hiding Clinton who is “clearly someone who speaks to a lot of folks.”

Spank me!

~ the blue dog

How many people live in your city? It’s a simple question, and a lot rides on the answer. Federal and state funding formulas allocate money, in part, on the basis of a locality’s population. Businesses choose where to invest and expand based on market demographics. So, you can see why the City of Charlottesville takes such a keen interest in how many people live there.

According to an article in Charlottesville’s Daily Progress, the U.S. Census estimated the city’s population in 2001 to be 45,049, a jump of nearly 5,000 from the previous year. Then it adjusted the 2001 estimate back down to 39,300.

This April, reports the Daily Progress, the Census “released its 2004 population estimates, reporting that Charlottesville had lost 3,494 residents since 2000 for a total population of 36,605. This month, though, the bureau accepted the city’s challenge to the figures, agreeing the estimate should have been 40,745.”

By tracking the number of new houses built, car registrations and enrollment increases at the University of Virginia, city officials persuaded Census that the population had grown, not contracted. “It’s important for our prestige,” said Mayor David Brown. “We are a dynamic, exciting community where people want to be.”

Virginia’s older cities are making a come-back. Tremendous re-development is taking place. People are moving back. It’s vital that the numbers reflect this positive trend. Based on the Charlottesville experience, city officials shouldn’t count on Census to get the numbers right.

The Senate’s START Committee, a large group of senators and citizens charged with writing a transportation bill for 2006, met yesterday with far less fanfare than its first meeting. In the presentations, little new ground got plowed. The next meeting promises to be more interesting, as the group will start its own discussions, working with a professional facilitator.

But when I went to the Senate Finance Committee website for all the documents, I found a diamond in the sand, something that had not been discussed in the meeting. The list included a 9-page letter from Phil Shucet, the former Transportation Commissioner who has instantly become one of the leaders in this effort now that he is out of state government and able to speak frankly. You can find the letter on that list under “Shucet Letter” or by clicking here.

Shucet’s suggestions range from outsourcing more maintenance to demand management techniques to, yes, building more roads — and he seems to be leaning toward the tolling proposal of former Governor Baliles as the main source of funds for construction.

You too can write your own plan for this group to consider, but you have to hurry. The staff has issued a general call for proposals, idea, discussions, and has set up a special email address, [email protected] to receive them. They want them by Halloween. They ask for a one-page summary and a limit of four pages on discussion. Shucet’s is longer, but worth every page.

“Va. scores above average on national report card,” reads the headline in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Virginia’s fourth-and eight-graders are doing slightly better in math and reading than their peers around the country,” continues the text of the story.

But dig into the numbers in “the Nation’s Report Card” published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and there is some encouraging news on the racial disparity front.

The NAEP reports a composite figure reflecting the percentage of students in each state whose scores are classified as “below basic,” “basic, ” “proficient” and “advanced.” The average reading scores for fourth graders is 226 in Virginia vs. 217 nationally, suggesting that Virginia overall is significantly above the national average. The math score for 4th graders is 240 for Virginia vs. 237 nationally, suggesting that we’re modestly above average. The 8th grade differentials are comparable.

But there are some interesting trends within the broader numbers. Minorities in Virginia — African-Americans and Hispanics — outperform their peers nationally by a wider margin than whites do. For example:

4th Grade Reading Score
Performance Gap Compared to Peers in Other States

Whites……….. +5
Blacks………… +9
Hispanics…… +9

(The performance gaps are comparable for the most part for math and 8th grade scores. I won’t bore you with the details. Look them up here.)

Another way of looking at the performances differences is to compare the size of the racial gap in performance in Virginia and the United States.

4th Grade Reading Score
Racial Gaps Nationally vs. Virginia

Blacks

Nationally……….. 29 points below whites
Virginia…………… 26 points below whites

Hispanics

Nationally………. 27 points below whites
Virginia…………… 15 points below whites

The disparity in scores between whites and blacks is modestly smaller in Virginia than in the rest of the country, and startlingly smaller between whites and Hispanics.

Perhaps the most appropriate measure of comparison for Virginia, however, is not with other American states but with foreign countries. There’s a global marketplace for employees with education and skills. Unfortunately, the performance gap may well be the other way around — how far behind the Poles and South Koreans are we? That’s where our attention really needs to be.

Let’s see now…. The state Department of Education awarded Pearson Educational Measurement a six-year, $139.9 million contract to develop, score and report Virginia’s Standard of Learning tests — even though a competing proposal by Harcourt Assessments, Inc., would have cost $35 million less. And it turns out that Pearson made scoring errors that resulted in 60 students being told they’d flunked tests they’d actually passed — and that firm had been involved in a legal settlement in Minnesota back in 2000 for scoring errors that had flunked 8,000 students.

There may have been legitimate reasons for hiring Pearson despite these revelations, but the leadership of the House of Delegates is right to want to know what those reasons were. They are understandably concerned after finding out from newspaper reports that the soon-to-retire state school superintendent Jo Lynne DeMary had served on what the House leadership described as an unpaid “advisory council” for Pearson and she characterized as an annual “think tank” session for state and local school officials.

There may be a perfectly legitimate explanation for giving the contract to Pearson. But the House is right to look into the matter. That $35 million differential is a lot of money — even in a budget as inflated as Virginia’s. As House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, put the sum in perspective yesterday, the $5.8 million a year extra paid to Pearson would translate into 150 more teachers across the state.

Read the Richmond Times-Dispatch story here.

The three gubernatorial candidates addressed about 400 people at a Richmond forum sponsored by AARP Virginia Monday and, not surprisingly, told the crowd why old people should vote for them.

Mr. Russ “Blunt Talk” Potts, 66, noted that he was the only candidate who was a member of the American Association of Retired People and “the only guy with gray hair running in this race.” Wow, that’s a great way to get someone to identify with your vision for Virginia — emphasize your similarity in age. Let’s see. I’m 52. Tim Kaine is five years younger, Jerry Kilgore is eight years younger, and Russ Potts is 12 years older than me. I guess that means I should vote for Kaine. And I would, oh, yes, I would, if it weren’t for the fact that…

Kaine’s idea of appealing to old people is to shovel money at them. He would seek additional money from the 2006 state budget if rising heat bills begin to hurt low-income seniors, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He said he’d spend more money on Meals for Wheels, an adult day care service for the handicapped that has a long waiting list. And he bragged about the Warner administration’s track record of boosting the pay of caregivers and Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Kilgore matched Kaine pander for pander. He, too, would seek to help old folks hurt by rising heating costs, increase funding for rural medical clinics, and give tax incentives for the purchase of long-term care insurance.

If I were running for governor, here’s what I would tell old people: You old people have more disposable income, more assets and more free time than your children and grandchildren. Sure, some of you are poor, and I’ll make sure that there’s a social safety net to guarantee that your basic needs are taken care of. But I’m not treating you as a privileged class deserving of special consideration based on your age. What I will do is stop sticking it to your children and grand-children by promising you stuff and taxing them to pay for it!

The Kaine campaign is touting a new Survey USA poll showing Tim Kaine with a 47 percent-to-45 percent lead over Jerry Kilgore in the Virginia gubernatorial campaign.

The Kaine camp is spinning the poll this way:

• Since the first Survey USA poll in this race in March, Tim Kaine has gained 11 points, while Jerry Kilgore has lost one.
• Because this poll was taken just this past weekend, we know that Jerry Kilgore’s dishonest negative ads are backfiring on him.
• Virginia’s moderate and independent voters overwhelmingly favor Tim Kaine. Tim leads 63 percent to 29 percent among moderates and 50 percent to 38 percent among independents.

The October 17, 2005, edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine is now online.

The Warner administration has delivered some very tough — but very necessary — news to employees of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. As Peter Bacque put it in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Despite official assurances that their jobs will be secure through Virginia’s information-technology outsourcing, state government IT employees cannot expect to remain in their jobs in retirement, officials now say.

“The whole concept of lifetime employment doesn’t exist anymore,” said Secretary of Technology Eugene J. Huang.

Don’t be surprised if a lot of people want to shoot the messenger. But Huang is only saying what needs to be said. No one in the private sector enjoys lifetime employment. Employees’ only security comes from their ability to stay employable by embracing the skills required by a fast-evolving economy.

State employees are insulated from direct competition in the sense that state employees from North Carolina or Texas aren’t going to take away their jobs. But Virginia companies compete in a global economy, and their social overhead includes the cost in taxation of supporting state government. As the Warner administration seems to understand, the state cannot continue doing Business as Usual. (If only the Warnerites would apply insights gleaned from the reforming government processes to fundamentally restructuring the way the state approaches education, transportation and health care!)

The Commonwealth is negotiating with IBM and Northrop Grumman to privatize significant chunks of its computer and electronic-communications infrastructure. If a deal is struck, it could be, according to Bacque, “the farthest-reaching such outsourcing among U.S. state governments.” More than 2,000 state employees could see their jobs directly affected.

VITA has promised no mass layoffs, but a lifetime sinecure in state government is not in the cards. “My generation has . . . been told that lifetime employment is not a given,” said Huang, who is 29. “Over the course of one’s lifetime, one can expect upwards of six or seven different jobs.”

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Virginia’s other cabinet secretaries were delivering the same message?

Sometimes it’s hard to maintain a focus on my primary interest — creating more prosperous, liveable communities in a globally competitive economy — when there are so many kumquats out there stirring up controversy over the most ridiculous cultural issues. If it’s not right-wing zealots trying to ban Harry Potter from school libraries on the grounds that the popular series promotes sorcery and witchcraft, it’s left-wing zealots trying to expunge the slightest taint of religion, no matter how deeply embedded it is in our cultural heritage, from the public sphere.

Here’s latest idiocy: Dennis Brown, the band director of the C.D. Hylton High School in Prince William County, has pulled “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” from the band’s repertoire for fear of sparking a controversy — all because a parent who’d seen the band perform the song wrote a letter in the Potomac News wondering “how a song about the devil could be played at school events, because of the separation of church and state,” according to the Washington Post.

Said Hylton: “I was just being protective of my students. I didn’t want any negative publicity for C.D. Hylton High School.” Sadly for Hylton, his decision sparked a highly critical backlash among parents, alumni and local residents.

I take Hylton at his word that he just wanted to spare the school negative publicity. But, my gosh, negative publicity over what? A violation of the First Amendment, which says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”?

Liberals point out (rightly, I believe) that the Second Amendement protecting the right to bear arms should be interpreted in the institutional context of the late 18th century when the citizenry was organized in militias. If only liberals would interpret the First Amendment in the institutional context of the late 18th century, when the Anglican Church had, during colonial rule, been established as an arm of royal English authority. Rather, they see the First Amendment as mandating the “separation of church and state,” and, in recent years, justifying the extirpation of any cultural symbol reminiscent of Christian culture from public schools and public property.

In the name of multi-culturalism and tolerance, of course, it’s OK for Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other religious minorities to celebrate their cultural heritage, even when it’s imbued with religious symbolism. But it’s not OK for members of the religious majority, whose ancestors created the first society on the face of the earth to bequeath constitutional protections to religious minorities, to express any sign of their religious heritage.

Now the madness has spread to questioning the mere expression of any symbol that might be remotely construed as religious. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” isn’t talking about God, or Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, but “the devil.” And we’re not talking about Satan, or Lucifer or Beelzebub here. No, we’re talking about an imaginary, Faustian demon who plays the fiddle in a story told as a folk tale.

But that’s not the end of it. No one was actually singing the song. This was a band, not the glee club! The band was playing the music to the Charlie Daniels song, not singing the words! But the mere song title, “The Devil Goes Down to Georgia,” apparently is so dangerous that it might send the C.D. Hylton High School down the slippery slope toward crazed, Jerry Falwell wannabes hikjacking the county school board and indoctrinating impressionable young students about sexual abstinence, the right to life and the need to seek salvation in Jesus. (Addendum: Upon reading the original letter, I see that the author was not making this slippery slope argument.)

I, as long-time readers of this blog know, am an atheist-agnostic with strong convictions. I do not attend church. But neither do I live in mortal dread of the dominant religion. What I do see is a secular minority imposing its secular values, built upon secular metaphysics regarding the nature of good, evil and morality, upon a religious majority — not through the exercise of reason but through the power of the courts. I will have no part of it.