Bacon's Rebellion

Martin Kuhn, a doctoral student in media law at UNC-Chapel Hill has stumbled across our discussion of blogging ethics and offers some ideas of his own. His code, which he recently presented at a National Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference, resembles Will Vehrs’ draft. But Kuhn touches upon some issues that we overlooked.

Promote Interactivity
● Post to your blog on a regular basis
● Visit and post on other blogs
● Respect blog etiquette
● Attempt to be entertaining, interesting, and/or relevant

Promote Free Expression
● Do not restrict access to your blog by specific individuals or groups
● Do not self censor by removing posts or comments once they are published
● Allow and encourage comments on your blog

Strive for Factual Truth
● Never intentionally deceive others
● Be accountable for what you post

Be as Transparent as Possible
● Reveal you identity as much as possible (name, photo, background info, etc.)
● Reveal your personal affiliations and conflicts of interest
● Cite and link to all sources referenced in each post

Promote the “Human” Element in Blogging
● Minimize harm to others when posting information
● Promote community by linking to other blogs and keeping a blogroll
● Build relationships by responding to e-mails and comments regularly

If you are interested in the reasoning behind these items, ask Kuhn for a copy of his paper, “Interactivity and Prioritizing the Human: A Code of Blogging Ethics,” at [email protected].

It may be weeks before we know the full extent of the catastrophe that Katrina has unleashed upon the Gulf Coast, but it’s not too soon to start thinking about the implictions for Virginia. None of our cities, thankfully, are situated below sea level, but large chunks of Hampton Roads sit only a few feet above the water line. We need to start asking, just how vulnerable is this metropolitan area, home to one fifth of the state’s population, to a hurricane of Katrina proportions? And what should we do about it?

An excellent starting point for thinking about these questions is an October 2001 article in Scientific American, Drowning New Orleans, which prophesied the New Orleans tragedy with horrifying clarity. Over the past century, the building of dikes, levies and channels to protect the city disrupted the flow of Mississippi River sediment that replenished the bayou, resulting in the widespread erosion of wetlands and barrier islands. As a consequence, New Orleans lost its natural barriers to the 20-foot storm surge. (Kudos to blogger “Subpatre” for bringing this to my attention.)

Thanks to the efforts of the Nature Conservancy, our Eastern Shore coastline remains largely intact. But development has been extensive along the Virginia Beach coastline. I can’t imagine that Virginia Beach is anywhere near as vulnerable as New Orleans — but could it be as vulnerable as Biloxi? How are our natural buffers faring? What impact are the sand replenishment programs having?

The other question we must ask: If a Force 5 hurricane bore down on Hampton Roads, could the million inhabitants of Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Cheseapeake/Portsmouth be evacuated? The scenes of gridlock on the Interstates leading out of New Orleans are not reassuring. Hampton Roads leaders have been pushing for a “third crossing” to the Peninsula, citing hurricane evacuation as one of the justifications. I have long opposed tax increases for the purpose of congestion mitigation in the region because I think there are so many other less expensive alternatives to building more roads. But I can’t think of any other way to evacuate one million people from Hampton Roads. In light of the New Orleans tragedy, the third crossing is looking more and more like a necessary investment.

THE POLITICS FACTORY: An hour in the Dog Pound with Jerry Kilgore
By Chris Graham/AFP Earlier in the summer, Democratic Party gubernatorial nominee Tim Kaine made headlines by participating in a conference call with several of the Commonwealth’s top political bloggers. Next week, Republican Party nominee Jerry Kilgore is going to make some news of his own – straight from the Dog Pound. Kilgore will participate in a question-and-answer session on Steven Sisson’s Blue Dog blog …

http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$36632

* Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore has agreed to guest blog with the Blue Dog and BD blog members on September 6th, next Tuesday, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The Kilgore campaign has requested that I not screen questions or topics.

Check out upcoming book: Steven Sisson’s Adventures in Warnerland
www.authorstevensisson.com

Maybe I just haven’t noticed it before, but the Washington Post online edition now can show what bloggers are saying about its articles. Take a look at this article on credit reports, right hand side, half way down. This is a great promotion for bloggers–I don’t know what’s in it for the Post, other than showing how much interest is generated by their stories.

As an aside, the info about the impact and problems associated with the free credit report program is an interesting study in the law of unintended consequences. In my day job, I suspect I’ll receive lots of calls about it from Virginia citizens looking to get a report, frustrated in trying, or feeling ripped off.

According to VTrans2025, Virginia faces a $108 billion revenue shortfall over the next 20 years to pay for the state’s tax-and-build, sprawl-inducing transportation policy. That averages out to $5.4 billion a year. Meanwhile, the price of gasoline has risen about $1 per gallon over the past year, sucking another $5 billion a year out of Virginians’ pockets. In a post on the Road to Ruin blog, I argue that our current transportation policy is sending Virginia straight to the poorhouse.

When we have a natural disaster, it’s easy to see why being a governor is the best steppingstone to being president. Governors face real crisises and can’t just talk about solutions or assign blame. They have to act and act quickly. Governors Blanco and Barbour are distinguishing themselves in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and we should be proud that our governor is stepping up to help them.

Governor Warner is taking a variety steps to help with the devastation on the Gulf Coast. From a just issued comprehensive press release, he’s “activated the Virginia Emergency Operations Center to track relief efforts and offers of assistance from Virginia state agencies, other entities, and citizens.” A number of state assets, including equipment from the State Police, VDOT, and the Department of Forestry are being considered for deployment to the Gulf region. Virginia’s manufactured housing industry has been asked to ramp up production. He’s asked Virginians to conserve. It’s an impressive list of potential ways Virginia can help Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as we would hope they would help us if the situation were reversed.

As a state employee, I’m proud of my colleagues who are shouldering the hard work of providing assistance. I only wish that I was being called upon to do something, but I will have to be content with helping privately. If I could make one suggestion to Governor Warner, it would be to figure out a way to have more state employees in non-critical jobs trained to help in some capacity when a national disaster occurs. I could man a phone, load a truck, or do any number of things to relieve/augment emergency management personnel.

Sean Tubbs’ podcast on the Bloggers’ Summit is up on his website, the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.

“I just received my copy of “Notes From the Sausage Factory,” edited by Barnie Day and Becky Dale, and I haven’t been able to put it down yet.

I’ll have a full review when I finish the book, but I can already tell that it’s a Virginia political junkie’s dream. Go buy it now. “

— Commonwealth Conservative

One of Gov. Mark R. Warner’s final acts as governor will be to present his version of a “transparent” budget understandable to the public. Buried in his speech to the General Assembly joint money committees Monday, he previewed the budget he will submit in December.

Jettisoning the program structure which has existed since the 1970’s, the new budget will be organized around “the identifiable services that each agency provides.” Within the budget bill and budget document, each service will be associated with its related funding, and will provide quantifiable objectives and performance measures. All information will be accessible to the public through the Web.

Including performance measures with the budget numbers will allow citizens to appraise the program’s effectiveness. For example, the governor noted,

If our objective is to reduce the number of repeat juvenile offenders, we will be able to tell what the Department of Juvenile Justice spends on that service, and how many juveniles are convicted of a new misdemeanor or felony. If our objective is to help welfare recipients obtain jobs, we will be able to tell how much the Department of Social Services spends on training, and we will measure how many welfare recipients are employed six months later.

Budget transparency represents a big step towards public accountability. We look forward to seeing what the governor comes up with.

The Road to Ruin blog has the scoop on an important transportation story. Former Gov. Gerald Baliles has proposed a network of tolling stations on Virginia Interstates that could raise $1 billion a year to fund maintenance and improvements. Read the details here.

First, Washington Post Virginia political reporters Michael Shear and Chris Jenkins started a blog (Race to Richmond); now, the Fairfax Extra section of the Post has started a “community blog.”

The blog’s maiden post yesterday generated a healthy 27 comments. Several commenters wondered when Maryland communities would get a blog. Most of the rest wanted to debate the tenure of Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly.

Will Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun, and Prince William get blogs? Is the Post in the blog business for the long haul, or are they just experimenting?

Someone in the Warner administration should ask Joe Luter, CEO of Smithfield Foods, why he can’t expand hog production in Southeastern Virginia. Here’s an advance peek at a story running in tomorrow’s VA Newswire:

Smithfield Packing to Consolidate Hog Processing Operations

SMITHFIELD—Smithfield Packing Company will shift hog processing operations from its Smithfield South facility to its Smithfield North and Tar Heel, N.C., facilities in October, allowing the company to use vacant plant space to install a production line for pre-cooked microwave bacon next year. The changeover affects approximately 570 of the company’s 4,000 employees in Southeast Virginia. The company hopes to rehire all affected employees over the next nine months.

Explained CEO Joseph W. Luter IV: “This difficult but necessary decision to discontinue hog processing at the Smithfield plant is driven largely by hog availability and competitive industry conditions. This lack of hog supply is the direct result of the moratorium on hog farms in North Carolina and the de facto moratorium in Virginia.” (My emphasis.) More.

Jerry Kilgore and Tim Kaine, can you sniff a new campaign issue?

Bacon’s Rebellion has added three new bloggers recently to its line-up of contributors. The first to join us, with little fanfare, was James Atticus Bowden, a military futurist by day and Poquoson Republican Party activist in his spare time. Next was Steve Haner, a former Republican operative and chief lobbyist for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, who has launched a private lobbying practice. Most recently (today), we added Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a lobbyist active in the Democratic Party. Although we tend to be a “right of center” blog, as Jeff Schapiro referred to us, we do value diversity of opinion and viewpoints. Claire will join Barnie Day in keeping the rest of us honest.

Our three new bloggers will replace Phil Rodokanakis and Steve “Blue Dog” Sisson. Phil, the newly appointed president of the Virginia Club for Growth, had to cut back on his blogging — although we still occasionally hear from him. And the Blue Dog has started his own blog. He, too, still drops by for the occasional blog.

I am confident that all three of our new bloggers will help fulfill the Bacon’s Rebellion mission of maintaining a forum for the open and reasoned exchange of ideas in the realm of Virginia politics and policy.

Delivering his mid-year report on the Commonwealth’s economic and financial performance, Gov. Mark R. Warner declared that Virginia “is truly on the right track.” Virginia may have run up a massive General Fund surplus (see Steve Haner’s post for details on the exact amount) in fiscal 2005, but it faces $2.8 billion in added needs in the next biennium — and that doesn’t even include perceived needs for transportation funding.

Here’s a list of “known budget requirements” taken from the governor’s speech:

• Re-benchmarking of the State Standards of Quality for public schools – even without funding the new standards adopted by the Board of Education – will require about $1.2 billion;
• Meeting the continuing cost of Medicaid – without assuming any federal cuts or policy changes – will exceed $500 million;
• Providing $950 million a year in car tax payments will require an additional $415 million;
• The cost of paying for higher prices on concrete and steel for capital projects already authorized, and providing equipment for buildings coming on line will exceed $250 million.
• Health insurance, higher VRS contribution rates, and group life insurance costs will together require about $200 million;
• Additional debt service costs for bonds already authorized but not yet issued will exceed $125 million;
• Two new prisons and two expanded prisons coming on line will require about $90 million.

And that doesn’t include meeting Virginia’s commitment to higher education, funding the clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay… yadda, yadda, yadda.

Pardon me, but what the h-e-double hockey sticks is going on?

What is this “re-benchmarking of the Standards of Quality?” The last re-benchmarking cost us $700 million a year. Now another re-benchmarking will cost us a like amount? Educational spending in Virginia is on auto-pilot, with massive funding increases baked into the system. Doesn’t anyone see anything wrong with that?

Runaway education spending is just the first place to start asking questions. Medicaid is the next. We citizens need to start digging into every one of these items. How much is this spending legitimate, how much of it is puff, and how much spending could be cut elsewhere that the governor isn’t talking about? Maybe the Americans for Prosperity (See Will Vehr’s post below) can help provide some answers.

Chad Dotson, the former John Behan, has a round-up on yesterday’s announcement of the Americans for Prosperity creation of a Virginia Chapter, including this Tyler Whitley RT-D story.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for organizations that will “advocate free-market, budget-cutting alternatives to tax increases.” Trouble is, it seems to me that several organizations with that mission already exist and they form the Board of Directors for what our friend Barnie calls the “Flat Earth Society.” Most advocate tax cuts in an almost abstract, philosophical way. There’s a need for that, but there’s more of a need now for an organization that will stand up and provide practical, real-world suggestions for budget-cutting and government efficiency to make funding available for better uses or tax cuts. Taxpayers need to be informed of the waste and inefficiency in state government and to realize that it isn’t just “chump change.”

The Americans for Prosperity, Virginia Chapter, looks like it might be a little more focused on the nuts and bolts of budget-cutting. If it is, it will be a great addition to the debate. If not … Barnie will have another foil.