Bacon's Rebellion

Sabato on referenda, the Free Lance Star, 5-23-05:

“Now, Virginia is not a populist state. But this rhetoric seems to be taking hold to a degree, dangerously so in my opinion. This is not Jeffersonian Jefferson was violently opposed to anything like initiative and referendum.”

And this:

“Referendum and initiative don’t work very well. It’s controlled by special interests and big money,” Sabato said. “It’s had exactly the opposite effect that the progressives thought it would have. It’s another bad reform idea that sounds good.”

Kilgore says Jefferson got it wrong. I don’t think so.

Chris Flores of the Daily Press has a lot of new information on a story Jim Bacon highlighted earlier in the week–a procurement lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Education.

In a nutshell, it appears the Department of Education awarded a contract to a firm called “Teachers” for a special education teacher recruitment website in 2002. No information is given on how many bids were solicited or received. One year later, the Department apparently decided it wanted a more comprehensive website, so it put out a bid. It appears, from Flores’ reporting, that only Teachers bid on it until the Department, mandated to seek a minority bidder, solicited a bid from E & E. Those were the only two bids received. E & E was the low bidder and from there a series of alleged actions designed to swing the contract to Teachers occurred, leading to the lawsuit. I hope the courts are able to fairly sort it all out; the allegations are serious.

I don’t know all the ins and outs of procurement regulations, but it boggles my mind that in a world where web designers and developers are a dime a dozen, only two bids were received. That’s why I wonder how many bids were received on the 2002 solicitation. Once you get a contract with a state agency, it’s natural that you would have some advantage on additional, similar contracts under the “reinvent the wheel” principle. It’s noteworthy that the Department of Education decided to create a whole new website, instead of modifying/enhancing the existing site that Teachers had established. (As a snide aside, I wonder how many individuals from the Department of Education’s bloated bureaucracy had input into this website. I guess one of them couldn’t be a web designer who would do it “in-house.”)

The “system” seemed to work, if you consider that the Department of Education, as required and cajoled to do, set out on its own to get a minority bidder when no minority bidder responed what probably was a public solicitation. Showing what this lawsuit is really about, however, is this from the plaintiff’s attorney, H. Scott Johnson, Jr.:

Teachers has used the Virginia contract to win work in other states, which is precisely what E&E wanted to do, says the lawsuit, which asks for compensation for those damages.

“They put a lot of time and money and effort into it because they were going to use it as a springboard to win contracts in other states,” Johnson said.

So many government troughs, so little time.

At last, there’s something we can ALL agree upon: It’s bad public policy to provide Medicaid reimbursement for Viagara and other erectile dysfunction drugs to sex offenders. No one–not Jesse Jackson, not even the A.C.L.U. — objected when Gov. Mark R. Warner signed an emergency regulation blocking the benefit for 52 of Virginia’s registered offenders. The very idea of subsidizing the libido of sex offenders is so ludicrous that only a government bureaucracy acting on auto-pilot or the satirical Web publication The Onion — one of today’s headlines: “Bush Caught in One of His Own Terror Traps“) — could have come up with it.

But there’s a larger question: Why is Medicaid subsidizing erectile dysfunction drugs for anyone?

According to Frank Green’s story in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate that Medicaid spends about $38 million a year nationally on erectile dysfunction drugs. With about one out of 40 U.S. residents living in the Old Dominion, that would imply about $1 million a year paid here in Virginia.

Medicaid is busting the state budget. Shouldn’t we be husbanding our finite resources for long-term care of the infirm, and for treatment of serious illnesses among the poor rather than for a lifestyle enhancement? Given our parlous fiscal circumstances, paying public dollars to buy Viagara for anyone is a scandal.

Unfortunately, Gov. Warner cannot sign a bill simply payments to the broader Medicaid population. Virginia appears to be bound by a 1998 Medicaid order mandating coverage for the drugs. (I wonder whose lobbyist got that rule inserted?) Perhaps it’s time for Virginia’s congressional delegation to get to work on reversing that order.

Today I had the pleasure of lunch with Norm Leahy, proprietor of one my favorite blogs, One Man’s Trash. Our discussion was wide-ranging and animated, almost like being in the Bacon’s Rebellion comment section. We agreed that Jeff Schapiro was the gold standard in balanced political reporting, unmet needs is the great issue of our time, and Russ Potts’ double-decker highway idea was sheer genius.

Well, maybe I’m stretching our agreement.

In person, he was an impressive guy. Agree or disagree with him, he’s a unique voice in the blogosphere.

The quality of the roads in Virginia’s major metropolitan areas does not stack up very well to that of other cities, according to data compiled by The Road Information Project and published today in USA Today. According to a chart in USA Today, the “Virginia Beach” metro area and Washington. D.C. metro areas are in the middle of the pack–roughly in line with national averages, which are nothing to write home about. Richmond’s roads are measurably worse.

The numbers break out like this:

Virginia Beach: 28 percent good; 23 percent fair; 27 percent mediocre; 22 percent bad.

Washington, D.C.: 30 percent good; 17 percent fair; 28 percent mediocre; 24 percent bad.

Richmond: 18 percent good; 26 percent fair; 32 percent mediocre; 23 percent bad.

Now, go read Steve Haner’s column in Bacon’s Rebellion, “The Transportation SOLs,” which argues that spending on road maintenance is crowding out dollars for new construction. According to Steve’s numbers, maintenance will consume all state road dollars by 2018. (See chart.) I don’t know where he gets his numbers, and I don’t know how good they are because I haven’t had a chance to examine the assumptions embedded in them. But given that those are the only numbers we’ve got, and given the already mediocre condition of Virginia’s roads, it’s understandable why Virginia lawmakers believe we have a time bomb on our hands.

One Man’s Trash commented yesterday on the news of William Woodfin’s resignation as Director of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. A scathing auditor’s report on numerous irregularities in the agency was the proximate cause.

Today, editorials here, here, and here reacted, with the Virginian-Pilot being typical:

A state auditor’s report identifying rampant waste and abuse at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries presents a stunning indictment of the goings-on at a major agency.

Reading the account of personal junkets, high-priced trinkets and overblown “protection” units brings to mind a banana republic where kingpins stomp around in safari hats and expensive boots, lording over the peons who keep the bosses supplied with game and sport.

Where were the checks and balances? If not for a citizen whistle-blower and the state’s fraud, waste, and abuse hotline, the misdeeds, primarily in the enforcement unit, would be continuing full bore.

The Pilot calls on Gov. Warner to replace the agency’s entire Board of Directors.

In state government, few watchdogs exist. That’s why it took citizens to uncover these practices. I suspect that many agency big-wigs are doing things similar in nature to what the Game and Inland Fisheries audit criticized. I hope they take the audit to heart and I hope that Gov. Warner, in his waning months as Governor, reminds his appointees that their jobs are about serving the taxpayers, not collecting perks and building empires.

Blogger Steve Sailor has an explanation for why some states are “red” and the others are “blue.” He calls it Affordable Family Formation. His thesis is as persuasive as any I’ve seen and I think it can explain the red/blue divide in Virginia, too. Hat tip to Mickey Kaus in Slate ….

PS Since we’ve started a little Poly Sci 301 class, we might as well do a little more reading. Professor Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball has guest Professor Alan Abramowitz debunking gerrymandering as an explanation for non-competitive races.

Those wanting an update on “The Shelter Crisis” since Monday can check out the front page of todays The Washington Post Business Section: “Home Sales Continue at Torrid Pace: No Sign Yet of Market Slowing Down Soon.”

Interesting quotes from Greenspan’s talk on Friday and from shelter industry spinners.

Also CNN carried a story yesterday that since 2000 the number of houses priced at over $1-million has doubled. So has the number of folks that are not at the top of the food chain who cannot afford shelter.

It is interesting that when viewed as an economic issue, not a human settlement pattern issue, there is concern for the potential of a house price bust but nothing about the impact if there is no bust and shelter gets farther and farther out of reach in all the regions with Fuller and Florida’s “More, Better Jobs.”

EMR

The NoTollIncrease.com has been urging commuters to boycott the Dulles Toll Road and use alternate parallel routes. Apparently, the boycott had some effect on the first work-day following the toll increase. According to the TimeCommunity.com newspapers, traffic dropped down by 6% on Monday, compared to the Monday traffic counts for the three weeks before the toll increase. The average transaction count for the three weeks prior to the toll increase was: 372,354. Last Monday the toll transaction count dropped to 350,202.

The New York Times has visited Charlottesville and Chilhowie, Va. — Chilhowie, for those not lucky enough to have visited SW Virginia, is a small mill town not far from Bristol — as part of its ongoing “Class Matters” exploration of America’s class divide. Writer David Leonhardt provides a sympathetic portrait of a college drop-out Andy Blevins, who works at a supermarket warehouse, using Blevins to illustrate the factors that work against upward economic mobility for working-class youth. The great barrier today, according to the Times, is getting that college degree.

Of special interest to Bacon’s Rebellion readers are the observations of University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III, who, after years of favoring legacies (to help with fund-raising) and minorities (to correct historical injustices) seems to have awaken to the plight of the white working class. Sayeth the Times:

“The system makes a false promise to students,” said [Casteen], himself the son of a Virginia shipyard worker. Colleges … present themselves as meritocracies in which academic ability and hard work are always rewarded. In fact, he said, many working-class students face obstacles they cannot overcome on their own. …

No flagship state university has a smaller proportion of low-income students than Virginia. Just 8 percent of undergraduates last year came from families in the bottom half of the income distribution, down from 11 percent a decade ago. That change sneaked up on him, Mr. Casteen said, and he has spent a good part of the last year trying to prevent it from becoming part of his legacy. …

Like Virginia, a handful of other colleges are not only increasing financial aid but also promising to give weight to economic class in granting admissions. They say they want to make an effort to admit more low-income students, just as they now do for minorities and children of alumni.

(Thanks to Joyce Dodd for bringing this article to my attention.)

An excerpt from Wayne Madsen’s book, ‘Exposing Karl Rove,’ reads, “He’s America’s Joseph Goebbels. As a 21-year old Young Republican in Texas, Karl Rove not only pimped for Richard Nixon’s chief political dirty tricks strategist Donald Segretti but soon caught the eye of the incoming Republican National Committee Chairman, George H. W. Bush. Rove’s dirty tricks on behalf of Nixon’s 1972 campaign catapulted Rove onto the national stage. From his Eagle’s Nest in the West Wing of the White House, Rove now directs a formidable political dirty tricks operation and disinformation mill.”

Ouch! Did ‘Pat’ edit that?

On Saturday, June 4, invitations have been sent forth to celebrate with the Republican Party and Virginia’s Republican elected officials, candidates and supporters at the Republican Party of Virginia’s annual Commonwealth Gala with Special Guest…

As the Angels stand in ‘Pub orchestra pit and start to play those heavenly evangelic trumpets… Enters the ‘brains behind the bush’, ‘the boy genius’, ‘the man with the plan’, ‘king karl’… Ladies and gentlemen, would you please stand and welcome the one and only ‘turd-blossom’ himself… Mr. Karl Rove!

Yes siree, the Republican boogieman that has systematically and methodically eliminated the Democratic Party from top down on the national level is coming to Virginia for an election year pep rally and fund raising event.

Rumors say that several Howard Dean ‘primal screams’ emitted from Tim Kaine and his campaign staff after learning of the ‘Pub event of the year. And several members of the RaisingKaine.com blog site drank koolaid laced with their new late-night blog buddies, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels.

Do you suppose DNC chairman Howard Dean will speak (i.e. scream) at Tim ‘the choirboy’ Kaine’s upcoming 2005 Virginia Democratic Caucus Gala at the Homestead?

Not likely, but… I heard ex-California Governor Gray Davis was available. He’s the goofy Democratic governor that wanted to raid the state property taxes, which were collected locally to pay for school programs without additional aid from the state, to pay off the state budget deficit.

~ the blue dog

Democrat Bruce Elder will be announcing his candidacy for the 20th District House of Delegates, Saturday 28 May 2005, at the bandstand in Gypsy Hill Park at 1100 a.m. sharp.

Good luck Bruce! But…

It’s only a matter of time before Citizen Bruce discovers his Democratic friends have been watching the red state arising — and are probably in an ‘Evangelical John’ boat seeking refuge with trustworthy Captain Chris Saxman.

Read more about in the AFP Thursday edition, Blue Dog Tales.

~ the blue dog

E&E Enterprises Global, Inc., a minority-owned government contractor, has filed suit against the Virginia Department of Education for discrimination in the agency’s solicitation for services under Gov. Mark R. Warner’s “Education For A Lifetime” initiative. The suit alleges that the agency discriminated against E&E by requiring the firm to fulfill requirements that not required of the non-minority bidder, and disqualified E&E once it was apparent that E&E was the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.

A 2003 disparity study commissioned by the Commonwealth reported that the Commonwealth awarded only $34.4 million out of nearly $8 billion on minority-owned businesses from July 1, 1998 through June 30, 2002 — less than 0.44% of its total spending. Statistics for the Virginia Department of Education for this same period show that the agency awarded over $75 million in contracts to non-minority-owned businesses compared to awarding only $17,000 in contracts to minority-owned businesses. Read the press release.

Any comment, Will?

Nibbling away at the problem of traffic congestion in one of Virginia’s most densely populated localities, Seattle-based Flexcar and Cambridge, Mass.-based Zipcar have increased their commitment to their car-sharing partnerships with Arlington County. Since the county began the program with the two companies last March, reports the Washington Business Journal, Flexcar and Zipcar have seen a combined 150 percent increase in usage and membership that more than doubled.

The two firms have added a total of 15 additional vehicles, bringing to 40 the total parked at designated locations in the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor, Crystal City and Pentagon City. They plan to add another 15 vehicles in the county before the end of the year.

Pilot project survey results, corroborated with evidence from studies in North America and Europe, show that carsharing: has allowed members to reduce their car ownership; encourages more transit trips; reduces the number of cars on the road; reduces the number of vehicle miles traveled; and provides for a much more efficient use of parking spaces.

Shared car programs like Arlington’s won’t “solve” Virginia’s increasing traffic congestion. There is no single solution. Public policy must encourage a wide variety of solutions–often by partnering, as Arlington has done, with wild-eyed entrepreneurs with crazy ideas. It would be encouraging if Sen. Chichester’s transportation task force–manned primarily by Republicans, members of the business community and others who profess to believe in free markets–chose to solicit innovative ideas from the private sector.

There’s an interesting press release emanating from Newport News today on PR Newswire. Superintendent Marcus Newsome is understandably proud that his urban school system had four of its five high schools listed in Newsweek Magazine’s list of 1,000 top performing high schools in the country.

Newsom has succeeded in the face of conditions typically cited as reasons for failure. Newport News is a working class town with its fair share of poverty. Approximately 45 percent of the city’s 33,000 students are eligible for free or reduced lunch; 55 percent are African-American and 1o percent are Hispanic.

Newsome credits a systemic approach coupled with “research-based means of changing school cultures” and building strong leadership teams. In partnership with the HOPE Foundation (Harnessing Optimism and Potential through Education), based in Bloomington, Ind., the school system has worked intensively with low-performing schools to train leadership teams of teachers and administrators.

Notes Jay Mathews, creator of the Newsweek list: “The more schools I have examined, the more I have come to believe in the power of high school cultures, which are different in different parts of the country for reasons that often have little to do with the usual keys to high school performance — the incomes and educations of the parents.”

Would somebody please convey this message to our lawmakers? We’ve tried pouring money into schools. Maybe it’s time to try a little HOPE.