Bacon's Rebellion

Gotta love Jon Baliles, aka “Snoopy,” over at RiverCity Rapids blog. He sat through the public comment session on a baseball stadium for downtown Richmond and summarized an incredible number of three minute opinions.

I don’t know how local government officials do it. I can’t bear to watch more than a few televised moments of such meetings. It’s raw, pure democracy, but it’s one thing I’m more than happy to have the fourth estate cover for me. Or are blogs a “fifth estate?”

Virginia is apparently going to be build a data center in Richmond, a back-up data center, and a help desk/call center as a follow-on to the creation of VITA, the Virginia Information Technology Agency.

The Bristol Herald Courier editorial page is urging that the back-up center be built in Wise County to take advantage of UVA-Wise. SCHEV, of course, told the General Assembly that UVA-Wise didn’t generate any economic development, so a new university in Southside wouldn’t, either.

The Courier said Wise should get the center over Danville because there’s no Southside university. No other candidate locations were identified.

I believe that any new state-wide service facilities should be located in either Southside or Southwest. If we can tie up all state procurement officials and all vendors in a quest to help under-represented small, minority, and woman-owned businesses, we should commit all new state facility spending in a quest to help our economically disadvantaged regions.

Back in 1996, budget cuts eliminated the job of State Archaeologist. Now, according to the Virginian-Pilot, the job is about to come back via HB 2078. With all this surplus floating around and the Jamestown 2007 celebration coming up, who wants the state to be shorthanded in archaeology?

The last State Archaeologist, Catherine Slusser, is still around, according to the article, serving the Department of Historical Resources. She describes the untenable ongoing situation with archaeology budget cuts: “Few Virginia employees have attended national conferences.”

Fellow bloggers, help me out. The rash of “social” legislation during the current General Assembly session has created a strong impression on me. Is Virginia getting more culturally conservative?

Virginia is part of the Bible Belt, of course, and I know the history of the blue laws and gambling restrictions and all that. But within the past 30 years or so, the political center of gravity seemed to shift decisively towards a more libertarian, live-and-let-live philosophy. Virginia never embraced a liberal, nanny-state agenda (except in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, which are the southern-most cultural extension of the Northeastern U.S.) During the Allen and Gilmore administrations, cultural conservatism expressed itself in more broad-based concerns such as the war on crime and reforming welfare. Now, it seems, the focus has shifted to highly symbolic culture-war issues — prayer in schools, sex on campus, sartorial regulations, etc.

One possible explanation: The electorate is getting more conservative, and the changing preoccupations of legislators reflect that shift. Another possible explanation: Having won the big legislative battles of the 1990s (Virginia is now tough on criminals and shows tough-love to welfare moms), culturally conservative legislators are retreating to the more hard-core issues because that’s all they have.

I don’t know the answer. I’m just inviting your observations.

Voting 9-6, a Senate committee today defeated Delegate Dick Black’s ‘fetal pain’ bill after medical experts testified that administering pain-killers to a fetus could endanged the life of the mother.

Many of the good-governiks who write for Bacon’s Rebellion have pointed out the deleterious effects of gerrymandering on Virginia. Some would say the problems are on display in Capitol Square right now.

There’s an anti-gerrymandering movement gaining a small head of steam in California. The Golden State often leads the way for the nation on “reform,” for good or ill. Mickey Kaus of Slate reminds us that the California initiative bears watching and we should follow the motives of those who support or oppose the current redistricting process.

Mickey cites two Stuart Taylor articles on the subject that should be required reading for any who would debate the issue, here and here.

Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate and, if I’m not mistaken, a Charlottesville area resident, has a good analysis of the church-state issues raised by a recent Staunton School Board decision. The board has allowed a program of religious instruction for elementary students to continue. Here’s the rub:

Several Staunton parents—many of them new to an area often described as “Virginia’s Bible Belt”—have come to feel that their children should not have to choose between being evangelized or ostracized on public school time. Their bonus yuppie spin on all this: Taking time away from regular classroom instruction disadvantages all of the children on the state standardized testing regime, as well as on meeting the requirements set out by No Child Left Behind.

Lithwick is one of my favorite writers, whether I agree with her or not. Her Slate coverage of the Supreme Court is both learned and entertaining.

The Senate Finance Committee today gutted the House of Delegates proposed billion dollar transportation package in a move one observer described as a ‘bitch slapping.’

The Senate Courts Committee this afternoon killed Delegate Dick Black’s bill that would have required adoption authorities to ascertain whether prospective adoptive adults had ever engaged in homosexual behavior. There was no vote. The bill died for lack of a motion. Or lack of emotion. Or lack of interest. Or of boredom. There just seemed to be very little support for this….zzzzzz.

As expected the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon killed a proposal by House Republicans to finish implementation of the car tax cut by phasing out the remaining 30% over the next six years. The move leaves intact state reimbursement for the locally-imposed property tax at an aggregate of $950 million annually. At present, that amount covers approximately 70% of the tax for the average affected car owner. The commitee action comes two days before House and Senate budget conferees are expected to begin negotiating differences in the respective proposals.

Vince Callahan (THE chairman)
Lacey Putnet (Senior member, 44 years, token ‘Independent’. Wink. Wink.)
Kirk Cox (Herr Ideologue)
Leo Wardrup (Fearless old salt, UNC graduate)
Phil Hamilton (Token Centrist. For real!)
Johnny Joannou (Has chip implanted in his head to receive messages from the Speaker.)

On page 1A above the fold and on page 1B (Metro) The Washington Post does it again today. Instead of helping citizens understand how to overcome congestion and lack of mobility, they spend prime media exposure and resources on the funding of transport facilities.

Nowhere do they indicate that building new roadways or rail extensions will only make congestion worse on a regional basis unless there is Fundamental Change in human settlement patterns. That is true no matter how the facilities are financed.

No new roadway, toll or not, and no new rail extension, no matter how funded, can be “built around” or “bypass” congestion. The reason is that the root cause of immobility and lack of access is a dysfunctional distribution of travel demand.

EMR

Prolific Chris Graham over at the Augusta Free Press is reading the fine print of an economic development announcement. I don’t think the powers that be want anybody doing that.

Oh, and is it just me, or is Del. Chap Peterson the AFP‘s darling?

Is this really a safety measure, or a clever way of discouraging hunting by taking all the fun out of it?

While Arlington and Loudoun Counties roll in dough, Bristol appears to be seriously hurting.

Update: Norm Leahy over at One Man’s Trash has some suggestions for Bristol.