Bacon's Rebellion

Slavery in Virginia may be taking a new form — that of human trafficking.

As another Memorial Day comes to a close I find it noteworthy that most US troops will be leaving Haiti next Tuesday. A good synopsis of the situation can be found here.

The American response to the catastrophe in Haiti seems like a rare bit of good news amidst a background of oil leaks, recession, partisan health care debates, etc.

There are still worries in Haiti. The rainy season / hurricane season is approaching. Elections, which were deferred by the earthquake, still need to be held. Moreover, it will take many years of work before Haiti will be a fully functioning society again.

So, let me offer a “Well Done!” to President Obama and an even bigger “Well Done!” to the men and women of the United States military who directly participated in the Haitian relief effort.

There has been a lot of talk about academic freedom lately. Most of that talk has centered on a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) sent to the University of Virginia regarding various records of a former professor, Michael Mann. The CID is part of an investigative process enabled by the Virginia Fraud against Taxpayers Act. This act was passed unanimously by the General Assembly in 2002. The act authorizes the Virginia Attorney General to investigate fraud against taxpayers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The statute applies to people and organizations receiving public monies. It does not exempt professors, researchers, universities or girl scout troops from its scope. A copy of the actual law can be found here.

Mr. Cuccinelli submitted his CID to UVa based on five taxpayer funded grants totaling approximately $500,000. A copy of the CID can be found here.

The predictable and widely-reported response of the liberal and academic communities regarding this CID has been a mixture of screeching and high volume whining about “academic freedom”. The academics and their liberal friends outside of academia maintain that academic research represents some sort of sacred endeavor which should be immune to the normal scrutiny of the use of public funds applied to all other uses of public funds. They say this is to protect the independence of academic research which should never be twisted by politics.

Unfortunately, UVa’s actions prove that the cries of “academic freedom” are only another dose of pap from the fops and dandies who infest American universities.

Here is the timeline of the University of Virginia’s “heroic” defense of “academic freedom”:

1. Dec. 13, 2009 – Del. Bob Marshall (R-Manassas) requests e-mails and other documents involving Michael Mann (a global warming alarmist) under the Freedom of Information Act.

2. Dec. 17, 2009 – Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Carolyn Wood tells Marshall, “The University does not have any e-mail data for Mr. Mann. When Mr. Mann moved to Penn State his e-mail account was terminated and all data was later deleted.”.

3. Dec. 17, 2009 – Greenpeace requests e-mails and other documents regarding the research of former UVa climatology researcher Patrick Michaels (a global warming semi-sceptic) under the Freedom of Information Act.

4. Date unknown – The University of Virginia tells Dr. Michaels that it intends to comply with the Greenpeace request. Greenpeace is reportedly waiting for word from UVa regarding the costs of duplicating Mr. Michaels‘ documents.

5. April 23, 2010 – Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a Civil Investigative Demand with the University of Virginia seeking e-mails and other documents regarding the research of former climatology professor Michael Mann. The CID asked that UVa provide the documents by May 27, 2010.

6. May 19, 2010 – UVa requests a deadline extension until July 26 to comply with the CID.

7. May 27, 2010 – UVa moves to quash the CID in Albemerle County Circuit Court.

I believe that the University of Virginia’s bizarre behavior in this matter highlights the dishonesty and/or incompetence of those who claim to champion “academic freedom”. First, if e-mails from former professors are deleted why is UVa in possession of e-mails from former professor Patrick Michaels? If the e-mails from Michael Mann have been deleted why did UVa ask for an extension to the Attorney General’s CID? If the e-mails from Michael Mann are in UVa’s possession why weren’t they turned over to Del. Marshall? Finally, and most importantly, if “academic freedom” is paramount why would the University of Virginia turn over e-mails from Patrick Michaels to Greenpeace?

It seems that “academic freedom” only applies to academics who practice the liberal religion of insisting that global warming will destroy the world in the very near future. World class researchers like Patrick Michaels believe in global warming, they believe that human activity is the cause of some global warming. They just don’t believe that the demise of the planet is imminent. For that heresy they are abandoned by the champions of intellectual honesty waving their banner of “academic freedom”.

Unsurprisingly, the matter of the Greenpeace FOIA request has received little attention in the MSM. The facts I am quoting in this article come from a podcast with Mr. Michaels, Op-Ed pieces and blogs. In the interests of fairness, I am more than happy to revise this article with new information if credible new information is brought to may attention.

Few people would confuse Ken Cuccinelli for a young Bill Clinton. Progressives (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) see Ken Cuccinelli as an ultra conservative who never strays from right wing dogma and panders to the conservative base for ongoing political support.

While nobody has ever accused “progressives” of consistency, even they must be wondering about their perspective on Cuccinelli after his office filed the legal brief in Digiacinto v. The Rector and Visitors of George Mason University. The brief was filed to the Virginia Supreme Court regarding a challenge to GMU’s regulation prohibiting the possession of firearms in university buildings and at university events. Mr. Cuccinelli filed a brief in favor of GMU’s regulation. However, it was the tone of Cuccinelli’s brief which should warm the cockles of any liberal’s heart.

“Without the regulation, the University community’s safety is seriously compromised. Unquestionably, the vast majority of gun owners are law-abiding citizens. Nevertheless, a rejected student applicant could walk into the Dean of Admissions office with an openly visible sidearm to discuss why the university rejected his application. An expelled student could do the same while he met with the Dean of Students to discuss his appeal of his expulsion. A disgruntled ex-boyfriend armed with a large hunting knife mounted on his side could enter the student residences to speak with his former girlfriend where she lived. Finally, any person who wishes to enter Fenwick Library with a sidearm, could not only frighten students and minors, such as preschoolers, but also expose them to unnecessary risks, such as an accidental discharge.”

Wow!

It seems to me that the District of Columbia v. Heller US Supreme Court ruling provided ample “wiggle room” for Mr. Cuccinelli to go either way with this brief. The overall ruling clearly asserted a personal right to bear arms as part of the second amendment. However, the majority opinion also clearly stated that there could be reasonable regulation of that right.

After the Virginia Tech massacre I believe that good public policy would argue in favor of allowing university administrations to limit firearms on campus.

Apparently, Attorney General Clintonelli agrees.

President Obama is doing the right thing by canceling a lease sale for offshore oil drilling about 50 miles from the Virginia coast.

The plan was suspect from the beginning. Obama surprised environmentalists by playing to Republicans and agreeing to the lease sale, which Gov. Bob McDonnell badly wanted to help his campaign dream of having the Old Dominion become “The energy capital of the East Coast.”

There were any number of problems with the plan. There are still no known commercially viable oil fields off the mid-Atlantic coast. Geology hints that natural gas is a possibility, but probably not oil. Fishing and tourism interests from North Carolina to New Jersey were skittish. Lastly, the Navy, a huge economic player in Virginia, said that more than half of the areas where drilling could happen were too close to combat training zones.

Even if there is oil off the coast, it would not be available until perhaps 2020 and would likely meet U.S. oil demand for a matter of weeks, not years. What needs to be done, as Obama says, is to work harder at finding renewable energy sources with fossil fuel as a temporary and transitional stopgap.

In the Virginia offshore case, Obama is torpedoing it because he hasn’t been able to find a solution to the BP and Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

This all makes Obama look bad, but it makes McDonnell look even worse. McDonnell’s short tenure has seen setback after setback, from the Confederate History Month gaffe to hiring Fred Malek, who once put together a list of Jews in the Bureau of Labor Statistics at President Nixon’s behest, to head an important state panel on government streamlining.

Add to this Kenneth Cuccinelli, and you have a real mess.Speaking of him, it turns out that the University of Virginia will be fighting his civil investigative demands in the global warming research matter.

Not a bad day. And it’s time to take a hard look at the McDonnell Administration

Peter Galuszka

Since 1995, Virginia has been a leader in public-private funding schemes for transportation projects. The state has been able to fund several highway and bridge projects in the Richmond area and Northern Virginia by turning to private financing and operators and avoiding burdening taxpayers who don’t want to pay more taxes or be burdened with extra debt.

The Obama Administration today announced that it would send 1,200 troops to help secure America’s southern border. President Obama will also spend an additional half a billion dollars on the effort. Opinions vary as to why President Obama is taking this action. Some say Republicans from the Southwest forced his hand. Other say that Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) asked for the troops. Many believe that President Obama is a regular visitor to Bacons Rebellion and has seen the wisdom of trying to seal the border after reading my article earlier this week. Finally, there are a few commentators on this site who know that anybody seeking to secure the border is a racist and must, therefore, conclude that President Obama has suddenly become a racist himself.

You can read an article about this decision here.

Racism seems to be getting contagious. Some who blog on this site have gone to great lengths to establish that anybody who “conflates” border security with law enforcement actions against terrorists or drug dealers is a racist. Well, it seems that the Democratic representative from Arizona, Ms. Giffords, has also suddenly become a racist. Here’s an important sentence from the article, “Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said the situation on the ground now is different from when Bush deployed the Guard. Arrests have fallen in the Arizona sector and there’ve been record drug seizures.”.

If that isn’t enough, here’s another point from Rep. Giffords, “She said the border is more violent and law enforcement is outgunned. She and other lawmakers want the troops to be armed — they were not in the previous deployment. She said the U.S. needs to “spend what it takes” to secure its border with Mexico.”.

In a real stunner, it appears that our racist president forgot to order any troops to the Canadian border.

Coal-burning electricity plants are a hot button for environmentalists who somehow have shown more interest in Dominion Virginia Power’s $1.5 billion station in Wise County than the much bigger, $5 billion plus one planned by a group of electrical cooperatives not all that far from Colonial Williamsburg.

The American College Of Sports Medicine has just named the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area as the nation’s fittest city – for the third year in a row. The ratings are created through the use of a fitness index which measures everything from baseball fields to how many servings of fruit and vegetables the residents eat in a day. On a more quantitative basis, the incidence of diabetes is also a factor. The DC-area has a 6.7% diabetes rate compared to 8.3% nationally and 10.5% in America’s least healthy city – Oklahoma City. You can read the full article here.

I found the most interesting part of the article to be a short description of people biking or walking to work. The article says, “Washington has the second highest rate of people walking or biking to work aided by 60 miles of bike lanes.”. Isn’t that interesting? I have read countless comments from people on this site about the low level of pedestrian friendliness in Northern Virginia and the Washington D.C. area. However, when it comes to the DC area, many of the commenters on this blog do not let facts cloud their arguments.

I have also read a lot of comments about people paying their location variable costs. I wonder if superior fitness would be a location variable cost. Given the statistical difference between DC and cities on the wrong end of the list you’d have to say that fitness varies by location. Given the recent debate on health care it seems that illness certainly has a cost. So, when do I start getting rebates on my health insurance from the people living in RoVa?

I just watched an internet video one hour and thirty three minutes in length. It is worth every second. EMR has written extensively about people depleting our natural capital. This video brings those thoughts to life. It is a liberal thesis. However, it is also a jaw dropping, eye popping wonder. Let nobody say that Ole Groveton can’t recognize brilliance – even in the liberal cause. The section on Haiti (beginning at about 0:52) is haunting.

As a side note, embedding was “disabled by request” on YouTube. Therefore, I am providing the link to the video. Also, there have been about 3,500 articles posted on Bacon’s Rebellion since its inception (articles, not comments). It’s quite possible that this video was posted in the past. I seem to have a vague recollection of parts of the video. However, even if this is a “dupe”, I think it is worth a re-visit.

I hate it when liberals do something right!

See the video here.

With his post on terrorists and porous borders (“Open Door Policy for Terrorist”) Groveton has done it again: Tossing rocks at empty pigeon holes.

This time it is not ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives,’ it is ‘lefties’ and ‘righties.’ That is better but the result is the same.

What Groveton will always get are replies like Peter’s and then pointless back and forths with no progress toward consensus on a plan of action.

Many agree with Groveton that a demonstrably porous border is an invitation to more than just Mexicans and Central Americans seeking a better life or implementing a better drug distribution system.

However, most who give the topic any rational thought will also agree with the points raised by Peter and Larry.

What is the point? Why throw stones? There is NOTHING in those pigeon holes, not even pigeons.

First, terrorists:

The only way to stop terrorism is to eliminate the CAUSES of terrorism.

Second, Illegal Immigration:

There are millions of illegal immigrants not because of soft hearted ‘lefties’ but because of the laws were not enforced as TMT points out in his comment.

The laws were not strengthened, the laws were not enforced and resources were not allocated to enforce the laws because of political pressure from Enterprises and Institutions. Thank you Supremes.

The pressure that resulted in millions of illegals has not come from ‘lefties.’ The pressure has come from those who one would ‘expect’ to find in a ‘righties’ pigeon hole. (As Groveton suggests “ … the righties believe that illegal is illegal and if you are caught doing something illegal you should pay the price (presumably deportation).” Check out the positions of the US Chamber of Commerce, check out Big Ag, etc.

The Wealth Gap has been growing wider since the mid 70s. A major reason is that wages and benefits have not kept up with productivity and profit. One way to be sure there is NOT a Balance of supply and demand is to let cheap labor sneak into the nation-state.

In the last 35 years four Donkey Clan administrations (lefties?) and six Elephant Clan administrations (righties?) have overseen decade after decade of more and more porous borders vis a vis cheap labor (and drugs).

Those who have supported weakening and / or not enforcing immigration laws have made campaign contributions and lobbied for these actions because they wanted cheap labor. They also wanted to prevent a ‘labor shortage’ that would drive up the cost of doing business.

Sealed borders will not stop terrorists. Even if they would, according to Enterprise Media, the majority of the terrorists arrested IN the US of A since 2002 are US citizens.

The widening Wealth Gap in the US of A and aggression that can be spun to seem like it is aimed at a specific religious group (many attribute the actions to a desire to keep the price of oil low) are given as the reasons for radicalization of the Times Square bomber.

Anwar al-Awiaki, the “teacher” of the American born US Army major in the Ft. Hood shooting is also American born.

In the EU, the UAE and elsewhere, tight borders controls, identity cards, profiling and other tools has not prevented the tensions from rising over ‘guest workers.’ To solve a problem one has to go to the root of the problem.

The only way to stop illegal immigration is to help sender nation-states provide a better way of life for citizens.

Intelligent Globalization is co-terminus with Regional sustainability

One Region cannot sustain itself by unfairly obtaining the resources of another Region. The definition of “fair” has to be agreed upon by BOTH Regions.

One Region (or group of Regions in an nation-state) cannot pay less than a fair price for any resource – not oil, not diamonds, not labor. Nation-states and continental / multi-nation-state trading blocks cannot provide ‘international development aid’ that results in the extraction and export of resources from less well to do Regions to more well to do Regions.

On a flat Earth with literate populations, instantaneous communications and weapons of mass destruction, the parameters of what is intelligent must reflect reality.

To protect itself, the US of A should be providing expertise in education and specifically in governance transformation to create equal opportunity for all citizens and population management that reflects the enlightened self-interest of citizens. These are the tools Agencies should be providing to our own population.

EMR

Arizona’s recent passage of SB1070 reignited a long simmering debate in America about immigration and border security. One imagines that this debate will continue to be an issue through this year’s November elections.

Those on the right claim that illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans, sap government funds, increase gang violence and commit sundry crimes against people legally in America. Moreover, the righties believe that illegal is illegal and if you are caught doing something illegal you should pay the price (presumably deportation).

Those on the left contend that almost all “undocumented workers” are hard working people just hoping to find a piece of the American dream. The lefties contend that the jobs being worked by “undocumented workers” are jobs that Americans wouldn’t take anyway and that “undocumented workers” are no more prone to commit crimes than those legally in the United States.

All of which misses one big point – the federal government’s open door policy to our borders is an open door policy for terrorists.

We have enacted the Patriot Act, presumably to stop terrorism. We are fighting two wars, presumably to stop terrorism. Everything from re-entering the United States with a valid US passport to opening a bank account is much more difficult than it used to be, presumably to stop terrorism.

Yet, the lefties just can’t handle the fact that our open borders are among the biggest risks we have to another wave of terrorist attacks. The following video sums up the matter rather well. And remember, it only takes one terrorist attack to ruin your whole day.