Virgil’s Supporters: “Goode Bless America”

I don’t begrudge supporters of the other candidate usually. But this was too good to pass up. I know it has been live for some time now, but what do we really know about “Goode Bless America”? (or as they call it, “Ain’t Nothing But A Republican”

Well, finally they have defined themselves. Go and see and write something to Virgil Goode. There is even a little button to submit called ‘I Believe in America” Imagine that.

Anyway, I am sure it is all in good fun (or ‘Goode fun’?) I personally have many questions for the Congressman. I plan on asking in emails about certain issues and the absolutely fluffy-like-marshmallow-creme “Goode News”.

It must make good copy though, it is in every paper of medium to small size in the 5th District. I am sure the editors of these papers read through to find what they are signing onto when they run these pieces unedited. They might find out that Virgil does not want to extend the same care to those citizens with a mental illness, because some of the most needy (severe psychosis, or as Virgil calls it ‘incest, transgenderism and gender orientation’.

Some of which are only compulsory visits to a mental health professional for those who are transgendered or other sexual/gender modifications. And which are not to be scoffed at, similar to the serious treatment of those who are either the perpetrator or the victim of incest.

Write him a little note. C’mon, you know you want to.

(Did I mention that the famous ‘muslim hater’ letter of December 2006 is reproduced there?  Make sure and check it out.)

‘Ain’t Nothing Like A Republican’

Cumberland High School: Students Misremember Administrators’ Remarks?

Last week, the freshman boys and girls at Cumberland High School had separate assemblies where speakers made remarks on several subjects.

According to my stepson, some of the remarks at the young men’s meeting were unnecessarily coarse and seemingly counter to good communication with young people. In addition, two speakers whose names I will not be using, made remarks that I would characterize as intemperate. Ill-advised, in my opinion.

According to the freshman student, and anecdotal reports from other sources, the two men in question made comments which I will paraphrase here, since I wasn’t there to hear them. In fact, I am giving you a paraphrased version straight from the student that was there.

(Paraphrasing)

You don’t deserve a new $36m school.

Don’t take these behaviors to the new school.

How many people are planning to go to college? (hands raise) Well, I see a lot of false hope in this room.

Cumberland used to have a bad reputation, but in years past, that has improved. Now you are messing it up again. (mentioned by teaching staff as well as administrators)

I will admit that the way these things were said might have something to do with the impressions students got, as people always do. However, these statements don’t seem like a good strategy to influence our young people, to inform them and to train them in the ways of society. It is especially not a good thing to be derisive about the educational plans of a high school class that is nearly 50% African-American.

Our student came in the door that day saying loudly, “I am going to college no matter what they say!” This is heartbreaking, because I know many students will not stand up mentally to the negative messages received that day. How many young men said to themselves, “He must be talking about me…”? How many of them felt that the negative reinforcement received that day was a self-fulfilling prophecy?

The response to our actions in calling a School Board member and discussing it, both with her and our student, is also very puzzling. The principal at the high school wrote in an email that the students must have misheard or otherwise confused the message of the presentation. Also, she mentioned in that email that my wife (who knows all too well the management style of our school division) has a problem with the School Division.

In fact, she does. She retired last year on disability after this vaunted management drove her crazy over the last several years. She is a 23 year veteran teacher at those schools, (the only place she taught after university) and she couldn’t fathom staying around to be abused like any warm body anymore. Their repeated bad decisions concerning Special Education and the schools in general wear on a teacher after a while. I have witnessed her working many more hours than she was ever expected to in order to complete work someone else had butchered horribly or hadn’t done at all, both above her in the supposed chain of command and below her.

The fact is, she deserves something better, and that’s why she left under medical advice.

But I digress.

What are the students to think now, with no official response to this outrage? Do they think that the school has their best interests at heart? I doubt it. What are the parents of other upset students saying and thinking? Did they call the school, or complain to their School Board representative?

We didn’t complain to our actual School Board member, because we knew it would do no good, him being part of the problem rather than part of the solution. You see, last year when Cumberland County elected its first School Board ever, he was the chair of the appointed board. He is no longer chair in the elected board and has been an obstructionist to the process of straightening out the mess that are our schools are in.

Of course, since he was elected, he can become un-elected as well.

On a final note, I will mention that one of the two administrators in question is part of the widely recognized and heralded “Call Me Mister” Program. The program provides resources for schools to provide good role models to young African-America men. The other administrator also is part of a similar program, as well as both men being involved in athletic coaching at the high school. To answer the question you must be asking yourself at this point, the two administrators are African-Americans. That fact has nothing to do with this complaint. It has everything to do, instead, with improper supervision of staff and an unclear message being put out that only serves to confuse the very people it is meant to help — young male students at our high school.

Campbell County Landfill Lawsuits Continue

We here in Cumberland County have had the spectre of a dump hanging over our heads for over two years. The Board of Supervisors and other county officials have done everything they think they needed to in order to bring this to our county.

While a dump is one person’s tax base, it is also the citizen’s nightmare scenario if the officials in the county act in secret and use conflicting figures to scare the populace into not challenging their actions.

Also, there is ample evidence for where and how dumps get placed in locations. As a matter of economic justice, there should not be a continuation of looking for counties that are 1) high poverty, 2) little organized resistance, 3) low education rate to allow the lies to take hold, and 4) cash-strapped.

If the trash business was not profitable Allied Waste would not be able to throw around millions of dollars in our community and convince the naive and the gullible that our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has arrived.

Someday, Cumberland County will need to deal, be forced to deal, with the aftermath of this dump. This is where the story gets interesting. Let’s go to Campbell County and see what’s going on with their dump.

By Chris Dumond and Sarah Watson
The News & Advance
Published: April 5, 2008

After three years of legal wrangling, several lawsuits about who is responsible for groundwater contamination from the Campbell County landfill still hang in limbo.

Millions of dollars are at stake between potential damages and ongoing cleanup costs.

Claude and Virginia Royal, owners of the 165-acre Twin Oaks manufactured home park near Yellow Branch, discovered in 2002 that well water serving their residents had elevated levels of volatile organic chemicals, according to a Department of Environmental Quality consent order to the county.

After three years of discussions with the county, the Royals filed several lawsuits in 2005 and 2006 charging that the county operated the landfill in a manner that caused a plume of toxic chemicals to pollute their water and land.

[...]

Remediation and expense

As of last month, Campbell County has spent more than $3.5 million on design, engineering and construction to start cleaning up the groundwater. As of March 2007, the county has spent more than $140,000 in legal expenses to Shreve, according to county documents.

The county also paid a $14,000 fine to DEQ in 2003.

The groundwater remediation started in 2006 and there’s no end in sight, said county public works director Clif Tweedy.

The county installed 24 remediation wells on the landfill property and the Royals’ property, which pump 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of groundwater per day to the landfill through 24 pipelines.

The water is then filtered to remove the volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, vinyl chloride and acetone, and is discharged into a stream on the landfill property, Tweedy said. “(The discharge is) very clear water and we have to test it on a regular basis to make sure it doesn’t have any (volatile organic compounds) in it.”

The idea is to pump all the contaminated water out of the ground, treat the water and clean it up, Tweedy said.

The county tests for about 50 chemicals and since the cleanup started, some levels have dropped, some have increased and some stayed the same, Tweedy said. However, he added, it’s too early to tell if the process is working.

The remediation does not have a set time frame because it depends on when the pollution levels drop below state standards, Tweedy said. “Until the levels get below the standards, we’ll have to continue to operate. No one really wants to hazard a guess.”

This is Cumberland County’s future. Granted, there was no liner in the Campbell County Dump. Industry officials swear that new methods and materials will ensure that this will not be repeated here. Since they have not been very open so far, I am not holding my breath in this case either. After all, these are the Supervisors who claim that three of them can go tour the new $33m schools, have their picture in the paper, and still claim that no county business was being discussed.

My children, step-children and grandchildren will have to deal with the aftermath here. I will be too old or gone already.

We Won’t Change Congressmen Unless We Change Minds

Changing minds is not easy.
It’s all well and good to talk about fundraising, and how much money candidates have. It is only half the equation in my estimation. I am thrilled with the fundraising here in the 5th Congressional District race. However, Democrats need to change a lot of minds for a Democrat to be elected President, Congressman, Senator or Governor.

There is a general misconception that the 5th District is unwinnable, due to Virgil Goode’s hold on the District and the history here. I do not agree with that, although it would make things a lot easier for Democrats in this district. No campaigns, no fundraising, you get the idea.

There are lots of problems disseminating information in the district. Overall, there is one of the lowest usages of the internet in the entire state. Poverty and illiteracy are higher than average here. The district itself is huge, encompassing a land mass area the size of some states.

The biggest job we have of changing minds is that people sometimes vote the way they do because they know nothing different. Families vote one way sometimes. Also, the attitude is out there that it doesn’t matter if we vote or not, and/or ‘they’re all crooks anyway’. I would much rather know for myself what the character of someone is without Chris Mathews or any of the pundits or talking heads telling me what to think.

I want to see for myself what the differences are in candidates, what they stand for or against, their voting record if they have one, and their comportment in the community. Better the crook you know, if you insist on thinking that way.

I don’t know how successful voter registration drives will be this summer and fall. If Pennsylvania and Texas are any indication, there should be more people voting this fall. As I write this, I am wondering what the special problems would be if 70-80% of registered voters came out on Election Day . It would be bedlam.

I guess what I am saying in my own rambling way, is that people should have gotten the idea by now that things are totally messed up in government. If they vote their self-interest, maybe things will change for the better.

I don’t care who you vote for, just vote.

Virgil Goode: Equates Mental Health Parity With Incest

The House of Representatives has acted unwisely, in my opinion, by voting to
pass legislation that mandates that group health plans provide the same benefits for mental and physical illness in all companies with at least 51 employees that provide group health insurance. This covers substance abuse and mandates coverage for disorders such as incest, jet lag, gender identity disorder, necrophilia (erotic desire for dead bodies), transvestite fetishes (someone who adopts the dress or manner or sexual role of the opposite sex), and pedophilia (sexual desire in an adult for a child). This bill passed 268-to-148. I voted “No.”

Prior to this bill’s passage, some of us supported an alternative bill that had passed the Senate. The legislation that I voted for supported a mental health parity bill that provided discretion rather than mandates for determining mental disorders to be covered. I do not believe that the federal government should mandate coverage for jet lag, incest, gender identity disorders, pedophilia and the like. This bill failed 196-to-221.

Please keep in touch with me on issues that are important to you. You may write Congressman Virgil Goode, 70 East Court Street, Room 215, Rocky Mount , VA 24151 ; or fax to 1-540-484-1459; or call toll-free to the Danville office, 1-800-535-4008.

Virgil Goode is my Congressman. He does not do anything about issues I think are important. That is a given, just the way things are.

I am dismayed however, at how wrong this is. Not only do those people who suffer from mental illness of one sort or another deserve to be treated, we, as a society, have a duty to help take care of those who are sick and less fortunate than ourselves.

I have a mental illness. While it doesn’t rise to the level of the other psychiatric illnesses mentioned above, it is a serious mental illness. I live with it every day.

Depression.

Depression often has associated illnesses that accompany it. Anxiety, lack of interest in life activities, employment problems, and sleep disorders are just a few. Then we could talk about side effects.

But let’s not. Congressman Goode would have us believe that those of us, clearly the overwhelming majority, who are not afflicted with the above maladies, should not have parity in insurance coverage because that minority also need treatment. Those in that minority also deserve treatment.

Diseases of the mind, or brain, are just a physiological as a broken arm or gall bladder surgery. Why not treat them that way?

For Mr. Goode to equate the treatment of all people in Virginia with mental illnesses, with a minority of those people with incredibly serious disorders, is unfair and disingenuous at best. For Mr. Goode, most of the time he can’t support a bill due to reasons like it spends too much money on something, or that it allows the humane treatment of illegal immigrants (or at least in his head it allows it). When he doesn’t support those bills, he lets his district down.

We are in the 21^st century, Mr. Goode. We need a new leader that will recognize that sometimes sacrifice of ideas and ideals is necessary to achieve progress for the greater good. We need a Congressman who will take today’s problems seriously and help find solutions. I am through fighting the battle of morality and so-called ‘values, especially when the values I see expressed by my representative are ones that rightfully belong in the 19^th century, not the 21^st.

I have a feeling there will be a lot more said about this, rightfully so.

Boucher, Scott Reject Telecom Free Ride

John Conyers (D-NY) and 19 House Judiciary Committee members rejected amnesty for telecoms that participated in illegal spying on the American people. From the Speaker’s blog:

Statement of Undersigned Members of the House Judiciary Concerning the Administration’s Terrorist Surveillance Program and the Issue of Retroactive Immunity

As a result of our review of classified as well as unclassified materials concerning the Administration’s Terrorist Surveillance Program, we have concluded that blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies is not justified. However, we do recommend a course of action that would both permit the carriers the opportunity to defend themselves in court and also protect classified information – by eliminating current legal barriers and authorizing relevant carriers to present fully in court their claims that they are immune from civil liability under current law, with appropriate protections to carefully safeguard classified information. In addition, we recommend legislation to fill a current gap in liability protection for carriers, and to create a bipartisan commission to thoroughly investigate the legality of the warrantless surveillance program….

Accordingly, we support a resolution that would, notwithstanding the state secrets doctrine, authorize relevant carriers to present fully in court their claims that they are immune from civil liability under current law, with appropriate security protections to carefully safeguard classified information. This solution would ensure that carriers can fully present their arguments that they are immune under current law, while also ensuring that Americans who believe their privacy rights were violated will have the issue considered by the courts based on the applicable facts and law, consistent with our traditional system of government and checks and balances.

Our review has also led us to support two other recommendations. First, there is arguably a gap in liability protections for carriers that complied with lawful surveillance requests covering the time period between the expiration of the Protect America Act and the future enactment of more lasting FISA reform legislation. As Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid have proposed, legislation to fill that gap is justified and important. This provision is not included in the Senate FISA bill, and shoul dbe included in any final legislative product.

In addition, our review of classified information has reinforced serious concerns about the potential illegality of the Administration’s actions in authorizing and carrying out its warrantless surveillance program. We, therefore, recommend the creation of a bipartisan commission to conduct hearings and take other evidence to fully examine that program. Like the 9/11 Commission, it would make findings and recommendations in both classified and unclassified reports and thus inform and educate the American people on this troubling subject.

The following members voted to reject:

Representatives Howard L. Berman (D-CA), Rick Boucher (D-VA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Robert C. Scott (D-VA, Melvin L. Watt (D-NC), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), William D. Delahunt (D-MA), Robert Wexler (D-FL), Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Betty Sutton (D-OH), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Anthony D. Weiner (D-NY), Artur Davis (D-AL), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), and Keith Ellison (D-MN)

My hat is off to Rep. Rick Boucher and Rep. Bobby Scott for doing the right thing. Amnesty for lawbreakers is not going to make the abuses go away. Paying the price for their complicit actions will make these companies think again about performing illegal operations with no legal authority.

Link - Speaker’s Blog

Where it Stops, Nobody Knows

Mark Schmitt of Tapped on John McCain’s ‘loan’ arrangements:

(This first part is an actual clause from the bank document.)

Additional Requirement. Borrower and lender agree that if Borrower [McCain's campaign committee] withdraws from the public matching funds program, but John McCain then does not win the next primary or caucus in which he is active (which can be any primary or caucus held the same day) or does not place at least within 10 percentage points of the winner of that primary or caucus, Borrower will cause John McCain to remain an active political candidate and Borrower will, within thirty (3) days of said primary or caucus (i) reapply for public matching funds, (ii) grant to Lender, as additional collateral for the Loan, a first priority perfected security interest in and to all Borrower’s right, title and interest in and to the public matching funds program, and (iii) execute and deliver to Lender such documents, instruments and agreements as Lender may require with respect to the foregoing.

(Here’s the document:
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?_28039612468+0 From this link, you can read the document by page or produce a pdf. Much of it is blurry and boilerplate, until you get to the loan modification agreement starting page 21, which is legible.)

What does this mean? It means that rather than pledge his existing certification for matching funds as collateral for the loan, which would bind him to the system and thus the spending limits, McCain carefully pledged to seek to re-enter the system later, and to use a non-existent future certification as collateral. And while the system is “voluntary,” McCain essentially traded away for cash his right to choose whether to participate in the system, and even his right to drop out of the presidential race, allowing the bank to force McCain “to remain an active candidate” in order to reapply for and qualify for funds. He was betting the spread (10 points) on his own primary performance! I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this is a promise to perpetuate a fraud on the American taxpayers: if he no longer intended to seek the presidency, he made a legally-binding promise to pretend to remain in the race just long enough to collect public money to repay the loan.

Is this illegal? Who knows. Note that it took several days of discussion among top lawyers and former FEC commissioners to figure out whether it was even possible to opt out of the public financing system after opting in and qualifying for funds. No one’s ever done that. And therefore, no one’s ever opted back in, after opting out, after opting in. And therefore, no one’s ever borrowed on the basis of a promise to opt back in, after opting out, after opting in. Is your head exploding yet?

RPV: Cat Has Kittens in Oven, Now They Are Biscuits

The RPV is really delusional. That might not come as a surprise to you, but the you might not have seen their ‘blog’.

From their meltdown over the last several years to their embarrassing performance in last year’s elections, the statewide GOP organization has had one misstep after another. Shaun Kenney was hired, then later resigned. George Allen, the hope of the GOP for this year’s Presidential elections, melted down all on his own, and reflected badly on the party. Jim Gilmore is given the chance to be the only nominee for Senate in 2008 from the GOP. Yes, (No Car Tax) Jim is going to get his chance to be beaten by Mark Warner.

Now comes their ‘blog’, ‘VA GOP Caucus’. All the Republican members of the House are listed there. Suitably for Republicans, there is absolutely no accountability at this ‘blog’. Nobody knows who is the editor or who writes the posts. Are we to assume that all the caucus members sign off and approve of what appears on that ‘blog’?

Waldo has been following this story, and has called bullshit about the whole thing. He makes some good points; that Morgan Griffith has argued loudly and long that the video from the House would lengthen sessions, distract members, and turn you into a Democrat. Okay, I made that last part up. So now, this ‘blog’ is putting video of the House up, captured on their own system, and trying to embarrass Democrats.

Democrats could only be embarrassed for their GOP colleagues when they see this ‘blog’. As usual, what you and I see as doing the people’s business, is seen by the Virginia GOP as something that can be pointed out to be embarrassing to Democrats. Moral posturing is the order of the day.

The Virginia GOP should listen more to some of it’s members when they say that this blog needs serious help.

Anonymous commenters are allowed on this cheap blog (on Blogger), and that makes it difficult to even know if the ‘anonymous’ you are talking with/to is the same one.

My summation:

That blog sucks.

Virgil Goode’s Latest: He Walks Away From The Constitution

One of the shames of the week was the performance of the Republican Caucus in the House. John Boehner of Ohio stood up and declared they didn’t have to take it anymore, and left for a prearranged news conference on the steps of the Capital.

Of course, Virgil lined up with all the other good little boys and girls and did what his masters told him to do. You know, kind of like when Virgil votes a certain way on something.

I am so over Virgil Goode and his pandering to racists and xenophobes in our society. His obsession with the so-called ‘North American Union’ is straight out of looney-tunes land. But when he refuses to give his vote, whether he agrees or not, he is not doing the job we sent him there to do for us.

He would rather walk out, play patty-cake for the cameras and the reporters, and say it was a principled stand. His buddies on that side of the aisle, hard not to find someone either retiring or under investigation. People who joined him are the cream of the rancid crop of House obstructionist Republicans, whose motto is, ‘We’d rather walk out than perform our responsibility.’

Honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, this from a man who thinks the Qu’ran belongs in some other country. A man who thinks he should vote against health care for Virginia children, because the bill didn’t pass his muster, or that of his handlers.

There is no way Virgil Goode should remain in Congress. He has had his chances, and all we got were table scraps. It’s time to elect someone who will get us a little of the brass ring.

Tom Perriello for Congress

Recent Ice Storm Pictures

All photos by Lisa Blanton. (C) 2008