Archives for Category "State & Local"
March 25, 2008
Virginia for the Haters
There is a lot TheGuy and I like about living in Virginia, but sometimes some of the idiot haters down in Richmond remind me of some of the things we really don't. The latest "conservative" display of bigotry and hate here in the great Commonwealth is rightwing Attorney General McDonnell claiming that state universities in Virginia do not have to offer in-state tuition to U.S.-born students whose parents happen to be undocumented immigrants. The ACLU of VA's Executive Director says:Under the AG’s line of reasoning, a U.S. citizen born in Virginia and who has spent his entire life here could be denied in-state tuition because his parents are not lawfully present. That’s patently unfair and a bit preposterous, if you think about it. At the very least it violates a fundamental tenet of U.S law -- that you do not punish children for the actions of their parents.It's not only bigoted, it's anti-American, and anti-education. But, I'm not really surprised.
These days, of course, stuff about education is starting to become personal for us. If we still happen to be in Virginia when it's time for TheLittleGuy to go to college, I will certainly encourage him to consider some of Virginia's fine colleges and universities to help save his poor parents some money. (I'll be suggesting options outside of VA too, I'm sure.) Hopefully, whatever wingnut Taliban-types are in office at the time won't be trying to deny access to education to my kid simply because his mother has some trait(s) they find undesirable. But, you know they would if they could.
<=> | in: Civil Rights & Feminism / Parenting / Religion & Politics / Republicans / State & Local
February 11, 2008
Primary in Old Dominion Tomorrow
The presidential primary for Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. is tomorrow. (Some are calling it the "Potomac primary" and I've also seen the "Chesapeake primary.") I don't think I've ever voted in a primary where the nominee wasn't already "decided." And, just my luck, I'm truly undecided on this one. In a perfect world, I have serious reservations about both Clinton and Obama. In this world, they are both stellar candidates against anything the Republicans have to offer. I could still vote for Edwards, as I believe he's still on the ballot. Or, since I'm so torn, I could just not vote at all. Or, since Virgina has open primaries, I could go vote in the Republican primary - but that's not a particularly palatable option, either. I suspect either I won't go, or I'll decide while staring at the little touch screen.On, and just to wander into the political junkie weeds for a moment: on this whole super-delegate question -- yo, people, the rules are the rules. If anyone thought this was a horrible way for the party to determine its nominee, where was the big protest and screeching earlier? Besides, I truly don't think it'll come to that, but even if it does, I'm with Digby, and, heaven help me, Kevin Drum:
[Drum:] Who decides what the popular will is anyway? Is it number of pledged delegates from the state contests? Total popular vote? Total number of states won? What about uncommitted delegates from primary states? Or caucus states, in which there's no popular vote to consult and delegates are selected in a decidedly nondemocratic fashion to begin with? And what about all the independent and crossover voters? Personally, I'd just as soon they didn't have a say in selecting the nominee of my party at all, but the rules say otherwise. If I'm a superdelegate, do I count their votes, or do I pore over exit polls to try to tease out how Democratic Party voters voted? And how do I take into account the obviously disproportionate influence of Iowa and New Hampshire, two tiny states that have far more power than any truly democratic process would ever give them?This is related to another thing I find pretty puzzling -- all the anxiousness over the fact that the primary selection process is taking awhile and is actually competitive for more than 2 states' worth of voting. Why is this a bad thing? I know the media will do their usual "Dems in disarray" bullshit, but I truly fail to see the problem. I wish most primaries worked like this--remained competitive, that is--and I'm fairly amused at the fact that after a bunch of states jockeyed to move their primaries as early as possible, this thing might play out all the way into April (at least on the Dem side). It's not disarray, it's, as I overheard someone on the elevator at work say today, an overabundance of riches. Two strong candidates, an engaged and participating Democratic electorate--where's the bad, again? By the way, one of my sources in Maine says that my hometown's Democratic caucus turnout was huge this year - in 2004 something like a dozen people showed up; this time it was almost 200.
[... back to Digby:] I am all for insisting that the decision be based upon the will of the people. But the system is so weird that I don't think anyone can tell what that really will be if the party remains polarized.
So while I am certainly sympathetic to the notion that the elite fat cats shouldn't decide for us, I think somebody needs to set forth some detailed criteria about how they should go about determining a more democratic way to decide this thing if there is a tie.
<=> | Comments: 7 | in: Democrats / Federal Politics / Republicans / State & Local
November 20, 2007
Thanks, Guv'na!
The Governor of Virginia sent out a Thanksgiving email today that was actually pretty good. Most of the political spam I get is fairly nauseating -- but actually I think it's the *campaign* spam I get that's annoying. This was just a Happy Thanksgiving email, and the Governor has reason to be happy, as the Democrats are turning Virginia slowly away from haters-ville and into a more rational place. During the time we've lived here we've already replaced one wingnut Senator with someone a bit more reasonable. And next year I expect that the other Republican Senator will be replaced with a more reasonable Democrat. Our own wingnut state senator was ousted just this month and replaced with a healthcare policy expert. And Fairfax County is trending more and more Democratic. There are still a bunch of haters in some of the more rural parts of the state, but maybe over the next few years they can be further marginalized.Anyway, the Governor has non-partisan reasons to be proud, too. According to his email:
We are the best managed state in America (Governing Magazine), the best state to do business (CNBC and Forbes.com) and the best state for a child to be born in today (Education Week). I've worked hard with so many of you in my first 22 months in office to increase our transportation investments, protect open space, clean up our rivers and the Bay and expand educational opportunities with a special focus on our youngest children. We have significant challenges, but also have every reason to be optimistic that we can keep Virginia strong.And nowhere in this message did he blather on about 'security' - which I found very refreshing. I've got some issues with Tim Kaine, but he's far superior to the alternative he was running against.
In other local political news, TheGuy and I were at our local Chipotle the other day (I'm having a sustained burrito fetish, which is fodder for another post at some point in the future) and I was gnoshing on my guacamole and looked up at the people in line and said: "Hey, that guy looks like Mark Sickles." Sickles is our state house delegate. TheGuy took a look and said, "It is, it is Mark Sickles!" So then we had an amusing conversation about whether we should say hello. On the one hand, let the man eat his burrito in peace! On the other hand, maybe he'd be pleased to know that his constituents know who he is. (My estimate was that maybe only 3 people in the whole place would have any idea who he was.) But then what would we say? Congratulations on your recent smashing victory? (He ran unopposed.) Should we pick something to rant at him about? This part of the County is pretty well-run, so we don't actually have much to complain about that isn't already on his agenda. In the end, we decided to leave him alone. But talking it over was good for a few giggles.
<=> | in: State & Local
November 6, 2007
Local Election
Virginia had state and local elections today. While I'm pretty disgusted with the political scene in general (Chuck Schumer can go @$*( himself, for example), and am still contemplating withholding the vote in '08, I did vote in this election. It was an open race for our county supervisor's seat, among other things, and TheGuy and I happen to have met each of the candidates through TheGuy's work with our housing association. The candidate we voted for was at the polls when I went this afternoon and I said hello. Introduced myself and said: "you may remember my husband [x], from [y]." "Oh yes," he said. But who the hell knows? What's he going to say? No? He's a politician! Hahaha. Anyway, I also voted for almost half a billion dollars in transportation and school bonds. Gack. But even the Republican sample ballot recommended voting 'yes' on them, so borrow, borrow and spend, spend, spend, dear county! Whee!For a brief minute I pondered giving our candidate a bit of a grilling about how he really plans to revitalize the blight that is the Springfield Mall (which was a big part of his platform, from what little I read.. ), but then I decided not to pester the guy. Not like it was going to affect my vote. But it would be nice to demolish the entire mall and start over. How quickly can that happen?
<=> | Comments: 1 | in: State & Local
