SUSA numbers show why McAuliffe would be such a poor nominee.
The latest SUSA poll in the governor’s race is bad, bad news for Democrats. It’s the realization of my fear about how we Democrats—by way of Terry McAuliffe—could screw up a sure thing.
By way of background, I wrote in December of 2007 that urban Democrats’ power is in danger of outstripping their pragmatism:
As wealthy, urban [...]
VPAP is hiring.
The Virginia Public Access Project is hiring. They’re looking for a researcher/writer with some decent computer skills. The details follow.
About the Job: The primary responsibility will be to implement VPAP’s initiative to track money raised by candidates for local office. This person will be VPAP’s resident expert in local elections, manage logistics for obtaining [...]
An overview of Virginia’s freedom of information laws.
Virginia Coalition for Open Government executive director Megan Rhyne has a standard presentation that she gives to groups about Virginia’s Freedom of Information laws. Cleverly, Megan has taken that presentation and put it up on YouTube, so that anybody can see VCOG’s slideshow overview of state FOIA laws.
If your organization is interested in learning about [...]
Indigent dental care in Virginia: An update.
I wrote a lengthy piece on the state of indigent dental care in Virginia a few years ago. It continues to be read regularly, and I get often get e-mail in response to it. A few days ago reader “LCS” e-mailed me the following:
I just recently went on an archives hike and came across your [...]
Oil industry knew in 1995 that they were causing climate change.
Oil companies concluded in 1995 that “the scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied,” but decided it was best to ignore conclusions and continue to claim that there was no correlation. Many of those [...]
The RPV’s new and improved newsletter.
From the Credit Where Credit Is Due Department, the formerly awful* RPV weekly newsletter has gotten a lot better under acting chair Mike Thomas. It used to be shrill, packed with lies and exaggerations, and very negative, largely dedicated to attacking Democrats or, more often, a strawman version of Democrats. Now it’s upbeat, forward-looking, and [...]
Torture OK was “a perfect storm of ignorance and enthusiasm.”
In yesterday’s New York Times, Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti reveal how top White House and congressional officials all came to agree that torture was legal in 2002:
This extraordinary consensus was possible, an examination by The New York Times shows, largely because no one involved — not the top two C.I.A. officials who were pushing [...]
Friendship extends lifespan.
For the New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope explains that friends are good for your health:
Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood [...]
Mark Penn says there are 500,000 professional bloggers in the U.S.
I recommend reading about Mark Penn’s completely invented WSJ article in a piece I wrote over at VQR today. The famed political pollster appears to have completely invented the facts behind his sensationalist op-ed in today’s Journal, claiming that there are as many professional bloggers as attorneys in the U.S. I gave him a good [...]
Microsoft screwing up Windows 7, too.
As a Mac OS X and Linux user, I’ve been really happy to see how much Windows Vista sucks, and that people have finally realized that Windows sucks. As a result, I’ve been nervous that they might get their act together with Windows 7, the next iteration of Windows that’s due out within the next [...]
Thomas Garrett is now representing himself.
Writes Hawes Spencer at The Hook:
Daleville attorney James Creekmore is no longer representing the Buckingham publicist/author/chicken farmer who’s suing the Hook and two of its reporters for $10.7 million. A Buckingham judge signed an April 14 order that allows Creekmore to withdraw as Tommy Lightfoot Garrett’s legal counsel.
For those keeping track, I’ve gone from representing [...]
An xkcd collection is coming out.
Randall Munroe has a collection of his xkcd comics coming out in book form, and the New York Times has taken notice enough to devote 900 words to the topic in today’s paper. I’ve been a fan of xkcd for a few years now, and it’s been fun watching it get famous.
McDonnell opposes establishing a prison for Guantanamo prisoners in Virginia.
Bob McDonnell says he opposes transferring Guantanamo Bay prisoners into any Virginia facilities. For the record, I’d be perfectly happy to have them in Virginia. Hell, I’d be happy to have them right here in Albemarle County, in any place that’s appropriate for a prison facility of that size.
McDonnell describes these guys as “some of [...]
This just in: Brian Moran is seeking the governor’s seat.
Oh, look—Brian Moran announced today that he’s running for governor. And media outlets are carrying the story as news—Charlottesville’s WCAV, D.C.’s WTOP, the Associated Press / Daily Press, and Lynchburg’s WSET are all reporting on this.
I don’t mean to pick on Moran here, because lots of candidates do this. They run for office for months [...]
Obama has named VA Secretary of Technology the nation’s CTO.
President Obama has named Aneesh Chopra the U.S. Chief Technology Advisor. Aneesh is (or, rather, was) Gov. Kaine’s CTO, and I worked with him on a project earlier this year. I’d hoped to work with him on many more in the months ahead, but if that’s not going to happen, this is certainly a really [...]
North Korea: If you so much as look at us, it is on.
North Korea says that any sanctions resulting from their recent missile test will constitute a declaration of war. These guys are just desperate for somebody—anybody—to declare war on them. Three months ago, North Korea believed that a declaration of war constituted a declaration of war. Then they said that any attempt to interfere with [...]
Bowerbank’s campaign is raking in the big bucks.
Jon Bowerbank has out-raised all of his competition for Lieutenant Governor, and by a long shot—$500k to Jody Wagner’s $400k! Sweet Jesus! That’s amazing! It sounds like everybody should just drop out of the race.
What’s that now? He what? He gave himself that money? Well, that can’t be true. Check out the press release from [...]
Sen. Deeds was right to skip the Shad Planking.
It looks like Sen. Creigh Deeds did the right thing in skipping the Shad Planking, or so I gather from Anita Kumar’s article in today’s Post. Campaigning at the Shad Planking is like campaigning on blogs—the audience already has their minds made up, so in a tight race, any time or money spent is time [...]
“You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit.”
Matt Taibbi on conservatives’ efforts to paint Obama has both socialist and fascist, despite his administration’s huge giveaways to bailed-out businesses:
It requires serious mental gymnastics to describe the Obama administration — particularly the Obama administration of recent weeks, which has given away billions to Wall Street and bent over backwards to avoid nationalization and [...]
The new homesteaders movement.
All of a sudden, everybody’s getting chickens.
It started before the recession, over the past couple of years, but it’s really taken off in the past six months. Acquaintance talk of how many square feet their new garden plot is or how many varieties of tomatoes that they’ve planted. People under the age of 65 have [...]
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Waldo Jaquith (JAY-kwith) is a website developer and political pundit who lives in the vicinity of Charlottesville, VA, USA. more »
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