You should follow this open government Twitter feed.
The fact that you’re reading this tells me that you’re likely to really enjoy the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’s Twitter feed. It’s fast becoming my sole source of open government news, and I recommend it highly for anybody interested in having governance take place in the light of day. (Disclosure: I’m on VCOG’s board.)
Commonwealth Quest update.
I last wrote about my efforts on the Commonwealth Quest a year and a half ago, at which time I’d visited all but six (or possibly seven) cities and twenty seven counties. By driving to Virginia Beach this week via the Northern Neck and the Middle Peninsula, and driving back by way of Smithfield, I [...]
Perriello’s opponent is touting his qualifications.
Bradley Rees wants voters to know that he’s qualified to replace Rep. Tom Perriello in Congress. How qualified?
I’m over 25 years old, and I’ve been a resident of Virginia my entire life. That’s the only qualification our founding fathers set up.
Of age? Check. Misinformed about residency requirements? Check. This man’s got it all over Perriello!
Kris Amundson is retiring from the General Assembly.
I just returned from a two-day minication to find that Del. Kris Amundson is retiring after a decade in office. I’m always of mixed emotion when a legislator who I admire retires. On the one hand, it’s a loss for me as somebody who feels like I’m being represented. On the other hand, it’s often [...]
Chris Anderson’s Free contains what is apparently plagiarized text.
Over on VQR I wrote:
In the course of reading Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Hyperion, $26.99), for a review in an upcoming issue of VQR, we have discovered almost a dozen passages that are reproduced nearly verbatim from uncredited sources. These instances were identified after a cursory investigation, after [...]
McDonnell refuses to sign an anti-tax pledge.
Bob McDonnell is refusing to sign an anti-tax pledge, and the Washington Times is upset. I’m impressed with McDonnell. We’re seeing right now, in California, what happens when a state refuses to raise taxes as a matter of principle. Sometimes it’s necessary, and to say “I’ll never raise taxes no matter what” is foolish. McDonnell [...]
Catching up with Abu Zubaida.
You’ll remember the name Abu Zubaida. That’s the guy President Bush bragged about capturing back in 2002, describing him as “al-Qaeda’s chief of operations.” Zubaida denied it, saying that he had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. So we held him at a CIA black operations site and tortured him in order to get him to [...]
The effects of VDOT’s budget problems are coming into focus.
Two of the effects of our state’s budget woes: VDOT is eliminating their safety patrol and we’re shutting down 18 of our 40 rest stops. Our rest stops serve 45,000,000 travelers every year. What message will we send to tourists when we block off the ramp with boulders and surround the abandoned buildings with barbed [...]
Saving money by downgrading asphalt to gravel.
Some rural Michigan counties are converting their paved roads to gravel, because they’re much cheaper to maintain. I live on a gravel road, and it always grates when developers buy a bunch of land and then offer to pay the cost of paving the existing gravel road that leads to it, knowing that it will [...]
Fear and loathing at an Albemarle County precinct.
Volunteering to work the polls in a nonpartisan capacity—stuck in the polling place for fifteen hours—can be characterized as long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of awkwardness.
Random guy running against Perriello.
This guy says he’s running against Rep. Tom Perriello. He claims that the Goode only lost “for not running on the FairTax,” which is the notion of replacing our existing tax structure with something considerably more regressive, a national sales tax.
Eleven-year-old “terrorist” released from Guantanamo.
A 21-year-old was just released from Guantanamo after being arrested at the age of fourteen for allegedly associating with al-Qaeda at the age of eleven. There was zero evidence of any such thing, hence his release. So we wrongly imprisoned a child for seven years, raised him in a prison, and set him free in [...]
Dionne: Advantage Deeds.
I’m not the only one who thinks that this governor’s race is Sen. Creigh Deeds’ to lose: E.J. Dionne agrees. Dionne joined us at The Omni on the night of the election, and points out that while he’s been to a great many victory parties in his career, but “the ties to the candidate seemed [...]
The NRA’s endorsement quandary.
Four years ago the NRA endorsed Creigh Deeds for AG rather than Bob McDonnell. Now they’ve got the same two candidates, only the stakes are higher. Will they repeat their 2005 endorsement?
If the NRA endorses Deeds in this race, I’ll become a member.
McDonnell’s unenviable position in this race.
Jeff Schapiro, as a part of a longer Richmond Times-Dispatch piece about the troubles faced by Bob McDonnell, makes this notable point, among others:
For a party in almost nonstop retreat since 2001, the Virginia GOP shows no sign of retreating from the well-right-of-center orthodoxy that has left it defensive and depleted its bench.
Why would the [...]
Election stats.
VPAP is doing some fun stuff with election data now, particularly this map of winners by municipality. This state is just a sea of Creigh Deeds, from north to south, east to west, with only four islands of McAuliffe and four islands of Moran. Democrats have a nominee with a tremendous geographic base of support.
And [...]
Republicans considering ‘10 Congressional challenges.
The Hill’s Jeremy Jacobs on Tom Perriello vulnerability in November 2010:
Perriello’s district, warned James Madison University political scientist Bob Roberts, was gerrymandered so it would always be held by a Republican. “There is no reason they wouldn’t take back this district,” he said.
Really? No reason? He can’t summon a single reason why an incumbent congressman [...]
The Democratic primary got 46x greater turnout than Republicans’.
With 319,130 ballots cast yesterday, 6.4% of the electorate turned out to vote among the Democrats.
With 7,000 delegates having shown up to their convention, Republicans got 00.138% of the electorate to show.
Which party is it, again, that’s having trouble connecting with Virginians, as evidenced by low turnout? Because I get confused.
“Democrats nominate and vote for politicians while Republicans nominate and vote for leaders.”
Everything that’s wrong with blind partisanship is neatly encapsulated in this dumb-ass editorial from yesterday’s Culpeper Star-Exponent:
What is the main difference between Democrats and Republicans? It’s simple: Democrats nominate and vote for politicians while Republicans nominate and vote for leaders.
This was proven once again on May 30 at our Republican state convention in Richmond. [...]
Wikipedia’s role in Sen. Deeds’ nomination.
During Marc Fisher’s live discussion last night, two comments submitted by members of the public stand out:
I voted for Deeds. The WaPo endorsement really helped. I started doing the research this weekend and was disappointed that the WaPo did not have a quick guide the issues. I searched for a half an hour and did [...]
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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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