Neither Cuccinelli nor McAuliffe can win. And yet one of them must.

When a candidate is described as “divisive,” generally it’s intended to mean that while his own party loves him, the other party can’t stand him. In what’s shaping up to be a race between Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli for the Virginia governorship, there are two wildly divisive candidates who are perhaps more divisive within …

Not with a bang, but a whimper.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s inglorious defeat at the hands of the Supreme Court of Virginia was surely not how he envisioned the conclusion of his UVA fishing expedition. Without any cause for suspicion, or the slightest evidence of malfeasance, Cuccinelli went after Michael Mann and the University of Virginia. In the multi-year saga, he couldn’t …

The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled against Cuccinelli in climate case, with prejudice.

Another round in court, another loss for Ken Cuccinelli. The attorney general issued, famously, a civil investigative demand to the University of Virginia, insisting that they turn over all records pertaining to and generated by climatologist Michael Mann. UVA refused to comply with the demand. Now the Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled against Cuccinelli, …

Links for November 13th

Harvard Business Review: Put Your Best People On Your Most Boring ChallengesI agree completely with this suggestion that the exciting work shouldn't be saved for enthusiastic, capable employees. The most interesting, important, effective work that I've done professionally was working on tasks or projects that were considered boring. This summer the FDA asked me to …

Links for September 9th

Washington Post: Poll Finds Public Wary on Tax CutThe A1 headline in the Washington Post on the morning of September 11, 2001 was for this prescient story: "A majority of Americans say they are prepared to roll back President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut to help deal with the shrinking federal budget surplus and say …

Cuccinelli has found support for a UVA ban on firearms, but I’m not sure he’s got it right.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued an advisory opinion on firearms on campuses (PDF) a few days ago. Before I even read it, I knew I’d be torn about his conclusions, whatever they would prove to be. I own a few firearms (long guns, not handguns), and I paid close attention to Heller a few years …

Links for February 24th

MySQLTunerThis is a clever little program that examines your MySQL databases and makes recommendations about how to improve your database's performance in light of the reality of your data. I'll be spending some quality time with this on a few of my websites. Wikipedia: Enclaved countriesThere are only three countries that are completely surrounded by …

Cuccinelli: Obama says Perriello is his favorite Congressman. Really?

Said Ken Cuccinelli, in a campaign letter today: No wonder President Obama has called Perriello his “favorite Congressman”! Really? I mean, that would be really cool, but that’s the first I’ve heard of that. My suspicion is that Cuccinelli’s so deep in the echo chamber that he’s not aware that’s an invention of the far …

Learn about Cuccinelli v. UVA at this Tuesday night event.

I’m putting on an event for Left of Center on Tuesday night that I want to make sure to invite y’all to, “The ACLU on Attorney General Cuccinelli, UVA, and ‘Climategate’.” Kent Willis, the longtime executive director of the Virginia ACLU (and a guy who has saved my bacon three times, including last year), will …

The state seal used to have more nudity.

Cuccinelli’s office says that they’ve simply reverted to an older version of the state seal. And that may be true, but that’s not the whole story. Benton J. Lossing’s An Outline History of the United States, published in 1875, shows the seal of Virginia on page 77. As of 1875, it looked like this: And …