Goodlatte: the 6th District's Fool On the Hill

Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee was working an anti-abortion bill that may pass the House of Representatives but has almost zero chance to become law. Representative Bob Goodlatte took to the mike in support of the bill making a completely asinine statement. Bobblehead Bob said restricting abortion is good for the economy because "having a growing population and having new children brought into the world... ahh... is not harmful to job creation, it very much promotes job creation...."

Looking at the experience of other nations reveals no direct correlation between abortion laws, job creation, or unemployment.

If we apply Bobblehead Bob's job creation logic into other legislative policy arenas, perhaps our fool on the hill will support opening the borders to immigrants with small children who need daycare, pediatricians, teachers, and playgrounds.

The best job creation I can imagine would be for this mis-representative to retire (voluntarily or otherwise) so folks in the 6th District will have a voice of commonsense and reason in the people's house.

Affordable Care Act: Keeping it Local

% Uninsured. Darker = More Uninsured

I am one of those whose health insurance is employer provided, so I don't really have anything to do as the Affordable Care Act takes effect. But, I've been listening to the news stories about the website woes and to other stories about coverages, availability, etc. Unfortunately, much of that information is tainted by the bias, or the lack of knowledge, of those talking the loudest.

How will ACA affect folks in the central Shenandoah Valley? How many people are uninsured? How much will it cost? How many plans are available? At this phase of buying anything new it seems there are lots of questions.

This interactive tool, publicized by the Washington Post and developed by consumer finance website ValuePenguin, lets you take a look on a county-by-county basis at the extent of the problem of uninsured Americans as well as the number of companies and the number of plans offered. It might just blow away a little of the smoke and help clear the air on ObamaCare.

For example, Rockingham County has 11, 556 uninsured individuals among its population of 63,467. That's over 18% uninsured. Three companies will be offering a total of 28 plans in Rockingham County. An individual age 30 with an annual income of $35,000 would not qualify for a subsidy and the premium of the Benchmark Silver Plan is $243.

In Augusta County there are 8,603 uninsured individuals which is 14.6% of the population. Four companies are offering 38 different plans. Once again our 30 year old making $35,000 would not qualify for a subsidy and the premium for the Benchmark Silver Plan is $246.

Check it out. Put in your own income. Explore the country. Yes, you will notice that suburban/urban areas, especially in the Northeast and Northwest typically have more companies and more choices of plans. You will notice that premiums vary by locality. You will find counties in WV and many other states, often in the South, that top 20% uninsured. Places in Texas and, I am sure other places, top 30%. How do you spell Disgraceful? How do you calculate the hidden costs for the rest of us?

Racist or NOT Racist?

Sometimes an old community stereotype just won't go away. Kind of like the hateful stereotypes inherent in racism that are all too often part of American society.

A WHSV/TV3 story about the juxtaposition of Halloween and the KKK in Craigsville, Virginia gets examined (at 2:00) in The Daily Show's "Racist or NOT Racist" segment that aired on November 13.

The Daily Show

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Hometown boy?

"It ain't over till it's over," but the daily shifts in the unofficial vote tally in the attorney general's contest now has Mark Herring up by 117 votes. Mark Obenshain may wish he'd made a few more friends in his hometown - he lost Harrisonburg by 186.

Electoral boards have until the end of today to certify votes including provisional ballots. WTOP reports that on Friday the GOP dominated State Electoral Board pushed through a change in procedures used in Fairfax County that may mean most of the 400+ provisional ballots will not be counted. It would ban legal representatives from acting on behalf of a voter unless that voter is present - it is highly unlikely many will be able to show up and protect their vote. The Fairfax Electoral Board disagrees with the change but will comply. Mark Herring carried Fairfax with 61% of the vote.

Then let the recounts and challenges about uncounted ballots begin. It is likely both Marks will keep talking turkey over Thanksgiving but only one will get an early Christmas gift when all the counting and recounting finally wraps up sometime in December.

Classless Act

I'm a loser.

Apparently Ken Cuccinelli has no plans to make the traditional congratulatory call to the winner in the Virginia gubernatorial contest, Terry McAuliffe. The Cooch lost the race by 2.5% or about 55,000 votes.

Even the most bitter rival meet on the field and shake hands - loser congratulating winner even though it rips the soul. It is the right thing to do. Cuccinelli lost on Tuesday and his lack of class shows he is a loser as a human being, too. Virginian's should hope this is the last we see or hear of him.

Over 70% of my precinct voted for the three Repugs. Gives me reason to pause and reflect. Love thy neighbor as thyself only goes so far.

How Terry McAuliffe almost blew it

Terry McAuliffe will be the next governor of Virginia but he almost let a sure thing slip away during the last couple of weeks. In doing do, he likely hurt both his statewide running mates, especially attorney general candidate Mark Herring who will have a fight to survive a recount. What are some of the factors that cut what looked like a comfortable 6-8% margin of victory down to about 2.5%? And what can Democrats learn from a near collapse that, if the election were held a week later, could have turned the Commonwealth into a bitter tea party? My foggy brained analysis after counting and recounting absentee votes until after 2:00 a.m on Wed morning:

• Terry McAuliffe was never able to shake the label of "outsider" or "carpetbagger" and by bringing in Bill Clinton for a statewide tour he reinforced that image among independents and energized Republicans. I'm all in favor of bringing in political heavyweights to fire up the base, but beware of unintended consequences in a campaign's closing days.
• With the right wing media bashing, and the mainstream media questioning, the rollout of ObamaCare, was it the right thing to bring the president and vice president to the state for campaign appearances? I think not. All that did was, in the minds of some voters, to tie McAuliffe to questions about the competency of government and to link him more with Washington than Richmond. Again, McAuliffe's campaign brought more Republicans out to vote and got many independents questioning him just as it was time to cast votes.
• Terry McAuliffe we hardly know you! At some point voters want to make a personal connection that establishes trust. Negative campaigns tarnish everybody - voters need at least a few positive reasons to support a candidate rather than simply voting against the other guy. Beyond the Democratic diehards, McAuliffe never succeeded in building that relationship. Perhaps McAuliffe should have taken a page from the Obenshain playbook and given his family a greater role in explaining Terry "the father and the man" to voters.
• I never thought a minor party candidate would garner double digits like some pre-election polls indicated. I wondered if, come election day and crunch time in the voting booth, more than 5-6% of the voters would decide to "send a message" or "waste a vote." Sarvis, with few resources or recognition, ran a pretty good campaign and aired some compelling TV ads but in the end about half of his "support" drained away, with most going to Cuccinelli.

Virginia was lucky to dodge the disaster that a Governor Cuccinelli would have inflicted on this fine Commonwealth. Now Governor Terry McAuliffe needs to build and mend the bridges that he failed to build and mend in the campaign.

Oh, I've got that day after the election "what if" hangover.  ~Bill Bolling

Five reasons to NOT support Mark Obenshain

Mark Obenshain has not been a very good senator and he would be an even worse attorney general. Here are the top 5 reasons you should NOT vote for Mark Obenshain on November 5:

1. Mark Obenshain supported legislation that would force a woman who had suffered an emotionally devastating miscarriage to report it to police. He eventually withdrew the bill citing "flaws" but that doesn't excuse his basic premise that government should actively intrude in women's personal lives.
2. Mark Obenshain has pushed for voter ID laws that obviously target minorities and poor and would make voting more difficult for thousands of Virginians.
3. Mark Obenshain supported a personhood bill that, if enacted, potentially would ban some forms of birth control.
4. Mark Obenshain did not support the transportation bill that eventually passed with bipartisan support and the signature of a Republican governor. In short, Mr. Obenshain voted against jobs and improving the Commonwealth's economic climate.
5. Mark Obenshain has received big bucks from oil, coal, and natural gas companies. If you care about issues like clean water and clean air then Obenshain's friends who favor mountain top removal coal mining, fracking, and uranium mining in Virginia should scare the bejesus out of you.

Ken Cuccinelli and Mark Obenshain - twin sons of different mothers. The former is a far right extremist with a mean-spirit scowl. The latter is a far right extremist with a fake smile. Don't be fooled. If Obenshain is elected the Office of the Attorney General will become ground zero for rolling back women's rights, for diminishing our democracy, and for degrading our environment.