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Annotations & Elucidations

Special Session Edition: Governor Agrees With Cuccinelli — Again!

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell released his transportation plan and Governor Tim Kaine releases his DNC records. That makes for quite a day. Adding to it, the governor now is expected to call a special session of the General Assembly so Virginia can come into legal parameters when dealing with government prosecution witnesses as stipulated by the recent Melendez-Diaz decision. Strike one for Senator Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican Attorney General candidate, who was the first to call for a special session. Although it’s an easy fix, waiting to do so will endanger prosecutors’ cases until the constitutional changes are made.

There are those who questioned Senator Cuccinelli’s criminal law background, but he has been on top of this issue more so than those who expound upon their own expertise. Guess who opposed the idea of a special session? His Democrat opponent, Delegate Steve Shannon — as was Kaine. Kaine also signed Cuccinelli’s spending transparency bill, even made it better with some amendments. One might think he’s helping . . . nah. Just shows that knowing the Constitution trumps a lot of empty campaign showtime rhetoric.

In some refreshing news from an Episcopal diocese for a change, the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia will continue to refuse to marry or bless same-sex couples. Hopefully, this isn’t a transient idea, but one it realizes is grounded in the truth. 

News:

McDonnell proposes privatizing ABC stores to pay for transit plan (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

McDonnell’s roads plan: Sell liquor to pay for roads (The Daily Press)

With unveiling of road plan, McDonnell gears up race (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)

McDonnell Roads Plan Privatizes ABC Stores (Washington Post)

Kaine travel for DNC is detailed (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Kaine’s Travels For DNC Rose, Records Show (Washington Post)

Economy will likely drive race for governor (Roanoke Times)

Kaine expected to call assembly special session (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

8th District democratic candidate withdraws from race (Roanoke Times)

Va. diocese holds off on blessing same-sex unions (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)

There are so many horrible aspects of the Obama administration- Congressional Democrat socialized medicine takeover, it is truly difficult to keep track. Yesterday, we examined the anti-life issues in this legislation: The proposal to pay for abortion on demand with taxpayer money, a dismantling of a prohibition that has had bi-partisan support for decades; and the stripping away of medical conscious protections for pro-life medical personnel, who would be forced to choose between providing abortions and birth control and their careers.

As scary as those provisions are, perhaps the most chilling aspect is the legislation’s total disregard for the elderly. President’s Obama’s declaration that the elderly and terminally ill individuals will have to think of other options and choices instead of treatment is so appalling that after three hours of exhaustive Internet searching today, I cannot find any quality news reporting of it or video. It is either getting expunged or is was so disgraceful that his willing allies in the media have ignored it.

I first became aware of the comment last week on CBS News. However, unless I’m doing something wrong (and would love to be proved so) it isn’t even on its Web site!

However, a chance search led me to a transcript of an interview Laura Ingraham conducted last Friday with Elizabeth Carpenter of the liberal New America Foundation think tank. (Ingraham was substituting for Bill O’Reilly on the O’Reilly Factor.) As part of the segment, she aired a brief clip of Mr. Obama’s outlandish comment, reminiscent of former liberal Colorado Governor Dick Lamm, who once said the elderly have ”a duty to die.” Of course, he was rightfully pilloried. The “messiah” receives nary the justifiable derision.

This Ingraham-Carpenter interview is as much of the abominable presidential proclamation as can be found. The entire interview segment is below and Mr. Obama’s video clip is toward the middle. Unintended consequence: It’s great viewing the irrepressible Ingraham destroy her guest’s logic (i.e., the administration’s arguments) for socialized medicine in general, and she’s dynamite when getting to the kill the old people part.

“Reform” implies fixing. The world’s best health care is American and it may need tweaking, but not fixing. Democrat pollster Peter Fenn recently said American health care has been a problem since the days of Teddy Roosevelt and it needs to be fixed. That’s why American health care has led to ever-increasing life expectancy, wiped out diseases, muted others and developed technologies and techniques to prolong life and its quality. What’s only thinkable one day becomes doable the next.

What liberals mean by ”fixing” is rationing. Which is why “the anointed one’s” do-away-with-the-old-people approach is an admission that, despite his demagoguary to the contrary, “reform” means rationing. Why else encourage the elderly to consider death but to make room in the doctor’s office for others? That philosophy is consistent with liberalism that views everything as a Malthusian zero-sum-game, whether it’s the creation of wealth, the environment or even human life. Only enough medicine to go around, you see, so make way old folks.

Laura Ingraham defends medical freedom and exposes the motivations of government control health care. The real “right to health care” is the ability to make your own decisions. 

Everyone’s heard the expression that explains the sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The Obama administration finds itself in this nutty circle.

According to American City Business Journals, because several projects in the porkulus bill have come in under bid, the leftover money is getting spent on yet more pork projects!

Yee-haw!

“Bids came in far lower than we expected, but the upside is that because of that, we have been able to fund more projects,” said Paul Prouty, acting administrator for the General Services Administration.

As it happens, Washington, D.C.; and Prince Georges County, Md., as well as other localities across the country, will get a pile of excess funds because they are classified as “Economically Disadvantaged Areas.” What locality isn’t right now and isn’t this continued printing of money going to keep us all “economically disadvantaged” for a long time?

According to the article, one specific example of how the porkulus continues to get spent, even when there are savings, is  the Federal Aviation Administration. It is . . .

an agency that was able to fund more projects — 347 projects instead of its anticipated 301 projects with $1.1 billion —because of the low bids.

That’s great. Instead of returning the money to help balance our mammoth deficit, which would actually help our economy, the Obama administration is spending what savings there are (the only bright light in a horrible bill) on still more pork — even as what has already been spent has failed to stem the rise in unemployment, which is climbing toward 10 percent.

If that sounds crazy, or insane, it is: And it’s the same (debt-ridden) thing over and over and over again.

On the heels of what surely was a shocking setback to his campaign Monday — Democrat activist billionaire Sheila Johnson’s endorsement of Republican Bob McDonnell for governor — Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds announced his own predictable list of former-Republican-legislator supporters. The lone somewhat surprise is former Senator Brandon Bell, but considering his record of voting for tax increases, perhaps not.

The leader of the group is John Chichester, the former-Democrat-turned- Republican-who-endorses-Democrats. His lackey, independent Russ “2-percent” Potts, also is among Deeds’ supporters. (Is Deeds’ that desperate?)

But the news here is that the endorsement and Deeds’ embrace is more twisted, more convoluted, more hypocritical and more disingenuous than anything politic in Virginia since Mark Warner promised not to raise taxes (or since Governor Tim Kaine said he wouldn’t, or since he said his DNC work wouldn’t interfere with his gubernatorial duties — take your pick):

From today’s Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star:

The legislators will help form “Virginians for Deeds” and according to a press release, support “Deeds’ efforts to carry on the tradition of keeping Virginia a low-tax state and the ‘best state for business’.”

Then . . .

Chichester, who retired in 2007 after nearly 30 years in office, said in a telephone interview that he’s backing Deeds over his own party’s candidate, Republican Bob McDonnell, because of Deeds’ support for Chichester’s budget plans during tough fiscal times earlier this decade.

Those “budget plans” were? . . .

In 2003 and 2004, Chichester — the powerful leader of the Senate Finance Committee — was a key player in the passage of a package of tax increases. …

Not just any tax increases. They were the largest in Virginia history and during a time when the budget was in robust surplus! So, Deeds wants to keep Virginia a “low tax state” but embraces Chichester, Potts and a host of the largest taxers and spenders in Virginia history? Huh????????????

Now, let’s not forget the second part of that equation. It’s not only the tax increase. It was the spending of it! Virginia was in a surplus, then raked in $1.4 billion more in taxes. Then those same men — Chichester, Potts, Bell, Marty Williams and others in this disgruntled group, as well as Deeds — spent it all and then some, raiding the Rainy Day fund to its lowest level ever!

Others in the group include pro-abortion, pro-homosexual ”marriage,” and tax-and-spend liberal Republicans such as Warren Barry, Panny Rhodes, and Jim Dillard, and liberal independent Katherine Waddell.

These former office holders are discontented former Republicans who lost primaries to conservatives or retired when they saw primary defeat coming, and haven’t supported Republicans in years. They call themselves “Republicans” to give their predictable endorsements of liberals a lame attempt at relevance. But the only people they are relevent to are the liberal Mainstream Media who play up the ideological lovefest as if it’s extraordinary. It will be interesting to compare the media coverage this gets as compared to the media coverage Sheila Johnson’s endorsement of McDonnell received.