Author Archives: Paradox13

About Paradox13

Full time geek, part time suit.

“Lazarus Play” to Close Delgaudio Loophole?

Following what Del. Randy Minchew (R-10) describes as a “Lazarus Play,” a bill intended to hold elected officials to tighter ethical controls is headed for a committee vote Friday morning. – Leesburg Today

I wonder if Dems who blog up here all the time and complain will give Delegate Minchew some credit for keeping the bill alive — and for our Loudoun Board for supporting it too. There were positive comments about the bill at last night’s Board of Supervisors meeting – The Naked Truth

Credit where credit is due. Del. Minchew’s bill to close the Delgaudio Loophole in state law that allows elected officials to abuse public resources just because they’re “part-time” in the eyes of the law is back for a vote in the House of Delegates. This is a good thing, and credit to the Delegates who helped make this happen, including Del. Minchew.

That being said, it is well worth observing two disturbing implications of this “Lazarus Play.”

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The Republican Culture of Death

When is it okay to start talking about the fact that Republican policies actually kill people?

The most obvious example is Republican support for our government killing people, explicitly and in cold blood. That’s what the death penalty is. State sanctioned killing of a citizen in cold blood. Regardless of your position on the morality or constitutionality of the death penalty, it is, quite simply, support for state-sanctioned death. And there is no better example of the bedrock principle for Republicans that the state should be allowed to kill its citizens.

How about Republican’s opposition to reasonable gun safety legislation? To the point of actively repealing gun safety legislation already in place when they take control of a state? Did you know that Missouri repealed background checks for gun purchases recently? And when it did, gun murders went up 25%?
“Hey, this legislation will cause more people to be violently murdered!”
“Great, let’s do it!”

Or the 17,000 women who will die because Republican-controlled states refuse to expand Medicaid?

“We calculated the number and characteristics of people who will remain uninsured as a result of their state’s opting out of the Medicaid expansion, and applied these figures to the known effects of insurance expansion from prior studies,” lead author Samuel Dickman said. “The results were sobering. Political decisions have consequences, some of them lethal.”

(This is particularly relevant and sobering for us here in Virginia.)

So again I ask, when can we start talking about the fact that Republican policy positions seem to revel in a culture of death?

LaRock Undermines Transportation

Since being elected to the General Assembly in November, Delegate David “Tax Pig” LaRock has been doing exactly what we would have expected of the man opposed to Rail to Dulles: Proposing bills to kill off badly needed transportation projects in Loudoun and Northern Virginia. LaRockBills-2014 Though couched as legislation to correct funding injustices (“injustices,” it must be noted, that were discussed, debated, legislated, and adjudicated through proper small “d” democratic processes over the course of many years), the practical impact of these bills would be to kill all the life that has been breathed in to transportation fixes in Loudoun over the past few years. Life only made possible by the painstaking, difficult, bi-partisan, efforts of leaders like Mark Herring.

Perhaps most egregious are his bills to arbitrarily reduce the allocation of funding to mass transit in favor of more roads. (Bacon’s Rebellion has a right-leaning, but generally evenhanded analysis of these bills.) That’s right, roads over transit, because conservative.

It had been my plan to try to compose a few more paragraphs of analysis of the bills in question. But really, the impracticality and obstinacy of the philosophy underpinning them can only be summarized thusly:
Facepalm

It is equally exasperating to note the only other bills LaRock has sponsored are to codify a tax credit (not a deduction, a credit) for home and private schooling, which serves to gut public education funding, and bills to simplify the process of transferring ownership of guns from one person to another.

Notably absent from Mr. LaRock’s list of sponsored bills? Any bill helping maintain open space in his District. Or helping farmers. Or addressing the unique needs of small school communities in the west. Or dealing with the water issues his constituents in Raspberry Falls have faced. Or, frankly, any bill not directly birthed by some narrow-minded, right-wing talking point.

Because conservative.

Systemic Dodging of Accountibility, the Delgaudio Loophole (UPDATED)

The big news of the week is the filing of the recall trial petition against Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio. (Well, the big news unless you’re Leesburg Councilmember, and perennial Mayoral candidate, Tom Dunn.) The filing triggers a process clearly outlined by statute, and ably explained by the ever-cogent blogger at Real Loudoun. One thing that has been lost in the shuffle of this week’s machinations, however, is the fact that the recall action was largely made necessary because of something that happened in Richmond earlier this month.

You may recall that the only reason Supervisor Delgaudio was not indicted by the grand jury is that he qualifies as a “part-time” elected official, and as such can – apparently – do whatever he wants with public time and assets without any legal penalties. GrandJuryRecc1The grand jury at the time took the remarkable step of calling upon the Virginia General Assembly to change the law removing the Delgaudio “part-time” Loophole as soon as possible. Indeed, that recommendation was the very first recommendation in the Grand Jury’s report.

If you’re wondering whatever happened to that recommendation, here’s your answer.

At the beginning of this year’s General Assembly session Delegate Randy Minchew dutifully introduced HB 420, a bill specifically designed to close the Delgaudio Loophole. The Grand Jury’s recommendation was on its way to being implemented. Loudoun and Virginia could breath a sigh of relief that while Supervisor Delgaudio got through the loophole, others would not be so lucky.HB420-Sunlight

But a funny thing happened on the way to ethics, transparency and accountability. Namely, Republican control of the House of Delegates. In an all-too-common move, the Mr. Minchew’s bill to close the Delgaudio Loophole and implement the Grand Jury recommendation was quietly killed in his own Courts of Justice committee. That’s what “laid on the table” means in the language of parliamentary procedure.

Now, there is another bill that would do the same thing in the House of Delegates, HB252. McDonnell,_Schmidt_and_Minchew_thumb This one introduced by Democratic Delegate, Scott Surovell. Del. Surovell is not confident of his bill’s chances of surviving the subcommittee to which it has been assigned within Courts of Justice because, “they already killed Randy’s bill and Randy is a Republican.” (UPDATE – Del. Surovell’s bill was quietly killed by Republicans on Friday, January 31st.)

That is an important point. Randy is an influential Republican legislator, recall he got his start as a “Counselor” to Gov. Rolex – I mean McDonnell. Either he has a lot less influence then he tells his constituents in the 10th Delegate District, or he really didn’t want his bill, HB420, to proceed.

Either way, Republicans have, once again, talked a lot of hot air about accountability and reform, but when put in a position to actually affect meaningful change that would curb the abuses of the past few years, they delay and quietly destroy important reforms. From the Board of Supervisors, which issued a six-month finger-wagging to Eugene Delgaudio before fully reinstating him to his privileges on the Board, to legislators in Richmond, who see nothing wrong with Gov. McDonnell accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from major campaign donors seeking governmental imprimatur for their questionably-effective sovereign tonics, the political system here in Virginia seems to intrinsically dodge accountability when Republicans are in charge.

And so, in spite of a year of bombshell revelations in the press, a damning grand jury report, promises of action, and censure by the Board of Supervisors, Eugene Delgaudio remains a Supervisor with the full faith and confidence of his Republican colleagues. And the legal loophole that allows him to continue to misuse public assets (if he chooses to do so, and why wouldn’t he, given the complete lack of real consequences he’s faced from his fellow Republicans) remains wide open.

So, for those who ask why Sterling Citizens filed their recall petition against Eugene Delgaudio this week, I humbly suggest that it was the one path to accountability remaining to the people of Sterling who have been ignored and mis-represented by their Supervisor for long enough.

Taxes, Schools, and Sidewalks

Kids went to school one day this week. This marks the second week this winter where the Loudoun Schools have only been in session for one day. Many members of the community are incensed at the fact that our kids have been kept home so often this year. They complain that it is “just a little snow and cold,” and where they’re from originally, this kind of “wussiness” in the face of winter wouldn’t be tolerated.IcySidewalkTweet

Funny thing about that, though: Where they’re from originally, there is a long-standing local commitment to the public’s responsibility to take care of public infrastructure, like schools and transportation infrastructure, at the public’s expense. Here in Loudoun County, Republicans who run the Board of Supervisors and the School Board, not to mention those in the House of Delegates, have no such commitment. On the contrary, there is an attitude of “Starving the Beast” when it comes to public services and investment. As if our children’s education were a Beast of some sort.

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Fun with Dividend and Employment Numbers

I was reading the other day about the massive dividends currently being paid by the companies in the S&P 500. Dividends, of course, are payments – generally out of profits – made by companies to their shareholders. When a company has “extra” cash (a.k.a profit) it has three choices as to what it can do with it. It can reinvest it in the company (e.g., giving employees raises, opening new offices or facilities, expanding product lines, etc). It can hold and “save” that capital in financial instruments, or it can payout that extra cash to its owners (shareholders) as dividends.

In 2013, the companies of the S&P 500 chose the third option, a lot. To the tune of almost $340,000,000,000 in dividend payments to shareholders. Most shareholders are institutions (e.g., pension funds) or individuals, more often than not the wealthiest individuals.

We know that this has been an infamous “jobless recovery,” as evidenced by the major push to extend emergency unemployment insurance by Democrats and the President (along with some right-minded Republicans). We also know that a major driver of job growth is consumer spending. So while I was reading this article about how corporate dividends in 2014 were projected to be a record breaking $352,000,000,000, I found myself engaging in a thought experiment:

What if, instead of paying dividends, all those corporations gave every employed American a bonus instead? What would that look like? I wanted to do this thought experiment because I remembered how our elected officials were so bullish on the the idea that giving everybody a tax rebate check would help our economy in 2008 (when Geo. W. Bush was still president, not incidentally).

According to the BLS, the civilian employed labor force was 155,294,000 in December 2013. That’s just people with jobs. It doesn’t include the unemployed, the incarcerated, or those in the military.

Given that, it is a simple matter to determine how much of a bonus S&P Corporations could afford to pay every working American. We just divide the number of employed people in America into the value of the dividends paid by the S&P Corporations. (Remember, this money is from dividends, so comes from profits, not revenues. That is, it is “extra” cash these companies have on hand after paying for all operations and interest etc.)

“You have a job, here’s a bonus” bonus = $2,185

Interesting, huh? I would certainly appreciate a $2,000 check from the companies I’ve done my part supporting by participating in this economy.

Put another way, it would take someone working for the minimum wage seven and a half weeks to earn the amount that the nation’s biggest corporations could afford to give them as a bonus, without impacting operations at all.

Of course companies need to pay dividends. And dividends are critical to the long-term stability of the de facto U.S. retirement system, which is based on institutional investment in corporate stocks and bonds. But it seems to me that corporations could afford to reinvest some of that capital in their workforce, in the form of raises. If instead of paying record-breaking dividends, they just paid staggering dividends, they could afford to give all their U.S. employees not insignificant raises, which would have a pretty big impact on boosting our economy.

Just a thought experiment for a Tuesday afternoon.

Mark Herring Stands With Veterans

Mark Herring does so much for us here in Loudoun from the Virginia Senate that many of his accomplishments for the wider commonwealth get under-reported and under-appreciated here in his home county. Given some of the things in the news, I thought it might be nice to post something positive for a change, and Sen. Herring’s service to Virginia’s veterans seemed an obvious choice.

Virginia Guard recognizes top units, receives resolutions from General Assembly

Sen. Herring Awarding the Virginia National Guard a Commendation Resolution.


For example, Sen. Herring is the Co-Chair of the Virginia National Guard Caucus in the General Assembly, and has been instrumental in making financial help for veterans easier to provide. During the 2010 Session, Senator Herring sponsored and passed legislation that exempts payments to individuals from the Virginia Military Family Relief Fund from state income tax.

He has stood up for the rights of our veterans and their families. In 2008, he sponsored and passed the Virginia Military Parents Equal Protection Act, which protects military parents from losing important child custody and visitation rights as a result of their deployment out of the Commonwealth. And in 2011, he sponsored and passed a bill to enhance the Military Parents Equal Protection Act by allowing deployed military parents to delegate their visitation rights with children to a member of their family while they are stationed overseas. Indeed, Sen. Herring supports the service of all military families.

Now those are Virginia family values.
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Patricia Phillips is Pro-Communist

Patricia Phillips is incensed at the treatment of Soviet communist veterans in Virginia. No, really. Here’s the picture of the veteran from her most recent, utterly misleading, mailing.

Note all the red stars on the medals? Or how about the “CCCP” on the one to the right of the coat’s button? And it’s pretty clearly a profile of Lenin on the medal in the top row. Clearly this veteran served the USSR with distinction! How horrible to have been treated so badly by Virginia!

In all seriousness, though, it would behoove a candidate for state Senate in the state with the largest U.S. Naval installation in the world to at least avoid using a picture of the enemy that Navy was built to defend against for fifty years in her political mail. This is more than just politics 101, this is a question of respect for the voting public who did serve.

What is with Loudoun Republicans and their inability to look at a picture and see what the rest of us see? From bloody doorways to Presidents with headshot wounds to, now, a picture of the wrong Naval veteran, Republican candidates and committees are incapable of actually looking at what they’re putting out there!

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Empty Apologies from Virginia Republicans

The media, and indeed many Democrats were quick to commend the Republican Party of Virginia yesterday for quickly and thoroughly denouncing the Loudoun Republicans’ zombie-Obama-headshot comic recruiting email. Indeed, many seem to think this is a sign of more civility in Virginia politics.

It’s not. It’s a whitewash. Plain and simple.

Because at the same time the Virginia Republican Party was issuing its very public apology and repudiation, it was dropping a last-minute $25,000 contribution in the coffers of the most odious Loudoun Republican, Dick “there’s no such thing as spousal rape” Black.

If the Republican Party truly believes these tactics are unacceptable, it will tell Dick Black to refund the amount of that contribution.

“Sprawl Is The American Dream”

With all the crazy coming out of Loudoun Republicans lately, its easy to forget that underneath that hard shell of cultural divisiveness is a sugary nougat of truly awful policies.

Take, for example, a race that has flown under the proverbial radar this year. The race for Algonkian Supervisor, which sets long-time community resident and activist (and personal friend, in the interests of full disclosure) Denise Moore Pierce against long-time conservative gadfly Suzanne Volpe. Here’s a race that can, and should turn truly on policy grounds, because there is a clear difference between the candidates, and a clear choice to be made.

Specifically, Ms. Volpe, who is running to represent a “mature” community in Loudoun, one with established neighborhoods, schools, traditions and families, is an advocate – and an unabashed one – for sprawl. Indeed, she gave a speech calling development sprawl the American Dream. A stark statement for a stark choice.

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