Author: Peter Galuszka
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The Zany, Crazy Cold War Days Return
“Give me back the Berlin wall give me Stalin and St Paul I’ve seen the future, brother: it is murder.” Leonard Cohen By Peter Galuszka The other night I watched Dr. Strangelove, one of my favorite movies. Then I read the headlines. China is cracking down on U.S. journalists, especially those representing The New York…
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The Man Who Changed Dominion Virginia Power
by Peter Galuszka Back in the 1970s, Virginia Electric & Power Co. was a mess. Its corporate culture was insular and hostile to public input. Its troubled nuclear reactors at North Anna and Surry had major design and safety problems. Their constant outages and big fines brought on the wary eyes of Wall Street. Back…
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Rise Up and Strike, Abused Adjunct Profs!
By Peter Galuszka Despite the common view on this blog that college professors are lazy, closed-minded louts always out on sabbatical, the reality may be something quite different. Cash-strapped colleges across in the country, and in Virginia, are relying increasingly on low-paid adjunct professors to close the gap, especially when they increase the number of…
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ObamaCare: Sound Idea, Bad Private Contractors
By Peter Galuszka With all the bloviating one reads about the introductory failures of ObamaCare, a big, big point is being missed. It could very well be that the concept of ObamaCare is viable if not admirable, but the government badly bungled how it hired an under-performing, private lead contractor for the system. That raises…
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Pope Francis Slams “Trickle Down”
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in Abortion, Feminism, Women’s Rights, Business and Economy, Children and Families, Consumer Protection, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka In a sharp rebuke to traditional conservative economic thought, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics says he wants the church to rethink its strategies towards addressing income inequality and poverty and shun “the idolatry of money” and “trickle down” philosophies that give the rich far too much influence. Pope Francis outlined…
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NOVA’s a Mess? Blame the CIA
By Peter Galuszka Northern Virginia, the economic engine that drives the rest of the state, has always been strongly linked to the federal government. By extension, that means tied to the Pentagon, and, as a recent book shows, the Central Intelligence Agency and today, all its antecedents. Author Andrew Friedman, a history professor at Haverford…
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Big Koch Brothers Are Watching You!
By Peter Galuszka Steve Serrao of Midlothian found something strange in his mailbox this summer. It was an official-looking letter in “report card” form from the conservative Americans for Prosperity Foundation claiming that he had not registered as a voter and that the group intended to inform his neighbors. According to reporting by Jim McConnell…
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Why Mental Health Care Shouldn’t Be a Budget Cut
By Peter Galuszka The tragedy experienced this week by Sen. Creigh Deeds and his family is drawing attention to how Virginia and the rest of the country mistreat the mentally ill by cutting funding for their care and denying them treatment. Deeds was apparently stabbed by his 24-year-old son, Gus, on Tuesday. Gus, who then…
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Cuccinelli Pouts After Loss
By Peter Galuszka The latest from the parallel universes of Virginia politics: failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Cuccinelli is pouting like a child while planning his next step. According to an hour-long interview he gave to The Washington Post, Cuccinelli is lying low and eating dinners at home several nights a week which he finds…
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Disband the ObamaCare Wrecking Crew
By Peter Galuszka As the right wing echo chamber continues to crank up after the botched launch of the Affordable Care Act, here are a couple of items that direct us back to reality. One gives us a picture of how the U.S. really compares with comparable advanced countries with universal or near-universal coverage. The…
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GiftGate: And the Legal Bills Keeping Mounting
By Peter Galuszka The election is over. The transition teams are forming. And the GiftGate legal bills keep mounting. Taxpayers are now facing $575,000 in total charges, according to The Washington Post. These include $331,000 in fees charged in July, August and September by two law firms representing state employees in the Gov. Robert F.…
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Why Some Health Care Plans Aren’t Worth Keeping
By Peter Galuszka You can almost hear the telexes chattering in the predawn hours sending out coded instructions to eager conservative bloggers. It’s a “red state” alert! Plan “R” for “Roger!” Just like Major General Jack D. Ripper. It’s the go code for attacking Obamacare! So, you have them excitedly dusting off their purple prose.…
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Why McAuliffe Is Saying No to Uranium Mining
By Peter Galuszka Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe has made one of his first pronouncements and it is an important one: he will veto any law the General Assembly passes to lift the decades-long ban on mining uranium in Virginia. The bigger question is whether he was start disassembling the energy-industrial complex that outgoing Gov. Robert F.…
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Bye-Bye Jonnie! Bye Star Scientific!
By Peter Galuszka Star Scientific is setting itself for a future without its high profile CEO, Jonnie R. Williams, a prominent figure in the Robert F. McDonnell GiftGate scandal. On Halloween, the Henrico-based dietary supplement maker announced that it will undergo a shuffle at the top. Williams will leave in December, clearing the way for Dr.…
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Your Way, My Way and the “Virginia” Way
By Peter Galuszka As usual, I am constantly amazed at “the Virginia Way” which means a kind of parallel universe of political reality that keeps the stay back in the 18th century, at least when it comes to political thinking. This morning, the editorial section of the ever-other- worldly Richmond Times-Dispatch has a front-page piece…