Category: Politics
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Another Reason to Loathe Special Tax Breaks
An exemption on a 2% sales tax on a $40 million plane creates a real competitive advantage. by James A. Bacon On May 27, 2010, Governor Bob McDonnell announced that Yorktown-based Orion Air Group, “one of the world’s leading operators of business aircraft,” would invest $4 million to consolidate its operations in Newport News. The…
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“Our Bodies; “Our Idiot Selves”
By Peter Galuszka Forty two years ago, a feminist group titled “the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective” got together to start researching their own books about female health since they distrusted what they considered the male-dominated medical establishment. A substantial part of their research had to deal with birth control since the pill had been…
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Bad Days for Mickey D.
By Peter Galuszka There must be considerable gnashing of teeth in the Governor’s Mansion. Robert F. McDonnell had been working so hard to distance himself from his social conservative past, notably that nettlesome and Neanderthal anti-gay and anti-female graduate thesis. He had worked hard to remake himself as a reasonable moderate, thus setting himself up…
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National Laughingstock, Again
By Peter Galuszka Saturday Night Live’s recent mocking of the Virginia General Assembly’s proposed legislation to force women considering abortion to have trans-vaginal ultrasound exams and establishing conception as the moment of life’s beginning makes the Old Dominion the butt of national jokes once again. It seems that no matter how Virginians try to build…
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Our Upstanding Founding Fathers
By Peter Galuszka Since it is President’s Day and Virginia is the “Mother of Presidents,” I thought it might be interesting to put some things in perspective. One of the more curious blog postings of late on the site was Jim Bacon’s gushy advocacy of a move to private, religious-oriented schools because of what he…
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A Pathetic Half-Time
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By Peter Galuszka It’s so-called halftime at the Virginia General Assembly, and with conservative Republicans holding sway and many serious problems facing the Commonwealth, here’s what we’ve come up with so far: Women exercising their constitutional right to have an abortion now will be forced to undergo and pay for an ultrasound before the procedure.…
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Punting on Obamacare
By Peter Galuszka The Virginia General Assembly is taking a powder on Obamacare. Faced with a federal mandate of next January to show they are making progress, Richmond legislators have dilly-dallied past the problem, many apparently fearful that too much action on setting up state-run exchanges for people to shop for health insurance will bring…
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The Cooch’s Personal Cops?
By Peter Galuszka Virginia’s zany attorney general wants to create his own armed, flying squad of crime-busters. In what could be a 21st century version of “Dragnet,” Kenneth Cuccinelli wants to create his own police force. He wants to arm 40 of the 83 members of his Medicaid fraud investigative arm. They’d have badges, too. Cuccinelli…
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“The Iron Lady”
By Peter Galuszka “The Iron Lady,” a biopic starring Meryl Streep, has brought fresh attention to the policies and philosophies of Margaret Thatcher, the ground-breaking leader who served as Great Britain’s Prime Minister for 11 years – from 1979 to 1990. Always controversial, Thatcher pioneered much of the conservative framework still in play today, such…
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Why the Opposition to Emergency MWAA Bill?
by James A. Bacon There’s been a fascinating new development in the politics of the Rail-to-Dulles project, and I frankly don’t know what to make of it. I’ll provide the background. Perhaps readers can fill in the blanks. Governor Bob McDonnell issued a press release yesterday blasting Democrats in the House of Delegates for blocking…
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Good Move on Uranium
By Peter Galuszka Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has punted on the uranium controversy and that’s a good thing, assuming the General Assembly doesn’t lift the mining ban anyway. There are simply too many unknowns about mining the tract owned by Virginia Uranium near Chatham and the state has no knowledge or regulations about mining the…
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Thumbsucking, Richmond-style
By Peter Galuszka The incredible, shrinking Richmond Times-Dispatch offers a lot less to read these days. Under the leadership of Publisher Thomas A. Silvestri, many staffers have been fired to boost parent firm Media General’s top line. The effort hasn’t been entirely successful since its stock, once around $65 a share, is now a little better…
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Virginia: Mother of Bad Ideas
By Peter Galuszka The Mother of Presidents is back at it again. Through some legal quirk — typical for the Old Dominion — only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be on the ballot for the March 6 Republican primary. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry did not meet the state’s onerous requirement for 10,000 petition signatures…
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The Dangers of Creeping College Privatization
By Peter Galuszka Virginia residents have long enjoyed a special advantage with higher education. Tuition at some of the country’s best-rated public universities — the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary and Virginia Tech — is relatively modest. The schools offer a great deal for parents and students compared with nationally ranked…
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Virginia’s Energy Fantasies
By Peter Galuszka Plans to mine uranium in Southside Virginia did not get the boost some had been hoping for now that a 22-month-long review by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering has been released. Far from rubber-stamping the plan, the independent analysis reported that there are “significant” health and environmental…