American Rage Boy #
The string of never ending bad news about Metro continues, while our elected “representatives” do everything they can to make sure we are tied into this mess for decades to come. Your latest Metro “highlights”:
Watch out while you’re riding that thing – the doors just might pop open while you’re zooming down the tracks!
And see how your wonderful local airports authority spends its money. Can’t you just not wait to give them millions of your tax dollars???
Have to admit that I’m not too happy with the title of my latest op-ed, which appeared in The Virginian-Pilot Wednesday. Not because it isn’t true, but because it is. All of it.
Bob Marshall calls himself “Virginia’s chief homophobe.” And he and his merry band over at the “Family” Foundation managed to derail the election of a judge for no other reason than that the man is gay. That four major newspapers in Virginia, including the conservative Richmond Times Dispatch, agreed that this was despicable behavior on the part of the House of Delegates should give the 67 no/non-voting members pause.They are out of step with the majority of Virginians, regardless of party.
Marshall and his friends won this battle. But they are going to lose the war.
My column appears in The Virginian-Pilot on Wednesdays (unless something comes up, in which case it’s Thursdays). You can see the columns as they are published here. With the recent update to the PilotOnline home page, navigation to my columns has been simplified: click on Opinion and then choose my name at the bottom of the dropdown list. You can also see the columns by liking my Facebook page.
Filed under: Local, Politics, Virginia
Yes, they called it "BS." :) And yes, they're 100% correct. They could also have said that "Rove and Romney are pathological liars," and they'd be 100% correct. They could also have said that "Karl Rove is evil incarnate, and Willard's his enabler" and they'd be 100% correct. They could also have pointed out that George W. Bush, aka "the worst president in U.S. history," just endorsed Willard, who would be even WORSE than Dubya if he ever (god forbid) got into the White House. Let's make damn sure that doesn't happen!
Here are a few Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, May 17.
*Gay Prosecutor Could Still Be Appointed Judge
*Romney forgets the '90s ("His flip-flop on Bill Clinton ignores the former president's record.")
*Plus ashamed bigots makes 51. (Great work by Anna Scholl and Waldo Jaquith)
*Obama campaign attempts to drag Romney into Thorne-Begland controversy (See NBC12 video above)
*Virginia GOP complicates life for Gov. McDonnell (McDonnell actually would have been much better off with a Democratic legislature?)
*Time for McDonnell to lead on gas tax (McDonnell lead? Is that a joke? When has he ever led on anything?!?)
*MWAA delays vote on Silver Line labor
*Bob McDonnell evolves on gay judges (But not to a position of leadership or taking any action, of course.)
*Editorial: The politics of religion ("Mitt Romney's message to evangelical Christians was that, as a Mormon, he shares their morals -- and that religion is inseparable from government.")
*Jim Webb, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to appear at Virginia Democrats' convention
*GOP leaders demur on judge rejection
*Va.'s April revenue up 10.6 percent over April 2011
*Dulles Rail board defends its performance
*Jeff's Notes: McDonnell's new idea -- an old one
*Virginia Beach firefighters union comes out against light rail
*Arlington capital budget proposal ("The county may spend $2.4B in the next 10 years on construction and maintenance needs.")
*LaRoche stays hot; Gonzalez gets win
P.S. Also check out the Fox News poll (yes, the Fox News poll!) which shows President Obama creaming Willard 46%-39%. Cue Teapublican heads exploding in 5...4....3...2...
I can now say for sure which delegates were actually present at yesterday morning’s vote on Tracy Thorne-Begland’s nomination, and just pretending that they weren’t there.
Anna Scholl was kind enough to send me the House of Delegates’ vote tallies for judicial nominations on Monday night / Tuesday morning, towards the goal of identifying who sat on their hands and didn’t vote. Of the 26 people who did not vote, Del. Jennifer McClellan reports that Habeeb, Tyler, Joannou, Brink, Englin, Ransone, and Howell were all legitimately absent. So now to find out what’s up with the remaining nineteen. There are two sources of information that help us figure that out.
First, the vote tallies. The vote on Tracy was held at 1:12:56 AM. There was a vote held on another judicial nomination mere seconds earlier, at 1:12:33. And a vote held on another judicial nomination just seconds later, at 1:13:19. Here’s a table listing every delegate who did not vote on each of those three occasions:
| 1:12:33 | 1:12:56 | 1:13:19 |
|---|---|---|
| Brink | Brink | Brink |
| Englin | Englin | Englin |
| Gilbert | ||
| Habeeb | Habeeb | Habeeb |
| Head | ||
| Howell | Howell | Howell |
| Joannou | Joannou | Joannou |
| Johnson | ||
| Jones | Jones | Jones |
| May | ||
| McQuinn | ||
| Miller | ||
| Minchew | ||
| Morris | ||
| O’Bannon | O’Bannon | O’Bannon |
| Orrock | Orrock | Orrock |
| Peace | Peace | Peace |
| Plum | Plum | Plum |
| Purkey | Purkey | Purkey |
| Ransone | Ransone | Ransone |
| Tata | Tata | Tata |
| Tyler | Tyler | Tyler |
| Ware, O. | Ware, O. | Ware, O. |
| Ware, R.L. | ||
| Webert | Webert | Webert |
| Wright | Wright | Wright |
| Yancey | Yancey | Yancey |
One can immediately see who was present 23 seconds earlier, disappeared from the chambers (according to the official record), and then returned 23 seconds later: Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), Christopher Head (R-Roanoke), Joe Johnson (D-Washington County), Joe May (R-Loudoun), Jackson Miller (R-Manassas), Randy Minchew (R-Leesburg), Richard Morris (R-Isle of Wight), and R. Lee Ware (R-Powhatan). These are our eight “Profiles in Courage” legislators—guys who failed this little test of basic human decency, who knew that they were doing something wrong, but didn’t want it on their permanent record.
Then there’s our second source of data, Andy Jenks’ coverage for NBC-12. Jenks is doing something standard for blogs, but extraordinary for news stations—he’s e-mailed every legislator who did not vote, asking what their excuse is, and updating his story as their answers come in. Everybody who the tally indicates was absent who responded to him confirmed that they were, indeed, absent. Minchew confirmed that he sat on his hands. But the award for the biggest load of horseshit has to go to Delegate Ware. Here is what Jenks has to say about Ware:
R. Lee Ware Jr., R-Powhatan: By e-mail, a staff member wrote, “Delegate Ware had to leave before the final votes–after 1:00 a.m.–so he would be in a semblance of mind for his teaching duties at 7:30 the same morning.”
This is a bald-faced lie. Let’s look at his votes around 1:12 AM:
1:11:45—yea
1:12:10—yea
1:12:33—yea
1:12:56—no vote
1:13:19—yea
1:13:40—yea
1:14:01—yea
Del. Ware just kept right on voting through the entire block. He voted in all of them. Either his staff member is misinformed, or Ware is already attempting to dodge his own record.
Let’s revisit our math. It would have taken 51 votes for Tracy to have been confirmed. He got 33. There were ten abstentions and eight guys sitting on their hands, pretending they weren’t in the chamber. That’s…51 votes. Ain’t that the damnedest coincidence?
Stephanie Cutter is an important player in the Obama for America campaign infrastructure. As Deputy Campaign Manager, there is only one staff member higher on the organizational chart. As a regular surrogate for the campaign she regularly drives the discussion in frequent television and media appearances.
Cutter was on a local satellite tour Wednesday to talk about the campaign’s two-minute ad that attacks their opponent Mitt Romney‘s career at Bain Capital, a private equity firm. NBC12 was one of the stations where the ad aired, and we talked to Cutter about its impact on the election. Most of the interview as about the economy, but it was a general question about the shift back to the economy after a week talking about social issues where Cutter took the opportunity to wade into a very local issue. The failed nomination of Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland as District Judge.
Thorne- Begland is openly gay and made a very prominent stand against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” during his time in the Military. His activism prompted conservative members of the Virginia House of Delegates to prevent his nomination from going forward. Cutter knew all about the fight and was not afraid to attack the GOP lead Virginia House of Delegates.
“I think that when things like this happen in this country and specifically Virginia, it turns people off,” Cutter said. ”The man is overly qualified to be a judge and this is a real leadership moment for some people in Virginia.”
While the Thorne-Begland controversy has grown well outside Richmond to media reports in numerous national outlets, the battle is over a relatively low-level judgeship. One primarily responsible for traffic tickets and vandalism. Important, no doubt, but more Judge Harry Stone, than Judge Thurgood Marshall. The basis of the battle, the fight over gay rights was enough for Cutter to call out the republican candidate for president of the United States.
“I think that it is an opportunity for Mitt Romney to stand up and say what the legislature did is just plain wrong,” she said. ”I don’t know if he will show that type of leadership, he hasn’t so far.
The Romney campaign had no interest in wading into this hyper-local issue that could put them at odds with republicans in Virginia.
“This is yet another example of how President Obama and his campaign would rather talk about anything other than his failed economic record,” said Curt Cashour, a Romney campaign spokesman.
The Romney Team did not specifically address the Thorne-Begland nomination at all. They chose not to support or condemn the House of Delegates move. Instead they tried to put the focus back on the Obama economic record.
“Obama’s presidency just hasn’t lived up to the promise of his 2008 campaign, and after more than three years in office, Americans are still suffering through one of the worst job markets in history,” Cashour said.
Meanwhile the battle over what is normally an easy nomination appears over. Andy Jenks today ran down all 36 members of the House of Delegates who didn’t vote to see how they would’ve voted, and why they decided to leave town. There appears to be no momentum to re-nominate Thorne- Begland who has gone back to his job as a prosecutor in the Richmond Commonwealths Attorney’s Office.
But while the battle is over, it appears the remnants of the is fight will continue on well into November.
You can see extended clips from Cutter’s remarks below:
Loudoun Republican leaders have twice in the past week advanced their ideological crusade to degrade and diminish LGBT Virginians. Sterling Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, who earns his living as the president of a nationally-recognized hate group, issued an outrageous statement blasting President Obama for his support of same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, in Richmond, Delegates David Ramadan (R-87) and Tag Greason (R-32) followed the lead of noted homophobe and former Loudoun Delegate (and current Republican U.S. Senate candidate) Bob Marshall in rejecting the nomination of an eminently well-qualified prosecutor and decorated Navy veteran for a General District Court Judgeship, based solely on the fact that he is gay.Supervisor Delgaudio has become infamous for his homophobic rantings and anti-gay activism [Lowell's note: see photo at left for an example]. He earns his living, and raises large sums of money, by promoting a radical agenda of bigotry and intolerance, all while representing the citizens of the Sterling District. Earlier this year, his organization ("the Public Advocate of the United States") was labeled a Hate Group for its anti-gay activities by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nationally recognized civil rights organization. Now Delgaudio, in a recent interview with the Loudoun Times-Mirror and on his organization's website, has assailed President Obama for his recent endorsement of same-sex marriage. Delgaudio claims President Obama's stance "disrespects women, God's values and his own spouse and embraces the all powerful and well funded Homosexual lobby in their insatiable demand for the destruction of marriage."
"The Loudoun Democratic Committee reiterates its call for Eugene Delgaudio to resign immediately from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. If Mr. Delgaudio refuses to do the right thing, Chairman York should use his authority as Chairman to strip Mr. Delgaudio of his positions on the Board's various subcommittees," stated LCDC Chair Evan Macbeth. "Delgaudio's continued rantings against the LGBT community bring shame and embarrassment on our county and make it clear that he is unfit to hold public office. Delgaudio's brand of hate and ignorance should have no place in Loudoun County and we should demand and expect that he be held accountable."
After midnight Tuesday morning in Richmond, Delegates David Ramadan and Tag Greason voted against an openly gay candidate for a General District Court Judgeship. Mr. Tracy Thorne-Begland, the Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney in the City of Richmond and a decorated Navy veteran, had been nominated by a Republican Delegate. The opposition to Thorne-Begland was led by Del. Bob Marshall, who criticized Thorne-Begland for his support for gay marriage and his public stance against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" when he was in the in Navy 20 years ago. Ramadan and Greason made no public comments to explain their decisions; they simply voted with a majority of their Republican colleagues against his nomination.
Loudoun's senior Democratic Senator, Mark Herring, issued a statement condemning the rejection of Thorne-Begland: "The treatment that Mr. Thorne-Begland received by the General Assembly, well after midnight Tuesday morning, was disgraceful and offensive. Mr. Thorne-Begland is a highly qualified prosecutor who served our country with distinction as a member of the United States Navy. His nomination to the General District Court bench was rejected by a majority of Republicans in the General Assembly solely because of his sexual orientation. Together with many of my fellow Virginians, I am embarrassed by what I witnessed take place early this morning."
Interesting list that’s making it’s way around the internets. My favorite:
Gotcha! 
Actually, the whole list is pretty good. Check it out.
Filed under: General
The memorial service for the late Chuck Colson was held today. May God have mercy on his soul. Of those contending to replace him as the leading voice of “Christian” victimism, and as the architect of anti-gay propaganda at Prison Fellowship Ministries, John Stonestreet is probably the most sophisticated.
One of the favorite techniques of Colson and his acolytes is to stand reality on its head by casting themselves, although they are the ones working to deny religious freedom and civil rights to others, as the oppressed and persecuted. Hence Stonestreet, in a recent column, claims for himself and his audience the role of Esther. You all know the story, right? Haman, the Jew-hating dictator, is a prime minister whose king has unwittingly taken the Hebrew Esther as his wife. When Haman is angered by Mordecai and is about to respond in a genocidal rage, Esther outs herself to save her people.
Stonestreet equates the situation of the Hebrews, in exile under the rule of Haman, to the circumstances of “Christians” today when they are restrained in any way by the civil rights of others. My husband gently pointed out to him the irony of his words: That the behavior Stonestreet is encouraging is very much like Haman’s inclination to dehumanize the Hebrews and see them as something other than just people, perhaps objectifying them as the “lobbyists” or “homosexual activists” of their day.
Stonestreet didn’t seem to understand. “Hamaan wasn’t grumpy at the Jews because of their propaganda or lobbying,” he responded. “They were exiles. He just didn’t like them.”
Not exactly (and one would expect a Prison Fellowship Ministries “Centurion” to know his bible a little better than this). Haman was “grumpy at the Jews” (!) because Mordecai refused to bow down. Had Mordecai accepted Haman’s authority by denying his own religious identity, Esther never would have outed herself, and no one would have been the wiser. Haman didn’t object to Jews, really – only those Jews who insisted on following that commandment “Thou shalt worship no other gods before Me.” The other Jews, the nice ones who didn’t assert their Jewishness, he had no problem with. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Understand that what our Mr. Marshall and the so-called Virginia “Family” Foundation have just said about their attack on Tracy Thorne-Begland is exactly the same thing:
Marshall, the Family Foundation of Virginia and others who raised concerns about Thorne-Begland’s nomination said they did not object to him because he is gay, but because of his outspokenness on the subject of gay rights.
“It’s not that he’s gay, but that he is not closeted or ashamed that troubles these people,” says Sullivan. Exactly. Stonestreet has no problem with ashamed and closeted gay people (who he refers to as “people who struggle with same-sex attraction”) either, only with those gay people who see no reason to “struggle” with who they are, who refuse to bow down.
The cowardly act by Marshall and his fellow bronze age culture warriors has not gone over well. It seems that a lot of people in the conservative/Republican camp got the memo, and are starting to really understand that, as Dick Cheney said, freedom means freedom for everyone.
Most on one of the local conservative blogs see right through the excuses, which is encouraging. There are only a very few anemic voices trying to make excuses for Mr. Marshall. And at least one commenter understands the meaning of this precisely:
I take Bob Marshall at his word when he says he did not torpedo the nomination of an extremely well qualified judicial candidate simply because he was gay. That is ridiculous! Marshall blocked the guy because he wasn’t ashamed of being gay and in the closet.
And remember: Anyone who fails to bow down to these s0-called Christians is guilty of persecuting them.
Gas price politics are pretty common to presidential elections, and 2012 will be no different. Several of you have asked us to find out more about an ad that blames President Obama for the hike in gas prices and predicts gas could get up to nine dollars a gallon.
Here is the ad, which aired on NBC12.
The group behind the ad has shelled out more than $3 million dollars to put the commercial on TV across the country and they have their own agenda.
It was paid for by The “American Energy Alliance” (AEA). They are the political activist arm of the “Institute for Energy Research” (IER).
The group boasts on their web site that their role is “encourage policymakers to support free market policies.”
Spokesman Benjamin Coles said that AEA is a wholly owned subsidiary of IER. Despite their connection their fund-raising and spending are completely separate.
Both groups are not required to publicly reveal their donors. Coles said they track their funding very closely and have received numerous audits of their financial controls. The group however does not provide who specifically contributes to their operation. A legal practice.
The people running the group have ties to leaders in the oil industry, and fiscally conservative organizations, including their president Tom Pyle.
Pyle is a former employee of the Koch brothers, Charles and David. The Kochs are major donors to libertarian and free market causes. Politico reported in March that the Kochs plan on steering $200 million into conservative causes during the 2012 elections.
Cole said flatly that the Koch’s have no connection whatsoever to the ”Nine Dollar a Gallon” gas ad campaign.
Pyle started his political career as an aide to former republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay, who was eventually convicted of laundering money. While Delay is appealing his conviction, Pyle has never been accused of any type of wrong doing and has a spotless pubic service record.
But while numerous media outlets tie the Kochs and their allies to both the American Energy Alliance and the Institute for Energy Research, physical evidence of cash donations is hard to come by. Coles refutes many aspects of the Politico story, that relies largely on a 2008 IRS 1099 form, which is one of the few public records that ties the Kochs to AEA or IER.
Coles would not offer specific information about who donates to AEA. He said that the organization chooses to protect the identity of its donors, which is within their legal rights.
AEA does claim that more than 60% of their funding comes from individuals, not from corporations. However, the identity of those individuals remains secret.
All the detailed information about where we got our facts is below:
———————————————————————-
*The American Energy Alliance web site can be found here.
*The American Energy Alliance’s staff page, which includes a biography for Tom Pyle, can be found here.
*The Institute for Energy Research’s web site can be found here.
*Politico’s report on the Koch brother’s connection to the American Energy Alliance can be found here.
"Bill Clinton, Boehner, and some other rich white guys had a 'summit' and agreed: " "It's all your fault' "
"Greeks to face month of Eurozone 'fear mongering' to swallow austerity"
Anti-women's rights...."Pharmacists in Kansas can now deny women access to birth control"
Any union member voting for Romney is nuts.
"Obama's new free speech threat"
"Greeks to face month of Eurozone 'fear mongering' to swallow austerity"
Anti-women's rights...."Pharmacists in Kansas can now deny women access to birth control"
Any union member voting for Romney is nuts.
"Obama's new free speech threat"
Too Many DINOs
May 16
Are there any 21st century New Deal Democrats holding office or just millionaire DINO Wall Street corporatist hacks spewing GOP lite? Let's see, some of the Dem base thought Eric Schneiderman was in the first category.
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism exposes the NY Attorney General as an Obama DINO.
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism exposes the NY Attorney General as an Obama DINO.
"As regular readers no doubt recall, Eric Schneiderman abandoned the dissident state attorney general effort to get a better mortgage settlement, assuring the Administration a win on this sellout to the banks. The bright shiny prize Schneiderman got in return for his betrayal was serving as one of five co-chairmen on a Federal mortgage task force, which appears to have gotten close to nada in resources beyond the staff in various Federal agencies who were already working on mortgage investigations. And given that were are now close to a full five years past the origination of toxic subprime deals, those existing investigations don’t exactly look to have been pursued with much in the way of vigor.
"We’ve criticized the Schneiderman sell out, yet the PR push to position him as the True Hero of What Passes for the left continues apace, including some ham-handed efforts like the American Prospect’s “The Man the Banks Fear Most“.
"Schneiderman today proved the skeptics to be correct (hat tip reader Peter). From a writeup in the New York Law Journal of a presentation Schneiderman made on white collar crime. It seems Schneiderman is in favor of it:
And, what a surprise....not! Obama isn't polling well among independent voters regarding mortgages/housing foreclosures and not holding big banks accountable." 'Noting his role as co-chair of President Barack Obama’s mortgage-fraud task force, he said that he was “very pro-Wall Street” and had represented somefinancial services firms in private practice.
" 'He said that the majority of people working in the financial industry are honest, but added that the “ability to tell people that and not have people scoff has been damaged” by ongoing scandals.' "
"This telling admission of the truth comes as polls in swing states show that ordinary citizens aren’t fooled about Obama’s sell out on the mortgage front and to big banks. From CFS:
" '….majorites of independent likely voters in three swing states (Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina) and near-majorities in two others (Pennsylvania and Florida) say they disapproved of Barack Obama’s handling of the housing crisis, and majorities in each state say the Administration is not doing enough to police Wall Street
banksi in the housing market.
" 'Strong majorities of likely voters in each state polled – Nevada, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania – also say the economic crisis was caused partly by criminal actions of Wall Street executives.' "
"It is going to be instructive to see whether token gestures by the Administration on the financial front between now and the election will be enough to fool voters who have suffered serious economic setbacks."
A pro-Republican Super PAC is putting financial heft -- $25 million worth -- behind an advocacy campaign critical of President Barack Obama's fiscal stewardship.
First, check out the robocall many Arlingtonians - myself included - have been receiving this week from Democratic congressional candidate Bruce Shuttleworth. Just a couple problems with this: 1) the poll he cites is utterly absurd, as I explained here; 2) there's no "paid for by" statement at the end of the call, as required by the FEC. Double #FAIL on that one.
Second, see the "flip" for images of Shuttleworth's campaign sign. Notice something? That's right, there's no "union bug," which means the sign was made in a non-union shop, and there's also no recycled logo, which means the sign is not environmentally friendly. Another double #FAIL for the Shuttleworth campaign.
Meanwhile, this guy has not been seen at any Democratic gatherings, but did manage to find time to address the Falls Church Republicans and ask for their votes. Fascinating strategy to try to win a Democratic primary...turn out Republicans to vote in it?!?
Bottom line: On June 12, I urge every 8th CD Democrat to get out and vote for Rep. Jim Moran. He's doing an excellent job in Congress and speaking out forcefully and articulately on issues we all care about. Let's make sure we keep Jim Moran there to keep fighting for us, and certainly not replace him with a Republican-friendly, union-and-environment-unfriendly "Democrat!"
Rams jilt CAA
May 16
"Premier universities are premier across the board, and that includes athletics," Rao said. "We need to be willing, and we are certainly able, to compete at the very highest levels, and we look forward to doing that in the A-10."Watching VCU president Michael Rao’s press conference (live) on video was revealing. I came away from it thinking Rao doesn’t know much about basketball, or sports, in general. I could be wrong, but he didn’t sound like a guy familiar with the footing on which he was standing to opine. That doesn’t mean the move to the Atlantic 10 is a bad move, or a good move. With the flux that conferences are in today, only time will tell.
He acknowledged that $5 million is a lot to walk away from, as is a conference tournament played just down the street from the university.
"The expected returns are far greater that the short-term losses," Rao said, and the increased expectations despite a move to a more competitive league are welcome.
"We wouldn't have it any other way," Rao said. "We play to win. We expect it win. We have been winning."
Me? I’m thinking about Aesop’s fable about the dog on a bridge that dropped his bone, to grab after an illusion of a bigger bone in the water.
As far as men’s basketball is concerned, if VCU goes on winning at the rate they have since Shaka Smart was hired by Rao’s predecessor, Eugene Trani, it probably won’t matter all that much which conference VCU calls home.
However, I can say that Trani understood college basketball. During his presidency he was a frequent visitor in the media room after games and he traded observations with reporters in a way that demonstrated his ability to grasp events on the fly, without someone writing a script for him.
In addition to walking away from guaranteed money, VCU is trading away its intense CAA rivalries with William & Mary, George Mason, Old Dominion, James Madison, Drexel, etc., for potential A10 rivals. Thus, VCU hopes to create meaningful rivalries with Duquesne, Fordham, Saint Louis, Xavier, Massachusetts and George Washington.
Longtime Rams fans probably hope there will be a way to continue playing Mason and ODU, at least, in future basketball seasons.
Once again, Virginia's in the news for a gay rights issue, this time related to the this:
...in recent years, The Falls Church has become a symbol of a division in the Episcopal Church, a Christian denomination that has given the United States more presidents than any other, and a good share of the country's Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite.So, of course, Virginia's own Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson felt the need to weigh in over a judge's ruling "in favor of the Episcopal Church over a breakaway conservative group that has been holding services in the disputed sanctuary since 2006." Never a dull moment in Virginia these days, I'll tell you. Ugh.The rupture came after an openly gay man was consecrated as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire in 2004. The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and The Falls Church was one of many congregations that broke from the U.S. church by aligning with conservative Anglican provinces in Africa and South America.
Last Saturday (May 12), I attended the 1st and 10th Congressional District Conventions in Fairfax and Frederickburg. This Saturday (May 19), the remaining Congressional Districts will hold their conventions and our Unity Team for the DNC, Mame Reiley, Doris Crouse-Mays, George Wallace and I, or folks helping us, will cover those conventions. The CD conventions will elect 69 National Convention Delegates and 7 Alternates (2/3 of the total elected Delegates and 3/4 of the Alternates) and chose Presidential Electors, and some CDs will consider also resolutions. (See CD Convention details below.)
Then it’s on to the State Convention, and it was reported today that DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be featured at an event on Saturday night (June 2) – so Delegates should plan to stay in town after the convention adjourns. Friday night (June 1) will feature events with Jim Webb and various hospitality suites. Check the DPVA State Convention Schedule for details.
CD Convention Details:
2nd CD – May 19, noon; Lake Taylor Middle School (1380 Kempsville Road, Norfolk, VA 23502)
3rd CD – May 19, noon; Achievable Dream High School (5720 Marshall Ave, Newport News, VA 23605)
4th CD – May 19, 10 am; Deep Creek Middle School (1955 Deal Drive, Chesapeake, VA 23323)
5th CD – May 19, 11 am; Nelson County High School, auditorium (6919 Thomas Nelson Highway, Lovingston, VA 22949)
6th CD – May 19, 10 am; Rockbridge High School ( 143 Greenhouse Road, Lexington, VA 24450)
7th CD – May 19, 11 am; Henrico High School (302 Azalea Ave., Fairfield, VA 23227)
8th CD – May 19, 10 am; Robert E. Lee High School (6540 Franconia Road, Springfield, VA 22150)
9th CD – May 19, 1 pm; New River Community College, Rooker Auditorium (5251 College Drive, Dublin, VA 24084)
11th CD – May 19, 10 am; Luther Jackson Middle School (3020 Gallows Road, Falls Church, Virginia 22042)