Waldo’s Virginia Political Blogroll

It's now been over a week since the once-ballyhooed, privatized state computer system crashed, a mess caused by a malfunctioning storage unit in Richmond. The unit has been repaired, but, as anyone who has ever dealt with a hard drive crash knows on a small scale, the work in getting everything back in order still goes on, while state business doesn't get done very well.  

Some relief has been promised for today. However, according to the Washington Post, three state agencies - the board of elections and the departments of motor vehicles and taxation - are still experiencing major computer issues that hamper daily operations.

More than 32,000 Virginia residents haven't been able to renew or get new driver's licenses in person. Taxpayers have been unable to file returns, make payments or register online through the  Department of Taxation. Tax account information is unavailable for bills and refunds. Residents can apply to register to vote, but the applications won't be processed until the agency's database is completely restored.  

Computers for 24 other state agencies are operational, but the computer problems mean that they can't operate efficiently. The Washington Post noted that those agencies include social services, environmental quality, juvenile justice, criminal justice services, professional and occupational regulation, and information technologies.

So, in this year of budget shortfalls and phony "surpluses," state employees will now get  overtime pay to work through the backlog of more than a week's down time. You know, I wonder what possessed Virginia to give Northrup Grumman a contract to create a single state computer system - something Northrup had never done before. The history of that $2.4 billion - and counting - contract is a convoluted one, beginning in 2002 when JLARC reported that the state computer systems were out-of-date and expensive. (If JLARC thought the old way was expensive, wait until they figure out the ultimate cost of this system that has caused trouble from day one.)  
Here is a time line for that Northrup Grumman contract:

November 2001: Northrup Grumman buys Newport News Shipbuilding for $2.1 billion, plus assuming $500 million in NNS debt, making it a huge Hampton Roads employer.

2002: JLARC finds that Virginia's computer system is out of date and too expensive. Gov. Mark Warner and the Republican-controlled legislature put out for bid a contract to build an integrated computer system for the state.

2002: Northrup Grumman gets a contract for $2.4 billion, even though at that time it had no experience in doing such a state-wide job. Responsibility for managing that contract is given to an independent board, not the governor or the General Assembly.

2009: JLARC issues a report saying that almost every state agency has had severe problems with the Northrup-designed system. JLARC mentioned Northrup's lack of experience in its report.

April 2010: new governor, Bob McDonnell revises the contract with Northrup. McDonnell said is would cost the state at least $350 million to end the contract. New legislation was passed that allowed the Virginia Information Technology Agency to report directly to the governor, not to that independent board.

McDonnell's sweetheart contract extended Northrup's previous contract for three years beyond its original time, released $15 million being held because of system problems, promised to pay Northrop $105 million over the next nine years to settle other company claims for money, plus $47 million over the same time frame for new security features.

As luck would have it, in 2009 and 2010 the company was conducting a search for a new home for its California headquarters and considering sites in Maryland and Virginia. Even McDonnell was forced to admit that it helped Virginia for him to redo the contract with terms favorable to Northrup before it ultimately chose Virginia.

I suppose we have to chalk up this expensive mess to just another nightmare caused by outsourcing, not to the best choice to get a job done but to whoever has the best political connections. Welcome to corporate "democracy," where corporations are people and the people are expendable cogs in the corporate machine.

I know I might be premature in this prediction (and it’s not even Labor Day yet), but things are looking really good for Robert Hurt in the 5^th Congressional District. According to a recent Survey USA poll, Hurt is ahead of Rep. Tom Perriello by 16 percentage points. With this huge margin, Hurt is on his way to victory in November if this momentum continues.

By D.H. Kerby
September 2, 2010

There is a strong intuition among the American people that there is a fundamental difference between publishing a secret for all the world to read and secretly informing an enemy of a secret.

Read on.

Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, and international commentator on ethics and public life, and he has been the target of attacks by Glenn Beck. In a recent blog post, Wallis asks Glenn Beck to sit down for some dialogue:

I think we got off on the wrong foot. I listened to your speech last Saturday and heard a lot of things that we agree on. In fact, I have used some of the same language of our need to turn to God, and the values of “faith, hope, and charity” (love). What I would like to find out, and others would too, is what you mean by that language. Until last weekend, you have consistently described yourself primarily as an entertainer, and the public has known you as a talk show host. But last Saturday, you sounded more like an evangelist or revivalist on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I know we disagree significantly on many issues of public policy, but you said that people can disagree on politics and still agree on basic values and try to come together. Maybe we should test that. Instead of my being up on your blackboard and a regular target of your show’s rhetoric, why don’t we finally have that civil dialogue I invited you to months ago? Your speech on the Mall suggested and even promised a change of heart on your part, so why don’t we talk?

You can read the rest of Wallis' open letter to Glenn Beck by clicking here.

In 1990, I was about to get married, and I knew there was something wrong with me, but didn't know what. I went to see old Dr. Shaffer, who referred me to a gastroenterologist, who figured out that I have Crohn's disease, and who has been my good friend and doctor for twenty years. The Crohn's diagnosis was more than confirmed in November 1996 or thereabouts when a Bristol surgeon removed eighteen inches of bad guts, that were tormenting me.

Over the years, I've taken some medicines that were gentle and did nothing, steroids that made me gain a pound day, other medicines that say on the label they can kill me, I've endured iron shots with the big needle, given myself B-12 shots with the little needles, munched on chewable children's vitamins, shared yogurt with my dogs almost every day. So far I've taken a pass on Remicade and Humira; maybe I get too many advertisements for plaintiff's products liability seminars.

Probably the last 150 pizzas have given me cause for regret, but I'll eat one every now and then. Green peppers, raw onions, orange juice, chocolate, bearnaise and hollandaise are all taboo, but I break bad and have some sometimes. My weight has fluctuated between 145 and 205, and so there are both fat boy and skinny man suits in my closet. I eat too fast, and often have dessert. On the upside, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are no problem at all.

I've met some lawyers and witnesses with the same problem, and they are always relieved to find out what we have common. "Oh, I don't have to tell you about it," they say - about for example the perils of sitting around in a deposition for hours. Say, I flew to Europe and back a couple of times, imagine that. They could. One of my cousins has it. She and her lawyer husband Steve just flew to China and back to meet their new baby. When I heard this news, I thought about that plane ride.

I've been to a few meetings where the stomach rumblings were so loud I was surprised they were not made a part of the official minutes. ("... and Mr. Minor said grklbklmrkmogl.") One such occasion was at a VBA board meeting, when I was seated by Cheshire Eveleigh, who merely turned and gave me her broadest, crinkliest smile, leaving me no choice but to smile back. In this (and all matters, by the way), I recommend following her example.

A lot of my lawyer buddies or courthouse friends or even clients whom I see just every once in a while keep me up to date on how I'm doing, or at least whether I look better or worse than the last time they saw me. My assistant generally schedules my hearings and depositions for the afternoons, since the mornings are the iffiest part of the day (and I was a night owl even before). When I heard that a friend of mine's son was diagnosed with Crohn's, I said tell him it hasn't been fun but it hasn't held me back from doing what I wanted and going places. There are still some days though when the bad guts flat out betray me, like last November, and today, which gave me the notion to write this post.

Officials from Northrup Grumman just released a statement on the VITA outage.

Melissa Correa from NBC12 spoke to Governor Bob McDonnell today on the topic.  See her story Thursday at 5 & 6.

Below is the complete statement from Linda A. Mills, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Information Systems:

———————————

Statement by Linda A. Mills, Corporate Vice President and President, Northrop Grumman Information Systems Regarding the Restoration of Storage Server Operations

Repairs to the damaged storage area network system that failed on August 25 are complete. All state agencies are operational and the process of data verification is ongoing.

Northrop Grumman deeply regrets the disruption and inconvenience this has caused state agencies and Virginia citizens.  Over the last week, we have deployed significant resources and our staff has worked tirelessly in unison with VITA and our partners to thoroughly verify and restore access to data and restore normal operations to the agencies.

The disruption to the business of state government has ended, but our efforts to examine the factors that contributed to the initial problem and the lengthy restoration of service is just beginning.  We support Governor McDonnell’s call for an independent review of the incident and we will reimburse the Commonwealth for the reasonable costs of an assessment as it is an essential and responsible measure that will strengthen our ability to protect against future issues.

In addition, we are diligently working through the lessons learned from this unfortunate incident and revising the plan to improve process and response time for restoring agency operations.  We look forward to hearing the results of the independent review.

Northrop Grumman’s commitment to performance of the IT Infrastructure Partnership is steadfast. We will continue to transform the Commonwealth’s IT infrastructure and provide the expertise and resources to support improved delivery of government services.

Virginia set a bold course when it embarked on this first-of-its-kind project. The partnership has experienced its share of obstacles, not unusual with large transformation programs, but with this modernized system Virginia and her citizens should find themselves years ahead of other states with the service provided by its IT infrastructure.

By Ivan Eland
September 2, 2010

The U.S. Justice Department is apparently considering prosecuting Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which is a Web site that publishes classified documents from governments, under the rarely used Espionage Act of 1917.

Read on.

How about more ads like this one by Glenn Nye, touting the hard work he's doing for his district, instead of ads attacking his own party and its leaders? C'mon, it's not so hard!

Virginia's own Del. Barbara Comstock was on Fox News discussing the State Departments recent 29-page report on human rights in America. This report was submitted to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, and includes a complaint about the difficulty of forming a union in the United States. The report states that this equates to a violation of human rights, which Del. Comstock believes trivializes human rights. Please watch the video below, or follow this link.

Northrop Grumman has agreed to foot the bill for an outside review of the computer breakdowns that crippled Virginia's online services over the past week. On Thursday Gov. Bob McDonnell announced that the investigative arm of the General Assembly - the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission - is working with state leaders and officials at Northrop - the defense contracting behemoth that runs the state's information technology. The Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Taxation were reportedly the hardest hit by the extended computer outage that hit 26 of the state's 89 agencies. According to official estimates about 45,000 people could not renew their driver's licenses during the week-long outage. McDonnell had this to say: Speaking about this announcement, Governor McDonnell remarked,...

I'm following Ken Cuccinelli's wildly inappropriate and unethical, taxpayer-funded, political "town hall" meeting in Rocky Mountain at NLS's Twitter feed. Here are a few "highlights," to use the word loosely, so far. Thanks to Ben for the excellent coverage, by the way!

*"Wow, huge crowd, I have to go in the overflow room. Must be 200+ people here"

*"Wow, they are introducing Republican party officials for applause at a town hall paid for by the state."

*"Cooch just said 'from the dark side' when intro speaker said he was from Fairfax."

*"Poindexter claiming VA passed HC Freedom Act in response to federal bill that was passed. actually 2 month earlier"

*"Ken says he is here to discuss federal legislation that will raise electricity costs. Too bad cap+trade is dead."

*"Words not used: "energy conservation"."

*"Wow, Cooch is bragging about blocking money for utilities for Carbon Capture costs. Disgusting."

*"Cooch claiming Cap+Trade will raise rates here by 35 percent. #liar"

*"Cooch claiming cap + trade will cost Virginia 50,000 job losses. #liar"

Lots more after the "flip." My god, this is pitiful.
*"Cooch claims century aluminum closing in WVA raised people's rates on average 5 dollars a month. #liar"

*"Speaker taking Cooch to task for allowing App Power for triple their PROFIT from 07 to 09."

*"Cooch claims SCC is 3 judges. Wait, I thought they were Governor appointments."

*"Woman complaining that proposed wind turbines are going to "invade" her home and overwhelm her with noise. #lie"

*"Cooch bragging about 'beating back costs' for wind turbines in recent rate case"

*"Rofl, Cooch says we need to adjust laws for 'wind noise' from wind turbines."

*"After trashing wind power, Cooch says he is open to it. LOL."

*"Cooch says those that oppose coal 'push real estate agents to start selling caves'."

*"Cooch claims EPA relying on UN Panel and overseas universities involved in climategate to create greenhouse gas regulations."

*"Cooch says EPA relying on "bad" science."

*"Speaker asks Cooch how much his political cases are costing taxpayers. Cooch attacks speaker."

*"Cooch claims only 4 attorneys in his office working on health care case, 2 attorneys on greenhouse gas case. #lie"

*"Cooch says for those who want politics out of what he does 'see the exit door!' Holy Crap."

*"Pitiful."

By Melvin A. Goodman
September 2, 2010

The "double envelopment" or pincer movement is a classic military maneuver that finds the flanks of the opponent under simultaneous attack from the opposing forces.

Read on.

Another oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has exploded:

An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill.

A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.

The rig in question apparently a production rig, not a drilling rig. Read the complete story at The Huffington Post.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to inspect or regulate these things.

Fun Fact: the company that operates the rig that exploded today held a demonstration against greater safety regulation yesterday in New Orleans.

While the governor has promised to unveil his proposal to privatize the state's ABC stores on September 8th, that's not nearly enough time for Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, a member of McDonnell's government reform panel, to thoroughly digest the idea:...Whipple said she has received very little information from the governor's staff despite repeated requests for more information. Her last meeting

Democrat Glenn Nye, Republican Scott Rigell and Independent Kenny Golden share the stage for the second time tonight in Norfolk, during a joint forum at Second Calvary Baptist Church. The three congressional candidates are all running for Virginia's 2nd District, which includes parts of Hampton and Norfolk and all of Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore. The three men shared the stage two weeks ago in a forum in Virginia Beach that drew nearly 600 people. Here's a full video of the first showdown between the rivals who are running in the hotly contested November midterm elections, where Republicans are hoping to cut into Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. The race in Hampton Roads promises to be a tough one, with Rigell and...

The list includes the radio talk show host who called a female senator a “prostitute” for cutting a deal to benefit her state, the male challenger who referred to his female rival “attractive” and “probably a good mother,” and the TV host who noted that the candidate’s wife looked like an angry woman.

Those comments and others have been collected by a group of advocates for women running for office who are monitoring what they consider a “highly toxic” media environment that makes it difficult for female candidates.

You can read the rest of this article by Krissah Thompson at The Washington Post.

New report shows the higher the income, the wider the gap

RICHMOND, VA – Women in Virginia earn an average of just 81 cents for every dollar men earn, and this difference is larger than in most other states, according to a new report by The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. In addition, the new report shows the gap widens at higher wage and education levels.

Read the rest of this article on The Commonwealth Institute’s website.

In response to the Pentagon's desire to shutter Joint Forces Command in Hampton Roads, Gov. Bob McDonnell put together a military affairs commission stacked with elected leaders and military veterans with deep Virginia roots. Dubbed the Commission on Military and National Security Facilities, the panel is designed to bring some added weight to Virginia's efforts to protect the military and civilian jobs at Joint Forces in Norfolk and Suffolk. Virginia elected officials blasted the move when Defense Secretary Robert gates announced it in mid-August. Here's what McDonnell had to say about the closing, here's what Rep. Rob Wittman had to say about closing Joint Forces Command, and Here's what Sen. Mark. R. Warner had to say just last week. Sen. Jim Webb appears to have...

In This Issue

• State of Emergency Declare for Hurricane Earl
• Delegate Herring Needs Your Help

Welcome to Delegate Herring’s Newsletter

Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter. I hope you find the information in here valuable. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns.

STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN VA FOR HURRICANE EARL

Hurricane Earl is expected to pass Virginia early Friday. The Governor announced a state of emergency to allow officials to prepare. If you have plans to head to the coast for the weekend you may want to keep yourself informed about the weather conditions as they may change. Here is an excellent site for information.

I NEED YOUR HELP

I am hopeful that you have found the work that I have done for the 46th District and for Virginia to be outstanding. In order for me to continue my work, I will need to win my re-election campaign in 2011. I cannot do that without your help, it is that simple. Please contribute $25, $50, $100, or whatever you can today so that I can continue to my work. The most important part of my re-election campaign is communicating with my constituents. I send mailers to my constituents including this weekly newsletter during the year. This costs money. I simply cannot do this without you. I know that money may be tight for you, so a contribution no matter the amount would be appreciated.

---

Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter. As promised, I will continue to update you on the business of the General Assembly and the state throughout the year. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my office.

Sincerely,

Charniele

ANNOUNCEMENT OF EXTENDED HOURS AT THE VIRGINIA DMV

An information storage unit which serves many of Virginia’s agencies crashed last week affecting the computer systems of 26 agencies.  The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) was one of the agencies affected.  As a result, there is now a back-log of services to be provided.  To accommodate customers DMV has extended its hours at all of its centers as follows:

• Thursday, September 2nd, DMV will be open until 6pm
• Friday, September 3rd, DMV will be open until 6pm

In Alexandria, DMV has also extended hours on Saturday, September 4th closing at 6:00 pm; the Fair Oaks location will not close until 6:30 pm on Saturday. 

I WANT YOUR IDEAS

Several weeks ago I announced that my office has started to put together its legislative package and I asked for ideas from you. I have had several excellent proposals which will be pursued.  I am still interested in receiving ideas.   If you have an idea of how Virginia can do better on any front, from crime prevention to helping small businesses, I want to hear from you.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE 2011 REDISTRICTING PROCESS

As many of you know, redistricting takes place across the United States next year.  If you are interested in this issue, I suggest you read the publication Drawing the Line 2011: Redistricting in Virginia.  It has an excellent overview of the redistricting process and new population estimates for Virginia.  You can find the publication at the Virginia Division of Legislative Services website  http://dlsgis.state.va.us/.

The Redistricting Subcommittee of the House Committee on Privileges and Elections will hold a series of public hearings.  The date set for the Northern Virginia area is Thursday, October 5th at 7:00 pm.  The meeting will be held at Mason Hall on the campus of George Mason University.

CONTACT US!

info@charnieleherring.com

PO Box 11779, Alexandria, VA 22312

For more information visit Delegate Herring’s Webiste or Read her Blog and don’t forget to find her on Twitter and Facebook.

Paid for and authorized by Friends of Charniele Herring.

Faced with the political fight of his life, liberal Democrat Rick Boucher has conveniently decided to forget that he is a Democrat. Boucher represents Virginia's ninth district, which includes southwest Virginia. According to the Washington Post the ad features Boucher sounding like a conservative, touting his opposition to Obama health care and promising to fight for a balanced budget.