Life under the Regency category archive

Good news on the kooky front:

Virginia’s attorney general has failed to back up allegations that a former University of Virginia climate-change researcher defrauded state taxpayers to obtain government grants, a judge ruled Monday.

Retired Albemarle County Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. determined that the university can be subject to an investigation by Ken Cuccinelli. But Peatross found that Cuccinelli’s two so-called “civil investigative demands,” or administrative subpoenas, for Michael Mann’s records fail to spell out the nature of Mann’s alleged wrongdoing.

“What the Attorney General suspects that Dr. Mann did that was false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth is simply not stated,” Peatross said in his ruling.

The ruling left open the door for Cuccinelli to try again, if the new request satisfies the legal requirements.

No doubt the fishing campaign and concomitant harassment will continue.

Bloomberg News takes a look at Glenn Nye’s and Tom Perriello’s reelection prospects.

Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a surplus out of my–er–hat!

Shhhhh. We won’t talk about stiffin’ that there pension fund.

Via VB Progressives.

Hell, not even Attorney-General material:

Via NLS.

Via the Richmonder.

The local rag nails it:

According to the attorney general, Virginians and visitors stopped by officers could face questions simply for seeming like illegal immigrants . . . .

Whatever that means.

(I corrected the grammar, as you will see if you follow the link, because, well, I had to.)

Ken Cuccinelli looks west for inspiration.

During a news conference Monday, Cuccinelli said it’s his opinion that Virginia police officers can ask about immigration status as part of criminal investigations “so long as they don’t extend the duration of the stop by any significant degree.”

But he advised authorities against addressing civil violations of federal immigration laws.

(snip)

Under current state law, authorities are required to check the immigration status of individuals who are taken into custody. Legal interpretations by attorneys general may carry some weight with courts but aren’t considered binding.

This would seem to extend that to anyone who is questioned, including witnesses, victims, and by-standers who turn out not to have witnessed anything. The story goes on to quote spokespersons from various police departments that indicate that the police departments are approaching this very cautiously.

This is witch hunt territory. The opinion was in response to a question from a state legislator known for right-wing grandstanding.

Listen to the rhetoric of the anti-illegal immigration bunch. It is the same as the rhetoric of the pro-segregation forces of the Jim Crow south (and of today–they are still with us, they are just quieter about it)–only the target has changed.

Immigrants, legal or otherwise, are not the root of the problem; they are the tree growing from the root. The United States’s immigration laws form the root, an impenetrable mess designed to exclude immigrants from the nation which likes to style itself as a “nation of immigrants.”

Read up on the legal history in Kevin R. Johnson’s article from the Indiana Law Review.

It is almost impossible for someone to immigrate legally unless he or she is rich, has a Ph. D., is a media star, or some combination thereof.

And Republicans forestall any attempt at reform.

Virginia AG Cuccinelli finally passed his US Navy Vets campaign contributions to an outfit that will use them to benefit real vets. The founder of US Navy Vets is still missing and unaccounted for. Assuming the money was invested at 4% compound interest for the three or four months since the US Navy Vets was revealed to be a likely fraud, he might kick in an extra $500-700.

In other news, he continues to believe that mysterious magical thinking counteracts the laws of physics, biology, and chemistry.

With free ecards from the Democratic Party of Virginia.

In a court filing, the University of Virginia plainly identifies the Virginia Attorney-General’s “shoot-the-messenger” methods:

The attorney general is using the state Fraud Against Taxpayers Act to target research with which he disagrees, the university said.

It’s a fishing expedition that’s fishing where there ain’t no fish, designed to make the guys in the boat look good while accomplishing nothing other than creating intimidation and distraction.

Full story at the link.

It’s there, but Virginians don’t get to see it:

The Virginia Department of Transportation has spent about $64 million of federal stimulus dollars on highway repaving projects, but it’s not bragging about it.

Spokesman Jeff Caldwell said VDOT officials made a decision last year not to put up signs to indicate where stimulus money is being spent.

“We thought the money could better be spent on highways,” Caldwell said.

That reasoning doesn’t give me heartburn, at least, not in and of itself. Signs, especially one-of-a-kind signs, are expensive.

What gives me heartburn are Republican claims that stimulus spending has not led to keeping or creating jobs.

A little advertising (we old folks can remember the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” signs from the Interstate Highway program) would help more persons consider those claims with the derision skepticism which they deserve.

Indeed, more “Your Tax Dollars at Work” signs would remind persons that governance is the means to civilized society, while taxes are the price thereof.

Afterthought:

The Regent recently took credit for creating 71,500 jobs since assuming the Recency. Just for grins and giggles, here’s a breakdown (H/T JCWhite).

According the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VDEP), 80% of those 71,500 jobs were created by private sector companies, while just 20% are new local, state, and federal government employees. A lot of those jobs are credited to money from the Economic Stimulus Act, including the 14,896 folks the Census says it hired in Virginia hired between the start of February and the end of May. The Census hires include 14,236 field workers, and 660 supervisors.

The U. S. Navy Vets charity, which appears to be fraudulent, appears to have disappeared in all but name. (Details at the link below.)

Bobby Thompson, the “founder,” has disappeared (Fiji, anyone?). The Roanoke Times reports that the only one of the listed 85 board members to be found has resigned, and the outfit’s Ohio lawyers are petitioning to be released from representing it (once a court proceeding starts, lawyers who are on record as representing a client usually cannot just quit, because it often means the court proceeding must be delayed so the new lawyers can get up to speed).

Even the telemarketers have jumped ship.

Every other Virginia politician fooled by this outfit has given his or her U. S. Navy Vets campaign contribution to charities known to be legit, given that the contributions were likely made with funds donated to help veterans, not to help political campaigns.

Everyone except the Attorney General, charged with enforcing the law:

Cuccinelli’s political director, Noah Wall, said last month that the contributions from Thompson to the attorney general were being put in a restricted account and would be donated to veterans groups if funds were misappropriated. Wall also said he spoke to Thompson by phone on June 14 but did not find out where Thompson was at the time.

Wonder what he intends to do with the interest on that escrow account.

Kook-kook-a-choo.

This one was about how the Regent is all wet. Follow the link for the deluge details:

This week, Governor Bob McDonnell put the brakes on a directive to curb the state’s spending on bottled water. The directive was part of former Governor Kaine’s greening state government initiative. In FY09, it is estimated that Virginia state agencies spent at least $160,000 on bottled water. In FY10, state spending reports showed that expenditures on bottled water were on the decline, with an estimated $126,000 spent in FY10 – an indication that the phase-out was in progress until McDonnell’s action this week.

Governor McDonnell’s move to revive state spending on bottled water comes at the same time that the Governor has introduced state budget proposals that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for K-12 education, including the elimination of school breakfast programs for low-income children.

There is no excuse for choosing bottled water when safe tap water is available. Indeed, much of what is sold as “bottled” water is tap water put into bottles and trucked about the nation, producing air pollution and plastic waste that otherwise would not exist.

This decision is stupid and wasteful.

And not surprising.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is scrubbing his predecessor’s directive telling state government agencies and institutions not to buy individual-sized water bottles unless there’s an emergency or health reason.

The prohibition was one piece of then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s government “greening” plan that didn’t make it through a McDonnell administration rewrite for fear that it could cost Virginia businesses too much green.

I love the rationale.

Some “industries” deserve no protection. This is one of them.

Marriages that take place outside of Virginia are not valid in the Commonwealth, even if the couple has obtained a legal Virginia marriage license and the ceremony is performed by a person authorized to do so in Virginia.

Kook-Kook-Kooky-a-choo.

Aside: When I was a young ‘un growing up here, sure, it was a Jim Crow state and bigotry was the law, but, like Firesign Theatre, it was Not Insane.

Via the Richmonder.