Life under the Regency category archive

Radio Times looks at the symbolism and the reality of the Civil War:

We’re coming into the 150th anniversary of the American South’s first organized attempt to secede from the Union. Our guest, University of Pennsylvania professor of history STEPHANIE MCCURRY, looks at the Confederate War through the experience of the South’s women and slave struggles in her new book, “Confederate Reckoning.” We’ll talk to her about how women and slaves influenced the demise of the Confederacy, including how they took on the Jefferson Davis government on government enlistment, and tax and welfare policies.

A listen helps illumate the strength of the Confederate myth.

Stephanie McCurry, at the beginning of the interview (slightly edited for conciseness):

This issue of the Civil War gets new salience . . . because of our own (“heightened political” was the adjective in the preceding sentence–ed.) moment. This guy in Virginia, the Governor, I mean this situation in Virginia, I think, . . . is a case in point, that the uses of the Civil War and of history in general, but especially of slavery and the defeat of slavery in the Civil War are about the politics of the moment. It always has uses. . . . politicians don’t feel any real obligation to be accountable to the . . . truth of the past.

. . . slavery and the Civil War can be run through a mill that serves political interests in the moment. What you see with the Republican Governor is the uses of the Civil War but not of slavery, so it has to be pruned out of that discussion or he can’t use it for what he wants to use it for, so the idea of a shared history without any reference to slavery is absolutely implausible. And it’s not a shared history. . . . African-Americans and white Virginians who had ancestors in that state 150 years ago . . . don’t have a shared history. They have two histories of one event. . . .

You can’t just make it about sacrifice and honor.

Follow the link to listen.

Ben Goldacre considers research into the interplay between preconceived notions and science at the Guardian (there’s a lengthy description of the study at the link):

When presented with unwelcome scientific evidence, it seems, in a desperate attempt to retain some consistency in their world view, people would rather conclude that science in general is broken. This is an interesting finding. But I’m not sure it makes me very happy.

This casts light on Cuccinelli .

Elaine in Roanoke has an excellent post at Blue Virginia prompted, by all things, by an article in Parade.

Read it.

I think it explains a piece of why the leadership of the South has not quite relinquished the Lost Cause and why vehicles such as the one shown below are still seen on the street.

(I tried to link to Parade but they kept kicking me to their mobile site, so no link.)

June 28, 2010 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Life under the Regency | Bookmark this post

When I saw this:

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has announced plans to strengthen veterans advocacy efforts in his office.

my first thought was that it was designed to divert attention from this:

Of far greater concern: the activity of Ken Cuccinelli, who took $55,000 in campaign donations from Thompson (see Note Below–ed.) while he was running for attorney general. Like Ticer, other Virginia politicians who took Thompson’s money have said they would divest themselves of the funds. Cuccinelli, however, has merely segregated the money in a separate account until the various investigations are complete.

___________________

Note Below: Of the apparently fraudulent charity, U. S. Navy Veterans Association. Follow the second link for details.

Times-Dispatch link via Not Larry Sabato.

From the Roanoke Times, emphasis added:

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said Thursday he has applied for temporary restraining orders to halt solicitations by U.S. Navy Vets, saying he has “every reason to believe this outfit is a phony outfit.” Cordray said the court orders are needed because U.S. Navy Vets did not comply with a cease-and-desist order his office issued last month. The requests were filed in two Ohio counties where U.S. Navy Vets has rented UPS mail drops to use as business addresses.

The Richmonder put up a post on U. N. Navy Vets’ political contributions and Attorney-General Cuccinelli. His phrasing is perhaps harsher than mine would be, but he points out a viewpoint I missed:

These political contributions came from money given to a (purported) charity to be used charitable work, not for political gifts.

Joel lays it out.

Since my mother depends on the Virginia Retirement System, I do not like to see it the subject of the old shell game.

For wingnuts, it’s never policy, it’s always Apocalypse Now.

That is because they need to whip up fear so persons don’t think.

Fear is the enemy of thought; thought is the enemy of wingnuttery.

It submits its petition to void Attorney General Cuccinelli’s global warming attempt to intimidate those with whom he disagrees subpoena.

In Thursday’s court filing, the university argues that Cuccinelli submitted a vague demand that fails to specify what alleged acts of fraud he is investigating and that exceeds his authority under the law.

“Investigating the merits of a university researcher’s methodology, results and conclusions (on climate change or any topic) goes far beyond the Attorney General’s limited statutory power,” the 10-page petition reads.

Anti-fraud laws, it adds, don’t “authorize the Attorney General to engage in scientific debate or advance the Commonwealth’s positions in unrelated litigation about federal environmental policy and regulation,” an apparent allusion to Cuccinelli’s separate legal challenge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s position on the harmful e ffects of greenhouse gases.

It should be fun to follow this through the courts.

Fact checkers needed:

The Republican Party, taking Virginia from being just one of fifty states to national laughing stock in four short months.

Via the Richmonder.

Ouch.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says his investigation into the research activities of a former University of Virginia climate change scientist is about rooting out possible fraud and does not infringe upon academic freedom.

No. It’s not. The underlying justification for it, the oddly named “cliimategate” allegations, have been thoroughly discredited as by every impartial outfit that has looked into them.

It’s about suppressing research that doesn’t fit the wingnut worldview, that might justify governmental action, and that would require businesses to consider the public welfare.

It is, in short, about protecting the privileged.

The Navy says, “Wait a minute.”

Drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia could interfere with naval operations, a Defense Department review has concluded.

Dealing a further blow to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s plan to drill off the coast to raise revenue for transportation, the review concludes that only 22 percent of the ocean bottom that Virginia has proposed for drilling should be open to unrestricted drilling.

Much more information at the link.

The first results are in on Eric Cantor’s “YouCut” poll.

Steve Benen comments:

The problem, not surprisingly, is that Cantor doesn’t seem to understand the program he now wants to cut. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explained today that this so-called “wasteful” program will actually enable states to place 186,000 unemployed individuals in subsidized jobs by the end of the summer. The notion that it “incentivizes states to increase their welfare caseloads” is simply wrong.

But like most Republican gimmicks, this has nothing to do with what’s real, and everything to do with what Cantor and his cohorts can get people to believe.

How Virginia got duped by a what looks to be a charity scam.

More from Blue Virginia.

The University of Virginia has hired a law firm to explore its options in responding to a demand by state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that UVa turn over documents and correspondence related to a former climatology researcher.

I saw a long post at another blog arguing that “academic freedom” is not a right.

It isn’t. It’s a value, and it is an essential value in the quest for truth. One would hope that the University of Virginia, where I spent a rather unsatisfactory year a long time ago, would stand up for that value against Cuccinelli’s Wingnut Witchhunt.

Lyrics here.

Excerpt:

I also like to think myself a rather high-browed classisist
And artifacts of history are something I cannot resist
But images of Virtue that expose her breast and mamelon
Are too risqué — they’re apt to turn the concupiscent rabble on.
There’s nothing more erotic than the Iliad or the Odyssey
And so I’ll substitute a pin that manifests more modesty
(One mustn’t risk the chance that some poor lad’s Attic exuberance
Could lend itself to lusty thoughts and some turgid protuberance).
I’m simply trying to keep things clean, I don’t believe in censorship —
But won’t go down in history as the man who let a nipple slip.
In short in matters glandular, lactiferous, and sensual
I am the very model of a mad Attorney General.

Go here to listen or click here to play directly (mp3).

Via Not Larry Sabato.

This is a really bad idea. It is grab for easy money to avoid making choices and it violates the spirit and purpose of the interstate system:

The McDonnell administration is asking the federal government for permission to put tolls on Interstate 95 near the North Carolina border.

It would be fairer to everyone to increase the gas tax a penny or two. If you want to soak drivers, soak all of us, not just some of us. After all, all of us are helping wear out the roads.

Aside: As a Virginian whose ancestry includes South Carolinians, I understand that persons might be willing to pay to leave North Carolina.

Afterthought: Imposing new taxes and calling them “user fees” is a Republican camouflage tactic that has been around since Reagan. You cannot expect straight government from folks who don’t talk straight.

From Coarse Cracked Corn, drilling in the Atlantic means jobs for Virginia:

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

A group of professors at Old Dominion University has joined University of Virginia faculty and a national professors organization in criticizing Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s demand that U.Va. hand over research documents by former U.Va. climate scientist Michael Mann.

In a letter, the professors accused Cuccinelli of “exploiting the powers of his office to engage in personal attacks on climate scientists” at U.Va. and elsewhere.

“These actions also threaten the political, economic and cultural well-being of our other state universities and the commonwealth of Virginia by discouraging top students and scholars from associating with our academic institutions,” states the letter, signed by 19 faculty members of Old Dominion.

I’ve tried to find a copy of the professors’ letter on line but so far have been unsuccessful.

Next: Cuccinelli demands expense reports from Gallileo.

Kook-kook-a-choo.

Afterthought: Check out the comments to the news story at the link.

Addendum:

Stephen D deconstructs Cuccinelli at the Booman Tribune.