Virginia State Rep. Bob Marshall: VA Should Mint Our Own Coins!

From the newsroom: Assembly coverage outlook
Lawmakers return to Richmond on Wednesday for Gov. Bob McDonnell's sophomore legislative session. After a first year dominated by brutal budgetary decisions, the state's financial outlook has eased somewhat. But dollars will be a driving force in this session as well. As McDonnell again seeks to fund roads and boost Economic Development, he also will try to begin paying back more than $620 million in contributions to the state Retirement System that he and lawmakers diverted last year to help ba...

Loughner's parents 'devastated,' 'hurting'
PHOENIX, Ariz. — The parents of Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting of six people and attempted Assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, are "devastated" and "hurting real bad," a neighbor told The Wall Street Journal. The paper reported that the neighbor, Wayne Smith, broke the news to Randy and Amy Loughner that their son was a suspect in the shootings Saturday. "She almost passed out right there," Smith told the Journal. "He sat in the road with...

VIRGINIA: Wingnut Lawmaker Wants State To Issue Its Own Currency
When we last heard from nutjob Virginia legislator Bob Marshall, he was proposing a bill to ban gay people from serving in the state's National Guard. Now he wants Virginia to issue its own currency. Marshall will ask the General Assembly to consider the idea when it convenes for its annual legislative session Jan. 12. It is a companion bill to a proposal he has already filed to establish a study committee to examine alternative currencies to that distributed by the Federal Reserve System "in ...

GOP introduces bill to make English Minnesotas official language
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s statement saying she wants Minnesotans “armed and dangerous” during a Radio Interview in 2009 has become a target of liberals in the wake of the tragic shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona this weekend. Rep. Keith Ellison, Bachmann’s neighbor to the south, said such statements have consequences, while New York Times columnist Paul Krugman used it as an example of the “climate of hate.” Most of the funding for the National Orga...

Founders' Intent, Indeed
Charles Krauthammer’s recent opinion column in the Washington Post, Constitutionalism, calls “for a more restrictive vision of government more consistent with the Founders' intent . . . that legal interpretation be bound by the text of the Constitution as understood by those who wrote it and their contemporaries.” “The Founders’ intent,” indeed. What unmitigated codswallop. Krauthammer concludes, “Constitutionalism as a guiding political tendency&rdquo...;

Arianna Was Right
Although Arianna Huffington's recent book Third World America was mostly about economics, my great fear is that her idea that this great country is moving too far in the direction of a third world nation was eerily prescient in more ways than one. When members of Congress start being assassinated, when the Rhetoric about politics and politicians becomes increasingly violent and extreme in nature, and when corrupt oligarchs with way too economic and political power assume they can operate outs...

Birds are dying because of Dont Ask Dont Tell repeal, says prophet
At Grist, we've been hesitant to touch the mass die-off of animals story for fear of leading readers astray: It turns out that, hey, this sort of thing happens all the time. (Remember Cancer clusters?) That was until we came across the most eminently reasonable explanation for the carnage -- and a few other, weather-related Natural Disasters, as well -- yet offered. It turns out that these animals are dying because we successfully repealed Don ' t Ask Don ' t Tell . Or so says Cindy Jacobs, a se...

Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday
From the GREAT STATE OF Maine... Quick! To the Agendamobile! The Netroots Nation convention in Minneapolis is only five months away. The suspense is building and the call is officially out for panel ideas: Last year, we hosted a panel, featuring Sen. Tom Udall, that laid the ground work for the Senate rules reform. The many sessions on Immigration Reform helped to educate the broader movement about the importance of the issue. And the dialog that happened between Sen. Harry Reid and Lt. Dan Ch...

Gay activists press "Don't Ask" court challenge
By Steve Gorman Los Angeles | Mon Jan 10, 2011 10:01pm EST Los Angeles (Reuters) - Weeks after Congress voted to Repeal the law banning gays from serving openly in the Military, opponents of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" returned to court on Monday seeking to press ahead with their Lawsuit against the policy. The Log Cabin Republicans, a Gay Rights group that won a landmark Federal Court decision last year declaring the ban Unconstitutional, urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to proceed wi...

LCR To Court: Keep DADT Case Open
Yesterday the Log Cabin Republicans filed a brief demanding that a San Francisco federal appeals court continue to hear their DADT Repeal Lawsuit. Lawyers for Log Cabin Republicans filed a brief Monday arguing that because the ban has not been lifted, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals needs to maintain its schedule in the government's challenge to the lower court's ruling. It came in response to a Justice Department motion seeking to suspend the case for at least three months. The departme...

Gay activists press "Don't Ask" court challenge
Los Angeles (Reuters) - Weeks after Congress voted to Repeal the law banning gays from serving openly in the Military, opponents of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" returned to court on Monday seeking to press ahead with their Lawsuit against the policy. The Log Cabin Republicans, a Gay Rights group that won a landmark Federal Court decision last year declaring the ban Unconstitutional, urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to proceed with its review of the legal case despite the repeal. In opposi...

Mullen reminds military leaders to stay professional, apolitical
WASHINGTON — As the partisan divide in this city and throughout the country widens, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen on Monday urged defense leaders to keep the Military above the fray, professional and apolitical in all facets. The comments come just days after the dismissal of a Navy captain for inappropriate videos and an announcement of far-reaching Pentagon Spending Cuts, both events which drew politicking from inside and outside the military. Mullen himself has also been a key ...

Fundnut of the day: who should it be - Matt Barber or Cindy Jacobs?
The whackadoodles of the fringe right are hopped up on the holy Kool-Aid this week. I was going to award a Fundnut of the Day, but came across two worthy of a tie. First our very manly, non-limp-wristed friend Matt "Bam Bam" Barber, the Director of Cultural Affairs. He has given a ringing, batsh*t Endorsement of Michele "Reagan in pumps" Bachmann as a Presidential Candidate in 2012. From the instant his fruitful eight-year reign ended, Republicans have pined for the next Ronald Reagan. To da...

Angelinos Ill be on IMRU on KPFK Tonight Talking News
As you may know, IMRU is SoCal’s longest running radio program, having started in 1975. The show airs Mondays 7-8pm (Pacific) on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles and 98.7 FM in Santa Barbara. You can also listen online or download an archived show at KPFK.org. kpfk.org/ Check out IMRU here. There is also a listener call-in line: 818-985-5735. The show will open with a newscast; I’m up around 7:11. I’ll be discussing the Arizona shootings, the Prop 8 trial and the Repeal of Don’...

Worth Watching
If you have a spare hour, I’d highly recommend watching this dialog on the Giffords shooting and Abortion. I don’t think it will change any minds, but it’s a model of clarity and intelligent argumentative clash. (0) Bad science used to justify Torture: “. . . much of the research cited in okaying these “EITs” came from training that was used to prepare Soldiers to have these same techniques being used on them if they were captured. Also, the training was based...

Recession created 'epidemic' of homeless families
Two years ago, Desiree and Wallace Emory lived in a rented 3,000-square-foot home in a Gated Community of Winter Garden. They had good jobs in the theme-park industry, two cars and plenty to take care of their five Children and Desiree's mother, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. They were even saving each month to buy a home of their own. Today, they're living in a downtown Homeless Shelter. "All the way up to the end, until we came here in June, we thought we could pull ourselves out of t...

Top lawyer to represent accused Arizona gunman
FILE - In a Dec. 3, 2007 file photo, attorney Judy Clarke leaves the federal building in downtown Boise, Idaho. Public defenders are asking that Clarke, the attorney who defended Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy Mcveigh and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, defend Jared Loughner. Loughner is charged with one count of attempted Assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the Federal Government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee. He is schedu ...

Bob McDonnell: A Borrow-And-Spend Republican
by Doug Mataconis @ 5:35 pm on January 9, 2011. Filed under Bob McDonnell, Virginia, Virginia Politics Bob McDonnell continues to trouble me. Last year, he balanced the state Budget by engaging in an Accounting trick that merely pushed the state’s liability to the Employee Pension fund to the following fiscal year. Now, he seems intent on spending money that the Commonwealth doesn’t have: RICHMOND - Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell plans a massive spending campaign that he s...

Useless redistricting commission
According to The Washington Post, Governor Bob McDonnell is appointing a Bipartisan redistricting commission. Good, right? Well… Rather than proposing Legislation to establish the commission and give it legal teeth, as other states have done, he is creating it by Executive Order and giving it only an advisory role. The 11-member commission, equipped with neither staff nor Budget from the state, will have less than two months once detailed Census figures are released in February to propos...

George W. McDonnell
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell must be a Bush Republican. The Washington Post reports today: Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell plans a massive spending campaign that he said would unclog state roads, award thousands more college degrees and spur Job Creation, part of an aggressive legislative agenda he is expected to roll out this week. He plans to borrow nearly $3 billion over the next three years. That doesn’t sound like the agenda of a Reagan Republican or a Tea Party Republican. It so...

Back in Virginia, Bob McDonnell Goes on Massive Borrow-and-Spend Spree!
With this news, I think we can all conclude that there remains no serious possibility that Bob McDonnell has: a) any credibility as a "fiscal conservative"; b) any shame at being a complete hypocrite; or c) any clue of what to do as Governor of Virginia. That's right, Bob McDonnell has embarked on a "massive" borrowing-and-spending spree, the likes of which would have Conservatives absolutely outraged - outraged, I tell you!!!! - if a Democratic Governor (or president) had proposed such a thing ...

McDonnell creates bipartisan redistricting panel
Gov. Bob McDonnell signed an Executive Order today creating an independent Bipartisan advisory commission on redistricting. McDonnell said the commission will create and review proposed redistricting plans for the Virginia Senate, the House of Delegates and Congressional Districts. The commission will consist of 11 members, including a former Democratic appointee as Secretary of the State Board of Elections and a former Republican appointee. Political commentator Bob Holsworth will be chairman. ...

Gov. McDonnell urges federal officials to lift federal health-care mandates
Gov. Bob McDonnell recently threw in his hat with 32 other Republic governors or governors-elect in requesting that federal officials withhold what this group of governors called “excessive constraints” placed on the respective states by federal health-care mandates. The request marks a different approach in the McDonnell administrations strategy to needle Virginia out of the new Health Care reform laws passed by the Obama Administration. Prior to the letter that was sent on Thursday...

McDonnell creates redistricting panel
Virginia state delegates, senators, and congressmen looking to hold onto their seats got major news Monday, as Gov. Bob McDonnell announced the creation of an independent Bipartisan redistricting commission to guide the process that will take place later this year. The commission, tasked with crafting redistricting plans based on newly released data from the U.S. Census, will be chaired by longtime Virginia political analyst Bob Holsworth, founder of the nonpartisan political blog Virginia Tomor...

McDonnell's take on the AZ shooting and political discourse
Governor Bob McDonnell was in Salem Sunday, campaigning for House of Delegates Candidate Greg Habeeb. I talked with the Governor about the shooting in Arizona and the state of political discourse in America. McDONNELL: "It's just gutwrenching that in this great land of liberty and freedom where we value the First Amendment, in fact the congresswoman that was shot actually read the first amendment on the floor of the house two days before at the request of Congressman Goodlatte, to have those peo...