OP-ED: HONEY, WHO BOUGHT THE ROLEX? by John P. Flannery

Imagine that you’re Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and your First Lady, Maureen McDonnell, comes skipping into the State Mansion’s Main dining room to present you with a spanking new $6,500.00 Rolex watch.

“Hey Honey, pass the butter,” Bob may have said, “and, by the way, can we afford this Rolex?”

“Oh, this little thing,” Maureen may have said, “I admired the one that Jonnie Williams, Jr. wore.  Isn’t it so world leader-ish?  You really should have one.  Everyone will notice.”

“Yes, but how did we pay for it?” You’d imagine the Governor would ask that; any other spouse would, even with a public salary of $175,000.

“Why, silly, it’s Jonnie of course.  Jonnie paid for it.  We have no money for a Rolex.  Our finances are abysmal.  And Jonnie has already bought me some terrific clothes.  You should have something for yourself.”

Is a Rolex watch the modern equivalent of Eden’s tempting apple? Hardly, because Richmond is no Eden.  Richmond’s becoming that “other place” where arriving political innocents become twisted self-dealing politicians born anew – like our Governor.

Jonnie R. Williams Sr. who heads Star Scientific Inc, the manufacturer of dietary supplements, gave about $145,000 to the governing McDonnells in 2011 and 2012, according to news reports this past week.  Jonnie’s largesse includes that shiny Rolex for the Guv and $15,000 in designer clothes and accessories for the First Missus.

In exchange, Jonnie at least got to launch a new dietary supplement product at the Governor’s Mansion with the Governor and First Lady hosting, and to meet with the Virginia Secretary of Health with the First Lady there when Jonnie gave his pitch.

Some suggested we pillory the Commonwealth’s First Lady, not the Governor, for having Jonnie pick up the $15,000 tab for daughter Cailin’s wedding at the Mansion -- like the Governor was so self-absorbed in transvaginal ultra sound inserts for fertile women that he was oblivious to his own daughter’s wedding.  In fact and truth, “Daddy Dearest” kicked his marrying daughter, Cailin, to the curb, saying she accepted the gift, so he didn’t have to report it.

This inartful “not me” dodge doesn’t work for the Governor when Jonnie “loaned” $70,000 directly to the corporation Governor Bob owns with sister Maureen, Mobo Real Estate Partners; incidentally the first installment on that loan was the same day as Cailin’s wedding in 2011. 

Governor Bob says he doesn’t have to disclose “loans” to corporate interests, like his MoBo company.  No surprise that they have not repaid a dime of these “loans.”  Makes you wonder if Jonnie will forgive the “loan” after Governor Bob leaves office.

Some might think the Governor missed the fact that his Missus was receiving $50,000 pay for hyping Jonnie’s controversial dietary supplement.  Hard to believe the Governor could miss it when he attended Jonnie’s dog and pony show at his Mansion.

From all this, if it were the Kardashians, we might expect a Reality TV series about a self-dealing political family - “The Moochin’ McDonnells.” 

What we have for sure is a cul de sac where once the Governor seemed certain he’d made himself a path to the Oval Office. 

No doubt, we’ll have a Fall thunderstorm of hypocritical attacks by Republican and Democratic “leaders” who haven’t been caught – to make us think their integrity is beyond reproach. 

We might have a resignation if Governor Bob gives his hubris a rest.

Beyond his powers, we may witness a hand-cuffed perp walk by a Governor.

How did we get here?  It is true we have good people enter government.  Too few remain good.  Most are massaged and malformed by the business of politics.  Too few of character and courage escape the corrupting influences and most become selfish contemptible beasts – responding to the demands of the favor-givers, who send them streams of monies and false honors in and over the transom transacting and transforming executive and legislative policy to their liking. 

This is an old problem.  We will always have these self-dealing pols if we continue to allow third parties to give these spineless elected souls limitless gifts and loans.

 
As for our Governor McDonnell, imagine him glancing down at his Rolex, wondering if it was worth selling himself for a watch, and counting the hours, watching the hands of time, moved by gears and springs he cannot control, surely erasing him as the Governor, perhaps soon, by his own signature resigning, perhaps later by prosecution, or will it be the last gasping days of the Administration he so thoroughly corrupted when he limps out of office.  Whenever it is, it can’t be too soon.

OP-ED: SPILL BABY SPILL by John P. Flannery

We have these gorgeous beaches for Virginians and tourists alike.

They mean fun, income, jobs, you know, prosperity.

Who would want to mess that up?

We also have a naval military presence in Virginia concerned about using the waters off our Atlantic coast.

Would anyone want to compromise our military mission?

How about both of our United States Senators from Virginia?

Get outa here, really?  Absolutely!

Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine want us to allow the oil and gas folk to “drill, baby, drill,” unconcerned that that what that really means, as we learned from the Gulf Oil spills, is “spill, baby, spill.”

Does Virginia need that to ruin our coast-line?

Why do we elect these guys as "Democrats" when they talk “enviro” but want to drill off shore Virginia? 

Just watch their oleaginous pitch for this dirty fossil fuel industry in this infomercial, in which they are selling out the Commonwealth of Virginia -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iig5Ykf3uKg&feature=player_embedded#t=0s .

If you got a chance to watch it, you’d especially like the term Senator Kaine used, that we had finally found a "sweet spot" for drilling.  What is he thinking about when he says "sweet spot"?

Why do these Senators think it's proof that they are doing the right thing if it’s the case that our Republican Governor supports it?  We know our Governor is irretrievably lost to fossil fuel exploration, no matter the environmental risk.

Both our Senators thanked the Virginia delegation for supporting them but I read a report that Congressman Jim Moran does not support the idea.

We'll find out soon for sure who does support the idea - if any other Dems do and whether all the Republicans agree with our Senators – particularly those congressional members who represent the districts bordering our Atlantic shore line. 

But no matter who supports it, that endorsement doesn’t end the inquiry whether we should do it or not, not when you consider what’s at risk, rather than the distorting effect on public policy of the oil industry’s generous contributions, and pressure that “confuses” the “clear thinking” of our elected representatives.

This latest initiative by our Senators is especially aggravating, when we have a wind tunnel off our coast that, by all expert accounts, could supply real clean renewable power, and lots of it.  Virginia has done studies confirming this fact, and that's what we should do instead offshore – and we should keep in mind how cheap that wind energy is becoming - http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/06/solar-pv-module-prices-have-fallen-80-since-2008-wind-turbines-29/

The right answer to our Senators was the Sierra Club critique in response to their initiative.

Glen Besa, with the Sierra Club, said, "As we saw with the Gulf oil disaster, oil spills decimate tourism and fishing industries.  In Virginia, that means risking over $2.5 billion and over 100,000 jobs in industries that depend on healthy ocean and Chesapeake Bay waters and clean beaches."

"It's a risk that remains real,” Besa said, “as large spills continue to occur around the world and as Congress has yet to pass a single law strengthening federal oversight of offshore oil and gas development."

"It is disappointing that so many Virginian politicians of both parties seem willing to jeopardize our strong coastal tourism and fisheries industries for a policy of drill everywhere and burn it all now that ignores environmental, climate and national security concerns," said Besa.

It sure is “disappointing” - and that's a kindly way to characterize what our Senators propose to do to us.

But it's business as usual in the Old Dominion where oil money talks more than the common sense of being responsible stewards of our environment and of our existing industry and jobs.

Shame on these guys!

Now we can only hope, if their legislation gets voted favorably out of the various Committees and out of Congress somehow, and actually makes the President's desk for signing, that it is vetoed instead.

GAZETTE COLUMN: FOUL WEATHER ENEMIES – CANTOR, BACHMAN, PAUL, & BECK by John P. Flannery

Hurricane Irene

I had a long conversation with a state trooper who was summoned down to the Virginia Beach area to help deal with the consequences of Hurricane Irene. 

“You should have seen the pictures I took of the devastation in Virginia,” he said, “but then I saw those other reports and pictures coming in from other officers up and down the coast, and finally those in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont on the air.  I only hope what I did helped.”

Virginia’s Republican Governor Bob McDonnell is of the same mind – we must help everyone we can. 

Speaking from the flooded town of Lincoln Park, New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie said, “Our people are suffering now, and they need support now.”

Hurricane Irene overran entire communities, washed away homes, cars, road ways, leaving in their place, mud, debris, lakes of water, power out for millions, two score or more people dead and others injured.

You might think getting the federal government to grant aid was a no-brainer. 

But we saw an unbelievably harsh reaction from some Republican leaders.

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor from Virginia opposes any disaster aid unless funds are cut first from other federal programs.  At least he’s consistent, even if not sensible.  Cantor opposed aid to his own congressional district, at the epicenter of the recent earthquake.  He didn’t want money spent to help the citizens respond to the tornadoes that slammed Joplin, Missouri.  Nor does he want federal aid to Virginia for Hurricane Irene.

Governor McDonnell rightly said “deficit reduction should take a back seat to disaster relief.” 

Governor Christie attacked Cantor “for playing games at a time when people need government assistance most.”

Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul said, “This idea that the world comes to an end if you don’t have somebody at the federal level taking care of you, I mean, it’s a natural problem.  It’s wind.  It’s a storm.” Now is the time, Paul believes, for our nation to “transition out of the dependency on the federal government.”

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann thought this was a laughing matter; she said Irene was a sign from God that federal spending was out of control.  “Washington, DC,” she said, “you’d think by now, they’d get the message: an earthquake, a hurricane.  Are you listening?”

In this competition for the most careless indifference by any person to a massive natural disaster, we can’t leave out Glenn Beck, the self-anointed T-party poster boy, who said that Hurricane Irene was “a blessing from God.”  Incidentally, the reason this is a “blessing,” according to Beck, is it reminds us all that we should stock pile food.  Beck did not explain where you store food when a hurricane washes away your car, your house and your entire home town.

For those of you who depended upon the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to take precautions against Irene, be advised that the Republicans in Congress sought to cut funds drastically to these services, eliminating our ability to know about hurricanes five or ten days in advance.

We must thank every public leader, without regard to party or ideology, who has tried to help the victims of Irene.

As for the others, we should demand that they publicly disclose their SAT scores.

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GAZETTE COLUMN: WRONG: THE VA GUV AND AG DISCRIMINATE AGAINST GAYS! by John P. Flannery

Seneca, a Roman Senator, said, “the fates lead you to your destiny, or they drag you to it.”   When it comes to civil rights, must Virginia always be dragged to do what’s right?

We have two intolerant, backward-looking, gay-averse elected officials in Richmond, Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cucinelli, who devote too much of their so-called public service, vitriol and taxpayer funds on compromising the rights and liberties of gay couples and preventing them from adopting any of the 5,700 children now in foster homes including the 1,300 eligible right now.

In Virginia, a single person, without regard to sexual orientation, may adopt a child so it doesn’t matter that Virginia doesn’t recognize gay marriage.  The standard is what’s in the “best interest” of the child.  There are 3,350 same-sex couples in Virginia raising more than 6,000 children.  The Governor and the State’s chief lawyer, who say they are pro-family, apparently think that these 6,000 children would be better off in foster homes. 

The Governor and AG have insisted on regulations for the State’s Social Services Board that authorize discrimination against any adopting gay.  AG Cucinelli told the Board that it was prevented from preventing discrimination.

This civil liberties’ violation parallels a bill introduced in the General Assembly in 2005 that required social workers to determine the sexual orientation of a prospective adoptive parent so that they could prevent gay persons from adopting. 

Our House of Delegates thought that was a great idea by a margin of 71-24, telling you something about their brotherly love; fortunately, our enlightened State Senate buried that wrong-headed bill.

In 2005, former State Senator Russ Potts (R-Winchester), running as an Independent for Governor, surprised Republican nominee Jerry W. Kilgore when he said he saw no reason why gay couples shouldn’t adopt children.

Potts reportedly said, “We’re all God’s children” and no gays “ought to be precluded from adopting a child.”  He knew gay parents that were “very loving, caring” and “at every one of the Little League baseball games and the parent-teacher events.”  Potts said he couldn’t “imagine that a gay person gets to the pearly gates of heaven and this loving, benevolent God is going to deny that person a place in his kingdom because he or she is gay.”

Messrs. McDonnell and Cucinelli enjoy a more caustic reading of the almighty’s will in their unholy crusade against gay families.  They don’t appreciate what Paul told the Thessalonians that “those who despiseth, despiseth not man, but despiseth God.”  I take comfort from Job, where it’s written in the Old Testament, that “the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.”

A citizen coalition has demanded that the Virginia State Board of Social Services reconsider a policy that permits discrimination against adoption based on sexual orientation as they believe we are all bound to love our neighbor as ourselves.  This basic precept from the Sermon on the Mount has been excised from the editions of the bible that our “leaders” consult.

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