MCAULIFFE SIDE STEPS COURT TO AIDE EX-FELONS IN VOTING RIGHTS

Gov. Terry McAuliffe is taking action to restore the voting rights of thousands of ex-offenders in the state after a court decision Friday put them in jeopardy. He’s getting around the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling against him by signing 200,000 individual clemency grants to the state’s ex-offenders to ensure their right to vote in November.

In a 4 to 3 decision late Friday, the Supreme Court of Virginia stripped away the voting rights from 200,000 ex-offenders who had recently regained full civil rights through one of McAuliffe’s executive orders, effectively disenfranchising one in five of the state’s African American voters.

The court said the governor lacks the authority under the state constitution to issue a blanket rights restoration to everyone in the state with a felony record who has already served their full sentence. A study earlier this year found that the vast majority of those impacted — 80 percent — committed non-violent crimes. Most have been out of prison for more than a decade, and African Americans are disproportionately represented. Forty-six percent of the ex-offenders are black, though blacks make up less than 20 percent of the state’s population.

The non-partisan group that has for months been leading the charge on registering ex-offenders to vote, New Virginia Majority, released a statement saying the ruling “reaffirms the Commonwealth’s Jim Crow legacy,” noting that the vast majority of states restore voting rights upon release from prison.

“Excluding Virginians from the ballot, even after they’ve paid their debts to society, is a cruel, inhumane reminder of past mistakes,” said Tram Nguyen, the group’s executive director. “Importantly, today’s ruling validates entrenched interests in the Virginia General Assembly bent on silencing a large swath of Black Virginians in order to maximize their political power.”

But just hours after the decision, McAuliffe vowed to push back by signing clemency grants for the state’s ex-offenders one by one.

“The struggle for civil rights has always been a long and difficult one, but the fight goes on,” he wrote. “I remain committed to moving past our Commonwealth’s history of injustice to embrace an honest process for restoring the rights of our citizens, and I believe history and the vast majority of Virginians are on our side.”

With the November election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump just few months away, Republicans have accused McAuliffe of pushing the voting rights restoration to help Clinton carry the swing state in the fall.

Virginia, a long-time conservative stronghold, was key to President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 victories, and is considered a toss-up for 2016. Theoretically, if all 206,000 ex-offenders register to vote before the October deadline, they could decide who sits in the White House next year. The governor’s office says just 13,000 have registered so far, and the new need for individual clemency orders will likely slow down the registration process.

This means legal uncertainty for people like Virginia native Randy Tyler, who lost his voting rights in 1995 due to a grand larceny conviction, and just regained them through the governor’s executive order this year.

“Before, I felt like I was left out. I felt like even though I live in America, I wasn’t a part of it,” he said. “But now, I have the privilege of saying who I want to elect for the presidency. I might be the one vote that makes a difference. I feel like a citizen of the United States again.”

[Cross-Posted from thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITER

VIRGINIA DELEGATE MARK COLE SUGGEST GROPING KIDS IS COMMON SENSE

MARK COLE AND HIS MOST DISTURBING LEGISLATION

Numerous attempts to restrict where transgender people can use the restroom have been proposed in recent years, but one Virginia lawmaker’s latest legislation might be the most vicious. He actually wants to fine transgender children $50 if they use what he deems to be the “wrong” restroom.

Technically, Del. Mark Cole wants to fine all transgender people $50 for using any public bathroom that matches their gender, but he makes a point to codify that this applies to students as well. What’s particularly odd is that he has filed two different bills that propose the same thing, but which are worded differently.

HB 663 requires that all public restrooms and all school restrooms, locker rooms, and shower rooms to be “designated for use by a specific gender to solely be used by individuals whose anatomical sex matches such gender designation.” It defines anatomical sex simply as, “the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person’s anatomy.”

HB 781 uses slightly different language instead of “anatomical sex.” It requires that all public restrooms and all school restrooms, locker rooms, and shower rooms be “designated for and used by individuals/students based on their biological sex.” It defines “biological sex” as the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person’s birth certificate and is identified at birth by a person’s anatomy or by a birth certificate amended in accordance with subsection E of § 32.1-269.” That statute does allow transgender people to change the sex on their birth certificate, but only if they’ve undergone sex reassignment surgery.

Both bills conclude, “Any person/student who willfully and knowingly violates this section shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $50.” This money would go to the state’s Literary Fund.

What many people are asking is how Cole’s bills would be enforced. They stipulate that “any law-enforcement officer may issue a summons regarding a violation of this section,” but they don’t explain how those officers would know a violation had taken place.

As activist Tim Peacock surmises, “someone would physically have to verify someone is in the bathroom that does not correspond to the current state of his/her physical genitals.” He concludes that the legislation constitutes “forcing children to allow adults to examine their genitals out of misplaced fear that transgender kids and adults might commit a hypothetical never-before-seen act of violence or sexual aggression (that would still be against the law with or without transgender protections).”

In the case of HB 781, enforcement could instead take on a “show me your papers” model, where individuals would have to produce their birth certificate to use the restroom. Profiling of trans people would likely follow, and given that many trans people do not undergo the surgery necessary to change their birth certificates, they would remain incredibly vulnerable for prosecution. Sex reassignment surgery is not recommended for minors, so the bill’s different language would make no difference for transgender students.

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, condemned the legislation for trying to ensure “that schools and other governmental agencies can purposely discriminate against transgender adults and children in Virginia.” They are “nothing more than ineffective, mean-spirited efforts to deny LGBT people in Virginia their constitutional and human rights.”

Cole described the legislation as “common sense legislation designed to protect the privacy of children and adults.” He claimed that “it does NOT require genital checks” and would only be enforced “on a complaint basis.”

The legislation resembles a similar bill recently filed in Indiana as well as several other bills filed last year, all of which took different approaches to criminalizing bathroom use by transgender people. None of them passed.

Am I the only one who thinks this is sick? What demented fuck comes up with this shit? Reading Cole’s rationalization to which he offered up points to a more disturbing sickness that this man obviously has.

Can we have Mr. Cole added to the State Police sexual deviant registry?

This story reminds me of the Massacre of the Innocents in the Bible where Herod orders all male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem to be executed so that one particular child, one who will someday be crowned the newborn King of the Jews, would not threaten Herod’s power. Both stories are sad and sick!

Congratulations Mark Cole, you are this week’s most disgusting and disturbing human of the world. Enjoy you sick bastard!

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

VIRGINIA GOP TEABAGGERS ADMIT TO RIGGING DISTRICTS TO ELECT ITS OWN ILK

Virginia is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. During the last presidential election, President Obama won the state by three points, but Republicans still picked up 8 of the state’s 11 congressional districts under the GOP-friendly maps drawn by the state legislature.

In a court filing offered by the Republican members of Virginia’s congressional delegation, the lawmakers who benefit most from these gerrymandered maps admitted that the GOP intentionally rigged the state’s congressional districts in order to produce a lopsided delegation. The state legislature’s “overarching priorities” in drawing the maps, according to the court filing, was “incumbency protection and preservation of cores to maintain the 8-3 partisan division established in the 2010 election.”

2010 was a very good year for Republicans, enabling the GOP to capture unusually large portions of state congressional delegations. 2012, by contrast, was a strong year for Democrats which saw the reelection of President Obama. And yet, by these Republican lawmakers’ own admission, the maps drawn between the 2010 and 2012 elections were draw for the explicit purpose of ensuring that the GOP’s unusually strong performance in 2010 would be replicated year after year — even in years when the electorate was more favorable to Democrats. The GOP’s goal, in other words, was to render congressional elections little more than political theater, an annual ritual that would produce the same 8-3 delegation every single time.

The lawmakers’ admission that Virginia’s maps were drawn to lock in a delegation that’s unusually favorable to the GOP came as part of ongoing litigation over the legality of the state’s maps. As a general rule, the Supreme Court does not permit lawsuits challenging partisan gerrymandering(that’s despite the fact that a majority of the Court has, at times, indicated its belief that partisan gerrymanders can violate the Constitution). Under current precedents, however, congressional maps can be struck down because they engage in an impermissible racial gerrymander. And, indeed, a federal court did strike down Virginia’s current maps because of a racially impermissible district.

Various interest groups are now fighting over how the court should redraw the Virginia’s maps in order to cure the problem with this district. The brief filed on behalf of the state’s Republican members of Congress argues that the court is obligated to draw this map in order to preserve the state’s partisan gerrymander — essentially requiring the court to maintain the same 8-3 partisan split that Republican lawmakers sought to lock in when they drew the original map. Quoting past Supreme Court decisions, the Republicans argue that “when ‘faced with the necessity of drawing district lines by judicial order,'” a court must “be guided by the legislative policies underlying” the original maps “‘to the extent those policies do not lead to violations of the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act.”

There is, indeed, some precedent supporting the idea that courts should not second-guess the decisions of state mapmakers, unless those decisions violate the Constitution or federal law. But the Republicans’ proposal confounds two distinct legal concepts and assumes, wrongly, that partisan gerrymanders are constitutional.

In the 2004 case Vieth v. Jubelirer the Supreme Court held 5-4 that a particular partisan gerrymandering suit could not proceed. Notably, however, the Court did not declare that gerrymander constitutional. Rather, it rested its opinion on the notion that courts are not often competent to determine when a partisan gerrymander has occurred or to devise a way to fix it. As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for a plurality of four justices, “no judicially discernible and manageable standards for adjudicating political gerrymandering claims have emerged.”

The key fifth vote was supplied by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who also warned that “we have no basis on which to define clear, manageable, and politically neutral standards for measuring the particular burden a given partisan classification imposes on representational rights.” Thus, he concluded that many partisan gerrymanders would have to be tolerated — even if they violate the Constitution — because he did not believe that courts currently have the tools they need to identify and cure such gerrymanders.

Significantly, however, Kennedy also left open the possibility that a standard could emerge in a future case that would allow partisan gerrymanders to be challenged in court. He also strongly suggested that these gerrymanders violate the Constitution. “First Amendment concerns arise where a State enacts a law that has the purpose and effect of subjecting a group of voters or their party to disfavored treatment by reason of their views,” Kennedy wrote. “In the context of partisan gerrymandering, that means that First Amendment concerns arise where an apportionment has the purpose and effect of burdening a group of voters’ representational rights.”

Scalia and Kennedy’s concern that it is difficult for judges to develop a principled rule that allows them to sort unconstitutional gerrymanders from some other kind is not frivolous. Does a map become unconstitutional if Republicans make up 40 percent of a state’s voters but 45 percent of its members of Congress? What if Republicans receive 60 percent of the state’s congressional seats? What if they receive none of them? At least in marginal cases, it is not at all easy for judges to tell an intentionally gerrymandered state from a mere mathematical anomaly.

But Virginia is not a marginal case. Among other things, in most partisan gerrymandering cases, the state’s Republican delegation to the House of Representatives typically does not show up in court with a brief openly admitting that the state’s maps were drawn with the explicit purpose of rigging congressional elections in order to ensure an 8-3 delegation. This is not, in other words, a case where there are “no judicially discernible and manageable standards” that will enable a court to determine whether a particular set of districts constitutes a partisan gerrymander. The court need only listen to what the Republican lawmakers who benefit most from this gerrymander have conceded to the court.

The Republican lawmakers’ admission, in other words, should enable the courts to broaden the scope of this litigation. It is an admission that each of the state’s districts was drawn with an anti-democratic and, if Justice Kennedy is to be believed, unconstitutional purpose, and should justify tossing out the entire map. This is, admittedly, an unlikely outcome given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, but it is the correct outcome under the Constitution.

[cross posted from thinkprogress]

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

FATHER OF SLAIN JOURNALIST MAKES PLEA TO WING NUT CABLE SHOW CALLING FOR GUN CONTROL

Fighting back tears, the father of one the journalists killed on live TV Wednesday morning made an impassioned plea for gun control on Fox News. Andy Parker, father of WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, told Megyn Kelly that “we’ve got to do something about crazy people getting guns.”

“My mission in life… I’m going to do something to shame legislatures into doing something about closing loopholes and background checks and making sure crazy people don’t get guns,” Parker said.

Her father’s comments were reinforced by her boyfriend, Chris Hurst. “Clearly something went wrong here between him leaving our station and being able to purchase a gun and commit a premeditated act,” Hurst told Kelly.

Bullshit Mountains’ following story featuring radical right wing-nut job Dana Loesch - who rejected calls for gun control and blamed the murder on elements of society that “don’t teach a respect for life,” like Planned Parenthood.

Loesch lost her sheen many years ago after her exit from the offices of the dead Breitbart. But in typical Loesch fashion, more diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

VIRGINIA'S MCAULIFFE INKS BAN THE BOX

MCAULIFFE SIGN XO FOR CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order Friday to remove all questions regarding criminal history from applications for state government jobs. Agencies can still conduct a criminal background check on a job candidate, but only after finding him or her otherwise qualified for the position.

Speaking at a local Goodwill store in Richmond, Virginia, McAuliffe tied his action to the upcoming Easter holiday and its focus on turning over a new leaf.

“We should not seal the fate of every man and woman with a criminal record based on a hasty verdict,” he said. “If they are eager to make a clean start and build new lives in their communities, they deserve a fair chance at employment.”

Though the Department Of Labor doesn’t track the unemployment rate among those returning from jail or prison, studies have found that it’s about 60 to 75 percent for individuals a year after their incarceration. Difficulty securing a job is a major reason so many returned citizens commit another crime and return to prison.


Before signing the order, McAuliffe also expressed concern that consequences of “checking the box” on a job application and disclosing a past criminal conviction has a disproportionate impact on the state’s workers of color.

“We all know that this box has an unequal impact on our minority families,” he said. “One study found that 34 percent of white job applicants without a record received a callback, while only 17 percent of those with a criminal record did. Among African Americans, 14 percent without a criminal record received a callback while only 5 percent of those with a record heard back from a potential employer.”

The order encourages, but doesn't require, Virginia’s private employers to ‘ban the box’ as well — and praises those like Target, WalMart and Home Depot that have already done so.

Virginia’s move follows similar laws passed in Georgia, Nebraska and a handful of others states as well as the District of Columbia to combat hiring discrimination against workers with criminal records.

The National Employment Law Project estimates 70 million American adults have arrests or convictions in their past that can make it difficult for them to obtain employment.

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STAFF WRITER

VIRGINIA WING-NUT WE DON'T NEED EDUCATION FUNDING BECAUSE "SOCRATES TRAINED PLATO FROM A ROCK"

VIRGINIA WING NUT DAVE BRAT

During a House Education and Workforce Committee proceeding on Wednesday to reauthorize the nation’s elementary and secondary education law, Rep. Dave Brat said, “Socrates trained Plato in on a rock and then Plato trained in Aristotle roughly speaking on a rock. So, huge funding is not necessary to achieve the greatest minds and the greatest intellects in history.”

Watch (remarks start at 46:08):




He began his remarks by saying, “The greatest thinkers in Western civilization were not products of education policy,” before mentioning Socrates and Plato. He later went on to say that he thinks the answer to improving education in this country “would be to get private sector folks into every one of our schools, get the CEOs in the schools and move beyond this just narrow policy debate and really have a revolution.”

The committee is considering a Republican version of reauthorization that could change the way federal funding is distributed to low-income students living in communities with high concentrations of poverty, or what is known as “portability.” To mitigate the challenges students face who are living in places with a high density of poverty, current law targets $14 billion to schools and school districts based on the number of students living in these communities. The Republican legislation would give states the option to allocate the same amount of federal dollars per poor student whether they live in a high poverty community or not. Under this provision, for example, Los Angeles Unified School District would lose out on more than $75 million while the Beverly Hills Unified School District would gain $140,000.

The bill was passed out of committee on Thursday on a party line vote after it refused to hold a congressional hearing on the legislation. The Senate, however, recently agreed to start over on a bipartisan approach to writing the bill.

Brat’s comments came the day before the U.S. Department of Education announced the national high school graduation rate had reached a record high, crediting significant federal investments in education.

Rep. Brat may not think formal education is important, but he himself was previously an economics professor at Randolph Macon College and holds both a Masters and a PhD.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITER

ONLY IN VIRGINIA

A 17 year-old Virginia teenager who is under investigation for sending a consensual sext to his 15-year-old girlfriend may be forced to have an erection in front of police as evidence in the case.

The boy, who the Washington Post will not identify for privacy reasons, is being charged with two felonies — one for possession of child pornography (sexts from his girlfriend) and one for manufacturing child pornography (taking video of himself). He faces time in prison, as well as permanent placement on the sex offender registry.

Police have already taken photos of the boy’s genitals as a part of their investigation, his lawyer told the Post. But they want to bring the teen to the hospital and inject him with something that will force an erection, to compare his erect penis to that in the video found on his phone.

University of Pennsylvania law professor David Rudovsky, who specializes in invasions of privacy by police, doubts that there is legal standing for police to pursue such measures.

“In my view, it’s not [a legal search] for this reason: Normally the police can get a warrant to conduct a search if they have probable cause that it will find evidence they can use in criminal trial,” Rudovsky said. “What the courts have said in a number of situations is that even if there’s some cause to believe that the procedure might lead them to evidence, where it involves a serious intrusion of personal dignity and privacy, you have to balance that with the nature of the intrusion.”

Rudovsky cited specifically a case, Winston v. Lee, in which police sought to extract a bullet from a man’s body to use it as evidence that he had been involved in criminal activity. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that such an invasion was unreasonable, citing the fourth amendment’s guidance on search and seizures.

“It seems to me that this case is similar to that one,” Rudovsky said. Taking pictures of a boy’s erection is “too invasive in terms of his personal dignity… therefore the police need to have good reason, it needs to be a serious case and they need to have need for this evidence. I don’t think they have either.”

He also pointed to several other problematic factors in the case: “If they’re complaining about the child pornography, that’s what they’re incidentally creating. And they’ll want to use it in court,” he said. “Why they’re going after this guy to felony charges also seems like a misapplication of discretion of resources.”

Upon request for comment, the Manassas City police department referred reporters to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, citing the fact that the boy is a juvenile. The Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

As technology advances and teens find new ways to express their sexuality, legislators and law enforcement are grappling with how to deal with sexting. At least 20 states have criminalized sexually explicit messages between teens. There is a perception that sexting has dangerous implications for young people. There are actual risks when it is used for cyber bullying, but teens actually overall report positive experiences sexting, and there is no indication that it leads to more “deviant” behavior. Meanwhile, the amount of manipulative sexting is on the decline.

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STAFF WRITER

BRIBING FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOOD

The Washington Post reports that Virginia state Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, a Democrat, “will announce his resignation Monday, effective immediately, paving the way to appoint his daughter to a judgeship and Puckett to the job of deputy director of the state tobacco commission.” Currently, the Virginia senate is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam holding the balance of power. If Puckett resigns, Republicans will gain control of the body for at least as long as it takes to elect a replacement.

The full details of this arrangement, including whether or not Puckett was explicitly offered the position as deputy director of the tobacco commission in return for his agreement to resign his senate seat, are not yet known. Although the executive director of the commission is appointed by the governor — who is currently Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe — the deputy director is appointed by the commission itself. Both the chair and the vice chair of the commission are Republicans.

If Puckett was offered the seat on this commission in exchange for his decision to resign from the state legislature, however, he may have committed a very serious crime. Under Virginia’s bribery law, it is a felony for a state lawmaker to “accept or agree to accept from another … any pecuniary benefit offered, conferred or agreed to be conferred as consideration for or to obtain or influence the recipient’s decision, opinion, recommendation, vote or other exercise of discretion as a public servant or party official.”

Given this statutory language, two questions need to be answered before Puckett could be prosecuted. The first is whether Puckett agreed to accept the tobacco commission job “as consideration for” his resignation from the state senate — that is, whether there was a quid pro quo deal where the job was offered up as the prize Puckett received if he agreed to resign. The second is whether Puckett’s resignation counts as an “exercise of discretion as a public servant.” Based on a search of Virginia court cases using the legal search engine Lexis, there does not appear to be a court decision answering this question.

In any event, the circumstances of this anticipated resignation — in which a Democratic senator throws control of the state legislature to the GOP, and then immediately receives a job from a commission controlled by a Republican chair and vice-chair — is suspicious. It also could have very serious consequences for Virginia’s least fortunate residents.

Gov. McAuliffe is currently embroiled in a fight with Republicans, who control the state house, over whether Virginia should accept Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. If Republicans take the state senate, even briefly, they can use their control over the entire legislature to pass a budget that does not include the Medicaid expansion. Though McAuliffe could veto the budget, Republicans could use that veto to try to blame him for an ensuing government shutdown.

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STAFF WRITER

VIRGINIA GOPER SAYS MEDICAID EXPANSION MUCH LIKE A TAR BABY

FRANK "TAR BABY" RUFF

Virginia State Senator Frank M. Ruff’s ardent opposition to the Medicaid expansion offered to the states under the Affordable Care Act took a new turn on Tuesday. Ruff has confirmed that he “compared reliance on promised funds to provide health insurance for thousands of low-income Virginians to a ‘tar baby,’” a statement that was first reported in the Virginian-Pilot.

Ruff told attendees at the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce’s legislative breakfast that Virginia would be stuck if Medicaid expansion became financially disadvantageous in the future, like a “tar baby.” The Virginian-Pilot noted that the term “comes from the Uncle Remus collection of African American folklore tales published in the post-Reconstruction South and written in the eye dialect of rural blacks of that era,” and is “perceived as a racial slur against African Americans in some circles.”

John Gilstrap, a member of the Danville City Council, denounced the comment as “not a correct statement to make” and “offensive to a couple African Americans in the audience.” Gilstrap told the Pilot that Danville Mayor Sherman Saunders had walked out of the meeting after Ruff’s comparison.

In an email, Ruff said:

“Speaking with no prepared remarks I used the term ‘tar baby’ referring to a sticky situation one time. Never have I ever heard this as a racial term. I called the Mayor yesterday afternoon to clarify that. I consider Sherman a friend and do not expect this to change our working together in the future for all of the people of the region.”

Ruff was one of 17 Senate Republicans to vote against accepting billions of dollars in federal funding to expand Medicaid eligibility to roughly 400,000 Virginians. Ruff and other legislative Republicans say they are worried that the promised federal funding will not come through, and thus have voted to effectively let $5 million each day of Virginians’ tax dollars subsidize other states that have opted into the expansion. Though the expansion passed the Democratic Party-controlled Senate (with three Republicans joining all 20 Democrats) and enjoys the strong support of Gov. Terry McAuliffe , the Republican-controlled House of Delegates has, thus far, refused to accept it.

A standoff over this issue prevented agreement on a state budget and a special session has been called for next week. At the breakfast, Ruff expressed hope that Democrats would accept a “clean budget” without the expansion, effectively surrendering their leverage.

Congratulations Frank Ruff, you are today's asshat of the day and today's worst person in the world.

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

From Virginia Attorney General To Sleaze Bag

Four months ago, former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli thought he was going to be the next governor of Virginia. Now his opponent, Gov. Terry McAuliffe is comfortably nestled in the state’s governor’s mansion — and Cuccinelli is trying to make a buck by offering financial piece of mind to gun owners who might shoot people.

The way it works is this: gun owners who think they may someday use their weapon in “self defense” against another human being pay “as little as $8.33 a month” to Cuccinelli and his three partners. In return, the firm will provide legal defense for no additional charge if the gun owner faces charges after shooting someone in what they claim is self-defense. As a bonus, the firm will also defend clients who claim they were “harassed by law enforcement for lawfully carrying their weapon.”

Although one of Cuccinelli’s partners claims that this is not an insurance plan for people who anticipate facing gun charges in the future, this arrangement resembles an NRA endorsed insurance program for people “involved in an act of self-defense.” That program provides that “Criminal Defense Reimbursement is provided for alleged criminal actions involving self-defense when you are acquitted of such criminal charges or the charges are dropped.”

Cuccinelli’s firm differs in one important way from the NRA endorsed plan, however.

According to Torrey Williams, an attorney with Cuccinelli’s firm has said their business model, “when someone contracts with our legal services, we provide them regardless of outcome.” Thus, if someone like Michael Dunn, who was convicted on three counts of attempted second degree murder for firing at four black teens in an SUV, had been a client of Cuccinelli’s firm, the firm could wind up covering his legal costs despite the guilty verdict.

The one caveat to this rule is something Cuccinelli describes as a “sex, drugs, rock-n-roll clause.” If a client is engaged in illegal activity, such as a drug sale, during the shooting, then the client’s pre-paid fees will not cover the cost of representation. (Notably, neither sex nor rock-n-roll are illegal. Although, if it were up to Cuccinelli, many kinds of sex would be.)

Williams acknowledges that there will be “grey areas” where it is not immediately clear whether their client was engaged in criminal activity at the time of the shooting. In those cases, he said the firm would “make a determination” as to whether they take the case or not, but he emphasized that because of their ethical obligations as attorneys, they would not drop out of a case if it turned out that the client was indeed a criminal so long as the client did not mislead them about their actions. “Once we make a determination, we’re going to stick with it,” said Williams. “Ethically, as attorneys, we can’t leave our client hanging.”

The practical effect of this new legal service, in other words, will be that gun owners will enjoy fairly broad certainty that they will not be hit with massive legal bills if they shoot someone. That’s one less thing they’ll have to worry about when they are deciding whether to squeeze the trigger.

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STAFF WRITER

VIRGINIA MOVES INTO 21ST CENTURY.......MAYBE

Ruling by U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen sets the stage for a possible Supreme Court showdown, though cases from Utah and Oklahoma also are headed that way.

So at least theoretically, Virginia is for lovers - and marriage:

A federal judge in Virginia has struck down the state's prohibition on same-sex marriage, joining a growing list of state and federal courts that have granted gay and lesbian couples the right to marry following two landmark Supreme Court rulings in June.

U.S. District Court Judge Arenda Wright Allen's ruling had been expected since the case was heard in her Norfolk courtroom last week. Also as expected, she blocked it from taking immediate effect until appeals are heard. As a result, gay marriages in Virginia cannot begin yet.

"Gay and lesbian individuals share the same capacity as heterosexual individuals to form, preserve and celebrate loving, intimate and lasting relationships," Wright Allen said. "Such relationships are created through the exercise of sacred, personal choices — choices, like the choices made by every other citizen, that must be free from unwarranted government interference."

Her decision follows similar rulings in Oklahoma and Utah, even more conservative states, where federal judges recently struck down gay marriage bans. Those cases are scheduled to be heard a week apart by a federal appeals court panel in April; the Virginia case now joins them in a race toward the Supreme Court.

And in recent days, Nevada state officials decided they could no longer defend the state's same-sex marriage ban, and a judge in Kentucky ruled that the state must recognize gay marriages from other states.





NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

BAN FLAGS ALLOW GUNS

What is the bigger risk inside a state capitol building: openly carrying an American flag or an assault rifle? In Virginia, visitors to the state legislature cannot bring American flags and signs affixed to sticks, because capitol security considers sticks a public threat. Firearms, however, are allowed.

A group of gun violence prevention activists discovered this when they arrived on Monday to attend a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event. According to Virginia Capitol Police, the groups were informed beforehand of the restriction barring sticks at permitted rallies, because they can be used as weapons. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’s Gena Reeder said they were aware of the rules, but “certainly not in our wildest imagination thought that could apply to the American flag.”

While the moms tore out the dowels of their flags, capitol grounds visitors with firearms were ushered through the entrance. That day, Virginia Citizens Defense League and other gun rights groups organized a “Guns Save Lives” day. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that about half of the crowd was armed, packing weapons that ranged from handguns to assault rifles.

The anti-gun violence activists couldn’t reconcile this conflicting message in their heads, Reeder explained. “We are sending a message that you cannot hand carry an American flag into a state capitol, but you can bring a loaded weapon,” Reeder said. “Are guns becoming more patriotic than an American flag?

The same weekend, gun violence prevention activists faced a similar situation in the Washington state capitol. Moms Demand Action’s Washington Chapter Leader Kate Beck said the group arrived to lobby the capitol for gun violence action, only to find out all signs with sticks could not be carried inside. However, Washington state allows firearms on its capitol campus.

Virginia is not the only state that allows guns in its legislative buildings. Texas faced an awkward situation last year when police confiscated tampons from the gallery in the midst of a debate on abortion restrictions, while allowing others to walk in with firearms. In Kentucky, another state with open carry inside public buildings, a lawmaker accidentally fired a handgun in her capitol office. Kentucky state Rep. Leslie Combs shrugged off the incident. “I’m a gun owner,” she said. “It happens.”

Maybe if we affixed the flag to the gun?

cross posted from thinkprogress

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

RAPING WIFE OK IF SHE IS IN A NIGHTIE

RIGHT WING NUT JOB DICK BLACK

Rep. Frank Wolf is retiring from Congress, leaving his Northern Virginia congressional seat open in a competitive race. At least two teapublicans, state Senator Dick Black and Delegate Barbara Comstock, are vying for their party’s nomination.

Black has a controversial record on rape, women’s health, slavery, and LGBT rights, as discussed by Mother Jones Wednesday. Comstock stands for ultra-conservative policies, too, particularly when it comes to restricting abortion and women’s health.

Those views complicate the GOP’s effort to moderate their policies and appeal to minority, gay, and women voters and resemble the positions of Ken Cuccinelli, the party’s failed gubernatorial candidate:

Abortion is like slavery and the Holocaust: According to Black, contraception is “baby pesticide” and a “toxic method of eliminating a child” (even though contraception prevents abortions). In addition to saying abortion is worse than slavery, Black has compared abortion clinics to Nazi concentration camps. Without making such stark comparisons, Comstock drew comparisons between abortion, infanticide, and execution in a 2008 NBC interview.

Denying abortion even if it puts the mother at risk: Comstock answered simply that the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade should be overturned to deny abortions even if the mother’s health is threatened. She insisted that the woman be forced to carry to term, even if late-term pregnancy complications put lives in danger.

Allowing guns in bars: Comstock’s record on guns has earned her an “A” NRA rating. Her voting record on guns include allowing firearms inside bars that serve alcohol. The bill passed the legislature, making Virginia one of at least six states permitting loaded guns in some of the most dangerous circumstances.

Spousal rape and military rape is fine: Mother Jones pointed out that Black defended spousal rape, saying he “did not know how on earth you could validly get a conviction of a husband-wife rape, when they’re living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie, and so forth, there’s no injury, there’s no separation or anything.” After that comment, Black only clarified he was not “taking a position for or against marital rape.” Before that, Black — a former military prosecutor — dismissed rape in the military “as predictable as human nature.” “Think of yourself at 25,” he said. “Wouldn't you love to have a group of 19-year-old girls under your control, day in, day out?”

Same-sex couples pose danger to the public In Virginia’s state Senate, Black promoted a slew of bills discriminating against gay men and women. On gay people serving in the military, Black has said “It’s a question of whether we will force soldiers to bond with homosexuals in the showers and the barracks, knowing that doing so will result in sexual bullying, male rape and forcible sodomy.” He has proposed a bill to ban same-sex couples from adopting children, using the reasoning that they are more likely to be violent and suicidal. He has attempted to ban same-sex couples from applying for public home loans. Black has even said public discussion of gay relationships puts children at risk of contracting HIV. Polygamy, he says, is “more natural” than being gay.

The candidates are far to the right of where the district leans politically. Wolf held his seat for 17 terms, but the “increasingly purple” district is seen as competitive for either party. Though it went 50-49 for Mitt Romney in a state that voted for President Obama in 2012, the district was 51-48 for Obama in 2008.

Dick Black, you are today's worst person in the world!

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

TOBY KEITH SAYS NOT TO GUNS......

.....inside his restaurant.

Country music star Toby Keith is facing some backlash from gun owners after one of his new I Love This Bar And Grill restaurants in Woodbridge, Virginia posted a “No Guns Permitted” sign outside its premises.

“I’ll never eat here. Lawfully armed and spending my money elsewhere,” read one of many disgruntled reviews on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

The furor spurred a response by the restaurant, explaining, “While we understand and respect every person’s right to own and bear arms, we at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, with guidance from the State of Virginia and based on insurance regulations, have adopted a no weapons policy. It is our desire to provided a safe, enjoyable and entertaining experience for our patrons and staff.”

That did little to quell the ire of gun owners, one whom responded to the restaurant’s Facebook message by saying, “Your post regarding your stance on not allowing patrons to defend them selves should the need arise is a total cop out to the bad publicity that your bad policy has initiated.”

But gun owners may actually be legally allowed to carry loaded weapons in Keith’s restaurant under Virginia law, irrespective of what the sign says. Virginia is one of at least six states — the others being Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona — that explicitly allows loaded guns in bars. “No Guns Permitted” signs don’t actually have the force of law in Virginia unless the state specifically lists the facility as one where people cannot carry guns.

Another 18 states allow loaded weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol, according to a 2010 New York Times report — and data on violence in America suggests that could be dangerous policy. Gun owners are far more likely to binge drink, drive drunk, and engage in other risky behaviors than people who don’t own guns, according to a 2011 report in the medical journal Injury Prevention. Furthermore, arguments and fights that often involve drinking or a perceived insult lead to nearly half of all homicides and an estimated 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women who killed someone had been drinking at the time.

Keith has previously performed at rallies sponsored by the National Rifle Association and has spoken in support of gun rights. “If one percent of non-felons would go get their concealed weapons license and carry a gun where they can, one percent puts you in a pretty good position of being somebody that could save a bunch of people’s lives,” he said at a 2011 event.

Cross Posted from thinkprogress

NFTOS

Staff Writer

SO MUCH FOR A NRA GRADE "F "

VIRGINIA VOTERS SAY "HELL NO" TO TEA PARTY,  "NOT ON MY WATCH"!

Ken Cuccinelli — the loudest critic of health care reform — went down in a ball of flames last night, paving the way for the “bellwether for national politics” to expand Obamacare to nearly 400,000 Virginians.

By defeating this radical teabagger, voters rejected one of the most openly-right wing politicians this country has to offer. Terry McAuliffe repeatedly hammered the point that Cuccinelli was focused on his own agenda of climate change denial, anti-LGBT discrimination, restrictions on women’s reproductive health, steadfast opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and blocking any gun violence reduction efforts.

The good guys [and gals] of Virginia win this round. While only 38% of registered voters voted this go around, the final word was -even with Obamacare looming in the air, that Virginian's do not want Radical Right Wing Nut Jobs, the tin foil hat society running their state.

Why did the republican ticket lose you ask?: list from thinkprogress


He fought against all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.

Cuccinelli once boasted that his first campaign won by mobilizing churches on abortion and taxes — while misleading the press into think he was concerned about transportation. His 2002 campaign website laid out Cuccinelli’s abortion views clearly: “Ken believes that human life begins at conception, and that human beings should be respected and protected from conception to natural death,” it said. “Ken would seek to require sonograms to be part of a 24-hour waiting period with an informed consent requirement. Ken opposes abortions that are not for the purpose of saving the mother’s life.” He sought defund Planned Parenthood and embryonic stem cell research.

He pushed for a ban on third trimester abortions — making no exception for serious health risks on the woman — and bullied the state Board of Health to implement “safety” regulations for abortion providers designed to force clinics to close. He has also highlighted his opposition to RU-486 and his support for a “conscience” law protecting the “right of professionals to refuse to perform an action that is inconsistent with their moral convictions” — such as providing emergency contraception — “without losing their job.” Cuccinelli frequently attacks Planned Parenthood and has suggested that the fact that abortion clinics in Virginia are in urban areas with large African American populations is an example of white racism. His “ultimate goal,” he has said, is to “make abortion disappear in America.” Instead, Cuccinelli helped fund “crisis” pregnancy centers that lie to women to manipulate their reproductive health choices.


He called a safe sex fair “soft porn” and sought to censor it.

In 2005, Cucinnelli used his position as a state Senator to try to censor a university sexual education event he felt was “pushing a pro-sex agenda and an anything goes agenda.” Cuccinelli, however, was outraged that his alma mater George Mason — a public state university — would host an event he believed “really just designed to push sex and sexual libertine behavior as far, fast and furiously as possibly.” Upset that information about sexuality — other than abstinence only — would be presented to adult college students, he said it was symptomatic of the “moral depravity that has crept across this commonwealth and this country.” The university’s administration emphatically rejected Cuccinelli’s suggestions that they cancel the event and it was repeated in future years.

His war on sodomy may have helped set free sexual predators.

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state sodomy bans as unconstitutional in 2003, a bipartisan group in the Virginia General Assembly proposed updating the state’s law that made oral and anal sex a felony (even between consenting married adults) to comply with the ruling by eliminating provisions dealing with consenting adults in private and leaving in place provisions relating to prostitution, public sex, and those other than consenting adults. Cuccinelli, then a state senator, opposed the bill in committee and helped kill it on the Senate floor. In 2009, he told a newspaper that he supported keeping restrictions on the sexual behavior of consenting adults: “My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. … They don’t comport with natural law.” As a result, the law was never updated and the courts struck down the entire law earlier this year — throwing into question the convictions of numerous sexual predators.

VIRGINIA ELECTIONS RESULTS

He said Catholic Church creates a “culture of dependency on government, not God.”

In a stunning 2012 speech at a Christian Life Summit, Cuccinelli took aim at the Catholic Church for its advocacy on behalf of the poor, immigrants, and the uninsured. Because the Church’s leadership has advocated for the government to provide a social safety net, a role he believes is the responsibility of the Catholic Church itself, Cuccinelli said, “they have made themselves out to be nothing but the largest special interest group in America.” Rev. Gerry Creedon, pastor at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Dale City, Virginia, added that the Church can’t do it all alone. “Not everything can be done with charity,” he explained, “The tithes of our church can’t deal with the housing crisis [or hunger]. Those are issues that go beyond private donations.” In a June 2011 speech to the Virginia Christian Association, he mocked a Catholic diocese newspaper for including in its voter guides both issues like poverty assistance and health care access for the uninsured, in addition to the issues he deems more important, such as abortion.

He turned his climate change denial into an illegal witch hunt.

Cuccinelli’s denial of climate science was extreme enough — frequently asking his audiences to exhale carbon dioxide together in unison just to “annoy the EPA.” But as Virginia Attorney General, he took it a step further, launching an illegal fishing expedition against former University of Virginia climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann. State courts rejected as unfounded his theory that Mann committed fraud in seeking government funding for climate change research.

His office improperly aided fossil fuel companies.

Much of Cuccinelli’s fundraising came from dirty energy companies. But a six-figure donation from Pennsylvania-based CONSOL Energy came under heavy scrutiny after his office was accused of improperly aiding Consol and others in a class-action lawsuit brought by southwest Virginians over coalbed methane extraction rights. The state judge in the case called the behavior of Cuccinelli’s senior assistant attorney general shocking and referred the matter to the Virginia’s inspector general — who found she had acted “inappropriately.”


He took thousands in gifts from the a controversial tobacco executive.

Though Cuccinelli initially failed to disclose them, he received more than $18,000 in gifts from controversial Star Scientific CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr. Williams provided the attorney general with free lodging at his homes, $6,711 worth of supplements, transportation to New York City and Kentucky, and an elaborate $1,500 Thanksgiving dinner. Though as of 2012, Star Scientific has reported annual losses for a decade, just one Virginia elected official or candidate invested upwards of $10,000 in the company: Cuccinelli. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Star Scientific is the only significant holding he has reported since his first filing in 2003. Cuccinelli, whose position makes him the Commonwealth of Virginia’s lawyer, did not follow state disclosure law and disclose this investment in a timely manner. After the controversy became public, he sold off the stock and grudgingly donated the estimated value of the gifts he received to charity.

He questioned President Obama’s legitimacy as president.

Cuccinelli dabbled in birtherism in 2010, telling a questioner that the idea that President Obama was secretly born in Kenya “doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility.” After the 2012 election, Cuccinelli embraced a conspiracy theory proposed by right-wing radio host that President Obama had only be re-elected because of voter fraud. he completely agreed assertion that investigations were needed to determine why President Obama lost “every one” of the states with photo identification requirements for voting, yet won re-election. Of course, Obama won four states with photo identification requirements for voters and studies have shown Americans are more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit voter fraud.

He fought against LGBT equality at every possible opportunity.

Cuccinelli’s anti-LGBT rhetoric and record may be unmatched by any other Virginia gubernatorial candidate in history. He actively pushed for state and federal constitutional amendments to prevent any legal recognition of what he terms “what they’d like to refer to as ‘homosexual families,’” authoring a resolution calling for a federal amendment to invalidate any same-sex marriage, civil union, domestic partnership, or “other relationship analogous to marriage.”

He has opined that “giving public sanction to homosexual marriage ends up redefining marriage and it’s certain to harm children.” He even opposed a state bill that allowed private companies to voluntarily provide health insurance benefits to employees’ domestic partners, warning it might “encourage this type of behavior.” His advisory opinion that Virginia’s public colleges and universities should rescind their non-discrimination policies was called “reprehensible” by a former Republican state legislator. Asked in this campaign about his previous claim that the “homosexual agenda… brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul,” Cuccinelli conceded that his views about “the personal challenge of homosexuality have not changed.”

He bragged about his “A” rating from the NRA at the site of a mass shooting.

Cuccinelli’s strong opposition to gun violence prevention efforts extends to even modest steps like universal background checks. Asked about the subject at an October debate a Virginia Tech, where a mass shooting in 2007 killed 32 people, Cuccinelli made clear that he opposed expanded background checks and boasted his “A” rating from the National Rifle Association. In a 2011 speech to a gun rights group, he called the notion of gun bans on campus “crazy.”

He embraced radical “tenther” theories about the U.S. constitution.

Cuccinelli espoused a radical interpretation of the constitution that the federal government should cede much more power to the states under the 10th Amendment. His 2013 book No Apologies called Medicare “despicable," dismissed Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps as deliberate attacks on Americans’ freedom, and argued that all welfare and anti-trust laws are unconstitutional.

At a 2010 Tenth Amendment rally in Richmond, he told supporters of the view that “what we can do, where we live, is advocate again to bring back to life the 10th amendment, to bring back to life those boundaries in our constitutional system that were supposed to be the critical checks in the checks and balances system. Without them, we lose – gradually, we lose our liberty.” In one of his briefs challenging health reform, Cuccinelli suggested that Congress is allowed to regulate “commerce on one hand” but not “manufacturing or agriculture.” This is exactly the same discredited vision of the Constitution the Supreme Court implemented in the late 19th and early 20th century, and it would strike down child labor laws, the minimum wage, the federal ban on whites-only lunch counters, and countless other cherished laws.

Virginia has historically been a conservative-leaning swing state, backing every Republican presidential nominee from Richard Nixon through George W. Bush and electing a Republican governor by a 59 to 41 landslide in 2009. But polling showed Cuccinelli out of step with their views on climate change, background checks, marriage equality, and abortion rights.

Yes Virginia, we have our own version of the Taliban, its called the Tea Party.

The Cooch rallied against Sodomy, and lost, rallied against women, and lost [with a resounding and overwhelming thud], rallied against the LBGT, and lost.

Things to take away form this election: that only 38% of Virginian's who could vote did so. Many moderate republicans jumped ship and voted against the Cooch. That over 900 thousand Virginian's voted for E.W. Jackson. And this number alone, is by far, the most concerning one, as Jackson, is by far the most radical, most disgusting human to ever run for office. Really Virginia, 900 thousand votes, this show us just how far back in times some Virginian's are willing to go back - and that unlettered GOPers still exist in great numbers in rural areas of my state, but.......

The best news from this race is - besides women's rights, is that the NRA cannot bully Democratic Virginian's, that any grade from the Guns Over People is irrelevant. Virginia dodge a bullet if you will, because the Cooch was shoulder deep in the NRA's posterior - we now have a Governor-Elect who says "I don't care what grade I got from the NRA". For the record McAullife sported a "F" grade, the lowest the gun huggers have to offer.

Virginia conservatives are crying it their beer today, crying foul because they lost, because the Libertarian stole or split the votes from the GOP - no RWNJ, you lost because progressives and true moderate GOPers, along with logical thinking Virginians said, "hell no, not on my watch"!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

VIRGINIA TO CANCEL VOTER REGISTRATIONS

Cross posted from thinkprogress:

With two months until Virginians decide which of two polar opposites — Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli — will be their next governor, tens of thousands of voters could be removed from the rolls in a statewide purge.

Approximately 57,000 Virginians have been flagged as being registered in another state, and counties are removing some from the voter rolls without any notice or opportunity to rebut the claim. Before conservatives lose their marbles that this is clear and irrefutable evidence of voter fraud, it’s worthwhile to consider how voter registration works. Each state maintains its own roll rather than a nationwide system. When Joe America, who had been registered in Richmond, moves to Philadelphia and registers there, he’s not required to cancel his Virginia registration before enrolling in Pennsylvania. The process for removing registrations of people who have moved elsewhere varies from state to state, but generally involves periodic comparisons of lists between states to flag and remove people like Joe America who have moved elsewhere.

Clearly, given the decentralized 50-voter-roll system we currently have, there’s a need for the lists to be periodically cleaned up. But there are a number of issues that make Virginia’s current purge of up to 57,000 voters problematic.

First and foremost, as multiple county registrars explained, voters whose registrations are being cancelled aren't being given any advance notice. Rather than being mailed a warning letter asking if they still live in Virginia, they are being sent notices that their registration has been cancelled effective immediately. If the cancellation is in error, the letter says to contact the registrar and get it worked out. It’s not measure twice, cut once. It’s cut first and be ready with tape for the mistakes.

Second, according to at least one voter’s experience, the list contains some serious errors. One Accomack County voter, writing on the blog Blue Virginia under the pseudonym rodentrancher, detailed her experience having her registration wrongly cancelled. Though she’d lived and registered in South Carolina in 2009, she had moved to Virginia last year and re-registered there. Even so, her file was flagged as a duplicate and she received a letter last week informing her that her registration was cancelled. If she hadn't seen the letter, or had the foresight to call the county registrar who sent her a new registration form, she would have been effectively disenfranchised from the November election.

The list of 57,000 duplicate registrations was given by the state Board of Elections to county registrars in August. “We were told by the state board that this is a legitimate list and we should process them accordingly,” Patricia White, General Registrar of Accomack County, said. Still, as Don Palmer, Secretary of the Virginia Board of Elections, emailed, “the final decision is up to each of the 133 local registrars based on voter history and activity.” Palmer was appointed by Transvaginal Bob McDonnell in 2011.

Some county registrars are going over the list with a fine-tooth comb in an effort to prevent errors. “We’re not taking the list at face value,” Gary Scott, Deputy Registrar of Fairfax County.

Finally, the current purge is being conducted exceedingly close to the upcoming election. The deadline to register in Virginia is October 14, less than six weeks away. That leaves little room for error. A purge in March gives voters, campaigns, and the state eight months to ensure that people who were improperly unregistered are given their Virginia voting rights back. When asked why the Board of Elections didn’t conduct this purge at an earlier time, Palmer wrote that August “was the first opportunity” they had after reviewing “data from other states and insertion of primary election voter history.”

In the 2009 election, approximately two million Virginians cast a ballot. If all 57,000 registrations that were flagged are ultimately cancelled, that would represent approximately three percent of all votes, a potentially decisive factor in a close election.

This link can verify your registration. [all 50 states].

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

KEN "COOCH" CUCCINELLI PART DEUX

THERE SHALL BE NO SEX IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA THE COMMONWEALTH'S 11TH COMMANDMENT

Well, the "War on Women" worked so well for the "Teahadists", as did the "War on Voter Suppression," why not a "War on Sex?"

Walk into any eleventh grade classroom in Virginia. If Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA) has his way, close to forty percent of the students will be felony sex offenders.

Dahlia Lithwick breaks down the implications of Cuccinelli’s plan in a must-read piece over at Slate. In short, Cuccinelli’s petition asking the Supreme Court to reinstate much of Virginia’s so-called “crimes against nature” law — which criminalizes oral and anal sex — is unlikely to impact adults who have sex with adults because the Court’s previous decision in Lawrence v. Texas held that the Constitution protects non-commercial sexual activity among adults. The tea partying attorney general’s petition, however, largely relies on a line in Lawrence suggesting that underage sexual activity can still be criminalized.

As Lithwick notes, “44 percent of males and 42 percent of females between the ages of 15 and 17 have engaged in oral sex in the United States.” While it’s undoubtedly true that a minority of these teenagers are engaged in oral sex with someone much older, the overwhelming majority of them are partnering with each other. And since Cuccinelli’s proposed rule would make no exception for teens who have oral sex with other teens, every single high school student who does so would become a felon and a sex offender.

Once again - the goal is zero sex. It's not Christian like, and therefore it is not legal. As we all know, laws in the US are based on the Republican Bible or Republican Jesus- the one where Jesus loves guns and profit, and even prophesies the Coming Of Saint Ronald.

With the grafting scandal of Virginia's Governor Transvaginal Bob - If we find out that the Governor received sodomy as a gift, would Ken Cuccinelli then ask him to step down, arrest him, jail him, and file him with the State Police registrar as a sexual predator and deviant?

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

THE VIRGINIA EXPERIMENT -TRANSVAGINAL PROBE BUSTERS

TRANSVAGINAL PROBE BUSTERS - VIRGINIA'S DEMOCRATIC TICKET

Virginia, your political stage has been set.

The GOP ticket is said to be the most radical ticket to ever be assembled for elected office, hand picked by themselves, not voted in by the states constituents. Speaks volumes of the party!

Rachael Maddow last night reviewed the political storm brewing in Virginia - the battle over whether to transvaginal ultrasound women or not? While there are a plethora issues that differentiate the two parties, probing women against their will is a top project.

Watch it below:

Video Courtesy of MSNBC

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RELATED

E.W. Jackson misspells the word "Commandments" on the front cover of his book.

HOPEFULLY E W JACKSON GOVERNS BETTER THAN HE SPELLS

E.W. Jackson, the American Taliban candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, misspelled the title of his own book!

Jackson's 2008 book Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life: Making Your Dreams Come True has a typo on its front cover, with one "m" missing in "commandments." The correct spelling appears on the back cover.

Jackson's book has received its share of criticism this month and rightly so. Earlier in June, heads turned from passages suggesting yoga could possibly lead to satanic possession. Another segment raised the idea that theories of evolution were false because chimpanzees couldn't speak.

I leave E.W. a message that he can relate too: I find these comandmants to be comendable and he should most curtainly be awarded a comandation for all the conandrams and confoundingfathersments he's conjering for the POG.



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West