KathyinBlacksburg Posts

Elections have consequences, so many in fact that it's impossible to list them all. During the past week, we have before us the stark realization that the near-psychotic TeaPublicans are holding the nation hostage. They are even trying to chip away, and in some cases take a sledge hammer to, the right to vote.

The "intertubes" have been abuzz with Crazy Cooch stories. He's so taken by the subject of sodomy laws that he wants the courts to revisit and reverse previous rulings  on the subject.  He doesn't even respect the SCOTUS which has long been dominated by (duh!) his side.  The man is whacked. Ooops, sorry, no pun intended. Nothing I am about to say should discourage  anyone's keeping Crazy Cooch's idiocies front and center e

Just as Terry McAulliffe and even the President dutifully and publicly filled out their NCAA March Madness brackets, there was NPR telling listeners yesterday that it is all for naught.  After all, any individual's chances of getting the brackets right is 9 quintillion to one for the 64 teams, which is way, way worse odds than the chanc

Ken Cuccinelli (Cuckoo) is really smitten with himself now that he's found a real issue against Terry McAuliffe.  Terry had the nerve to Tweet a wish for Virginians' storm safety while he was away.  

After being off the blog for a few weeks, I had planned to write a different diary tonight. However, tonight I was reading a diary posted a few days ago by Lowell about a progressive "Grand Bargain." I rarely disagree with our "blogfather." But this time I wanted to offer another view. Here goes:Continue reading...

The Congressional Budget Office has spoken. Starvation politics and policies hurt the economy. But the starve-the-beast partisans (and Blue Dogs) are still at it trying to carve out greater austerity, which will be costly and hurtful to most Americans.

Slow growth reflects a combination of ongo...

Regarding House Bill 259, the massive voting district redraw bill crossing over from the Virginia Senate, Del Mark Cole moved to accept the Senate amendment.
Speaker Howell invoked the single object rule (no law shall embrace more than one object), but said it doesn't apply. This amendment is to the same purpose.  So it doesn't violate the single object rul...

US Rep Eric Cantor was everywhere yesterday trying to put a new face on the obstructionist, 99%-hating, xenophobic, "let-them-eat-cake" wrecking crew (aka the US Majority House Leadership). All it cared about in the past four years was thwarting Obama at every turn and making sure the economy didn't heal too well to enable the President's re-election. Guess what?
He (and his fellow members of the GOP leadership) may have gerrymandered their way into continued presence in the nation's capitol for now, but the electoral handwriting is own the wall for the future. The GOP will have to either c...

Boehner is truly eye-roll worthy. And not just at the inaugural lunch. Today the GOP passed a whopping three-month extension of the debt ceiling. (Don't do us any favors.) Once again its "leaders" show what pathetic unprincipled sore losers they are. Once again they contrived another artificial deadline so they can use extortion one more time. What an embarrassment! Even a small drop in our rating has big consequences for the interest the US must pay on its debt.  They are potentially costing us all ...

Did you know that the 53 US Senators demanding that President Obama build the Keystone Pipeline got an average $551,051 from the oil lobby, a total of $27,500,000 altogether (according to 350.org)?  That's a pretty staggering amount, isn't it?  It's a sad commentary in this post-Citizens United country.
And know who one of those senators is?  You guessed it, the best friend oil friendly Americans for Prosperity has, Mark Warn...

"Faith in America's Future" is the apt theme of today's 57th Inaugural, the Second Inauguration of President Barack Obama.  And as Senator Charles Shumer exposed that too many doubt our ability to effectively face our future.  We are a practical problem-solving people, said Shumer.  Those betting against that have been on the wrong side of history.
Merlie Evers-Williams, widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, called for blessings upon our leaders.  "As we sing the words 'This is my country,'...may the inalienable rights of every man, woman and child be honored...Espe...

In 2004 then Governor Howard Dean told Americans that we "had the power," if only we would use it. Governor Dean did not win the presidential nomination that year. But he did have the prescription for what ails our country. And he knew the most important thing Democrats could do was run a fifty-state campaign, leaving no county or voter behind.
President Barack Obama is president today, at least in part because he heeded that prescription. And he also prescribed something else: That the talented leaders among us step forward to bring progressive change to our statehouses, increasingly take...

Mitch McConnell says revenue is off the table. That is the heart of the problem. Already the fixes which were purported to raise revenue actually increase the deficit by 4 Trillion. That's because beneath the surface of the recent tax "reform," was its opposite hidden from plain view.
Yet both before and after the "reform" we do not have a def...

Now that the new Congress has been sworn in I thought I'd make a list of its worst members.
1. John Boehner.  He cries so often one has to wonder if its alcohol "speaking."  Read here too. Today he said he will not do any m...

North Carolina Governor- Elect, Pat McCrory ran as a pretend moderate.  But he was a stealth Tea Party candidate. During the campaign, there was:
* Little mention of his 29 years at Duke Energy;
* Zero mention of his leading an Americans for Prosperity Bus Tour in 2010;
* No mention of what he did at his most recent job. He worked at two law firms, but isn't a lawyer. So, at his most recent stints with law firms, he most likely...

There's a new meme floating around that Republicans freed the slaves shortly before the Civil War ended, so therefore modern Republicans deserve the credit. A recent blog post by JR Hoeft's Bearing Drift shows just how pathetic is the attempt to recast today's GOP as the savior of Americans, including minorities. Hoeft conflates union membership with slavery and goes full throttle into...

A mere shadow of her former self, Diane Rehm once had a spine, heart and courage. She questioned and challenged guests, and even served as one of the key skeptics in the runup to the Iraq war (based upon lies). Now she is the worst radio show host in America. I remember painting the outside of my house during the runup to the Iraq war and during the early days of the war itself. And each day I painted, I listened to Diane all day.  
B...

I do not usually mix faith and politics on Blue Virginia. Today is different. It should go without saying. But instead it needs to be said. Faith is not a one-party notion. But the way Paul Ryan bashed this President on faux religious charges, is appalling. His closing argument was to trash the President's religion. This is not acceptable.
In Romney-Ryan's simplistic view of our nation, you either think like the on-your-ownership/kick-em-when-they-are-down Romney-Ryan, who think a 10th rate novelist is more important...

During the current election cycle, indeed just in the last 30 weeks, there have been hundreds of Mitt Romney lies. By now, the lie count is at least in the 600s. There are so many in fact that it is difficult to argue which is the "worst lie." Probably the meanest and dirtiest is the fraudulent claim that Pres...

Update: Doh! While I was busy putting together the list, Kos posted a way longer one here.
Think your vote doesn't matter? Do you really think it doesn't matter who is in the White House?  It matters in countless ways, as this diary will argue. Despite the GOP's false claim to the contrary, President Barac...