uvAggravator2.0

The Department of Motor Vehicles is sending letters requesting 4,240 driver's license and ID card applicants get their photos taken again after an Aug.25 computer outage left their original photos unrecoverable. "Unfortunately, all photographs taken that day for credentials could not be recovered, therefore no credentials were mailed to these customers,'' the DMV said in a press release. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) warned Thursday that some data may have been lost due to the outage that left 26 state agencies, including the DMV, scrambling to serve Virginians. The Virginia Information Technologies Agency returned the data to DMV after the outage, but advised that the database did not include 12,000 to 16,000 photos, including those taken Aug. 25. DMV staff is evaluating the database to determine if other photos are not recoverable. The DMV is open this weekend, including Labor Day, and next weekend to process applicants.


Department of Motor Vehicles - Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Driver's license - Identity document

Prince William County Police Chief Charlie T. Deane has sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security questioning a policy that allows illegal immigrants waiting for deportation proceedings to get a permit to work. The Aug. 30 letter sent to John T. Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security, was sparked by a recent drunk-driving accident in which a Bolivian man, Carlos A Martinelly-Montano, crashed into another vehicle, killing one nun and injuring two others. Martinelly-Montano, who entered the United States illegally when he was 8, was awaiting a deportation hearing after two convictions for drunken driving. Deane said Martinelly-Mantano was granted an Employment Authorization Card on Jan. 14, 2009, just months after being placed in deportation proceedings. In the letter, Deane said he has concerns with a policy that allows an EAC to be issued to someone waiting to be deported. "I ask that this glaring gap in DHS


United States - Prince William County Virginia - Illegal immigration - United States Department of Homeland Security - Driving under the influence

Rep. Rick Boucher (D) leads state House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R) by 10 points with two months remaining until Election Day, according to a new independent poll of the 9th district. The SurveyUSA poll, conducted for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, shows Boucher ahead among likely voters, 50 percent to 40 percent. Independent candidate Jeremiah Heaton drew 5 percent. That result is a slight improvement for Griffith over a mid-July poll by the same firm, which showed the Republican trailing by 13 points in the Southwest Virginia district. "The contest remains tied among men; among women, Boucher leads by 22 points, essentially unchanged. 1 in 4 Republicans continue to cross over to vote for the Democrat. Independents remain divided," SurveyUSA wrote in a memo on the new survey. (Notably, the same polling firm and television station have been teaming up to do polls of Rep. Tom Perriello's (D) reelection race in


Tom Perriello - Democratic - Republican - SurveyUSA - Southwest Virginia

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) will speak at a conference organized by former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed next week in the District. Hundreds of activists are expected to attend the Faith and Freedom Coalition's first national conference and strategy briefing Sept. 9-11 at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel. They will learn about voter registration, get-out-the-vote efforts and how to use social media to build a volunteer network in advance of the November elections. Scheduled panel participants include "Mama Grizzly" candidates who are making 2010 the "Year of the Conservative Woman" and leading Tea Party organizers. "This is not just a conference or a retreat," Reed said in a news release. "This is the political equivalent of NFL minicamp. We will train and equip our activists on how to block and tackle in the churches and precincts as we prepare for the most important election of our lifetimes." Other confirmed speakers


Activism - Ralph Reed - Ralph E. Reed Jr. - Virginia - Bob McDonnell

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has told lawmakers they should prepare for a special legislative session on government reform in November, according to Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax). Howell said McDonnell told legislative leaders in a conference call about two weeks ago that he would be calling them to Richmond to consider plans for making government more efficient, including privatizing state run liquor stores, sometime between the Nov. 2 Election and Thanksgiving, which is Nov. 25. That timing would give legislators several weeks to consider proposals after their formal recommendation by McDonnell's reform commission, a vote that is scheduled to take place Oct. 4. But it also would also push the special session fairly close to the Jan. 12, start of the General Assembly's regular annual session. Democrats may argue the Commonwealth should save money and skip a special session, taking up McDonnell's proposals during the regular session instead. That would give


Bob McDonnell - Government - Legislature - Special session - Legislative session

Here's some important news from the Pew Hispanic Center.
The center reports that the number of immigrants entering the United States illegally fell by nearly two-thirds between 2005 to 2009. In the first part of the past decade, the number of undocumented people coming into the country was about 850,000 a year. With recession and harsh laws targeting immigrants, it fell to 300,000 a year between 2007 and 2009. The number of undocumented immigrants estimated to be in the country fell by 1 million to about 11 million, the report says.
Among states, the biggest declines were in Virginia, Florida and Nevada. In Virginia, the number fell by 60,000 from 2008 to 2009, to an estimated 240,000.
So, one has to ask: If the number of undocumented workers is falling because of the recession, the crash in housing construction and oppressive laws such as the one Prince William County adopted in 2007, why is there suddenly such a big need for a statewide push against immigrants here illegally?
Corey A. Stewart, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors chairman who backed his county's legislation and is leading the charge for a statewide law, has said he is "proud" of the statistics.
But once again, if the number of undocumented foreigners arriving is dropping, why does Virginia suddenly need to be the next Arizona? Stewart says that if you let up on the pressure, they'll just come back. This plays well at Glenn Beck rallies.
It's hard to fathom this hatred of the foreign-born. It smacks of the "Know-Nothing" movement of the 1840s and 1850s, in which Anglo-Saxon Protestants tried to curb immigration of Catholic Germans and Irish. The newcomers, they said, were unwashed, did not hold American values and committed crimes. Plus, they were controlled by the pope in Rome.
At one point, the Know-Nothings commanded considerable clout and got the upper hand in elections in northern cities, such as Boston and Salem, Mass., that immigrants favored, and they sometimes resorted to violence. Eventually, they ran out of steam.
You can see the effects of Prince William's law. I happened to be in Manassas recently and stopped by Mi Barrio, a Salvadoran-Mexican eatery on Prescott Avenue that caters to Latinos. The owner, Luis Gomez, told me that after the law took effect in 2007, he had to shut down for six months. His customers were afraid to come to the county.
The law, which authorizes county police to stop anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant, resulted in the rousting of dark-skinned people in cars, Gomez said. "If they saw three Spanish-looking people in a car, they'd look for a reason to stop them and then check their IDs," he said. Eventually, the cops let up, and Gomez returned to his normal operating times.
It is distressing to think that a county or a state would enact laws designed by their very nature to profile by race and color. Even more absurd is the fact that they are being proposed while the supposed need for a statewide law is going away.
But who knows, maybe the modern-day nativist movement will go the way of the Know-Nothings.
Peter Galuszka

Today’s column points out that, unlike the Virginia Information Technologies Agencies, newspapers never make mista

Wapo’s Eugene Robinson says the anti-Democratic mood

isn’t an “electoral wave,” it’s a temper tantrum.

Seems like every time there’s a huge GOP tidal wave, pundits call voters crybabies.

Because the voters, not having gotten their way, supposedly are lashing out.

The pundits themselves would never do that, of course. . . .

When it comes to roads. According to this report. . . .

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) said Thursday that it's possible some data may be lost due to a statewide computer outage this week that left 26 state agencies, including the Department of Motor Vehicles, scrambling to serve Virginians. McDonnell said he told Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush Wednesday that he wanted his company -- who holds a $2.4-billion contract with the state -- to restore as much data as possible. "I want the very best and brightest minds in Northrop Grumman to evaluate any decision,'' McDonnell told reporters this afternoon. "I have told the president of Northrop Grumman and the Virginia Information Technology Agency that I don't want any stone left unturned to find this data and rebuild so that we don't have to inconvenience any more people." The problem began Aug. 25 with the crash of a pair of three-year-old memory cards -- one was supposed to back up another.


Northrop Grumman - Bob McDonnell - Virginia - Department of Motor Vehicles - Information technology

Yesterday, a depressing series of photos lined the second-floor room at the University Club in downtown Washington. They were of the effects of Soviet nuclear weapons testing at Semipalatinsk, a vast and lonely area on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
I was invited to the event sponsored by Global Green USA and the Embassy of Kazakhstan as throwback to my years covering Central Asia. This may be far afield for usual Bacon Rebellion columns, but it may be worth it.
The event commemorates two anniversaries. The first, remembering Aug. 29, 1949, was the event code-named "First Lighting." There, at Semipalatinsk, the Soviets set off their first nuclear bomb. On that windy and cold morning, the sky turned red, the ground trembled and the mushroom cloud appeared.
Americans were shocked in their arrogance that it would take the backward Russians at least a decade before matching the Trinity test of 1945. A combination of first class espionage and world class science brought the Soviets to the bomb a lot sooner.
The second anniversary also occurred about the same time of year but about 20 years ago. Nursultan Nazerbayev, the Communist chief of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the president of the newly-independent country after the USSR collapsed, declared Semipalatinsk closed forever to nuclear testing.
During the years in between, some 456 nuclear blasts were set off, including 86 air bursts and 30 ones on the surface. With their penchant for secrecy, the Soviets built a secret research lab about 45 miles away from ground zero. Called Semipalatinsk 21, it was surrounded by barbed wire and access was strictly controlled.
The same secrecy prevailed as vast areas were contaminated with radioactive fallout. As the photos at the exhibit at the University Club showed, ordinary Kazakhs were afflicted with blood and heart disease, skin cancers, cleft jaws, birth defects, backward limbs and other ailments. Up to 1.5 million people were either sickened or killed. The land was scared as well. The ground bursts of the 1950s and early 1960s until the 1963 nuclear test ban left gigantic lakes filled with rainwater that are still radioactive.
The point of the exhibit is non-proliferation and to their credit the Kazakhs showed unusual sanity. When the Soviet Union fell apart without warning, they found themselves the proud owners of more nuclear warheads and delivery systems than the U.S., France and China combined. The threat of illegal sale or theft involving terrorists was obvious. Nazerbayev and his officials worked closely with the U.S. in securing and disposing of the weaponry.
One operation, set up under an anti-weapon program by Sens. Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar, involved CIA-sponsored covert flights of gigantic C-5A Air Force cargo planes flying out dozens of warheads. They ended up in the U.S. where they were disassembled and their enriched fissionable was removed and sent for reprocessing into fuel for commercial nuclear plants.
The issue now, Paul F. Walker of Global Green USA and Erlan Idrissov, the Kazakh Ambassador to the U.S. said, is to continue the process by getting the U.S. Senate to pass a new U.S.-Russian nuclear arms treaty that continues the weapons reduction process. Each country would be allowed 1,500 deployed warheads, about a 30 percent cut lower than what was allowed by treaty in 2002.
What is interesting about the Kazakh approach is that they willingly got rid of their nukes, unlike Pakistan, India, Israel, the U.K., France, China, Russia, the U.S. and perhaps South Africa. North Korea has exploded some kind of device and Iran may be on the verge of one as well.
The exhibit was the polar opposite of what every Hollywood action movie has shown since the fall of the USSR -- cheesy former Soviet republics selling off a few megatons for the price of a few BMWs. But then, Hollywood's "Borat" version of Kazakhstan was so off the mark, it isn't even worth bringing up.
Peter Galuszka

Virginia computer contractor Northrop Grumman has agreed to foot the bill for an independent investigation into the cause of storage unit failure that caused computing havoc at 26 of the state's 89 agencies over the last week, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) announced Thursday afternoon. In a statement, McDonnell said that an outside vendor will be chosen jointly by his administration and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee to conduct the review, but will be paid for by Northrop Grumman, who holds a $2.4 billion contract to manage the state's computer network.


Northrop Grumman - Virginia - Bob McDonnell - Military - Aviation

A representative of Virginia's computer contractor Northrop Grumman says the defense giant "deeply regrets" inconvenience caused by a widespread outage in the state's computer network over the past week. In a statement, Linda A. Mills, the company's corporate vice president and president of Northrop's Information Systems, said repairs to the data storage unit that failed Aug. 25 are complete and all state agencies are operational. Twenty-six of the state's 89 agencies experienced some level of outage. Most notably, operations at the state's 74 Department of Motor Vehicle locations were largely off-line for seven days. "Northrop Grumman deeply regrets the disruption and inconvenience this has caused state agencies and Virginia citizens," Mills said in a statement. "Over the last week, we have deployed significant resources and our staff has worked tirelessly in unison with [the Virginia Information Technologies Agency] and our partners to thoroughly verify and restore access to data and


Northrop Grumman - Virginia - Virginia Information Technologies Agency - Data - Motor vehicle

A new poll in Virginia's 5th district suggests state Sen. Robert Hurt (R) has a commanding lead over Rep. Tom Perriello (D) in the latter's reelection race, but Democrats are certain to dispute the survey's results. Conducted by the firm SurveyUSA for WDBJ News in Roanoke, the polls finds Hurt leading Perriello among likely voters, 61 percent to 35 percent, with independent candidate Jeffrey Clark drawing 2 percent. The results are similar to those from a July poll taken by the same firm for the same station, which showed Hurt ahead by 23 points. But those numbers are very different from the ones produced by another recent poll -- taken in August by Ayres McHenry & Associates for the pro-Republican group American Action Forum -- that showed Perriello trailing by just 6 points. And Perriello's camp was extremely critical of the last SurveyUSA poll, calling it "useless" arguing that the


Virginia - Tom Perriello - Robert Hurt - Democratic - Republicans

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Fairfax) said this week it will be "virtually impossible" to vote for Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal to privatize the state's liquor system Wednesday if she does not receive details before the meeting. Whipple is one of nine members of the Government Simplification & Operations Committee of McDonnell's government reform commission, which is scheduled to meet and vote Wednesday after a presentation on the ABC proposal. But so far, Whipple said she has received very little information from the governor's staff despite repeated requests for more information. Her last meeting with Eric Finkbeiner, McDonnell's senior adviser for policy, took place last week. She received no specific figures and nothing in writing. Whipple said she is trying to keep an open mind, but she said she remains concerned about the increase in stores and if the state will be able to keep receiving nearly $250 million a year


Bob McDonnell - Government - Mary Margaret Whipple - United States - Virginia

Interesting tidbit:

McCarthy presided last year over an intimate group of congressmen, strategists and pollsters who sought to chart a rebirth of the GOP over a multi-year course. One product of their meetings were “WhiPods,” iPods that every member of Cantor’s Whip team received in order to listen to weekly podcasts on their way home to their districts about the minority’s agenda. A technology embrace and increased communication were two of the ways the GOP tried to put itself on equal footing with the more plugged-in Democrats. Operatives said the tactics were necessary, but even party stalwarts like RNC committeeman Saul Anuzis warned that the GOP’s path back would be “long and ugly.” Some scolded time and again, “An e-campaign is not a strategy.”

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will join fellow Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in speaking to conservative activists at the Values Voter Summit in the District later this month. McDonnell and the former and perhaps future presidential hopefuls will gather at the Omni Shoreham Hotel for the fifth annual Values Voter Summit sponsored by the Family Research Council, American Family Association, Heritage Foundation, American Values and Liberty University. Hundreds of activists attend the event, which includes a presidential straw poll, an early predictor of which candidate may win the endorsement of Christian conservatives. "Governor McDonnell has worked on behalf of life as a state legislator and the attorney general of Virginia, and continues to do so as governor,'' Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins said. "We are honored that he will join us to speak at this year's summit." Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli are


Mike Huckabee - Mitt Romney - Liberty University - Values Voter Summit - Bill Bolling

Sabato’s shop offers the latest point spread: GOP +8 in the Senate, +47 in the House, +8 governors.

Sometimes, one gets the sense that events are nothing but Rorschach tests. People will see in them what they want to see. In support of that theory, consider the insta-reactions to the recent hostage crisis at the Discovery Channel:

[B]loggers and partisan commentators have not hesitated in using this incident to score political points. Whether liberal or conservative, the bloggers argue that Lee represents the opposite end of the political spectrum and is thus the responsibility of that bloggers’ ideological opponents.

Numerous eyeroll-inducing examples follow.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) reports that the Virginia Deparment of Motor Vehicles will be fully operational on Thursday, more than a week after the agency was virtually shuttered by the failure of a computer storage drive at a warehouse south of Richmond. State officials estimate up to 45,000 people have been unable to renew their drivers' licenses while computers have been down. The agency will extend its hours in coming days and weekends to process the backlog. Officials reported Wednesday that the state's Department of Taxation was able to access taxpayer accounts and issue refunds and liens for the first time in seven days. In all, 26 agencies have been affected by the computer issues. Officials say network problems have been largely resolved though some agencies continue to grapple with minor problems. "There are some lingering issues," said Chief Information Officer Sam Nixon. According to the DMV, all 74 locations

Is Rep. Rick Boucher a Democrat? Of course the answer is yes, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from his latest campaign ad, which focuses on the veteran lawmaker's "values" and fiscal conservatism, not his party affiliation. "He has our values, because for Rick Boucher, Southwest Virginia is home," the ad's narrator intones. "That's why he voted against the health care law -- he knows we simply can't afford it. And that's why he's a leader in the bipartisan effort to balance the budget." Boucher is locked in a tough reelection race against state House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R), and it's common for general election campaign ads to avoid mention of the candidate's party, particularly in swing districts. But Boucher's ad is striking in that -- by focusing on his opposition to the health-reform bill and his support of a balanced budget -- it is indistinguishable from the kind


Rick Boucher - Southwest Virginia - Democratic Party - Health care - Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives

There’s a level of lameness that inevitably pervades any attempt to make the inherently un-cool, cool. Such as giving your political group a name like ‘Young Guns’, as Eric Cantor has done.

What demographic group, exactly, is this supposed to appeal to? Socially awkward boy-men who have trouble growing mustaches and still like to play Dungeons and Dragons?

Young Guns is a nickname. If someone else gives you a nickname, fine. But giving yourself a nickname? That always ends badly. . .

For the do-it-yourselfer, there are lots of good (and lots of bad!) ideas at There I Fixed It.

Ongoing discussions about whether Virginia should privatize its state-run liquor stores have caused researchers to dust off intriguing tidbits about Virginia's long and tortured past with demon rum. Take this little-known incident, for instance. In 1936, the Virginia General Assembly adopted a resolution asking the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Virginia to write a report about the affects of moderate and excessive alcohol use on the body. It was supposed to be used by the Board of Education in crafting an alcohol curriculum in schools. The report, finished at the end of the 1937, concluded that moderate alcohol use was essentially harmless. This was shortly after the 1933 repeal of Prohibition, and those findings were deeply displeasing to a number of teetotaling legislators. Displeasing enough that in 1938, the Virginia General Assembly voted to burn the report in the furnace of the state Capitol. The incident was


University of Virginia - Virginia General Assembly - United States - Virginia - Alcoholic beverage

The saga of 5th district independent candidate Jeffrey Clark took an odd turn in recent days as the congressional hopeful had his personal finances exposed in the media and then sought to turn the tables on the source of the embarrassing information. Clark is running as a decided underdog against freshman Rep. Tom Perriello (D) and state Sen. Robert Hurt (R), trying to overcome his lack of political experience and campaign cash by reaching out to "tea party" groups and others who might consider Hurt insufficiently conservative to deserve their support. Most of the attention paid to Clark so far in the 5th -- which stretches from the Charlottesville area down to the North Carolina border -- has been in the context of the "debate over debates." Perriello wants Clark included in debates and Hurt doesn't. Clark runs a water-testing company and a property-inspection business, and beyond those details, his


Tom Perriello - Politics - Robert Hurt - North Carolina - United States

Now that President Barack Obama has declared U.S. combat operations in Iraq over, it might be useful to remember just how much this effort and the one in Afghanistan cost.
This is particularly important right now since there is so much hullabaloo over federal spending. The immediate critical question is whether there should be more stimulus spending or not to try to invigorate the stumbling recovery.
Another curious point is that a good part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) funds haven't even been spent yet. In Virginia, for instance only about $3.2 billion of the $5.5 billion in stimulus funding for Virginia had been spent as of Aug. 1. The Wall Street Journal has reported that only a fraction of stimulus funding for such efforts as infrastructure, housing, education and homeland security has been spent.
This once again puts the cart before the horse. If there's such an outcry among the right wing, including many bloggers and commenters here, how come they don't point out that a lot of this infamous money hasn't even been released yet? Would the recovery be faster if it were? If we had a faster recovery, wouldn't the supposedly dangerous spiral a la "Boomergeddon" be slowed or set right?
Let's talk about the wars. According to the National Priorities Project, $1.09 billion has been allocated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, It isn't clear how much of this sum has actually been spent yet, but the end of combat operations in Iraq suggests some easing of spending is in the future, although some 50,000 U.S. still will remain in Iraq.
Afghanistan is anyone's guess. Obama has made that the strategic U.S. priority in fighting global terror, but faces a corrupt Afghan government and centuries of history in which foreigners could never get their way. My personal experience goes back to the 1980s and the Soviet experience there. I was there in January 1989 when, with great fanfare, columns of Soviet tanks and BTRs (personnel carriers) streamed across the Amu Darya River into Uzbekistan after a futile and bloody decade of fighting.
As for how much all of this will eventually cost is anyone's guess. Economist Joseph E. Stiglitz has put the price tag at as much as $3 trillion. As he and Linda J. Bilmes wrote in The Washington Post in 2008, "You can't spend $3 trillion -- yes, $3 trillion -- on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home."
He's right about the pain. As far as failed, well, it seemed that way in 2008. To his credit, President George W, Bush's escalation in Iraq did seem to settle things enough to set the stage for a U.S. withdrawal of its combat forces. But the, it was Bush who got us in the probably unnecessary war with Iraq with his bogus intelligence reports of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
That's a bit off my point. More on my point is the question: When they moan about spending do the newly-hatched deficit hawks consider the war price tag? Or are they content to blame instead the "socialist" Obama they accuse of profligate spending? It could be that Obama is guilty of not spending enough and not getting the money allocated for recovery out there in time.
Once again, the cart before the horse.
Peter Galuszka

Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chairman, is hosting a fundraiser for the Farm Team, a group created to help women seek public office, as he looks to stay active in state politics in Virginia in advance of the 2013 elections. McAuliffe and his wife, Dorothy, will host a Sept. 26 reception for the Farm Team -- one of the main fundraisers for the group this year -- at their McLean home. His wife has been involved with the organization before, but it's McAuliffe's first time hosting an event. McAuliffe's spokesman Levar Stoney said his boss heard about the event and wanted to help. See the invite. The Women of Courage and Truth reception will feature the unveiling of a portrait of 16-year-old Barbara Johns, who was at the forefront of the movement to end school segregation in the 1950s. McAuliffe, who lost his party's nomination for governor last year,


Terry McAuliffe - Virginia - Politics - Democratic - Democratic National Committee

According to news casts, Earl might give us some problems, or not.  As for me, we have water, plenty of batteries, always do anyhow, MREs, a generator, full gas tank in my car, and, most importantly, two fully charged batteries for my Nikon D40x.

If you live in Virginia and need to get a driver's license or ID card at one of the state's 74 Department of Motor Vehicles offices today, you are out of luck. Still due a tax refund? Wait a little longer. The Department of Taxation's computers don't work. Worried about pollution? Chill out until the Department of Environmental Quality can get its systems up and running.
What happened? Northrop Grumman has struck again. The firm won a $2.3 billion contract -- the largest state pact ever -- in 2005 to provide the state with communications and computer services. Another state agency, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), is supposed to help Northrop Grumman run the system.
The tale once again shows just how privatization can get really fouled up and how its benefits can by mythical. Exhibit A is, of course, Northrop Grumman, the huge defense corporation that Virginia officials persuaded to bring its headquarters here this year with a goodie basket worth millions in tax breaks and incentives.

The state IT system has been a mess. It has had regular outages, forcing a game of musical chairs at VITA top management. The latest mishap occurred Aug. 25 when a couple of small circuit boards fried. Affected were 26 state agencies. All but six were up and running this morning.
There's plenty of blame to spread around. Former governor Mark Warner, a Democrat who now represents the state as a senator, was so enamored with the then-fashionable privatization concept back in 2005 that he entered into this outsourcing deal. At the time, state computing was a mishmash of incompatible systems.
Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell inherited the mess, plus about $75,000 in campaign contributions from Northrop Grumman. During the campaign, he made some noises about the issue but piped down. Why? Virginia was in the running to snag Northrop Grumman's Los Angeles headquarters. It competed against Maryland and the District and won the relocation derby by offering up more than $13 million in state incentives and breaks, plus a like amount from Fairfax County.
Now we're stuck with Northrop Grumman. Once again, Virginia's naive leaders skipped down the yellow brick road of privatization. They support limited government because old Thomas Jefferson did. They are still in love with the era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, who wanted to get government off our backs -- through privatization, of course.
Then-Gov. George Allen pushed the concept further in the 1990s, with the state's law to sidestep transportation finance shortfalls by farming out state highway responsibilities to private infrastructure firms. Warner, a businessman who made his millions selling cellphone bandwidth, marched in tune.
And that is why you can't get a driver's license in Virginia today or tomorrow or maybe not until Friday.
Peter Galuszka

A day after Gov. Bob McDonnell called for an independent, third-party investigation into Virginia's massive computer failure, the state's vendor, Northop Grumman's vowed to learn from the problems of the last week and correct them. "We cannot afford to let any vulnerability in the infrastructure go unresolved,'' vice president Sam Abbate said in the company's first statement to the media since the computer failure. "We have an obligation to [Virginia Information Technologies Agency] and the agencies and citizens they serve, to learn everything we can from this occurrence. We will conduct a root cause analysis, carefully analyze and review the findings, develop lessons learned and make necessary changes." McDonnell announced in April that the state had reworked its massive $2.4 billion computer services contract with Northrop Grumman, extending the 10-year agreement by three years and agreeing to pay the company over $100 million more than originally envisioned. State officials say


Northrop Grumman - Virginia - Virginia Information Technologies Agency - Bob McDonnell - Infrastructure

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) rode the Virginia Railway Express on Tuesday as part of his efforts to highlight the transportation choices and challenges Northern Virginia commuters face on a daily basis. Connolly, who took the commuter train from Broad Run to Crystal City, said the ride was part of his broader efforts to draw attention to transportation needs in the area and what constituents go through to get to work daily. He has also taken the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission's commuter bus, slugged and rode with a constituent from Bristow into the district on what a Census Bureau report said last year is the longest average commute in the country. Connolly, who won an open congressional seat in 2008, is in the midst of a tough reelection campaign against Republican Keith Fimian.


Virginia - Gerry Connolly - Northern Virginia - Virginia Railway Express - Crystal City

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) is coming under fire for mixing politics and official state business at town hall meetings in southwest Virginia later this week. Cuccinelli is holding the public meetings in Abingdon and Rocky Mount on Thursday. According to e-mails and tweets from the attorney general, meeting topics will include utility rates and a proposed federal bill that would regulate greenhouse gas emissions, known widely as "cap and trade." The bill happens to be a big campaign issue in the hot congressional races between U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher (D) and state Del. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) in the 9th district and between U.S. Rep Tom Perriello (D) and State Sen. Robert Hurt (R-Pittsylvania). And the two town halls happen to be taking place in those districts. But the events are being billed as official attorney general office events, not campaign stops, paid for with taxpayer dollars. And Cuccinelli


Ken Cuccinelli - United States - Virginia - Virginia Attorney General - University of Virginia

Apparently, lots of people think Glenn Beck now looks like Michael Douglas in ‘Falling Down’.

Not that I’m sensitive about glasses or anything.  Just sayin’.

Radley Balko:

In January 2008 Chesapeake cops raided the home of 28-year-old Ryan Frederick. Days earlier, an informant had broken into Frederick’s house. He spotted several marijuana plants and stole some of them, giving police the probable cause they needed to obtain a search warrant. During the raid, police put a battering ram through part of Frederick’s door. Frederick says he awoke, saw someone breaking into his home, remembered the burglary of several days earlier, panicked, and fired his gun through the broken door. His bullet struck and killed one of the police officers, Det. Jarrod Shivers.

[snip]

So what did the Chesapeake Police Department announce in April? It won’t be reconsidering its policy of sending cops on volatile, forced-entry raids into the homes of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. Nor will it change the way its narcotics officers deal with drug informants. Instead, the department announced, Chesapeake narcotics officers will be using a new and improved battering ram. 

AZA contacted EMR and said that the second half of his comment on the 25,000 jobs lost post by Jim Bacon has been deleted three times since 8:00 this AM. (The time stamp on the Blog is off by an hour.)

EMR saw the third attempt to post when it was up at about noon. It is gone again. AZA asked that EMR read over his comment and if it made sense, to post it as an original post since Jim had asked a question raised by the first part when the second part was removed.

EMR is pleased that former students can understand what EMR has been saying and often get ahead of him. AZA’s comment seems like a fair statement and may temper Jim’s tone at the Whoop Ass session later today.

Here is AZA’s revised complete post that was originally forced to be divided in two because of length and the second half deleted on three occasions:

...............


Mr. Bacon asked:

“AZA, If it makes economic sense for there medical facilities to be based on the scale of the territory served – Neighborhood, Villages, Communities, Regions, etc. -- then you have to explain why that distribution does not exist today.”

We would refer those who do not yet understand this issue to Professor Risse’s treatise The Shape of the Future (SotF). In Volume I he demonstrates that the organic framework does exist but that human economic, social and physical activities are not yet distributed based on organic reality for reasons that he spells out in the book.

Some Agency malfunctions result in bad regulations as you suggest. No sane person would disagree.

However, as eggs, hamburger and salad greens that are intended for humans consumption; as deep well drilling to tap the last of the stored natural capital; and as the demise of Maytag – to say noting of the collapse of the housing finance structure – demonstrate, it is Enterprise malfunction and rigged markets that are at the roots of many of societies worst dysfunctions.

As Katrina demonstrates often major disasters are a combination of malfunctioning Agency, Enterprise and Institutional activities in a context of human ignorance parading as ‘culture,’ ‘freedom,’ ‘patriotism’ or gods will.

“The idea of making different types of medical services available at different geographic levels is an elegant one.”

Yes, and it is also a condition precedent for efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of all the services upon which humans depend for health, safety and welfare.

“But economies of scale will continually change with new technology and new delivery models.”

The illusion that churn, flux and ‘innovation’ will continue or accelerate is just that an optimistic illusion, a Myth. Natural systems do not work that way. They ebb and flow. Humans are running out of resources (including natural capital) to fund the luxury of continual change and ‘innovation.’ Professor Risse addressed this 10 years ago in the ‘Past Shock’ section in Vol II of SotF.

(End of Part 1)

The next really big innovation in medicine will be delivering a doctor to the bedside by wire. Not the doctors image or the patients image but the doctor himself. Do not hold your breath for this innovation to occur.

Even today the vast majority of the medical ‘solutions’ are available to only a very few at the very top of Ziggurat. It these procedures and interventions were subsidized so all citizens could benefit, the medical costs alone would bankrupt society long before Boomergeddon.

This reality is a key problem with Enterprise provision of medical services. It is EXACTLY like the drivers of the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis about which Professor Risse pontificates. Trickle Down does NOT work for any except those at the very top of the Ziggurat.

Trickle Down drives the Wealth Gap.

“Who decides what is appropriate at which level on an ongoing basis? Whom do you trust to do that, if not the marketplace?”

The only answer we have ever heard that COULD actually work and preserve Democracy and market economies is “enlightened Citizens.”

It is not regulations (Agencies), not markets (Enterprises) and not faith or Myths (Institutions) that alone can achieve what Prof. Risse calls a sustainable trajectory for civilization.

Citizens are the voters, the owners and the members of Agencies, Enterprises and Institutions.

Citizens and their Households are also the sole members of the New Fourth Estate.

As Professor Risse demonstrates in THE ESTATES MATRIX that it takes all FOUR legs of the MATRIX to manage a modern technologically based society.

As demonstrated by eggs, hamburger, etc. noted above ‘markets’ can only be a rational distributor of the resources necessary to support health safety and welfare of society IF citizens are well informed and all Four Estates work in harmony.

Enterprise controlled markets will always work to optimize short term profits not the happiness, safety or long term sustainability of citizens, Households or civilization.

The only possible ‘solution’ is for citizens to understand the need for and them support implementation of :

Fundamental Transformation of governance structure (Agency Transformation – including rational regulation with controls, programs, policies and education exercised at the level of impact.)

Fundamental Transformation of economic structure (Enterprise Transformation – a market economy is essential but they must be enlightened markets and Enterprise scale is as important as Agency scale.)

Fundamental Transformation of human settlement pattern (This is essential so that citizens and their Households and their Organizations (Agencies, Enterprises, and Institutions) – can manage society.)

In this context blaming the current president for killing 25,000 jobs as Mr. Bacon’s earlier post does is not just wrong, it feeds the Anger of Ignorance.

Larry G’s cautionary note about the Google searches is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. That is why tossing rocks at empty pigeon holes (or tossing cans of Glen Beck Red Meat Whoop Ass) is akin to yelling FIRE in a crowded theater.

That is also why civilization as we know it may be doomed.

Pandering governance practitioners, including those selling ‘traditional values’ as well as Enterprises (including MainStream Media) and Institutions (especially the political Clans) have been lying to citizens to stoke Mass OverConsumption.

For their part, citizens are not taking responsibility for the collective impact of their actions.

The longer the meaningless rock tossing goes on, the less chance of citizens making better choices at Google and everywhere else.

AZA

When the House of Delegates announced last week that it would hold a series of public hearings on redistricting, it came as news to the Senate. Sen. Janet Howell, chairwoman of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, said she wanted the Republican-led House and Democratic-run Senate to hold fall public hearings together to save money and to be more convenient for residents. The answer from the House? No. She said she approached Del. Mark Cole, chairman of the House Privileges and Elections Committee, about the idea and thought they reached an agreement, but heard later that the Speaker did not want joint hearings. Paul Nardo, chief of staff to House Speaker Bill Howell (R-Stafford) said the House and Senate have never held fall redistricting hearings together, but that the two chambers do plan to hold joint hearings in the spring. "We will work with the Senate,'' he said. Nardo said


United States Senate - Redistricting - Democratic - Janet Howell - Mark Cole

Reason’s Matt Welch reminds The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer about what she used to think before she wrote about the right-wing Koch empire:

The piece opens with an extended 2004 anecdote about a strategy meeting between five billionaire Bush-haters about how to depose 43 after his first term. . . .

Bob Holsworth says Ken Cuccinelli has

become the conservative Andrew Cuomo, using the AG’s position to advance an aggressive agenda linking events in Virginia to hot button national matters.

Nice analogy.