Tag Archives: virginia

UVA Student’s Violent Arrest Sparks Outrage and Calls for #JusticeForMartese

by ChadwickCampa Posted on March 19, 2015

Mother Jones

Images and footage capturing the arrest of Martese Johnson, a University of Virginia student who needed 10 stitches after being arrested by state liquor police for allegedly having a fake ID, prompted large protests at UVA’s Charlottesville campus on Wednesday, with hundreds of students gathering to demand justice.

Johnson, 20-years-old and a member of the school’s Honor Committee, was arrested on Tuesday by officers from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control as bystanders recorded the bloody encounter. In one video, Johnson’s head appears covered in blood, and he screams “you fucking racists.” According to Johnson’s lawyer, he was charged with “obstructing justice without force” and public intoxication.

After footage of the arrest emerged online, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe launched an investigation into the incident.

“Governor McAuliffe is concerned by the reports of this incident and has asked the Secretary of Public Safety to initiate an independent Virginia State Police investigation into the use of force in this matter,” his office said in a statement.

It is unclear what led to the arrest. A statement from the state’s liquor agents said that “a determination was made by the agents to further detain the individual based on their observations and further questioning.” On Wednesday night, Johnson joined the demonstrators and appeared with a gash wound to the head.

“His head was slammed into the hard pavement with excessive force,” UVA officials said in a released statement. “This was wrong and should not have occurred. In the many years of our medical, professional and leadership roles at the University, we view the nature of this assault as highly unusual and appalling based on the information we have received.”

As images of both the protest and Johnson’s arrest flooded online with the hashtag #JusticeForMartese, demonstrators chanted “black lives matter” and “shut it down.”

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UVA Student’s Violent Arrest Sparks Outrage and Calls for #JusticeForMartese

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Washington’s Biggest Hawk Wants to Be Secretary of Defense—So He’s Running for President

by AraceliDominiqu Posted on March 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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As 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls have kick-started their pre-primary, not-yet-official campaigns, a burning question has arisen: Why is Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina with little national following and no hope of securing the nomination, saying that he may toss his hat in the ring? At the end of January, Graham announced his exploratory committee, but he has told reporters that an official announcement won’t come until he knows that he has enough financial backing to run.

Graham doesn’t seem a natural contender. The tea party scoffs at his bipartisan bona fides. His hawkish war rhetoric and interest in foreign policy endears him to Republican senators like close pal John McCain, as well as Kelly Ayotte and the neocon crowd, but this doesn’t offer him much of a launchpad. His fundraising prospects don’t seem strong, though the pro-Israel casino magnate Sheldon Adelson co-chaired a fundraising lunch for Graham at the Capitol Hill Club last week. Graham introduced a bipartisan bill that would ban online gambling, Adelson’s pet cause. Most political analysts, including Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard, have ruled Graham out of the running already. And MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin posits that Graham is just trying to undercut Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul regarding his skepticism toward military intervention overseas.

Yet some political strategists suggest that Graham has a target other than the White House.

“He’s running for secretary of defense,” says Rick Wilson, a GOP strategist in Florida with experience in South Carolina politics. “He’ll never say it, but if you know him well enough, it’s the only logical reason. He’ll make sure foreign policy is a central focus” of his campaign.

“If the Republicans win the White House, Lindsey Graham will have his choice of being secretary of defense or secretary of state, if he does it right,” Katon Dawson, Graham’s longtime friend and the former chair of the South Carolina Republican party, told National Review.

So what would doing “it right” mean?

Graham is popular in his home state of South Carolina, which is one of the three pivotal early states in the primary race. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, another 2016 wannabe, is just 1 percent ahead of Graham in early polls of the state. But if Graham does poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire and drops out of the race, he could use his influence in the Palmetto State to benefit another candidate during the primary there. Should that candidate win, Graham’s wealth of foreign policy, military, and national security expertise could lead to his campaign work being rewarded, Wilson says.

Graham says he’s focusing on his “vision for the country and national security,” rather than on defeating other candidates. His PAC is called Security Through Strength, and it is largely dedicated to the fight against radical Islam and ISIS. Whenever a Republican leader is needed to talk about defense or foreign policy on the Sunday morning political programs, Graham is one of the top choices. He routinely appears on Meet the Press, Fox News, and CNN.

Political strategists say that they would be surprised if Graham campaigned negatively against other candidates. “The last thing Marco Rubio and Rand Paul worry about is Lindsey Graham,” Wilson says. Rob Wislinkski, a strategist from Graham’s home state, agrees: “I’d be very surprised if he throws a lot of rocks at the other candidates in the GOP,” he says. And Graham told MSNBC that Rand Paul’s potential bid has “zero” to do with his decisions, hesitating to bad-mouth the Kentucky senator.

Then again, maybe Graham thinks lightning will strike. Larry Sabato, managing editor of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics’ Crystal Ball blog, suggests that Graham may be catching the presidential fever that afflicts many long-time senators: deciding you can do the job better after having watched several presidents in action. “They start whistling ‘Hail to the Chief’ while shaving,” Sabato says.

Graham’s camp is adamant that he actually wants the top job. “If he decided to formally enter the race, he is running to win,” says Christian Ferry, a Virginia GOP strategist who is advising Graham.

Maybe. But if Graham is merely trying to gain an edge in the postelection Pentagon sweepstakes, the experience of retiring Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel might be a cautionary tale, Sabato notes. For all the power of the position, the top Pentagon job involves losing the independence that senators enjoy. But for Graham, being named secretary of defense could be a powerful career capper, and a way to lay out his vision of a hardline national defense—something he probably won’t be doing from the Oval Office.

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Washington’s Biggest Hawk Wants to Be Secretary of Defense—So He’s Running for President

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Obama admin punts on oil train safety — and another bomb train explodes

by CeliaLoper Posted on March 6, 2015

Obama admin punts on oil train safety — and another bomb train explodes

By on 6 Mar 2015 2:12 pmcommentsShare

An oil train derailed and exploded in rural Illinois on Thursday afternoon — the third one in North America in three weeks. As of midday Friday, the fire was still burning, though fortunately no one has been injured.

Which makes it all the more galling that the Obama administration passed up a key opportunity to try to make oil trains safer, as Reuters is reporting.

For awhile, the administration was considering taking some action to regulate explosive gas in the growing number of trains carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale drilling boom throughout North America. But the administration backed off, leaving the job up to North Dakota’s government instead.

From Reuters’ Patrick Rucker:

Last summer, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx took his concerns about Bakken fuel to the White House and sought advice on what to do about the danger of [explosive gas], according to sources familiar with the meeting who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. …

The Transportation Department was warning that Bakken fuel was uncommonly volatile and explosion-prone. Foxx’s agency conceived an oil train safety plan in July with an array of measures that aimed to make sure oil train cargo moved safely on the tracks.

Tankers would have toughened shells. Oil train deliveries would slow down. Advanced braking systems would be adopted.

But the rule would do nothing to limit volatile gas.

Foxx brought his concerns about the unresolved issue of dangerous gas, commonly measured as vapor pressure, and his agency’s limited power to curtail the problem to President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough. The administration decided to just let the existing oil train safety plan take root.

The problem with relying on North Dakota to regulate the oil trains is that the explosion issue is a national, and even international, one. The tanker cars travel along routes that criss-cross the U.S. and Canada, often passing through populated urban centers. “These trains are going all across the country so it absolutely has to be the feds who are in charge,” said Karen Darch, mayor of Barrington, Ill., a town through which a number of oil and gas trains pass each week.

North Dakota produces more than 1.2 million barrels of crude oil daily, and 60 percent of that moves to refineries and ports by rail. The number of oil trains on the rails has increased by more than 40 fold in the past five years to over 400,000 cars in 2013, according to data from the nonprofit group ForestEthics and similar numbers from the Association of American Railroads. ForestEthics estimated last year that around 25 million Americans live in a potential blast zone.

The plan proposed by the Department of Transportation — to slow trains down and require sturdier, thicker tank cars — won’t go far enough to prevent explosions. Yesterday’s accident in Illinois and last month’s in West Virginia both involved newer, supposedly tougher rail cars, but they obviously didn’t prevent the blowups.

North Dakota’s new regulations, set to go into effect next month, aren’t expected to solve the problems either. They will set a limit for the vapor pressure of oil in tank cars, but the limit isn’t very tight. The crude oil on the train that exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec in 2013, was below that limit, which means North Dakota’s regs wouldn’t have prevented the 47 deaths that resulted from that accident.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) of New York — a state through which hundreds of cars full of Bakken crude pass each day — is calling on Foxx and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to work together to come up with regulations with more of a bite. But if the Obama administration has already opted to take a pass, as the Reuters report indicates, his push might not amount to much.

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Obama admin punts on oil train safety — and another bomb train explodes

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Watch a US Senator Use a Snowball to Deny Global Warming

by Myrna Posted on February 27, 2015

“I ask the chair: You know what this is? It’s a snowball.” The Senate’s most vocal critic of the scientific consensus on climate change, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, tossed a snowball on the Senate floor Thursday as part of his case for why global warming is a hoax. Inhofe, who wrote the book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, took to the floor to decry the “hysteria on global warming.” “In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, ‘You know what this is?’” he said, holding up a snowball. “It’s a snowball, from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.” “Catch this,” he said to the presiding officer, tossing the blob of snow. Read the rest at The Huffington Post. Master image — Screenshot: Slate/CSPAN Original post – Watch a US Senator Use a Snowball to Deny Global Warming

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Watch a US Senator Use a Snowball to Deny Global Warming

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IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri resigns

by Myrna Posted on February 25, 2015

High profile head of the UN’s climate science panel steps down and denies charges of sexually harassing a 29-year-old female researcher. Rajendra K. Pachauri Juan Karita/AP The chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, resigned on Tuesday, following allegations of sexual harassment from a female employee at his research institute in Delhi. The organisation will now be led by acting chair Ismail El Gizouli until the election for a new chair which had already been scheduled for October. “The actions taken today will ensure that the IPCC’s mission to assess climate change continues without interruption,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, which is a sponsor of the IPCC. Pachauri, 74, is accused of sexually harassing a 29-year-old female researchershortly after she joined The Energy and Resources Institute. Lawyers for the woman, who cannot be named, said the harassment by Pachauri included unwanted emails, text messages and WhatsApp messages. Pachauri, one of the UN’s top climate change officials, has denied the charges and his spokesman said: “[He] is committed to provide all assistance and cooperation to the authorities in their ongoing investigations.” His lawyers claimed in the court documents that his emails, mobile phone and WhatsApp messages were hacked and that criminals accessed his computer and phone to send the messages in an attempt to malign him. Read the rest at the Guardian. View post – IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri resigns

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IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri resigns

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8 Crazy Quotes In Support of Celebrating Robert E. Lee on MLK Day

by CortezSKMsqtt Posted on January 28, 2015

Mother Jones

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Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama are the only three states in the country that celebrate Robert E. Lee on the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. Their reasoning for the combo celebration is that the two have birthdays just a few days apart—never mind the, uh, conflict of interest.

Today, Arkansas’ elected officials had the opportunity to pass a bill seeking to separate the two commemorations. By doing so, Arkansas would join Georgia, Florida, and Virginia, which honor Lee—but not on MLK Day.

But this morning, Arkansas representatives struck down the bill with a chorus of nays. Below are a few choice quotes from opponents of the bill explaining why:

1. “Everyone in this room owes Robert E. Lee a debt.”

2. “You’ve got MLK parades all over the nation, but no one celebrates Lee! Well, a lot of people do, a very large crowd.”

3. “This bill is out to change our constitution.”

4. “It’s called American history.”

5. “I really wish we could all celebrate a non-separate, but equal holiday.”

6. “You wouldn’t celebrate Christmas in July!”

7. “Why are we doing this? We are chasing a non-problem.”

8. “Separate is not equal.”

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8 Crazy Quotes In Support of Celebrating Robert E. Lee on MLK Day

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This Is Why Under-Inflated Footballs Could Have Given Tom Brady An Advantage

by IXYEmeryebk Posted on January 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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To those of us for whom the nuances of professional football tactics are a bit of a mystery, there was one question looming over New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s surreal Ballghazi press conference yesterday that went unanswered: What’s so great, in theory, about a deflated football? Seems like, if anything, an under-inflated ball would be less aerodynamic?

Turns out, the potential benefit is all about grippiness. From Fox Sports:

John Eric Goff, professor of physics at Lynchburg College in Virginia and author of “Gold Medal Physics: The Science of Sports,” told FoxNews.com that the league-mandated PSI range is ideal for playing football. “If, however, there’s rain or snow or something else happening, that would make the ball a bit slicker, so having a bit less pressure in the ball makes it easier to squeeze and the grip improves,” he added.

Interesting!

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This Is Why Under-Inflated Footballs Could Have Given Tom Brady An Advantage

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Hateful Little Cannibal Squirrels Could Help California Drought

by Myrna Posted on January 20, 2015

Farmers hate Belding’s ground squirrels. But they may be an essential piece of the state’s ecosystems. Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife/Wikimedia Commons Among alfalfa farmers in Northern California, Public Enemy No. 1 is a promiscuous, photogenic fur ball that weighs only half a pound and spends most of its life asleep. But with the critter helping the state weather its worst drought in 1,200 years, that perception may soon be a thing of the past. The diminutive Belding’s ground squirrel, an important link in the food chain for coyotes, bobcats, foxes, weasels, and raptors, has a long and troubled history as a major agricultural pest. Blame the squirrel’s voracious appetite for alfalfa. Blame its fleas, which can carry plague. Above all, blame the complex network of burrows it digs, which trip up livestock and damage farm machinery. All told, there are few animals in greater need of an image makeover than the rodent known to biologists as Urocitellus beldingi, and to detractors as pot gut, sage rat, and picket pin. But now, courtesy of climate change and California’s record-setting drought, Belding’s ground squirrels may be on the brink of a reversal of fortune. The same rodents responsible for millions of dollars’ worth of lost crops and damaged equipment might just turn out to be highly valuable ecosystem engineers, a designation reserved for organisms that modify their habitats, improving ecosystem stability and health. Read the rest at Grist. Link: Hateful Little Cannibal Squirrels Could Help California Drought

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Hateful Little Cannibal Squirrels Could Help California Drought

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Jim Webb Is the Democrats’ Rand Paul

by GabrielMercier Posted on January 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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One of the most hyped potential candidates of the 2016 presidential campaign has clashed frequently with his party’s higher-ups. He is known for his outspoken views on the surveillance state, his opposition to overseas entanglements, his warnings about the broken criminal-justice system, his desire to expand the party’s tent to include voters otherwise alienated by identity politics—and for the Confederate-flag-waving supporters who’d follow him anywhere.

Unfortunately for Jim Webb, I’m talking about Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

Since launching a presidential exploratory committee last month, the former one-term Virginia senator, author, Navy secretary, and Vietnam vet has spent the first weeks of his nascent campaign drawing a contrast with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the party’s most likely nominee. The little-touted candidacy of Webb, who was floated as a running mate during President Barack Obama’s first campaign, is a reminder of how far the ground has shifted since his first run for office nine years ago. Two years after leaving the Senate, Webb’s ideas are finally ascendant—but under a different banner.

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Jim Webb Is the Democrats’ Rand Paul

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Kentucky Makes It Almost Impossible for Felons to Vote. Rand Paul Wants to Change That.

by StefanieMercado Posted on January 14, 2015

Mother Jones

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Sen. Rand Paul began the new year by lobbying for one of his favorite causes: criminal-justice reform. Last week, Paul issued a press release urging the Kentucky Legislature to act on a bill that would let state voters decide whether or not to create a path back to voting rights for nonviolent felons who have completed their sentences. “Restoring voting rights for those who have repaid their debt to society is simply the right thing to do,” Paul said in the release.

In 2014, the Democratic-controlled Kentucky House approved a bill that would put a constitutional amendment on ballots in the fall—if voters approved the measure, it would have automatically restored the voting rights of nonviolent felons who have served their time. But the Republican-controlled Senate passed a substitute that proposed several tough restrictions, including a mandatory five-year waiting period after prison before felons could reapply to vote. The two chambers couldn’t agree, and the issue has stalled. Paul, who favors the less-restrictive House bill, is trying to give the issue CPR. (His office declined to comment for this article.)

Kentucky has some of the harshest restrictions on felon voting rights in the country: Felons who wish to get their voting rights back—regardless of offense—must submit a request directly to the governor, who has the sole authority to approve or deny them. Most states offer some type of path to reenfranchisement. For example, in Washington state, all felons who have completed their sentences, probation, and/or parole are allowed to reregister to vote.

According Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a political, social, and economic advocacy group, only three states—Florida, Iowa, and Virginia—have paths to reenfranchisement that are as difficult as Kentucky’s. In a state with roughly 3.1 million registered voters, more than 180,000 Kentucky ex-felons do not have the right to vote, and they come overwhelmingly from low-income and minority communities. Not surprisingly, studies have found that felony disenfranchisement disproportionately benefits Republicans.

This isn’t the first time that Paul has pushed to ease restrictions on felons’ voting rights. In 2013, speaking to a predominantly minority audience in Kentucky, Paul said, “I am in favor of letting felons get their rights back, the right to vote…Second Amendment rights, all your rights to come back.” This was not an especially popular stance within the GOP back then. A year earlier, Rick Santorum attacked Mitt Romney over his opposition to felon enfranchisement.

Stephen Voss, a state politics expert at the University of Kentucky, says he doesn’t think Paul holds enough sway in Kentucky to move reform through the statehouse. But with this issue, Paul has the chance to bolster his unorthodox approach to criminal-justice policy ahead of the 2016 primaries. “Paul is very interested in expanding the Republican coalition to include voters that have been difficult to reach in the past, but he clearly wants to do it within the bounds of small government ideology,” Voss says. “This issue of treatment of people who have served out sentences is a prime opportunity.”

Enfranchising felons may not be good for GOP electoral prospects, but Paul might not be alone among Republican 2016 contenders in the reform camp. Jeb Bush restored voting rights for over 150,000 ex-felons while governor of Florida, and Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill in 2008 making it easier for Louisiana felons to earn their voting rights back. “If Paul gets in trouble with Republicans, I doubt it’ll be on this issue,” Voss says. He suggests other Republicans might join Paul in what he calls a viable way of improving the GOP’s perception among minorities. “It’s not a small number of Republicans that appreciate the benefit of expanding their constituency.”

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Kentucky Makes It Almost Impossible for Felons to Vote. Rand Paul Wants to Change That.

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