Roaonke DFA Democrats

VIRGINIA NEWS

Roanoke Station Refuses Attack Ad

(WDBJ-TV) WDBJ-TV, a Roanoke television station, has refused to air a false National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) attack ad on Rep. Tom Perriello (D-5th). The NRCC ad used information about the clean energy jobs bill that the independent, nonpartisan organization FackCheck.org called "wrong."

The ad says the bill will result in lost jobs and cost “middle class families” $1,870 a year. Actually, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the bill would cost households an average of $175 in 2020. Also, the Environmental Protection Agency ran a range of test cases that projected average household energy expenditures (excluding gasoline) would go up a maximum of several hundred dollars.

"The NRCC has a track record of running ads so deceptive and misleading that local TV stations refuse to air them or have to remove from the airwaves," said Jessica Santillo, Southern Regional Press Secretary. "Clearly, Washington Republicans realize that the truth is not on their side so they resort to deceptive and false attack ads."

RFK Jr. Op-Ed Explains Mountaintop Removal Tragedy

In an opinion piece July 3 in The New York Times, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. describes the horrible aftermath of the so-called "mountaintop removal" methods of getting at coal.

"Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day - the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly - to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams," Kennedy explains.

Coal extraction has caused the destruction of 500 mountains so far, encompassing about a million acres. It has buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water.

"On this continent, only Appalachia's rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not - obliterating the hemisphere's oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests," Kennedy says.

"America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains - with their impoverished and alienated population - are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens," he continues.

Warner, Deeds Announce Business Support for Campaign

Democratic candidate for governor Creigh Deeds has announced the formation of “Business Leaders for Deeds,” a broad-based group of bipartisan, statewide business leaders who have agreed to advise and promote Deeds’ candidacy.

“Business Leaders for Deeds” will be led by Ted Leonsis of McLean, the majority owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics. Leonsis also is a former AOL vice chairman, a venture capitalist and philanthropist.

U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner joined Deeds and Leonsis at the announcement. Warner is a former telecom executive who’s pragmatic approach during his term as Virginia Governor (2002-06) resulted in Virginia’s designation as the nation’s “best managed state” and “best state for business.”

“I appreciate the support and the expertise these business executives will bring to our effort, because these men and women recognize that their businesses are only as strong as the people who power them,” Senator Deeds said. “Our administration will be working hard every day to create opportunity and jobs for Virginians, and these business leaders will be a key part of our bipartisan efforts to better position the Commonwealth to emerge stronger from our economic challenges.”

Virginia Accuses Northrup-Grumman of Contract Failure

(Daily Progress) Virginia is accusing Northrop Grumman of failing to deliver computer services and hinting at unspecified action against the giant company.

In a shift the state - which has been defending its disputed 10-year, $2.3 billion deal with Northrop Grumman - said the Chantilly-based firm is in breach of contract.

Further, the state is demanding a plan from Northrop Grumman within 60 days for ending delays - some that have continued two years - and for completing an inventory of computer equipment that was supposed to be finished yesterday.

That work may not be wrapped up for several months, with full implementation of the contract not expected until Christmas.

Kaine Visits Southwest Virginia

(Roaonke Times) Gov. Tim Kaine spent about an hour inside Volvo Trucks North America on July 3, meeting with the general manager and visiting the production area.

“I’m excited to see this and know there are a lot of good things going on here, a lot of innovation,” Kaine told Pete Huber, the Pulaski County administrator, who was among local officials standing outside the plant to greet Kaine.

The visit was the first of several stops Virginia's governor made in the New River and Roanoke valleys. He rode a bicycle with children and others along the Roanoke River Greenway, visited a city fire station and the Roanoke City Market, and made an environmental announcement in downtown Roanoke.

Mason Praises Businesses for Reducing Carbon Footprints

(Roanoke Times) Gwen Mason, a member of the Roanoke City Council and a Democratic candidate for the open seat in the 17th District of the House of Delegates, helped found the Clean and Green Business Coalition.

She said that participating businesses reduced greenhouse emissions last year by an average of 13 percent. One business cut emissions by 28 percent and saved more than $1 million in the process, she said.

"Environmental stewardship is economic stewardship," Mason said.

National

Goldman Sachs: Architects of Economic Disaster?

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone has a new article outlining just how frequently and how deeply Goldman-Sachs has been in the middle of the bubble-bust cycles that have wrecked the American economy.

According to Taibbi, the formula is relatively simple: "Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage..."

Goldman was at the center of the internet bubble of the 1990's. Companies that made no economic sense were taken public via IPOs, "hyped in the media and sold to the public for megamillions. It was as if banks like Goldman were wrapping ribbons around watermelons, tossing them out 50-story windows and opening the phones for bids."

"Goldman's role in the sweeping global disaster that was the housing bubble is not hard to trace. Here again, the basic trick was a decline in underwriting standards, although in this case the standards weren't in IPOs but in mortgages."

"What caused the huge spike in oil prices? Take a wild guess. Obviously Goldman had help - there were other players in the physical-commodities market - but the root cause had almost everything to do with the behavior of a few powerful actors determined to turn the once-solid market into a speculative casino.

"Goldman did it by persuading pension funds and other large institutional investors to invest in oil futures - agreeing to buy oil at a certain price on a fixed date. The push transformed oil from a physical commodity, rigidly subject to supply and demand, into something to bet on, like a stock."

Goldman-Sachs Players in Politics

Matt Taibbi also listed a few of the many Goldman-Sachs players who have been creating and directing U.S. economic policy that led up to the latest meltdown:

*George Bush's last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson, the architect of the bailout.

*Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup - which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson.

*John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding, is a former Goldman banker, Thain also got a multibillion-dollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's company.

*Robert Steel, a former Goldmanite and head of Wachovia, who scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden-parachute payments as his bank was self-destructing.

*Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, worked for Golsman.

*Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago.

*Ed Liddy, a former Goldman director was put in charge of bailed-out insurance giant AIG by Hank Paulson. AIG forked over $13 billion to Goldman after Liddy came on board.

*The heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks are Goldman alums, as is the head of the World Bank, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, and the last two heads of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which, incidentally, is now in charge of overseeing Goldman.

Hagen Switches, Backs Public Option

(Huffington Post) One of the Democratic senators who was on the fence when it came to backing a public option for health insurance coverage is coming out in support of the measure.

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) offered her support for the health care overhaul proposal put forth by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which she is a member. In the process, she issued a statement that removed any doubt about where she stands on a publicly run insurance option.

"My colleagues and I on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have been working on a plan to reform the health care system in this country," Hagan's statement read. "We have crafted a plan that will stabilize health care costs and includes a Community Health Insurance Option, which I support. It is a backstop option for people without access to affordable coverage."

Kennedy Offers Plan To Fit Budget Numbers

(Huffington Post) Sen. Ted Kennedy's Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee released details of its plan to expand access to health insurance, create a public option that consumers could buy into and reduce health care costs over the long haul.

The Congressional Budget Office evaluated the proposed bill, estimating that it would cost slightly more than $600 billion over ten years, considerably less than earlier predictions.

A Medicaid expansion that is likely also be included in the overhaul is not part of the HELP committee's jurisdiction, but it could add several hundred billion dollars to the cost (that estimate doesn't account for potential savings.)

The overall cost is still looking to be roughly a trillion dollars over 10 years - the target amount - but the health committee bill shows that number is still possible while still providing accept to a public health care option to everybody.

It's a Fact

The coal industry takes $115 million more from Kentucky’s state government annually in services and programs than it contributes in taxes, according to a study by the Berea-based Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, or MACED.

“The coal industry is pretty free about discussing the positive impact of coal on the state. But there’s almost no public discussion about the cost,” said MACED President Justin Maxson.

For all the wealth that coal produced over the last century, Eastern Kentucky’s coal counties remain among the nation’s poorest, Maxson said. Destructive mining practices, such as mountaintop removal, sacrifice the region’s natural beauty, and with it other possible employers, such as tourism.

Today, less than 1 percent of all employed Kentuckians work in coal mining, MACED reported.

Health Insurance Industry "Beholden to Wall Street"

(CNN) Wendell Potter says he is finished defending the insurance industry, which he says is "beholden to Wall Street."

At a hearing last week before the Senate Commerce Committee, the former vice president of corporate communications at the insurance giant Cigna testified, "I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry."

In his testimony and during an interview with CNN, Potter described how underwriters at his former company would drive small businesses with expensive insurance claims to dump their Cigna policies. Industry executives refer to the practice as "purging," Potter said.

"When that business comes up for renewal, the underwriters jack the rates up so much, the employer has no choice but to drop insurance," Potter said.