Cuccinelli joins multistate investigation of mortgage lenders

If you choose to read only one of today’s five stories about Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, don’t pick this one, because it doesn’t show him to be a showboating ideologue. Read on for more.

Cuccinelli defends positions in U.Va. appearance

Cuccinelli spoke at U.Va. yesterday at a forum sponsored by the College Republicans and the Law and Graduate Republicans. I assume its having been sponsored by two separate organizations means Cuccinelli was monetarily compensated, even though the forum offered him valuable publicity in all state media outlets and even some national ones. Or maybe sponsorship of Cuccinelli just means driving him to whichever karaoke bar has “Rapper’s Delight.”

In Charlottesville the attorney general spent a large portion of his time talking about the Affordable Care Act, which he says is unconstitutional because of the First Continental Congress of 1774. By my count that year came 14 years before our constitution’s ratification. Disclaimer: I haven’t been to law school.

According to the Times-Dispatch, “one student, Seth Kaye, questioned Cuccinelli’s past statements saying that homosexuality is ‘intrinsically wrong’ and ‘unnatural’ and asked if he believes such sentiments have contributed to the environment in which six gay teenagers recently committed suicide after facing discrimination. Cuccinelli said he stands by his statements.”

Sooner or later, after a lifetime of bullying from hypocritical fundamentalists, some gay teenager will commit suicide here in Virginia. At that point the media will ask the local crop of bigots to comment, and a few will walk it back and claim they never really meant harm. But I’m willing to bet our A.G. will hang onto the courage of his convictions.

Cuccinelli rails against EPA at Virginia energy conference

In addition to calling the EPA intrinsically wrong and unnatural, Cuccinelli said “cap-and-trade regulations could cost a typical Virginia household $3,000 a year in higher utility bills and in higher costs.” That would work out to $250 a month, or more than twice the current average monthly utility bill. Cuccinelli claims that “he got that number from a report from … [a] conservative think tank” and that he’s also “sure that India and China are ecstatic about the legislation.”

Actually, China is now paying tens of billions of dollars per year to convert to green energy—an estimate I got from a report from my imaginary friend Ernie. Soon China will lead the world in low-pollution and no-pollution buses and trains. Recently in the Times, Tom Friedman wrote that “China has designated and invested in pilot cities for electric vehicles, smart grids, LED lighting, rural biomass and low-carbon communities.” In Cuccinelli’s defense, my argument ignores Revelations 3:10.

Cuccinelli “pleased” with Florida health care ruling

It appears Cuccinelli is capable of pleasure.

Cuccinelli to spend election night with Tea Partiers

As demonstrated above, Cuccinelli is keeping himself busy, but he’ll be letting his hair down on election night to watch the results with Tony Perkins, president of the ultra-bigoted Family Research Council. Talk about pleasure…

Tony Perkins is the former Ku Klux Klan contractor who wrote in the Washington Post Monday that gay suicides are happening because “homosexual activist groups like GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) are exploiting these tragedies to push their agenda of demanding not only tolerance of homosexual individuals, but active affirmation of homosexual conduct and their efforts to redefine the family.” This in addition to Perkins’s assertion that “homosexuals have much higher mental health problems” and that “[w]ithin the homosexual population, such mental health problems are higher among those who ‘come out of the closet’ at an earlier age.”

Note the scare quotes around “come out of the closet,” as if coming out is some preposterous fringe notion. Note the pejorative use of homosexual as a noun. Note the sanctimony. Note the rush to blame victims for violence against them. Note that Perkins published his piece on National Coming Out Day. Yes, I’m thinking Ken and Tony will be pleased with each other’s company.

Justice Department seeks continuation of ‘Don’t Ask’ during appeal

It would be nice if the Democratic White House could be an ally against the reactionary bigotry of our current state government, but alas, no. Columnist and blogger Dan Savage sums up my current opinion about the Obama Administration here. I would add only that the president could at least have the courtesy to take gay people off its fundraising list. He’s been emailing me at least once a day lately; just last night he had the audacity to hope I’ll attend a Vote 2010 Event at the Panera Bread in Ghent. I’d be more likely to pull my teeth out with pliers.

It honestly astonishes me that straight people can say they’re for gay rights yet continue to offer strong support to Barack Obama’s administration. If you’re nominally in favor of gay rights yet you support Obama, you’re giving him cover to keep fighting in favor of discrimination. Look: the Log Cabin Republicans fought in court to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. And they’ve won. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would now be history except that the Democrat in the White House has ordered his Justice Department to fight to keep the policy in place.

Here’s yesterday’s animus-filled court filing by the Justice Department, which states that “a host of significant and immediate harms to the recognized public interest in ensuring that the Nation has strong and effective military operations” would suddenly occur if DADT is ended. The president needs to go on record now and state what he thinks those significant and immediate harms will be. Maybe the horror of integrated barracks will be so significant and immediate that straight soldiers will feel unable to participate in strong and effective military operations? I’m trying to picture them going en masse to their commanding officers to say, “Sorry, we won’t be obeying any orders from now on. There are gays around.”

This court filing is an insult to every man and woman in the military. Maybe some high-level officers who work in the Pentagon are quaking with fear at the idea of integration, but the military rank and file will accept it without complaint just as the military rank and file did in Israel, Britain, and every other Western military. The president knows this, and maintains his cowardly silence because he can’t survive a press conference on the matter without humiliating himself.

Allen 2012?

Speaking of politicians I won’t be voting for in 2012, I’d love a chance to welcome George Allen back to—what was it?—America and the real world of Virginia.

Hampton Roads income: Region ranks 4th for per-capita income growth

This good news sours when you read the article and find out it’s almost all due to a doubling of defense spending in the last decade.

Moran interested in leading Virginia Democrats

Brian Moran, who should have won Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2009, wants to be the next state Democratic Party chair. This reminds me of one of the more clever political banners I’ve seen: “Get A Brian, Moran.”

Foreclosures jump in Hampton Roads, reversing trend

This headline punctuates a long week of crazy foreclosure news, during which it was revealed that some banks may not even possess titles to hundreds of thousands of properties they’ve been foreclosing on. Yesterday economists on NPR’s Marketplace were speculating that this could lead to another crisis the size of the one in September 2008. I’ve got very little to add on this. Economics was always my worst subject in school, mainly because it bothered me how people talked about it like a science rather than a religion.

Cartography. Visualization. Design.

Can we please get one of these maps made of Hampton Roads?

See singer John Prine at the Sandler

John Prine performs tonight in Virginia Beach.