The Outrage Continues in Virginia's Senate

Republican bill sponsor Watkins (left) with Henry Marsh.

The Virginia Senate (and the House, as well) continues to defile the very voters who put them in office, granting them the trust they don't deserve to run the Commonwealth with integrity and morality. Neither of those traits has been on display of late as these intensely partisan politicians continue to throw dirt on our form of government in order to consolidate power in the most unfair method possible.

The gerrymander is as old as government, but rarely has it been used on the state and national levels to the degree it is being used now. Virginia's 20 Republicans yesterday (as reported here earlier) slipped in a redistricting bill, sponsored by Powhatan's John Watkins, while one of the Democrats--aging civil rights leader Henry Marsh, celebrating how far African Americans have come in the past 50 years by attending the inauguration 90 miles away--was out of town. It was a sad day for political morality in Virginia and if you want to know who voted for this travesty, it's right here. The guys with the "R" after their names are responsible. Their telephone numbers follow their names, so if you want to call them and scream your outrage, be my guest.

Read about this abomination in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, here.

In another inexplicable vote yesterday, Helen Dregas, the outrageous University of Virginia Board of Visitors rector who led the coup that ousted Virginia's respected president (using tactics much like those used in the Senate yesterday) was confirmed as a board member again by a 29-9 vote, so you can't blame it all on the Republicans. Credit the nine who voted against her, however. (Read about Dregas' confirmation--and her intense lobbying--here.)

Helen Dregas reappointed.

Our General Assembly, which has hardly distinguished itself in recent years--especially in all votes regarding women--is taking aim at voting this year, trying to make it more and more difficult for anybody who is not a Republican to vote at all and even when they can vote, giving them little choice because of the gerrymandering. It really is time for us to express our extreme outrage and send these bastards home in shame. They earned it.

(Photo: top, Richmond Times-Dispatch; bottom, bildungblog.blogspot.com)