October 8th, SPECIAL AMDems Celebration

Time:    6:00 PM
Where:   Merredith's Restaurant
     1558 Dixie Airport Road
     Madison Heights, VA

You are invited to join us for a special event at Merredith's Restaurant to recognize and thank Dave Burford for his dedicated leadership of the Amherst County Democratic Committee and Skipper Fitts for his untiring efforts on behalf of the Committee.

A buffet dinner will be available for those who wish to purchase it.  The buffet, including a beverage, gratuity, and tax, comes to $13.61.

If you plan to dine with us, please RSVP to Elynor Rose, (434) 845-2838 by Friday, October 4 to reserve your dinner.

Photos thru the years.

ACV Democratic News

TOP NEWS

SPORTS


BUSINESS


ENTERTAINMENT
SCIENCE
TECH NEWS
HEALTH NEWS
AMHERST COUNTY VIRGINIA DEMOCRATIC NEWS

                 Thanks For The Memories

ACVDN

GOP SUCKS, Shuts Down Government

After fleeing Canada to escape their free health care for everyone system Ted moved to Texas, held his nose and joined the republican party.

Kiss the recovery goodby thanks to the republican party as their fight for control of the GOP spills over and shuts the government down.   Canadian immigrant and now Texas Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz dazzeled the republican congressmen with his wit, humor, funny stories and reading of Sam I Am as he led them to drop the curtain on the economic recovery.   Leader of the republican party Jim DeMint created Ted Cruz, now John Boehner is the speaker of the house in name only (SOTHINO).

John Boehner, Speaker of the House in Name Only.    "I'll do anything to keep this job title"

The vote to delay Obamacare was 231-192, with two Republicans voting against the bill, while two Democrats supported it.     The Republicans opposed to the bill were New York Reps. Chris Gibson and Richard Hanna, and the Democrats who supported the measure were North Carolina Rep. Mike McInytre and Utah Rep. Jim Matheson.

                                                MIKE

                                                   JIM

North Carolina Rep. Mike McInytre and Utah Rep. Jim Matheson,   After hearing Ted Cruz speak these two Democrats followed Ted around like little puppies, holding his chair when he sat down and getting him coffee.    With eyes glazed over like teen age girls at a Justin Beiber concert Mike and Jim cast their votes with the GOP to shut down the government. 

                                            SOTHINO

The move represents a complete about-face by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the House Republican leadership.    They wanted to shift the focus of health care and budgetary squabbles onto the debt ceiling fight, but conservative Republicans honed in on the government funding battle.

This clown wants to be the Speaker of the House.    John Boehner misses the days when Eric Cantor was the only one stabbing him in the back.

This strategy — forced upon Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) by the conservative rank-and-file — dramatically increased the chances of a government shutdown come Oct. 1.

Kevin got to be whip because he could count a little while most of the republicans can't count at all.

Boehner didn’t speak on the House floor during the debate before the amendments passed.    Rank and file republicans don't count for anything at all as leadership could not care less how they feel.

Jim DeMint, the ringmaster and wholly owned pet of the Koch brothers.    

Well I've introduced you to most of the acts at the republican circus so it is only right that you meet the ring master, Jim DeMint.    Jim will support anybodies cause as long as he is on the receiving end of a bunch of big bucks.     Jim has earned pet status with the famous Koch brothers, Charles and David.

Lets not forget the really important actor and that is YOU, the republican voter that allows this farce to go on and on by voting for big business interests while living a small time workers life.     Keep on dreaming that the republican party represents your interest.    Keep playing the fool.

NEWS

When The GOP Shuts Down the Government What Services Will Be Affected?

The increasingly likely shutdown of the US government could have far-reaching effects throughout the US. If Congress fails to reach an agreement to avert a shutdown by midnight ET Monday, some services – mail delivery, Social Security and Medicare benefits – would not be affected. Others, like national parks and routine safety inspections of food, would be curtailed as the majority of federal employees tasked with their operation would be furloughed. 

A look at how a shutdown could affect other services across the federal government:

Federal workers: 
About 800,000 federal employees could see their paychecks jeopardised. Already hit hard by several unpaid furlough days caused by sequestration this year some workers have begun lobbying to receive back pay in the event of a shutdown. While Congress agreed to retroactively pay them during previous shutdowns, the fractured nature of this Congress makes such a step unlikely. 

US military
The military's 1.4 million active-duty personnel would stay on duty, but their paychecks would be delayed. The US House proposal to delay Obamacare for a year – passed early Sunday morning but almost certain will be killed in the Senate – included a provision to ensure troops' paychecks continue.

About half of the Defense Department's civilian employees would be furloughed.

Science
Nasa will furlough almost all of its employees, though it will continue to keep workers at Mission Control in 
Houston and elsewhere to support the International Space Station, where two Americans and four others are deployed. The National Weather Service would keep forecasting weather and issuing warnings and the National Hurricane Center would continue to track storms.

Travel
Federal air traffic controllers would remain on the job and airport screeners would keep funneling passengers through security checkpoints, though some airports have warned of delays at security. Federal inspectors would continue enforcing safety rules.

The State Department would continue processing foreign applications for visas and US applications for passports, since fees are collected to finance those services. Embassies and consulates overseas would continue to provide services to American citizens.

Courts
Federal courts would continue operating normally for about 10 business days after the start of a shutdown, 
roughly until the middle of October. If the shutdown continues, the judiciary would have to begin furloughs of employees whose work is not considered essential. But cases would continue to be heard.

The US supreme court is scheduled to begin its new term on October 7. In previous government shutdowns, it continued to operate as normal.

Mail
Deliveries would continue as usual because the US Postal Service receives no tax dollars for day-to-day 
operations. It relies on income from stamps and other postal fees to keep running.

District of Columbia
The city, which does not have autonomy over its own budget, briefly flirted with the idea of using the potential shutdown to make a stand when mayor Vince Gray moved to designate all city employees "essential," thereby avoiding the cuts in services like libraries that were expected. Some District politicians were willing to go so far as to get arrested over the show of defiance, but on Friday the city's lawyers approved using a $144m contingency fund to make up the difference if the federal government funds dry up.

Homeland security
The majority of the Department of Homeland Security's employees are expected to stay on the job, including uniformed agents and officers at the country's borders and ports of entry, members of the Coast Guard, 

Transportation Security Administration officers, Secret Service personnel and other law enforcement agents and officers.   US Citizenship and Immigration Services employees would continue to process green card applications.

Veterans services
Most services offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs will continue because lawmakers approve money one year in advance for the VA's health programs. Veterans would still be able to visit hospitals for inpatient care, get mental health counseling at vet centers or get prescriptions filled at VA health clinics. 

Operators would still staff the crisis hotline and claims workers would still process payments to cover disability and pension benefits. 

But those veterans appealing the denial of disability benefits to the Board of Veterans Appeals will have to wait longer for a decision because the board would not issue any decisions during a shutdown.

Other Unknown Problems Caused by the Shutdown?
There will be other problems but at this time they are unknown.


World News



ACV Democratic News

ACVDN

Welcome to the Republican Circus

Moderate republicans, if there are any left, are weak keened jellyfish with out a spine who go anywhere the conservatives and tea party masters point them.   The GOP is a pathetic mess and voters supporting them are down right anti american robots trying to destroying the country.   Local and state republicans run on social issues and want to live everyone else's life for them and make all their medical decisions while the House wants to kill the government.

When elected to office the state republicans have proven to be corrupt souls who steal the tax payer blind and show no regret for their actions when caught red handed.   Lets hope Bob McDonnell gets indited and serves time for his lack of ethics and while we are hoping, lets hope republicans see beyond Ken Cuccinelli's lies.   Ken has ripped off Virginia citizens in exchange for campaign contributions from energy companies in addition to copying everything Bob McDonnell did.    Bob did a Job on Virginia.

This Sleeze-ball is Running for Gov. and Congressional Republicans want to Shut the Government Down.    Somebody Cut Us a Break!

All the above being true and known by all who can read or understand spoken English, republicans voters still rush to the ballot box to vote for these GOP slime masters.   Why?

Every time since Bill Clinton had to deal with Newt Gingrich on a government shutdown the republicans have tried to destroy the government each and every time they were running anything.   Why do the voters continue to allow this to happen?   At some point the voters must accept responsibility for their wasted and poorly thought out votes.   For the voters of Amherst County that time arrived years ago and was unheeded then and every vote since then.

For 22 years the voters in Amherst County have sent Bob Goodlatte to Washington.   Goodlatte is a bottom rung, do nothing, free rider who in all that time has done nothing for the 6th district, still republicans keep on doing the same thing over and over and getting nothing for their efforts.   The 6th district was formed with just that in mind.   State republicans have rigged the system in each district to lean republican.   The state of Virginia went Blue 8 years ago but it will be a long time before the lay of the backwoods changes.    

So now the republicans in the House (Bob Goodlatte) are planning to shut the government down.   Over 40 times the republicans have voted to cripple or kill the American Health Care Act (ObamaCare).

The GOP ran the last presidents election on killing Obama Care and Obama was re-elected by over 5,000,000 votes (5 Million).   The Supreme Court ruled on the Health Care Act and certified it good to go.   The Act has been law about 4 years and parts of it have already gone into effect.   It was passed by the House and by the Senate and signed by the President.

Republicans haven't come to grips with the law yet.    The GOP battled social security for 50 years trying to destroy it over and over and they will still take a shot at killing  social security and medicare whenever they get a chance.     Republicans don't represent the working man or small normal voters.    Republicans represent big business and folks like the Koch brothers who slide big money their way.    Look for the GOP to fight health care  and insurance for everyone for as long as they can get money from the rich and votes from dummies.

Here a truth the GOP won't tell you.   You can shut the government down but Obama Care will not be affected.   Tuesday of next week the exchanges open normally no matter what the House republicans do.   You can hurt a lot of other things with a shutdown but you can't touch the American Health Care Act.   A Congressman should be smart enough to know that or he or she shouldn't hold the office.    A Congressman should also be honest enough to tell you the truth but don't hold your breath waiting for the truth to cross the lips of a republican.   Keep electing big business tools with an R by their name and watch the middle class disappear.

If you see an R by someones name running for office you should think rattle snake.   For this country to function effectively republicans cannot be allowed to control anything.   Even if you are a slow learner you will at some point get it.    When the big businesses that want no rules or regulations standing between them and a quick buck get to run the show the economy, the worker, the planet and your children's future  all fade to black. 

Oh My God, Louie Gomert and Ted Cruzis are speaking on tv,   Larry, Moe and Curly must be in the on deck circle and the fat lady is clearing her throat.     Vote Democratic while it still matters.



What The GOP Has in Mind for YOU

Their proposal calls for amendments to a bill designed to keep the government open for a few more weeks.    The changes would include a one-year delay in the health-care law, which is set to take effect next month.    The GOP plan would also repeal, permanently, a medical-device tax included in the law.

The Tea Party Speaker and 2nd Behind Jim DeMint

The advantage of that plan — for Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and his team — is political.    After being criticized by GOP hard-liners for not doing enough to undermine the health-care law, Boehner has taken a far more aggressive position.    Instead of seeking to take away some of the money to implement Obamacare, the House GOP’s new plan would push back the whole thing.

The disadvantage is more practical:   This plan is far more likely to result in a government shutdown.    It may pass the House — and it may even pass Saturday.    But it is not likely to pass the Democratic-held Senate or be signed by Obama.

On Saturday, in fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the House’s new plan was “pointless.”

“The Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax,”    Reid said in a statement, referring to the health-care law.    “After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one: Republicans must decide whether to pass the Senate’s clean 
CR, or force a Republican government shutdown.”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement that the House Republican plan is a move “to shut down the government.”

“Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown.    It's time for the House to listen to the American people and act, as the Senate has, in a reasonable way to pass a bill that keeps the government running and move on,” Carney’s statement said.

The Senate might act as soon as Sunday:   senior aides said it was possible senators could be called back then, a day ahead of schedule.    If the Senate acts, then the next move would be up to the House again.    And it’s not clear what that would be.

"It comes back to us, I guess," said Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) after the Republican meeting on Saturday.    "We really didn't talk about exactly what the plan would be then."

Late Saturday, senior aides said House Republicans planned to meet again shortly before the House is expected to begin voting on the spending measure.   It was not immediately clear if the meeting signaled potential problems in securing sufficient GOP support for the bill, or was being called for other reasons.

A senior GOP aide said,  "Leaders just wanted to huddle members before the vote to give an update on scheduling and give them a bite to eat."

Republican leadership already seemed to be planning to minimize the political fallout of a shutdown.

Their new proposal also includes a measure that would continue to pay U.S. military forces, eliminating one of the most politically sensitive impacts if a shutdown comes.

“The American people don’t want a government shut down, and they don’t want Obamacare,”  Boehner and his lieutenants said in a statement, after Republicans met in the basement of the Capitol. “We will do our job and send this bill over, and then it’s up to the Senate to pass it and stop a government shutdown.”

The new, more confrontational GOP plan has a chance of picking up Democratic votes--but probably just a few. 

There are a handful of moderate Democrats who usually face difficult reelection races who may break off and vote with Republicans to delay the new health-care law and repeal the medical device tax. 

Last week two Democrats, Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), voted with Republicans to approve a short-term spending plan that repealed the health-care law.

For the most part, this a Republican effort.    Which means that House Republicans might become the public face of a shutdown. 

Even before Saturday’s meeting began, it was clear that senior Republicans understood these possible consequences.   Some rank-and-file Republicans said they now see no way out of the shutdown.

Rep. Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.) said a shutdown was now “likely.”

“What’s going on that would make you think otherwise?    Maybe I’ll hear something in there that will change that,” he said before going into the GOP meeting.    “I doubt it.”

Before the meeting of the entire House Republican Conference, Boehner gathered his leadership team in his second-floor Capitol office to go over the GOP’s final options.    Aides said the Republicans were still considering all their alternatives and were searching for maneuvers that would allow them to walk an 
incredibly fine line — appeasing a bloc of 30 or more far-right conservatives who are demanding an aggressive posture against Obamacare and also finding something that could be acceptable to Senate Democrats.

At this stage, Boehner and his top lieutenants, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), are refusing to entertain the prospect of seeking out Democratic votes to keep the government open, according to advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. 

The rare Saturday session followed the Senate’s passage Friday of a stopgap government funding bill and promptly departed, leaving all of the pressure to find a solution on House Republican leaders.

On Saturday, as this drama played out on Capitol Hill, Obama played golf at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

The day before, Obama had sternly lecturing GOP leaders that the easiest path forward would be to approve the Senate’s bill, which includes money for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the president’s prized legislation achievement, which he signed into law in 2010.

But a far-right bloc of House and Senate Republicans banded together to leave Boehner virtually powerless to act. 

“My message to Congress is this: Do not shut down the government.    Do not shut down the economy.    Pass a budget on time,” Obama said in the White House press briefing room.

With a stroke-of-midnight deadline Monday, Reid said Democrats would reject any conservative add-ons that Boehner might attach to the funding bill.    That would further delay passage, and given the staunch opposition from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who has suggested that he will not help move the process along, the slow-moving 

Senate would require up to a week to approve something, even if Reid were amenable to the changes.    That sets the stage for a shutdown Tuesday.

“We’ve passed the only bill that can avert a government shutdown Monday night.    I said this on the floor, I say it again:   This is it, time is gone,”  Reid said Friday after the midday passage of the funding bill on a party-line vote. 

Before that final roll call, Cruz’s attempt to delay the legislation was throttled in a bipartisan 79-to-19 vote, but the first-year senator drew support from nearly half the rank-and-file Republicans in defiance of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

Cruz confirmed reports that he has been huddling with House conservatives to help plot their strategy to force Boehner’s hand on Obamacare.    “I am confident if the House listens to the people, as it did last week, that it will continue to step forward and respond to the suffering that is coming from Obamacare,”  Cruz told reporters Friday, saying he has had “numerous conversations” with House Republicans.

Those Republicans upended a strategy crafted by Boehner and Cantor to first advance legislation related to the federal borrowing limit, including more demands to delay Obamacare, then allow government funding to be approved.

That plan required the GOP leaders to draw all votes from their side of the aisle — 217 of the 232 Republicans — and instead the Cruz-backed contingent holds more than enough votes to sabotage any moves by Boehner and Cantor.    Those House Republicans offered their version late Friday of what they want attached to the funding resolution and sent back to the Senate:  an amendment delaying until 2015 implementation of all the health law’s taxes, mandates and benefits, as well as its provisions aimed at squeezing savings from Medicare. 

“A simple and reasonable way to ensure fairness for all is to provide every American the same one-year Obamacare delay that President Obama provided for businesses and others,”  Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), the bill’s author, said in a statement. 

He has more than 60 co-sponsors.

Although the health-care law has had some provisions delayed amid a wobbly rollout, Obama and Democrats oppose any effort to strip funding or delay implementation of the law as it begins a critical new period next week. 

The president warned that demands to delay Obamacare were even more reckless in connection with the raising debt limit, because the Treasury will run out of maneuvers to continue borrowing Oct. 17 and will head toward a first-of-its-kind default on the nearly $17 trillion debt.    Economists have warned that a default would send a shock through global financial markets and would jolt interest rates. 

"I don’t know how I can be more clear about this:   Nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the United States just to extract political concessions,”  Obama said Friday.

Meanwhile, House leaders delayed consideration of their initial proposal to raise the federal debt limit until at least next week.

It was unclear Friday whether the debt-limit bill would require additional surgery, senior GOP aides said, since most of those who objected to the measure were concerned primarily about timing. However, a separate bloc of lawmakers complained that the bill — a grab bag of conservative agenda items ranging from tax reform to the rollback of environmental regulations — would do too little to cut spending.    As written, the measure contained only around $200 billion in spending cuts over the next decade.    Meanwhile it would suspend the debt limit through Dec. 5, 2014, permitting the Treasury Department to borrow an additional $1 trillion.

The bill has no hope of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.

After a few noncontroversial votes naming federal buildings, the House adjourned Friday morning amid deep uncertainty about its next steps.    Boehner and Cantor have called a noon Saturday caucus meeting in the Capitol basement to try to forge ahead. 

For the moment, GOP leaders have given no indication they were willing to simply approve the Senate legislation.    Such a move, some Republicans privately fear, could lead to a collapse of support among GOP lawmakers and result in the legislation passing largely on the strength of Democratic votes.    That would leave Boehner, already the weakest speaker of the modern political era, even more politically wounded heading into the debt ceiling talks. 

Several Republicans said Friday that they favor a “stick” approach — an amendment so distasteful to Democrats that they might feel compelled to return to the negotiating table.    Others favor a “carrot” approach, attaching an item Democrats would find hard to refuse — including possibly delaying sequestration cuts for a year in exchange for delaying implementation of Obamacare for a year. They did not detail the specifics of either approach.

However, with Graves holding potentially several dozen votes, no Republican could offer a sound explanation for how they would avert a shutdown next week. 

Before the Senate votes, Reid denounced as “anarchists” the Cruz-led Republicans who he said were driving the country toward economic devastation.

“Today the Republican Party has been infected by a small destructive faction,” Reid said.    “These extremists 
are more interested in putting on a show, as one Republican colleague put it, than legislating.” 

The situation is in such flux that some of the most strident conservatives cast votes to filibuster the government funding bill — effectively endorsing shutting down the government — and yet immediately after warned it would not succeed in hindering the health law.

“Obamacare will continue. America’s going to have to judge whether it’s a good thing or bad thing.    I still think Obamacare is going to be bad for part-time workers, for workers who may lose their insurance.    I think it’s bad for the country,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a leading contender for his party’s 2016 presidential 
nomination. 

He suggested that the fight against Obamacare had been lost for now and that the GOP should move on to other issues.

One veteran of the mid-1990s shutdowns, which also pitted a Democratic president against a Republican speaker, warned a temporary shutdown was increasingly likely. 

“It depends if wisdom trumps energy.    It hasn’t thus far, has it?” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said, a dig at those who want to continue the campaign against Obamacare.

Coburn, a freshman House member in the 1990s shutdowns, said it wouldn’t matter much until Oct. 15.    That’s when the first pay checks for service members — including those on the front lines of Afghanistan — would not go out.

“When you start getting into military pay, that’s serious.    When the people defending this country can’t pay their house payments, things they need to do. . . . We’ll fold like hot cakes if they shut down. Republicans will,”  Coburn predicted. 

3 Ring Circus

WASHINGTON — The federal government on Saturday barreled toward its first shutdown in 17 years after House Republicans, choosing a hard line, demanded a one-year delay of President Obama’s health care law and the repeal of a tax to pay for the law before approving any funds to keep the government running. 

Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting Saturday unified and confident that they had the votes to delay the health care law and eliminate a tax on medical devices that partly pays for it.    But before the House had even voted, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, declared the House bill dead.    Senate Democrats are planning to table the Republican measures when they convene on Monday, leaving it up to the House to pass 
a stand-alone spending bill free of any measures that undermine the health care law. 

The House’s action all but assured that large parts of the government would be shuttered as of 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday.   More than 800,000 federal workers deemed nonessential faced furloughs; millions more could be working without paychecks. 

A separate House Republican bill would also ensure that military personnel continued to be paid in the event of a government shutdown, an acknowledgment that a shutdown was likely.    The health law delay and the troop funding bill were set for House passage Saturday.  

“The American people don’t want a government shutdown, and they don’t want Obamacare,”    House Republican leaders said in a statement.    “We will do our job and send this bill over, and then it’s up to the Senate to pass it and stop a government shutdown.” 

Representative Darrell Issa, a powerful Republican committee chairman who is close to the leadership but has sided with those who want to gut the health care law, flashed anger when asked what would happen when the Senate rejected the House’s offer. 

“How dare you presume a failure?”  he snapped.    “We continue to believe there’s an opportunity for sensible compromise and I will not accept from anybody the assumption of failure.” 

But Mr. Reid made it clear that failure was inevitable.    “After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at Square 1,” he said.     “We continue to be willing to debate these issues in a calm and rational atmosphere.    But the American people will not be extorted by Tea Party anarchists.” 

The White House was just as blunt.    “Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown,”  the press secretary, Jay Carney, said in a written statement.    The White House also said that the president would veto the House bill if approved by the Senate. 

In fact, many House Republicans acknowledged that they expected the Senate to reject the House’s provisions, making a shutdown all but assured.    House Republicans were warned repeatedly that Senate Democrats would not accept any changes to the health care law. 

Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio faced a critical decision this weekend:   Accept a bill passed by the Senate on Friday to keep the government funded and the health care law intact and risk a conservative revolt that could threaten his speakership, or make one more effort to undermine the president’s signature domestic initiative and hope that a shutdown would not do serious political harm to his party. 

With no guarantee that Democrats would help him, he chose the shutdown option.    The House’s unruly conservatives had more than enough votes to defeat a spending bill that would not do significant damage to the health care law, unless Democrats were willing to bail out the speaker.    And Democrats showed little 
inclination to alleviate the Republicans’ intraparty warfare. 

“The federal government has shut down 17 times before, sometimes when the Republicans were in control, sometimes with divided government,” said Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina.   ( Anythng Virginia Foxx says should be researched, she will tell you a big Michelle Bachmann type lie with blinking an eye.)    “What are we doing on our side of the aisle? We’re fighting for the American people.” 

Veteran House Republicans say there is still one plausible way to avoid a shutdown.    The Senate could take up the House spending bill, strip out the one-year health care delay and accept the medical device tax repeal as a face-saving victory for Republicans.    The tax, worth $30 billion over 10 years, has ardent opponents among 
Democrats as well.    Its repeal would not prevent the law from going into effect.    Consumers can begin signing up for insurance plans under the law beginning on Tuesday. 

Mr. Reid has already said he would not accept even that measure as a condition to keep the government operating.    Even if he did, a single senator could slow action well past the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline, and Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, has said he would accept nothing short of a one-year delay. 

“By pandering to the Tea Party minority and trying to delay the benefits of health care reform for millions of seniors and families, House Republicans are now actively pushing for a completely unnecessary government shutdown,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the Democrat who leads the Senate Budget Committee. 

As provocative as it was, the move by House Republicans was an expression of their most basic political goal since they took control in 2010: doing what they can to derail the biggest legislative achievement of Mr. Obama’s presidency.    Conservative anger over the law’s passage in 2010 helped propel them to power. 

As a debate inside the party raged over whether it was politically wise to demand delay or defunding of the act, many Republicans argued that they should fight as hard as they could because that is what their constituents were expecting.  

“This is exactly what the public wants,” Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said.    She described the House proposal as “fabulous” and said all House Republicans were in support.    In most states a person with the mental problems of Michelle Bachmann would be under some form of confinement or restraint but the folks in her district elected her to Congress and shipped her off to Washington.     What a novel way to solve a problem in the district.

The mood in the Capitol on Saturday, at least among Republicans, was downright giddy.    When Republican leaders presented their plan in a closed-door meeting on Saturday, cheers and chants of “Vote, vote, vote!” went up.     Republicans are sure all of America will love them when they close down the government and that this is their ticket back to the White House.

As members left the meeting, many wore beaming grins. 

Representative John Culberson of Texas said that as he and his colleagues were clamoring for a vote, he shouted out with his own words of encouragement. “I said, like 9/11, ‘Let’s roll!’ ” That the Senate would almost certainly reject the health care delay, he added, was not a concern.     “I can’t control what the Senate 
does.     Ulysses S. Grant used to say,  ‘Boys, quit worrying about what Bobby Lee is doing.     I want to know what we are doing.’ And that’s what the House is doing today, thank God.”     Has this guy got a few loose screws or what?     Even for a Texan he's comes off stranger than normal.

After the shutdowns of 1995 and 1996, Republicans were roundly blamed.    Their approval ratings plunged, and President Bill Clinton sailed to re-election.    This time they say they have a strategy that will shield them from political fallout, especially with the bill to keep money flowing to members of the military. 

“If Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats would stop being so stubborn then no, of course the government won’t get shut down,” said Representative Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas. 

But some Republicans acknowledged that Senate colleagues like Mr. Cruz hurt their message by turning policy dispute into a personal crusade. 

“I think that the rhetoric coming out of the Senate was a bit of sideshow and a circus and distracted people from what the real goal here was,” said Representative Michael Grimm of New York. “The goal was to stop a really onerous law from hurting a lot more families.” 

Republicans acknowledged that the difficulty is what is next.    If the Senate sends back a bill, it will most likely not have a year long delay.    Then Mr. Boehner ( Jim DeMint) must decide whether to put that measure on the floor, which would anger his conservative members.   If you should ever read the words John Boehner and Speaker of the House in the same sentence be advised that the two terms do not go together.   John Boehner speaks for the tea party and does not own his words.   There is no one for Democrats to negotiate with.

These piss ant republican and tea party congressmen are crazier than loons.


ACV DEMOCRATIC NEWS

Ned Kable Accepts the Challenge

Chairman Ned Kable and his team are hard at work turning out Democrats and fed up Republicans to cast a vote on Tuesday, November 5th for Virginia's next Governor, Terry McAuliffe.    If you have some time and are healthy Ned can put you to work and you can play an important role in this team effort.

The Virginia gubernatorial election of 2013 will take place on Tuesday, November 5, 2013.    The incumbent governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, is not eligible to run due to term limits established by the Virginia Constitution.   Virginia is the only state that prohibits its governor from serving immediate successive terms.

Bob McDonnell may still get free housing in connection with his term of office as he is likely to be indicted for corruption and sale of influence.   No other team of crooks has embarrised the State of Virginia like Republicans Ken Cuccinelli and Bob McDonnell.

Three candidates will appear on the ballot for governor:   Republican Ken Cuccinelli, the Attorney General of Virginia; Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a businessman and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee; and Libertarian Robert Sarvis, a lawyer and businessman.

For hard core republicans who are shamed by the conduct of the Ken Cuccinelli and Bob McDonnell in Richmond but are too proud to vote Democratic Libertarian Robert Sarvis is an acceptable choice. Normally Sarvis would be an also ran with no effect on the race but even right wing republicans are affected by Cuccinell and McDonnell and their hands open take any thing not nailed down approach to governing.

Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, elected to the post in 2005, decided to run for re-election as lieutenant governor in 2009, enabling McDonnell to run for governor without a primary. After the 2009 election, Bolling made no secret of his intention to run for governor in 2013, while Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli openly stated that he was considering three options: a run for re-election as attorney general in 2013, running for the U.S. Senate in 2014, and running for governor in 2013. As long as someone is picking up the tab for Cuccinelli he is quite happy. It doesn't matter what the job title is or whohe is working for, the Couch did some fine work for Johnny Williams and was rewarded handsomly.


Cuccinelli announced to colleagues on December 1, 2011, that he was indeed running for governor. Bolling responded on the same day that he was disappointed that Cuccinelli decided to challenge him.   If Cuccinelli is not successful he will run for the Senate job in 2014.

Bolling withdrew from the race on November 28, 2012. He cited the Republican Party's decision to move to a nominating convention rather than hold a primary.    He ruled out running for another term as Lieutenant Governor and refused to endorse Cuccinelli. Bolling considered running as an independent, but decided against it.    Bolling also rejected the possibility of a write-in campaign.

Also looming are state and federal investigations over gifts McDonnell received from Jonnie Williams Sr., a wealthy donor and CEO of the nutritional supplement maker Star Scientific.


In November, Cuccinelli directed Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring to review McDonnell's statements of economic interest for possible violations of state disclosure laws.

In April, Cuccinelli also asked Herring to review Cuccinelli's own gift disclosures after he initially neglected to declare about $5,000 in gifts from Williams.    Herring subsequently cleared Cuccinelli of violating the state's disclosure laws.


There are a couple of write-in candidates in the election.

John Parmele, Jr., navy retiree

Parmele announced his campaign as a write-in candidate in August 2013.    Parmele unsuccessfully ran for the Virginia Beach City Council six times. In 2005, he ran as an independent for the 82nd district of the Virginia House of Delegates and lost to incumbent Harry Purkey.

Tareq Salahi, reality television personality

Salahi planned to seek the Republican nomination, but left the party to launch an independent bid.    However, he failed to submit the necessary signatures to the Virginia State Board of Elections by the June 11, 2013 deadline and will not appear on the ballot as an independent.    He has since transitioned his run into a write-in campaign.   Salahi scheduled to have a film document his campaign by Campbell Media Group, but the production company is currently facing legal allegations.

So here we are.    McAuliffe and Cuccinelli have two scheduled debates remaining -- on Sept. 25 in Fairfax County and one in October at Virginia Tech. Get involved and vote.

ACV Democratic News is thankful that Terry Mcauliffe is running and without reservation endorses him.   It is nice to have a sane choice in this strange Governor's race and hopefully we can sweep the republican trash out the doors of the mansion and rise above the joke status that the GOP has cast on our State.   Virginians are a decent lot of people and deserve better than what the republicans have given them.


Gender Gap Doesn't Budge In Virginia Governor's Race

Here's one takeaway from a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday: Republicans have their hands full if they hope to close the gender gap in the Virginia governor's race.

The poll of likely voters reports that Democrat Terry McAuliffe has a 6-percentage-point overall lead in his contest with Republican Ken Cuccinelli.

The survey put McAuliffe's lead among female voters, however, at twice that — 12 points.    A prominent friend of the Clintons, McAuliffe is a businessman and political fundraiser who was once chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Cuccinelli is Virginia's attorney general.

Given the poll's margin of error of 2.9 percentage points, McAuliffe's lead is within the range of President Obama's Election Day 2012 performance with the state's female voters.    According to exit polls, Obama beat Republican Mitt Romney by 9 percentage points in Virginia.

While the composition of the voters who turn out for a presidential race is typically different from those who turn out for an off-year governor's race, it probably doesn't inspire Republican confidence that women made up slightly more than half of the 2012 Election Day electorate.

Exit polls showed they were also more than half of the electorate for the last Virginia governor's election, in 2009.

That 2009 election, by the way, showed that a gender gap that favors Democrats isn't etched in stone;  Gov. Bob McDonnell handily won the women's vote by 8 percentage points that year.

Virginia has a limit of one four-year term for governors, which prevented McDonnell from seeking another term.    That may have proved a godsend for him, seeing as he's embroiled in an embarrassing scandal related to gifts he and his family accepted from a wealthy supporter with business interests in the state.

The poll had more promising news for McAuliffe on the gender front: He's essentially tied with Cuccinelli among male voters.

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in an interview:   "You have to keep in mind that because of the polarization we have in society along race and gender, there's a path both parties use to win elections.

"It's kind of a formula.   Democrats win when they break even with men and run up big leads with women.    Republicans win when they break even with women and run up big leads with men.    So this [Virginia governor's race] is the Democrats' way of winning elections these days.    If they don't win big with women voters, they have a big problem."

        Republicans Can't Believe Virginians Don't Trust Ken

Cuccinelli is likely hurt by the Republican Party's typical weakness with female voters, though his issue positions and actions probably haven't helped and have given his Democratic opponents something to work with.

For instance, Cuccinelli was one of only three state attorneys general who didn't sign a letter asking Congress to renew the Violence Against Women Act.    Virginia Democrats haven't let this go unnoticed.

Cuccinelli has also been one of Virginia's highest-profile anti-abortion opponents.    That, too, has led McAuliffe's campaign and other Democrats to point out that Cuccinelli is hostile to women.

Cuccinelli's campaign has fought back against these efforts.    For instance, it has highlighted his role as a University of Virginia student in starting a public awareness campaign to fight sexual assaults.

Cuccinelli's campaign has grabbed at straws and criticized McAuliffe for not joining other Democrats to demand that San Diego Mayor Bob Filner resign after accusations by more than a dozen women that Filner made inappropriate and uninvited sexual advances toward them.

Judging by the continuing gender gap, however, none of this appears so far to be working for Cuccinelli.


Ken Cuccinelli is Dragging Bottom

Republicans can’t believe this is happening:   Democrat Terry McAuliffe has taken command of the Virginia governor’s race.

More than a dozen interviews last week with longtime Republican insiders around the Commonwealth yielded near-unanimous consensus that their candidate, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, lost significant ground over the summer and would lose if the election were held today.

The only real point of disagreement is how wide a margin it would be.

“It’s going to be a bath,” one prominent state Republican who wants Cuccinelli to win went so far as to say.    Like several others, the person sought anonymity to speak candidly about the state of the race.

Cuccinelli’s advisers insist it’s too early to write him off.    “This is still a race,” Cuccinelli strategist Danny Diaz said Friday.

But a contest that looked winnable for Cuccinelli for much of the year has broken against him.    Here’s a look at how it happened.

1. The gifts scandal

Gov. Bob McDonnell was expected to be a big asset for Cuccinelli. Instead, the Star Scientific scandal has turned the incumbent into a major liability.

The constant drip-drip of revelations by The Washington Post — of gifts and loans totaling more than $124,000 from the dietary supplement maker’s CEO, Jonnie Williams, to the governor and his family — was bad enough for Cuccinelli.    But the candidate couldn’t easily distance himself from the scandal because he, too, accepted some $18,000 worth of gifts from Williams — and failed to disclose a chunk of them, as required by law.

What’s more, Cuccinelli refused to repay the gifts until last week, when he cut a check for $18,000 to charity.    A Democratic prosecutor in Richmond cleared the attorney general of criminal wrongdoing for the disclosure lapse.    But attack ads highlighted his refusal to return the gifts, and internal polling showed a spike in voters expressing concern.

“Had he done that initially, I don’t think this would have been an issue,” said a GOP operative.

His campaign hopes that Cuccinelli can now shift the focus to other issues.    But if he loses, Star Scientific will be high on the list of reasons he cites.

2. A divided GOP

A significant number of Republicans remain on the sidelines in the race.    A nonpartisan poll released last week by Purple Strategies, which had Cuccinelli trailing by 5 percentage points overall, found that only 77 percent of self-identifying Republicans currently support him.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who dropped out of the race for governor after the state GOP changed its nominating procedure to ensure Cuccinelli would win, said Friday he still isn’t comfortable endorsing Cuccinelli.

“Clearly, this is not just the most conservative, but the most ideologically-driven ticket that the Republican Party has ever put forth,” Bolling said in an interview.    “There are a lot of Republicans, like me, very concerned about the direction of the party.     We believe for the Republican Party to be a viable party in Virginia, we’ve got be a more mainstream party and communicate a more mainstream message.”

The McAuliffe campaign has capitalized on the GOP dissension, rolling out more than 30 Republican defectors over the past few months, including former Gov. Linwood Holton and several onetime state delegates.     Also endorsing McAuliffe are former Republican National Committee finance chairman Dwight Schar and former GOP strategist Boyd Marcus

And the Democratic establishment has united around McAuliffe, which was not assumed at the start of the year.    No Democratic challenger emerged, and while few leaders on the left are crazy about the former Democratic Party fundraiser and businessman, they do support him.

Democrats have a lead on the generic ballot in the state, which is trending blue and was carried twice by Barack Obama.    That puts the onus on Cuccinelli to solidify support from his party.

Cuccinelli advisers dismiss Bolling as a sore loser and many of the others who actually endorsed McAuliffe as Republicans in name only.    They insist they have intense conservative support on their side and believe that big parts of the Obama coalition will stay home rather than turn out for McAuliffe.

“Ken’s voters are more likely to show up,” said a Cuccinelli adviser.    “We’re pretty confident we’ll get what we need in an off-year with Obama sucking wind.”

3. Northern Virginia has been neglected

Several Republicans complained that Cuccinelli has not spent nearly as much time campaigning in Northern Virginia as McDonnell did four years ago.    A review of all his public events during the month of August shows only a handful of publicly announced appearances in the D.C. suburbs.    He made far more stops in places that should be reliably red.

Cuccinelli lives in Northern Virginia’s Prince William County and won election to the state Legislature from Fairfax County.    His aides said his recent public schedule does not reflect the depth of his roots and other off-the-books appearances.    They have told Republicans that Cuccinelli will have a more public profile in the D.C. media market during the homestretch.

But Cuccinelli‘s controversial views on abortion, gay marriage, skepticism of global warming and advocacy for the rights of fathers don’t play well in Northern Virginia, especially with women.    He has tried not to emphasize those issues but also not backed away from his stances.

Operatives say that Cuccinelli has never created an identity beyond being a rock-ribbed social conservative.    McDonnell was a strong social conservative in 2009, but he ran on the mantra of “Bob’s for jobs.”

4.   Terry McAuliffe is head and shoulders a better candidate.

When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dips her toe back into political waters this month, she'll get a fresh reminder of the deep wells of acrimony against her that conservatives are ready to tap. 


In her first political event since leaving the Obama administration early this year, Clinton is slated to host a fundraiser on Sept. 30 for Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton ally who's now running for governor in Virginia.    In response to Clinton's move, the "Stop Hillary" PAC is planning its own campaign. 


The political action committee -- created for the express purpose of stopping Clinton's prospective presidential campaign before it even begins -- is launching a campaign on Tuesday to back McAuliffe's competitor, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.    The group is emailing, mailing and calling its supporters across the country, asking them to either financially back Stop Hillary PAC or Cuccinelli's campaign directly.    Once it's rallied that grassroots support, Stop Hillary PAC plans to make a donation to the Cuccinelli campaign. 


GOP's McDonnell a drag on Cuccinelli in Va. Gov. race 

Hillary Clinton steers clear of Syria at awards ceremony

"Our mission from the beginning has been to stop Hillary anywhere she goes, to counter her in any way possible,"  Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for Stop Hillary PAC, told CBSNews.com.    "That's what we're doing right now."


Marquis said the PAC is rallying support both in and outside of Virginia because "people across the country are concerned about the Hillary and Bill liberal machine," and Clinton's support for the McAuliffe campaign is "one example of the machine at work."



In Iowa and abroad, Biden and Clinton spark 2016 speculation .
"People in Arizona, people in Nevada, or in Ohio, they understand the implications this might have on the greater political landscape," he added.    "Another Democrat governor in a purple state is impactful, no matter how you look at it." 


The email the group is sending out Tuesday says,  "We simply can't ignore some of these important state-by-state power plays Hillary is making. Hillary and her allies are most certainly using them as an opportunity to strengthen her grip over key 2016 battleground states.    States she will need to steal the White House."



Clinton has yet to say whether she'll run for president in 2016, but polls show she's the candidate to beat, and her supporters have already organized in the key early-nominating state of Iowa.    Polls conducted over the summer showed Clinton has, for the most part, maintained the strong public approval rating she's enjoyed since 2008.    Her approval rating has, however, fallen slightly this year, potentially because of her association with the Benghazi, Libya controversy.    It's likely to fall further as she reemerges as a political figure and conservative groups like Stop Hillary PAC step up their attacks. 


The Virginia gubernatorial candidates, meanwhile, have their own concerning polling numbers. 


GOP's McDonnell a liability for Cuccinelli in Va. Gov. race.
"The Virginia governor's race pits two of the least well-liked candidates that we can recall competing in a single election," the bipartisan firm Purple Strategies reported after polling Virginians on Sept. 6-10.    Their survey found that just 24 percent of Virginia voters have a favorable view of McAuliffe while just 29 percent have a favorable view of Cuccinelli.    The poll showed McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli by five points, 43 percent to 38 percent. 


Both candidates have suffered from negative business associations. Cuccinelli last week announced he's donating $18,000 to charity to make up for the $18,000 in gifts he received from Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams, whose gifts to Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va., are currently under investigation. 


Marquis said there's "no doubt it's going to be a tough race" but that he believes Cuccinelli still has a shot at winning.    The Stop Hillary PAC, meanwhile, is far from the only outside group trying to influence the race.    The conservative group Citizens United spent $284,000 attacking McAuliffe, Politico reports, while organizations like NextGen Climate Action and the National Education Association have supported McAuliffe. 


National figures are lining up behind the candidates as well.   While Clinton is holding a fundraiser later this month for McAuliffe, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have already appeared with the Democratic candidate. Cuccinelli has recruited high-profile Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., to help him campaign. 

Vote Democratic

ACVDN