David Toscano: The privatization of ABC in VA

During campaign season, voters frequently hear the statement, “government ought to be run like a business.” How many businesses do you know would be willing to eliminate a profit center that realizes some $118 million per year in net revenue and another $120 million in taxes for a price that is speculative and which may come with some undesired consequences? Well, that is exactly what the Commonwealth is considering doing if it embraces Gov. McDonnell’s proposal to privatize the ABC stores.

While the precise proposal has not yet been outlined, the general principle is for Virginia, one of only 18 states that now run liquor operations, to sell or license the ABC retail operations to the private sector in exchange for cash up front. Estimates of the revenue from the sale range from $150 million to $500 million. That one-time influx of money would be dedicated to transportation, a critical need in the Commonwealth.

While I agree with many others that the liquor business is not a core service of government, we should recognize that the Commonwealth’s ownership of liquor operations has brought needed revenue into the General Fund, some of which goes directly to mental health, retardation, and substance abuse funding by statute.

The Virginia ABC presently operates 332 stores and employs 2,680 people. In Fiscal Year 2009, it deposited $248 million in profits, excise and sales tax into the General Fund, the Commonwealth’s primary funding source for public safety, education, and healthcare. It is not at all clear what will happen to this revenue stream in any privatization. Without raising the excise tax on liquor sales, it is very possible that the amount of money that the General Fund presently receives will be much less after privatization. Some argue that the only way to replace the lost monies is by increasing the number of stores and/or concentrating liquor sales into big box outlets like Costco and Walmart. In the end, then, any privatization proposal, independent of the ideological assertion that the private sector is the better outlet for this business, must be considered by comparing the risk of losing consistent General Fund revenue after the ABC sale against the benefit of receiving an undetermined amount of money for the sale of the operation that would go into transportation.

Ronald Reagan Ranks in Top Ten of Most Overrated People in History

He was always a popular President, but he has since been recast (mainly by conservative historians) as a great one as well. Yes, you can easily place him on that pedestal. You would merely need to ignore the Iran-Contra scandal, the huge budget deficits, his environment ignorance, his do-nothing reaction to the looming AIDS epidemic, his courting of Saddam Hussein, and numerous other blunders. “Reagan was truly a great president whose achievement rivals that of Franklin Roosevelt,” wrote conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, in his 1997 reappraisal where he credited Reagan for everything from the strong Clinton economy (go figure) to world peace (while somehow forgetting to mention Iran-Contra anywhere in the book).

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GOP, Beck Aid Radical Extremists

Some counterterrorism experts say the anti-Muslim sentiment that has saturated the airwaves and blogs in the debate over plans for an Islamic center near ground zero in Lower Manhattan is playing into the hands of extremists by bolstering their claims that the United States is hostile to Islam.

Evan F. Kohlmann, who tracks militant Web sites at the security consulting firm Flashpoint Global Partners, said supporters of Al Qaeda have seized on the controversy "with glee." On radical Web forums, he said, the dispute over the Islamic center, which would include space for worship, is lumped together with fringe developments like a Florida pastor's call for making Sept. 11 "Burn a Koran Day."

"It's seen as proof of what Awlaki and others have been saying, that the U.S. is hypocritical and that most Americans are enemies of Islam," Mr. Kohlmann said. He called the anti-Islam statements spawned by the dispute "disturbing and sad" and said they were feeding anti-American sentiment that could provoke violence.

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Evangelist leads 'disinformation campaign' on Obama

Rev. Franklin Graham is leading a "disinformation campaign" against President Obama by attacking Obama's Christian faith and distorting Islam's theology, says a leading religion professor.

After CNN's John King gave Graham a full news cycle to raise a lifted eyebrow at President Obama's Christian profession of faith, Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, came on King's show Friday night to undercut Graham and question why CNN would ask an evangelist known to slur Islam, to speculate on its theology.

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GOP Candidate Exploits 9/11 Victims for Campaign Purposes

GOP Senate candidate yanks video showing smoldering 9/11 site
This one is ugly.

GOP Senate candidate Roy Blunt's campaign has pulled down a Web video displaying the smoldering remains of the 9/11 attacks alongside audio of his Democratic opponent saying the location of the Islamic center should be up to New Yorkers to decide.

And now the Dem, Robin Carnahan, is going on the offensive over the issue, demanding that Blunt apologize to the families of 9/11 victims for exploiting the tragedy for political gain.

The Carnahan campaign claims it pulled the video off of Blunt's campaign Web site late yesterday, and a local blogger has now put the video on You Tube:

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Proposition 23, Anti-Environment 'California Jobs Initiative', Is Funded By Big Polluters In Texas And The Midwest

Proposition 23, the so-called "California Jobs Initiative" threatening to suspend some of California's unprecedented clean air and renewable energy legislation, is raking in millions of dollars from Texas oil companies and special interest groups in the Midwest that stand to profit from rolled-back environmental regulation.

The initiative, which is to be voted on in California's upcoming November elections, aims to suspend clean air and energy laws...........

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Sharon Angle and the Extremism of Christian Reconstructionists

Sharron Angle, the Republican challenger to Majority Leader Harry Reid's Nevada Senate seat, has also emerged this election season to challenge Sarah Palin's throne as the conservative leader most likely to say baffling things in public.

In discussing religion, Angle often edges into the prophetic. When she was confronted about her unwillingness to support exceptions to an abortion ban even in the case of rape and incest, she said straightforwardly, "God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives." She objects to laws that prevent pastors from endorsing candidates from the pulpit. Most interestingly, she claimed that entitlement programs of all sorts violate "the First Commandment," and in case her point wasn't clear, she elaborated in biblical talk: "We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government."

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