Why is Virginia Really Challenging the Health Care Law?

What is wrong with the state government in Virginia? Last week the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond threw out Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s challenge to the Affordable Care Act, but now he and Governor Bob McDonnell have vowed to appeal.

Why are the Republicans in Virginia against ensuring that everyone has access to health care? As I understand it, the law is being attacked as un-Constitutional because it compels everyone to purchase insurance, and the federal government does not have that power. What, then, is the solution? A national system in which the government is guarantor is fine by me, Medicare for all. However, that is not palatable to the right, for one reason or another. It’s costly, inefficient and unlikely to remain solvent, or so they say. My interactions with Medicare have generally been favorable, and wonder about these characterizations. Even if they are true, can’t these things be fixed? Wouldn’t expanding the pool of participants in medicare with healthy, younger people be a way to do that. But the Right is not particularly interested in solving these issues because their real concern is ideological, and they think Medicare is a form of socialism. (Click here to cue ominous music!)

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Virginia’s Attorney General and the Universities

Colleges and Universities in the State

The University of Virginia said Monday that it would continue to fight state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II‘s efforts to obtain documents related to a climate scientist’s work, just hours after Cuccinelli reissued a civil subpoena for the papers.

The new Civil Investigative Demand revives a contentious fight between Cuccinelli (R), a vocal global warming skeptic, and Virginia’s flagship university over documents related to the research of Michael Mann, who worked at the university from 1999 to 2005. A judge blocked Cuccinelli’s first bid to obtain the documents.

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Mann, whose research concluded that the earth has experienced a rapid, recent warming, works at Penn State University.

Cuccinelli has been trying to force the public university, technically a client of his office, to turn over documents related to Mann’s work since April. Cuccinelli has said he wants to see the documents to determine whether Mann committed fraud as he sought public dollars for his work.  — The Washington Post, October 5, 2010

Academic Freedom Media Review

Academic Freedom Media Review
May 22 – 28, 2010

Below is the weekly compilation of news articles addressing issues of academic freedom that is put together by Scholars at Risk.

MLA Pushes for End to Ideological Denials of Visas
Inside Higher Ed, 5/28

Groups protest Israel denying US student’s entry
Jeff Karoun, The Associated Press, 5/27
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Global Connections and Exchange Program Combines Technology and In-Person Exchanges

Midlothian High School Exchange

Midlothian High School students planted trees in honor of their guests. | photo courtesy of Jamie Schlais Barnes

Here’s an interesting item from Midlothian Exchange, a local paper in Midlothian, in Chesterfield County, Virginia and a part of the Richmond Metropolitan Area.

Two weeks ago, three men walked into Midlothian High School looking for a better understanding of American culture. Ten days later, they left having changed their own perceptions of U.S. citizens and their students’ perceptions of Arabic culture. Their challenge and that of the students at Midlothian High School is to continue spreading what they learned.

Abdulwahab Albaadani, a teacher at Ibn Majed in Sanaa, Yemen, Amine Slimani, a teacher from the Secondary School of Nedroma in Nedroma, Algeria and his pupil, Mohamed Belmeliami, traveled to the U.S. as a culmination of nearly a year’s worth of video conferencing, cultural lessons, and web logging with social studies classes at Midlothian High School…

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A Television Viewing Guide: Lost, The State of the Union, and The Wanda Sykes Show

I’m a big fan of Wanda Sykes.  This is a quotation from her show last week.  Well put!

The good news, the White House has confirmed that the State of the Union will not be on the same night as the season premier of Lost.  The bad news, Americans are more interested in a made up island than their own bleep-ed up country.

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Ruffles and Flourishes

A quick addendum to my post on schools refusing to carry Obama’s speech. Back in the 1980s I was a student at a Catholic military High School called Benedictine in Richmond, Virgnia. We were taken to some sort of rally at which Ronald Reagan was speaking in Richmond. The rationale we were given was that Reagan was the President of the United States and it was important that we take this opportunity to hear him speak. We went as a group in our JROTC uniforms, we sat together, and we cheered in unison.

Some people were critical, but our local newspaper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch praised us. I remember the last sentence to this day. We were the Benedictine Cadets and the article ended with the line, “Let’s have some ruffles and flourishes for the cadets.”
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Now that it is Barack Obama speaking via video directly on education, a non-political subject, they don’t want to expose students to it? Go figure.

Virginia Presidents

An interesting bit of trivia.  More United States Presidents have come from Virginia than any other state, important ones, too.  Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Wilson among them.  Here is the list.  Only Ohio comes close, with seven Presidents.  And it has to be said that they are not exactly standouts, the likes of Harding, Taft, Hayes and Impotence Shots orden 50mg viagra Impotence Shots or Injections- Impotence injections came into existence back in the 1990’s. The pharmaceutical viagra professional for sale companies that manufacture branded medicines invest much money and time in discovering a new formula. Some prescriptions will be designed to treat straight clinical depression, while others will work to relieve manic depression. cheap viagra Pregnancy cialis soft and breastfeeding must also be taken into account. Garfield.  Maybe it was the number of presidents from Virginia that my mother had in mind when she used to tell me I could become President one day and take me to visit the homes of those men.  It’s a lot to live up to and I am afraid it is abundantly clear that I am destined to disappoint.