Jeff Schapiro’s abysmal post-mortem on the special session didn’t surprise me; after all, I’m already on record calling for him to be fired. Still, I was gratified to see Tim Watson (I’m Surrounded by Idiots) fillet the piece while I dealt with the Free Lance-Black Hole.
Among the many things Tim mentioned in his rebuttal post (and you really should read the whole thing):
Back to RT-D:
The House version was carried by Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, an inartful dodger carrying water for the big companies angling to run, for fun and profit, vast hunks of the Hampton Roads road-tunnel-and-bridge network.
As Christina Nuckols, of The Virginian-Pilot, reminded her readers: Those firms are represented by lobbyists who sit in the privy council of Speaker Bill Howell, ensuring Republicans receive only objective, dispassionate advice on what could prove a giant government giveaway.
Oh my God! Those evil “big companies”!
They have some nerve employing people and giving them a paycheck for work! Those saps that work for those evil “big companies” should just quit, get on welfare, and live off the government.
What’s even worst is that the companies hire people (lobbyists) to represent themselves to the legislature. Those bastards should be executed for using their First Amendment rights.
Remember that hating corporations is #82 on Stuff White People Like (RWL Note: maybe I need to pay more atttention to SWPL; he may be more perceptive than I thought).
. . .
Does anyone notice that this reporter has time to go through and check out every little resolution that the General Assembly dealt with and proceeded to complain about the unimportance of them?
Did he write a story about the transportation bills that were dealt with? No, of course not; those aren’t important.
Is this not the very height of irony?
. . .
Second, while Jeff was tracking down every resolution the General Assembly dealt with, he missed the following:
The Republicans went from wanting (unconstitutional) regional taxes imposed on Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to offering a no-tax solution: The Republican solution include appropriating money to NoVA and Hampton Roads from airport fees and taxes and port revenues to pay for the transports needs that are partly caused by the airports and port!
Where’s the story about Jeff Frederick’s bill that would give money to localities to pay for their own roads instead of giving money to the monstrosity that is VDOT (HB6025)? That bill didn’t even make it out of the House.
How about the bill that would implement the 2002 Governor’s Commission on Efficiency and Effectiveness that died in the House Rules Committee (HJ6061)?
How about the the great idea for the state to stop paying for roads in subdivisions (HB6041)? Why should I be paying for someone else’s subdivision roads that I and 99.99% of the state will never see or use?
How about the bill that would required an independent audit of the monstrosity-known-as-VDOT (HB6023)? The Senate refused to act on that bill.
RT-D had time to nitpick about every little resolution that was passed by the General Assembly, but couldn’t do their jobs and actually tell the people what did occur during the session.
A fine takedown of a sorry columnist for a once-elite newspaper that has devolved into an “elite” newspaper whose better days seem to be behind it.
April 27, 2009 at 8:18 am |
[...] in recent years Schapiro has been slipping, and it happened again with rather odd report about Bob [...]