Because someone thought "Virginia is for Lovers" would be a great tourism motto for a state named for the Virgin Queen, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!
The bronze goes to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who earned top billing on an unenviable campaign-finance report last week.
News America/Fox PAC is essentially a central depository for News Corp. executives’ political donations, including boss Rupert Murdoch himself. The PAC has donated $21,000 to Republican-affiliated PACs so far this election cycle, compared to $3,500 for Democratic ones.
Well, Politico reported Friday that a Goodlatte, R-6th (Roanoke, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg), leadership PAC received the largest contribution from News America/Fox at $3,000 in the month following a phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the Murdoch empire. In the 2010 election cycle, News America/Fox donated $8,000 to Goodlatte’s PAC, second-most of all individual congresspersons' PACs.
And what is Goodlatte’s PAC awash with Murdoch money called? Good Fund. Seriously.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is considering legal action against the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors for starting meetings with prayers that invoke Jesus. The ACLU has warned that such sectarian prayers violate the First Amendment and federal appeals court rulings, but the board won't budge.
Courts have ruled that such practices are government speech, not personal speech. Nondenominational prayers are appropriate, the Supreme Court ruled 30 years ago, as long as "there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief," something even the ACLU concedes is reasonable.
However, Williams, a former Danville mayor, will have none of it. In a letter to the board cited Thursday by the Danville Register & Bee, he called the ACLU's position "idiotic," and "I want to help you in any way I can and I know your position is solid. We, for too long, have ignored our strength and, to me, this is just another assault by the devil."
The devil? And who's this "we," Kemosabe?
The Register & Bee reported Friday that, according to the ACLU's website, more than half the group's 120 legal actions are on behalf of Christians. In fact, the newspaper pointed out, a federal court in 2002 sided with the ACLU and a preacher's church by ruling that a part of the state Constitution that forbid religious organizations from incorporating violated the First Amendment. That preacher was the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
Williams also told the Register & Bee that he is ready to do battle in the courtroom for this case: "I want to go down fighting in my last years as a lawyer, if I have to." Mr. Williams' expertise, as listed on his law firm's website, are motor vehicle accidents; personal injury; domestic relations; divorce, custody and support; criminal defense; traffic charges; and Social Security disability claims. First Amendment litigants and archangels need not apply.
Vick had to back away from interview comments inferring that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell steered him toward Philadelphia, which Vick said wasn't his first choice. "Michael Vick's decision on where to play to put himself in the best position to succeed was entirely his own," an NFL spokesman said Friday.
But Vick focused mainly on what he's taken away from the dogfighting convictions and their aftermath. Vick criticized reporters, who he thinks are too focused on his involvement, "As if he were a lone actor, a single rampaging menace, a canine serial killer with no context, motivation, or backstory. As if he is the only person in America associated with dogfighting," Leitch wrote. Well, Vick was the highest-paid player in NFL history once, so it should be no mystery why he gets the attention. Plus, Vick won The Associated Press's NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award last season, so sports editors must not think that his criminal past trumped his remarkable 2010 campaign.
Yet, his celebrity and recent history combine to turn him into an outspoken and useful advocate against dogfighting. Vick is keeping himself as a poster boy of dogfighting alive.
Vick expands on comments about the press by saying others are oblivious about his upbringing and those like him, where something like dogfighting is common. His collaborators were also friends he knew and trusted, Leitch noted, not moochers or phony friends who wanted to bathe in his spotlight. "I mean, I was just one of the ones who got exposed, and because of the position I was in, where I was in my life, it went mainstream," Vick said. There is greater public awareness of dogfighting because of the attention his crimes and trial attracted, though.
However, Vick – currently armed with a team of "at least seven" PR professionals – reinforcing a perception that his crimes were an understandable mistake or a common, one-time lapse in judgment like drunk driving minimizes the extent of what he did. Vick helped host, fund, and organize a sadistic, interstate blood-sport operation for about six years. Whatever his background or upbringing, Vick could've said, "No, I have too much to lose, I won't do this."
When the Atlanta Falcons drafted him in 2001, he had the then-largest rookie contract in NFL history at $62 million with $15.3 million guaranteed. Nearly two months after signing his contract, according to his plea bargain, Vick said he paid $34,000 to buy property in Smithfield to use for dogfighting that a co-conspirator found. Vick and his friends started getting dogs and puppies from both inside and outside Virginia that would fight for purses in upwards of thousands of dollars. Bad Newz Kennels was founded in 2002, with Bad Newz Kannels shirts and headbands made. Vick helped test dogs to fight, the dogs competed in Virginia and the Carolinas, and Bad Newz Kennels hosted fights with parties as far away as New Jersey. He was aware his friends killed dogs that underperformed, and Vick helped his friends kill up to eight dogs by hanging or drowning them in April 2007. Authorities found 54 pit bulls at the site, some with dogfighting injuries.
Furthermore, based on his own words in GQ, Vick is either lying about his love of dogs or reveals an even more sinister side. Vick is allowed to own dogs again next July as part of his probation. He told GQ, "I miss dogs, man. I always had a family pet, always had a dog growing up. It was almost equivalent to the prison sentence, having something taken away from me for three years. I want a dog just for the sake of my kids, but also me. I miss my companions." But when he talked about his prison sentence, Vick said, "It's almost as if everyone wanted to hate me. But what have I done to anybody? It was something that happened, and it was people trying to make some money." (Vick did not place any side bets or collect any winnings, but he did provide most of the gambling monies.) He added, "It's not fair to the animal." But this issue is more serious than "fairness."
If Vick adores dogs as lifelong family companions, but his dogfighting operation was about "people trying to make some money," then he put Bad Newz Kennels' profits and success above his own personal sense of human dignity, his own moral compass. Dogs were important as pets but not as important as disposable byproducts of a horrific enterprise.
We are victims of our choices, and Vick did not choose to be the bigger, wiser man by breaking a cycle of violence and greed – and in the process sacrificed his humanity.
Michael Vick, co-founder of Bad Newz Kennels, today's Worst Virginian in the World.
