Plum, D-36th (Fairfax County), told PolitiFact that Virginia is responsible for 55% of all public education costs. Nope.
On Friday, PolitiFact reported that not only do Virginia localities pay a majority of their education costs, but state law says Virginia must foot the bill for 55% of costs to fund minimum state education requirements. Because it is law, the state is meeting that demand in its budget. Localities pay more because they are dissatisfied with just minimum requirements, so, also coupled with federal funds, the state only paid 41% of total education costs.
If there is anyone who should understand the budget process it's Plum, a former member of the House Appropriations Committee.
"To be fair, after the Taxpayer March on Washington on 9/12 [2009], Reuters did pause to wonder what the source of public anger was: 'Protests Against Obama: Race or Policy?' it asked, noting how 'former President Jimmy Carter said out loud what Democrats had been whispering for a while, that the protests against the country's first black president are tinged with racism.'
When conservatives wave signs, it's not 'unrest' caused by a 'sense of disenchantment.' It's because they're bigots. Society as a whole is not to blame; they are, individually. They need an attitude adjustment."Not all tea partiers are racist, but yes, Bart, protesters waving signs calling the nation's first black president the N-word, picturing him as a tribal witch doctor, saying "Obama's Plan White Slavery," and calling him an undocumented worker is bigotry. Hate speech comparing President Obama to Osama bin Laden is in another league by itself.
Bart has a recent history of blinders on this issue. In other columns this year, he didn't acknowledge any bigoted overtones with birthers who think Obama is a Kenyan-born closet Muslim or Sharia Law panic fueled by Islamophobia, and instead used the topics as counterweights to call liberals conspiracy theorists and hypocrites.
Yet, this is the same guy who inferred that diversity programs and "voluntary racial balkanization" are a form of Jim Crow racism because both emphasize "racial identity."
Never mind tacit bigotry or academic exercises, how about actual racism, Bart, dehumanizing and insulting someone because of their race – is that racism? Or are you just upset at other people's double standards because you want a monopoly on it?
In 2007, Hamilton, R-93rd (County of James City, Newport News), obtained a $500,000 appropriation for an education leadership center at Old Dominion University. In exchange, he was hired as its director and was paid a total of $80,000.
E-mails showed that he was discussing his salary for the position with ODU even while he was still lobbying for the funds as an appropriations committee member.
When the media exposed the scandal two years later, Hamilton resigned soon after losing re-election, ending a 20-year career in the General Assembly. Now, he has filed for bankruptcy and is working at a golf course pro shop and reportedly living on hot dogs until he is to report to prison on Sept. 19.
What makes Hamilton's scandal remarkable, however, is that he is said to be the first state lawmaker in Virginia history to be convicted of public corruption. This is a state that produced many influential Founding Fathers, distinguished generals, and a record eight presidents. The Virginia General Assembly is the descendant of the oldest elective body in the New World.
Forget saying Hamilton has been tossed into the dustbin of history; he is the dustbin of history.
That's Phil Hamilton – "Virginia:
