UVA is a poor value for your sports entertainment dollars.  Give VCU a look.

Last night was, I believe, opening night for VCU. They played
Bethune-Cookman at the Siegel Center (Verizon Wireless got their
name in there somewhere). My lovely wife wanted to go to her
first college basketball game, so we drove over to the parking
deck and walked to the Siegel Center. It cost $7 for me, and
whatever portion of the activity fee paid for that ticket for
her. The Siegel Center holds 7500, and announced attendance was
6700. Actual attendance probably wasn't far off. The student
section was packed and spirited. It was a lively working class
student section, with lots of "You suck" and "bullshit" retorts.
The reserved seating sections mostly sat, but carried the wave
around the arena.

The only things I knew about the VCU team before last night were
that Eric Maynor got drafted and they had a brand new coach.
Sounds like rebuilding mode to me. Next Saturday they play
Oklahoma. I would very much like to go. Right now, VCU
basketball looks a whole lot more exciting than UVA hoops. The
rebuilding team on the floor took control of the game midway
through the first half with a 24-4 breakout. They cruised from
there, keeping the margin within a bucket of 30 points in either
direction for most of the second half. Final score was, I
believe, in that range. I want to see them play a top level
team, because they didn't look that solid in the halfcourt. But
Larry Sanders is a credible big man, and the freshman point guard
Joey Rodriguez looked real good. T.J. Gwynn is my new favorite
player. I don't know why. But he is.

I gather Oklahoma is still very strong? I would expect the
Sooners to beat the Rams by 15-20, but we'll see. All-in-all, I
might just enjoy following CAA basketball more than ACC. Oh, and
I learned that VCU football is still undefeated! I never knew!
But the t-shirts educated me. We could beat UVA in men's soccer,
we could beat UVA in men's basketball, we can probably beat you
guys in football too!

Go Rams!

Planks of a Platform

Below are items that I believe need to be part of a radical platform for governing the United States into the next century.  Everybody will probably think I'm crazy, but these spring from my belief that a society is judged by the condition of the great mass of its citizens, that each citizen has a responsibility to assist in providing for the needs of all, that liberty is paramount and that in the U.S. personal liberty is oppressed by the corporate/capitalist elite, not by the government.  The government is used to assist the oppression, but the government can be a powerful tool for ending corporate oppression, which the elite knows.

Planks:

"Socialist Capitalism" - A specific repudiation of the market as panacea.  The market is superb at what it does, producing the goods and services necessary for supporting a prosperous life, and generally at distributing those goods and services.  It is not suitable for taking care of "the commons", or the general welfare.  Economic efficiency is not the sole or primary virtue, and government exists to care for those other virtues, and to keep economic efficiency in line with those other virtues.  Socialist Capitalism demands that the market work for the benefit of society, that the basic needs of every productive citizen -- past, present or potential -- be met, with "basic needs" being defined by the contemporary polity.

The above demands are met primarily by subjecting limited liability entities to the control of society.  Currently, limited liability entities enable capitalists to shift much of the risk of investment onto others while appropriating all the rewards to themselves.  The confiscators are the owners in entities where they have the effective control of the entity, and the managers where ownership is so diluted as to deprive it of effective control.  Every limited liability entity doing business in the U.S. would be required to grant 10% of its ownership interest to the federal state.  Entities would be required to pay out at least a certain percentage of net revenue to the owners, with the U.S. share going into a trust fund to be used for social welfare.  Employee compensation would be limited to a certain ratio with dividends, and "executive" or "managerial" employee compensation would be limited to a certain ratio with "labor" employee compensation.  No more paying the CEO more than all the labor employees combined.

With the U.S. holding 10% of each limited liability in trust for the general population, the corporate ethic that the corporation exists solely to maximize the earnings of the shareholders can be allowed to survive, because by following that ethic corporations naturally increase their contribution to the public welfare.

Another reform that would help return corporations to their rightful place as tools of mankind rather than owners of men would be removing their status as legal "persons" with constitutional rights.  Only individual human beings should be considered "persons" with constitutional rights.  Constitutional rights are derived from our natural rights.  A corporation is not a man born with natural rights.  It is a creation of government.  It has no rights other than those granted to it by the government.

Tax Overhaul - Abolition of the income tax.

A Non-Imperialist Foreign Policy - American foreign policy since World War II has been directed toward opening all the world's markets to American dominance, subjecting the globe to American mores and cultural dominance, and obtaining military access in all regions.  This imperialist foreign policy requires a military with global offensive capabilities.  It demands a huge military-industrial complex out of all proportion with what would be needed for the defense of the United States.

Non-imperialist is not to be confused with "neo-isolationist."  The United States should participate fully in the world, but as one citizen within a self-governing community of citizens, not as a "policeman" or enforcer.  No longer would the United States enforce the power to subject foreign citizens within their own lands to American criminal jurisdiction.

Fundamental Military Reform - The Founding Fathers were opposed to a standing army for good reason.  A standing army is not needed for the defense of the United States.  It is a tool of oppression and a toy of empire.  The U.S. Army would be demobilized, with only training cadres maintained for training and mobilization of the National Guard.  The Navy and Air Force would continue to be independent commands with standing forces, but would be prohibited from having ground forces other than for the defense of their bases.  The Navy would be a two-ocean force, and the carrier fleets would be unnecessary.

Universal National Service - Every individual of 18 would be drafted into national service.  All receive basic military training and are slotted to a unit for two years.  During those two years, they would maintain military training, while providing public service such as maintenance and cleaning, road-building, etc.  A primary function of the National Service would be infrastructure maintenance and development.  After two years, volunteers could stay in the National Guard as at present.

More later...

America needs a new political party.  Notice I did not say "a third" or "another."  Face it, the USA is a two-party (alternating one-party?) system and that's the way it will be.  But that doesn't mean any two particular parties always have to be there.  It wasn't always Democrats and Republicans, you know.  Parties die and are born.

The Republican Party is dead.  What we need is a new party to take its place.  Not on the right.  A new party to the left of the Democrats, to push them where they belong, on the reactionary side of the spectrum.  They're all one party anyway, the Corporate Party.  They agree on all the basics, and argue passionately over details.  We need a party that:

Opposes empire
prioritizes personal liberties
brings corporations and other ngo's into check
fights for redistribution of wealth to the working classes, without resorting to confiscatory mechanisms that are contrary to personal liberty

and more.  The start of Game Six looms ever larger over this blog.  I am predicting that the Yankees close it out in 6.  Pettitte can get the game to the last three innings, and the Yankee bullpen will beat the Phillies bullpen.  Teixeira will have one of the game's most crucial hits, and will make at least one run-saving HOLY SHIT! defensive play.  Ryan Howard will hit a solo home run to tie the game in the sixth inning and chase Pettitte.  Mariano Rivera pitches the last two innings and brings the winning run to the plate at least once.  Just to make it interesting.

Enough Is Enough

There is no action on marijuana legalization taking place in Virginia.  While New Jersey and other states have had medical marijuana legislation in the news recently, and California, Alaska and others are having votes on outright legalization, big news in Virginia is some delegate from Gloucester introducing legislation to expunge marijuana convictions from people's records, in certain limited circumstances.  BIG NEWS!  Wow!  This is some BIG FUCKING NEWS!

Virginia is not completely shut out of the news in regard to drug policy reform, however.  Senator Jim Webb is working on a review of federal penal laws in relation to the prison issue.  As Webb says, in 1980 the federal government imprisoned 40,000 people.  Today it imprisons over 500,000 -- mostly for nonviolent drug offenses.  I hope Jim Webb is not the only U.S. Senator who believes those numbers are alarming, and are willing to, as Webb advises, "put [marijuana legalization] on the table."

In fact, Webb's office and that Gloucester delegate I scorned earlier provide real resources for anyone who would want to begin a marijuana legalization legislative campaign in Virginia.  The article I read named a couple other Virginia legislators who displayed at least a minimally positive attitude toward the general idea of maybe approving the expungement legislation.  They might constitute secondary resources.  What we need in Virginia is a legislative strategy that consists of legislative language and lobbying to get the language in front of the legislature where necessary, and the people where possible.  We need specific legislation to support with a specific campaign.  It needs to operate on the local and state level.

If we can make marijuana legal in Virginia, that would put Virginia in the forefront of the brewing state challenge to federal drug policy.  We have an administration in Washington that has signalled it will RESPECT STATES RIGHTS by ordering the federales not to go after distributors legal under state medical marijuana laws.  If state legislation legalized marijuana in Virginia and legally prevented state and local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal anti-drug operations, that would make it harder for the Feds to fight marijuana in Virginia, and make it safer for Virginia's citizens.  If the Obama Administration extended its order to Virginia, that would effectively end the Oppression of Marijuana Users in Virginia.

IT CAN BE DONE!  I am going to begin work on a pamphlet of WHAT IS TO BE DONE: Common Sense for the Inhabitants of Virginia.  I will produce this pamphlet this week and hopefully present the plan to the VCU chapter of SSDP.  They will provide the core of the corps.  I noticed on Facebook they have links with other SSDP chapters in Virginia.  They provide the statewide foot soldiers, or hopefully the sergeants, who will motivate their stoner friends to perform simple, one-shot tasks that will register a number somewhere relevant.

A hell of a lot of Virginians believe that the Legalization of Marijuana is Good Public Policy.  It is time that we all stand up and say so.  The vast majority will only do so if there is a concrete proposal to support, and if they feel secure enough to voice their opinion without fear of consequences they are not prepared to face.  I believe that there are enough of us now to provide safety in numbers.  All that is missing is the proposal, and the recruitment effort will have a decent chance of success.  All we need to do is get a certain percentage to register its support for legalization legislation, then keep raising that percentage until it passes.  Even if we get only 29% of the population on record in support of a TRUE, non-watered-down legalization bill, that is a substantial minority, and it commands respect.  It provides legitimacy, and makes it easier for more people to come forward.  Next round you get 37% in support.  It gets a little easier, and demographics are in your favor.  Next round, which is only three years into the campaign, you get 44%.  Now you're starting to look unstoppable.  The press picks it up, and the other side is solidly on the defensive.  IT WILL PASS.  I say this:

If those of us who believe in legalization mount such a campaign, it will not fail.