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A 'Witch Hunt' in the Great State of Virgina?

Ken Cuccinelli has taken it upon himself to crusade against the perils of trusting science to defend the fallacy of his opinion to support his agenda; even his opinion has already been shown to be factually wrong. Yes ladies and gentleman, Ken Cuccinelli is a politician.
A 'Witch Hunt' in the Great State of Virgina?

Tituba and the Children

Who is Ken Cuccinelli II?

He's the Attorney General of the State of Virginia. He was selected by a Republican convention to run and he won the November 2009 general election.

He's a socialist

His salary is paid for by the government. Under the definitions 1 and 2b (below) the only way he can denounce his socialist reality is to stop taking checks from the government.


noun \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\

Definition of SOCIALISM

  2. a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
  3. : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

The reality is that by definition, government workers are in fact receiving money by the virtue of government rule and edict i.e. socialism.

One may call it democratic socialism by virtue of the process in the case of an elected official. One can argue the connotative values. But the states attorney generals (AG) office is owned, run, and controlled by the state, which in the current reality really means run by corporations and associated influence. So it may follow that one can say he is not a socialist, but an capitalist, or merely an Employee of those corporations which financially support his attainment of office.

Of course in is unlikely he would ever admit in any way shape or form to being a socialist, or an employee of his supporting corporations, but it is doubtful that he will stop depositing his paychecks, in his bank, which come from the state, and ultimately from the people of the Commonwealth of the State of Virginia, by virtue of the government, and originally by the benefit of corporate campaign contributions.

Ken has exhibited what can easily be described as hypocritical behavior. On March 23, 2010, Ken Cuccinelli filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the Constitutionality of the federal health care bill passed on March 21, claiming that it exceeded the Federal government's power under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution.

Is it possible that Ken may also be against taxation? But if there were no taxes, he would not get his paycheck? Bit of a conundrum one might say.

The absurdity is that while the AG is suing the federal government to prevent forcing citizens to take greater responsibility in paying for that which they receive (a traditionally conservative value), he himself has his health-care paid for by the state. He receives high quality health-care (via socialism and corporatism support), thereby arguing against traditional conservative principles that people should take responsibility? There is some sort of odd irony in there?

One breast too many!

File:Seal of Virginia.svg

While one can not state definitively that Ken is a puritan, he exhibits puritanical behavior. He has apparently lobbied to have the Seal of the state of Virgina altered so that the breast of Virtus will be covered. He apparently thinks her breast is offensive.

The original state seal was designed by George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and adopted in 1776.

Ken passed around new versions of the seal in his office, with Virtus holding a shield to cover her breast and he changed her name to Virtue. When questioned about this later, he tried to pass it off as a joke and has since dropped the issue. Well, quite an elaborate joke one might say and who really trusts what politicians say anyway?

Oh, and who paid for his little joke?


The Witch Scene (Monty Python)

What's the difference between Cuccinelli's witch hunt and Monty Pythons. other than the theatrics, not much.

  • They both ignore reason and logic
  • They both ignore science
  • They both favor belief
  • They both favor a subcultural mood over reason
  • They both rely on a relatively uninformed public

One difference we should point out is that in Monty Pythons portrayal, there does not seem to be any political agenda portrayed. That can 'not' be said with Cuccinelli, by virtue of the fact that he is a politician, bought and paid for by corporate support in his election campaigns.


The Cuccinelli Witch Hunt

In 1692, the  courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were hanged*. One man (Giles Corey) who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so.

In our modern times, we don't usually hang people for witchcraft, or crush them with rocks to get them to confess. We have other methods. If you break it down, Cuccinelli, by attacking science itself, and Michael Mann, as the representative witch, he can undermine publicly funded science. Because if he is successful in a finding of fraud in this case, scientists, just wont take public funds to do science anymore.

In effect, if Cuccinelli is successful, he will place the bulk of scientific research in the hands of corporations. I'm sure many would agree that the unbiased nature of corporate reality will protect the integrity of the science and assure that all scientific advancement is done on behalf of the public good and not the corporate bottom line.

Because Daddy Says So?

Cuccinelli's apparent obsession with Michael Mann appears to have a motive behind it. His father is affiliated with a marketing group that also seems to have supported or supports fossil fuel industry interests. While not a direct connection to any fault, one can connect the dots and see that sometimes the apple does not fall too far from the tree.

The marketing group (Quest Fore Strategic Marketing) that Ken's father runs as Chairman and CEO has contributed over $96,332 dollars to Kens political campaigns.

Ken Cuccinelli (The Father of Ken Cuccinelli, II), ABC
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

When he joined Quest Fore in 1999 as chairman, Ken brought with him a wealth of strategic marketing experience. A former head of marketing for a Fortune 500 company (CNG Pittsburgh), Ken was named 1994 Gas Marketing executive and also served as chief operating officer of CNG Energy prior to joining Quest Fore. In addition to his chairman duties, he also serves as president of International Business Ventures LLC, a worldwide consulting and prospect development company that is active in Europe and Latin America. In 2005, Ken earned his ABC (Business Communications Accreditation) from the International Association of Business Communicators.


Cuccinelli apparently is using his office and apparent political bias to further his own agenda, based on his obviously misguided beliefs about global warming, to conduct what looks like a smear campaign against that which he does not believe in; in this case, the science behind human-caused global warming.

To use rule of law in order to undermine science is a tactic that falls more into the category of dictatorship than sensible republican rule under the auspices of democratic institution. The case he is presenting shows not only incompetence in his understanding of the subject matter of his investigation, it ignores the body of evidence that weighs against him and his case.

What is most disconcerting are the similarity in lack of substance in the evidentiary chain between these stylized actions, and actions that have occurred in the past such as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

What is Cuccinelli's Agenda?

Attorney General Cuccinelli's star keeps rising at Va. tea party gathering

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