Friday, December 4, 2009
Guest Blogger: Sale of Virginia's ABC Stores is a Bad Idea
Hello, Yupette. I and many other Virginians oppose the Republicans' proposed sale of Virginia's ABC stores, which sell hard liquor. How fiscally responsible is Governor-Elect McDonnell? Not very. These stores generate considerable annual revenue for education, which would have to be obtained from other sources if the stores were sold.
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30 comments:
I was rear-ended at a stoplight by a person who was way over the DWI limit and was returning from a convenience store with several 6-packs. We don't need any more ABC stores in Virginia.
McDonnell sucks. He's another Gilmore.
Go to Maryland and see how employees are treated by liquor store owners. Most are low-wage, part-time, with no benefits.
I would not be surprised if the McDonnell Bushpublicans outsourced Virginia's ABC Stores. Someone from India takes your order for bourbon and it's delivered from a warehouse in Canada by 3-day UPS.
This MADD Mom says no way to any more liquor stores in Virginia.
I worked in a Maryland liquor store one summer. I was an adult and had graduated from college, could not find a job and was working a year to save money for vocational courses (IT). It was a terrible job. The owner was arrogant and abusive. I was paid $6 an hour. No benefits. Lots of heavy lifting. That is what I understand Bob McDonnell wants to do to Virginia's ABC stores. Privatize them and sell them to his neocon campaign contributors.
The Bubbas who voted for McDonnell want a liquor store on every corner.
There are too few ABC stores for the state's population (8 million). If you live in the outer burbs you have to drive 10 miles to an ABC store to buy a bottle of bourbon (or whatever). Uaually way out of one's way.
Hi Yupette,
There are 22 ABC stores inside the Beltway. Population approx. 600,000.
Ken
There are 5,000 retail outlets for beer and wine inside the Beltway.
Sell the state parks to the damn developers. It's the Republican Way.
Try to find a liquor store in Maryland, they are few and far between.
Yupette, there is another dimension to this controversy. Liquor store owners in Maryland and other states in effect own small gold mines. They not only contribute heavily to politicians and political parties but also have state-wide lobbying groups that do the same. In case you wondered why only a few Maryland supermarkets sell beer, the liquor store owners lobby prevents supermarket chains from having more than one retail outlet for beer in each county.
I would rather have private enterprise running the liquor stores than a government employee. Government should only do what the private sector can't or won't.
Wonder why you have to wait a half hour to get your gas tank filled on the NJ Turnpike? Because the service station lobby doesn't want motorists to pump their own fuel. The turnpike rest areas are state owned, by the way.
The RePigs don't like efficiently-managed government. If they see an government-run anything that is efficiently run they want to privatize it, fire the government employees, and replace them with part-time minimum wage employees with no benefits. This is what happened in Florida under Governors Bush and Crist.
The Repigs have f'ed this country up real good since Reagan. Thirty years of necon bulls't. And Obama was going right along with it until the Dems who elected him told him to stop bailing out Wall Street capitalists and start getting the capitalist system to provide decent jobs for the 10% who are unemployed.
Greedpublicans are all upset about the Feds taking over the student loan program. Talk about a give away of tax dollars to the banks.
Twenty years ago the Repigs claimed that IT was going to provide millions of good-paying jobs for Americans. Then they outsourced the IT jobs to India and brought Indians to the USA to take IT jobs from Americans. Now the Repigs are making the same claim for biotech.
Obama is like every other Ivy League Democrat who became President over the past 100 year - took care of Wall Street first, took care of the military next, took care of the middle class that elected him after a few years when the middle class got pissed.
Advice - do not stop for fuel at a rest area on the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway on weekends and holidays unless you want to experience free market neocon Republican capitalism at its worst.
Do the math. ABC stores make about $166 million a year. Repubs want to buy all the ABC stores for $500 million. A can't lose rip off of education - where the $$$ from ABC stores goes.
Same greedy Republicans who, when they and Bush ran the USA, wanted to take a trillion dollars out of the Social Security Trust Fund and invest it in the stock market. Remember?
How much more can the federal government - who the neocons despise - do for the neocons? Look at all the recent give-aways to the greedy corporations by President Bushbama. No end in sight. How about a thread?
McDonnell's wealthy campaign contributors are looking for a deal whereby they would pay little or no cash for the ABC stores.
It just kills the Repigs that the ABC stores have been operated efficiently by the state for decades.
Want to see a corporation that is the darling of the Neo-Cons and has contracted for many of the services formerly provided by federal employees? Check out Blackwater - Xe, subject of multiple federal grand jury investigations.
Seen a privately-owned liquor store in MD or DE lately? Worst looking retail store in the shopping plaza. In DC the liquor stores look like dumps.
Ever hear about a stabbing or shooting outside an Virginia ABC store? The Coochpublicans would turn Virginia's ABC stores into crime scenes.
ABC stores have been a cash cow for Virginia for decades. The Republicans privatized Florida over the past decade. Result? Florida is a fiscal mess.
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