David Reynolds: Tony got it right
Column by David Reynolds
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Before I get hit by an 18-wheeler on 81, I would like to leave this world with a little truth.
It has been 94 months since the United States, Great Britain and our allies decided that there was no recourse but to get rid of the regime that governed Iraq. Before March 2003 a multinational decision was brewing for years. Yet, for those of us who don’t read People Magazine, we know that the decision to wage a military attack was neither an easy nor a popular one.
Those opposed, including our current president and his party, were very vocal. However, their bark was louder than their bite. Their views – often with full explanations – can still be found on bumper stickers.
Some stickers refer to “Bush’s War.” But it was also Tony’s. Tony Blair, then the Prime Minister of Great Britain and the head of the Labour Party, remains the most elegant spokesman for a decision which has cost so much.
As for its benefits, history’s verdict is not yet in. However, Iraq’s absence from today’s front pages and breaking news is a positive sign. So, too, are the revised opinions coming from those who once were so negative. My goodness, what one can accomplish in the political arena when the blame game is discarded and success can be pinned on your new suit! Read more
Letters to the Editor
- Guns, guns, guns!
- Transparency
Guns, guns, guns!
Letter from Linda Bartlett, Farnham
Have Virginia lawmakers gone crazy? Where were they when Virginia Tech students were slaughtered? Guns, guns, guns! I am so tired of being in a state that approves gun laws that were prevalent in the old west. We took a huge step in outlawing tobacco in bars and restaurants. Now legislators want people to be able to carry hidden guns in bars and restaurants. I believe I would rather have emphysema than be shot to death in a bar by someone who had too much to drink.
And to put icing on the cake – someone who has a concealed weapon in a bar is not supposed to drink. I feel sorry for the barkeeps. They may have to pat down each patron to see if they have a concealed weapon before they serve them a drink. Do you think a person would fess up that he had a gun on him before he ordered a Jack Daniels and coke? Picture this, “I’ll have a Jack and coke and by the way I’m packing my six shooters.”
Bartenders now have the option to refuse to serve drinks to anyone who is obviously intoxicated. If a person leaves a bar while intoxicated and commits a hit and run or other vehicular crime, the barkeep has some responsibility because he or she continued serving alcohol to someone who was obviously intoxicated. And what about the safety of the bartender who refuses to serve a drink due to a patrons’ intoxication? The bartender may be putting himself and others at risk. How many drunks have you seen fighting mad when someone tells them they have had too much to drink? Read more
Supreme corporations
Column by Gene Nichol
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I am Texan by birth and Southern by acculturation. My family would attest I’m not beyond relating stories that mysteriously expand upon each re-telling. Given my trade, I read much of Madison, Hamilton, Story and Marshall. But, truth told, I prefer Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Woody Guthrie and Huey Long. I do not find hyperbole completely uncongenial.
That conceded, I find no words to convey adequate outrage over Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision, in the Citizens United case, to radically untether corporate spending in our electoral politics. It is bizarrely anti-democratic. It overtly robs the American people of any conceivable tool to prevent a complete slide into mocking, cynical, purchased, cash-register politics. It marks the court as mere shill for the dominance of economic privilege. Unmolested, it will lead to both democratic and constitutional crises. It is a ruling that will come to reside, deservedly, in infamy.
By a slim majority, the court reached beyond the factual dispute before it to reshape the way elections are conducted. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s stunning opinion overruled two recent, major precedents – one from 1990 and one from 2003. Giving the back of the hand to statutes like the Tillman Act that have placed limits on campaign spending by business entities for over a century, the justices determined corporations must be treated like human beings in the political sphere. Read more
#2 ‘Hoos open with win at #11 ECU
Staff Report
UVa. sports: www.virginiasports.com
The #2 Virginia baseball team opened the 2010 season strong with a 6-2 victory over #11 East Carolina Friday afternoon in front of 5,012 fans at Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville, N.C. After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, the Cavaliers rallied by scoring six unanswered runs over the final six innings.
Danny Hultzen (So., Bethesda, Md.) had a big day at the plate and on the mound for Virginia. Hultzen earned the win and went six strong innings as UVa’s starting pitcher, allowing two earned runs, four hits and three walks while striking out four. After a shaky opening inning where he allowed both runs as well as two walks, Hultzen settled down to surrender just two hits and a walk over the final five innings. At the plate, Hultzen added two hits, including a double, and scored twice.
Steven Proscia (So., Suffern, N.Y.) stoked the Cavaliers’ offense, going 2-for-3 with a two-run home run and four RBI. Jarrett Parker (Jr., Stafford, Va.) and Dan Grovatt (Jr., Tabernacle, N.J.) each had a pair of hits.
Tyler Wilson (Jr., Midlothian, Va.) pitched the final three innings for Virginia, blanking the Pirates to earn the save. Seth Maness (0-1) started for East Carolina and gave up four earned runs, six hits and a walk over 5.2 innings. He also struck out four. Dustin Harrington and Kyle Roller each had two hits for ECU. Read more
Chris Graham: Breakfast is overrated, anyway
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Leave it to people who call themselves conservatives to in one breath put school breakfast and lunch programs in the “not government’s responsibility” category and in the next bemoan the transfer responsibility from the public sector to the private the operation of a facility that happens to be in our backyard for what we have to assume are Tip O’Neill reasons.
You remember Tip O’Neill, of course. Mr. “All Politics Is Local.”
What’s burning my buns today: an editorial in the newspaper put out by our friends up the street at the News Virginian that makes this nonsensical stretch. First to what should make sense to self-styled conservatives, in the form of the proposal by Gov. Bob McDonnell to sell the Staunton-based Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents. With a Franklin, Tenn.,-based company that already runs 10 facilities in Virginia among the possible interested suitors, this would seem to be a win-win – in that the service is something that somebody in the private sector already does, and does at least decently well; and transferring the management of the CCCA to the private-sector entity would take the cost of operations off the government’s hands and then also off the backs of hardworking taxpayers. Read more
It’s yoga time
Classes offer exercise, meditative benefits
Story by Chris Graham
www.waynesboroymca.com
Yoga will relax you for the hour or two that you’re practicing it. And as you get into it more, yoga will change your life.
“What I learn in the time that I spend on my mat is I take what I get there and use it throughout my day. It’s been a real profound thing for me,” said Carrie Shuler, the yoga instructor at the Waynesboro Family YMCA.
Shuler teaches intermediate-level yoga classes at the Y on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10-11:30 a.m. and another class on Wednesdays from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. that is aimed at beginners.
The benefits to yoga classes are twofold – there is a serious exercise benefit to the variety of stretches that are employed in the classes, and then there’s the meditative aspect to yoga that will change your life.
“I think it’s definitely a great way to find some relaxation in the body. Stretching and breathing is so good for relaxing the central nervous system, not to mention relaxing the mind. I know that in my own personal experience, I feel calmer, kind of more at peace. I’m gentler with people around me,” Shuler said.
For more information about yoga classes at the Waynesboro Family YMCA, call the front desk at 540.943.9622 or e-mail instructor Carrie Shuler at cshuler@embarqmail.com.
Zzzzz … UVa. sleeps through another one
Cavs have hit the wall in back-to-back blowout losses
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Yeah, I’m Master of the Obvious for pointing this out, I know, but somebody’s gotta say it.
Three games in five nights, two on the road, all against teams trying to build their resumes for NCAA Tournament bids. Yeah, you’re going to have a hard time facing those odds.
“I do not think we were fatigued. Our minds were fatigued,” said junior forward Mike Scott, echoing his teammates and coach after the Cavs went down to their fourth straight loss, 69-50 on Wednesday night at home against Florida State.
The snowstorm that moved UVa.’s game at Maryland from last week to Monday night has to be part of the equation as to explaining the recent struggles. You can’t say that the ‘Hoos would have be guaranteed to have won the Maryland and FSU games if only they’d had fresh legs, but back-to-back 19-point losses are out of character for this group, which as recently as last week appeared to be a solid NCAA Tournament team. Read more
The AFP Show | Budgets and triggermen
Hosted by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The AFP Show | Budgets and triggermen (20:21)
The Feb. 18 installment of The AFP Show has editor Chris Graham conversing with:- State Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, whose legislative initiative to extend exposure to the death penalty to people who order hits or engage others in murder-for-hire appears to be on its way to falling short in the State Senate.
- Waynesboro City Councilwoman Lorie Smith, who talks about the current-year city budget shortfall and what city leaders will need to do to address service-delivery issues in fiscal-year 2010-2011.
- Waynesboro School Board Chairman Jeremy Taylor, who joins the show to discuss proposed changes in the Local Composite Index that could impact the city school budget.
Weekend Watchdog | BracketBuster time
Column by Mike Judge
WeekendWatchdog.blogspot.com
Each year, teams from small and mid-major conferences hope they will be the Cinderella making a big splash in March Madness.
This weekend, those potential Cinderellas gear up on ESPN Bracket Buster weekend.
ESPN2 shows six games, starting Friday at 7 p.m. with Old Dominion traveling to Northern Iowa. Play starts Saturday at 11 a.m. with Siena at Butler, followed by Louisiana Tech at Northeastern and Nevada vs. Missouri State.
George Mason hosts College of Charleston at 8 p.m., then at midnight it’s Wichita State taking on Utah State.
There’s 49 games in all under the BracketBusters banner, covering 14 conferences from coast to coast.
The Winter Olympics have reached their second weekend, with events on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC and USA. Ice Dancing highlights competition Friday and Sunday, while the men crown their ice skating champion Thursday. The ice hockey showdown between the United States and Canada takes place Sunday night. Wonder how much action we’ll get to see. Read more
McDonnell: ‘Slight increase in incoming revenue for the year ahead’
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The bad news: The state is facing down another massive budget shortfall.
The good news: According to Gov. Bob McDonnell, the state can expect to see more revenues in the coming year with the improving economy.
“I am pleased to report that the updated revenue numbers from the Department of Taxation project a slight increase in incoming revenue for the year ahead. I have made a conservative estimate of increased revenue based on the new information,” McDonnell said on Wednesday at a press conference detailing the latest revenue projections.
McDonnell said he will recommend to the General Assembly that the projected new reveunes be put toward K-12 public education, employee compensation and other core government services. He also called for a restoration of some of the proposed cuts to public safety and no further cuts to higher education. “Tough times call for setting priorities. Public safety and higher education have been cut significantly in recent years and cannot sustain further reductions,” the governor said. Read more
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Chris Graham: A little here, a little there, and it starts to add up
Posted on February 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Policy moves at the local and state level aren’t making things any easier.
We’ll start in City Hall, which is looking at a $183,000 shortfall in the current fiscal-year budget and a $2.6 million funding gap in the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. With the U.S. economy beginning to heat up, posting 6 percent growth in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2009, the glaring hole in the City Hall employee flow chart in the economic-development director position that has been open since August 2008 won’t get the city in a position to take advantage of growth opportunities that are already in the offing. Read more
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