The Best Seat in the House column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

No, I wasn’t the guy who gave Virginia a first-place vote. So you can quelch that rumor right here and now.

Not that I think the Cavs are going to finish fifth in the Coastal Division of the ACC in 2008, either. In fact, I’m probably going to go down in history for what I said on yesterday’s “Online with Jim Bresnahan” when asked my pick for a surprise team in the ACC.

“Uh, you know, Virginia,” I said, or something to that effect. Because I like the ‘Hoos better this year than I did last, which isn’t to say that I’m expecting nine wins and another top-second-tier bowl game in ‘08-’09, mainly because the schedule is a mite bit tougher this go-around. But Virginia will clearly be better at QB (likely Peter Lalich, whose presence has Al Groh dusting off his Matt Schaub playbook), at running back (with two established #1 guys in Cedric Peerman and Mikell Simpson), at wide receiver (with the return of speedster Kevin Ogletree), and … you’re going to kill me on this, but on defense.

Yes, I realize that Virginia lost Chris Long and Jeffrey Fitzgerald from the D-line. I haven’t been under a rock the past six months. But Groh has three starters back at linebacker (Clint Sintim, Antonio Appleby and Jon Copper) and some talent at that fourth spot (probably Rockbridge product Aaron Clark) to anchor a defense that, you have to remember, is designed to have the ‘backers making the big plays. Which is to say, if any D can withstand the losses of studs like Long and Fitzgerald, it will be this one.

Which gets us to Virginia Tech, which is going to struggle for a while getting used to playing without Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall, two guys who seemed to have been around Blacksburg since the Michael Vick era as the anchors for Bud Foster’s lunchpail crew, and acclimating 13 new starters overall. And then there’s the ongoing quarterback controversy involving Sean Glennon and Tyrod Taylor that will have fans clamoring for one or the other pretty much all year long. Frank Beamer is Frank Beamer, but I think this year’s Hokies are only going to look good in the Coastal by default, if even that.

Over on the other side of the conference, we have everybody and their brother talking about how Clemson is just looking so good, with Culllen Harper at quarterback entering ‘08 as the preseason player of the year, one of the stranger awards that we media types get asked to vote on, considering that we’re just guessing who we think might be good at the end of a three-month season that will take about six or seven twists and turns per team before all is said and done. And we can guess how some of those twists and turns are going to go for Clemson, which has been in this position under Tommy Bowden, oh, about three or four times before, and has yet to do anything with the accolades expect fail to live up to them.

Clemson teams tend to do better when they’re permitted to fly under the radar. They don’t play that good from ahead. I’m reaching here, sure, but my bet in the Atlantic is on Wake Forest, under the solid Jim Grobe, who has junior Riley Skinner back at QB to complete 70-plus percent of those five-yard passes that Grobe likes to throw to keep the clock moving and his defense rested and ready to do damage.

So I have a we-only-look-good-because-we-play-in-the-Coastal team in Virginia Tech on one side of the ACC Championship Game, and a we’re-here-because-Clemson-choked-again team in Wake Forest on the other side.

Needless to say, we’re not going to be making any dents in the national-title picture in ‘08. Making that, what, 100 years of irrelevance and counting?

Item by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Waynesboro righthander Jake Cowan was honored as one of the Valley League’s players of the week after throwing a complete-game three-hitter in a 5-2 win over Covington last week.

Cowan struck out 11 and walked four en route to the win. The UVa. product also picked up the win over Vienna in an exhibition game last week with an inning of relief in what turned out to a 1-0 Generals win.

Cowan is 3-1 in the Valley in 2008 with a 2.86 ERA and 33 Ks in 28 1/3 innings.

Also honored last week …

- Winchester pitcher Billy Morrison (Western Michigan) tossed a five-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory on the road at Harrisonburg last week. Morrison is 2-1 with a 0.69 ERA in ‘08.

- Staunton outfielder Max Most (Old Dominion) reached base safely in 20 of his 29 plate appearances last week and hit .571 with four RBI and seven runs scored. Most is hitting .364 with a .447 on-base percentage, 15 RBI, 25 runs scored and 19 stolen bases in ‘08.

- Covington catcher Marcus Nidiffer (Kentucky) hit four homers, drove in eight runs and scored a league-leading 10 runs last week. Nidiffer is hitting .330 with a .452 OBP and a .692 slugging percentage and nine home runs, 23 RBI and 27 runs scored in ‘08.

- Luray outfielder Jeff Jefferson (Liberty) hit four home runs, drove in 11 runs and scored seven times while hitting .455. He hit two homers in a 3-for-4 night in Luray’s 12-4 win over Vienna and is hitting .343 (.582 slugging) with eight homers, 26 RBI and 31 runs scored in ‘08.

Item by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

DuPont Community Credit Union celebrated the grand opening of a new office in Waynesboro and the groundbreaking at a site that will host a new office in Woodstock.

The new Waynesboro office is adjacent to the long-time office for the East Side of Waynesboro at 200 E. Broad St. The 7,300-square-foot facility combines the existing drive-up and ATM area into a new building as a connected structure.

Hours at the Riverside office are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

The new Woodstock location will be at 1025 Woodstock Common Drive. The 6,910-square-foot building is on schedule to be open in December, replacing the current DCCU office at 305 W. Court St. that opened in 2004.

Analysis by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

For all the posturing between Barack Obama and John McCain over what to do about Iraq, has either of them asked the American people what they want to see done?

Hint - McCain might want to begin this conversation sooner rather than later.

A Rasmussen Reports survey released on Tuesday had 63 percent of those polled saying they want U.S. troops out of Iraq within a year. Just 33 percent answered that they want to see the troops remaining in Iraq until “the mission is complete.”

Of note is that 24 percent of those surveyed said they want troops returned home from Iraq immediately.

The trouble for McCain on the horizon is that voters seem to split down the line between the two major-party candidates based on their views on the troop-withdrawal issue. McCain gets the support of 77 percent of those who place importance on finishing the job in Iraq, as the question is asked by the pollsters, while Obama gets 79 percent of the support of those who want to see troops returned home in 12 months.

Unless the nearly two-to-one margin in favor of a quick withdrawal changes soon, McCain could be left defending a stay-the-course policy that only a third of Americans support or being faced with the prospect of changing his course on the Iraq issue at a dangerously late time in the political game.

Listen to “The Augusta Free Press Show.”

Congressman Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., joins us today via conference call to talk about the Barack Obama campaign’s efforts to reach out to Latino voters through the release of a new Spanish-language radio ad that will begin airing this week.

Hear Becerra talk about the outreach effort and hear the minute-long ad - then hear from AFP editor Chris Graham with analysis of poll data showing Obama’s political strength in the Latino community.

Show Length: 6:11

Compiled by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

WINNER: Jim Sacco at the NV is givin’ ‘em hell at Fort

I’m just adding my voice on this to the work that Jim Sacco has been doing to give the Fort Defiance High School administration hell for the way it handled the recent dismissal of beloved wrestling coach Terry Waters.

Seems to me that when you say you have something that you can make public that will explain why you’re letting a guy go, then you’d better have something to back that up when the time is appropriate. Otherwise you’re giving too room for rumor and innuendo to ruin a person’s reputation.

It’s time for the Augusta County School Board to hold its administrators accountable for their actions here.

FDHS principal Larry Landes famously said during this episode that his school was “not a democracy.” As Sacco rightly points out, it is taxpayer-funded, and since we’re paying the freight for Landes and the athletics department at the high school, we deserve more than we’re getting here, which is nothing right now.

PUSH: Leader acknowledges error in editorial

Which I pointed out in a posting on the op-ed yesterday about how Staunton had closed down its streets last week for Mark Warner, which included a couple of references to how Warner had been given a ride up a closed street in a Pierce Arrow that never actually happened.

Leader community-conversations editor Cindy Correll acknowledged the error in fact later in the forum.

I’d give them a big thumbs-up if the folks at the paper could have figured out how my first comment ended up getting posted under someone else’s screen name and corrected that error as I was told they would.

Guess we still come out ahead, but by how much, I don’t know.

TODAY’S HOT OR NOT: Enough with Favre already

Either he comes out of retirement, or he doesn’t. Either Green Bay does right by its legendary quarterback, or it doesn’t. I’m so ready to turn to the next page that it’s not even funny.

Item by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

The DuPont Community Credit Union reported a 2.97 percent increase in total loans outstanding and a growth in its bottom-line equity in the second quarter of 2008.

Real-estate loans were up 11.5 percent in the quarter, significant in the face of the ongoing home-market crisis.

The amount of total loans in the second quarter of ‘08 was $489 million. Of that total, $29.3 million were in real-estate loans.

The credit union’s equity for the quarter was $63 million.

DCCU also reported the addition of 512 new members during the quarte, putting the number of members overall at 53,923.

Item by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

An Albemarle County winery will hold a special opening on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 to introduce itself to the Virginia wine community.

Virginia Wineworks has set up shop at the former Montdomaine winery 12 miles south of Charlottesville. Partners Michael Shaps and Philip Stafford will offer complimentary tastings at the open house in August, which runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Visitors can also engage Shaps in one-on-one discussions on the art of winemaking, tour the facility and take part in special demonstrations from the Charlottesville Cooking School.

For more information, go online at www.michaelshapswines.com.

Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

How many of you are going to be surprised when you hear that I checked into today’s called and then canceled closed meeting to interview prospective candidates for the vacant city-attorney position to see if there was anything funny going on?

I hope none, by this point.

I made a couple of calls, and nope, nothing untoward, just business.

But that e-mail from the council clerk had my attention. Hoo boy.

“Please be advised that the Interim City Manager, Interim City Attorney, and Clerk of Council have determined that this morning’s notice fails to meet the requirements for notice of meetings under the City Code. Accordingly, the Council will not meet tonight and will reschedule the meeting and provide proper notice under the City Code.”

This came about an hour and a half after the first note about a called city-council meeting that would have had council members meet briefly in open session later today for the purpose of going into closed session to interview prospective appointees. That notice had indicated that no announcement was expected after the closed meeting, code for “we’re not expecting to be telling you that we’re going to be hiring somebody today.”

I’m told that the meeting fell through as much because of extenuating circumstances as the stated issue with meeting-notice requirements under the city code. One council member, Nancy Dowdy, is out of town and wouldn’t be able to make the interview session, and then one of the interview subjects had to cancel at the last minute.

That said, I was pleased to learn that the folks in City Hall took the time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on the meeting-requirements issue.

Good to see somebody minding the store.

Column by Sam Rasoul

Those big signs at gas stations along every major road in the Sixth District shout our dilemma. We can’t afford to drive the vehicles we own. In a few short months, gas prices have destroyed the family budget and now threaten our entire economic health.

Over the past few weeks in parades, at fairs, and on doorsteps, I have heard the same concern: the price of gas. We are in a crisis, and families need help today.

What happened? And will things get better or worse? First, let’s talk about why the price escalated.

Not everyone agrees on why the prices rose as quickly and as high as they did. I’ll take you through the conventional explanation, which offers no quick solution. Then, I’ll end with a possible dilemma we can fix with the appropriate legislation and effective energy policy.

One reason for increases in price is simple supply and demand. However, supply and demand didn’t hit the wall overnight. There’s no doubt demand has escalated. Americans use 25 percent of the oil produced worldwide, and developing countries, especially China and India, are trying to catch up to our pace. Right now the world demands 87 million barrels a day, while oil production lags behind at 85 million barrels a day. OPEC, with two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves, could produce more, but has no incentive to do so while reaping such healthy profits.

The Iraq War has contributed to the crisis also. Oil production was interrupted and has not climbed back to prewar levels. Though the shortfall is only about a quarter-million barrels a day, it’s easy to see how that shortfall fits the supply-and-demand picture. To make matters worse, our military operations in Iraq use great quantities of oil, costing us money for which we gain no useful economic output. In fact, our military operations protecting the shipping lanes and oil refineries and other needs of the foreign oil industry we depend on adds more to the demand, pushing prices higher.

Couple those problems with the weak dollar. Our addiction to oil and weak domestic production force us to spend $33 million per hour on foreign oil. We import nearly 70 percent of the oil we consume, sending the money to places where it has no chance of entering our economy. When we send more dollars out of the U.S., we weaken the dollar and gas prices go up again. Then we must send even more money out - a cycle that hits us weekly at the gas pump and the grocery store and every other sector of our economy.

OK, all that makes sense, but doesn’t answer why prices rose so fast. In 2000, at the request of Enron and other energy companies, Congress exempted energy markets from government regulation. A 2006 Senate report warned speculation uninhibited by regulation would send prices sky-high, but our representatives paid no attention. With no oversight, energy traders have gone wild with market manipulation and excessive speculation. Investors looking for good returns and a hedge against the falling dollar have found an unregulated energy market provides them the perfect opportunity. Their opportunity may account for as much of 60 percent of today’s oil prices, according to several analysts.

I’ll address possible solutions to these problems in my next article. If speculation is indeed the main driver of high prices, we can provide some short-term relief, perhaps, but the supply and demand issues necessitate a long-term commitment for an energy revolution in our country. In 1999, we could get gas for 90 cents a gallon; those days are past. We must create a secure supply of energy that is pro-national security, pro-environment, and pro-growth. The responsibility rests with all of us.

Item by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

The streaking Luray Wranglers have moved up to #3 in the Summer 16 rankings of summer college-baseball teams, and the just-as-hot Waynesboro Generals are not far behind.

The Wranglers have won six in a row, including a win over last week’s top-ranked team in the country, the Vienna Senators of the Clark Griffith League. Luray is 28-10 heading into the final week of the Valley League regular season and have a five-game lead over Fauquier in the Northern Division.

Waynesboro also beat Vienna in an exhibition game last week and has won seven of its last nine to sit at 27-12 with a four and a half-game lead over Staunton in the Southern Division.

Item by Jim Bishop

Eastern Mennonite University is among 25 schools in the Old Dominion taking part in Virginia Private College Week, July 28-Aug. 2, sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia.

Rising juniors and seniors in high school - and their families - may choose to visit just one or two colleges that interest them. However, those who visit at least three during the week will receive three application fee waivers. Students may redeem these waivers in applying to any CICV-member college.

During Private College Week, colleges may offer a campus tour and information sessions about admissions, financial aid and academic programs. Sessions at most colleges will begin at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 2 (exceptions to this schedule are noted on www.privatecollegeweek.org).

Private College Week is not an organized bus tour. Students visit the colleges on their own and must arrange their own transportation. Students are also encouraged to call ahead for an appointment. EMU’s admissions office numbers are 540.432.4118; toll-free 800.368.2665.

Last year, CICV colleges reported 1,800 visits during Virginia Private College Week, with students and families visiting from 30 states and the District of Columbia.

Although websites, US News rankings, and the recommendations of friends and family are good sources of information, visiting campuses in person is one of the most important steps in the college search process.

Gov. Kaine has issued a proclamation recognizing July 28-Aug. 2 as “Private College Week” in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“I encourage parents to explore which college will be the best fit for their son or daughter,” said Robert Lambeth, CICV president. “Our institutions are different from many state universities because our classes are smaller and students receive more personal attention. A private college education is more affordable than many families think.”

Last year, Virginia private colleges gave students more than $200 million in scholarships and grants. In-state students attending a Virginia private college are also eligible for the Tuition Assistance Grant (TAG). A program of the Commonwealth of Virginia, TAG will be approximately $3,200 next year. It is not based on need or merit and is an annual grant available for four years at the undergraduate level.

“Visiting campus is the best way to determine if the college is the right fit for students,” said Stephanie C. Shafer, director of undergraduate admissions at EMU. “So much can be learned about a college through interacting with the people who make up the campus community. It is important that students feel comfortable at the college they decide to attend, and what better way to know that than to visit,” she added.

More information about Virginia Private College Week and the application fee waivers can be found at www.privatecollegeweek.org or by contacting any of the participating colleges.

CICV was founded in 1971 to promote the interests of nonprofit, private colleges and universities in Virginia. CICV was also instrumental in starting the state’s TAG program.

Item by Mary K. Heatwole

Bridgewater College is the recipient of a $189,139 support grant from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges. The 2008 year-end distribution grant will benefit the college’s operating budget, student scholarships, undergraduate research and other projects and programs on campus.

Since 1952, Bridgewater College has received more than $7 million from VFIC to support its programs, making the VFIC one of the largest sources of charitable support in the college’s history.

The mission of VFIC is to support Virginia’s leading private colleges and universities by obtaining financial support, increasing the institutions’ visibility and furthering the development of innovative and collaborative initiatives among the colleges.

Bridgewater College, a private, four-year liberal arts college, enrolls more than 1,500 students. Founded in 1880 and located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, it was the state’s first private, coeducational senior college.

Special Commentary by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Janice Lee Allen asked me if I would be interested in starting a Democrats for Janice group. That’s when things started getting weird.

We’d been communicating about my interest in doing an interview for our “Augusta Free Press Show” webcast, and Allen took the invitation to mean that I was planning to support her in the fall election. No, I tried to explain, it’s just an interview.

It took a few e-mails for me to fend off suggestions that I was somehow working against her, but we got past that and did our interview, which aired on July 10. And led to another cyberexchange, beginning with Allen, who wrote me to tell me that she’d received complaints from supporters about the audio quality of the webcast, then from supporters who used our comment section to relay the same message.

Fast forward to July 14, when we published a letter from an Allen supporter highlighting the fact that Allen is a native of the Sixth District, and her major-party opponents are not. I’d received the letter the morning after recording the interview with Allen on July 9 that aired on July 10, and held its publication so as not to have it compete for attention on our pages with the podcast and a column that I wrote on the Allen candidacy on July 11.

That’s when World War III rained down upon me. “We talked about this letter last week. Why print it now, a month-old letter? I am sorry - this shows me the other side of you,” Allen wrote, forcing me to examine what in tarnation I could have possibly done wrong.

I did a quick Google search and discovered that the same letter had been published in June in the Daily News-Record. Not thinking that an Allen supporter would e-mail a letter to the editor that had already been published weeks ago, I didn’t think to check to see if I was helping somebody wallpaper a message across the web, particularly given the timing of when I received the letter, right after having done my first interview with Allen.

I wrote Allen back to tell her that we had not in fact talked about the letter as she had asserted, a minor point in my mind, since I could not have talked about the letter given that I had not yet received at the time that we were on the phone for our interview. Allen responded that she recalled our conversation “clearly,” and “I have notes to support this.” Fortunately, I had an electronic record, which showed that the e-mail didn’t make its way into my inbox until late the night of July 9, and I didn’t read the e-mail until 9:20 a.m. the morning of July 10.

At the same time that we were trading e-mails on this issue, I was being slammed by a Robin Waller who decided to take the publication of the letter that I’d received from an Allen supporter as a jumping-off point to accuse me of ethics violations. The exchange turned into a BashRasoulfest that included among Waller’s memorable quotes “I question Sam’s true master” offered in the context of a discussion of Rasoul’s Muslim religious beliefs and the revelation that Waller has access to Allen’s personal e-mails.

Which leads us to our most recent dustup involving the Allen folks, a new thread on a July 2 story on donations to the Rasoul campaign initiated this week by a person calling himself or herself Moshe and then posting as faithdefendingjew that revived the drumbeat first initiated by Allen in an e-mail interview with Hank Bostwick at the Star City Harbinger about Rasoul’s religious beliefs and raised questions about his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Of note here is that Moshe/faithdefendingjew responded to a comment that I made on the thread pointing out that there were no substantive differences on Middle East issues between Rasoul and Bob Goodlatte by raising a point about how Goodlatte is a Christian Scientist and how that could explain his resistence to supporting substantive health-care reform.

The comments in the new thread are close enough to those from Allen in her SCH interview to make me wonder if the person writing them isn’t a member of Allen’s inner circle. And even if that isn’t the case, it would seem clear that the influence is there. It was, after all, Allen herself in her interview with Hank Bostwick who began using her opponents’ religious beliefs as a legitimate avenue for political attacks.

I’m just one man, but I expect a lot more out of a person who wants to represent me in Congress than what I’m seeing out of Allen. And as I write this, I’m expecting that I’m putting myself back into the crosshairs, and that’s OK. I’ve tried to give the Allen campaign a fair shake, but ultimately my responsibility is to the people who read the AFP every day, and I don’t know how fair I’d be to them if I tried to pretend that these issues weren’t weighing heavily on my mind.

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