Valley Blue Dog: Republican Tricks, Democratic Treats!

Steven Sisson

Column by Steven Sisson Halloween is a time for dressing up in a costume and wearing a mask and having fun. But grownups wear masks, too, especially politicians, and more than ever Republicans are masking the truth behind their agenda. According to nationwide polls, 70 percent of leaders can’t be trusted. The Blue Dog says…

Virginia: Free-speech advocates vow to fight polling-place restrictions

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Want to wear a campaign-themed T-shirt or button to the polls? The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, The Rutherford Institute and the ACLU of Virginia has your back. “Thomas Jefferson understood that the first duty of government is to protect the freedom of expression. Regrettably, the…

David Reynolds: The Pendulum

David Reynolds

Column by David Reynolds As usual Thomas Jefferson got it right. He wrote, “The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny is to illuminate the minds of the people.” TJ would not have been pleased with the lack of illumination during the 2008 presidential campaign – much heat, little light. Jefferson…

Waynesboro: Will her first vote be counted?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Sonja Hoge was very much looking forward to voting in her first presidential election. A Waynesboro High School graduate and Virginia Commonwealth University sophomore, Hoge submitted an absentee-ballot request in August before she went back to school and got it in the mail back to Waynesboro last week….

White House ’08: Barr talks with AFP about campaign

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It had seemed for a time back in the summer that former Republican congressman Bob Barr might end up playing a spoiler role in the ’08 presidential election by siphoning off a couple of percentage points from the vote total of Republican John McCain in what had been expected to…

Carly at the Movies: Football like it really was

Carl Larsen

Column by Carl Larsen For some reason, the name Ernie Davis has been all but forgotten by all but the most rabid football fans. So a film like “The Express,” currently playing at the Colonial Mall Cinemas in Staunton, comes along at the right time to remind us of his accomplishments and tell a whacking…

Virginia: Freedom of expression ends at polling-place door

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The State Board of Elections voted today to ban clothing and hats and other campaign materials that directly advocate the election or defeat of a specific candidate or issue from polling places in Virginia. The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged a prohibition handed down last month by the State…

Harrisonburg: Are voters being disenfranchised?

Chris Graham

Column by Joseph Fitzgerald Hundreds of potential first-time voters may have been disenfranchised by the Harrisonburg Registrar’s Office as part of a pattern that increasingly looks like an active campaign to limit voting by college students in the presidential election. The campaign began with unsubstantiated warnings to students about financial repercussions from registering; it is…