Steven Sisson | Don’t just stand there. Give ‘im a pencil

Chris Graham

In 2003, the Blue Dog first met Congressman Virgil Goode at the Greene County Strawberry Festival. While shaking hands and passing-out Sisson for Senate campaign literature, I heard a high-pitched shrilled voice calling-out … “Steeeveee Sissssson … anti-tax Democrat fer State Senate!” Even though I had never met him, I knew the distinct voice of…

David Cox | Count those blessings!

David Cox

Thanksgiving 2008 could not come at a better time. With the hubbub of the elections subsiding, one and all are taking new stock of what enormous problems incoming officials face: Rising unemployment. Citibank laying off 50,000 people — that’s lots more than everyone in our entire Lex/Rockbridge/BV region, including students who haven’t even been employed…

Yes, We Can!

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham “If I forget everything else when I get old and gray,” a friend told me Tuesday night, “I hope I never forget this feeling.” I understood completely what he was saying, because I had just had a similar thought myself. CNN and Fox News had just called the presidential race in…

Waynesboro: River City 2020

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] Lee Wolverton and I don’t agree on much, so when we agree, that means something. And we agree that Waynesboro is facing a critical challenge. Lee has seen what we both think is happening to Waynesboro happen elsewhere. A small town struggles with its identity when the factories close up…

David Reynolds: Why it happened

David Reynolds

Column by David Reynolds Greed. That’s OK for a one-word answer. But the editor allots me 800 words each week, so I should say a little more. I could say that before their sudden death, the investment banks were not subject to the same regulatory controls we place on commercial banks. But that is still…

Waynesboro: An open invitation to Barack Obama

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] So now the world knows how badly Waynesboro wants its Obama-Biden signs. I wasn’t aiming at getting coverage on the front page of the Washington Post’s Virginia section, but sometimes these little crusades that you start at 2 in the morning trying to post an item on what you assumed…

Waynesboro: Former Mississippi governor talks up Obama campaign

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It was a midday Thursday event in Waynesboro featuring a former Mississippi governor stumping for Barack Obama. You wouldn’t expect to see more than a handful of people on hand, right? So then when 55 people show up to see Ray Mabus talk about what Obama wants to do to…

Who gets the economy?

Chris Graham

Special Commentary by Chris Graham [email protected] I thought we’d already decided as a nation that the massive federal budget deficits that Reaganomics brought with them were decidedly bad for the economy. Seems like some of us didn’t get the memo. “It’s important that we have a president who understands how to get our economy moving…

Perriello preaching REVIVAL

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham [email protected] Fifth District Democratic nominee Tom Perriello is talking about economic revival in Southside and Central Virginia. Perriello launched his REVIVAL plan for the economies of the Fifth yesterday at an event in Martinsville, which has the highest unemployment rate in Virginia, at 10.5 percent in May, and that was before…