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…

Fifth District: A vote for solutions, not controversy

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The Danville Register and Bee endorsement editorial put it well, I think. Noting that the paper hadn’t endorsed a Democrat since Virgil Goode was a Democrat, the editorial board relayed that it is changing course not because it is leaving Virgil Goode. “Virgil Goode,” the Register and Bee said, “has…

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…

Harrisonburg: Obama rallies Valley Dems

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] One news organization estimated that there were 28,000 people all told in and around the Convocation Center on the campus of James Madison University for the Tuesday campaign rally featuring Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama. I don’t know that I could dispute the figure, based on the queue, or…

The Valley Blue Dog: Sarah Palin is a Closet Socialist

Steven Sisson

Column by Steven Sisson Yes, Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin is a Closet Socialist. The governor’s state of Alaska receives more federal dollars, in subsidies and earmarks and government assistance, than any state in the USA. The Blue Dog says Palin is a tried and true socialist. Like I wrote in the Blue Dog column…

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…

The Valley Blue Dog: The Manchurian Candidate and Eskimo Barbie

Steven Sisson

Column by Steven Sisson Is the McCain-Palin campaign fueling racism, hatred and divisiveness? Of course, the answers to the question are yes, yes, yes, but wait one cotton-picking minute, Blue Dog! Calling the Republican presidential nominee John McCain The Manchurian Candidate conjures images of a 1960s Vietnam prisoner of war being brainwashed and collaborating with…

Politics: Bogus registration claims a ‘smokescreen’ for GOP suppression efforts

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Republicans and their allies in the mainstream news media are stating publicly that it’s Democrats who are trying to rig the 2008 elections by submitting voter-registration applications with phony names and other such chicanery. Funny how the media is either missing out on the real story or is working in…