The New Yorker has a lengthy story about Barack Obama’s campaign in Southwest Virginia. It features interviews with David (Mudcat) Saunders and Sen. Jim Webb assessing whether Obama can win votes in the hilly part of the commonwealth.
This is just too precious. The Hill reports that the House is limiting e-mail from the public because it fears overload from millions of Americans who are giving Congress a piece of their minds.
People, it's time to remember snail mail. Take pen to paper. Overload the mailroom.
Or, better yet, wait and deliver the final message Nov. 4.
Distorting an opponent's message in a political campaign is so common that informed voters can shrug off many of the negatives. Win-at-any-cost cynicism is par for the course. Yet Rep. Virgil Goode has managed to shock with a television attack ad against his challenger in Virginia's 5th Congressional District. Republican Goode's ad not only distorts Tom Perriello's position on a hot-button issue, it distorts the Democrat's appearance in a way that seems designed to encourage nativist fears. Goode has said he won't pull the ad. Wednesday, we'll urge him to rethink.
The bailout flames out
The House rejected Treasury Secretary Paulson's approach, even with caveats. It's time to look for a new way to ease this looming crisis.
Despite dire warnings from President Bush and leaders on both sides of the aisle that economic disaster loomed without action, the House of Representatives failed Monday to pass a controversial $700 billion bailout of the financial system.
Read more.
On the hunt for a solution
Hunting with Hounds offers a compromise proposal that will satisfy few.
Among the principles Virginians hold sacred are the right to enjoy one's property without government intervention and the right to hunt. When the two principles collide, as they do with hound hunting, the government is asked to referee. Currently, hunters hold the advantage as the government allows them to traipse across private property -- even if it's posted no trespassing -- when they are in pursuit of their hounds. Landowners argue the government is taking use of their property. Besides, no other dog owners can allow their animals to run freely. Why shouldn't hunters be required to call off their hounds when they stray?
Read more.
Zero confidence in McCain
G.V. Gibbs
Gibbs is an emeritus distinguished professor in the departments of Geosciences, Material Science and Engineering and Mathematics at Virginia Tech.
Remember the Keating Five scandal of the late 1980s involving the five United States senators Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn, Donald Riegle, Alan Cranston and John McCain who were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.
Read more.
Read Tuesday's letters here.
What do you want to talk about today?
As promised, here is tomorrow's editorial on the failure of the bailout:
The bailout flames out
The House rejected Treasury Secretary Paulson’s approach, even with caveats. It’s time to look for a new way to ease this looming crisis.
Despite dire warnings from President Bush and leaders on both sides of the aisle that economic disaster loomed without action, the House of Representatives failed Monday to pass a controversial $700 billion bailout of the financial system.
The 228 representatives who voted against the bailout either didn’t believe the warnings or cared more about their political future than the nation’s economic future. The latter should be ashamed.
For Tuesday. The Board of Game and Inland Fisheries plans Oct. 23 to consider new hunting with hounds proposals put forth by a committee. The aim is to circumvent the General Assembly from passing laws that would curtail the practice of hunting hounds entering private posted property. Mostly, the proposals call for more enforcement officers and better hunter training. They will likely not satisfy property owners.
We're working on an editorial for later in the week about the federal tax code. The code stinks. We don't know what form a new tax system should take, but we do know we haven't seen it yet. In particular, we'll observe that House candidate Sam Rasoul's "graduated flat tax" is naive and unworkable in Congress (Read more about it on his Web page). In that regard, it doesn't differ much from the fair tax or Bob Goodelatte''s plan (he's Rasoul's opponent) to just toss the whole thing in three years to force Congress to come up with something.
Congress needs to have a serious discussion about taxes, but too few appear willing.
What ideas do you have for reforming the tax code?
We're writing about the bailout today. All in all, we remain convinced that some action is necessary to stave off even greater economic disruption, and perhaps even economic collapse. We understand, and share to an extent, the outrage of the thousands of constituents sending angry phone calls and e-mails to members of Congress.
The plan is better than it was when Paulson first proposed it. It is not a long-term solution, but a stop-gap measure that will, hopefully, keep the rot from spreading.
Considering the prominence of this issue in the news, we're likely to go ahead and post this editorial once it's written and edited.
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