TOP STORIES
The Rappahannock News endorses McCain for President, slams Obama, calls for GOP Rep. Cantor’s ouster
The Rappahannock News, the county’s only newspaper, Thursday endorsed Republican John McCain for President while leveling a harsh judgment on Democratic nominee Barack Obama, saying he has “no record of accomplishing anything in public life.”
Four years ago, the newspaper endorsed Democrat John Kerry over incumbent GOP President George Bush, and has frequently endorsed Democratic candidates in Virginia races in the past. The editorial in the weekly’s Oct. 23 edition also endorsed Democrat Mark Warner, a former governor, in his race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican John Warner, and said Mark Warner “may well in times ahead become the ninth U.S. president from Virginia and the 45th president of the United States.”
The endorsement editorial called for the ouster of incumbent Republican Congressman Eric Cantor, whose district includes Rappahannock County. A vote for Cantor would be an endorsement for the policies of the Bush Administration which “have failed us,” the editorial said. Because Cantor supported the Bush policies, “it is time for a change,” the paper said, calling Cantor’s Democratic opponent Anita Hartke “sincere, genuine, untainted by scandal and the horrible policies of the Bush Administration.” Read more »
Money-rich Obama campaign raises nearly twice as much from Rappahannock as McCain
By James P. Gannon
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has received almost twice as much in political contributions from political activists in Rappahannock County as Republican John McCain, according to a RappVoice review of campaign contribution records.
Obama has raised $27,400 in recorded political contributions from Rappahannock residents, compared to $14,196 for McCain, the records show. Those figures, compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics from campaign reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission by each presidential campaign, include only those contributions of $200 or more from individuals; smaller donations are not required to be disclosed.
The figures track donations to the 2008 presidential campaign and cover both primary-season and general-election campaign contributions; they include reports filed up to Oct. 19, but do not include Obama’s record-shattering $150 million given in the month of September alone.
The big Obama donors include some well-known local political activists, including Ben Jones and his wife Alma Viator of Washington, Bill and Linda Dietel of Flint Hill, and Hal Hunter of Amissville. The large McCain donors included Republican activists Jim and Demaris Miller of Sperryville, Judy Hope of Washington, and Robert Darby of Woodville. Read more »
Stadium lights not ready for testing: No bright night tonight
The planned testing of the new athletic field lights at Panther Stadium at Rappahannock County High School has been postponed because Allegheny Power has not finished its work of bringing electric service to the lights, School Superintendent Robert Chappell said Monday.
No new test date has been announced. Chappell said the power company will not finish its work until Wednesday at the earliest, and it may be Friday before the work is done. Earlier, it was announced that the stadium lights would be tested for a 24-hour period starting today and extending all night into Tuesday.
Panic attack: RappVoice poll finds gloom and doom, but local banker Mike Leake is not that pessimistic
By James P. Gannon
The economic outlook has become so dark that more than half of those responding to a current RappVoice poll expect nothing less than “an economic collapse like the Great Depression.”
The view from Rappahannock County’s local banker, Mike Leake of Rappahannock National Bank, is not nearly that gloomy, though Leake believes that 2009 will be a difficult year and the amount of economic damage ahead depends largely on how long the current recession lasts. In an interview, he said he’s not counting on any recovery next year, but perhaps in 2010 or 2011.
One point made by Leake is that consumer confidence is at a low ebb. That point is dramatically reflected in the responses to the RappVoice reader poll, which indicates confidence is not merely low, it is obliterated. The survey, which began Sept. 22 and had drawn 135 responses by Oct. 16, is remarkable for its overall sense of gloom and doom.
The poll asked RappVoice readers their reaction to the “ongoing credit crisis, Wall Street turmoil and Federal bailout plans.” Fully 53% of those responding chose the most extreme possible outcome as their answer of choice, checking the response that predicted “an economic collapse like the Great Depression.”
Another 36% chose the response forecasting “a recession in 2009, but not a Depression.” Only 10% of respondents said they thought that “the government’s actions will stabilize the economy soon.” And two voters said they don’t care because it won’t affect them (which makes one conclude that they are already broke and homeless and have nothing to lose). Read more »
Coming cuts in state school aid prompt warnings to watch spending carefully
By James P. Gannon
Facing an almost certain cut in state funding next year, Rappahannock County Public Schools need to tightly control spending this year and may have to make cuts in its current budget, Superintendent Robert Chappell told the School Board Tuesday evening.
The schools “need to be more prudent than usual” on all expenditures this year, Chappell said, because he has been warned by state officials that reductions in state aid to public schools will probably be announced in December, to take effect in the fiscal year starting next July 1.
The superintendent informed the board of a memo received from Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia Wright regarding Virginia’s budget situation. “While Direct Aid to Public Education funding has been spared for (fiscal year) 2009, most certainly reductions in FY2010 are inevitable,” Write warned. “Please pay careful attention to your expenditures this year and store up balances that could be used to offset cuts in FY2010.” Read more »
Rappahannock’s John Kiser publishes new book on Arab hero of 19th Century
Rappahannock County author John Kiser has a new book being published next month, a biography of an obscure 19th Century Arab leader who once was well-known and highly praised in America.
Kiser’s new book, The Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader–a Story of True Jihad, focuses on a man sometimes called “the Algerian George Washington.” In his time, el-Kader was widely admired, and even had a small town in Iowa (Elkader) named after him. (Kiser wrote an op-ed article which appeared in The Des Moines Register last week on that odd quirk of Iowa history.)
On his website (www.truejihad.com) Kiser explains the back story to the book:
“I am often asked how I learned of the emir and why I became interested in him. Abd el-Kader’s story is actually a sequel to The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith Love and Terror, a book I wrote about Trappist monks in Algeria whose kidnapping and gruesome death riveted France in 1996. Read more »