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Opinion

  • House votes to stop Medicare Part B...

    Last week, the Congress took an important action to protect seniors from increases in their 2010 Medicare Part B premiums. I joined with a bipartisan majority in the House to vote in favor of H.R. 3631, the Medicare Premium Fairness Act. With Social Security benefits expected to remain at the same level next year, an increase in Medicare premiums would cut into seniors’ Social Security.

  • Ensuring transparency in our...

    In the early morning hours of June 26th an over three hundred page amendment was approved by the House Rules Committee and included in the infamous Cap and Trade legislation.

  • The Virginia GOP’s...

        If there’s any political entity within 1,000 miles of us that’s more predictable than the Virginia Republican Party, I challenge anyone to identify it.

        Here in the Year of our Lord 2009, state Republicans have come before us with their presentation for the offices of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general in the Nov. 3 election. Who have they chosen? “Bob, Bill and Ken.”

  • An incompetent foreign policy?

        Just as it’s far too early to declare Barack Obama a one-term president, so it’s too soon to declare his foreign policy incompetent. However, it certainly hasn’t been characterized by brilliance and just this month he made another decision that made me wonder where his head is.

  • Reframing the debate

    Some top Democrats are now trying to paint the majority of those who oppose health care policies touted by the Obama administration as violent or racist — or possibly both.

        Last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in referring to the national debate, made a reference the 1978 murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city Supervisor Harvey Milk stating: “I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late ‘70s in San Francisco.”

  • Letters

    A brief

    explanation

        In the Classified Advertising section of today’s paper, readers will find an ad announcing that Bedford Hardware is for sale. In light of the recent situations at two other landmark businesses, Murray-Bolling Chevrolet and the Olde Liberty Station Restaurant, we felt it fitting to offer a brief explanation to our customers and friends in the Bedford area regarding our decision.

  • Amendment to education bill...

    I’m proud to report that last week the U.S. House passed an amendment I offered to address early childhood education in rural areas as part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The legislation creates an Early Learning Challenge Fund, which would award competitive grants to states that implement improvements to the state’s early learning system.

  • Protecting the Chesapeake Bay
  • Increasing whole grains in your diet

    You wouldn’t drive ½ a car, or go out half dressed would you?  So don’t eat half-way either.  Most Americans eat enough breads and cereals but not enough whole grains. 

        Recently Wal-Mart shoppers learned about the importance of whole grain foods at an in-store event hosted by Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Family Nutrition Education Program.

  • Time to leave Afghanistan?

        When Barack Obama ran for president he attracted a lot of support for his articulate and consistent opposition to the war in Iraq.

        Obama had been free of having to vote on the original war resolution. Therefore, he was able to maintain his 2002 position as Americans steadily turned against the alleged “pre-emptive” war in 2005 and thereafter.

  • Barack Obama retirement watch

        Has Barack Obama been president for only eight months? It feels more like eight years!

        Yes, 2012, when we will have a chance to retire President Obama, is still a long way off. In spite of approval ratings that have been dropping rapidly, President Obama still has plenty of time for that to change. Furthermore, even if the Obama administration turns out to be Jimmy Carter II, it doesn’t mean that he will be a one term president.

  • It’s been a good run

    Politicians are good about trying to put a “face” on their proposed policies. If the subject is healthcare, the Democrats will feature someone in a speech who has gone bankrupt because of a medical problem. Meanwhile the Republicans, to make their point, will share the story about someone from Canada who had to come down to this country for medical care because the government-run program in their own country wouldn’t provide the care.

  • Letters

    Making ends meet

        Like many families across the country, my own family is struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills and fill up the car with gas. Now President Obama wants to tax my family even more to pay for the trillion-dollar healthcare bill. But that’s not the worst of it. He is mandating that abortion be covered under the healthcare plan, meaning that my family will be paying for abortions, whether we want to or not.

  • Protecting our system of checks and...

    On September 17, 1787, 39 delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed their names to the United States Constitution.

  • Speech gets health care reform on...

        Finally, President Barack Obama has done what he needed to do: state his specific case for health care reform, get Americans to understand what he would do and why it’s needed, and shoot down the right-wing myths and lies that have so tarnished this debate.

  • Obama has scary supporters

        President Obama’s video talk to students last week turned out to be quite innocuous. He urged them to do their best in school and used his own background as an example of triumph over bad circumstances. It was appropriate for the President to do this.

        The speech was preceded by a major flap. Student exercises recommended by the federal department of education included a suggestion that students write a letter to themselves explaining how they will help the President.

        Help him to do what?

  • Low-carb: take two

        It’s not January and while I’m not one to make resolutions, I have decided to try and get myself back into some semblance of shape, other than looking like a bowling ball — or a pear.

        When I first started here at the Bulletin in 2005 I weighed in at about 190 pounds, the lowest I had weighed in years. A year prior to that I had tipped the scales at 235. That’s about the time the Atkins low-carb diet craze was at its height, so I jumped in.

  • Commonsense changes that should be...

    While we can all agree that our current health care system is flawed there are many different ideas about how to fix it.  Democratic Leaders in Congress have introduced and rushed through committee, the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act”.  This one-size fits all proposal would steer the country toward a government-run health care system likely marked by little choice and long lines.  I oppose this bill and the Democrat Leadership’s mad rush to ram the bill through with no opportunity for alternative ideas.  Even commonsense amendments to th

  • Virginia veterans benefits

    Last month the first of two articles concerning benefits available from the Commonwealth of Virginia for veterans and in some cases survivors and dependents was published in this newspaper.  This month the second and final chapter on this source of benefits is presented.

  • McDonnell thesis wakes up governor...

        The Virginia governor’s race (yes, folks, there is another campaign this year) was a rather boring affair until someone discovered the Republican candidate’s graduate thesis.

        Democrat Creigh Deeds and the GOP’s Bob McDonnell were limping along at summer’s end, seemingly to very little notice from voters. (Is it just me, or do the two of them even look a little bit alike?).