Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds campaigns in Floyd

As Virginia's state and local election campaigns head into the final week, Democrat Creigh Deeds continues to sink in the polls and many voters, looking at the two choices available for governor, feel like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis. They don't know what the hell to do when they go into the polls.

But most just want the campaigns to end. The mud-slinging has reached an all-time high this election season and polls show a majority of voters are sick and tired of the flood of negative ads.

The Washington Post reports today:

Republican Robert F. McDonnell carries a double-digit lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in the final week of the campaign for Virginia governor, according to a new Washington Post poll.

The Republican, briefly buffeted in the polls by voters' initial reaction to the publication of his 1989 graduate school thesis, has rebounded to big advantages on the top issues, particularly taxes, and is now seen as the more effective leader, more honest and more empathetic. McDonnell is also buoyed by support outside Northern Virginia, where he is outperforming all other top-of-the-ticket Republican candidates this decade.

Statewide, McDonnell leads Deeds among likely voters by 55 to 44 percent. McDonnell, who narrowly defeated Deeds in the race for attorney general four years ago, has been above 50 percent among likely voters in all four Post polls in the campaign.

The poll shows that Deeds has been unable to shift the dynamics of a race that in recent weeks appeared to be slipping away from him. Despite a concerted effort to reverse a widespread voter perception that his campaign has been largely negative, more than six in 10 polled see the Democrat as running a mainly negative effort. By contrast, most see McDonnell's campaign as a predominantly positive one.

Deeds has also been unable to excite his supporters and close the dramatic gap in enthusiasm McDonnell has held from the start. About a quarter of Deeds voters say they are supporting him "not too" enthusiastically or "not at all" enthusiastically. More than nine in 10 of those who back McDonnell are "very" enthusiastic or "fairly" enthusiastic about the Republican.

Locally, most voter attention is focused on the Supervisor race in the normally-Democratic Courthouse District between Republican Case Clinger and former Floyd Town Manager Mike Maslaney, a Democrat running as an independent. Outgoing supervisor Jerry Boothe, a Democrat turned Republican, is supporting Clinger and Masleney has some baggage from his involvement, as a member of the county Economic Development Authority, in the controversial data center deal that went south last Friday when Data Knight 365 failed to come up with a $100,000 down payment on purchase of land for the deal and documents delivered to the county left more questions than answers.

Several voters who live outside the Courthouse District tell me they might not vote this year because neither McDonnell or Deeds gives them any reason for support.

I saw that Sunday when a glitch in the database that serves content to Blue Ridge Muse hiccuped and comments by users disappeared from the posts.

The comments were still in the database and even appeared in the "recent comments" listing in the far right-hand column of the pages but they could not be found on the pages.

After running a number of tests (and gritting my teeth a lot) I found a routine database update had changed the ID number of "anonymous" posters and this caused the comments to disappear. Once that was corrected, everything worked again and we were back in business.

Ah, technology.

We're still tweaking the site and will be adding new features. If you run into any problems or have any suggestions, please let me know.

Vick feigned sorrow for his dogfighting days, professed a new found appreciation for animals and declared he has found God.

That's great news. We didn't know God was missing. We glad Michael kicked off his public apology crusade by announcing he has located the missing deity.

Said Vick:

The first day I walked into prison, and he slammed that door, I knew the magnitude of the decision that I made, and the poor judgment, and what I allowed to happen to the animals. And, you know, it's no way of explaining the hurt and the guilt that I felt. And that was the reason I cried so many nights. And that put it all into perspective.

Wow. Such profound sentiments. Wonder who wrote it for him? Those who knew Vick in college say he had trouble stringing two declarative sentences together.

Vick also vowed to work to put and end to dogfighting. Uh huh. And there will be pork in the treetops by morning.

I've regraded the damn thing 11 times this year: That's right, 11 times and Mother Nature has destroyed it 11 times within 48 hours.

I give up. Anybody need a good off-road, ATV trail?

A friend who admits she smokes marijuana says laws declaring the drug illegal are "stupid."

"When the law is stupid I see no reason to obey it," she adds.

She and other members of the Floyd County's marijuana community are upset over Commonwealth's Attorney Stephanie Shortt's dogged enforcement of laws against marijuana manufacturing and use. Shortt recently obtained a guilty plea from Patrick Fenn, a local pot user who grows a lot of the drug for his use and to hand out to friends. Shortt is also threatening to take Fenn's house because Virginia law allows confiscation of property used in drug production and distribution.

"Stephanie Shortt's problem is that she never smoked grass," my friend declared.

I don't know if Shortt smoked grass as a young woman or not. A lot of people her age did so during their college years. It's not a question I normally ask a candidate for office. For the record, I did not smoke grass in college. My drug of choice was scotch and I abused it and other alcohol for more than 30 years. My last use of that drug was 14 years, 11 months and two days ago.

Shortt campaigned for office on a promise to enforce the drug laws and to crack down on the "get out of jail free" plea deals of previous Commonwealth's Attorney Gordon Hannett. Her pursuit of Fenn and other marijuana growers in the county has angered some of the pot heads who supported her in the 2007 elections, making Shortt one of those rare politicians who is in trouble with some supporters for actually delivering on a campaign promise.

"We must be a nation of laws," said John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. That notion provided one of the foundations of that historic document and the Constitution that followed it.

Yet I hear from people who suggest that we should be a nation of laws only when they happen to agree with that law.  This issue has popped up in recent weeks with our stories on the the widespread violations of traffic laws.

Says one emailer: "The stop sign at Barberry should be a yield sign. It used to be one. It should be again."

Or another: "Passing on the right is not that dangerous. It should not be against the law."

If we are to be a nation of laws can we be one if people are allowed to pick and choose which laws to obey and discard those they feel are "stupid" or "wrong?"

Some might say that breaking a traffic law is no big deal. After all, traffic laws are not even considered misdemeanors, much less a felony.

If you run a stop sign and cause an accident that causes a death you can be charged with vehicular manslaughter, which is a felony. If a car ahead of you is turning left and you whip around on the right and strike a pedestrian, motorcyclist or another vehicle and someone dies you could, and should, end up in prison.

And if you grow marijuana and give enough of it to your friends that is called distribution under the law and is also a felony.

A felony conviction can cost you basic rights of citizenship, including the right to vote, to obtain a passport and travel or keep you from getting a job and making a living.

Yeah, the law might be stupid but the real stupidity is putting your future at risk by ignoring it.

Former Floyd Town Manager Mike Maslaney sought signatures for his petition on the streets of Floyd during the Friday Night Jamboree last week. Protocol Automotive owner Joey Kaylor took out paperwork as well. Neither has formally announced.

Maslaney is also an investor in town redevelopment projects like The Village Green (where Blue Ridge Muse is located) and directed the management group for the downtown redevelopment program.

Kaylor recently relocated and expanded Protocol to a new location on U.S. 221 North.

Arbogast claims he has not received any direct complaints about county school bus drivers. Some Floyd County parents say he's not telling the truth, adding they have complained often in the past but nothing was done.

Clearly a case of "he said, they said," but Arbogast's comments to The Times about our video that shows three buses running the stop sign at Barberry Road and East Main Street raises questions about his eyesight or his willingness to admit the truth:

After seeing the video, Arbogast said, "We talked directly with individuals who might have been part of that."

He said he recognized that at least one driver was "more pausing instead of stopping," but he said he didn't see it as a widespread problem.

He pointed to an "extraordinary" driving record of Floyd's bus drivers, who haul about 1,900 students on 46 buses each day.

"I think there's just sometimes that we need to be reminded," he said.

"I don't expect to hear about it again."

Say what? At least one driver "more pausing instead of stopping?" The video clearly shows two buses driving through the intersection without stopping and one other bus slowing but not coming to a complete stop.

Had Arbogast or anyone from his office asked, I could have provided a full-resolution copy of the video that shows the bus numbers of the drivers who ran the stop signs but I've heard nothing from anyone connected with the school system. That tells me that he is more interested in glossing over the situation up than in getting to the truth of which drivers might be putting school children at risk with reckless driving habits.

Arbogast's comments to the Times leaves three options:

1. The Times misquoted him;
2. He needs a vision test;
3. Or he's deliberately refusing to admit the truth.

Interestingly, his comments to The Times provide more information than he gave to the county board of trustees last week when Indian Valley Supervisor Fred Gerald asked what had been done about reports of dangerous driving by school bus drivers.

Arbogast clearly got angry when the question was raised. He blustered a lot but said little. Some supervisors said later they were shocked by the tone of Arbogast's response.

"He clearly was flustered," Courthouse Supervisor Jerry Boothe said.

Arbogast didn't give the board any details, choosing to hide behind a law that protects employee privacy. However, that law does not prevent him from telling the board and the public statistics on what actions, if any, have been taken against bus drivers who break the law. He could provide stats on the number of drivers, if any, who have been disciplined, suspended or fired. Perhaps a formal request under Virginia's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) can open some of the closed doors at the Floyd County School system.

He's wrong to think he won't hear about this again. He failed to mention that the letter to drivers telling them to obey speed limits and stop signs went out more than a week before I videotaped the drivers still running stop signs at Barberry and Eastd Main. I'm still getting reports of drivers breaking the law and I'm not the only one out there with a video camera.

Some drivers obviously didn't take school bus boss Mike Carr's warnings seriously. Why should they? Three's no record showing that anything has been done in the past. Instead of trying to smooth the situation over with bureaucratic doublespeak, the administration of Floyd County's schools needs to prove to the public that they really do care about the safety of the children they transport. From what I've seen to date, I'm inclined to believe they really don't give a damn. A school administrator or school board chairman with nothing to hide would get in my face and prove I was wrong. Sadly, it appears that only a tragedy will bring about real action and change.

Connected? Not on the surface, unless you needed to use the new phone book to look up the number for AEP so you could call and report the power outage.

AEP, our county's sole electric power utility, is not listed in the new phone directory from Citizens Telephone Cooperative, our county's sole telephone service provider.

Tried checking with Citizens to find out what happened but they were closed for Good Friday.

Power went out at our house shortly after 2 p.m. Fortunately, we have a Guardian automatic backup generator that kicks in and restores power after 45 seconds. But when Amy tried to look up the number of AEP in the new phone book, it wasn't there.

We still have a 2008 phone book and the number is listed there so I looked it  up and called AEP to report the outage and then asked to speak to Customer Service. It took several levels of prompts to finally get to a person:

Can I help you sir."

"Yes, I'd like to report a phone book outage."

"A what?"

"A phone book outage. Your number is not in our new phone directory."

"Sir, it is our policy to place our phone listings in the directories of all areas were serve."

"Not so in Floyd County."

"Well, sir, you will need to take that up with the phone company that serves your area."

"I can't. They're closed today."

"Well, sir, our number is on your bill."

"I don't get a bill. I pay my bills online and you no longer send bills to our home."

"Well, sir, you can always look up the number on our web site."

"I could but let's suppose that my power's out and I don't have a backup generator and I can't get on my computer. What do I do then?"

"I'm afraid I don't know sir. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Just for grins, I called directory assistance. Yep, you can get the phone number that way.

Just not in the new phone book.