Letters

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

He had a sense of urgency and secrecy in his heavy French accent.

"You have to do this assignment immediately. This is time-sensitive," David Campbell said, over his cell phone in Montreal, Quebec. "They must not know the purpose of your assignment or the purpose will be defeated."

Campbell (probably not his real name) runs a scam operation. He mails unsolicited letters to people, pretending to hire them to evaluate stores. It's a twist of the "secret shopper" scam with the "money gram scam," and it's the latest prevalent scam hitting Virginia.

While the letter that he sends out claims to be hiring you to pose as a regular shopper, evaluating the work environment at stores like Wal-Mart, Kmart, Home Depot and McDonald's, his first assignment for you invariably is to test out the services at a money-transferring agency like Western Union or MoneyGram. The letter includes a check and a survey form that all appear professional and legitimate. Initially, the bank might even cash the check, but then it discovers later that the check's bad, and the money has to be paid back to the bank, after you've already mailed it back to the scamster, who is on the run, looking for new victims.

"I'm always moving around," Campbell admitted.

Margaret and Larry Hoots of Norfolk received Campbell's assignment. But thankfully they didn't fall for it.

They both are veterans of the Korean War and are now retired senior citizens, living on a fixed income. "I was taught to be on the alert," Margaret Hoots said. Their son fell for the scam two years ago, losing $3,500, so now their mission is to warn others to beware.

Laura Howard, also of Norfolk, contacted our office when she received a similar letter too. "Really it's so weird and disturbing," she said.

If you suspect you have received a scam letter like this, we encourage you to notify our office's consumer hotline, (800) 451-1525.

BILL MIMS

Attorney General
900 E. Main St.
Richmond
July 31, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

In the great tradition of Gov. (now Sen.) Mark Warner and Gov. Tim Kaine, Creigh Deeds is our Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia.

He has spent eight years in the House of Delegates and from then to the present has been a state senator. He is from Bath County and knows very well the needs of the people in southern Virginia regarding health care, education and jobs. He is very interested in improving the education of children all over Virginia, but especially in the areas he represents. He has great compassion for anyone needing a job or health care.

Unlike his opponent, Bob McDonnell, who thinks that the people of Virginia who are out of a job would rather be idle and be on welfare, Creigh Deeds wants to bring jobs to Virginians and is concerned about people out of work. What a shocking statement from Bob McDonnell and an insult to the people of Virginia!

Bob McDonnell is not a moderate candidate. First of all, he went to Regent University, which is Pat Robertson's college, and we know that is not a college with moderate tendencies. Also, McDonnell believes that the reason for the bad economy is that we had too much regulation. Truthfully, the reason for it is that we didn't have enough regulation of the banks and the mortgage loan people. The state the economy has been in was because these companies were free to do what they pleased, giving bad loans, etc.

Bob McDonnell thinks that ex-President Bush did a good job with the economy. Why does he think we are in such trouble with it now?

Creigh Deeds has always been a moderate in the General Assembly. But he is willing to compromise with both liberals and conservatives to get things done in Virginia. He is a hard-working, Christian candidate who is badly needed in Virginia.

Vote for Creigh Deeds to move forward in Virginia, not backward as McDonnell wants to do.

Dorothy Lowerre
403 Spring Hollow Road
Woodstock
Aug. 11, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Sen. "Deather" of Iowa, says that Sen. Kennedy would not be treated for his brain tumor in the U.S. under the new health-care reform because he is too old. Blue Cross and Blue Shield refused treatment for my son, 21, for the same kind of brain tumor 15 years ago. So the insurance companies already do what Sen. "Deather" says the new health reform will do. As I read it, the senator is wrong.

I had to threaten to sue them and threaten to perform free concerts at colleges across America to tell Christopher's story and how this insurance company was treating us. We were lucky to have him treated at Duke University Hospital, and his doctor also had to go to bat with us against BCBS, as well.

BCBS was just being arbitrary, saying that the bone marrow transplant was not proper protocol for his cancer, all the while that the doctor was saying that it was proper and to not do it would shorten his life. BCBS finally caved in.

Had BCBS not allowed Christopher to get a bone marrow transplant as part of his treatment, he would have died in six months or less from the date of discovery. As a result of getting the bone marrow transplant, we had Christopher with us for more than a year and half after the tumor was discovered.

I treasured every day of that time. We grew closer than ever, and I saw in him an incredible courage and witnessed amazing maturity that I believe would not have occurred had he not been allowed to live longer than six months.

Our insurance had a $1 million lifetime cap that was not exceeded by allowing the bone marrow transplant. BCBS was just trying to save money, not lives.

I want the government to make it illegal for the insurance companies to arbitrarily decide the proper protocol for the treatment of a disease or illness. The doctors and families should make those decisions, not the insurance companies.

Michael T. Cash
315 Indian Spring Trail
Maurertown
Aug. 13, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Virginians have an opportunity this November, as one of only two states in the country with gubernatorial elections, to set the model for responsible government. Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for attorney general, is a real example of the kind of leaders we need in Virginia, a man of integrity and firm principles.

Raised in Fairfax County, Ken has deep roots here, serving in local and statewide politics for more than a decade. As an attorney and legislator, he knows the law and Virginia's political system. He is tough on crime, pro-life and has a solid record of working for the public safety and welfare. He supports the Second Amendment right to bear arms and the right to private property. In the General Assembly he worked for stronger laws against gang violence, sex crimes, human trafficking and identity theft. As attorney general he will be prosecuting the laws he helped to pass.

Ken has often stated he would rather lose an election than sacrifice his principles. Unlike many politicians who flip-flop according to political fashion, Virginians can count on Ken to keep his promises.

Ken Cuccinelli is the right man for attorney general, but he needs our help to win in November. You can learn more about this fine candidate by visiting his Web site (www.cuccinelli.com) and watching for his campaign stops here in the Valley.

I hope you'll join me in supporting and voting for Ken in November.

Mary Ann Kreitzer
1216 Mill Road
Woodstock
Aug. 14, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Fifteenth District Del. Todd Gilbert doesn't always know what he is talking about.

In a May 12 WHSV-TV news broadcast, Gilbert was asked about opponent John Lesinski's proposal to establish an economic crisis strike force to deal with unemployment in Page County. Gilbert replied, "We created the economic crisis strike force back in 2006 when my opponent was still living in Fairfax. I voted to support that measure. It was a Republican initiative and just a month or so ago, the governor mobilized the strike force."

Gilbert was wrong to take credit for creation of the economic crisis strike force as a Republican initiative in 2006. From reports and state records, here are the facts.

Gov. Mark Warner created the strike force approach. In October 2001, when running for governor, Warner in a written statement said, "I will establish a governor's economic crisis strike force that can be dispatched immediately to any community that's plunged into economic crisis." In January 2002, Gov. Warner issued Executive Order No. 2, which created the "Virginia Economic Crisis Strike Force." The strike force helped thousands of people in four southern Virginia towns suffering severe unemployment.

In 2006, to continue Gov. Warner's strike force program, in a very bipartisan way, the General Assembly put it into law. Bills were sponsored and co-sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats. The final vote in favor was 39-0 in the Senate and 100-0 in the House. Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine signed the law on March 21, 2006.

In his televised statement, Gilbert was not only wrong to take credit for Gov. Mark Warner's creation of the economic crisis strike force, he implied that since his opponent, John Lesinski, wasn't here, he couldn't know about it.

The facts show that even though Gilbert was here, he's the one who didn't know what he was talking about. This gives voters good reason to question any further such claims Todd Gilbert makes in this election campaign.

Tony Dorrell
1463 Kern Springs Road
Woodstock
Aug. 15, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Like all liberals, it's not surprising that Gene Rigelon has to resort to name-calling because he cannot support his views with facts or reason. In his latest diatribe (Aug. 8 issue), Rigelon states: "Once again John Fusto, blinded by his lemming-like devotion to the can-do-no-wrong church, misses the point."

Color me surprised at this pathetic, childish tactic. It's also no surprise that Rigelon quotes Corliss Lamont, a known Marxist communist.

Be that as it may, it's Rigelon who misses the point. World food production continues to increase and the government subsidizes farmers not to grow crops. The liberal humanist communistic philosophy, which views mankind as a malignant tumor upon the world and trying to establish its own utopia, is at the root of many of the senseless deaths in the world.

Regarding deaths in underdeveloped nations, UNICEF has stated: "Over 80 percent of deaths are due to one or more of six causes -- tetanus, measles, whopping cough, diarrhea, acute respiratory infections or malaria." Those diseases are a cause of the poor sanitation and unclean water.

However, the paranoia of the liberal, atheistic humanists on population control has diverted funds from medicines and sanitation control projects that could alleviate and solve problems to contraceptive, sterilization and abortion campaigns to advance their agenda of population control. One of the first acts of Obama was to abolish the Mexico City policy and unleash hundreds of millions of dollars into the Third World for abortion.

As Pope Benedict XVI stated in his latest encyclical, "Charity in Truth," "All of humanity is alienated when too much trust is placed in merely human projects, ideologies and false utopias. ... Reason always stands in need of being purified by faith: This also holds true for political reason, which must not consider itself omnipotent. For its part, religion always needs to be purified by reason in order to show its authentically human face. Any breach in this dialogue comes only at an enormous price to human development."

History has already shown that trying to create a utopia based on atheistic humanism will always result in death, persecution and disaster.

John W. Fusto
1112 Happy Ridge Drive
Front Royal
Aug. 17, 2009