Daily Whackjob

I have strange dreams. I have for quite some time. Perhaps a bit of insight into a disturbed mind. Considering that many of my dreams find me hanging out with well-known people and celebrities, a convincing argument about the ill-effects of television and radio on the subconscious could likely be made. I’ve been backstage at Hendrix concerts, played on stage with Phish. Had a drink with Andy Warhol. I’ve been asked advice from Obama. I have even gone shopping with both George Bushes.
See, strange.
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Shouting each other down, changing rules, disputed elections, challenges to the status quo—the similarities are simply astounding.

“This was an organized effort to promote the agenda of a few people, the party leaders, over we the people.”

In a country that asks so much of its military, there really is no excuse for what the following video details.

Be sure our lawmakers hear from you.

…she may actually be able to secure the nomination.

How can someone resign from a position they never held?

The only one’s likely to buy the spin that Kurt Micheal is stepping down “for the good of the party” are his own kool-aid drinking fanatics. In fact, that’s not even true. The SWACmob is crafty, and it’s laughable to even suggest that there is any greater good involved. This move doesn’t come from a “good for the party” motive. The transparent reality is that it’s all about self-preservation and more spin. It’s simply a way to avoid being forced to abide by what the RPV was likely to decide (and also by the Sixth District Republican Chairman)—that Kurt Michael’s election as Augusta County GOP chairmanship is null and void (Larry Roller’s may be as well).

Ask yourself the following questions:
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There was a fundamental misunderstanding about how to govern. The concept of red versus blue is a tactic, not a strategy. In the long run, in order to mobilize your base, you tend to become more intense and your positions become more vitriolic, and you drive away the independents. Then you are no longer a majority.

Newt explains the Republican collapse over the last eight years. The SWACmob is smarter. Or so they think.

(via Below the Beltway)

The idea being floated is that the election of both Augusta County Republican Committee chairs will be thrown out and attempted again in the future. I suppose the RPV will have to bring in observers to make sure the local party gets it right next time.

The major problem I see with all of this is that it plays right into the overall SWACmob strategy. Tactically, the SWACjobs want to challenge every step of every procedure and be a pain whenever possible. It’s a tactic meant to distract, confuse, and frustrate. A do-over vote benefits them, and they know it.
It’s the same approach they’ve always had on the blogs. Fight hard, play dirty, and never acknowledge accountability for any wrong-doing. It could be lying about online and real identities, taking a dive at a campaign event, overstating outside influence, blaming others for divisiveness, perhaps even vandalism—it’s their style. Regardless of any argument about “conservative principles,” these are well-documented tactics used by the bunch.

Overall, these little battles form a larger strategy. What happens is that the tenacious little critters keep yapping, distracting, and biting at ankles until they frustrate enough of the opposition that they claim a victory by default. Take the meeting last Thursday for example. They raised enough stink during the official meeting that it eventually collapsed (helped by incompetence all around), many in attendance left, and then the SWACmob held their own pity party and claimed victory. Disenfranchise the opposition, then win majority rule of a much smaller group.

They also claim the “grassroots” banner and also now the future life-blood of the party, labeling anyone else the “old guard.” To be clear, I’ve never claimed that being impassioned, motivated, and certainly not “energized” as a bad thing. In fact, I am personally a huge proponent of people powered movements—it’s a bottom-up approach that really is the only substantial means for progress. But there is a huge difference between being a force for positive change, and being a disease in a zero-sum game. I also do not cast the “old guard” (for lack of a better term at the moment) as somehow being all the virtuous in this dispute. In fact, if they allow the nuts to push them around through bully tactics, careless mistakes, lack of organization, well then they deserve to be challenged. It’s just that the style, tactics and strategies of the SWACmob sets a poisonous tone that will never be a force for unity or leadership. It’s a recipe for disaster. What sort of good governance could possibly result from the fiasco witnessed last Thursday?

At last night’s spectacular Republican mass meeting in Augusta County, Kurt Michael and his hostile band of fanatics, allege that the three-hour meeting that occurred earlier in the evening was “illegal.” There is a preponderance of evidence that at least one procedural step was ignored—a proper adjourning of the meeting. Instead, they insist the meeting held afterward, with a fraction of the attendance, is in fact the legal and legitimate meeting. But did they follow the rules as well?

At issue is the election of the new committee chair. According to the Augusta Co Mass Meeting rules found at this link at the News Leader, the election of the chair would be guided by rules agreed upon at the previous monthly meeting. The rules were intended to guard against larger populated districts from dominating the meeting on this single night of voting, and overly influencing the outcome.

Each of the seven Magisterial Districts will cast one vote for the ACRC unit Chair. Each Magisterial District will instruct their Magisterial District Chair on how to cast the vote for ACRC Chairman. Out of the seven possible votes, the candidate with the most votes wins. See Article X, Sections A (2) of Augusta County Republican By-Laws.

Michael claims victory with a 57-2 vote count. Clearly he also didn’t follow procedure and thus is not the “legal” chairman. I suspect that will also be the conclusion of the Party parents that are left to try and clean up this mess of disgrace and incompetence. heh…”Republican for a Reason”…ain’t that the truth, lol!

So each side, in this now even more contentious battle, will continue to scheme and plot to destroy the other. More drama is sure to follow, and it will certainly be more bad news for the local GOP. The SWACjobs may not be smart, but they are tenacious. Like a tiny ankle-biting dog that just keeps annoying the ever-lovin’ shit out of everyone. They will continue to drive wedges and attempt to further their narrow goals—likely bringing down the tent all together.

I can hardly wait.

You’ve really managed to disprove the claim that you are divisive. By holding a separate meeting, with a entirely new vote, even calling a colleague a “clown,” you’ve exemplified the true meaning of “unity.”

“Congrats, Kurt! Your inspiration is contagious.”

Well that’s at least the way Lynn Mitchell sees it. Only in the bizzarro world of SWACistan, and in the deepest recesses of a hysterical mind, would one be able to view last night’s events as positive. The fact that Lynn Mitchell puts a positive spin on these events only confirms her motivations. To her the bickering, confusion, shouting, dismissal of the elected representatives, and a renegade, alternative meeting, was “an exciting evening that energized the grassroots and confirmed that Kurt is the leader we want because of his inspiration and leadership ability.” Delusional just isn’t a strong enough word to capture the thinking behind such a statement. Yet there it is. Local GOP leadership.

This is the atmosphere that many of us familiar with the style and tactics of the SWACjobs realize that they thrive within. Anger, hostility, contention, blindness, are all part and parcel to the way they operate. There is no debate. They are clearly right, the only true conservative, Republican voice. Everyone else is flatly wrong, has nothing to add, and should be treated as an enemy. But at the same time they call this “unity.” Amazing.

The insanity unfolding in the Staunton/Augusta County Republican Party just continues to astound observers. If it’s not dirty Democrats infiltrating the outcome of their primaries, it’s those pesky rules that stand in the way of a SWAC succession to power.

The latest SWACjob point of contention seems to be that they find the concept of one-person = one-vote to be detrimental to their “energized grassroots” agenda. Because following those approved set of rules resulted in Larry Roller beating SWACjob candidate Kurt Michael by a vote of 148-115. So clearly something shady must be happening. There is no way that the vocal SWACies will be marinalized by any rules, or logic, or vote, or majority voice! But as Andrew Clem notes, “That’s not a very democratic way of looking at it, but I guess democracy is not necessarily the highest virtue for some Republicans.” He adds:

Some time around 10:00 the vote counters returned to the room, and the results were announced. All along I had been expecting a tight race, but in the end, it wasn’t even close: Larry Roller 141, Kurt Michael 103. With 58% of the vote, it might not be considered a landslide, but it was still pretty decisive.

What happened next will be argued about for years to come. Right after Dr. Roller was declared the victor, Tom Nelson, one of the tellers who counted the votes, registered his objection to the propriety of the election. As grumbles grew louder, Jim Bailey declared that the mass meeting was adjourned sine die (that means without setting a future date, for you folks in Rio Linda). Kurt Michael then loudly objected, and as people started filing out of the room, he declared unilaterally that he was taking over the meeting. (Now there’s a take-charge kinda guy!)

So will the local GOP be able to turn to it’s elected leaders for, well, leadership? Apparently not. Hanger was asked to leave the room by Kurt “the uniter” Michael. So in this election dispute instead of hanging chads, we have Chad Hanger (Emmett’s son) attempting to resolve some of the mess. (okay bad pun) “Is this the direction we’re taking the party?” Chad Hanger asked. “Because this is absurd.”

Bob Goodlatte showed off his experience from the federal level of our government. After giving a rousing speech to the mass meeting about the importance of staying united, it came time for action.

As more and more people left the room in confusion, I told Congressman Goodlatte that the elected officials should huddle and exert their influence to resolve matters in a mutually-agreeable way, but he didn’t want to get involved.

With a party so competent, so able to communicate and resolve disputes, so well-organized and unified, the constituents of the area must be brimming with pride.

Update: SWACjob reaction is to insist that Kurt Michael was railroaded and that he is our modern-day version of Thomas Paine. We shall all pay dearly for mocking him!

Local GOP in shambles!
Swacgirl: “Tonight was a s***”
Michael tells Emmett Hanger to step off!
Fiddle heard.

Kurt Michael claims he’s rightful GOP leader, threatens legal action
VERONA — The divisiveness that has characterized the Augusta County Republican party for more than a year came to a head Thursday night as two separate mass meetings produced two separate chairmen.

After temporary chairman Jim Bailey adjourned a three-hour meeting without calling for a motion and then left the room, former chairman Kurt Michael stepped to the front to start the entire meeting over.

“He cannot adjourn a meeting without adjourning it,” Michael said.

Divisiveness and shouting that at times bordered on chaos characterized the first meeting, which garnered 267 voters and hundreds more observers.

Seriously. Shambles.
Who’s going to wear the Party big boy pants and settle this dispute in the hostile wilds of SWACistan? The players involved portray this as a “grassroots” vs. “establishment” face-off. That may be, but at the heart of this rift is fear. Wedge issues and politics of fear.

Update: Yankee Phil sends a dispatch from the disaster site.
Goodlatte’s speech must have been “inspiring” indeed! A note of sobriety: This is the leadership SWAC sends to the U.S. Congress.

and that’s right!

If you ever feel inclined to [potentially] read some entertaining short stories, dig into craigslist. There are seriously strange, odd, humorous, talented writers that submit to areas like “missed connections.”
I missed this one picked up by boing-boing.

It’s a story of hope. But more, it’s a story of genuine appreciation.

Why don’t oil companies help fund our transportation needs?

Oil companies are making huge profits from the mass consumption of fossil fuel burning vehicles. These vehicles congest and deteriorate our roads. Transportation funding is, and will remain, a budgeting nightmare. So it just seems logical that it’s in the oil companies’ interest to provide and maintain places for consumers to use their product.

Perhaps there is an apparent reason that I’m missing. Or maybe they already do, and I’m simply not aware of it. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

Too bad Clem lost. He seems to show hope for trying to steer influence away from the nuts in the local Republican party. A “holy war” or “jihad,” to use the parlance of the day, that Clem describes to have been hearing rumors of, seemed to have been averted. But apparently with known hooligans about, the good people of Staunton spent some of their dearly-departed tax money to provide armed security and maintain order of the Party. Fortunately, Staunton’s Police Department didn’t have to quell an insurrection, tazer any unruly youngsters, or shoot anyone.

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Sally Kern is a member of Oklahoma’s State Representatives. Here she shares her hate-filled views with a roomful of about 50 people.

“Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death knell of this country. I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam — which I think is a big threat, OK? Cause what’s happening now is they are going after, in schools, two-year olds…And this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading, and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation.”

Really? A bigger threat than terrorism?! Crap, you better watch out gays. The US invaded Iraq on trumped up terrorism charges. I hesitate to think what this means for homosexuals. Shock and Awe indeed.

Likely Kern was not expecting the wider audience that her rant has now garnered. Can we assume that Kern has developed these views from her pastor at the Olivet Baptist Church—her husband, Dr. Steven Kern? Ironically enough, the church maintains that it can be “The End of Your Search for a Friendly Church.”
Really?
I suppose it all depends upon what one’s interpretation of “friendly” means. Apparently, “good, pleasant, affectionate terms” isn’t in the Kern’s definition.

Pastor Steve is committed to the creation biblical worldview and believes the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God. Our pastor is committed to evangelism, community service, doing practical ministries as a church, and being personally accessible to his church, and is a political activist.

“Political activist” eh? I am pretty sure that if I’ve learned anything over the last week about churches and pastors, is that they shouldn’t be politically active. Odd, maybe Pastor Steve is black, because then this would all make sense. Hmmm, nope, he’s a whitey.

“Olivet is a caring church that reaches out in every way we can to touch lives with the love of Christ.”
Yeah, sure you do.

With a lot riding on today’s speech, Barack Obama delivered a stoic, serious, and in my opinion, very effective oratory aimed at keeping this campaign on message. A grim reality is that the sensational media often frames that message how they view it—through a filter of ratings and screaming talking-heads—and yet so often that is not the message we value, or that does our society any good.

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We can always debate opinions, but let’s at least agree that the following are true:

Hilary Clinton is not black.

The US did drop atomic bombs on Japan.

Rich, white people do control America.

The lovely greeting US forces have received in Iraq marks a very special milestone next week. Five years! And that warm, friendly “greeted as liberators” cuddly feeling just lasts and lasts. Why not stay 1,000 years and soak it all in, eh Mac?

Below are a few prime examples of what those heady days were like before we had this war to fill our hearts with pride and patriotism. Long before we began winning hearts and minds with sweet nuzzles like Abu Ghraib, we were honored to have Darling Dick swoon us with ballads of fantasy.

Now, I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

…

MR. RUSSERT: If your analysis is not correct, and we’re not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.

Not to be ignored, the charming continued…
Generals bein’ all up tight and shit about needin’ several hundreds of thousands of troops? For several years, and shit? Dang!
Don’t sweat it, Dicky just gives them suckas the gas face! “[T]o suggest that we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don’t think is accurate. I think that’s an overstatement.” Boo ya bitches!

Cost? What!? He ought to smack you. “Is it cost-free? Absolutely not. But the cost is far less than it will be if we get hit, for example, with a weapon that Saddam Hussein might provide to al-Qaeda, the cost to the United States of what happened on 9/11 with billions and billions of dollars and 3,000 lives. And the cost will be much greater in a future attack if the terrorists have access to the kinds of capabilities that Saddam Hussein has developed.”
Yeah. Tricky Dick gotcha ya there too! Don’t you know this war is going to pay for itself fool! Vast coalition of the willing Bitches!

“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”

“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.

What a massive douche.

For those of you that were offended by the first installment, you’re probably not going to like this version either. But for the grown-ups that appreciate a bit of adult humor, I suggest watching this.

There’s been no denying my (at times) harsh criticism of strict religious orthodoxy. For far too long the rhetoric of those that would call themselves “religious” has not matched their deeds. Wearing faith on ones sleeve has been more PR for politicians than a guiding set of principles for how they actually live and treat their fellow man. These trends have left me with a bad taste about organized religion in general. And I realize that I have been unfair in these judgments.
And yet, I personally still do not find adherence to a strict set of orthodoxy a prerequisite for being a “good” person. My path has meandered at times closer to, and farther from, a closeness to a higher spirit. Perhaps one day I will fully embrace a religion, but for now I do not, and the dude abides.

I’ve also struggled with accepting organized religion as a power structure in America. I think that I try to be accepting and tolerant of an individual’s choice of beliefs.* But I do not care for the characterization that largest religion in the world is a “victim” just because every last soul doesn’t adhere.

But enough about me and my shortcomings. The intention of this post is to express that my eyes have been opened to a new perspective. And at the core is reconciling how to once again become comfortable and confident in politicians that embrace their faith. Progressive politicians in particular have largely avoided discussion of their faith. And thus are defined by the right as Godless and immoral.

So I urge you to take the time to watch the following video speech by Barack Obama. True leadership is inspiring people to change and act. Obama very eloquently conveys a true sense of genuine leadership by taking a divisive issue head-on, and bringing people together.

(*I still think it’s absurd to attempt to make science answer questions of “why,” and religion to answer questions of “how” about life.)