Warm, warm welcome to the Old Dominion Blog Alliance, Chris!

Now, let the games begin!

I’ve misplaced my reading glasses but apparently Ben wants our opinion:

I vote nut….

badrose wants to wish Steve a very happy birthday!  Hope it’s a great one!!

“Shame on him,” said State Senator Roscoe Reynolds, D-Ridgeway, of caption entries posted on a blog by Will Vehrs. “If I were him, I would resign,” Reynolds said. “Or if I had the power to fire him, I’d fire him.” ~Martinsville Bulletin, May 5, 2006~

“As far as I know, the only thing that Joe has done for me is to design a website,” Reynolds said. “I don’t know much about blogs, and I am not aware of what this is about. I am just not into blogs.” ~The Franklin News-Post, Sept. 3, 2007~

Soooooo…. Roscoe Reynolds knew enough about blogs a year and a half ago to call for a bloggers resignation. NOW, after attending a blog conference, Roscoe doesn’t even know enough about blogs to comment. Roscoe may be sellin’ it but I ain’t buyin’ it. Roscoe’s a HYPOCRITE. Or must we now be forced to say HYPOCRITIC to be acceptable in this new age climate of panty-waisted whiners who want to pick apart syntax because they don’t have any real progressive ideas?

Hypocrisy: Calling for the resignation of a conservative blogger for making fun of a stupid picture but then sticking your head in the sand when your liberal blogger buddy pulls a “prank” involving advocates of pedophilia. The only thing worse than a hypocrite is a cowardly hypocrite.

Roscoe may be a member of a special genus of hypocrites. The Richmond Times-Dispatch calls him homo hypocriticalis because he boasts about fending off a rate increase after he voted for a considerably larger tax increase. Does anyone else notice a pattern here?

I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of my buddy, Alton Foley, than I was last Thursday night when he appeared as a guest on a local call-in show. In simple terms, he patiently described how members of the Old Dominion Blog Alliance had promoted YouTube videos of Roscoe Reynolds in all his glory, his arrogance and condescension displayed for all to see. Joe Stanley punished them by reserving a website in their name and linking it to NAMBLA. He later removed the NAMBLA link and replaced it with his rambling Mea Culpa complete with some links to blogs that don’t even belong to the ODBA.

It is complicated. Watch the video of Alton and decide for yourself. Send it on to Roscoe - maybe then he’ll finally stop flip-flopping and take a firm stand on something.

Or maybe a homo hypocriticalis can’t change its spots.

A letter to the editor, published today in the Martinsville Bulletin has unfortunately revived ROSCOEgate. Bill Wyatt, owner of WYAT40 television read the letter on the air this morning and then gave a VERY INACCURATE account of the controversy. To summarize, he led viewers unaccustomed to blogs into thinking that Roscoe Reynolds’ pal Joe Stanley’s behavior (”just pulling a funny”) and the subsequent response by the Old Dominion Blog Alliance (”some group of Republicans”) was typical of the Virginia political blogosphere. There was no mention of Joe Stanley being no typical blogger but the Chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Committee.

In spinning his yarn, Bill Wyatt named Alton Foley as being involved in the brouhaha and inferred that Alton was somehow the instigator. Alton called the show and offered to set the record straight. During the on-air call, Bill invited Alton to come on his evening talk show Talk of the Town tonight to explain it. Bill also said that he would be inviting Joe Stanley to join them. Alton has accepted and I have no idea what Joe will do. My “woman’s intuition” says he’ll stay home. Being accountable is hardly a trademark of a person who believes the ends always justify the means.

From the Roanoke Times:

In January 2006, Stanley unseated Gary Furrow to become chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Committee. The coup was hardly bloodless, though Stanley has avoided speaking of it except in vague terms, and Furrow did not return calls requesting comment on the matter.

My opinion is that anyone capable of pulling off a coup that is not bloodless within his own party didn’t think twice about linking our group of Virginia bloggers to a group advocating lowering the age of consent so that “men” can legally have sex with little boys. I don’t take offense easily but as the mother of a nine-year old boy, Joe’s actions made by blood run cold…and then boil. The ODBA is not a faceless acronym at which one can recklessly throw barbs - to me its members are friends which I hold dear. They are honorable people - I’m willing to bet that if I asked them to name the most despicable group (before Joe connected us to NAMBLA, that is) they could think of, NONE OF THEM would suggest a group of pedophiles. We just don’t think like that.

In Joe’s Mea Culpa he says, “I started to point it to a prominent Democratic site, but I don’t know of anyone who wants to be associated with these hate mongers and flat-earthers.” Did he check with NAMBLA to see if THEY wanted to be associated with us? Linking us to moveon.org would be “a funny.” Child rape is not.

Joe has created a diversion to draw attention away from his candidate, Roscoe Reynolds, and I don’t blame him. He calls the ODBA a “gutless invertebrate.” Isn’t it ironic that he called Roscoe one of several “elected invertebrae” on his blog? (As well as naming Roscoe, Pickle of the Week.)

Joe did ask a good question, though:

After years in office, who do you think is more culpable for the economic situation in Martinsville, Armstrong, Marshall, and Reynolds, or a blogger two hundred miles away?

Anyway, anyone interested in watching tonight’s show, with or without Joe can do so via streaming video by going to http://ustream.tv/channel/martinsville-media

Talk of the Town is scheduled to air at 7 pm.

like Scott, Jane, Ward, Ron, Grumpy, Carl and of course, badrose, have left questions for Atty. Gen. Bob McDonnell over at Charlie’s place. You should have Good Sense, too!

On September 11th, 2007, while most of us were remembering what we’d lost and feeling grateful for what we had, Ben (blogging as Not Larry Sabato) was thinking (as usual) “What can I do to stir the pot?”

What can I do to pay back those mean ODBA members for their baseless attacks on my best pal, Joey? All he did was link them to a group of pedophiles for crying out loud. Those big bullies. Where’s their sense of humor? I know! Racism! That always works! I’ll show them! And everyone will believe me because I’m a Democrat, I mean Democratic (almost forgot) and they’re just a bunch of conservatives! I’ll attack Jeff Evans, the bad man trying to unseat Joey’s pal, Roscoe! Once I declare Jeff a racist, issues and Roscoe’s abysmal voting record will be overlooked and I’ll be the hero! Clients will flock to Joey! We’ll be rolling in the dough and go to Red Lobster to celebrate! I’ll order calamari… no, make that two orders of calamari……

Since Ben couldn’t link Jeff Evans directly to being a racist, I’m sure he was delighted when he discovered Chip Hairston’s facebook page listing Chip as a member of a George Wallace Appreciation Society. I’ll bet that Ben thought he’d struck gold. After all, in BenWorld, a Republican candidate must certainly be held accountable for what one of their unpaid volunteers posts on their social networking page. It would also send a message to Chip and others like him that while we want his generation involved in the political process, they will only be recognized and respected if they are Democrats. Remember, this isn’t the first (and I doubt it will be the last) time Ben and his cronies attacked a Republican college student for what they posted on their facebook or myspace page. Goddess forbid a woman and/or person of color be conservative.

Chip took the high road and the time to respond to Ben’s attack post as well as some of the heartless comments left by those bold and courageous anonymous commenters. He explained that the group was formed to celebrate Wallace’s beliefs in states’ rights, an issue which should unite rather than divide us. Speaking of the comments section, this is where Ben states that he was aware that Chip was African-American when he made the accusation. I find myself questioning Ben’s mental health a little more than usual on this one:

So Ben, the point of all this is, the courtesy of a reply is requested. What were you trying to accomplish if not to smear Jeff and embarrass Chip?

If you choose to remain silent regarding this latest stunt of yours, I’ll accept that, Ben. But going forward, you must remember: No campaign is so important that any of us have license to recklessly play the racism card as you have. While you apparently can’t see past the tip of your own nose, ego or the next election, creating division between races can have dangerous consequences. If you don’t believe me, then ask the estimated twenty thousand people who gathered in Jena, Louisiana….

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, racism is a belief or ideology that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially to distinguish it as being either superior or inferior to another race or races. I do not feel that my race is superior to another nor do I feel that my race is inferior to another.

A group on facebook, a social tool for college students, named George Wallace Appreciation Society is not a racist group. Furthermore, this group is not really a group. For example, there are no meetings, nor are dues collected; there are no lectures and no discussion among members. This ‘group’ functions as a way for people to express their favor for states’ rights in a lighthearted manner.

Using “BenLogic”, if Ben made a group on Facebook called “I am the world’s biggest loser” and many of his friends became members, others may view those members as insensitive people who attack someone that they know. There are so many ways to blow the George Wallace Appreciation group out of proportion, if you’re uneducated or unethical.

The ideology of George Wallace does not dominate my life, much like Pepsi does not dominate my life despite the fact that I would willingly join a group devoted to the appreciation of Pepsi-Cola. If I were truly in favor of George Wallace’s one-time belief in segregation then I would be more apt to join a group called ‘Overturn Brown v Topeka Board of Education’ or somesuch like that. But we are getting beyond ourselves. These analogies only serve for the sake of example.

To be quite honest, Ben’s great zeal for the research of my facebook groups may show a tendency on his part for devoting time that could certainly be put towards more fruitful activities. This brings up the issue of what, in our society, can be inherently understood as a joke and what, under all circumstances, can be understood as a serious action.

Chip Hairston

Vote Jeff Evans