Hey Bobby May! Someone Already Tried the NAMBLA Thing
Okay, remember my last post down there, when I wondered if this new line of attacks isn't John McCain's NAMBLA moment?
Well, good ol' doggone Bobby May just confirmed it.
You see, Bobby May is the McCain campaign's chairman in Buchanan County, VA, population 26,978. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Buchanan County is one of America's poorest, and is about 97% White.
Well, good ol' Bobby May wrote himself a little op-ed in the local paper. Remember, this is an official representative of the McCain-Palin campaign (note my emphasis added to the line below:)
REPARATIONS TO BLACK COMMUNITY: Opposes before Election Day and supports after Election Day.
FREEDOM OF RELIGION: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology classes taught in all churches - raise taxes to pay for this mandate. Put Rev. Jeremiah Wright in charge. Condemnation of homosexuality from the pulpit will become a Class 1 Felony.
HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE: Raise taxes. And coddle sexual perverts. Give tax breaks for NAMBLA membership fees.
DRUG CRISIS: Raise taxes to pay for free drugs for Obama’s inner-city political base.
ABORTION: Anywhere, anytime, for anyone for any reason up to 9 months and send taxpayers the bill. Encourage Partial Birth Abortion.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Keep buying foreign oil and sending billions to Muslim countries that hate us and want to destroy us. [Wait, isn't that the Republican platform?]
2ND AMENDMENT: Under Obama will only apply to gang-bangers, illegal aliens, Islamo-Fascist terrorists, and Senator Jim Webb’s aide.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Hire rapper Ludacris to “paint it black.” Taxes to be increased to buy enough paint for the job plus spray-paint for graffiti.
THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: Raise taxes to send $845 billion, most of it to Africa so the Obama family there can skim off enough for them to free their goats and live the American Dream.
NATIONAL ANTHEM: Change to the “Black National Anthem” by James Weldon Johnson. And raise taxes.
U.S. FLAG: Replace 50 stars with a star and crescent logo; red stripes changed to green to represent Obama’s tree-hugging radical environmentalism and his lack of experience. Flag lapel pins, having become a substitute for “real patriotism,” will henceforth be banned. And raise taxes.
U.S. MILITARY: Confiscate all weapons, substitute water pistols, pea shooters and bows with suction cup arrows. Replace U.S. flags on uniforms with peace symbols changing uniform color from green to pink and abolishing the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, replacing it with “A queer in every foxhole and a camouflage sex toy in every backpack” requirement. Condoms will be issues instead of bullets and brotherly love will be encouraged. Barney Frank will be the new Secretary of Defense (renamed Secretary of Peace and Love) and Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Lindsay Lohan, and Rick Boucher will all be made 5-star generals. And raise taxes.
Just for the record, Rick Boucher is the local Democratic congressman. And doesn't it sound an awful lot like the GOP isn't even trying to hide its racism anymore?
When I opened my old local hometown newspaper and read the quote that I highlighted in the "Keepin' it Real in Stockport" post, I could only sigh heavily and hope that it was a generational issue that would die off eventually.
But I currently live in Virginia (Northern) and we all know that in "The South" they still proudly wave the confederate flag. Remember George Allen? Mr. Macaca? Well, he never apologised for having that flag in the back window of his pickup truck. Down in that area of the state, republican and racist is a distinction without a difference.
furelise:
The fact that you have lived in Buchanan all your life and also known Mr. May (who has of this writing been fired by the McCain campaign, and made "worst person" on Olbermann) your entire life shows how insulated you really are down there. So you want some facts?
Buchanan county (as of the 2007 census figures posted to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service) breakdown by race show that whites comprise 96+ percent of the 23,000 population estimate in over 500 square miles of the county. Only 3% of the 23,000 reported as black.
Just because Mr. May is so outspoken about his racism doesn't preclude the idea that white "democrats" from the area are not all that liberal. They may not wear sheets, but with only 3% of the population being black, they might not have to. You only have to look at the state legislature and see how many times Tim Kaine has lost fights to gauge their support for anything labeled "liberal".
I'm glad that you feel Buchanan such a tolerant and accepting place, but tolerating and accepting racists and bigots in the public sphere just because "they're from around here" diminishes us all.
ACCEPTING CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ASSOCIATES OF KNOWN TERRORISTS?
The Ayers-Weber-McCain connection. Truth? Guilt by Association? We report. YOU Decide!
Arnold R. "Arnie" Weber is a Chicago Annenberg Board Member and Chicago "insider". He was a part of the Nixon White House. Arnie Weber has held other Washington "insider" jobs too. He is a LONGTIME REPUBLICAN DONOR. But get this: Arnie Weber was a BOARD MEMBER of the infamous **CHICAGO ANNENBERG CHALLENGE** organization, which was founded by known "TERRORIST" Bill Ayers!
Sarah Palin was using "guilt by association". This, however, is a two way street but Gov. Palin may not understand this.
NEW INFORMATION SHOWS THAT JOHN MCCAIN HAS ACCEPTED "TAINTED" CAMPAIGN MONEY FROM ARNIE WEBER, AN ASSOCIATE OF BILL AYERS.
Arnie Weber has given the maximum legal amount of $1,500 to the McCain campaign in 2008. He probably would have given more if allowed by law. In 2008, Arnie Weber made two separate donations of $1,000 and $500 to McCain’s presidential campaign run by EX-LOBBYIST AND WASHINGTON INSIDER RICK DAVIS.
And that's not all. On 10/08/2008, John McCain's campaign released a list of 100 former ambassadors "endorsing" the GOP presidential nominee. Second on the list is Leonore Annenberg, currently the president and chairman of the Annenberg Foundation and widow of ambassador and philanthropist Walter Annenberg. Ms. Annenberg was herself the "chief of protocol" at the State Department under President Reagan. Ms. Annenberg was responsible for the Chicago education board where Arnie Weber and Bill Ayers worked on their political "agendas" for Chicago. Arnie Weber is a McCain CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTOR.
Clearly there is a pattern forming here. Sarah Palin SHOUTS TO HER FANS IN FLORIDA that THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION ACTIVELY SUPPORTED A "DOMESTIC TERRORIST" and now she and John McCain turn a blind eye on their own house. They embrace not only their BLOOD MONEY from Weber but their political endorsements from Annenberg!
I have to ask, WHAT ON EARTH IS NEXT? Will McCain/Palin suddenly start to associate with people that have said "shoot the FBI (G. Gordon Liddy) or start sleeping with secessionists (Alaskan Independence Party)? Will they stoop to accepting endorsements from members of Osama bin Laden's family, or from the religious leaders IRAN if it will help them get elected?
I demand that Senator McCain denounce this man, Arnie Weber, and this woman, Leonore Annenberg, and all of their associations to "terrorists" (as defined by his running mate, Sarah Palin).
I call on Senator McCain to reject these tainted donations. John McCain should then investigate how such a thing could possibly happen inside HIS OWN CAMPAIGN before seeking to cast stones at Senator Obama. McCain's campaign CEO, RICK DAVIS, needs to explain to the AMERICAN VOTERS his reasons for accepting this dirty money and these shameful endorsements. Are they really that *desperate* to win this election at any cost? Doesn't John McCain still believe in the *honor* that he felt when defending this country against the godless enemy in Vietnam where he served as a prisoner of war for more than 5 years?
THE "LIBERAL MEDIA" SHOULD ASK JOHN MCCAIN WHY HE ACCEPTED THIS TAINTED CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THIS "TERRORIST" ASSOCIATE. THEY SHOULD DEMAND THAT LEONORE ANNENBERG explain how this happened to HER FOUNDATION. Incredible as it may sound, Arnie Weber doesn't even DENY that he ASSOCIATED FOR YEARS with a "KNOWN TERRORIST". NEITHER does Ms. Annenberg.
This is probably because neither of them have been been asked. Nor should they be. Leave them alone.
What? Oh, now for the reality check: It turns out that these types of "facts" are simply BASELESS SMEAR ATTACKS WITH NO MERIT! Yes. It is true. Attacks like this are meant to distract the uninformed voters near the end of an election. We don't hear about them very often because most candidates have too much integrity to run them. They know that winning an election based on lies is unacceptable. Besides, people want to talk about REAL issues affecting REAL lives, not play a game of "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon".
Random associations are EASY to find. For instance, it turns out that you can trace Obama's FAMILY TREE to both George W. Bush (10th cousins once removed) and Dick Cheney (eighth cousins). Yep! They are legally RELATIVES. This is yet another useless "fact" for Trivial Pursuit lovers, but it is not worthy of any media time in this national election for the greatest country on God's green earth.
If you want some more guilt by association, here is something to find out for yourself. Who said this? Who supports this guy and his political party? "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. And I won't be buried under their damn flag."
Guilt by association is an attack on voters and on the electoral process. Voters need to learn about the issues. Governor Palin should apologize for raising this STUPID guilt by association tactic against Senator Obama. And if she REALLY believes what she is saying, she REALLY should demand that they return "Arnie" Weber's campaign donations. Seriously. To do anything short of that would be blatant hypocrisy.
Starfrenzy/Your Mother/furelise:
This is not personal. No one is calling you out as a racist. Your efforts (and your Ma's) to fight this ignorant bit of trash are commendable.
The problem, however, is that while you and probably quite a few others recognize the lunatic in your midst, the editor of the local paper doesn't see it that way. If he thought that the column was offensive to the majority of readers, it would be gone, even if he was committed to a notion of free speech.
Want to test the theory?
Tell the editor of the paper that you want to write a column akin to Dan Savage's "Savage Love". Post your first column here, we all would like to read it when you are published.
1.) "The Voice" is not the local paper for this area and in no way represents the thoughts from this area. There are three types of stories from that paper -- shock, conservative and money.
Shock - They will publish articles that dig a little deeper than most area newspapers will go.
Conservative - Highly in this area as evidenced by May's column and Earl Cole (the editor) in his defense of Bobby.
Money - If you are a democrat, you can get a fair shake. If you are willing to provide the cash in buying ad space. The reason being the paper isn't well funded.
2.) The actual local newspaper is 'The Virginia Mountaineer'.
3.) Bobby May is likely one of the most hated men in this county. If not for being friends with Earl Cole, he would be laughed at by anyone who even thought of him as a 'columnist'. Just recently he was campaigning for John McCain and was doing so near some stoplights in Grundy, VA. One person is kind enough to roll down the window and ask Bobby what he was doing campaigning for McCain because "you know it will hurt him more than help him since everyone around here hates you."
4.) To further the last point, Bobby has ran multiple times for some type of office on the Republican ticket in this county. Multiple times he has lost. A dead turtle pulled from a creek bed would likely garner more support than him.
5.) The diversity in this county is for many reasons. Namely this is coal country. In heavy coal mining counties, the diversity isn't at it's highest.
6.) The lack of income in this county is due in large part to the county becoming dry on coal. During the 80's, the county management could not probably manage funds nor the coal companies which led to county coal companies going overboard in shipping coal.
7.) To further on #6, for years this county was the richest in Virginia by wide and far due to the amount of coal it produced. At one point, this county produced and shipped more coal to foreign countries than any place in America. It was large in wealth, but could not control the boom for the future.
8.) After the coal boom from the 70's and 80's, the population has decreased by massive amounts. Schools have been consolidated and there have even been talks of one large county school due to the insanely small numbers. The jobs are simply not here and people have moved away.
But to the original point -- Bobby May is respected by only a few in this county, namely a few people who find him insightful in the Republican party. Consider him an even more annoying version of Sean Hannity and you would have an idea of this man.
In reality, people in this county understand that we have a stigma of being racists by outsiders who look in on us. Unfortunately, folks like Bobby May will never let us break that idea.
Sad thing is, even with the embarrassment he has brought on himself and this area, he will be right back at work next week with another of piece of journalistic mastery. That's the kinda guy this man is.
You see, you speak of absolutely no knowledge of the area or the people from it, but yet you are ready to lump them all together. How close minded and full of yourself are you?
Bobby is no more a person that speaks for anyone in this county than you are for the people of Ohio. Although if you want me to lump your bigoted thoughts upon them, I guess we can do that as well ...
You're taking my comments as an ad hominem on you and the above mentioned posters. Nothing could be further from "thetruth".
What McCain finally realized in the last several campaign stops is the amount of flat out ugly that he and The PalinBot have unleashed by encouraging and allowing the use of surrogate attack dogs such as Bobby May- not just in Buchanan- but all over the country. Finally the McCain of 2000 had to acknowledge how false the accusations were and how dangerous it had become, only to reap the jeers of his own supporters....
In that same way, when you point out that The Mountaineer is the local paper, you fail to remember several things about the area in which you live- (from the WaPo)
This little incident was in August. Even after all the negative national media attention was directed at Allen for the next two months, on October 26th, The Virginia Mountaineer ENDORSED Allen over Webb in the Senate race:.
So, even if he is a confederate flag wavin', cowboy boot wearin', make fun of the only brown kid around kind of guy, he's our kind of guy.
And that's the point. The really ugly ones that form "the base" take heart, solace and feed their hate through the demeanor and public statements of the campaign.
So, if you're telling me that Bobby and Earl are the only whack jobs in Buchanan, well, maybe you need to take a look around at the rest of the state to know how out of touch you are.
See, even though I was born and raised in Ohio and still consider it home, I've been living in Virginia for almost 20 years. I try to pay attention to all sorts of things and unfortunately when both Bobby and George are playing to an audience with their local yokel behavior, it just makes you wonder who makes up the audience.......
You have not heard the outrage towards Mr. May and you have not stepped foot in this county to understand a single thing about it. So why continue to speak on the topic as an outsider with no knowledge of anything in it?
Numerous people already have given you insight into this county, but yet you continue to think you know better than any of us. You are more interested in not being wrong than actually being talked down from your bigoted POV. That sir, is sad.
But you continue to act as if you have more knowledge of any situation than people who are actually around. Next you will know more about Catholicism than the Pope, more about England than the Queen, more about the global economy than Warren Buffet and so on. Step down from your perch and get a reality check, you are not as smart as you want to believe.
In fairness, while Pope Benedict is one of the foremost scholars on Catholicism in the world, and has been for decades, QE2 does not know very much about England. She lives an entirely isolated and secluded life and her knowledge of England comes from reading and occasionally appearing in public. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, David Miliband, Alistair Darling, and Michael Howard she sure is not.
I hope you've enjoyed my needling as much as I have.
Since the focus of this back and forth has become distraction from the original point of my first post, I'll ignore your ad hominem that continues down that road.
In the "Keepin' it Real in Stockport" post, I felt much as starfrenzy- embarrassed and dismayed that in today's world and close to home such blatant racism still would show itself. Proudly, arrogantly, and in-your-face.
Mr. Nesselrode's quote reminded me of my 7th grade history teacher's anecdote in class about finding Klan sheets in his grandfather's house in southern Ohio, as if it was just an accepted thing to be or do. Kind of like being in the local Kiwanis or Rotary....just a little different.
What struck me about Bobby May and Mr. Nesselrode was their assumption that they could confidently portray their locality in such stark terms. No nuance, no "code words". When you look at the borders of where Morgan county and Buchanan county sit, they have the state of West Virginia in common. West Virginia, where the polite term "working class white, low information voter" has been coined by the MSM to describe those individuals. If you look at the demographics of Buchanan and Morgan, they are almost identical- 96+% white, 3% black.
What can be extrapolated from that? Well, Nick D makes a leap that is intuitive, but not necessarily accurate. The "quacks like a duck" rationale can lead to false conclusions like "I agree with the Fox network's political stance because I have to watch the Fox network to see the Redskins game".
So, in my view, we'll wait for the results of the election. If the county is as you say then the collective disgust you portray should show itself within the voting stats. If Bobby May and William Nesselrode are correct, we should see that reflected also.
Good for you Notrol. Nick owes you one for finally cleaning up his mess.
Racial profiling is such an ugly thing.
Being misinformed about Buchanan County qualifies a person as an idiot? I guess that makes more than 300 million Americans idiots.
Pay a little closer attention to language.