What the heck has happened to politics in Roanoke County?

For evidence of its depressing state, you need look no further than the Roanoke Tea Party’s forum Thursday night for Republican candidates for the Board of Supervisors.

Tea Party hijinks have more or less driven Republican supervisors Richard Flora and Mike Altizer into announcing their retirements. Now, unfortunately, the Tea Party has hijacked the GOP issues agenda. The result was lots of hot air wasted on things that are part mundane, part insane.

One was the county’s membership in an environmental organization, ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability, which has long been thorn with the Tea Party.

Another was whether the county should have wasted taxpayer dollars fighting for unfettered prayer at board meetings. A third was whether restrictions on backyard chickens violated the constitution.

Loony-bin issues are bad enough. But the Roanoke County Democrats seem in even worse shape. Their problem is loony-bin infighting.

A bitter leadership struggle between former party chairman Richard Evans and Brian Lang, the current chairman, has hamstrung the party and dragged it into both civil and criminal court.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

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The Post of the Day — April 17, 2013

Note from Dan: The following is by regular poster J.M. White. It was written on this thread as a response to another poster who complained about RWers derisively calling President Obama a liberal messiah.

“Most of my personal research into the matter reveals that the messiah meme originated when his own cheerleaders in ’08 called him “the one.” Of course, this was meant in reference to the real possibility of him breaking through the “good ol’ white boy” barrier to the presidency and not in any religious vein.

Naturally, the fundies got up in arms about it (as they do every new presidency) in their ever-persistent desire to bring about the Apocalypse. Seriously, when has some group not considered a new POTUS the Antichrist? They did it with Reagan. They did it with both Bushes. They did it with Clinton. They don’t want a Republican or a Democrat and they really don’t care about affiliation at all. They just want Jesus to come back; they don’t care how it’s catalyzed. Read more »

Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Editor — March 20, 2013

The win by the tea partyers and anti-government types on the Crooked Road issue should stir those (like me) who dismiss that movement as a bunch of kooks (“Crooked Road nixes heritage bid,” March 15 news story).

By showing up en masse at county board of supervisors and city council meetings and shouting down opposing voices, they have wrongly convinced some supervisors and others that they represent a majority of citizens.

Consequently, in this case, our tax money will go to other causes instead of helping to promote and preserve a part of local culture that is dear to many Southwest Virginia hearts. I hope the decision by the Crooked Road not to seek National Heritage designation is reversible – if not now, then perhaps next year.

To help that happen, we need to speak up ourselves and/or vote out those who have come under tea party sway. If you need encouragement, then go to a board or council meeting where an issue like this is being discussed, listen to the uninformed tea partyer rants, and ask yourself if you want to live in a county, state or nation run, directly or indirectly, by those.

Ronald Hall
PULASKI

Daderot | Wikimedia Commons | Altered by Dan

Your daily Letter to the Columnist – March 18, 2013

Dan:

You have written another great article (Roanoke Times, 3/14/13) regarding the NHA designation for the Crooked Road (or now the lack of it per today’s paper).

I regret the Crooked Road has thrown in the towel when only three counties (and I live in one of them), two of which do not even lie along the “road,” have voted not to support it.

Those counties, evidently paying homage to the ignorant tea party and equally ignorant farmers group whose message is as bogus as the proverbial $3 bill, should be ashamed of themselves.

My thanks for putting this situation into proper perspective.

I will be expressing my concern with the Crooked Road group as well as my Wythe County Board of Supervisors.

Bill Shiner
MAX MEADOWS

This sublime bit of genius is from cartoonist Chris OBrion who tells me it was inspired by my Thursday column. More from Chris here.

Robertstown, Ga. | Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — March 14, 2013

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Hi Dan,

Thanks for not letting up on the Tea Party Nuts and their Agenda 21 Conspiracy fantasy.  They are just using fear and phony research reports to drum up membership dues.

In Roanoke County, they actually swayed some Supervisors into believing that limiting energy use in county buildings will lead to citizens losing their homes and UN blue helmets in the streets.

With another election coming up soon, it is definitely getting weird out there. I was glad to see Morgan Griffith was not taking their side in punishing the Crooked Road folks for seeking NHA funding.

Hey, the money is out there, why shouldn’t they ask for a share? We all need to support our local heritiage, even if it does include Bluegrass music ( which I love, along with Celtic music!).

St Patrick would be proud of you.

Bill Modica
SALEM

By Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

By now you may be getting tired of listening to the Tea Party ramble on about weird United Nations conspiracies and other threats to the American dream.

Recently they’ve come up with a new bogeyman, which over generations has subversively insinuated itself deep into the fabric of southern Appalachia: Bluegrass music.

On the surface, fiddlers and banjoers don’t look like the one-world government gang. But certain extremists view them as witting and unwitting tools in the latest devious land grab: efforts to have the Crooked Road heritage music trail designated as a National Heritage Area.

The Southwest Virginia Tea Party, which covers Abingdon, Bristol and Washington County, is leading the charge against this.

Bizarrely, they’re gaining traction. Last week, Russell County supervisors passed a resolution of nonsupport 4-3. This week, the Washington County supervisors agreed 5-3 to draft such a resolution.

As you might expect, opponents of the heritage-area designation link the Crooked Road to Agenda 21, the reputedly nefarious U.N. scheme to take over land-use planning all over the world. The facts are somewhat less alarming. Read more »

Former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill. | AP Photo

What happens to an ex-congressman and Tea Party denizen who’s thrown out of office by voters? Not much good, in the case of former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill.

The fiery conservative everyman is out of work and out of luck when it comes to scoring a paycheck. His recent court pleading says he can no longer afford to pay child support (something that got him in the jackpot in the past, when he was “employed”).

From the Chicago Sun Times:

“Walsh, a flame-throwing Tea Party Republican who was trying to land a radio deal and last week announced he was forming a new conservative SuperPAC, filed court papers seeking to end his obligation to pay $2,134 per month in child support.

But once again, Walsh insists he’s no deadbeat.

Both he and his attorney say that since he is no longer employed as a congressman, they want to “modify” the previous agreement so that he pays 20 percent of his current salary.

Walsh is not currently employed and has no salary. But that could change, he said.”

Not exactly family values.

Get a job, Joe!

UPDATE: Joe Walsh says he’ll sue the Chicago Sun Times.

Courtesy Roanoke Tea Party

“In 2010 when we started, there was nobody that would even primary Goodlatte. We actually helped out a guy that was a libertarian run, and he got about 8 percent of the vote. Two years later, Karen Kwiatkowski ran as a Republican and got about 35 percent of the vote. If we can keep that train going, we’ll have him out of office in a year and a half.”
Chip Tarbutton, president of the Roanoke Tea Party, in Rollcall.

Mcturcotte | Wikimedia Commons | Text by Dan

Update: Read The Roanoke Tea Party’s report on this loss, (and bonus: see the nifty “WANTED for impersonating a congressional conservative” posters they’ve designed to slam Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County).

• • • • • • • •

The House Rules Committee this evening tabled Del. Ben Cline’s bill that would have forced any Virginia localities that are members of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiative to drop their memberships.

The action happened on a voice vote. It likely means it’s dead for this year. It might have been folded into another bill, though. I’m checking, and if that’s the case I’ll update this post.

Here’s the report from the Virginia General Assembly Legislative Information System, and Thursday’s column on the bill.