Friends...just an alert. Bill's calling and wanting your opinion. When he does, tell him No. Tell him Mike's not a criminal. Tell Bill you know he supports the bully system because he is the one who recruited the ultimate bully in Lee County. Takes one to know one! And we know he has certain people like LEED and a few other RINOs (one with a spy pen who despises Mike Stone) on his team. By what I've seen in the paper lately, his campaign is already engaging in warfare on Mike.
But when he calls, ask why he thought it was cool to incite the public in last year's budget negotiations? And why, Mr. Tatum, you and the Super (can't leave out Lynn, Linda and John) decided you had to have $7.9 million more or layoffs and middle school sports were going to cut? But you settled for $500,000 for last year and this one. Please tell inquiring minds how buses were able to be on the road??
Oh ask him about where all the money went! Yep, ask Mr. Tatum where $9.7 million dollars given to the Lee County School System by the "American Recovery Act" to "create jobs" went? I believe our fearless President said it was for shovel ready jobs. Hmmmm. All I know is the Super has been several times to the BOC asking for paving money. Isn't there a maintenance department for LCSS? Isn't repaving something that needs to be taken into consideration when budgeting? Am I wrong here?
Ask him why ANYONE in LCSS lost their job and Moss got a raise. Ask him why Paul Gay Insurance was given a contract for our teachers' supplemental insurance when there were several other offers on the table he could have just looked at! And possibly save us taxpayers some dough. Ask him how the previous board chairman, Shawn Williams, was able to acquire funds from Department of Instruction to his afternoon day care. Conflict of interest come to mind anyone? (http://freshbrewedconservatism.blogspot.com/2012/03/dpi-and-local-churches.html)
Ask Bill where his campaign funds are coming from? Actually you don't have to. Just look around this blog under FBC documents. His campaign finance report is there. Hmmm I see he gave his campaign $10,000. Must be nice to have that kind of money to use to dish out dirt on others. Why doesn't he put it where his mouth is? Good question, huh?
Many more reports will come. But do note good old boys, LEED BRAT PAC, are very involved. Bless those hypocrites' hearts.
And we all know, Mr. Tatum isn't very respective of taxpayers. He never thought of the funds for his LCSS budget as our money all those years he served on the Lee Co. Board of Education. And a few on the Lee County Board of Commissioners just signed the bottom line and let him loose. Some still do...
So when Bill calls and wants to know "did you know Mike...." or "did you know Mike hates kids and wants them to starve". Or "did you know Mike wants Granny to eat dog food". Or "did you know Mike and Mr. Covington are doing something illegal with fracking", tell him No.
Oh on that thought...there's a youtube video about the June 18 Lee BOC meeting that talks about Ray Covington, an appointee to the Energy and Mining commission. Opponents of fracking are trying their best to drum up ethics violations. They are trying to use this against Mike. Haven't we heard this before in Lee County? I imagine, just my opinion now, that a certain local blogger in cahoots with Bill Tatum and who despises Mike Stone and Jim Womack produced it. LOL! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIRW1QqF4cQ)
So tell Bill when he calls that you have more questions for his actions than he will ever have for us about Mike. Sorry, Bill...the more you ask the more we will return the favor.
13 comments:
Wow, maybe you could blame this summer's heat wave on Bill Tatum, and complete the circle, Shelia!
Honestly, this sounds like so much sour grapes over not much. Are you really so angry that the Tatum campaign is doing polling? Raising money? Is it newsworthy that a candidate gave money to his own campaign? What do you think political campaigns do, Sheila? And, I don't know if there were ethics violations related to fracking or not; I know that there is a LOT of money out there to be made (and stolen). And, I know that a good many Lee County residents want to know that the rights steps have been taken before fracking becomes a way of life in parts of Lee County. Those residents have heard all of the rumors about poisoned wells and a flammable water table, and I hope that they feel free to speak their minds that Mike Stone’s view of fracking doesn’t reflect the opinions of the residents of Lee County which fracking will most directly affect.
Here's something else. You ask about ten questions, so, I've got one for you: are you going to make an accusation? What kind of charge is "Explain why someone - anyone - got fired and Dr. Moss got a raise!" As if those two things are connected, as if the concept of context means anything to you. Such a statement says more about you than it does about anyone else. This is just another in a long line of "throw everything at him and see if anything sticks" argumentation, except usually, when you're arguing about the President, you at least make an accusation. The many "charges" you throw at Bill Tatum are just empty questions. Knowing you, if you had any evidence of wrongdoing, you'd have shouted it from the mountaintops by now. Which, of course, is to say you have no evidence.
And, as you've made abundantly clear in other posts, neither do you need any evidence. Your readership should know by now that you don't have any fact-checkers on staff, and you'd have fired them years ago, anyway.
Jay,
You are full of bull. Every question I asked is fair game. And every citizen has a right to know. Even to the one of how the ex-BOE chairman got DPI funds? I didn't accuse Bill of knowing. I said ASK. JAY, ask, ask ask.
Facts - Moss got taken care of. Fact - layoffs occurred. Fact - they settled for far less than they wanted. And have refused to tell us what they needed the extra $7 mil for. Why are you not curious about it?
Fact - the principals were given extensions on their contracts. Hmmm do your own fact checking, bud.
Fact - LCSS got $9.7 MILLION in American Recovery Act funds. Go check the darn website.
What was done with it?
Accusations? Ha. They had a blank check before Jim, Linda and Charlie came along. I didn't accuse Bill of wrongdoing. I simply said what he's been a part of. You should choose your words more carefully - you are the accusing.
And he did have a blank check. And the first time they knew they wouldn't ...the crap hit the fan. And sorry Jay he was a part of the BOE when the negotiations were going on last year. Did you forget that?
Wow. Thanks to my hubby he just made a great point...arguing with liberals is useless. That's a nice way of putting it.
Goodnight Jay.
Sheila
Well, usually when political pollsters call, they are looking for answers for specific answers to specific questions. You don't usually get to interrogate them. But, you try that, and see how long the call lasts. Arguing with conservatives is pretty useless, too, in some contexts. Not here, though, Sheila. For the time being, at least, I'm still game.
Fact - Dr. Moss has a contract. That silly little (legal) detail has been the death of your side's AFP-sponsored maneuvers to get rid of him for quite some time now. The fact that layoffs occurred is unrelated to that. My curiosity is irrelevant; yours is at issue here. How long have you been curious, Sheila? You're the, ahem, journalist here - why haven't you doggedly pressed for the answers? Why are you, in 2012, relegated to shifting the burden of proving malfeasance to someone with no interest in doing so?
Fact - Happens all the time. If you want to know so badly why the extensions were made, then do the work and find out for yourself. Sitting on the sidelines and making things sound conspiratorial make you sound like a conservative kook.
Fact - LCSS got $9.7 million. See above.
"I simply said what he's been a part of." Well, you didn't even do that. You just asked a lot of questions, pulled down the tinfoil hat a bit more snugly, and pressed "publish". You are like the cowboy, who when the gunfight began, jumped on his horse and galloped away frantically in every direction. You don't really say what you mean; you make inferences and suppositions without saying anything, kind of tongue-in-cheek, but when pressed, the truth comes out. You can't accuse Bill Tatum of any wrongdoing in any of the many issues (about 9) you raised questions about in your "Bill Tatum... The Pollster" blog. You sure do wish you could, but you just can't. You don't have any answers to the questions you ask, and you don't even know if they're good questions.
You're just holding faith with Mike Stone. We all get that, but why do you have to drag yourself through the mud to get there?
All respect to "hubby," but your side (especially in Lee County) has yet to prove that it CAN argue with liberals. That's a nice way of putting it.
First and foremost, let me thank you for your service to my country. Did you suffer a head wound? If so, I hope you received a purple heart: you deserved it. How else could you deem rational your posts? May God bless you and your family.
Dear Hubby.... In 5 lines of text, you have insulted me and feigned kindness. A scant 5 lines is not enough for me to tell if you are being a complete jerk who just insulted a war veteran on the basis of his injury or simply ignorant. I am inclined to believe the former.
Because the barest details of my injury in Afghanistan and my award of the Purple Heart was published in both the Sanford Herald and the Lee GOP website, and is easily Google-able, I can only assume that you already knew those things. So, let me just say that if you think my head injury is the source of some sort of irrationality on my part, then I think that puts you more on the dullard side of the fence than it does me. My cognitive abilities are quite safe. My IQ is rather high. My vocabulary is functionally capable. I deem my posts to be "rational" by a number of internal, cognitive rationale, sir, and I would submit that my internal processes are at the very least as developed as your own. Since I am quite clearly not a drooling idiot, the burden of proving how any of my posts are irrational falls to you. Have at it, sir.
I am, of course, very interested in how a certain member of your family deems her posts to be rational. For example, I try to maintain a certain degree of logical consistency in my arguments, but Sheila seems entirely unencumbered by this restriction. I value the use of evidence when making arguments, but I have noticed a general lack of this quality in Sheila's blogs. You seem quick to diagnose what you perceive as flaws in my rationality (although your own analysis was bereft of content; after reading your insult, I am left with no comprehensive view of exactly how you believe my posts lack rational cohesion, or by what standard you came to arrive at the conclusion that they could only be considered rational in the light of a head injury); perhaps you could turn your keen eye towards this lukewarm cup of joe, to breathe life into an otherwise stale blog.
Please keep your insults about my war injuries to yourself. Otherwise, other people might think you are being unkind to the troops. I am quite certain that my esteem for you dropped a notch or two, and I don't even know you. What you said was rather like saying to a veteran with a leg injury that just beat your wife in a foot race, "you think you're fast, but you're really slow; is it because you were shot in the leg in Iraq?" I am glad you said what you did to me, and not to one of my Soldiers.
I would simply submit this to you Jay. What if the purpose of blogging is to pass along information? What if Sheila would like to get the citizens of Lee county thinking about where money is going and how it is being spent? You are right in one aspect, she is mad. She has seen her tax dollars being spent unwisely and would like to know what's going on with them.
She is angry, and every tax-payer in Lee County should as well. We have been told plenty of times that we need to fund various projects that if left unfunded by a new tax would just result in an increase in existing taxes. I understand that governments raise their revenues by taxing, it's a fact of life. But how many times do the local leaders get to twist arms before the tax-payers get outraged and start demanding answers? This is exactly what is going on here.
Where did the recovery act monies go within the LCSS? Why were millions of dollars requested by Mr. Moss multiple years in a row? How did he get by with a fraction of the money requested? How much of a rainy day fund does the county have? What constitutes a rainy enough day to use these funds? How low is the county willing to dip into these funds in order to boost local economy or improve existing structures? If we have unemployment in the double digits, water and property taxes on the rise and still haven't used the rainy day fund, than why are we not dipping into the extra funds previously collected?
You see, these questions are not tin-foiled look what sticks kinds of questions, these are questions that are presented to get citizens thinking. Perhaps her questions are a way to inform people of what exactly is going on? And yes because these funds are the tax-payer dimes, the questions are all fair questions.
Robert, I do not disagree that many of those questions are fair questions. But, the context in which they are being asked is important. The context of the original blog posts has to do with Bill Tatum's candidacy, and the questions are asked in a way which implies accusation. It's one thing to ask a question, but another thing to ask a pointed question which carries implication without evidence. My point is that, if you have an accusation, then make it. If you have an accusation, then you have evidence for it. If you don't, then it's just political posturing. And, I think (hope) most people can see right through that.
Anger may or may not be the appropriate response to taxation, but misdirected anger is of no value at all. It seems like much of your anger is directed at Dr. Moss, but is perhaps being transferred to Mr. Tatum. All I'm saying is that anger alone isn't helpful. If you want to be angry and NOT look like the crazy conspiracy-theory community, then you need evidence.
If the purpose of blogging is to pass on information, then I would submit that no information has been passed. The "ready-fire-aim" attack typifies argumentation on this blog, and in context is indeed the "throw everything to the wall and see what sticks" method. If the Recovery Act charge won't stick, maybe the layoffs question will, etc. When you consider that these are bare questions with no answers and no evidence linking Mr. Tatum to any kind of malfeasance, one wonders what the motivation is for making such specious accusations.
One doesn't wonder long.
Go to sleep Jay. Quit carrying the water for a few hours.
This is (1) MY BLOG.
(2) The purposes of blogging include ...uncovering info, passing on info that lame stream media won't, putting out opinion, and listening to others, etc. Even when they are as leftist and out of their mind as you seem to be today.
(3)If you don't like it, I don't care! I don't care if I offend you. I have not said one word that is out of line. NOT ONE. You can sit there on your freaking throne and think you're something and be hypocritical. Have at it baby.
Bill Tatum is who he is. He sat on that board and had a blank check. He not once came out and said a word about the "3rd grade incident", the crap that was spawned by the LCS BOE last year, the paring knife incident, nothing. NOTHING JAY DO YOU GET IT? And now he wants our vote so he can defeat Mike? And to do that he'll use LEED and others. Some have already contributed. Dear Jay...that's one of those facts you can look up right here, right now.
(4) Contracts being extended do happen. But when the taxpayers are told TAs will be axed and buses won't run and middle school sports will be eliminated unless they ger 7.9 mil more...well contracts and salaries for admin staff should be frozen. Again, these are paid by taxpayers. We have a right to know. You can be ignorant. I choose to know the truth and to expose it. I don't care if you like how, when,what or where.
(5)There's is nothing wrong with what I asked. You just can't see anything with those blinders.
(6)I don't expect those in your circle to agree with what I write. Especially when tough questions are asked. You run away from them or divert attention back to the messenger. It's just the way "your kind" are.
But as a taxpayer, I have every right to ask those questions and if it takes a blog that you don't like to make people aware, so be it.
But you are sorely wrong for saying I accused Mr. Tatum of "malfeasance". He was on the board of education. He had knowledge of finances, issues, resolutions, etc. If asking questions of the left means we're falsely accusing, then I would propose you and your party are in trouble. Because the right should be able to sue the pants off the Dems back. Go back and look at some of your comments. Matter of fact, go back and read what Dirty Harry Reid did a couple of weeks ago. And the superpac ad. Good Lord..do you believe Romney aided in killing someone 7 years after he left a company? Are you that indifferent to the truth?
I suggest you watch your words carefully. I am the taxpayer, not a serf. Tatum and the others are not my Lord. Therefore, I will ask the tough questions regardless of what you think. I will inspire thought regardless of your comments. And I will battle with you all day and all night if necessary until the truth sets in.
One more thing...I will pray for your eyes and mine to be enlightened and that God will build a bridge.
And I don't say that lightly.
See, I was going to go to sleep, and then I read your message, ordering me to sleep, so I have to stay up, just a little bit longer.
1. No kidding.
2. Good for you. But, if you're going to allow public comment, be open to criticism. Ask all the questions you want, but in my view, if you're going to make an accusation, you'd better have some evidence. Otherwise, what's the point?
3. Oh, you can't offend me, not even if you call me baby. Your husband kind of pissed me off, but that's another deal. I'm not offended. If you think I'm offended you've got me all wrong.
This is another argument from silence, Sheila. Of course, you're free to ask him about all these things, and before this campaign is done you'll have opportunity to, I'm sure. You could go the Keith Clark journalism route and actually play reporter, even. Ask your questions. But, to just throw them out on your blog and leave them there, unanswered, but directed like accusations... it's just lazy journalism. No one's saying you don't have the right to do lazy journalism, but that doesn't make it any less lazy.
4. When you say "Well, contracts and salaries for admin staff should be frozen" that is just an opinion. You make it sound like its common sense, what any old dummy should know. But, do those staff members have contracts? Are there legal concerns to just willy-nilly freezing someone's salary? I don't know; do you? Just because you're a taxpayer doesn't mean you either know a frigging thing about it or have any authority to make changes. So, take your right to know and take it as far as it goes, but once again I say that if you have an accusation again Bill Tatum in this matter, make it. Preferably , with evidence. Because, from the sounds of things, you're admittedly the one who is ignorant.
5. Um, you're wearing blinders, too. You think that as long as you're attacking liberals you get to say anything you want and it will have meaning. That's simply not true. There is such a thing as sounding shrill, which is how you come off in this rant about what people should tell a political poll worker on the phone.
6. My circle? My kind? Rude, much? Sheila, in the course of the time I've spent reading your blog I have yet to encounter a single "tough question." If by "diverting attention back to the messenger" you mean I call you out on the many logical errors you make while attempting to argue for conservatism, you're darn straight. Make enough of those errors, and you have no argument. None at all. And, you make plenty. One might well question your scholarship, m'aam, or how well read you are by the type of arguments you seem to think constitute validity. Sometimes it's shameful.
You may not realize it, but your blog did accuse Mr. Tatum of malfeasance in all of the areas you mentioned. You implied his involvement in all of those areas. Basically, you msde baseless allegations. You may not have meant to, but that's exactly what you did. If you think you didn't, and it wasn't your intention to, then you owe him an apoology, or at least a retraction. At a minimum, you sound a little nuts for suggesting that when a political poll worker calls (and you know, they're basically working off of a script, looking for yes or no answers) you should deluge them with this tirade of meaningless questions. Yeah. A little nuts.
No one suggested you are a serf. Mr. Tatum is a taxpayer, too. In your analogy, Mike Stone would be more the equivalent of a lord than Mr. Tatum. So, I have no idea what your analogy means, and I certainly didn't accuse you of what apparantly you feel accused of. Ask whatever questions you want; it is your blog, a point to which we all, of course, assented. But, as long as you accept public comment, be willing to accept public criticism.
Okay, now I can go to sleep.
Goodnight Jay. Must get sleep so we can banter tomorrow.
Sheila
excellent presentation of facts jay, sad i don't see any responses that countered your position. they argue from weakness; their position supported by innuendo most often and downright lies on occasion.
to the hubby: you owe jay and every veteran on this website an apology for your demeaning comment, if you're half the man you proport to be you'll do so immediately. many would dare you to express that face to face although the apology would likely be needed for our reaction, not your words."A"
Anonymous -- Why is it when we questions from the right to the left, we get attacked immediately as being wrong. Why? Why? Can't you answer that?
What comment is demeaning? The pure crap coming from "A", Anonymous (you) and Jay...they all have the same talking points ...is what is demeaning. Bash the messenger again and avoid the message.
Your words are far more condescending and insulting than any that have been from this editor, etc.
Did a nerve get hit? We respect all military. Simply put. If something happened to Jay, I don't know about it. I don't care what sexual orientation, or beliefs a soldier has...they have given their lives for my country. But once you start attacking me personally and my country, fair game. Fair game.
Go back and look how this messenger has been tarred and feathered by your "anonymous" commenting. So don't start the "we demand apology tour" here. Don't even do it. I generally don't say anything like that to all of you masquerading individuals yet I endure the BS from the left. You won't win that battle. With all the derogatory "anonymous" statements that have been spewed by the left.
I ask the obvious...and you simply have no answers. Says more about you than me.
Oh yea...conversation over because you've gone beyond the reasonable to freaking insanity.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. The left has NEVER been able to handle that statement.
I, a taxpayer, should be able to have my opinion where my tax dollars are going. The naysayers here will do everything they can to annihilate Mike Stone. I have a right to ask Bill Tatum anything I want because he isn't God, he isn't my Lord, and he WAS paid to be on the LC BOE. That being said, he shouldn't be immune to my questioning.
I can hardly wait to see the mud that will be drug up by you guys. I brought out exactly what has been done in this county.
The real thing that bites is the left simply cannot argue intelligently anymore. There's no discussion with the radical left or the radical right. We've gone from a country of intellectual ideas and common ground to Chicago thuggery. And it extends down to the local level.
And you all want to go after me for simply saying "Say No to the pollster. Say No and remind him we have as many questions for him as he has for us." He has a record. And you bet'cha LEED BRAT Pac will be out in full force to destroy our candidates. They've proven there is nothing Soft and toned down about their political ambitions. Go read their statements in the Herald as to why they were formed.
Again... CONVERSATION IS OVER!
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