Spank That Donkey

Anne Taetzsch won nothing short of  a mandate winning her re-election bid for Chair of the Staunton GOP Committee 58-20.  For those of you who may try and spin this, that is almost 3-1 support among Staunton City Republicans.

A near furor erupted when the Nominations Committee excluded some long time Republican Committee members from being voting members on the reconstituted Committee Membership for inter committee voting purposes.  I will not use names here, but these individuals were the culprits of disrupting the Staunton Committee meetings over the past 6 months.  The final decision on who will fill all of the slots will be decided upon by Taetzsch, as the case should be.  If Anne had only won by a small margin an argument could be made that a large portion of those opposing her should be voting members.

However, those members of the committee who have not allowed her committee to function properly, by constantly causing disruptions, and quite frankly unlady and ungentlemanly like conduct should be only allowed voting rights on the Committee at the Chairs discretion.

I for one can attest to members of this opposition making loud disparaging remarks at today's proceedings towards Anne in the presence of her own family.   That kind of public misconduct, is beyond the pale, and I hope that the Chair excludes them from membership.  Therefore,  should they attend future meetings as is their right, but become disruptive, the Chair does not have to recognize them, per Roberts Rules of Order, and can direct a Sgt. at Arms to eject them from the Meeting.

Congratulations Anne!

SWAC GIRL has more here.

 Today was a very busy day in the 24th Senatorial District.  We easily utilized over 20 volunteers in a co-ordinated effort this afternoon putting up signs, phone banking, and initiating our first door-to-door efforts in the City of Staunton, and Augusta Couty today.

The beauty of this campaign is the volunteers coming forward to support Scott, that are supplementing our already campaign proven troops from the 04' Bush, 05' Kilgore, 06' Allen efforts that are already in place.  (pssst, they are all volunteers)

 For instance, business leaders have j0ined the effort, and given us sign locations like this one, which is the highest sign location (literally) in our County.  It is located on Rt 262, or the 'Libby Loop', as we have come to call our 'Beltway' around Staunton.  To tell an old secret, we had RNC folks come in here, and tell us 'local yokuls' that signs don't vote!

Well, I agree with them in a sense, but in this campaign, we have a great candidate  challenging a Three term incumbent, and name recognition is the name of the game.  The number and quality of our locations is a testament to the depth of the Sayre's campaign into the business community!

The sign campaign also has to acknowledge the strength  of our phone banking efforts to contact individual voters and business owners alike.   It seems like every 50th or so phone call lands us a new 4'x8' location, while every 25th phone call lands a supporter requesting a regular yard sign.  Granted, we wish it were a better ratio, but must Republicans work for a living, so it's hard to just contact them via the phone call anyhow.

That is why our door-to-door effort is just beginning to 'ramp up' in the first place.  We need that face-to-face contact that affords the opportunity to get Scott's message to the voters.  All and All, we are contacting an electorate that is ready for 'Change'.

(Rhonda & Sheehan)

You have got to check out this NBC Channel 29 interview with Rhonda today at our Support Our Troops Rally.  This photo was taken last year during the Allen Campaign when Rhonda and Cindy Sheehan met.  Rhonda delivered her letter to Cindy telling her that She (Cindy) did not speak for all the Gold Star Mothers....

Check out this video, and you will see how great a Lady Rhonda Winfield is!

(Give Em' A Click) The Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County Republicans came together again today to put on a Support the Troops Rally.  The rally featured three great speakers, Rhonda Winfield, (mother of Lcpl Jason Redifer), Ssgt Herb Harman VANG,  currently serving on active duty, and Scott Sayre, VMI grad who served two tours as an Army Officer.  More about the rally and speakers later.

(Raise Em' High!) First I thought it would be kinda cool to go behind the scenes from conception to the rally prep to Thank those who work to put great events like this together.  The rally of course was conceived by SWAC GIRL over  a month ago, as she predicted that the Dems and 'Smelly Hippies' (my words, not hers) would be mounting a protest as this is another anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  She picks up the phone and calls Augusta County Chair, Kurt Michael, who agrees that this is a great way to say Thanks to our Troops, and of course, annoy Liberals in general.

(Proud To Be An American!) Rally on.  SWAC GIRL then proceeds to get the proper permit to have the rally on the Augusta County Courthouse steps, which happens to be in downtown Staunton, permit secured.  Next, all the previous rally material is dug up, and supplemented with new stuff.  Thanks goes out to RightsideVA in this regard, who provided 17, 3'x5' American flags on 6' poles, which the SWAC crew deployed on the perimeter of the court house grounds so that unmistakably to any motorist passing by, an event is on!

 Next, the previous 'Honk if you Support our Troops', and 'Proud To Be American' Signs are given out to ever so willing volunteers who worked the sidewalk continuously as the rally proceeded.  This generated non-stop horn blowing as the speakers spoke, and gave an awesome 'air' of public support to the rally!  This time, another crucial link was made in the community that was not included in our first rally.  We had a tremendous turnout of veterans from the American Legion, VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), and the Marine Corps League!  Each Commander who wasn't in DC for the Gathering of Eagles was present or sent his/her Vice Commanders along with fellow members, who dutifully swelled our ranks!

 Also, a major addition to our Rally was a large showing of Patriot Guard Members, who we first met at Lcpl's Morris's funeral.  Almost a dozen of them came to our Rally for various reasons, as they were not able to make it to DC's Gathering of Eagles Event.  They were awesome, all bearing American Flags on the sidewalks an in the crowd itself.  These are a great group of Real American's who grasp that Freedom is not Free!  We can not Thank them enough for what they do at the funerals of our Fallen Warriors, and they really showed some Spirit, as they spread their enthusiasm throughout the event!

(Jason & Henley) To set the tone for the speakers, we brought in an excellent PA system, which was manned by our Augusta County Chair, and Henley Fulk, former Staunton Vice Chair.  Henley also happens to be the lead singer for the D.O.G.S. of Pray, a Christian Heavy Metal Band.  They just recently came back from Nashville, as his band has just landed their first recording contract!  Henley opened our Rally, by singing the National Anthem, (Congratulations & Thanks Henley).

(Court House & Service Flags)  For added back drop to our speakers, we also added for the first time all of the Service flags for our Armed Forces, as a special Thanks to all of them for their efforts in the War on Terror!  All of this was trimmed up with SWAC GIRL's ever so abundant supply of bunting for the pillars and podium.  All and All it was a great setting, and complimented by a Sunny, but blustery and cold day provided by our Good Lord, who was honored with a Devotional Prayer read by our MC, The Journal of the Civilized (Common) Man, who did a great job!.  He moved the Rally along, and in between speakers read off all of the names of our SWAC Active Duty Service Men and Women Currently Serving.  Also, prominently mentioned and Remembered were our three Fallen Marines from Augusta County, Lcpl's Bubb, Redifer, and Morris!

 The photos are proof this was a great event to Support Our Troops, and help build Support for them and further bond together our Community and Party Members behind them, and their efforts to Protect Our Freedom to stand before the Augusta County Courthouse steps to exercise our First Amendment Rights.  Thank You Troops, and Thank You, everyone who came out, and Thank You SWACers for all Your Efforts!

(Speakers, Behind the Scenes)

 More to come on the Rally in up coming Posts!