Commission Meeting July 5, 2010

The meeting was called to order by presiding chair Virginia (Ginna) Watson . The commission (Twila Brown, Republican, Alan Clark, Democrat) elected Ginna to the position of Chair. There was no evidence of George Hozendorf being present or having an emissary present in his place.

Old business conducted was the township of Fountain Lake scheduling an election to disincorporate a section of the incorporated township. It was decided that since only those who were residents of Fountain Lake could vote on the issue, a special election was more in keeping with verifying that only Fountain Lake residents voted in the election. If it was conducted at the General Election in November, so many special ballots would be in place that verifying only Fountain Lake residents voted for this, would make the election process slow, tedious and put additional pressure on the poll workers to ensure that the vote was valid. Fountain Lake will cover the costs of this election.

I asked why Ginna was conducting the meeting and she said she was told to.
After the meeting I asked again and she explained that the AEC and their attorney told her to hold the meeting pursuant to the rules of order. She had no comment on her law suit as her attorney has told her to not discuss it with anyone.

Stay tuned. It looks like George Hozendorf did not succeed in assuming Chairman of the Election Commission even after the Kangaroo court at the last GCDCC.

Election Commission Meeting Announced

Virginia (Ginna) Watson has filed a formal complaint with the Election Commission in Little Rock. Tammy Lambert did refuse to swear George Hozendorf in as commissioner on the Election Commission of Garland County. To do so would have violated the law concerning contested elections et al. I will forego my opinion because everyone that votes has a dog in this fight.

July 5, 2010, a meeting of the Election Commission has been called and publicly announced in the Sentinel Record yesterday, to be convened at 10am in the Election Commission Building on Ouachita Avenue. The public is invited to attend. I hope everyone that is concerned for their right to vote and the sanctity of the Commission attends.

Along a different tack, I am adding my opinion of the disaster we are all facing in the Gulf of Mexico. It is an editorial I submitted to another website. I hope you understand my concerns and if you believe in God now would be a good time to pray.

Never before in the history of our planet have we done so much damage in so little time as what BP did with that well in the Gulf of Mexico. The truth about the end is somewhere in the knowledge hidden away from public scrutiny by the ones that decided money was more important than public safety and the environment. It will end and unfortunately it doesn't bode well for any life form along the coast or any place less than a hundred feet in elevation. The Gulf is a cauldron systematically reducing the salts in the water by evaporation to a density that settles out and forms salt domes under the soft sediments that filter down from above. As depth increases so does pressure. For every 30 feet, you add one more atmosphere of pressure. Anyone with a calculator can do the math. At 5000 feet, everything is compressed and held stable by the lack of seismic forces such as witnessed in California. Because it is so 'stable', people forget this is the most seismically active part of the earth. Anybody who has driven over a highway in and around Houston, Texas can attest to the movement of the ground. They are growth faults and the Gulf coast is defined by them. Because the sediments are soft they slide over each other without a whisper (unless you pave over them as the highways are apt to be then you notice one side of the road is higher than the other). It surprises a lot of first-timers to the Gulf coast that the roads are so 'stepped'.

Little variations in the pressure and the salt moves up and around through the sediments. Oil is created and retained by the impermeable barrier of the compressed clays and diatom carcases that filter down forming shale and limestone seals.

Now along comes the arrogant leaders of BP who know that this is a huge reservoir and they have the money to drill to whatever depth they want. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead! Ignoring the geologists and geophysicists that they hired to keep the well safe and profitable, they cut corners and now we, the people of the US will bear the cross of their folly. No one knows what is happening down there except its not working the way it was supposed to. The well can't be capped and it sure as hell doesn't need to be drained because all that salt will move and the oil will gasify in the chamber left behind increasing the risk of a tumultuous blowout of horrific proportions. I just hope that if they are drilling a sideways well to get to the broken pipe that its an injection well. Pumping water into the chamber to keep the oil from turning to gas will, I hope, delay the inevitable. I'm sure that there are geologists with far greater knowledge than mine that will have a different perspective. All I have to go on is the well logs I read while working for Gulf Oil in International Exploration. A gas bubble will bring anything sitting above it to the ocean floor. I believe that's why BP hasn't moved a super tanker onto the site. Losing one of those ships would be really hard to replace.

I dove some of the salt ridges formed in the Gulf. They are the only variation in an otherwise invariable seascape of sand and silt. One is called Stetson Banks and it lies approximately 85 miles from Galveston. Its one of the few places to dive that you can get down to the bottom and still not violate the dive tables.

If you have friends or relatives living or working along the coast, I would suggest you tell them to make other arrangements for a living. The toxic gases being released right now are causing problems for those working to clean the shores. No one is wearing respirators that I have seen. I just hope they have better insurance than the first responders at WTC on 9/11/01. I have never been a doomsday person but this looks like I may have to change my perspective.

Executive Committeee Hatchet Job

Yesterday the Executive Board of the Garland County Democratic Committee was called to order by Chairman George Hozendorf shortly after 5:30 pm. All but 1 of the board members appeared. Channel 4 (NBC) and channel 16 (FOX) were there videotaping the proceedings. The Sentinel-Record had a reporter present also.

This run-off election has drawn national interest hence the media being there. This meeting was to remove Virginia (Ginna) Watson as Election Commissioner who George stated 'it's my understanding that since Mrs. Watson serves at my pleasure that I have the authority to ask her to step down'. George made it clear there was to be no discussion or questions allowed by those outside of the board. A motion was raised and seconded to allow Ginna to explain her reasons for the fiasco of only 2 polling places being open for the run-off. It was a witch hunt of the 1st magnitude and when someone is removed 'illegally' from a position of trust, defending themselves should be a given. George would have preferred that not to be the case.

The media reported that there was no legal precedence for the Executive Committee to remove anyone from any commission. George has set himself above the law and has instilled himself as the reigning party Chair of the majority party on the Election Commission. By a vote of 9 to 4, Ginna was removed from office. According to the letter submitted by Charles Tapp, his resignation would only take effect upon the election of a third party member to the Commission. George declared himself publicly, the new Chair without Tapp having formally resigned. He apologized for erring on that issue. This whole fiasco is an effort on his part to put himself in control of the Election Commission AND the Central Committee. He is so partisan in his politics I have a hard time believing he's a Democrat. I was totally amazed at the people on the Executive Board that went along with it. They had a secret ballot so no one would have to face the 'victim'.
George made a disparaging remark to a female member of the Central Committee that she can 'come naked as long he didn't have to look at her'. He doesn't want Arkansas politics run by a bunch of 'Texas Jews'. Wow! That's our elected leader? What 'Texas Jews' he was referring to I don't know, maybe he'll explain Wednesday when we have our 'unannounced' County Convention where delegates to the state convention will be selected. I bet I'm going to have a hard time getting on that list.

None of this stuff is ever publicly announced. I got a copy of the minutes of the meeting he called June 8th, 2010 only by the back door. Those minutes are supposed to be open to anyone that wishes to see them. They were so poorly written, there was no mention of who suggested the removal of Charles Tapp. A member that was present was defined as 'mystery'. When pressured to know if roll call was made at that meeting I was told it was. Then how can there be a 'mystery' person at that meeting?

Excerpt from minutes:

"...

Since there were multiple errors made in the last election cycle, there is the threat of additional lawsuits and further action. There is pressure from the Department of Justice, the ACLU, the Democratic Party of Arkansas Secretary of State. It was considered that potential very bad press might be somewhat alleviated by an immediate resignation, of the Chair of the Election Commission, Charles Tapp. It was also suggested that resigning would allow him to leave with dignity versus other official action that might be taken. Stan Schrader moved that we direct the Chair of the Committee, George Hozendorf, to request the resignation of our representative on the Election Commission, who is currently serving as Chair. Leon Davis seconded. The vote was taken by voice. The only opposition was Lawrence Adkins. The motion carried.

The State Convention will be held on July 17. ..."

No mention of who first raised the issue of removing Tapp. These minutes are so poorly scribed that when the debate went to how long anyone served as a commissioner, no one could recall the exact details and there were no minutes from previous meetings asked for or offered to clarify this issue. John Martineau stated that the terms were for 3 years to be staggered so that a term expired each year in January after having drawn lots to determine who got the 1st 1 year term, the 2 year term and then lastly the 3 year term. George believed that the terms expired in July. No one could remember the exact decision and when it was made. God love these guys. We have the Keystone Kops running our county Central Committee.

I would love to replay the film that our television cameras captured because I still have a hard time getting my mind around this. Maybe if I watch it enough it will all become clear. And then maybe just a nice cold beer would do better.