By now, everyone knows about the Coffee Party. There were meet-ups all over the United States last Saturday. People got together to discuss the direction they wanted their local, state and national governments to go.
A reporter with the Gainesville Times, Dan Roem, covered the meet-up out in Haymarket last Saturday. He reported that our BOCS chairman had the following to say about his constituents who gathered to discuss a more productive government:
Despite its call for civility in political discourse, not everyone is buying into the movement, particularly Stewart.
“The Coffee Partiers are a bunch of fruitcakes,” Stewart told the Times on Sunday. “Yeah, they’re a bunch of nuts. If they’re going to be a coffee party, they’ll be a hazelnut party.”
Stewart elaborated, saying the Coffee Party is “just a phase; it’ll disappear.”
He derided Byler, whose 2007 films portrayed Stewart as being a right-wing ideologue, asking at one point, “Does (Byler) have a job?”
Byler said he does not have a full-time job but has earned income from college speaking engagements during the last couple years after striking it rich in Los Angeles making romantic dramas from 2002 to 2006.
Stewart described the Tea Partiers as patriots “concerned about the direction of the country and about the vast amount of spending that happening.” He called the Tea Party a “legitimate movement” while saying the Coffee Party is “just a load of crap.”
When asked to respond to the inevitable accusation that his comments are the type of discourse Coffee Party participants are fighting against, Stewart replied, “It’s more important to be honest than polite.”
Corey must be looking for this year’s scare tactic so he can get elected. More ‘honest than polite?’ Not really. Some people would say or do anything to get elected, or re-elected.
Nothing else needs to be said. Corey has said it all. Is he speaking for the entire BOCS?
A comment that Al Alborn posted on facebook:
The Gainesville Times covered the Coffee Party and our first meeting in Prince William County, Virginia last Saturday (13 March). I was surprised to see that Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart considers constituents who exercise their first amendment rights “a bunch of nuts”. We’ve been down the “you’re either with me or you’re against me” road once before (how’d that work out for us). The fact that about a third of the Prince William County group is Veterans should say something and we don’t like to be insulted for exercising the Constitutional rights we fought to protect.
We have an old saying in Delta House: don’t get mad, get even.
@Mom
Get even in 2011. Which seat would you like, Chair or District? 🙂
GO Delta House!!!!
Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this. Wormer, he’s a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer… Dead! Stewart, DEAD! (at least politically)
LOL.. This topic filled my low-brow humor of the day requirement.
Whiile I have 0 interest in the Coffee party (TEA party scored a court victory yesterday, woohoo!!) I will use my guns to protect your 1st Amendment right to say what you want and assemble where you want. I don’t see it as a bad thing to have more people involved in politics as the more we can bring in the more will discover how bad the govt really is and logjam it as best as we can to truly save the Republic.
Oh please, you two are so in denial. Listen ot the news and you can hear your President, Speaker and Majority Leader singing you’re either with me or you’re against me while doing the two step shuffle on Health Care and Immigration. And don’t even tell me your don’t know who started the “Phsyco Talk” thing. Bush could not talk but he got it done. Obama can talk and talk and talk and thats it – thank god..
Gonna have to disagree with you here Marinm. I fear that the Democrates are more than willing to trade off the value of American citizenship for political office by encouraging voter fraud – through open boarders/amnesty and crys of racism every time there are more votes from a district than registered voters.
It’s not a bad thing to respectfully disagree. 🙂
He shows his right-wing bias here. The people promoting civil discussion are “fruitcakes” while the people standing and screaming are patriots.
Still, I’ll vote for him perpetuity, and even nutjobs like Cuccinelli, on a local level because the illegal immigration issue affected me more directly and deeply than any issue in my life, and Democrats locally (and nationally) completely abandoned me on it.
Democrats want to play-act as if they can implement living wages and health care reform while encouraging uneducated poor to flock here by the tens of millions – I call B***S***. The Democratic platform is as real as Santa Claus.
Did anyone notice the Democratic Treasurer of Massachusetts’ thoughts on the current approach to Health Care Reform (i.e. provide more with less cost containment, and pretend the cost issue will fix itself magically) – http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EGC7E00.htm
While the Massachusetts program has increased access to health insurance, he said it hasn’t cut underlying cost increases, steering more people to a broken system.
“If President (Barack) Obama and the Democrats repeat the mistake of the health insurance reform adopted here in Massachusetts on a national level, they will threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years,” the treasurer said.
OK that’s one guy’s opinion but the machinations Pelosi and Reid repeatedly play of calling for votes just before CBO scoring of the proposals are publicly known should concern all Americans.
I couldn’t be more disgusted with the Democratic Party. So even if Corey Stewart is an uncivil boor, I’ll tend to vote for him.
Marin, operative word–respectful.
There is simply no reason for a public official to call his constituents “crap.”
His remarks were very low class.
Taxpayer, you are free to feel how you want about political leaders. You are not free to personalize your remarks at Elena and me.
Every day I pay a fast food tax in PWC or pay a higher real estate tax my elected leaders are calling me idiot. Maybe I am for voting the same person in over and over. Maybe I should stop my addiction and vote for someone else or a 3rd party candidate for BOCS?
Sure it was low-brow (but still funny at least in my opinion) and crass but you gotta also admit it takes a set for an elected official to take a position on something.
I wouldn’t say Stewart is a darling of the TEA party with his record of tax hikes in PWC.
I’m sure no one believes that Corey Stewart was speaking for the whole BOCS (my comment goes to the last sentence of the introduction of this thread).
Otherwise, all of this is just politics, and he’s a political figure and can say whatever he wants.
I’ve seen just as much low class stuff said by the other side too. Maybe not by political figures on the other side locally, but by others. So it seems to me both sides can say what they want – the people in the middle will probably filter all that stuff appropriately and ignore those on the fringes.
It does seem interesting that it is not OK for Corey to label the Coffee Party in any way bad, but it is OK for people to label the Tea Party as such.
I would say – if it is OK for one side to say bad things about the other, it is OK for the other side to reciprocate.
I have to agree with this – people have a convenient memory and forget that the Speaker of the House at least was saying the “your with me or against me” stuff right after the November 2008 election, in regards to healthcare reform and other issues. She let it be known she was not even interested in what the Republican miniority had to say. I think this is one reason the Tea Party formed, so she has only herself to blame. To a similar degree Harry Reid did the same thing in the Senate. Obama – I’m not so sure of his feelings about bipartisanship, but at the very least Pelosi and Reid made it very clear at the very very beginnings of the healthcare reform debate.
So, in some ways they have themselves to blame for the formation of the Tea Party.
Apparently though, the “either you’re with me or you aren’t” approach is fine, depending on which side of the issue you are on. If it is said by someone you disagree with, it’s not fine, if it is said by someone on your side, it’s great.
Let him disregard the coffee parties. Let him disregard all those who oppose him and his policies. Come next election cycle we’ll see how well that all panned out for him…
editors note: I deleted the first two sentences from this post. They were completely unnessary to prove any point. Please remember, you can be irritated and angry without being uncivil.
Slightly off-topic but still related to BOCS and the county government. Anyone here NOT participating in the Census?
I think I’m going to reply back to the Census with a headcount and that’s it. If a Fed comes to my house to try and get a more ‘detailed’ response I’ll tell him to get off my land and pound sand.
Why would someone not participate in the census? It seems to me it is in everyone’s best interest to do so.
Actually, Rick, I understand where you are coming from. If immigration is your issue, then you have your candidate. I have a couple issues I am that way about and I would vote for a donkey if that is what it takes. (and it often does)
On the other hand, I would not vote if Stewart was my only alternative. That would take care of immigration and MY issue.
Gainesville, I agree about the census. I think it is people getting bad information and also some conspiracy people don’t want the government to know their business or whereabouts. Howl.
@Gainesville Resident
What other side? Is there another side in Prince William County? John Jenkins is about as polite as they come. Frank Principi has never been rude that I am aware of.
GR, just printing the words attributed to the chairman. If he didn’t say that or if he was misquoted, then he is free to correct. The BOCS can step off the dais and speak for themselves.
I think it is rather undignified for an elected official to call his constituents who hold a meet-up ‘crap.’ He doesn’t even know what they discussed. His criticism seemed premature to me.
Some of his appointees were in those meet-ups. I suppose that escaped him also. Are we to believe he appoints ‘crap’ to serve on committees.
He shot off his mouth. He should not have.
I meant some people that were not elected officials, saying mean things about the other side. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. But maybe it’s an apples to oranges comparison – as it indeed wasn’t elected officials I was talking about, when I referred to “the other side making nasty remarks in the past”. So you probably have a point.
Although, he didn’t exactly call his consituents “crap”. What he appeared to say was the Coffee Party “is a load of crap”. I took at as his meaning the concept of it, rather than any individual members. It’s a fine line, I’ll grant you, between that and calling his consituents “crap”. Nevertheless. Anyway, I’ve seen some extremely nasty things said about the Tea Party, and it was definitely said about actual members of the Tea Party, not the Tea Party as a whole. So, it kind of goes both ways.
Anyway, it comes down to – he can say anything he wants, and people are free to ignore anything he says and vote against him if they don’t like it.
I truly don’t think anyone believes he speaks for the entire BOCS when he makes political statements like that.
And, I’ve seen Washington politicians and very senior members of congress say extremely bad things that make this look like nothing.
Unless we are going to muzzle all our politicians and not let them make political remarks, I think you are going to have to learn to live with it, until the next election cycle anyway.
“Romantic Dramas” just wondering, is that liberal talk for porn?
MH, I’ll stay in my bunker in Montclair watching out for the Federales. 😉
I object to the govt knowing anything about me… my phone number, my age, my sex.. For purposes of funding and participation with regards to federal representation I’ll give them the number of persons in my household. Outside of that – its none of their business and they can pound sand.
If it wasn’t against the HOA I’d put up a sign on my front yard that says; NOTICE: Federal law enforcement must disarm before entering this property and any federal employee not invited by owner is considered a tresspasser.
That felt good typing that. 🙂
Yes, but they know all that about you anyway via your income tax forms and social security info. Of course, one can argue about the census info being separate from all of that – but that is just one tiny piece of the gov’t. So in my opinion the gov’t already knows everything there is to know as far as that kind of stuff.
I guess I’m more paranoid about identity theft than I am about the gov’t getting any info about me from the census. I worry all the time that someone’s going to steal my identity and ruin my credit rating, as I saw it once happen to a colleague who almost lost his security clearance over it. These days, you can’t be too careful with personal info getting out to someone dishonest.
PWConservative. I wouldn’t know. If you find out, let us know. Must have seen it somewhere else. If you are looking for porn, I don’t think we have any. All filters to dump it in the spam heap.
If that’s true – why send me a form – they already have the info, right? 😉
My career involves securing computer systems (in a past life it required me to break into computer systems) and I can tell you from experience — avoid having too much information into corporate or government databases. It’s not about paranoia it’s about identity theft.
Sides, is it still paranoia when they REALLY are out to get you? 8D
where is the sense of humor? or the love for that matter
Actually, my career involves securing military computer systems so I know all about computer security on gov’t systems.
I have no doubts that many computer systems are very insecure and easily broken into. Unfortunately, so many places have information about you that could easily be used for identity theft – in the form of banks, mortgage companies, credit card companies, etc. – that for certain it is something to be paranoid about.
As to the census, you have a point that the gov’t already has all that info (or at least a good part of it – they may not have info such as ethnicity and so on), so why collect it again? Although, it may be some constitutional requirement that the gov’t conduct a census every 10 years – I’m not sure. I may be completely wrong about that though.
Stewart sounds dead on this time! The Coffee Party is funny stuff to be sure! Calls ’em likes you sees ’em, Corey!
My last post was addressed to marinm – I don’t know why I forgot to use the quote feature – to their post #29.
Does the census form ask for a name or ss number?
Marin are you joking or serious?
No love here, PWCon.
I’m still laughing (in class today to buff up my router knowledge) my butt off about the hazelnut comment by Stewart.
Yup, it’s a constitutional requirement for the govt to do a census and public (federal) law that you have to comply. The question then becomes to what level are you have been deemed to comply. If I find a question about my ethnicity as offensive am I still obligated to respond? If the census is for determining federal representation — shouldn’t the number be the important thing (this household has 3 persons or 6 or 3/5ths of 1, etc.)
Why does the govt need to know my ethnicity? …racists!
The Census asks:
How many people live in your home?
Any additional people staying there?
Do you own it or rent?
What’s your phone number?
What’s your and everyone else’s name?
What is your sex?
Whats your date of birth?
Anyone there Hispanic?
Your race?
And do you sometimes live somewhere else?
Be on the lookout for any Census Form asking the following questions:
Your Social Security number
A credit card number
A cash payment
A bank account number
Do not answer any form like that. It may be a scam.
On the upside, when the federales track me down my non-compliance only costs me $100 fine and the community about $900+.
Just sent the census back in. nothing to bother with, really. I like the “are you hispanic or non-hispanic?” Non-Hispanic. “what flavor of non-hispanic are you?”. Couldn’t those be handled in one question? I must guess that they had to break it out into two questions especially or the hispanics.
Hope you’re joking Marin. When you don’t send back the complete form it costs all of us more money for the census workers to make the rounds. Plus the person the Census Bureau hires to knock on your door should be one of your neighbors — they’re scheduling workers in the neighborhoods where they live to get a better response.
Please tell me you don’t bully store clerks, too. My daughter gets her fill of meanies who take out their frustrations on the retail front line with their aprons and flair.
They’ve asked ethnicity since 1850, I think. You had your B, your W, and your I.
Actually, I forgot about that. But, I think it does obviously ask for an address. I guess it doesn’t ask for name or ss number, now that I think about it. Good point.
Has the Chairman contacted the Gainesville Times to ask for a retraction yet?
I saw some of the CNN coverage of the Coffee Party. It was a classic moment in “funny stuff that wasn’t intended to be funny” Especially funny is when you view it next to their coverage of the Tea Party events. You can tell there’s more camera and sound dudes on the News Crew than there are Coffee Party folks. Probably why the news crews felt so much more comfortable covering the coffee party….they knew if it came to a fight, they had superior numbers!
Chicago Tribune ran a story on resistance to the Census. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-census-resistors-20100316,0,2742337.story
I’m super-nice to retail and restraunt workers as I worked retail in my younger days and know how harsh the work environment can be. It also made me cognizant of writing corporate managers about GOOD service so that the individual could be recognized.
If the restaurant has a survey at the end to fill out, and I’ve received good service, besides leaving a good tip I make sure and make it known the waiter/waitress gave really good service. I know it has to be really hard working in that industry. Same for retail workers actually, but you don’t often get surveys on them, nor of course do you give them tips.
But how would anyone here even know that, unless they worked for the Gainesville Times? Assuming it is direct quotes from him that were used, I’m sure there’s nothing to retract. Again, it’s a politician making a political statement, which he’s entitled to do. I have a feeling he’s fine with what he said. It’s just one man’s opinion, and no worse than I’ve seen (on this very blog) said about the Tea Party. OK, no one on this blog (that I know of) is an elected official, but still – I kind of think if one side can make outrageous statements and say nasty and stupid things, so can the other side.
I should have said “no worse than I’ve seen (on this very blog by some posters) about the Tea Party.
Just wanted to amend that, before someone tried to accuse me of saying this blog makes nasty statements about the Tea Party, or some such thing….
@Lafayette, don’t WANT either seat (pay is too low, hours too long, county staff too entrenched, some residents/developers potentially a little too trigger happy) but I have been arm-twisted into similar campaigns.
That being said, given that we have a Supervisor, Jenkins, who does the bidding of entities like VRE without disclosure (three pages of Comp Plan amendments he never made public), another, Wally, who doesn’t disclose thousands of dollars in recent campaign contributions by landowners before the BOCS with rezoning/map amendments, Caddigan who says one thing in the parking lot and another to the press, Marty who represents the Chamber of Commerce magisterial district, Prinicipi who seems to be from Mars and Captain Soundbite, despite my occasional (although growing in frequency) disagreements with our supervisor I almost have to give him a pass as (immigration brouhaha aside) he seems a hell of a lot more stable than the rest of the BOCS with the exception of May who I’m starting to trust.
Now as regards the Chairman’s seat, that might be worth it just for giggles although I’ve always been told its not nice to pick on cripples. I’m meaner, nastier and more blunt than he is. I guess you could say I’m more honest and less polite.
So in the end, Stewart may have offended 10 or 11 folks who weren’t going to vote for him anyway. [Yawn]
I think the point MH is making is that it goes beyond those 10-11 folks because it represents a politician basically calling his own employers (voters) crap, moonbats, or nuts. I agree with the yawn though.
If our Congress can pass HCR when the voters say NO.. Is this much different?