Having a Nice Blogosphere Vacation

Sometimes, I just have to drop it all and take a vacation from Barnstable's blogosphere. This place takes so much more out of a person than it should. Blogs should be about sharing ideas and opinions, not what we make it here in Barnstable.

For the past few weeks, I've been enjoying a very nice vacation from all of the blogs... Not having to read about the Joakim recall, Doc Mosby and the Barnstable Airport, more accusations against elected officials being blown way out of proportion, absolutely absurd fearmongering about Hyannis water, etc... It's been really nice...

Anyway, I'll try to be more frequent in my postings here again...

We now have a date set for the Joakim recall election. October 30 at the Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Charter School. Should be interesting...

What are your opinions about the recall election? The primaries that just took place? The general election that's coming up? Are you an Obama fan or a McCain person? What do you think?

ZBA Issues Force COGers To Return To Roots

When I wrote my post on the Zoning Board of Appeals and the new Blanchard's proposed on Rt. 28, I had no idea about the tale that was about to drop in front of a couple of spectators that night.

While I have serious concerns about how the ZBA handled the Blanchard's situation, I have serious concerns about all issues concerning the entire board.

There are members (who recently resigned) who had served since 1973.

There were multiple openings, positions left unfilled by the Town Council, and members who had served for over a year waiting for a replacement.

There were qualified Alternate Members who were passed over for entirely new people and there was serious politicking in the election of the two newest ZBA members, whose qualifications are not what I am here to discuss.

There needed to be change and restoration on this board long ago. The Town Council and its Appointments Committee dropped the ball.


Meanwhile, back in Barnstable's Blogosphere, Blanchard's had been a topic of discussion just before the mass resignations. Now, of course, this overturning of the ZBA has become Topic #1. Even the Cape Cod Times actually mentioned it in an article.

Meanwhile, in COGland, the Main COG Blog and Eric Schwaab's blog have returned to their COGer roots.

Schwaab, desperate for another COG friend, called Councilor Hank Farnham a COGer. Schwaab based his invitation on a post on Barnstable Beat that claimed that Farnham, NEVER a member of the COG clan, had called for Council President Janet Joakim's resignation. Schwaab forgot about the names, allegations and comments that COGers have made about Councilor Farnham in the past (especially when he served as Council President). Yet, because Farnham reportedly agreed with the COGers on their one pseudo-issue - Joakim's removal from office - Schwaab was ready to initiate him into the ranks.

Elsewhere, lead COGer Gary Lopez was busy drumming up false accusations against a fellow blogger. This is the ULTIMATE COG trick - when you don't agree with someone or they have proved you wrong - accuse an blogger or commenter of being a Town Councilor. I know, because I have been called so many different names and been accused of being so many different people, that I have lost track. Of course, as of the last couple years, the COGers love to accuse is Janet Joakim.

TJ, over at Barnstable Beat, has now been accused (again) of being Ms. Joakim. Lopez brings no EVIDENCE, only hopeful theories that may even have been altered to prove his point.

This kind of game is COG's favorite thing to do, and I wish the best to the falsely accused. However, they are not done with the game-playing.

Remember the "outrage" near the end of the last election cycle where people reportedly made "nasty" ethnic slurs against the COG candidate in Precinct 3 (Schwaab)? Remember how it was shown that COGers make more slurs and "nasty" attacks than any commenters have EVER been accused of making against COG?

Well, COG is making slurs again. On Sunday, Lopez created a follow-up post to his original post accusing TJ of being Joakim. Here is his title:

"SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED; Janet Joakim is a sicko femme Nazi...."

(My sincere apologies to Councilor Joakim for posting this, but people need to know what is being said.)

I am greatly disturbed by the nature of comments and posts made by COGers. TJ and I are not always on the same page, but we always have stood firm against the COG machine. TJ has been put through a purgatory online recently, and has come out stronger than ever. I know TJ will emerge victorious in this case, too.

As for Councilor Joakim, we rarely agree on larger political issues. Yet, in local politics, there are many instances of common ground. In the blogosphere, there are even more. Councilor Joakim does not deserve the treatment she has received from COG. She has stuck it out through treatment that no one in this town deserves.

The COG group will always resort to their typical tactics. They are:

• False Accusations
• Personal Attacks
• Lies and/or Manipulation of Facts
• Racial, ethnic or other Slurs (aka "cyber hate-crimes")

Let's take a stand as a town and not let them get away with it.

Back to Old Habits

I was amazed, simply AMAZED, when Gary Lopez actually shut down his COG site earlier this week after the election. He had promised to do it SO many times in the past and never went through with it, that I never thought he would go through with it...

But, lo and behold, go take a look-see at Lopez' site now... It is back up and running... He's back with just as much gusto as before... telling us how the recently elected candidates were "bought" by the business community... and telling us how much of an impact he and his COGites had on the election...

I think he must have been following some other town's election.

His COG candidates ALL got SMOKED at the polls (except for Greg Milne, who can only legally take 1 of the 2 slots he was elected to)... His buddy Schwaab, who was supposedly drumming up TONS of interest in this election, not only lost, but was only able to bring 21% (439 voters) of the precinct to the election. I think that Schwaab's campaign tactics actually kept people AWAY from the polls!

In 2005, with NO Council race, NO contested town-wide races, and 3 Non-binding Ballot Questions, 20% (or 440 voters) showed up in Precinct 3. There was actually one LESS voter in 2007 than 2005...

In 2003, WITH a Council race (every precinct was electing a new councilor because of redistricting), A $9.2 Million Override, and NO contested town-wide races, Precinct 3 had a turnout of 40% (or 891 voters)...

Precinct 3 shows up when there's a reason...

Apparently, they didn't view voting for Schwaab as a reason...

More on voter turnout later next week...

Back to Lopez and Schwaab - I couldn't stop laughing when I saw Lopez' site back up and running... It's what he does - he says he's shutting down his site, but simply can't follow through...

And, as far as Mr. Eric Schwaab P.D. ("Post Deleter") is concerned, it looks like he's shutting down his Cape Cod Living blog... From what I've been reading, he's going to start over again and he is going to choose what he puts on the new site... Sounds to me like he's going to be doing some wholesale post and comment deleting... That's what he does...

One final note - To my friend @ Barnstable Beat, you might as well drag out those posts about Lopez that you were about... Looks like he's back (AGAIN).

The Post Deleter!

When someone posts something to a blog, it's kind of like a public record of their thoughts. That's why when someone deletes an entire post (comments and all) without an explanation, people notice.

Yesterday, October 30, Eric Schwaab posted a post detailing a discussion he had with State Representative Demetrius Atsalis. In it, Schwaab called both Atsalis and Schwaab's opponent in the upcomin election, Incumbent Councilor James F. Munafo, Jr., both "thugs", among other things... It was not a pretty post by any stretch of the imagination... It was not an inroads to a productive working relationship between possible Town Councilor and State Rep... It was not a "consensus building" post...

On the one hand, Schwaab felt strongly enough to post the message and leave it up on his site for quite some time... Yet, he altered the "public record" that his site provides... Maybe he realized that the post made him look bad... or maybe someone called him out because the post was too nasty or perhaps just plain wrong... All I know is that he took it down with NO explaination... That means he must be ashamed of it... Why this wonderful "consensus builder" have to change anything he says on his "non-hate blog"???

The fact is that he doesn't have a problem taking his shots... and he sure makes plenty of them... but I've never seen him apologize once... I've seen John Julius apologize (I assure you that that unbelievable fact is true)... but never Schwaaab... Wonder how his colleagues will feel if they have to serve with a guy who has fun by taking shots at elected officials? I wonder what he'll do if he's elected to the Council and doesn't have the "new majority" he's banking on...

Will he leave this board the same way he left the Hyannis Water Board?

Are You A Town Councilor, Too???

*Please note the sarcasm in the post title.*

Do you disagree with Eric Schwaab, John Julius, Gary Lopez or any other COGer? If so, according to their logic, you must be a Town Councilor (or working for one).

I find it amazing how adamant John Julius is that I am a Councilor. I AM NOT. David Still confirmed it over on the dotcommons site, but that wasn't good enough for him. I don't know what will, and it really doesn't matter. They say things like that because they simply can't handle the idea that people in this town, other than Councilors, disagree with them.

Take the Barnstable Blog, for example. It is an anonymous blog that does not agree with COG. However, instead of just accepting the fact that a regular common citizen is running it, they start accusing people of running it. They have no proof of their accusations, but tell them to the world like it is gospel. (If they're willing to make these kind of allegations, imagine what they would do if they REALLY knew the name of the person who writes it.)

When Schwaab took this act much further a few weeks ago, it really bothered me.

The internet and the blogosphere are designed to give users basic anonymity unless they choose to reveal more. In the case of myself and a great number of other Barnstable commenters and bloggers, we choose to remain anonymous. (We'll get into why in just a sec.) However, Eric Schwaab crossed the line from cyberspace into the real world when he called up Chris Kehoe (a local businessman) and proceeded to harass him with unfounded accusations about the authorship of a blog that has been particularly critical of Schwaab. He was making unfounded claims that Kehoe was/is running the site for a Town Councilor.

Calling someone about a written blog is CRAZY! Calling to accuse someone of writing a blog, when you have absolutely no proof to back yourself up is just INSANE.

Kehoe says Schwaab called 5 times. FIVE! Schwaab says he called only twice. I don't believe him. When Chris Kehoe went to the police to file a complaint, he HAD to have some evidence to back him up. I doubt that a successful businessman like Kehoe is stupid. Not only is filing a false police report a serious crime, but it is one that can quickly be verified via phone records. DUH! I'm willing to bet that an analysis of Kehoe's phone records and Schwaab's (if it is ever done) will show that the candidate called more times than he admits... AND that he lied to the Barnstable Patriot.

However, the big issue here is not the number of times that Schwaab called, but the fact that he actually called! Schwaab has NO proof that Kehoe writes that blog. NONE! Yet, he didn't have any problem calling him to talk to him about that blog. Blogs are online communication tools - telephones are not! If Schwaab really wanted to talk to the writer of the Barnstable Blog, the best way to actually get the REAL author is to contact him on the blog or via the contact info the author may or may not have posted there (like email).

This is why I choose to remain anonymous. I do not want to have phone conversations about politics or my blogging with Eric Schwaab, John Julius, Janet Joakim or anyone else in this town. However, I am more than willing to discuss anything online - here or the dotcommons site. My personal life is exactly that - PERSONAL. Never should my personal and political life cross.

If a person makes the decision to remain anonymous, then others in the online community should have the decency to respect their decision.

I find it disappointing that I need to remain anonymous to protect myself from the politics in Barnstable.