Well Dang

Our guy lost tonight, here at ROM we think that Mississippians elected the wrong guy to the House of Representatives today.

Here at ROM there are No Regrets, No Excuses, No Posts edited but there are a bunch of liberal out of state wackos that had nothing to do with this race coming here to gloat, which has ticked us off.

We take our lumps and move on, thanks to Will Bardwell, Alan Lange at Y’all Politics, MS First District Blog, Conservativebelle and yes even sometimes Cottonmouth and the rest who contributed to the debate in a positive manner.

Our race predicting score took a hit tonight, although we never did enter an official prediction on the race we thought it was too close to call, and back in early April we didn’t think that Childers had a chance.

Therefore we will voluntarily assume that we had predicted a Davis victory, we were off by 8 percentage points dropping out overall average accuracy in predictions to 88.44%

Now if these fly by night commenters could learn how to be gentlemen we would be allright.

-ROM

DCCC Tries To Launch An All Out Race War In MS-01

Now THIS is Racial Politics at it’s absolute worst. The DCCC should be Ashamed of themselves.

From the Article that the DCCC cites:

Southaven Mayor Greg Davis said Thursday he would be willing to display the Jefferson Davis statue, which is in Downtown Memphis, near City Hall at the end of Northwest Drive.

Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker also said he would take the statues of Davis and of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest “in a heartbeat, even if we’d have to find some privately owned land to put them on.”

Davis said he isn’t “pushing” for the statue of Davis, despite some news reports saying otherwise.

“All I said was we’d be willing to give the statue a home,” Davis said. “That’s as far as my conversation with Gary Roper went.”

Davis said he hasn’t talked with any public official in Memphis about acquiring the statue.

He also said he doesn’t know what the exact process of obtaining the statue would be.

“I don’t even know if Memphis is even going to move it or not,” Davis said. “We were asked if we could give it a home and we said ‘yes.’ We’re not going to pay for it.

So “wanted to honor” and “try to honor” is’nt just a stretch it is complete and total bullcrap. They are talking about the WRONG STATUE!!!! This is FEAR BASED, RACIALLY MOTIVATED AND FALSE.

***Update*** Confirmed This is completely false because Davis was referring to the JEFFERSON DAVIS STATUE, NOT THE NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST STATUE. THIS IS A FLAT OUT LIE AND FABRICATION IT WAS THE MAYOR OF HORN LAKE THAT WANTED THE STATUE IN QUESTION.

Now that “Flyergate” has become national news we remind all you big boy bloggers that you saw it here first.

-ROM

Senatobia Democrat Endorses Davis

This should help get the Tate County Vote out. -ROM

Too close to call
An Editorial May 08, 2008

In this wild and crazy election year, even Mississippi’s First Congressional District is getting national attention.

Advertisement
The stakes are high - so high that even the Vice President scheduled a trip to boost Southaven Mayor Greg Davis. To counter, Democratic candidate Travis Childers has been selling gasoline at several north Mississippi service stations for $1.25 a gallon.

The television ads have been poor quality and low down on both sides, though technically the ads were not paid for by the candidates but by their national affiliates.

Davis is the best option. He has been a good mayor for one of the state’s fastest growing cities.

The district was heavily gerrymandered by the Mississippi House of Representatives to produce a Democratic winner, so we’ll just have to see how it comes out.
©The Democrat 2008

Travis Childers Vs. Tishomingo County

The Belmont Times

May 8, 2008…8:50 am

The Travis Childers and Jimmy R. Morgan vs Tishomingo County Lawsuit

It’s 2 in the morning, I’ve had too many cups of coffee and my bleary eyes are crossed from reading the whale of paperwork that is this lawsuit. This thing has more lives than a barn cat. And it has more pages than a Herman Wouk novel. But I will try to do a Reader Digest condensed version of it with the following disclaimers. I am not a lawyer. I shamefully confess that I always wished that I had become one (the Matlock type, not the Jim Hood type), but I didn’t. I am also not a real estate agent. So my opinions herein are to be taken with this in mind: Folks alot smarter than me (or is it I) wrote these papers and a country boy is trying to interpret them.

I am a citizen of Tishomingo County and I was surprised to hear that I, as a member of this county, had been sued by Travis Childers. What did this mean? What had I ever done to good ole Travis? So, I decided to do a little digging and with some help, I was able obtain a copy of the lawsuit. In the interest of full disclosure, I should reveal how I obtained this copy. The County of Tishomingo, Circuit Clerks office, charged $89 for the copy ($0.25 per copy). I understand that this was paid for by “Concerned Citizens of Tishomingo County”, some folks on the other side of the political fence from Travis, who do have a vested interest in bringing this to light. But as most people who know me knows, I would have broached this subject whether there was an election upcoming or not.

I have had my copy for almost a week and have now read it 3 times. Tonight was the first time I read it through at one sitting, but I did it to get a full sense of the whole preceeding. And believe me, Matlock it ain’t. I also contacted some county officials, the county Attorney, and other interested parties. I did email the Childers campaign through their website, but did not get a response. I did later get an email asking for money, although it was not directly from the Childers campaign.

So, why is ole Travis suing Tishomingo County? Let’s start with a letter from the office of Carnathan and Malski dated Feb 20, 1991. It is addressed to Toy Junior Bonds and wife, Billie Bonds. In this letter, the Mississippi Major Economic Impact Authority, hereafter referred to as the State Agency, expresses a need to purchase Mr. and Mrs. Bonds property due to Nasa moving into Tishomingo County and the possible need of a buffer zone around the area for further development, or support structure. Here is a key phrase in this letter that is listed as one of the basis for the lawsuit. “If for some reason you think that you are not being offered just compensation for your property, you may present the Authority’s representative with evidence supporting your claim. This evidence will be considered in an effort to be fair, cooperative, and understanding. If an agreement cannot be reached and there are differences of opinion about the value of the property being acquired, the best way to insure equitable treatment for all is to put the matter before the courts. This is what is known as condemnation or an eminent domain proceeding. In such a proceeding, a jury will determine the amount of money you will be paid.” This phrasing was one of the legs on which the entire lawsuit stands. The lawsuit states that the state agency used a threat of eminent domain to obtain this land fraudulently from the defendants. They also claim that since NASA never came to Tishomingo County, then the agency had no right to wield the threat of Eminent Domain. Now, I am supposing, the letter addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Bonds is used as just an example of letters sent to other property owners. I did not find any reference to a similar letter addressed to Mr. Childers. In an amended complaint filed Nov. 15, 1996, the Plantiffs state that the Agency “perpetrated a fraud on the Citizens fo Tishomingo County, Ms living in the area identified as the ‘Buffer Zone’“. So I am assuming that Mr. Childers, a very very successful Chancery Clerk and Real Estate agent, would have known all the ins and outs of eminent domain proceedings and what they could do and not do. I do not know how Mr. Childers came to possess land within the area that was chosen for the buffer zone as that is not addressed at all in the Lawsuit, or if their was a tie-in with some of the other names that are sprinkled throughout the many pages of this piece of very boring legal jungle of papers.

So, bored yet? On 2-15-1996, Travis Childers and Jimmy R. Morgan filed suit in a Special Court of Eminent Domain in Tishomingo County, Ms. The claim: “That the conveyance of the aforesaid property was against the will and desire of the Plaintiffs, but that under threat of eminent domain, Plaintiffs did convey said property against their wishes.” They asked to be allowed to repurchase the property at fair market value.

The Plantiffs then filed a motion to transfer the case to Circuit Court, Tishomingo County as there were some “rights and causes of action due the Plantiffs here that are not triable in the Special Court of Eminent Domain”. This motion was in November 1996. Moving the case to Circuit Court allows the Plantiffs to allege fraud, misrepresentation, and economic loss. The order to move to Circuit Court was signed on Sep. 29, 1997.

There was a order issued on 17 Dec. 1998 signed by Judge Barry W. Ford, the case was dimissed due to no action in the previous 12 months.

In Jan 2000, plantiffs filed a motion to reinstate the case which was signed off by Judge Russell on 24 January 2000. The explaination according to the Motion to Reinstate was that the plantiffs forwarded some paperwork to the Defendant (the Agency), and he did not respond and time ran out.

On a filing on Feb. 3, 2000, the above mentioned letter is now referred to as being “a letter addressed to Plantiffs and dated Feb. 29, 1991″. This seems to imply that the land referred to in the letter now belongs to Mr. Childers and Mr. Morgan, but I didn’t see any legal papers in this suit that made that explained that connection for me.

From this point forward, there are filings and motions and refilings all the way up to March 1, 2005 when all of the property of the State Agency is transferred to Tishomingo County. An order is issued to substitute Tishomingo County as the Defendant.

Tishomingo County claims in filings that “we didn’t do anything wrong”, but the Plantiffs say that the county inherited the bad with the good and will have to pony up for the actions of the state. The amount of economic damages due to the Plantiffs is unspecified in the paperwork and has been guessed at with a wide range, depending upon who you ask.

So, Travis Childers bought, or aquired, some land in Tishomingo County. He sold it at a fair market profit and now he wants it back. The State referred to Eminent Domain proceedings in a letter and that unfairly caused some property owners to make a “bad deal” for their property. Tishomingo County now has the task of defending the lawsuit and settling this and paying any damages awarded. So, what is the big deal over a little property?

The property in question is located near the Pickwick Area. Land and construction in that area is unaware that there may be a recession going on in this country. Property is extremely valueable in that area and I have been told some outrageous prices per acre that this land may be worth. Now, remember, I am not a realestate agent, so I won’t speculate on any realestate prices. However, I do wish I owned a few acres of it. I’d sell it and take a long vacation.

So, has Travis done anything wrong? You will have to decide that. But he does have Tishomingo County sued and I wonder why, if he is running for such a high-profile office, why didn’t he just drop the suit? Is the land worth that much? Is there sentimental value? I understand that the state may have done you wrong, but now you are suing the people you propose to represent? Maybe I stand to be corrected and if I am, please email me to correct me.

As always, I’m calling it as I see it, and asking about what I don’t understand. It never hurts to have an opinion, even if it is different than mine.

---

So it’s come down to this. Who do you hate least in MS-01

This is maybe the first honest, fairly unbiased, article that the Daily Journal has written in quite a while.  Kudos to Patsy, Errol and Emily.  Both Candidates are pretty much Toxic at this point, I hear Davis has a new positive ad up to close which will probably help quite a bit. Talking about the 1st District race with voters 5/7/2008 4:38:54 AM Daily Journal

By Patsy Brumfield, Errol Castens & Emily Le Coz
Daily Journal

North Mississippi voters generally like at least one of the two candidates vying for U.S. House of Representatives’ 1st District seat.

But no one in the region will say the same for the increasingly hostile tone of what has become a very tight race.

Whether they’ve closely followed the contest and voted in each election, or whether they’ve just seen an occasional ad and don’t vote, 1st District residents agree the campaigns have been dicey.

“That mudslinging, it’s about time for it to stop,” said Union County resident Roosevelt Wilson. “Discuss the real issues. Discuss the unemployment rate and discuss health care. What are they going to do about that?”

In the May 13 runoff for the U.S. House seat, Wilson will vote for Democrat Travis Childers. And though his political views likely differ from those of Blue Mountain resident Amy Moore - who supports Republican Greg Davis - the two agree that the negative ads are degrading.

“They’re a real turnoff,” Moore said, specifically citing one television spot calling Davis a hypocrite who drives a taxpayer-funded SUV.

Another one aired recently links Childers to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, calling both men liberals who want to raise Social Security taxes.

That one irked Belafonte Gulledge of Holly Springs, who said the spot was actually counterproductive for Davis.

“He didn’t have to go there,” Gulledge said. “Obama has nothing to do with Marshall County or Mississippi at all. That’s going to hurt (Davis), because I’m going to vote for Childers now.”

Again and again, voters from Tippah County to Grenada, from DeSoto County to Lowndes, view the TV commercials, recorded phone calls and mailers that deal with personal issues as “off the subject, beside the point,” “lies” and like “two little boys.”

Most would rather hear about the real issues facing north Mississippi. For Lynn Johnson of West Point and James Wilkerson of Amory, that means the economy, especially gasoline prices. For D.R. Roughrider of Union County, that means discussion of an exit strategy for Iraq. For Goldie Siper of Blue Mountain, it means talking about education and raising the state’s national ranking.

Darrell Bradley, a shop owner in Ecru, said if he could ask the candidates any question it’d be “What in the world could you do to stimulate this economy? And what would you do about health care, because so many people can’t afford it.”

Bradley said he voted for Childers in the most recent election but isn’t sure he’ll support the Booneville native again. The campaign has been so negative on both sides that no one looks good anymore, he said.

That’s not much of a problem for Tippah County resident Brian Gates, who said he’ll vote according to party affiliation in this election, even though he admits both sides have disappointed him with attack ads.

“I typically don’t care about party affiliation and just vote for the person,” Gates said. “But this election is different because it’s a higher level of government. Party affiliation is more important.”

Ditto for Mark Lamb, who said he’ll vote for Davis because he wants more conservatives elected to the U.S. House. The Columbus Diesel Store owner also said he’s for balancing the budget and fewer free programs.

But not everyone is going to vote.

Anne Griffin, Lynn Johnson and James Wilkerson say they have been so busy with their jobs that they haven’t even registered to vote.

Griffin, who owns and operates the new Mississippi Coffeehouse in downtown Columbus, said she’s going to find time to get registered so she can vote in November, but right now she doesn’t have time to follow politics.

Neither does Shirley Jackson of Batesville: “I can’t remember who’s running,” said Jackson, before admitting that high fuel prices and lack of jobs are major issues for her.

Karen Martin and Tammie Warren know who they’re voting for - Childers. Martin, who works for the city of Columbus, says she’s worried about the economy. And Warren, who works at Dollar Mart, and is concerned about health care costs.

Laura Redditt of Grenada will vote for Childers in hopes of ending the war in Iraq. But Thomas McElhaney of Hernando will support Davis, citing domestic issues and personally knowing the man.

“The main issue for me is that we need more Republicans in Congress,” he said. “I hope that’ll keep from having a tax increase and get a hold on this immigration problem.”

James Leister of Oxford also likes Davis because of his stance on Second Amendment rights.

But again, most denounce the heated political TV and radio ads.

“I think their ads are a bunch of lies anyway,” Martin said.

Warren said she feels “overwhelmed” by the sheer volume and tone of the ads. “I feel like they’re hounding me,” she said.

Johnson says he doesn’t think much of the strong advertising either.

“It doesn’t amount to a hill of beans,” he remarked. “I’m old enough to have heard it over and over.”

While he’s likely to vote Republican for president, Johnson said he could easily vote for Childers in November, but he’ll need to get registered first.

Wilkerson, who works two jobs in Amory, said it depends upon the issue as to which party he votes with.

But he plans to get registered to make a choice in November.

“Gas prices and taxes - both need to go down a lot,” Wilkerson observed.

Others had more specific objections to the race.

“I’m a Libertarian, and since there’s not a Libertarian candidate in this race, I have no interest in this race whatsoever,” said Trey Spencer of Southaven.

Many people, however, are holding their noses and picking a candidate.

A couple More Anti-Childers Ads

Davis

Freedom’s Watch

-ROM

Travis Childers and Nancy Pelosi’s $16,000, Guilt by Association Volume #11

There was considerable debate about weather or not Travis Childers was in bed with Nancy Pelosi and now we have black and white proof. Documents from the FEC showing Pelosi’s significant investment in Travis Childers, read them and weep folks.

16,000 dollars in Liberal San Francisco money to Travis Childers, who do you think Travis will be voting for for Speaker.

Just think for a second about why Pelosi would drop that kind of cash on ‘ol Travis.

The $16,000 from Nancy Pelosi, came in 5 different checks, 6 Grand from her campaign account and 10 Grand from her PAC To the Future.

Support from or for Nancy Pelosi should flat out disqualify you from holding office in North Mississippi.

So what is it going to be folks?  A North Mississippi agenda in Washington to represent you (Greg Davis) or a North California agenda (The Childers and Pelosi Dynamic Duo)?

Oh wait, am I attacking poor Travis about a connection with a “politician that he’s never met”?  Looks like you sure welcomed her checks though huh Mr. Travis?

-ROM

Travis Childers: Ya Just Can’t Trust him

We all remember where we were that fateful day when John Kerry proclaimed he voted for the Iraq funding bill before he voted against it and it seems that the tune Travis Childers is singing to is, “I actually was endorsed by Barack Obama…before I wasn’t endorsed by him”. It’s utterly shameful that Childers claims he’s being “attacked” just because he was called out on trying to squirm around the fact that YES, he was endorsed by uber-liberal Barack Obama.

We all know that Obama’s coattails, or perhaps, the lack thereof, is going to seriously damage any Democratic candidate’s hope of getting elected to Congress, but the sing and dance he’s doing is quite comical and the people of Mississippi’s First Congressional District deserve better.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2008: Barack Obama’s campaign puts out a blast e-mail to all of his supporters to support Travis Childers in the special election. It advertises how they can conduct phone banking efforts where they live to help Childers.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2008: The Special Election occurs and since neither candidate received the necessary 50%, it goes to a runoff.

FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008: Republican candidate Greg Davis uses Obama and his controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright in a television spot which shows that Obama and Childers are out of touch with Mississippi values.

MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2008 - MAY 1, 2008: Childers claims he never received an endorsement from Barack Obama and uses that for the theme of his latest ad. He goes so far as to say linking him to Obama is an “attack”.   Wow, and I thought Childers was a Democrat.

Travis Childers can run, but he can’t hide …

Desperate.  That’s the only word that can truly describe what’s going on at Camp Travis. He is spending his entire piggy bank on an attempt to shake Barack Obama’s endorsement.

But don’t take it from us.  It’s covered here, here, here, here and here - just to name a few.

-ROM

What People are saying about Travis Childers Right now… Ouch!

Childers’s eagerness to shrug off his party’s frontrunner is a sign that some Democrats scare easily. -Marc Ambinder Atlantic Monthly

No question that Childers’ acceptance of the Obama endorsement and calling help is his achilles heel.  He is desperate to get away from it. -Alan Lange, Editor Y’all Politics

What do you think?  The title of the Republican attack ad is “Conservatives Can’t Trust Travis Childers?”  But can we? -DailyKos (Liberal Blog)

Apparently, Childers is running away from any endorsement from Sen. Obama. -MyDD.com (liberal blog)

 GOP ads linking Childers to two recent winners of the not-very-coveted National Journal “most liberal senator” award, John F. Kerry and Barack Obama. Childers is now trying to distance himself from the national Democratic party and Barack Obama in particular, but it’s questionable how effective that tactic will be over the course of the campaign. Childers also has to contend with the real likelihood that he will win the special election amid low turnout, only to be turfed out in six months when the presidential contest will bring out more of those GOP-leaning voters and Davis will have a big stack of roll-call votes showing Childers having an 80%+ agreement in his voting record with Nancy Pelosi -Signifying Nothing

(Childers made) a hasty, hasty, hasty retreat from the intolerably cruel question about whether he wants Obama to endorse him - RedState

Davis is pressing Childers about the apparent endorsement from the Obama campaign e-mailed to Obama supporters in the 1st District… Childers insists he didn’t ask for Obama’s support and he deflected a question of whether he would accept his endorsement -Daily Journal

Well it looks like Mr. Travis is having a little bit of a tough time, he is deflecting legitimate questions, denying obvious help and endorsement from Obama and not making his liberal base or possible crossover conservatives happy.

We think this might have been Travis Childers proverbial “Macaca moment” looks like his campaign is erupting into a big ball of fire right now and his response ad is so weak that it is almost laughable.

Nowhere to go, no way to make anyone happy, campaign imploding.  This looks very bad for Tounge Twistin Travis.

This was slapped together quickly i will come back and put all the hotlinks in later.

-ROM

Oh my, if this is the response I think we are seeing a death rattle, now Childers will be seen as the negative campaigner since he is on camera talking trash.  This is basically an admission of guilt which builds on the GOP case, as well as turns off Democrats or Obama supporters.  This furthers the doubts that people have about Travis and will hurt him even more.

Terrible campaign move.

-ROM

 

 

CottonMouth Goes off the Deep End For Tongue Twistin Travis

I really like the guys at CottonMouth, and we try hard not to discredit other Mississippi Bloggers here at ROM but they seem to have made quite an oversight and gotten off message with each other.  

One CottonMouth blogger appears to be covering for Childers and attempting to discredit the Barack Obama endorsement of Travis Childers when an earlier post from another blogger calls the letter an endorsement.

Screenshots from CottonMouth Blog

On the 22nd the Obama Letter was an “Endorsement”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But on April 29th there was “Never Really” an Endorsement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over here at ROM we make mistakes all the time, we own up to them and move on.

*This post has been edited from it’s original version when it was brought to our attention that different bloggers made the conflicting posts*

Still, we maintain that Travis is lying about the fact that he and his campaign team had not seen or heard of the endorsement, that is just silly to think that it just happened, we think it was a calculated risk that the Childers campaign made in an attempt to get to 50% that almost worked. 

-ROM