What Would Yo-Yo Ma Say?...

"Well that's No Way to Promote Unity within the Party"...

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The Staunton NewsLeader reports that the Augusta County Republican Committee will be selecting a new Chairman this week. It also reports that new Chairman will be selected by the new committee that was formed from a list of people who stayed after the original mass meeting and excludes many prior ACRC members.

"On Saturday, Shirley said that a new chairman will be elected based on a procedure outlined in the county committee's bylaws. When a chairman resigns, the bylaws require the group's executive committee to meet and establish a meeting date for the larger committee to elect a new chairman, he said."

"At Thursday's meeting, Shirley said nominations for the position will be taken from the floor. Only committee members will be eligible to vote and be nominated for the position, he said."

This procedure of selecting a new Chairman to the Augusta County Republican Committee in effect ignores and disregards the majority of the votes that were cast by those Republicans who attended the mass meeting back in April. The resulting argument was that the original mass meeting was closed abruptly and not by correct procedure, but this occured after the voters had made their clear choice for Chairman and they chose Dr. Roller over Kurt Michael by a vote of 141 to 103...

"However, when temporary Chairman Jim Bailey adjourned the meeting without a vote, Michael said the meeting was invalid and held another election. Though Michael won this second election easily, a majority of mass meeting voters had left the premises at the time of the second vote."

The present and "New" ACRC committee is made up of the people who stayed for the second meeting and excludes numerous prior members of the ACRC committee. The "New" executive committee was selected by members from the "Second" list and thus ignores approximately 3\4's of the original Augusta County Republican membership...

"Shirley said the committee's membership list includes the people who stayed for the second half of the April 10 mass meeting and some additional people who were added during a May meeting. Because Larry Roller is no longer a member of the committee, he cannot be nominated for the chairmanship, he said."

By selecting a new Chairman in this manner the new ACRC committee ignores and disregards the majority of the prior ACRC Republican membership that they claim they are reaching out to for "Party Unity". This entire episode has gone on for way to long and Republican members working towards a common goal would have and should have found a solution that included all members involved. The RPV Republican Party of Virginia should have called for another Augusta County Republican mass meeting that could have been conducted by a third party entity to ensure fairness to all involved and the voters could have elected a Chairman by the people's vote.

"After the state party ruled in favor of Michael in May, Roller said he might appeal to the legal system."

When asked about further legal action I replied that I do not feel this conflict belongs in the courts and should have not been presented to the court system in the past. The Republican Party of Virginia needs to bring both "extremes" together and provide a solution that includes the entire Republican membership of Augusta County. Otherwise having a select few, made up from a list that excluded the majority of the membership, calling for "Party Unity" carries little weight...

There is Something "Brewing".

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There is something brewing in Augusta County...

Stand by...

"SeaBoots" Fishing Report ~Florida Keys~

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I just received the monthly "Fishing Report" from Captain Jim Sharpe who runs his Sportfishing Charter boat "SeaBoots" in the Florida Keys and I had the opportunity to work with for six years. Above is a photo of a 50lb. Dolphin that was caught a few years back to use as a comparison to the "70 lb. Bull Dolphin" as noted in the following fishing report.

Fishing in May and June has been excellent. It seems that the migrations of fish particularly dolphin have been running about three weeks to a month late. Normally we see a lot of big dolphin in April. The big dolphin came in May. There were lots of very large dolphin, we lost a bull that looked to be about 70 or 80 pounds. Unfortunately we hooked the fish of a 20 pound spinning outfit. We were fighting two 30 to 35 pound cows on thirty pound test when the big bull showed up. he followed one of the cows right up to the back of the boat. We baited the bull about five feet off the stern with a whole ballyhoo on the spinner. After several long runs and a beautiful air show the line raped on the rod tip and we broke him off. Tip rapping is common after fighting several large dolphin. Each time the handle turns on the spinning reel if line is not gained the line twists. After a long fight all you have to do is bow the rod with no tension and the line will rap the rod tip. Then the fish runs and "broke line". The way to prevent this is to only wind when you are gaining line. No matter how careful you are the line still tends to spin. Maybe that’s where the name spinning reel came from? We prefer to use conventional rod and reels for trolling this eliminates the problem, casting to big dolphin with spin tackle is a lot of fun. Here in the lower keys there were a number of dolphin brought in over 50-pounds and a 67-pound bull was reported. Aprils big fish came in May and large numbers of small school dolphin showed up in June.

We have been blessed with a good number of bill fish; sail, blue and white marlin and spear fish in May and June. In one three day period we hooked eight bill fish landing only two sail fish. We have been consistently raising one to three bill fish each day. During the last two weeks the small school dolphin have showed up in great numbers. A few large dolphin have been showing up as well. One of our anglers eight years old caught an released 40 dolphin only one was of legal size 20 inch fork measurement. This week the big Dolphin and big Wahoo have made a good showing. On Tuesday we landed a 40 pound Wahoo and lost a 50 “pounder” right at the boat. We also had a nice catch of 30 pound dolphin and large “schoolie’s“. Water temperatures are warming up 83.6 degrees and the dolphin will be pushing father offshore later this month. But that is good because there are a lot of bill fish around including marlin. The tuna will show up later this month and be strong in July and August.

We have decided to rent our Cudjoe Key Ocean front property seasonally. Its a very large home located on a natural beach right on the ocean with magnificent sunsets. Boats up to 30 foot can be docked at the rear of the property with direct access to the ocean and gulf. Boat rentals are available. This property has been upgraded and should be ready for seasonal renting some time in July. For more information call 1-800-238-1746. Thank you for fishing with us, hope you are having a great summer. Remember we have my Dolphin Book, T-shirts and videos and DVD's For more information check our web site at http://www.seaboots.com/ E-mail us at seaboots5@aol.com. tight lines and good fishing Captain Jim Sharpe

St. Mary's Wilderness "Fire Effect" Recovery...

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Hiked up to Big Spy Mountain to check on the recovery of the area after the St. Mary's Wilderness Fire back on March 25th~30th...

It is obvious that there will be no leaves on the trees in this "fire effect" area and this results in more sunlight reaching the forest floor promoting the growth of new cover.

In prior posts about this area I referred to the results from this fire as "Damage" and since have received email from a biologist who suggested that this "damage" be viewed to as "Fire Effect" instead. It is obvious that the forest eco-system is already at work in repairing the effects of the fire...

The Table Mountain Pine Pinus pungens Lamb is found along the steep rocky slopes and ridges of both Big Spy and Little Spy mountain and is pretty much only found in this mountain range all the way down to and including North Carolina.

2nd Amendment Practice...

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I had the opportunity this past weekend to spend some time with an old college friend from N.J. at one of his favorite places to practice a familiar hobbie\skill\sport...

He took me to the local shooting club that he is a member of and we spent a interesting morning of playing "Golf" and target practice...

The facility is very well kept and maintained at the highest level of safety\security procedures and is a welcome sight compared to some of the "backwoods" shooting ranges that are available around here...

My friend has an impressive collection of weapons and the day was spent shooting mostly 243 and 22-250 caliber. Targets were set at 100 yards, 150 yards, and at the max 200 yards up against the safety berm...

Both of these calibers are somewhat small size bullets but with a substantial amount of energy behind them that results in a very fast feet per second.

Above is the entry point of a golfball shot at 100 yards with the 22-250 caliber rifle. This rifle, with a impressive scope, made hitting golfballs at 50 and 100 yards easy with the proper steady hold and trigger pull...

Shown above is the exit point of the same golfball after being hit with a 22-250 at 100 yards...

At the extreme range point of the rifle range up against the safety berm we placed a "Small" steel target that was 3" wide by 4" high. Location of target can be seen in the above photo with a "X" marking the spot. It was barely visible with the naked eye. We consistently hit this target with both calibers. Both the 243 and the 22-250 have relatively small bullets but since there are traveling at such a high feet per second they deliver some substantial damage to the target...

No Purple Finger here...

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The Staunton NewsLeader reports that the local Republican Party of Augusta County will be electing a new Chairman now that the old one has stepped down after a error filled campaign, mass meeting, and spectacle in the local media…

It is reported now that the new committee will have the task of selecting a new chairman and only those on the new committee list will be eligible to vote. This new committee is made up of those who stayed after the original 3 hour mass meeting for a second “mass meeting” that was not properly announced to all eligible voters of Augusta County. It also seems that the “Official” list has grown since that second mass meeting.

“Though Green said he walked away from the meeting with a list of 61 names, he said that this membership was later increased to 75 after County Republican insider Lynn Mitchell presented a larger list and members added names during a May meeting. The bylaws of the county party only allow for 65 members, he said.”

Before stepping down for the “good of the party” the prior chairman, Kurt Michael made sure to elect a new executive committee made up of only those he chose to notify of the meeting while excluding many long term committee members. Numerous committee members who had been active in the party for years and holding active committee positions were excluded by choice during the election of the new executive committee…

Chris Graham over at Augusta Free Press also has a related article on this topic:



"I’m not going to argue the reasoning that was presented by a local party member as to how this could be valid, because I’m sure it is valid, at least according to the local committee’s bylaws. The problem I would have if I was a Republican would be that I would think that I was disenfranchising a wide swath of my party base in so doing, and possibly alienating an even wider swath of the party faithful as we’re heading into an election season featuring competitive races for president, the U.S. Senate and Congress."

Virginia Pork Festival 2008...

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Attended my first Virginia Pork Festival yesterday and found\sampled the numerous ways that PIG can be prepared and served. Never knew so many ways that Pork can served such as slow pulled pork, shredded, chopped, BBQ, Chitterlings (Not a chance here), chops, ribs, ears, feet, sausage, meatballs, sliced, etc...

I then found it interesting that after hearing the numerous ways to prepare a butchered Pig, I came along the above booth sponsored by the Humane Society serving Festival Stew...

Manasquan Inlet "Treasure" Find...

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I had the opportunity to Scuba dive with the Point Pleasant First-Aid Rescue Dive Team this weekend at the Manasquan Inlet NJ. This inlet has recently been dredged to maintain navigation status and this exposes the bottom to the strong tidal currents each day...

During this training dive the above object was discovered and retrieved by a team diver who found it at the mouth or entrance of the inlet near the South jetty...

This item is all brass construction and is made up of three seperate compartments with fine threads and is watertight... It stands 3-1\4" high and is made up with a top compartment 1-1\4", middle at 7\8", and a bottom compartment of 1\2"... Top and bottom diameter is 2-1\4" and inside diameter 1-3\4"...

The bottom has an inscription "J.W. Forestal" and the date 1876 with the month of April. It has been noted that personal items of military service personell were required to have their name on it. This practice helped to identify the German Submarine U-869 that was located off the coast of NJ when a personal item was discovered with a crewmembers name on it. The inclusion of the month "April" may show that this was a Memorial service award. Several people have suggested that this item was used to carry tobacco, snuff, powder, gunpowder, or the likes...

Jenkinson's Aquarium Seal Tank Dive...

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I had the opportunity to dive with the Point Pleasant NJ First Aid Rescue Dive Team this past weekend when they did a promotion at the Jenkinson's Aquarium. It was a dive in the aquarium tank with the resident Seals to show interactions between the divers and the seals as well as examples of SCUBA skills...

Busy weekend for the Mannasquan inlet...

United States Coast Guard station Mannasquan New Jersey...

All good Tiki-bars come with appropriate decorations...