Huntington West Virginia Blog

At one time the fastest route to citizenship was enlistment in the Armed Forces. The theory being that anyone willing to fight for this country is welcome to stay here. Many Hispanics are in the US armed forces and those who speak English well are excellent soldiers, sailors, and marines.

If a young man (or woman) from Mexico wishes to come to this country and serve this country's military needs, I feel that U.S. Citizenship is an appropriate reward for the successful completion of the enlistment under honorable conditions of service.

I just feel that American Citizenship is too valuable a commodity to give away to any foreign national who wants it. I feel it should be earned to be appreciated.

We are a nation of laws and if immigrants are illegal, then the law should be enforced. We should not abandon law out of convienience or expediency. I also feel that the Bush plan is weak and ineffectual and constitutes a too little too late response.

I see the mass influx of illegals as an invasion. An unarmed invasion, as opposed to an armed invasion, by a foreign army, but none the less an invasion. A sovereign state as well as a nation has the right and the obligation to secure its borders.

I do not see Posse Comitatus as restricting the use of troops along the border as it relates to securing the border from foreign incursion. The "POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385):
is a 1870's era law that prohibits the use of federal armed forces to enforce civilian laws against American citizens. I do not see foreign nationals as American Citizens but technically they are unarmed foreign invaders.

I have no objection to the use of federal or national guard troops for this purpose of deterring and or detaining foriegn nationals be they armed or unarmed. I dont see Posse Comitatus as relevant to this situation as some in the administration do.

I see the use of national guard troops in their capacity of a properly constituted "well regulated state militia" under the direction and command of state officials as proper to seal the border in states contiguous to the border.

I see illegal immigration in hordes as a federal security issue, but I also see a legitimate use of a states military authority to secure borders from foreign incursion as well.

I see the majority of Americans as desiring the border more intensly policed but the correct policy and methodology is in debate and much rhetoric dominates the political landscape.

Stephanie Heck

I think that I think and that scares some people epecially me.

This is a note of warning to parents and teenagers of Cabell County and Huntington West Virginia.
I am an Internet Publisher and a programmer. In short I am an experienced computer geek in Huntington.

It is my professional opinion that the website known as MYSPACE.COM is flagrantly UNSUITABLE FOR MINORS and adults are very very strongly advised to restrict the computer privilages of any child known to frequent that website. Too many kids in Huntington and Cabell County are running loose online because parents are using the computer as a babysitter. Your kids are the only thing you leave in this world and you need to protect them to the extent you are able to do so.. As an adult you need to take control of the computer to the extent that you deny access to web sites that can potentially harm your kids. There are stalkers and hackers and dope dealers in addition to online predators on that website. Adults should unplug the computer as a last resort to control the childs online habits. I know one parent who locks the computer up in the trunk of the car to prevent the his children from getting online in the middle of the night.

If you make it very clear to the kids that you care about what they do on the internet, the children may just become convinced that you love them.

County Commission race Cabell County Election Results

Bailey 429

Egnor 391

15 % reporting

I am standing here talking to Doug Reynolds and he appears optimistic. He is running second in the the 16th district with 45 precincts reporting. I am at the Cabell County clerks office in Cabell county and really enjoying seeing all the politicians sweat as the results come in. Final Numbers

County
Cabell County District 16
House Of Delegates
Democrats
Totals:
Eric Anderson 1335 
Mary Cliff 1218
Doug Reynolds 1989
Dale Stephens 2733
 

County
Cabell County District 15
House Of Delegates
Democrats
Kevin J. Craig  2290
Margarette R. Leach 1768
Jim Morgan  1841
Steve Phipps 752
Matthew James Woelfel 1764

Today is election day in West Virginia. It is the 2006 West Virginia Primary Election. I have already checked out the parking areas at several precincts in Cabell County and the traffic at the polls appears to be a constant trickle that has been going on since the polls opened this morning at five AM. The weather in West Virginia is wonderful today and that is always an indicator of a big turnout, As an observer of many past elections, I am estimating 55-60 percent voter turnout. In many past elections a 40 percent turnout for a primary election is considered good. There was a modest line at the polls when I went to vote about 10 AM this morning.

The new touch screen voting machines that are being used in the West Virginia Primary Elction are a bit difficult to use, and I am a programmer who is used to the digital world. each time that the voting technology is updated, a tutorial film should be available to voters who want to learn how to use the machine. This might help the voter be more confident in the ability to use computerized voting. There are some people who are intimidated by voting computers and a short tutorial film would be an excellent way to help the voter overcome apprehension.

I will be going to the courthouse this evening to collect West Virginia Primary Election results and will be posting the from the Cabell County courthouse to this blog. I have a laptop with a cellular connection to the web. Check back for results for the West Virginia Primary Election from cabell county as fast as they become available.

Stephanie Heck

Cabell County West Virginia.

West Virginia has a law which makes it unlawful to use a computer to violate someones privacy rights. I recently tried to advise one of my former website clients that the message board that they operate had a user who was using a computer to violate the privacy rights of others. West Virginia has strong traditions of upholding the privacy rights of the citizen. West Virginia does not appear to have a law against cyberstalking but the West Virginia Legislature has adopted a law protecting a West Virginia citizens privacy rights. The law is quoted below. I thought my readers should know about this because the law is hard for police and lawyers to find in the legal database using customary keywords and therefore this law is not widely known among police and prosecutors. While this law is styled to protect privacy rights against abusive computer users, it most certainly is a potent weapon against cyberstalkers in West Virginia.

______________

61-3C-12. Computer invasion of privacy

Any person who knowingly, willfully and without authorization accesses a computer or computer network and examines any employment, salary, credit or any other financial or personal information relating to any other person, after the time at which the offender knows or reasonably should know that he is without authorization to view the information displayed, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or confined in the county jail for not more than six months, or both.

Are bloggers legitimate Journalists ? The answer to that question is not always easy, lets just say that all the major news outlets use RSS technologies to promulgate the news to various mirror feeds online. All major newspapers and TV networks use blogs online. So are bloggers becoming journalists, or are journalists becoming bloggers? This might well be a legitimate question as well for the foreseeable future.

If someone is writing a blog with several thousand readers based upon their profession, I would say yes it is a professional publication. However your average Joe who has a blog with 40 renders a week would be seen as an amateur endeavor.

500 years ago the printing press was invented and there was a great deal of contention at that time as to what constituted legitimate publishing, the argument centered around the credibility of books copied by hand by the traditional scribes, or or the credibility of books printed on the new printing press machine.

Rather than concentrate on the credibility of the author, the contention centered on the credibility of the method of publishing 500 years ago. Five hundred years later the argument is rehashed by those "scribes" in the traditional media who claim the neo-media of the blogosphere is not legitimate. Alas, history repeats itself, not only in contention but in error as well.

Stephanie Heck.

Huntington WV

I have learned that a blogger named Lance Dutson in Maine has been sued by a state contractor for the Maine Departmentof Tourism. He is being sued by the contractor for his blog articles that are overtly critical of a ad agency operating under state auspices.

I contend that the right of the Maine blogger to redress grievance with the state, and to critique the state, includes the right to critique any contractor acting as an agent of the state. The advertising agency was acting as a contractor for the Maine Department of Tourism and is therefore subject to critique and parody as "Fair Use" from dissenting Maine residents as a contracting agent of the state.

Bloggers use technologies called XML and RSS that promulgates stories and postings much faster than traditional web pages. In short I can post something on a popular blog and it is promulgated globally as an RSS feed 2 hours later. The technology can be used for great good or it can also be used irresponsibly. Some people are getting sued for misusing the technology, and in some cases industry is trying to intimidate bloggers into silence by abusing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act in a manner similar to what the music industry has done to file sharing networks.

Blogging is a combination of technical skills and also of content writing skills. The majority of poorly written blog material or badly formatted blogs never make it into the search engines. Google has a big BS meter. However if one is an experienced programmer or an experienced writer, it is possible to make quite a popular blog with many readers. A soapbox of sorts. This blogger in Maine is a website developer just like I am.

I worry that free speech is in danger in Maine and I am perterbed at the state of Maine for failing to protect its citizens rights from an overtly aggressive state contrator. Shame on the state of Maine!

I too am a website publisher and a prominent blogger in this state, and I am all too aware that slap-suits are being filed on a regular basis against bloggers. The Bloggers have a growing amount of clout and therefore industry and political leaders are becoming more aware of it all the time.

Many people here in Huntington WV have been getting email from a local spammers list that they never signed up for, and this comes from a river cities guide website. It seems that e mail addresses have been harvested from local message boards and yahoo profiles that list Huntington as an address. I have nothing to do with this. I believe you should get permission before putting someone on a mailing list. It seems that the list that was compiled by the river cities website was left wide open so that anyone who desired to post to the entire list could do so. That is total and complete irresponsibility.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting a bright young man named Doug Reynolds. Doug informs me that he is running for the West Virginia Legislature in the 16th. Delegate District.  He seems to be carving out a name for himself in local Cabell County politics and establishing a reputation of being a smart fellow who just so happens to be a moderate Democrat. He has that rare combination of charm, wits, and good looks to see to it that he will have a very bright future in West Virginia Politics in due time. Hopefully sooner than later.

The fact that Doug Reynolds has a charming wife will without doubt be a great asset to his future political endeavors. Mrs. Reynolds seems to be a pretty intelligent lady in her own right. I did not get to speak with her but very little, but I was impressed with the both of them. There are some that are jealous of the fact that Doug is the son of a local successful businessman, but that is exactly what impresses me about this young man is that he is doing it on his own, and not just basking in his fathers shadow, or riding on coattails. He seems to be his own man with an independent mind. That is exactly what this state needs.

I think I am going to vote for Doug Reynolds, as this county and state need bright young leaders to move forward.

The Cabell and Wayne County West Virginia Democratic Executive Committee's held a meet the candidates event last night at the Huntington Civic Center. In addition to some of the local career politicians who showed up, there were some new faces as well.

I noticed Judge Darrell Pratt and Delegate Don Perdue were present from Wayne County, and I saw former Wayne County Commissioner Don Bias as well. All are aging gracefully.

One of the most hotly contested primary races in Cabell County is between Bob Bailey and L.D. Egnor for the job of Cabell County Commisioner. Bailey is a former Sheriff and L.D. Egnor is a former circuit judge. Both candidates are well qualified for the job.

Bob Bailey has good social skills and no shortage of buddies, however L.D. Egnor being a career attorney and a former circuit Judge has an excellent legal mind and an understanding of the laws that regulate govern the county commission. It is the voters option as to what skill sets they desire on the County Commission.

If you need a leader with an open door policy in the event you need a political favor, Bob Bailey is your man. Bailey is well known for being flexable.

If you desire a leader who runs things by the law, of the law, and for the law. L.D. Egnor is your man. Egnor is well known for making people toe the line as far as the law goes. That cabell county commission race should be quite interesting as the local politics and local news play out between now and election day.

I hear that the Cabell County Sheriff Kim Wolfe is running against Congressman Rahall.

Kim Wolfe is a former Huntington Police Officer, who got himself elected as sheriff as a Republican. Kim Wolfe is the one who used to run the Huntington Police Departments "Horse Patrol" in downtown Huntington in the late eighties and early ninties. The "Horse Patrol" used to hassle the prostitutes in the alleys downtown. I remember that the street people used to call the HPD Horse Patrol officers by a funny nickname. "Hossie the Ho-Hassler". Rahall has a well oiled political machine that will run over Kim Wolfe like a speeding freight train because Rahall has the money to run a congressional campaign and Wolfe does not. I can well imagine that C.A. Adams will not cry when when that happens.

I just got finished watching President Bush address what appears to be a handpicked crowd in Wheeling West Virginia. The well choreographed crowd applauded President Bush on numerous occasions.

President Bush wants to convince the citizens of West Virginia that the War in Iraq is predicated on promoting democratic values in the middle east. 

It is my position that a war that is founded on democratic ideals needs no salesman to make it palatable. A war that is not being fought for self explanatory reasons needs no advocate.

The majority of the American people see this war as having its roots in money and oil and has nothing to do with democracy. Large federal contractors with close ties to the GOP are making huge profits.

The perception of some in West Virginia is that the Presidents speech in Wheeling West Virginia was more of a staged political media event rather than an open discussion of the issues. The questions posed to President Bush in Wheeling West Virginia appeared to intend to help President Bush make his point. There were no hard questions posed, and to this extent I perceive the presidents actions in Wheeling West Virginia to be more of a staged political sermon rather than a legitimate "town hall" style meeting.

West Virginia Politics has no place for those who sell war as though it was a commodity traded on the stock market. I very strongly support our troops overseas, however I reserve the right to question the motives of those who set the policies that send the troops to war.

Stephanie Heck / Huntington West Virginia

Introduction: I was recently approached for an interview by a school girl here in West Virginia studying global warming. I am publishing her questions and my replies because I thought it might be educational to other students doing a class project.

QUESTION: Can you explain what you do and how you became involved in Global Warming?

ANSWER: I am a longstanding advocate and activist for environmental concerns. I was first approached for this interview because I run an Internet blog that has some articles on the topic of global warming and other environmental concerns. I first became interested in climate changes based upon my observations over the years. A small change in the average yearly temperature can have drastic effects on the climate. We have more tornadoes and hurricanes in the USA than we once had decades ago, simply because the climate is changing as the result of greenhouse gases emitted from fossil fuel consumption. Rest assured that the winters here in West Virginia are generally milder than they were when I was a child 40 years ago.

QUESTION: I have learned that some scientists and professionals in the field do not believe in the Greenhouse Effect. Do you believe in Greenhouse Gases (Global Warming)?

ANSWER: There are some propagandists who debunk the well-established science of combustion chemistry. Combustion of hydrocarbon fuels such as petroleum and coal produce large volumes of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as a byproduct of high temperature oxidization (Combustion).

It is a matter of common knowledge among intelligent people that the physics of the Carbon atom gives Carbon qualities conducive to the absorption of radiation. This is why some nuclear reactors use graphite and other carbon polymers as an element of the control rods that are used to regulate the nuclear chain reaction within the reactor. We know that the sun produces radiation that creates heat and light within the atmosphere and carbon absorbs radiation. When radiation is absorbed, heat is produced as a byproduct. Therefore it is reasonable and rational to extrapolate a conclusion that the greater the amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere as the result of fossil fuel consumption, the more potential heat is absorbed from solar radiation. The percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is directly proportional to the ability of the atmosphere to absorb heat from the sun.

QUESTION: Have you studied Global Warming?

ANSWER: I have studied the chemistry and the physics of the theory, and perceive the theory to be based on generally accepted principles of science. Once the debate is stripped of the political spin from the fans of the coal and oil industry, it is really pretty basic science.

QUESTION: How do scientists research something like this?

ANSWER: Statistical analysis of long term NOAA databases used to maintain the history of weather patterns over a period of several decades to arrive at a statistical pattern of weather over the multi seasonal spectrum. Statistical Meteorology.

QUESTION: How do you research this issue?

ANSWER: I try to look at the data with a detached point of view; in short I am objective in my analysis. I m no science guru, nor am I stupid.

QUESTION: What do you think is the main cause of Global Warming?

ANSWER: Excessive consumption of carbon based fuels emitting huge volumes of Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide form the majority of "greenhouse gases".

QUESTION: What effect is Global Warming having on mankind?

ANSWER: The erosion of the polar ice caps is already creating problems in navigation in polar oceans. Bigger Icebergs. Eventually this influx of fresh water from the polar ice caps into the ocean will affect the saline levels of ocean water exterminating some saline sensitive species, and deterioration of the polar caps will affect the actual sea level in the long term.

QUESTION: What effect is Global Warming having on plant life and animals?

ANSWER: A slight fluctuation in temperature will have great impact on growing seasons and crop production in agriculture. Migratory patterns of certain aquatic species will change as well, affecting the food chain.

QUESTION: What effect is Global Warming having on your community?

ANSWER: Last Summer was pretty warm, that trend will continue. Last winter was pretty warm too compared to what it was decades ago. You young people need to ask the old timers to confirm this.

QUESTION: What do you know for sure will happen for us in the future, due to Global Warming?

ANSWER: A gradual rise in the temperature of planet Earth and drastic changes in climate in the long run.

QUESTION: What do you suspect will happen (in addition to the things you know for sure) for us in the future, due to Global Warming?

ANSWER: Siberia will get warmer, and the growing season will get longer in Siberia. Food production will increase in Northern Latitudes.

QUESTION: What are your personal feelings concerning Global Warming?

ANSWER: The USA needs to become more committed to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (fostered by the UN) through the research and implementation of alternative fuels such as hydrogen, and atomic power. New scrubber technology can be used to reduce carbon gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

QUESTION: Do you think Global Warming is a serious issue that the World needs to think about?

ANSWER: The world has thought about it and has developed a strategy to reduce the problem in the Kyoto Protocol. However the USA and China are not adding much effort to this international collaborative agreement.

QUESTION: What do you know of what is being done Worldwide to fight Global Warming?

ANSWER: The Kyoto Protocol is the best hope we have right now. More research needs to be done to find new strategies.

QUESTION: What do you know of what is being done in the US to fight Global Warming?

ANSWER: Not much of anything because the oil industry, and the coal industry, denies the existence of problem. Those industries have a lot of friends in Congress.

QUESTION: What do you feel the World Governments can do?

ANSWER: Formulate a global broad-spectrum strategy to abate the problem.

QUESTION: What do you feel that the US Government can do?

ANSWER: Encourage the sensible use of energy and reduce wastage.

QUESTION: What do you feel the Local Governments can do?

ANSWER: It would help if local governments encouraged business entities to turn off electric signs and lighting when the store or businesses are not open for business. The energy savings would be tremendous. Less fuel would be used to generate electricity and greenhouse gases would be reduced as a result. Local governments need to pass ordinances against the frivolous wastage of energy. This would reduce our dependency on imported fuels and maybe the fines from the citations would generate a wee bit of income for cash strapped municipalities.

QUESTION: What can individuals and families do to help?

ANSWER: Save energy whenever possible.

QUESTION: What actions have you personally taken to help prevent Global Warming?

ANSWER: I ride a bicycle to save money on gasoline sometimes; besides being good exercise it saves gasoline and reduces pollution.

QUESTION: What actions can you suggest that my class can take to help prevent Global Warming?

ANSWER: Your class members need to ask your grandparents and other mature people if the climate has changed over the last 40 years. Ask them if the winters of today are milder than the winters of decades past. Then if you are convinced the worlds climate is changing, act accordingly to minimize your use of energy from fossil fuels.

QUESTION: Do you use any Energy Star labeled objects?

ANSWER: Yes, many energy efficient products are superior in construction to standard products. I use a laptop rather than a desktop computer to reduce energy usage.

QUESTION: Do you have any interesting facts to share with me that I have not covered with my questions?

ANSWER: Your questions are pretty extensive.

QUESTION: Do you have any books, magazines or websites you could recommend to my class?

ANSWER: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.html A UN Affiliated Website

QUESTION: How can I help make people care about Global Warming?

ANSWER: Ask them what kind of world that they want to leave for their great grandchildren?

Stephanie Heck / Huntington West Virginia.

B 97.1 FM Radio in Coal Grove Ohio has an excellent online stream of golden oldies. Classical 60's 70's 80's Rock & Roll and they offer online streaming music for those who are fond of Internet Radio. I frequently listen to this radio station in the car and at home. Now I can listen to it online at the link below. Take a listen, and you will like it. It will play on a standard Windows media player. This is an up and coming radio station in the tri-state area serving Huntington WV, Ashland Ky, and Ironton Ohio.

http://2005.b97fm.com/cc-common/streaming_new/index.html?refreshed=yes

Radio stations in West Virginia and Ohio are streaming media to the internet in larger numbers and this B97.1 radio station is doing well to exploit technology. I like internet radio and I commend and recommend this radio station. Bookmark the radio station link above.

The Welch West Virginia police chief is accused in a federal lawsuit of stopping a would-be rescuer from performing CPR on a gay heart attack victim because he assumed he was HIV positive. Claude Green, 43, died June 21  in Welch West Virginia after suffering the heart attack, yards from the Welch City Hall. The West Virginia Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU affiliate ) filed the suit against Bobby Bowman on behalf of Green's mother. The lawsuit alleges Police Chief Bowman pulled Billy Snead who was Green’s friend, off of the man as he was performing CPR.

I am familiar with Welch.

It is a small coal town in southern West Virginia ( Appalachia ). I hope that there will eventually come a time when no person will die because of the denial of medical care by a bigoted public servant. The right to medical care is not dependant on ones orientation in Welch West Virginia or any place else. Medical care is a human right that is independent of stereotypes.

I very strongly support my county and its armed forces, however I think it is time that America formulate a plan to bring the troops home from Iraq. I feel the American People were deceived about the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and I feel our president and his subordinates have mislead the American People as far as the grounds for the invasion of Iraq. I had a friend come home from Iraq and he also thinks it is time to bring the troops home. I feel the president should be impeached.

We have killed thousands of Al Qaeda members and their Taliban allies in Afghanistan. Those are the real terrorists who were responsible for 911. Afghanistan is where the real enemy is located. I feel that George Bush is negligent is not going after the real enemy.

In addition to the 2000 American Servicemen whom have died in this war, upwards of 30,000 Iraqi civilians have died as well. We were justified at cleaning house in Afghanistan, however we went into Iraq on a wild goose chase in search of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. I do hold the president accountable in a supervisory capacity for the actions of his subordinates. As Harry Truman once said "The buck stops here" These weapons of mass destruction did not exist and therefore the threat did not exist. In absence of a threat, there was no probable cause or provocation to go to war under international law.

Starting a war without cause or provocation is a violation of the Geneva Convention and the United States is party to that convention and therefore bound by that convention. I feel this war is all about money and oil, and our leaders deny that.

I would support a congressional attempt to impeach President Bush. He lead us to war under false pretenses and 2000 American soldiers are dead as a result of the culpable negligence of the White House to verify the integrity of the intelligence data before sending troops in harms way.

Feel Free to disagree with me, I respect the right of Americans to dissent, and I also respect the right of Americans to impeach any elected official who denies the American People the truth. This is the nature of national politics.

I am conducting a poll. Should George Bush Be Impeached?

Stephanie Heck

Huntington West Virginia

A native West Virginian and globally famous movie and television star, has passed from this world at the age of 81. Don Knotts who played the role of Deputy Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith show has gone into eternity on February 24. Don was a native of Morgantown West Virginia. We in West Virginia will miss him and enjoy his unique comedy for decades to come in syndication.

Well it finally happened, the Huntington WV Police Department went on a drug raid yesterday and had to deal with a bunch of Pit Bull Terriers. They shot one Pit Bull Terrier dead and wounded three more Pit Bull Terriers in the course of arresting two drug dealers. (One from Detroit) Good Shootin boys! Congrats to HPD. The question is not why, but when these blasted worthless mutts are going to be outlawed in our state of West Virginia?

Canada, Australia and Italy have a complete prohibition on Pit Bull Terriers. It would please me enormously if these violent dogs were outlawed in total because they are nothing more than a canine weapon that mauls kids and attacks police.

I am surprised that 3 out of 4 pit bulls survived being shot by police. The Huntington Police Carry a 9mm weapon. A 38 S&W or a 1911A .45 ACP takes a Pit Bull down permanently with the first shot. The muscle density of a Pit Bull is much heavier than a human, this renders a 9MM a little light for the job. Perhaps police supervisors could be equipped with 45 pistols in the event of a rabid or malicious dog needs to go bye bye. A 45 is the ideal weapon for a rabid or a muscular attacking dog at close range, and I encourage the police to be properly armed for the job. 45, one shot and you have a deceased dog on your hands. If you shoot a pit bull with a 9mm, you will just provoke him.

Is the Cabell County Commission listening? Remember the little girl Mauled last May by a Pit Bull Terrier? These mutts are very dangerous and bred to kill. Is the Huntington West Virginia city council waiting for a Pit Bull Terrier to chew up a cop? Or another Child? I have been on the warpath about pit bull terriers since the last child was killed.

23 years ago a pit bull terrier went after a child in my presence, the Pit Bull was killed by me. I did not like pit bulls then, and I don't like them now.

Here is a poll asking if pit-bulls should be outlawed in West Virginia

It saddens me that Delegate Dale Stephens of the Cabell County delegation to the West Virginia Legislature has decided to break democratic party ranks in support of a republican sponsored gay marriage amendment to the state constitution. I have never been one for the politics of bias. The democratic leadership and many members of the legislature determined that existing laws are adequate and a constitutional amendment was not needed. The gay marriage amendment vote went down along party lines with the exception of a small number of democratic legislators who have no allegiance to their party and kissed the GOP elephants posterior.

My position on this is very simple, marriage should be regulated by general statutes and it is absolutely not a constitutional issue at the state or federal level. Any form of prohibition should be done by general statute and don't tamper with the state constitution.

I had no idea that Dale Stephens of Cabell County had such an extreme right wing agenda that he could not be relied upon to support his own party on its civil rights position. Those of us who voted for Dale Stephens in the past thought we were getting a democrat and not a DINO. A Dino is a ( Democrat in Name Only ) A.K.A. "A closet case republican". If Dale Stephens was a republican I would expect him to hold this position. I did not vote for a republican and I resent the trickery and lack of backbone. I resent liberal republicans for the same reason I resent right wing democrats. These people don't have the integrity to say what they really are, and the voter has no idea of what they are getting.

I assure you that I will not make the mistake of voting for Dale Stephens again. I am hoping to vote for candidates that support the positions of the party that elected them. It is not a matter of my position but rather a matter of honesty, I am tired of democrats who are indistinguishable from republicans and vice-versa. I am not angry but very disappointed at the lack of backbone among elected leaders.

 I understand the city of Huntington West Virginia has shut down Midway Drive Inn, for failure to pay municipal fees and taxes to the city. It seems the hot dogs in city hall have shut down a local hot dog stand that is a local landmark to make a point. Nobody seems to know what that point is? One can only suspect that the political miscreants at city hall feel threatened by the hot dog stand, but nobody can blame the wieners in city hall, for defending their own species.

Freudian connotations?