Open Letter to Matt Collins

Davidson County Republican Party candidate for Chairman Matt Collins responded to my post about the caucus and convention. You can read his comments at: http://kaybrooks.blogspot.com/2009/03/dcrp-convention.html . While Collins invites me to query him via email, I suspect lots of folks in Nashville would love to know more about this candidate and his vision for the DCRP so here’s my open letter to a DCRP candidate from a DCRP delegate. I understand that much of what I have presented will seem adversarial but understand that I too am tired of the Republican Party as it is in Davidson County. I too want to see some fundamental changes. I want to ensure that whoever takes over the party has the ability to actually move the Republican platform forward in this county. It’s proper to examine every potential job candidate for their fitness for the job by examining their past experience, knowledge of the task and how they would carry out the organization’s mission. Since I learned that Collins was running for DCRP chair I have been doing some research and I’ve found several things that give me pause—serious pause. So let’s start the conversation.

Mr. Collins,

We have never met but we have, at the caucus and the convention, been across the table from one another. Unfortunately, you were too busy conferring with your partners in this effort to take over the DCRP to reach across the table and introduce yourself before moving on to whisper to your next partner at another table. I was too polite to interrupt you while you were obviously focused on that task. Your lack of reaching out does concern me. If you intend to lead the DCRP is that lack of reaching across the table be indicative of who you will work with if you do lead the DCRP? Your comment below leads me to believe that you’re bringing in your own team instead. If you truly intended to work with the rest of us…a hand offered in friendship during the caucus and convention might have been a good idea.

I’m concerned when I read what you wrote at Campaign for Liberty on 2/11/09 http://www.campaignforliberty.com/user/Matt_Collins/

"It's very likely that not only will we win the local county Republican Party chair position, but that we'll also get most of the slots on the executive committee filled with fellow limited-government conservative Republicans. In other words we'll probably run our local county party.

If that happens, then what? What should we do? Ideas? Suggestions?"

You are running for the position of leader of the Republican party yet you’re asking your libertarian co-workers for your next set of instructions? Shouldn’t you already have that fixed in your mind? Shouldn’t you already have a vision and mission? In that same vein you stated on the Mike Church radio program on 3/26/09 (http://www.rlc.org/media/0326_rlc_mike_church_show.mp3):

“I’m not a political guy. I’m not really experienced at this.”

That affirms your need to ask for advice from your libertarian coworkers. This quote from current chair Tom Lawless, who has done an abysmal job of representing the Republican Party in Nashville during his own tenure, indicates he thinks YOU are the right man for the job.:

“ Matt has exhibited to me some extremely good leadership qualities in a very, very short period of time..." http://www.rlc.org/2009/03/

Yet, he admits to observing your leadership only over a 'very, very short period of time'. I see all that as a lot of negative and it does nothing toward assuring me that you have the experience and maturity to handle one of the most solid Democrat counties in the state—again also considering your own request for further instructions and confessed lack of experience.

I’m concerned that the very afternoon of the DCRP caucus you were also elected as vice-chair of the Tennessee Republican Liberty Caucus. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=11629 You are politically double dipping parties. I think you need to pick one team to play on and one team that should get your full attention and resources. Obviously, you think the DCRP is fundamentally flawed and you seem very intent in changing the DCRP into a RLC outpost.

And speaking of teams, you made it clear back when Sen. John McCain was in town that you could not vote for him and so I wonder if as the head of the DCRP you would withhold the county party’s support for the state’s gubernatorial candidate based on your personal agenda. http://www.ronpaul.com/2008-06-05/mccain-is-a-coward-says-ron-paul-assistant-organizer/ Again, it’s a team issue.

I’m concerned that at just 27 years old, a fairly new resident of the area and a newbie to the DCRP you don’t have a good handle on the history and players in Davidson County. You obviously have a lot of enthusiasm and some basic networking skills but how far will that get you in working with the current players and then making real changes in Davidson County politics? More about that below.

I find it curious that your business website http://sonicdesigns.com/ has recently been pulled from the Internet and isn’t available for viewing so that we can know more about your business and its practices.

That same website hosted several Ron Paul audio ads which you freely made available to his supporters. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact I far prefer you using your own server space than apparently appropriating NashvilleGOP.org’s space to host files linked from your personal posts at the Ron Paul Forums and Campaign For Liberty. Those files are still hosted at http://nashvillegop.org/misc/. I have a hard time believing that the DCRP is concerned at all with what Williamson County resident Dave Ramsey thinks of Ron Paul or that the DCRP has an opinion on whether Ramsey is a real libertarian or not. Further why would the DCRP host audio of an interview between Michael DelGiorno and TCPR’s Drew Johnson? That file seems entirely personal after reading your Campaign for Liberty post on 2/20/2009 (http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:eMrlPPHDYFYJ:lists.tncampaignforliberty.org/pipermail/cfl-list/2009-February/000031.html+nashvillegop.org/*&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) where you encourage folks to join a Facebook group supporting a run by Johnson for governor of Tennessee. There is also a clip from Phil Valentine hosted along with a couple of others. (For those unaware Collins introduced himself at the DCRP convention as a radio producer at WWTN 99.7 and Valentine, DelGiorno and Ramsey are aired on that same station.) If, as merely the Chief Informational Officer for the DCRP you’ve already overstepped that boundary between what’s available for your use and what belongs to the company…is it possible you’ll overstep others?

Further you’ve added news feeds to the DCRP website that even your partners at Creative Liberty think might raise questions about their being ‘Republican’ enough and might show your hand.

“Since I have been made the Chief Information Officer of my local Republican Party I now run the website. I have created a news / opinion page now that links to blogs from CFL, Reason, Mises, LewRockwell.com DailyPaul, and others.” http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?mode=hybrid&t=178746

I also wonder if my own email after the caucus to the DCRP inquiring about meeting information, which was never acknowledged or responded to was one of your responsibilities.

And really nit-picky--your comments at the Orlando Ron Paul Meetup space seem inappropriate for anyone wanting to be considered the adult in charge of a county political party. http://www.meetup.com/orlandocampaignforliberty-com/members/4299869/.

And once I move past all of that I wonder just how you are going to take on the thoroughly entrenched Democrat party in this county? Where will you start—clearly, as noted above, you don’t know.

• Will your coup hinder your ability to raise funds with those who have been financing the DCRP or will your supporters be more than able to fill in and overcome that financial loss?
• Will your administration commit to fielding a full slate of candidates for the next primary or will you also write off the urban core?
• Will your administration begin mentoring Republicans to run for office?
  
• Will the DCRP under your leadership actually support those campaigns with cash and volunteers?
  
• Will your DCRP fully staff the polls and monitor election results and be willing to challenge violations?
  
• Will there be a DCRP response to legislation filed by Nashville Democrats in the legislature?
• Similarly, what about legislation and initiatives the Metro Council?
  
• What will your version of the DCRP do about Democrat control in this city that allowed things like the shenanigans that occurred over the last special election?
  
• What will you offer, via the DCRP bully pulpit, finances and manpower, to the city of Nashville in regards to serious urban problems like:

Schools
Infrastructure to include the convention center, stormwater and riverfront development
Homelessness and affordable housing
Traffic and public transportation

At the DCRP convention on 3/7/09 in your ‘vote for me’ speech you asked folks to consider if they’re happy with the status quo. Well, since November we’ve learned that change for change's sake isn’t a good enough reason to vote against the status quo. Hopefully, lots of folks have learned to ask “Just what does change mean?” Here’s your chance to define what that would mean to the members of the DCRP.

Thanks for your time. I know it’s at a premium this week. See you Saturday.


2009-04-2 UPDATE: I noticed this morning that audio files mentioned above along with the news feeds page have been removed from the Davidson County Republican Party website.

Al's still not walking the talk

We continued our lives as usual last evening while parts of the planet, some of Nashville included, turned out their lights for an hour to demonstrate their solidarity with the planet. Never mind that the celebrations themselves probably used up more electricity than if everyone had just stayed home. Never mind we're healthier and more prosperous as a result of human achievement and people all over the planet would love to even have the option of turning lights on or off. The World Wildlife Fund told us to vote either for the planet or global warming. Who made them the election commission on this? We voted none of the above last night.

One of the children did wonder aloud what Al Gore was doing. Of course, none of us cared enough about it to check into it. But, our TCPR donations paid off one more time when Drew Johnson drove by the manse and noticed the Gore's also voted 'none of the above':

"The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.

I [kid] you not, my friends, the savior of the environment couldn’t be bothered to turn off the gaudy lights that show off his goofy trees." Hat tip AC Kleinheider

Suggested reading: Casa del Krum stuffs the ballot box.

Who is our Daniel Hannan?

Where is the American Daniel Hannan? Who is standing and stating so clearly, so plainly, in just three and a half minutes what absolutely must be repeated over and over and over until this nonsense is stopped AND reversed?

"You cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt."

It's going to take thousands of citizens rising up and speaking together at Tea Parties across the nation, at every candidate meet and greet from here until November 2010. Enough! No more! Give it back! When I remember the absolute horror of the left at the Patriot Act it pales in comparison to what Congress and Obama and his administration have done in just months. The assault on basic property rights, the rule of law and the Constitution are astounding. Citizens of every ilk must take time away from earning a living, tending to their families and worshiping their God to get involved in this political battle if we're going to leave to our children a free nation that resembles the one we grew up in.

Hat tip: Bob Krumm

Plant Markers

One more garden post if you can stand it.

We've made our own plant markers out of gallon ice cream buckets. We fished them out of the recycling bin and using kitchen shears cut off the top handle edge, cut off the bottom and then cut about 1" sections from the wall of the bucket. We got about 20 out of each bucket. Cut one end of each section pointy to make it easier to shove into the dirt. Use a grease pencil (china marker) to write on the plastic. The grease pencil will rub off later if you want to reuse these. Of course the plastic won't decay for some 150 million years so they'll be good for several seasons.

DCRP Convention

Heretofore I haven’t gotten formally involved in the Republican Party but I finally got tired enough of them not getting their act together, ignoring my part of town and completely forgetting that we have got to be champions for the conservative movement that I decided it was time to get involved. So now, I am a delegate to the Davidson County Republican Convention.

I attended both the caucus on February 21 and the convention on March 7. Having never been to a DCRP convention before I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was appalled at what I found. The room was filled with brand spanking new ‘Republicans’ who had some of the same frustration about the party as I did. Obviously, the party hadn’t been doing a good job of recruiting members themselves and the void was happily filled by Ron Paul supporters who saw an opportunity to take over. Yikes.

The first vote between three candidates for chairman whittled the field down to two. So successful was the effort by those new 'Republicans' that the vote for chairman was a tie between the old guard’s Katherine Starnes and the Ron Paul supporters' Matt Collins. The second vote ended in a tie and so the convention was suspended because no one had bothered to consider the hall might be needed for longer than than three hours and we flat didn't have time to finish the business of the convention.

I guess we should lay the blame for the bad planning and confusion on current Chair Tom Lawless who seemed to not have a good handle on how the convention would be run. The whole event was fairly chaotic, time was wasted, rumors included that there were extra ballots and Mr. Lawless had to cancel his tee time because the meeting ran long and the big mistake of not securing the venue for long enough were clear indicators of a need for a better leadership team.

Kathleen Starnes is the current First Vice Chair and if I’m unhappy with the party as it is isn’t she part of that problem? On the other hand I do understand that it's possible her one vote couldn't really change things. Her ‘vote for me’ speech talked about reaching out to Donelson and Goodlettsville and seemed to ignore taking back the urban core. That's fine but it's a mistake when the urban core is gaining political strength every year to ignore it. The man who nominated her stated she has a vision for expanding the grassroots outreach and embracing technology. Well, I can certainly attest to the fact that communication has been darn right awful for a while. My own note to the DCRP via their website has been unanswered for three weeks. Further, other than a focus on the 2010 redistricting and grassroots she failed to provide a vision or mission statement that would convince me that she's the man for taking back Davidson County.

Matt Collins works at WWTN producing for conservatives Phil Valentine and Michael DelGiorno. An association which seemed to be the prime reason he wanted us to vote for him. As if association = competence. Since the convention was suspended I’ve had a chance to do some research on him. Obviously, he’s got the social networking down (something the DCRP could certainly use) and obviously he’s passionate (something else they could use) but I’m not ready to hand over the mantle of what should be the conservative pulpit in this county to a 27 y/o with a Facebook profile that doesn’t seem to understand that folks who are going to be ‘interviewing’ him for this job are looking for some proof of maturity, leadership and vision for the party. A public profile and a photo more akin to his February 21 professional costume would have helped. Between the time this photo was taken and the convention he found a hair stylist and a good suit.

It was pretty creepy to learn that Collins attended the March 11th Nashville Republican Women’s meeting. His appearance was jarring to some of the ladies. Phil Valentine was the scheduled speaker and Collins told folks he was just there to hear what Phil had to say. What? He had made it clear he works with Phil. Phil’s on the air every afternoon. Collins ought to have memorized what Phil has to say about nearly every topic. Collin’s explanation was not believed. What was believed was that he wasn’t going to give Katherine Starnes (an actual Republican woman) the opportunity to campaign for chair. Frustratingly, Collins’ presence also kept the ladies from being able to ask Valentine for an honest assessment of his co-worker.

On Wednesday I got an email from someone, not the party or a leader, giving me a heads up that the meeting was scheduled for two days away on Friday night, downtown at 5:30. Obviously, DCRP communication hasn't improved. Sadly, it seems no one seriously considered the need for folks to have more than a couple of days notice, or the practicals of getting downtown at that time of day and then having women walking back to their cars after dark. Yes, some basics have to change at DCRP and then maybe we can start working on making a difference in Davidson County.

Newspaper Seedling Pots

We're making seedling pots this morning. I'm always amazed at how many basic skills have gone by the way. So in case you thought you had to buy the peat pots from MegoMart or the seed catalog...here are the directions. Yes, you'll get newsprint all over your hands and you shouldn't wear anything you don't want stained.

Fold one sheet of black and white newspaper in thirds lengthwise. Tear the sheet on the fold into three long pieces.

Take one piece and roll it around a tomato paste can with about 2 inches over the edge of the can. Your local newspaper may not have downsized its page size so feel free to adjust as you deem fit. I like a fairly short pot. They're seedlings after all.

Once rolled fold the excess over onto itself to form the bottom of the pot. Give the pot a good stomp with the can in it to set the folds.

Fill with your favorite potting soil and place on a tray to transport. These will be sturdy enough to give the seedling a start but thin enough to decay in a well watered garden plot when it comes time to move the seedling from the cold frame to the garden. Or you can just pull it apart come transplanting time and pitch the pot in the compost pile.

This goes pretty quickly even if you do get the children to help.

And no, this won't become an all gardening blog.

Planting Character

I know posting's been lite lately. I've felt bad about that. There have been some great education things that I would love to have commented on. Thankfully, Ben's posted several of them. I got to hear Rep. Zach Wamp (my husband thinks that a great name for a band, btw), I attended the Davidson County Republican Convention, Councilman Mike Jameson (East Nashville/downtown) seems to have become Emily Latilla regarding riverfront development, MNPS BOE member Ed Kindall (District 7-Downtown-Glencliff) is still getting a free pass from his fellow BOE members (and likely the local bar's ethics committee), the legislature is in session and the hits just keep coming as they say. However, my first community needed some additional organizing and due to the current 'economic situation' (I'm trying to be nice here) we've decided to put in a garden for the first time in about 10 years. So time I would have ordinarily spent pounding the keyboard has had to be shared with garden tasks.

I am thankful we have land to grow food on, that we’re not among the unemployed, and that we have a great network of folks who care about us. I’ll also keep in mind Rep. Susan Lynn’s post comparing our own current difficulties with The Great Depression. They had it rough. We're mostly spoiled and lazy in comparison. So we're picking up a shovel and planting some character this spring. Hopefully, by fall we'll have a bountiful harvest.

Uppity women

So Mark Albertini thinks TN GOP Chair Robin Smith has forgotten her place.

I believe the Bible teaches that a woman’s primary concern should be to stay at home and take care of her husband, her children and her home. I do not see the public arena generally as a place for a Christian woman to be.

Keyword here is GENERALLY. When the woman is the one with {ahem} a pair ...what else can you do but elect her?

So Mr. Albertini...what do you say about Deborah or Esther of old? If they hadn't stepped outside of their 'place' where would Israel be now? And maybe, just maybe, MR. & Mrs. Smith have agreed that her political activity IS the best way for her to take care of their family?

Has Mr. Albertini even read Proverbs 31? Oh, wait, he's got a J.D. & and M.Div. That explains a lot. Generally JD's and MDiv's are law lovers to the ith degree. While they study the jot and tittle and argue about the meaning we uppity women are going to get the job done--with our husband's blessing.

Hat tip: AC Kleinheider

Thanks for not reading

I wasn't happy with Congress for not reading the porkulus bill but I'm all smiles this time. Seems the Omnibus Spending Bill could have used a good reading too. From CNS news (via Lucianne.com):

On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

According to the article this is now the law of the land until Sept. 30th when the fiscal year ends.

Just about the time I was thinking no one was in charge in Washington DC it turns out God, himself, has got his hands on the wheel.

Consequences

Do our actions have consequences anymore? People buy more house than they can afford and Obama steps in and takes money from our family budget to pay their note and/or the golden parachute of the mortgage company CEO.

Half of Obama's administrative team doesn't pay their taxes and they get a do-over. One of them even gets to be head of the IRS.

American auto manufacturers have been mismanaged and we're told 'they're too big to fail'.

I'm with Jim Bryson on this one:

"I feel bad for people who will lose their jobs. However, GM has been uncompetitive for a long time. When the government doesn't allow non-competitive businesses to die, it undermines our economic system. It is time to allow GM to go into bankruptcy. If they can work out their issues and emerge, more power to them. If not, let more competitive company take over their assets and employees."

All this protection of people with bad judgment has got to stop. The School of Hard Knocks has plenty of desks available. It's time for some folks to begin learning their lessons.

287 Gee we didn't think that would happen

Sheriff Daron Hall took a lot of grief for daring to explain this 287g program to identify and deport illegals to some citizens Hate group or not...they still pay his salary and he's sworn to protect them too. They shouldn't be denied the same opportunity to hear from their public servant as the rest of us. Now we've got folks all up in arms because lawMAKERS didn't write the law specifically enough and sheriff's across the country are making no distinction about how illegal the illegal immigrants are.

The program, referred to as 287g, was intended to get dangerous criminals off the streets — primarily those who commit violent crimes, human smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling and money laundering, according to the report.

Sheriff Hall is to be commended in identifying and dealing with these law breakers in our city. It's not his fault that lawMAKERs didn't do their job and enumerate just what they wanted.

These police officers just take 'em as they come. Does anyone seriously think they're overlooking the violent for the pregnant without a license? No. The officer witnesses careless driving and thanks to the great stats that Chief Serpas and his staff keep we know that some 25% of the time they pull people over for minor traffic incidents there's a warrant outstanding or some illegal circumstance. They were right to stop her. She took a chance on entering illegally. She took a chance in driving without a license. She lost and she has suffered, no doubt. But now she's a martyr for the cause of those who do not honor the rule of law--despite their own oaths to uphold it.


Hat Tip Truman Bean

This land is your land

Obama did it. He brought us together. Joe the Plumbers, Santelli & the traders and Sue the entrepreneur going 'John Galt' are embracing a hippie anthem.

"And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin' if this land's still made for you and me."



Find more videos like this on Smart Girl Politics

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin who has a great round up of other videos. She's also a national sponsor of the Tea Parties.

Here's a link to the lyrics for this Woodie Guthrie classic via the Girl Scouts.

Submit

I can't help but be concerned about how the upcoming rule change by Obama will impact our world. It's bad enough that we condone so many abortions but now to demand that health workers violate their consciences to further access to murder is just too much like ushering in Hitler II. "I was just following orders".

A heads up from Bobbie Patray of Tennessee's Eagle Forum was in my in box this morning. She quoted from Scientific American:

Advocacy groups last month sued the government over the so-called "right to conscience" rule, charging that it's unlawful.

What kind of world are we living in when the right to conscience will be unlawful? What kind of medical community will we create when it's full of people who are willing to not have one? Or are willing to submit theirs to the powers that be? One that will be closer to Dr. Mengle than the Great Physician who said "Let the little children come unto me..."

Add enough dozens together

Looks like the folks at Channel 5 need to head back to kindergarten and learn to count. Their recent report on the Nashville Tea Party starts with:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Dozens of people gathered downtown to protest President Obama's nearly $800 billion stimulus package.

And then in introducing the video piece the anchor calls it a "large crowd". Which was it?

The Village Voice folks, you know our sophisticated betters in New York, are only too happy to report the 'dozens' number in their coverage of the Tea Parties and ignore the hundreds number that come closer to confirming the announced attendance of 600.

I saw hundreds there. Even a cursory look at the Channel 5 report would certainly confirm more than 'dozens'. I know the number battle happens every time there is a rally. All the more reason our local news outlets should be more careful.

74 is a flood?

The headline reads: "Homeless kids flood shelters and schools". It's published in the Nashville paper on February 22nd and the sub-head reads: "Economic hardship brings sharp increase in numbers, and a challenge to teachers, agencies". Flood and sharp increase is what jumps out and is expected during this harder economic time. However, the Tennessean's own chart doesn't bear the alarming headline out. Since when is an increase of 74 students out of 929,000 enrolled in 8 districts a flood?

The chart shows that Metro-Nashville, where this paper is printed, actually had a sharp decrease from last year. Wilson, Williamson and Franklin had increases...but come on...is it fair to utilize their small increases to alarm the entire area about the issue? Is anyone concerned that Williamson County, one of the wealthiest in the nation, had an increase of 2800% in homeless students and so may not have the resources necessary to handle those 28 students?

Each of these districts has enough legitimate need without manufacturing false need and crying wolf.

Cheatham blog under fire--again

I've mentioned a couple of times the Cheatham County County School Board Watchdog blog. I've applauded their efforts to monitor and hold their system accountable. They have been under fire since the beginning. From my October post introducing them:

The blog's first post is dated just weeks ago and already they've gotten the attention of the Cheatham County BOE which has had legal counsel demand certain retractions. The eight page letter also criticizes their anonynimity and calls them hypocrites and less than responsible citizens. I'm all for correcting factual errors and the lawyers make it clear the anonymous blog is a legitimate free speech outlet but it's interesting to me that the Cheatham County BOE would go to such lengths so quickly when a simple comment on the offending blog post could have done the same. The letter promises that the BOE will continue to monitor the blog for 'mischaracterizations, falsehoods and defametory statements'. Apparently, it didn't take long for these folks to ruffle a few feathers.

And, apparently, they have continued to monitor the blog.
The last RSS feed from the CCSBW blog said:

"We are Sorry
from Cheatham County School Board Watchdogs by Watchdog
We understand that this website was on the agenda at tonight's BOE workshop. We also understand that more tax paying dollars will be spent soon to send us a letter from an attorney obtained by the Director. We also understand that the Director is demanding to know all who are involved in this website. Who knew that our website would be shown at the meeting. I would ask the Director and all..."

I think that was Thursday and I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing. Friday I started getting emails from folks and a comment added to a previous post about CCSBW telling me the site was not accessible and viewing was by invitation only. Eventually, CCSBW author "Watchdog" also commented and said:

Dear Kay and all,
Thank you for all your help. We have been notified that the Director has contacted an attorney to send another letter to the our site. We are having people review our site to insure that we have not overstepped our First Admendments rights. As soon as we get clearance we will let you all know.
Thank you again.

Again, they've been threatened with libel lawsuits and so have taken the site private pending a review by attorneys to determine if anything that has been posted is actually libelious. I'm told they could really use a pro bono attorney to help them in this effort. I'm not a lawyer but I've seen far worse on sites considered much more legitimate.

I'm pulling this rather long quote from a local paper called the I-24 Exchange dated March 2, 2009, page 3. While the paper is available on-line each page is 7-8 MB and very unweildy to access and give you no clue about what part of the paper is on which link.

"In other board discussions, Director [Lynn] Siefert told the School Board on Thursday that she had taken enough personal attacks posted on a web site and was seeking legal action.

Director Seifert read through a recent anonymous posting on "Cheatham County Board Watchdogs" website that listed Seifert's salary over $98,000 and listed additional benefits and expenses including $10, 500 in postage. Seifert said the postage was an annual total for the School Board and not her personal postage account. Director Seifert said the posting declared she was deceitful including the $197,00 for bus fuel in last year's budget.

"I have requested that they not post untruths and when they directly attack my character and call me a liar, it goes beyond needing to have a thick skin to deal with just criticism," Seifert said.

Director Seifert said she had asked an attorney to write a letter to the web site owners to cease the libelous statements. "If you were thinking of locating to Cheatham County and brought up the schools on the web and got a hold of this you might think that I'm not going there where there is a thief and a liar," Seifert said.

Board Chairman Chris Speigl thanked Seifert for her work and said, "There is an element in the county through letters and under the radar in the dark that wants to intimidate through innuendos and half truths. It is time to bring them from the darkness to the light and expose it for what it is."

While the CCSBW site is down you can contact the Cheatham County School Board Watchdog folks at ccsbwatchdogs@gmail.com