Converted Eyes: April 2005

Complaints made against Patrick Henry College student and Oprison Campaign.

The Joe May campaign has submitted an informal complaint to the Legislative District Chair against Patrick Henry College (PHC) freshman Andrew Tyrrell, campaign manager for Chris Oprison. The Joe May campaign has also appealed the Loudoun County Republican Chairman’s ruling certifying that both the May and Oprison campaigns timely filed the requisite number of petition signatures under state law.

The Joe May campaign allege that Oprison’s petitions were sent in a few minutes premature disqualifying Oprison from the Republican primary in the race for the 33rd House District seat in Virginia.

Oprison's campaign contends that they filed their petitions a minute after the deadline at 12:01 on March 29, 2005.

The complaint is not formal but, according to a news release sent out by the Oprison campaign, the Joe May campaign is threatening civil lawsuits and criminal action against Oprison and his campaign manager, PHC freshmen Andrew Tyrrell, if their campaign proceeds.

David Juday, the Communications Director for the Joe May campaign, says that they never threatened civil lawsuits. He says that it is also too strong to say that they threatened criminal action but that they did say they reserve the right to turn this in to the commonwealth attorney.

Mr. Juday says that Joe May’s staffers sent in their petitions a few minutes early as well but, when they had discovered their mistake, withdrew the petitions immediately and re-filed them.

According to Mr. Tyrrell he first starting hearing rumors about the complaint on the 20th and that the whole thing broke the next day. He has not seen the actual complaint.

Oprison said in a prepared statement, "The May campaign seems to have turned to technicalities in a desperate attempt to avoid a discussion on the issues, namely a certain $1.4 Billion tax increase. Their motives are transparent–keep me off the ballot at all costs. Joe's heavy-handed actions stink of desperation and, quite frankly, I'm surprised to see Joe stoop to this level."

Mr. Juday says that it is not a technicality and that the whole of Mr. Oprison’s “public record has been his ballet filing and that should not escape scrutiny.”

Mr. Tyrrell believes that he met all the requirements for being eligible to vote in VA. The Joe May campaign is alleging that Mr. Tyrrell was not eligible to collect petitions at the time because a person cannot claim the right to vote in any other State to be eligible to register to vote in Virginia and Mr. Tyrrell was registered to vote in Orange County Florida. After hearing about the complaint, Mr. Tyrrell says that he has gone so far as to start the process to register to vote in Virginia.

According to Mr. Tyrrell, the Loudoun County registrar of voters told him that there were no problems with his qualifications and that they would process his application but that the May campaign called the registrar of voters and told her not to process Mr. Tyrrell’s application because he was not qualified to vote.

Thursday, Mr. Tyrrell says he received a call from the registrar of voters that she had been told not to register him. Mr. Tyrrell called back and asked what he needed to do to get registered. He was told they only needed to know if he was going to be living in Virginia. He did and his application is now being processed.

Mr. Juday says that it was Tim Powers, who is not on Joe May’s campaign payroll, who made the call simply to find out if being registered to vote in another state, in this case FL, disqualifies a person from being eligible to be registered to vote.

Last Monday the Loudoun County Republicans held their monthly meeting. According to Mr. Tyrrell there were none of the expected “fireworks” and Joe May did not show up.

Mr. Tyrrell says: “we are not giving up and we are moving forward with our campaign.”

--Robby

In honor of Sunday

As it is Sunday and I just got done listening to a great sermon, I thought I would get up on my soap box (scary I know).

Many people I have talked to have a problem with Christianity because they look at the crusades, the Inquisition, the actions of the Catholic Church today, and the example of Christians and all they can think of is "hypocrites." This may shock you but I agree. We are all hypocrites at one time or another but this is one of the reasons that I believe in Christianity. It is the very fact that I know I sin that draws me to a forgiving God. The idea that Christians are supposed to be perfect is made up by our secular world and modern day pharisees--pharisees that Jesus called a brood of vipers. Christianity is not about Christians it is all about God. I accept that I sin, do you? I accept that I have a God that has forgiven me, do you? I do not believe myself better than non Christians, do you think yourself better than Christians? If you do, that would be hypocritical.

[R]

(as usual I encourage comments)

"the miracle of spring"

I lived in Florida before I can remember, lived in Southern California till I was 12, then spent most of the rest of my life in the tropics so this has really been my first experience living through a change of seasons. I have always heard the old worn out phrase, "the miracle of spring" but never really understood what it meant.

In three days we went from heating our dorm room to turning on the air-conditioning, the grass turned vibrant green (I can hear them mowing it now), little buds started poking their heads out of the bare branches and have now turned into pure white blossoms, the tulips pushed through the ground and a few have now bloomed vibrant red and yellow, we've had some fresh showers, I can feel the sun again, the sky has brightened, and the sound of birds fill the trees--all because the whole earth has tilted facing us more into the sun.

It is so weird just to see it all change by itself and so interconnected and so fast. This is the miracle of spring.

To borrow from one of my "daily position reports" that I sent out while crossing the Atlantic (to see them all go to http://www.svimmanuel.com/Feature%20story%20crossing%20the%20Atlantic.htm):

Even though the storms and rain of the weather or the cold and heat of the
seasons are a pain and uncomfortable, I am glad that God made this world a
changing one. Part of Human Nature seems to make it so we get calloused to the
beauty of say, something like a tree, real quick unless that tree transforms
from vibrant green to gold and finally stark black against the white of the
snow.
[R]

My Schedule!

This world is a crazy place. I was just reviewing my schedule and...

I give an 8 1/2 minute speech in rhetoric defending Clytaemnestra in Aeschylus' Agamemnon and have a 50 minute essay exam on about a century and a half of American history on Mon.

I have a history quiz on Friday.

I have Western Lit. pop quizes mixed through all this and over a hundred pages of Don Quixote to read before Mon.

I have a 600 word journalism story due this Wed and another due two weeks later.

I have an eight page paper to discuss a piece of literature deeply due the Mon after next.

I have a history research paper due two days later.

A ton of other exams and papers then... Finals

This is exactly why I am sitting here and wasting time by writing this post. On a positive note the flowers are blooming, white and red buds speckle the trees, the grass is emerald green, and the weather, truly, does not get any better.

[R]

Spring weather is here *breaths a deep breath to take in all the spring air*! I can finally come out of hibernation and play some volleyball and do some rollerblading. :) Speaking from personal experience I would recommend refraining from trying to play volleyball in the snow.

Website update

I have updated my website at http://www.svimmanuel.com/politicalreligiouswebsite.htm. Check out the new Book and Quote of the Month which can be found on the home page and a new article of the month which you can also find a link to below.

[R]