Saturday, October 17, 2015

Response To Allegations By JCC Dems Against CARMA


To CARMA Members:

You might have seen the letter from the JCC Democratic Chairperson in last Wednesday’s Virginia Gazette.  That letter is just filled with errors and issues.

A couple weeks ago a friend forwarded to me the current email being circulated by the JCC Dems claiming that the local Republican Men’s Club is racist for an article that appeared on their BLOG.  While the basis for this claim is absurd considering it was an open BLOG to which anyone could post or comment, and considering the article in question was removed immediately after it was posted by me, the webmaster, and  considering the person who posted it was identified by the Google BLOGSPOT application as “unknown,” and, that it was traced back by Google from the IP address as having been posted at one of the public  work stations at the public library on Scotland Street. 

And some more details:  This all occurred on June 4th and 5th.  The article was never mentioned by the JCC Democrats until about 2 weeks ago when they started to circulate it on their website, saying that CARMA was racist for posting it, and the Republican candidates should return the donations CARMA gave them because CARMA is racist.  So far one BIG mistake, they are assuming someone from CARMA posted it, when in fact the BLOG was an OPEN BLOG and anyone could have posted it.  Even one of the dems could have done the posting, in preparing for this scurrilous campaign claim, and remember it was done over three & 1/2 months ago and all had been silent until just recently.

I believe the person who posted it did so for political reasons.  This is considering the posting occurred three months before it was discussed, was never mentioned or commented upon by the dems until about 2 weeks ago, and is now being used as the basis for a political smear campaign.  All just seems too coincidental and too convenient.

So, if this is such a terrible article, why did the dems wait three months?  Answer, they waited until they could use the finance reports from the candidates to claim they were accepting donations from a racist organization.  The article wasn’t going to be used for anything except linking CARMA to the candidates and claiming CARMA was racist for posting it AND switching discussion away from the James City County issues and onto something they could try to make sound really terrible.  The article was removed due to its content and is unacceptable by CARMA guidelines.

In the age of internet technology, trying to hold a group responsible for everything on its open BLOG, is like trying to hold The Virginia Gazette responsible for every opinion in the Last Word; or better, holding New Town Cinemas responsible for the content of every movie, or cable TV for the content of every show.  How about all the Facebook postings which seem to be rampant?  Is Facebook responsible for all the pictures too?

An open BLOG is just that, open.  I believe CARMA took the responsible action and removed the item ASAP.  That is the reason the dems must continue to publish this article on their website for people to see.

It is a sad state of affairs that the dem campaign has come to this, but it has.  An open BLOG is just that OPEN.  While CARMA restricts the nature of what can be posted by follow up editing, I would encourage everyone to realize that CARMA is not racist.  Check the association's records for speakers and members, or their website to see the myriad of authors and opinions.

By necessity, the BLOG has been made a "subscription user only" for commenting and posting.  I encourage the dems to remove the article from their website ASAP. 

Ed.

The CARMA Webmaster

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