Statement from Joe Stanley

As most people who read my blog and who have read my comments on various sites over the weekend know, I do not approve of what Joe Stanley did. My main objection was that the site he chose to link the ODBA name to was NAMBLA, an organization that supports legalizing pedophilia. My main objection was to that site. I still wish he had gone to a G-rated site that would have ridiculed them but not been so fraught with baggage.

I’ve made my condemnations known. But, I’ve also maintained this. He did not act in a vacuum. He has been harassed and slandered by a very small subset of the ODBA who are trying to get revenge for the macacca video and who have colluded to deprive him of his livelihood. I said that even before I saw his statement on this.

My biggest sorrow at this is that those ODBA members, mostly the SWAC group, have managed to turn themselves into the aggrieved victims while basically continuing their smear campaign againt Joe, which actually began before he put out that link. Go to their sites and they are painting with a broad brush, demanding that the entire Democratic Party apologize for the actions of one person. They even are attempting to link candidates who have not used Stanley’s consulting company to this. I believe this was their plan all along.

Before Joe, unfortunately, lashed out in hurt and retaliation and gave the gift that keeps giving, they were planning to tar everybody associated in any way with Joe with anti-semitism for a cartoon that Joe drew for the Webb campaign last year. Their game plan, as exposed by Ben, was to revive the baseless anti-semitism charge and embarrass every Democrat who used Joe’s Yellow Dog Strategy consulting firm. That is conspiracy to deprive Joe of his livelihood.

Joe’s an extremely talented and clever person. It’s no wonder they wanted to take him out. It was revenge pure and simple.

Although I do disagree with what Joe did, I don’t disagree with why he did it. So, I hope he doesn’t mind, but I am going to print in its entirety his statement, which already appeared on Raising Kaine and Not Larry Sabato.

You’ve probably already read it over there. But I feel, in the interest of fairness, I owe Joe his side of this. Everybody has heard from ODBA ad nauseum. They are not the only victims in this.

The Old Dominion Blog Alliance is a loose collection of individuals who blog in order to promote a conservative political agenda. That, in and of itself, would be great if that was all it was.
Unfortunately, this group’s most vocal members are a coven of ill-informed, fulminating, bullies so overwrought with political passion that they have lost all sight of fairness, civility, and discretion. Their detachment from reality has led them so far off the path that they know no bounds, no extent, and no depths to which they will not stoop.

After these gutless invertebrate have spent weeks conspiring to destroy an individual for holding a belief or idea that was not pre-approved by the ODBA they then scurry and cry foul when responded to. The sanctimonious among them quote the Old Testament with forked tongues and their chief pettifogger steps away from busting rocks to promise frivolous lawsuits.

The less vocal members of this organization sit on their hands and shake their heads. “It’s not us! We didn’t say anything!” It somehow fails to dawn on them that they have lent this organization credence by lending it their names. Abraham Lincoln once said, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

These silent sheep are being used as virtual shields to protect the lowest of the ODBA.

In the early summer of 2007, I volunteered my services to Senator Roscoe Reynolds. I believe Senator Reynolds is a strong advocate for Southwest Virginia and all working Virginians. The extent of my volunteer services was to build a pro-Reynolds site. Quite frankly, Mr. Evans poor showing in this race leaves Senator Reynolds virtually unopposed. He has no need to even mention Evans’ name, much less talk about his character or lack thereof.

Unfortunately, Evans’ campaign manager and cowardly ODBA member Alton Foley spoon fed his fellow bloggers some reality-altering kool-aid. It is their fantasy that if they can bloody Reynolds on the net then they’ll beat him at the ballot box. Their first attack on Senator Reynolds was for “hiring” me and a rehash of their outrageous attacks upon me from the 2006 cycle.

What they don’t understand is that attacking the staff, much less a volunteer doesn’t push votes. That is process–inside baseball–and no one cares. When their attacks failed to take root they became harsher, continuing their attacks upon me and my business. They were very persistent and never let the facts get in their way.
Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. And Here.

Don't forget this one where Kat Wilton advises, "Politics is a hard-hitting and frequently rough arena for people to play in, and if you can't take the heat, get the bloody hell out of the kitchen!" I suppose that is a one way street.

It was apparent that the attacks were coordinated and getting more and more personal. When the ODBA cannot win by promoting their ideas, they try and bully everyone else out of the room. If they scare off the staff and volunteers, in their mind, what will Reynolds do? He’ll win. He will win either way because he is the best man in this race and one of the best in the Virginia Senate.

At some point, I was angered at being attacked for no reason and more so by having my business and livelihood targeted. I decided to speculate the domain www.olddominionblogalliance.com. At that point I was still opposed to domain names of the individuals involved.

At no point did I ask anyone for their advice or consent on the path I was taking. What I do in my time is my business and my business alone.
I started to point it to a prominent Democratic site, but I don’t know of anyone who wants to be associated with these hate mongers and flat-earthers. I considered pointing the domain to a jihadist web site to draw a comparison on the extremism present in both groups. While I think the ODBA and their ilk eat away at the very core of what we are as a nation, I don’t think the ODBA is anti-American so decided to look elsewhere. One group stood out as equally loathsome and cowardly.

NAMBLA is an organization that advocates a set of beliefs that turn my stomach. Through misinformation, prevarication, and a false sense of earnestness, they pursue a predatory agenda that brings direct harm to countless innocent individuals. Their primary defense is the first amendment.

It is my opinion that the ODBA conducts itself in much the same way. While the end product is far less repugnant than pedophilia, no fewer individuals are hurt by the organization. The main distinction I can make between the two organizations is that NAMBLA believes in the first amendment, and ODBA only believes in their right to free speech.

I said as much to Jim Riley in an email when I was first asked about the domain.
This was not a joke, a prank, or any other kind of political horseplay. I meant the comparison. In short order, the ODBA proved my point once again. They were shocked that someone would fire back. I had sullied their “good name.” They quoted scripture, made fat jokes, threatened me and promised lawsuits. None of this bothers me as I would expect no less from these miscreants.

They have fabricated my right to political free-speech into a scandal on their blogs. They even issued a laughable press release on a Saturday morning.

They have lied about and attacked my business associates, social acquaintances, and anyone even remotely connected with me. When that didn’t get them anywhere these jackals then attacked my deceased mother, and are now going after my minor-aged daughter. One member, a Portsmouth, Virginia police officer who has a daycare center operated out of his home, published my home address and phone number to the web while his cohorts made unspeakable accusations regarding my fitness as a parent.

The genesis of all this hysteria was a free, positive web site for Sen. Reynolds.
The ODBA is out of control. They need to be stopped.

- Joe Stanley