Is Eric Bodenweiser Sussex County’s Joan of Arc or Another False Prophet?
Eric Bodenweiser, one of the founders of the now-defunct Sussex County Community Organized Regiment (SKKKOR) is on a mission to save the 14th RD, and by doing that, saving Sussex County. He has House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth Beach) in his figurative gun sight (knowing how off-balanced Bodie is, it might be literally, too). And he has picked up the help of disgraced former House Speaker Terry Spence and an anonymous website which attacks Pete.
Bodie, as his friends call him, organized SKKKOR to save Sussex County from the socialists that were barking at the gates. He echoes the screeds posted on the business sign of the Hudson Family Sports fields along Route 1 between Lewes and Milton. He is on a mission to “take back the 14th,” and thereby ridding Sussex County of it’s progressive leadership.
Budweiser hates the word “progressive.” He prefers to use “liberal,” pronouncing each syllable with disdain dripping from his lips. A few weeks ago, he authored a diatribe that was printed in the Cape Gazette. In it, he bashes Pete for supporting the Del Pointe casino-resort complex planned for Millsboro. Gambling is evil, in Budweiser’s eyes because it destroys families. Casinos will cause people to become gambling addicts, losing their homes and jobs, forcing them into bankruptcy and maybe even to other vices (smoking, drinking, cussing). But he offers no statistical data to back up his claims, while there is ample evidence, albeit from the gaming industry and Congress (both of which are the Devil) that shows no correlation between casino openings and bankruptcies in the host communities. Check out http://www.americangaming.org/industry/faq_detail.cfv?id=62 for details on the study.
But Budweiser went further than getting stupid over gambling. He found his inner Joan of Arc and decided to go off on what I call his “Christians first, Christians-only” rant. Just as St. Joan was bent on saving France from the G-Dless English, St. Bodie Girl is mad-crazy about saving Sussex County from the G-Dless lefties. He claims that we progressives “identify us (conservatives) as haters in an attempt to isolate us. Our struggle is not against them, but against the spiritual forces of evil,” and then he references some Bible passage and equates Liberals with the forces of evil (much like Beckpalinbaugh). Progressives do not hate conservatives. I can think of a few that I actually admire (Barry Goldwater in his later years, Former Colorado Governor Ralph Carr, who was a champion of the Japanese internees in Colorado, former Senator Alan Simpson). What we dislike is the self-serving attitude that conservatives and teabaggers actually claim to know what the Founding Fathers meant when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These self-anointed Constitutional scholars (sorry, completing a connect-the-dots coloring book on civics doesn’t mean you know anything about the Constitution) have no idea what Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Rodney, Hancock, et al, meant when they authored the documents our country and government were founded upon. It goes hand-in-hand with their interpretations of the Bible – they use whatever parts suit their needs to vilify those they disagree with or despise. Many down here in Sussex suspect St. Bodie Girl is behind the anonymous website that is going after Pete. The sight was set up through an Arizona web-hosting company using godaddy.com. St. Bodie Girl, without being asked, denied he was behind the site. Sounds a little like a guilty conscience. The website in question (I won’t post the name of it as I don’t want it to get anymore traffic than it deserves) has been promoted by Dan Gaffney on WGMD, the self-proclaimed “Voice of Delmarva.” Dan, be careful, some of your secrets might get out.
And then you have Spence, who during the last two years of his reign in Dover, was responsible for approving hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable spending for his fellow Republicans in the House. He wants to “take Pete down a peg or two” as he was quoted in the Snooze Journal’s Dialogue Delaware column on Sunday. Spence – you lost, get over it. You’re pissed because Pete exposed you for the crook you are. He would do well to just take his pension and disappear into some dark place as many roaches like him do when light is shined on them.
St. Bodie Girl and his followers are not on a mission from G-D; they are on a mission to rid society of what they believe is wrong and evil. Take a look in the mirror, Eric, take a look in the mirror. You might not like what you see.
Religious conservatives are batshit insane. We knew this already.
“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it.”
Thanks for the publicity!
Just to clarify, Eric Bodenweiser was not one of the founding members. Evidently it was automatically assumed that he was behind it, so he started taking the blame for it and then he decided he would come on board. Since then he has jumped in with both feet and hes been a great help. So a big public THANK YOU from us to everyone who “activated” him!
As far as Terry Spence is concerned… he was in fact a large proponent of the tax-and-spend mentality in Dover and therefore a bad legislator in our eyes.
We are a very bipartisan group… and we are coming after the big spenders in both parties. We are just starting at the top of the political heap.
Feel free to sign up on our site to stay updated and informed. We have lots of folks on both sides of the aisle already and more joining every day.
http://www.OnlyWhenPigsFly.org
So, really you have no idea who is behind onlywhenpigsfly.org you just wanted to bash eric bodenweiser? maybe it’s that other guy who wrote about pete 2 or 3 times this summer in the cape gazette, or how about this, perhaps it is chris weeks, his opponent?
Bill Wrong Wong doesn’t have the smarts enough to tie his shoes, much less put up an anonymous website. And Chris Weeks is St. Bodie Girl’s puppet. Who do you think introduced him at the Rotary Club breakfast a few weeks ago?
I never met Bill Wrong, but I read what he wrote, if it’s the same guy. I didn’t agree with him, but he didn’t seem like an idiot either. On the contrary, I thought it was well written. You are right about Weeks though, he’s a non candidate. I heard that the repubs are biding time until they can run the pharmacy girl defector.
what is a pharmacy girl defector?? english, please?
kathy mcguinness
lets face it – weeks hasn’t had the “steel testicles” to announce his candidacy – has he? If Budweiser is running the show – he might consider moving into the 14th…
I challenge Budweiser to step to the line with Dogfish – I think he and his buddies will have a tuff time convincing the voters in the 14th that they should be drinking Bud.
It is so like the radical left to marginalize anyone they disagree with so they can feel superior. Everybody may not agree with Mr. Bodenweiser but his point of view is worth listening to, among rational people.
When I say rational people, I mean people that don’t want to see America become a social dictatorship. We are a Christian nation founded on real values and we intend to keep them.
I applaud Mr. Bodenweiser for standing up for what he believes even if everyone doesn’t agree with him. Our country wasn’t founded by people who agreed on everything but thy listened to each other and made good decisions.
The news to me is that SCCORE (or whatever the fuck it was called) is no longer. Bwah ha ha ha.
They just folded into the 9/12 de patriots.
For the record, Bodenweiser was not one of the original people. He started volunteering after it was assumed that he was behind it and he started taking heat publicly for something he didn’t even do. Since then though, he’s been a fantastic help. So, a big public THANK YOU from us to everyone who helped to activate him!!!
Also, Terry Spence was (just like Pete Schwartzkopf) a huge Tax-and-Spender… To us that makes him a bad legislator. We do not care about his party, only his voting record.
We are going to publicize the votes for all of the big tax and spend politicians, regardless of their party. We just wanted to start with the biggest offender first.
Great! Maybe Danny Short is next to be published on your list. He voted with Pete.
It’s interesting to note that Torque’s comments here are extremely similar to what St. Bodie Girl wrote in his February Cape Gazette letter to the editor.
Torque – pick up your phone right now – it’s Alex Trebek with a clue. This country was not founded as a “Christian Nation” as so many of you teabagging idiots claim. In fact, if it weren’t for a Jewish businessman named Haym Solomon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haym_Solomon) we probably wouldn’t have won our independence from Britain. Your intolerance of anything that is not White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant is what is the true cancer on our society. It’s not progressivism as Glenn Beck has claimed.
If you really believe that our country is turning into a “socialist dictatorship,” then you need to swear that you will never, ever cash a Social Security check or file a Medicare claim. But we all know that you and your ilk will, because you are all hypocrites.
On the Kathy McGuinness front – supposedly she changed her affliation (her husband is a republican) so she could challenge Bunting. Maybe she thinks Pete is more vulnerable. Maybe she’s on a fools errand.
MJ- You’ve just reminded me that there are still total idiots in America. It amazes me that someone with enough education to read and write has the lack of insight to see what direction the country is headed. If you were any kind of American, you would be concerned about the impending bankruptcy that the nation is steering toward instead of being concerned what Mr. Bodenweiser has said that you don’t like, or better put, you don’t agree with. It’s alright not to agree with someone.
MJ-Get involved with something that you believe makes a difference. Mr. Bodenweiser did.
Torque – the only idiot on this blog is the one you looked at in the mirror this morning. It’s funny how you teabagging dittoheads have forgotten that when Clinton left office, there was a huge budget SURPLUS and how W and Company shitted it away on a useless war and giveaways to their business friends. Obama is cleaning up the mess of 8 years of criminal mismanagement and it’s going to take more than the 15 months you Beckites have given him to correct the ship of state. Hell, you all started going after him the minute after he took the oath of office.
I am involved in things that will make a difference in my community and country. The difference between me an you and St. Bodie Girl is that I even tolerate those I disagree with. You two do not.
MJ-You’re useless, all you want to do is Curse and denigrate people instead of having meaningful dialogue.
We all can have meaningful dialogue with people who know what they’re talking about. But when you’re pulling “facts” out of your arse, what’s the sense in trying to talk. When the purveyor of porn magazines, rolling papers, alcohol, condoms, and lottery tickets – all vices he deplores (yes, St. Bodie Girl), gets off his moralistic crusade and stops referring to progressives as socialists, just as you did, then maybe we can have a discussion on the way to fix society. Talk about being useless.
MJ, Your essay lost all credibility for me when you tried to convince your readers that there is no correlation between gambling and bankruptcy. You even provide a link to the American Gaming Association article. (Gee, there’s an impartial commentary if there ever was one.) Let me guess, MJ, it’s defective floor mats that cause individual gambling debt, right? Next you’ll be trying to tell us that gambling debt does not increase the rate of suicide — because an AGA study shows no “statistical proof.” Give me a break.
MJ-I don’t believe that I would discuss anything with you. Some of the bad odor you carry around might rub off on me.
end.
MJ since you brought it up… mind explaining the meaningful difference between progressives and socialists? Besides of course having to use special scissors to split hairs like that.
Comsen – actually, I point out that the study is from the American Gaming Association and that Congress has also weighed in on the issue. St. Bodie Girl offers nothing to support his claims about gambling. I did not state that I believed everything in the report or not – I offered it as evidence that at least someone has done a study. You were reading too much into the post if you thought I was stating that the AGA data was sacrosanct.
And torque – I’m curious what you do at DePaul University. Do you teach or merely troll the blogosphere? Your comments here today are a huge FAIL!
“mind explaining the meaningful difference between progressives and socialists?”
If you’re too stupid to know the difference, why should anyone here care?
“When I say rational people, I mean people that don’t want to see America become a social dictatorship. We are a Christian nation founded on real values and we intend to keep them.”
Wow. Somebody drank a case of stupid for breakfast… To quote Inigo Montoya, “I do not think that word [rational] means what you think it means.”
To all those who oppose gambling on family-values grounds: Why not go for a repeal of legalized gambling in Delaware? Or does your “hard work” stop when it reaches the point where you have to do something beyond talk and type?
MJ-My point is why even bring up that study? There are hundreds of other studies that say the opposite. OJ Simpson’s lawyers’ “study” concluded that OJ did not kill anyone. I do not need an “official study” to tell me that speeding increases your chances of not being able to avoid a deer on the road. It’s common sense that it does. It’s also common sense that casinos increase the odds that some individuals will get addicted to gambling, lose a lot of money (bankruptcy) and possibly commit suicide. For you to harangue Mr. Bodenweiser for not backing up his claims on gambling with “statistical data” makes no sense — no common sense that is.
I mean people that don’t want to see America become a social dictatorship.
And yet whoever this is is delighted to dictate to grownup people making their own money what they can do for fun.
There is likely a very high correlation between bankruptcy and having too much credit. And between bankruptcy and having major medical issues. And between bankruptcy and some unplanned for life change. Yet the bankruptcies the local Culture Police care about are the ones from a gambling additional. Yet, I’d bet that people facing bankruptcy from overspending aren’t up for any special consideration by these hypocrites. They’d tell you that overspending is a result of a lack of personal responsibility and that the government should not be in the business of regulating how much leverage you should have access to. But here they are — asking for the government to restrict grownups from a perfectly legal activity because these Cultural Police have decided that THIS is the government intervention they believe in.
Cassandra, no one is denying the other reasons for bankruptcy. On the contrary, the casino advocates ARE denying that they contribute to bankruptcy, etc. — the true hypocrisy if you ask me. It’s “perfectly legal” to use your words, to have toxic dumps. Would you therefore be in favor of having one voted for approval by your State government to be in your neighborhood? Or would you become a “Cultural Police” officer yourself in that instance?
Cassandra, respectfully, I disagree. I oppose most of the rampant overdevelopment that’s characterized the last 15 years (at least) in this state. That includes new casinos. And I believe that assessing the social and environmental impact of new building is an ESSENTIALLY progressive point of view. For a long time we’ve let the money lead us, and left the clean-up to taxpayers. On the rare occasion that a project comes up for debate, you can bet your life I’ll weigh in to debate it.
The point of view of some of my friends, to whom I have listened carefully, seems to boil down to “people are going to gamble, we might as well get a cut.” I’ve come a long way since my wild libertarian days, and I’m comfortable saying, “Nope. I support what I feel good about supporting, and this hasn’t made my list.” I’ve seen a lot of communities move into gambling, mostly on the Native lands. It’s been a dicey experiment, at best, and I just don’t feel that we, as a state, should be moving our resources in this direction.
My family has been here a very long time, and I have every hope my kids will continue to be. I try not to leave too many messes for their kids to tidy up.
It is perfectly legal to have toxic dumps is specific places. After a great deal of permitting and engineering studies to get there. While I do not want one next to my house, I also don’t live in a place where that is really possible.
Of all of the messes that Delaware may be creating, casinos is likely the smallest bit of it. Development that is badly supported — roads, schools and other infrastructure — is a problem pretty much everyplace. Social impact of a project is almost always in the eye of the beholder. Someone can build a house next to mine that is low impact but he may be a royal asshole. No laws against that, unfortunately. People drive like assholes on I-95 all day long, and no one makes the argument of taking away the highway.
My argument is that gambling is legal here. You want to roll back that clock? Be my guest. But as long as this is a legal activity, there is little reason to stop grown ups with their own money indulging in it. You want to stop a casino in Sussex? There are way more compelling issues weighing against it than the fact that some people go bankrupt. If that was a problem, the credit card industry here would be alot smaller than it is.
Cassandra, you sidestepped the toxic dump question. Toxic dumps are legal in Delaware as are casinos. But you need special permission for BOTH. Your argument that casinos are already legal applies to toxic dumps as well. No one is talking about rolling back the clock on casinos — only hoping to contain their spread. What IF DuPont lobbied to put a toxic dump upwind from your home? Again I ask you, would you shrug and say, “Hey, they’re already legal so have at it?” or would you stand up and say, “Do we really need another dump?” Come on now Cassandra, be honest. You are in a no-win situation with your answer because if you are honest and say you’d speak out against the dump, your previous comments will paint you as the hypocrite.
Is anyone else here bothered by the fact that the entire website is anonymous? While pseudonyms are becoming regular, being anonymous has been done IE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) . I’m sure I’ll be criticized for saying that I’m not a Schwartzkopf fan on this site, but I have worked hard to ensure people know MY opinions, and I feel that others should not be ashamed of their feelings… I am just curious as to who these people are and if they have any other anonymous sites out there
Also, MJ, thanks for that link, do you know in my years of colonial history classes, I had never heard of Haym Solomon. I may be admitting to ignorance here, but I appreciate the knowledge I just gained from you 🙂
Your argument that casinos are already legal applies to toxic dumps as well.
You really need to keep up here.
The person that MJ sites as being against the DelPointe business does so from an argument that gambling is evil. Once you make the argument from morality then you have to start making the argument to make it illegal — because that really is the only way to stop it then. He is NOT making an argument that this casino is bad for this place — he is making an argument that all of it is bad in order to try to derail one place.
I don’t care one way or another if gambling stays or goes, but you can’t make the argument that gambling is evil in this one place on the map without taking it on everyplace.
Personal attacks on people who hold opinions different than yours make any author/blogger/broadcaster look bad, and MJ, you are no exception. Go ahead and attack the political position, the reasoning, the logic, the motivation even – fair game. However, nastly little nicknames and schoolyard rhetoric only undermine your case. I am a lifelong liberal, but it happens that Eric Bodenweiser is a friend of mine. When it comes to politics, we respectfully agree to disagree. Besides being a political activist, Eric is also a good friend to many, a devoted husband, an active church supporter, a mentor to young people, a man of intergrity and a respected Sussex Countian. If you want people to take you seriously, I suggest you (a) write under your own name and (b) raise the level of your discourse.
Liz – with all due respect, Bodenweiser is a huge hypocrite. As such, he deserves derision from all sides. Personally, I don’t care what he does in his private life, it’s when he opens his intolerant mouth of his that gets many people’s blood boiling. And he’s not that well respected in the community.
Cassandra, that’s not true. Saying that something is immoral doesn’t impel any movement towards making it illegal. They’re separate issues, most of the time. I think eating factory farmed meat is immoral. Therefore I don’t do it. I WOULD do it if the alternative was starving, and I trust other consumers to make decisions based on their own morality… I’m not down in Dover trying to prevent other people from having options. But there are a lot of reasons expanding casino gambling in this state might be a poor choice, and it deserves full scrutiny.
And people stop behavior for a lot of reasons other than illegality. My father quit smoking before smoking was heavily regulated, mostly because it was expensive. 😉
Saying that something is immoral doesn’t impel any movement towards making it illegal.
In this instance — expanding gambling — it is true. (This is the same argument these people have against abortion — except rather than restrictions by place, they try to cut back on procedures.) Gambling is legal. Trying to stop more of it based upon some moral considerations you have puts you in the business of trying to stop a legal activity. For the state to buy into your moral framework, they’d have to say that gambling is illegal. Otherwise how do they stop something in this one place that is legal everyplace else in the state?