VOLuntarilyConservative

My absence from blogging has not been the result of a conscience decision. I simply have not had the time for it. With the rise of Facebook, the little time that I do have is usually spent over there.

The primary drain on my time is work. Every week has seen me at the office for numerous all-nighters, sometimes spending over 110 hours per week working for Tennessee's children and indigent adults. It's trying work, and I'm admittedly not sure how much longer I can keep up this pace. Every year I say that I am going to work less than the previous year, and every year I end up letting myself down.

My boys have also been a welcome drain on my time. Leo amazes me every day with what he says, what he has learned, and how he is so much like his Daddy. Wil continues to grow; the days where we weren't sure he was going to make it seem like a distant dream. Angela is afraid that they both are "Daddy's boys," and she is probably right.

I am not abandoning this blog. I have a few points that need to be made over the time leading up to the elections this year, and this remains the best medium to do so. If anyone is still reading this blog (and I wouldn't blame anyone for having left with my unexplained absence), then you should have a few posts to look forward to as we go through the remainder of 2010.

Labels: Family, Firm Life, Leonidas, Wil

It's funny. Snow days with kids are more fun than snow days as a kid.

Here's my video proof (my first videos with the new Sharper Image camera, which is my excuse for the horrid videography) as Leo and Daddy throw down in an epic snowball war.

Labels: Family, Leonidas, Snow

Sorry, folks, but I needed some time off for a few weeks to tend to several outstanding issues, including:

• widespread corruption and selling out of ideology within the Knox County Republican Party;
• Angela's parting of the ways with the Department of Children's Services, a State agency which proved to be severely anti-family and discriminatory when the chickens came home to roost;
• Angela's reintroduction to The Huddleston Law Firm;
• stomach flu that swept through the family and caused me to miss my first day from work for illness in nearly a year;
• a trip to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500;
• many, many wonderful moments with my son.

I've been busy, just not with blogging. Of course, I wondered if I even needed to come back after the unfortunate demise of Volunteer Voters. After BillHobbs.com underwent its facelift several years ago, VV at first filled a void, and then expanded as the functional clearinghouse of blogging information for Tennessee. It will be interesting to see if something else fills the void left by VV, or if we will have to work even harder as bloggers to remain connected as a statewide community.

Labels: Blogging, Firm Life, Knox County GOP, Leonidas, NASCAR

The Republican State Executive Meeting this past Saturday provided plenty of interesting tidbits. In no particular order, I've offered a few thoughts below:

• The Barrack Hussein Obama/Anti-Semite "controversy" that drew many a journalist turned out to be much ado about nothing. I spoke with several high-level GOP sources that confirmed that none of the repudiation by the national party or our legislators (Lamar, Corker, etc.) that has been reportedly occurring behind the scenes has been reality. We apparently are looking at either a media or possibly a liberal blogger-driven rumor cycle. Despite what this ex-journalist would call a "grilling" of SEC Chairman Robin Smith by state media (Tom Humphrey, Ken Whitehouse, etc.), there wasn't much in the way of additional headlines on this matter.
• The SEC, in anticipation of questions regarding unsubstantiated rumors of Robin Smith's chairmanship being in jeopardy, passed a resolution via unanimous voice consent at the inception of the meeting to support her. The resolution read as follows:

Robin Smith Resolution

The State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Republican Party wishes to commend Robin Smith for her commitment to the office of Chairman. Over the past seven months, she has displayed an extraordinary level of dedication to the office of which she was unanimously elected.

The State Executive Committee is fully supportive of the Chairman as she deals with the challenging issues and events that confront the Tennessee Republican Party from time to time.
The State Executive Committee eagerly looks forward to following Chairman Robin Smith into the Fall 2008 elections as she continues to lead the Tennessee Republican Party on the road of becoming the majority party of the State of Tennessee.

• Bill Hobbs wasn't in attendance, but I knew that in advance of the meeting because he was never supposed to be there Saturday. Hobbs had asked for and received permission to be with his wife on her birthday well in advance of this meeting.
• There is no doubt in my mind that Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will be running for Governor come 2010. Frist was at the meeting and briefly addressed the SEC. Prior to the event, we spoke, and I'm pretty sure that he got Lil Leo to commit to some door-to-door work for 2010 (providing that Leo has learned to walk by then, of course).
• Van Hilleary was defeated by John Ryder for the National Committeeman position. Both men had been campaigning pretty vigorously over the past month for the job, and there is not a lot of love lost between the two (given to how Van succeeded John last election). How Van lost this time was interesting, to say the least. On the first ballot, the vote was tied at 31-31, at which time a revote was ordered. While the first ballot was being counted, Meredith Hilleary and I had our two little ones (Virginia Hilleary and Leo Huddleston, respectfully) in the foyer of the committee room. Committeeman Scott Golden passed us heading for the door, saying that he had an event to attend for Congressman Marsha Blackburn and that a traffic accident on I-40 was likely going to impede his travels. When the vote was announced a tie, Meredith and I met again in the hallway and realized that Golden (and perhaps others) would not be present for the second balloting. We notified Chairman Smith as to why the count would be different and let the chips fall where they may. The second ballot was 31-30, and that is how what one media member called "Ryder's Revenge" occurred.
• Leo and Lamar are getting to be buddies. Lamar was amazed at how much our son had grown over the past two weeks.
• There certainly wasn't any attempt to stack the delegates for the convention with SEC members. It appeared to me that SEC members were mostly alternates, if they were fortunate enough to make the final cut at all.
• There was lots of talk amongst the Knox County delegation about the leadership void that has afflicted the local party over the past year. More on that to come...

That's all for now. Time to get my little one to his first day of daycare. Ughh.

Labels: Bill Frist, Lamar, Leonidas, State Executive Committee