Monday, April 09, 2007
Dissing John Edwards: Following up
Regular readers will recall that one of our, well, regular readers contributed an exclusive photograph of the "Go Rudy" sign across the street from John Edwards' vast house in the outskirts of Chapel Hill. The owner of the fence in question is one Monte Johnson, who owns a garage.
Well, that same reader now reports a radio news story in which Elizabeth Edwards complains about Mr. Johnson exercizing his rights under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution:
Mrs. Edwards should watch her tongue. Like Kerry, too many slips and the carefully crafted illusion just dissipates.
So I’m driving out of Chapel Hill this morning, heading to one of my offices in Charlotte, when I hear the news about Elizabeth Edwards. She has apparently complained that (quote) “our rabid Republican neighbor scares me”. He’s so scary, yet “she’s never met him”. And further to the story, they report that said neighbor, one Monte Johnson, the man with the “Go Rudy Giuliani 2008” fence, once "chased some unidentified people off his property with a firearm".
I saw this as her swipe at discrediting the guy ‘cause he’s got a better “bumper sticker”.
Turns out Monte Johnson doesn’t deny the incident with the gun, and the men were actually known to him, but it must’ve been nighttime, since he didn’t know until he came upon them. He does operate some sort of mechanics shop, and he is in the country …
As for Monte’s politics … I’ve been to a garage sale at their nearest neighbor’s house … I don’t think he’s a Democrat either, and he clearly wasn’t thrilled about having the Breck Girl as a neighbor. If that's makes a person scary, well, it must be a terrifying State. She should move into the heart of Carrboro or Chapel Hill (City).
Now, some questions come to mind. First, would she describe the (seeming) thousands of cars in Chapel Hill-Carrboro plastered with political stickers (virtually all anti-Bush, pro-Kerry/Edwards, free Tibet, etc.) as being operated by “rabid Democrats”? Has she considered that Mr. Johnson actually has a right to defend his property, or that he might actually be a decent guy, in spite of his apparent lack of enthusiasm for her husband? I heard this story and thought to myself, “oh yeah, Elizabeth riding the pity train for her cancer" (I have no ill will toward her and hope for her full recovery). She’s scared of that Republican with the gun, but I’ll bet her compound is well secured, and you’d be in a heap of trouble if you trespassed.
Me … I’m scared too. Scared that we almost had Edwards as a Vice President, and scared of what I see as a continuing erosion of the American Way.
At the end of the day, many leftists seen to deplore self-reliance and the personal attributes that make it possible. Deep down, leftists are afraid -- there's that word again -- that if people know how to fend for themselves and defend themselves they won't support a welfare state.
Now, I am a big believer in both self-reliance and helping people who are in need through no fault of their own. I'm sure that many leftists think they believe the same thing. The difference between me and them is that I do not think it is necessary or desireable to grant vast entitlements to the middle class in order to buy enough votes to help the very few who are genuinely unable to help themselves.
MORE: The Charlotte Observer has more (via Drudge):
[Elizabeth] Edwards views Johnson as a "rabid, rabid Republican" who refuses to clean up his "slummy" property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.
Sheesh. Yeah, that's the ticket. The guy's deliberately making his place look like a dump just to diminish the value of the Edwards estate. She's sounding more like a college town liberal all the time.
17 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Apr 09, 11:28:00 AM:
Leftists don't give a DAMN about freedom...........ALL they care about is power.
Be afraid, very afraid.
By , at
Mon Apr 09, 11:50:00 AM:
I'm so damn tired of people who are "afraid" all the time.
You are never "safe". Fact of Life,
We expect our troops to fight and die for us. To simper about safety at home is cowardly and unpatriotic.
People should relax, take a deep breath, grow a spine and carry on with their lives. It's not like we're living through the nightly blitz, like during the Battle of Britian.
It is disgusting what the American populace has degenerated into.
By , at
Mon Apr 09, 12:07:00 PM:
Regarding her attitude to security for herself versus for her neighbors, how much closer could she possibly get to "let them eat cake"?
By 
TigerHawk, at
Mon Apr 09, 12:27:00 PM:
A helpful disclaimer, SJ, most commonly effected with fake HTML, to wit: /sarcasm.
By dave in boca, at
Mon Apr 09, 12:51:00 PM:
EE is the one behind hiring Marcotte and another religion-hating female as the Edwards blog-webmeisters, isn't she? Who's rabid depends on the POV. Sounds like she hates political dissent, guns, religion, and FoxNEWS. Jumped-up trailer-trash with an attitude who are going to lead us ignorant capitalists from the error of our ways through landscaping?
This hair-do on steroids and his mentally/physically ill spouse are going to have a bumpy ride if she continues running her mouth and aiming lefter than the leftiest Dem candidates. Now that he's employed her as a campaign pity-vote symbol, he won't be able to quiet her down.
By , at
Mon Apr 09, 01:29:00 PM:
Note to those who aren't aware of it, and the Edwards family: Monte Johnson was there when they bought the 100 or so acres for $1.3M, so they shouldn't whine that it hasn't been cleaned up to suit their desires. If I were him, I'd just up the ante and go with neon to promote my political agenda.
Personally, right next to his place is a really cool old carcass of a barn, and farmland. NC country setting if I ever saw one. The only thing the Edwards did right was hid their 28000 feet of architectural cluster-f@#@!#!$ behind the stand of pines.
By tm, at
Mon Apr 09, 07:51:00 PM:
Without corroboration, I'm not buying that she said this. The author vaguely refers only to "an interview," and the subject matter is something that could come straight from the RNC talking points.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Mon Apr 09, 10:50:00 PM:
jpe, corroboration here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/112/story/79067.html
You are wise to be suspicious of such things, but you might want to save your energy with EE. She plays only to the Democratic Primary base.
By , at
Tue Apr 10, 12:01:00 AM:
JOHN EDWARDS is a lawyer we all know liberals demacrats always have lawyers as their running mates
By Georg Felis, at
Tue Apr 10, 01:21:00 PM:
Um. Bird? There's a *lot* of lawyers up in Washington, perched on divers appointed and elected positions somewhat like buzzards. (no offense to the buzzards)
By , at
Tue Apr 10, 05:28:00 PM:
Mr. Johnson did not "once" chase someone off his property with a gun. He is notorious for chasing ANYONE off his property AT ALL TIMES with threats of violence.
For years, we've done business with the garage that leases space from Mr. Johnson. One day my son took his girlfriend's dog with him while he was getting some minor service done on his car. The dog slipped off the leash and ran toward Mr. Johnson's property. My son called me and his girlfriend to come and help try to catch the dog again.
Our mechanic warned us that Mr. Johnson is well known for toting a firearm and threatening to use it on anyone who goes onto his property for any reason. But since the dog had gone in that direction, the girlfriend and I felt that we had to follow the dog. We felt sure that when we explained to Mr. Johnson what we were doing, and that it would only be a few minutes, he would understand. We figured he was a decent human being.
We were wrong. He threatened to kill us if we didn't get off his property immediately. He didn't bother to ask us why we were there. When we tried to explain anyway, he offered to kill the dog, too, if he saw her.
I disagree with Mrs. Edwards trying to run off my mechanic and his boorish, dangerous, and -- yes -- scary landlord, Mr. Johnson.
But don't make it out like the Edwards' are just making things up. They are not making things up. This guy they are complaining about IS scary and DOES have a long history of threatening peoples' lives in very convincing ways if they so much as set one foot on his property -- even before he's had a chance to hear their reason for being there.
By , at
Tue Apr 10, 06:50:00 PM:
Assuming you haven't left out any facts regarding prior associations or issues with this guy ...
I read your account of your incident as he's either truly dangerous, or a good bluffer. Since you weren't shot (a good thing), or the dog in question, we'll never know. His message seems clear enough: Stay off the property.
I had a neighbor who got most irate if you steppped on his grass, but he didn't carry a firearm with him. His message was clear also.
Either way, it's not a crime to want to defend or enforce your property against intruders, or to evidence your dislike for John Edwards by posting it on your fence. John Edwards gets what he deserves.
FYI, the article in the paper quotes Mr. Johnson as saying his property is for sale. If I were him, I'd offer it up as a future trailer park just to piss off the Edwards (I'm pretty sure it's in the County, and probably part of JE's land is as well). I'd give them first right of refusal at a very big number.
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Apr 10, 07:15:00 PM:
It sure is neat that a person who happens to know about this has happened by this particular website to set everyones straight, anonymously.
By , at
Tue Apr 10, 09:46:00 PM:
First, I didn't know this guy's name until I read the article today. So no, there is no history between him and me other than the runaway dog incident.
Second, does the mere fact that a person sets a foot on your property make that person automatically an intruder? You seem to think that it does. But if you came to see me for any presumably non-violent reason, would I be perfectly justified in assuming you to be an intruder and in threatening your life before I'd even learned the nature of your business with me? Would I be justified in assuming that anyone who set foot on my property had a violent intent, and thus that my property and my person *needed* to be defended via threats of violence from me? A skinny 20-something young woman and a fat middle-aged lady do not normally strike most people as particularly threatening.
What I can't help wondering is just what Mr. Johnson is doing there on his property, that he reacts this way, and has done so consistently enough that he has a reputation for it. What is it that he doesn't want someone finding, on his property, so he chases everyone off? Maybe nothing. Maybe not. Who knows?
Third, I posted here anonymously because I have never posted to a blog before, I'm not registered with this Google thing, and I was in a hurry to post my response and then go to a meeting I had to get to. I didn't have time to try to figure out how to register, etc.
But since you think that my anonymity is suspicious -- Are you telling me that "Dawnfire" is not, itself, an anonymous name? There are other anonymous posters, here. Do you suspect them, too? Or just me, because I am defending Ms. Edwards' observations about Mr. Johnson?
And I did not "just happen" by this blogsite. I did a Google search to get more info on the claims that Ms. Edwards is making, because I just heard about them late this afternoon and I wanted to know more. The Google search led me to this blog site. So...after reading some of the entries, I posted my first blog. Whoopee.
By , at
Wed Apr 11, 12:19:00 AM:
I have interviwed buzzards and beleive me they dont care for lawyers they dont like all that cempetition SQUAWK SQUAWK GOTTA FLY NOW SQUAWK SQUAWK SQUAWK
By tm, at
Wed Apr 11, 09:19:00 PM:
jpe, corroboration here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/112/story/79067.html
That's the same story. There aren't any other stories that don't cite this story as their only source.
This story reeks of fake.
By Unknown, at
Sun Apr 15, 05:26:00 AM:
Sounds like a pretty scary guy (and pretty crazy, putting the Guiliani sign up for spite when everyone knows Rudy wouldn't let him have a gun!)
If he really wants a good price for his property, he would be wise to do everything he could to get Edwards into office, then sell for a premium once the neighbor is in the White House. Not too smart of a guy, eh?
Or, as someone else mentioned, he could simply sell to Edwards.
