THE THOMAS GANG
PAWPAW THOMAS AMBER AND MISCHIEF THOMAS BOSS LADY THOMAS
COMICAL COVE
Bill Thomas
Recently on a local blog sight an individual made the comment that Cove was no longer a laughing stock around the area
because the citizens have now stood up to the City Council (that they elected) and recalled the majority of the council
members. If that statement were not so pathetic it would be humorous.
The four recalled council members represented years of dedication, experience and devotion to the city. The reasons
given for recalling each councilmember on the recall petition itself were nothing short of ludicrous.
Show me the town anywhere that would take you seriously if you suggested recalling a city councilman for telling an out of
town privately hired lawyer, “I’ve heard enough.” It should of course be noted that the attorney had no official function and
spoke as a non Cove citizen, strictly via the good graces of the council.
What city in Texas would fire a council member for being in Washington DC helping their city?
What city would not find it extraordinarily stupid to propose firing a city council member for sending an email to the city
attorney asking for a legal opinion? A question, I might ad that would have answered a question put to her by a voter.
What city in Texas would not look at you like you have lost your mind when you want to recall a city councilman for violating
the rights of a local fanatic, when the tape of the incident clearly shows the councilman was doing his duty in a proper and
professional manner?
The reasons on the petition hardly remove the clown image the rest of central Texas attributes to Copperas Cove. With
the exception of a radical group of folks supported by a local tabloid of questionable ethics, everyone and their dog in
Coryell, Bell and Lampasas Counties has no question that the petition was nothing more than an embarrassingly childish
revenge hit list. Let us for a moment forget the local political games long enough to tell the unvarnished truth. It is obvious
that these fine dedicated public servants were dismissed because of the perception that they didn’t treat the Ex-Mayor Roger
O’Dwyer fairly.
There are two basic ironies to the fact that the Council was recalled for treating the ousted Mayor unfairly. The first
absurdity is that during the election that put Mark Peterson, Ray Clayton and Charlotte Hynze in office the main issue of the
election was support or lack of support of Mayor O’Dwyer. This was a fact that was not only admitted but touted by both the
Pro-O’Dwyer and Pro-Charter groups. The candidates that showed support for O’Dwyer’s actions (including two
incumbents) were defeated. The challengers who vowed to hold the Mayor accountable for his actions were elected. In other
words, three of the four recalled council members were elected by the voters to remove O’Dwyer from office and then fired by
the voters because they removed O’Dwyer from office. This tale of illogicality continues when we look at the fact that while
these fine public servants were fired for ousting O’Dwyer the same voters ousted O'Dwyer at the polls in favor of his
opponent. If that makes since to you, I submit that you need professional help.
The second and by far the hardest for folks outside the village idiot mentality to understand is the hilarious suggestion that
O’Dwyer’s dismissal was some how unfair to O’Dwyer. An honest unbiased evaluation would indeed find fault with the city
council for the exact opposite reason. The council clearly erred in their incredible effort to be overly fair with the Mayor.
Unfortunately, the administrative meeting was a poor attempt at a trial. When attorneys (Lord Bless Em) get involved
everything is a trial and they all have a habit of sounding like they’re always speaking to a jury or a judge in a court of law. Let
us be perfectly clear about what is an indisputable fact and not opinion. THERE WAS NO TRIAL!! And there was never
supposed to be a trial. You don’t have a trial to fire someone. Nobody was accused of a crime. Nobody was in jeopardy of
getting convicted of anything or going to jail or being fined a nickel. What was supposed to happen was a meeting of the city
council to determine if Roger O’Dwyer had repeatedly violated the city charter. That ain’t breaking the law gang. That’s
simply breaking the rules. You don’t go to jail for braking the rules. You get fired. In an extraordinary, and frankly out of
bounds, effort to be overly fair to the Mayor the city council allowed everything from character witnesses to defense attorneys
pleading the Mayor’s case. Everyone from a general to a local clergyman spoke on behalf of O’Dwyer’s character. The only
fly in the buttermilk here was that no one had challenged the guy’s character and it was not an issue. High powered Waco
Defense attorneys plead the case and challenged the prosecutors to prove their client’s guilt. The only thing they overlooked
was that there were no prosecutors present. There was no requirement to prove their client guilty because he was not
accused of a crime.
The city council was accused of judging the case before the trial and having their minds already made up before the trial
began. This would have absolutely been a valid accusation except for one minor detail. THIS WAS NOT A TRIAL! The fact
is, this was simply an administrative meeting with an agenda that had been posted for some time. The reason the agenda of
the city councils across the state are posted in advance is so that each council member may research and study each
agenda item and form an opinion based on days if not weeks of study. The evidence regarding the violations of the charter
by Roger O’Dwyer was available to the entire city council long before the meeting. Most of the council had personal
knowledge regarding these numerous violations. This was a mayor of a home rule chartered city that had stated to several
people including the County Attorney that he was the “Commander in Chief of Copperas Cove”. The statement in itself is a
declaration of intent to be a chief executive. This assumption is of course far beyond the parameters of the office he was
elected to and flies in the face of any home rule chartered city government. I would certainly hope that barring some
unforeseen and newly divulged material facts that the council had indeed made their collective minds up prior to the meeting.
Unlike a trial, knowing the facts and forming an opinion prior to the actual meeting is not only accepted it is frankly expected.
Roger O’Dwyer was removed from office by the city council on a 6-1 vote. The people’s charter provides for the removal of
the mayor by the people if he has not followed the parameters of his office. The people do this through their elected
representatives on the city council. Who determines whether or not the mayor has violated the city charter? The only
governing body of a home rule chartered city, the city council. The frail attempt at turning an administrative hearing into a
court trial was an attempt to be overly fair to O’Dwyer’s followers and it backfired. I personally have never known anyone to
get fired who was allowed to bring in defense attorneys and character witnesses. When it comes to being fired from a job, it
is the boss that fires you. In this case the mayor’s boss is the city council as a body. This is not rocket science folks.
The idea that Cove is a laughing stock with our neighbors in the three county area is a valid statement. Cove has been a
laughing stock in Gatesville for years. We represent over 70% of the population and tax money in the county and receive less
than 10% of the county benefits. “Gatesville County” refers to Copperas Cove as “Cove the Cash Cow”. We are not only
laughed at we are led around by the nose by a city a fourth our size.
Indeed we are a laughing stock in our sister cities and counties. When Roger O’Dwyer was first elected the term “slow
learners” was used to describe Cove voters. Cove had elected a mayor who they had hired and fired from both the city
council and the school board because he could not work with the other members of those bodies. While indeed Mr. O’
Dwyer has been elected to three different offices, the one thing he has never been is re-elected to anything. Why doesn’t the
city as a whole snap to this all telling fact? You got me, brother.
Roger O’Dwyer’s antics as mayor including a letter to the Secretary of State may not have been given any credence by
the local group of Dianne Steele followers, but it was a regular horse laugh in other city councils and commissioner courts in
the area. Some of us in Cove found the blatant challenge to the basic fiber of our form of city government by the self-
professed “Commander” intolerable. Other Cove citizens found such conduct acceptable or denied that it existed. Virtually
all of Cove’s neighbors in central Texas found O’Dwyer’s conduct uproarious.
Now we have fired our city council for doing their jobs. We are now looked at as the idiot that swatted a fly on his
forehead with a sledge hammer. Yup, mission accomplished the fly’s dead, but so is the idiot. No there is no admiration or
reprieve from our “Cove Clown” label via the recent actions by the Steelers at the polls.
There are several things that I find unexplainable regarding the conduct of many of Cove citizens. First of all what’s the
deal with the animosity toward the builders and developers in Cove? How come it’s the builders who are so evil? How
come we are not up in arms with the barbers or the car dealers? I am no expert, but I thought the folks that built things were a
great service to a community. Maybe I missed something somewhere. A buddy of mine in my other home town of Lago
Vista said that he figured it was just a class warfare deal. “If you had a big plant in Cove then the high dollar executives and
big guys in the plant would be evil because they have more money than most folks Bill.” I reckon some folks just have a need
for blaming others for anything that goes wrong. Kind of like my grandpa used to say about racism, “If the Lord made us the
exact same color of skin, folks would be prejudice against another fellers ear size, son. There will always be a people that
need some measurement that makes them superior to other folks. It matters not how ridiculous the reason might be.”
Something that bothers me that unfortunately seems to be more prevalent in Cove than most parts of the country I am
familiar with is the strange lack of ability to focus on an issue of disagreement. Sometimes I feel that if I made the statement
that Cove will have a fine softball team someone will say, “That’s a lie, Thomas. I know for a fact that some teachers do wear
brown shoes in WalMart.” I of course understand that many people have illogical rebuttals to logical arguments. However,
what I have seen in Copperas Cove in the last year takes the cake. I have stood on an honest platform and stated facts that I
believe are important to the community. I am by no stretch of the imagination saying my view of things was always correct.
However, apparently I was lucky enough to be correct on most issues because no one to date has suggested a challenge to
the facts that I have brought forward. I said, “Roger O’Dwyer has violated the city charter.” The rebuttal was consistently,
either “So have other people” or “It’s not that important.” At no time did anyone to include Roger O’Dwyer disagree with the
fact that he had violated the charter. I stated that City Councilmen Larry Sheppard and Willie Goode have a conflict of
interest because Goode is furnished free rent and works out of Sheppard’s Funeral Home. The rebuttal from Goode was
that I am fat and “Was the kind of man who would not help a friend.” I stated that Larry Sheppard was a liar because he
pledged more than once publicly to resign if O’Dwyer was removed from office. The rebuttal was, this was not a lie any more
than changing your mind about going to Ace Hardware rather than going to Walmart. This rebuttal alleges that changing your
mind about what store you where going to and a pledge maid by an elected official the voters in an official meeting of the city
council are the same.
No one has even attempted to challenge the facts I have stated. In response to my positions people have come up with a
host of totally unfounded and frankly ridiculous and completely unrelated responses. People who have disagreed with me
have stated in print via newspapers and blogs that I am a fraud, liar, over weight, a cheat on my property taxes, a man who
hates others, a selfish individual and a puppet who is paid to say what he says. A totally unrelated incident regarding a gift of
esteem to our President has been chastised and the motives for that gift have been intentionally distorted for a local political
agenda. My devotion to my duty as a military officer has been questioned by Larry Sheppard (who I don’t believe has ever
been a military officer). When I defended the remarks concerning my being the “type of man who would not get off his fat b---
to help a friend” by stating that I and my wife had worked very hard for the children in Cove, I of course was accused of
bragging. I guess the general concept here is that I should have simply taken the false attacks on my character rather than
present a defense. Sorry, I’m afraid that turning the other cheek stuff must have been passed out on one of those days that I
missed Sunday school.
I have no problems with anyone disagreeing with my heart felt attempts to stand up for what I believe to be the best for my
city. I am a citizen who cherishes the freedom of expression beyond all other rights we have as a people. I and my wife have
for many years spent a good part of our modest income in political ads to exercise our freedom of expression. Be our
opinions right or wrong is a subject for conjecture and certainly open to debate. However, the honesty and motives for our
beliefs are not a subject for debate by any fair or decent fellow citizen. Calling a man a liar if you can name the lie and prove
the statement to be intentionally false is not only fair it is the duty of any citizen when the lie affects the public. Calling a man a
liar because you disagree with his opinion is a completely different matter.
I have had a love affair with Copperas Cove since my bride and I decided six years ago to make this city the final post for
this old soldier. I have been blessed with recent surgery that appears to be very successful. I expect to achieve a state of
health that will allow me to have a great deal more energy and ability to work for and with my city in several capacities. I have
per doctor’s orders cut back on many things we where once blessed with the ability to do. I hope to regain that ability and to
increase our work especially with the youth of our community. While to the contraire to several stated opinions I am not an
individual who hates and I am not angry with the folks who have falsely attacked me for my views rather than express honest
opposition. I am admittedly more than a little disappointed in the amount of the people in Cove who lack basic character and
common since. The fact that every town in the country has a village idiot and a radical group is I believe a valid conclusion.
However, normally this radical portion of the community does not control the government and the city’s direction. Only when
this group is supported by a local newspaper can they achieve power and totally embarrass the city. The irony here is that
they make their own city a laughing stock and of course blame the qualified hard working city servants for the creation of the
city’s comical image.
Carter's Column
By Congressman John R. Carter
Republicans call 3.2 million americans to talk energy
Washington, DC – In a major collaborative effort to speak with millions
of constituents regarding skyrocketing gas prices, House Republicans
called some 3.2 million households throughout the country during the
last two weeks in June. The effort, spearheaded by House Conference
Secretary John Carter (TX-31), was in response to surging gas prices
and the direct affect they have on American families. These tele-town
hall events allowed constituents to participate in “live” interactive
question-and-answer sessions over the phone with Republican officials.
“Last week, Democrats abruptly left town without addressing our
nation’s energy crisis. This isn’t what the American people elected us
to do, and after talking with my constituents, the vast majority of
them want Congress to take every reasonable action to bring gas prices
down. This includes promoting conservation and opening up America’s
energy supply.
“Republicans remain committed to working in a bipartisan manner to
increase the supply of energy, and we will use every opportunity to
talk about solutions with our constituents.”
Judge's Footnotes:
Dems AMT “patch” will raise gas prices:
Washington, DC – U.S. Rep John Carter (TX-31), House Conference
Secretary, today made the following statement after House Democrats
passed an AMT “patch” that imposes a $13.5 billion tax hike on
America’s energy industry, which will lead to even higher gas prices.
Additionally, the Democrat “patch” includes tens of billions in
unnecessary taxes.
“Every day Texans put gas in their cars and drive to work. For the
majority of them, driving is the only way to get the kids to school and
to their jobs. There is anxiety across the country about the rising
cost of fuel, but despite this fact, Democrats in Congress think it
wiser to once again tax American energy companies-which in return will
increase gas prices. This is misguided policy, and I will continue to
push for sound policy that brings relief at the pump.”
Carter applauds Supreme court decision to overturn d.c. gun ban:
Washington, DC – Representative John Carter (TX-31) today issued the
following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Washington
D.C.’s 32-year ban on handguns:
“Today’s decision is a huge victory for law-abiding citizens in
Washington D.C. The right to keep and bear arms is a constitutional
right which was intended for every American citizen, and should not
exclude those who reside in the District of Colombia or any other state.
As a district judge for over 20 years, I remain dedicated to protecting
the rights our forefathers put forth and cherish the freedom I have as
an American to protect myself and my family. Now, after a 32-year
battle over this right, I am proud to see that my fellow Americans who
live in Washington, D.C. can do the same.”
SUPPORT THE TROOPS?
THEN (Vietnam 1965) NOW
Paratroopers of the 173rd Abn Bruce Porter and Stoney Stevens America's sons and daughters with GI John Carter
This is a free country. You have a right to support or not support the American military efforts of
our nation. We live in a free society under the umbrella of the freedom paid for with the blood
and lives of our veterans. As a direct result of America’s past military efforts, we are allowed to
support or not support current American military efforts. Like millions of my brothers and sisters
in arms, I once took an oath to, “defend the Constitution of the United States of Ameica against all
enemies both foreign and domestic, SO HELP ME GOD.” One of the most precious rights
guaranteed in that wonderful document that is held dear to the hearts of all free people
everywhere is the right to dissent.
It never ceases to amaze me how you can count on a dissenter’s automatic response to
criticism. The response to a challenge of a dissenting opinion is virtually always to remind the
critic that the dissenter has the right to dissent. OK for the benefit of Democratic Party’s national
leadership and the rest of the slow learners out there, I’ll try to use small words and spell it out.
When you say unfair and inaccurate things about the President of the United States, criticism of
what you say is not in anyway questioning your right to be stupid. I have defended your
Constitutional right to be as stupid and un-American as you wish. Please respect my right to
voice my opinon regarding how stupid and un-American your actions really are.
The only fool bigger than the politician that claims to support the troops, but doesn’t support the
mission or the commander of the troops is the idiot that believes him. There is no way (thank
God) to separate the troops from their commander. To not support the Commander-in-Chief is to
not support the troops.
I recently read an article that quoted Lefty (Teddy) Kennedy as saying that Iraq was “Bush’s
Vietnam”. The unmitigated nerve of the man! On November the 18th 1965 I was laying on the
jungle floor with blood gushing out of my side from a 51 caliber machine gun (Yes 51 Cal. Not 50
Ca. We had 50's they had 51's) My bet is Teddy was at a keg party saying unkind things about the
military. The only way Iraq can become a Vietnam is for left wing cowards and political
opportunists like Senator Kennedy to undermine the war's mission and leaders. Under no
circumstance will George W. Bush fail to lead with authority and honor. Under no circumstance
will my President falter or fail to stay the course.
A fact that has never been understood by left wing war protesters is that undermining our military
mission and leaders puts our guys and gals in greater danger in a war zone. There is an old GI
saying that is a truism with those of us who have actually seen battle. “There are two kinds of
people in a fire-fight. The quick and the dead.” Go into a game in the field of athletics and you
had best have unquestioned faith in your game plan and the coach that drew it up. If you don’t
you will in all probability lose the game. Go into a war and have absolute confidence the mission
and your leaders (Especially the head man) and you stand a much better chance not to come
home in a body bag. Absolute faith and absolute commitment to the mission and the commander
is a way of life in the military. These factors are crucial elements in achieving a victory with
minimum casualties.
If the leftists don’t support the troops they should have the courage to take the responsibility for
being the ones who really cost American lives. They know that no competent commander
publishes an “exit strategy” and tips his hand to the enemy. They know that there have been
minimal casualties in the most brilliantly fought war in the history of the world. We are losing
more people to violent crimes in the streets of America than in the military war in Iraq. They
know their attacks on the Commander-in- Chief are completely politically motivated. They
know. They just don’t care.
The latest threat to derail the President’s Iraq plan by denying funds and/or the reinforcements
the generals on the ground need and waving the “I support the troops flag” would be down right
humorous if it were not so tragic. In the words of a great American, Congressman John Carter, “If
the Commander-in-Chief and the commanders on the ground in Iraq say our troops need more
bullets to achieve victory, then we should give them more bullets. If they say they need more
body armor, then we need to give them more body armor. If they say they need more boots on
the ground, then we need to give them more boots on the ground. It is wrong for the Democrats
to say they support the troops if they won't give them the boots on the ground they need to
achieve victory.”
I will say one positive thing about the leadership in the Democratic national party. They have
done wonders for my self esteem. First of all I know that old grandpa’s memory is much better
than I had thought. I can remember further back than these guys. I can clearly remember the
President’s speech shortly after 9/11 when he positively stated that this war would not be over
during his administration and probably not during his lifetime. Both sides of the aisle applauded
the statement and committed their allegiance to the President and the mission then. My self
esteem is further enhanced by my Democratic brothers and sisters political rhetoric when they
demand to know when a war is going to be over. Guess old Bill Thomas is a tad smarter than
these guys on this one. This old soldier knows exactly when the war will be over. When the
Commander-in-Chief (whoever that may be at the time) says it is. No charge for that enlightening
information Congresswoman Pelosi.
In closing let me repeat that I will never question the right of any American to lie about supporting
the troops, but I will maintain my right to label it the un-American politically motivated shameful
lie that it is.
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