Y'all have heard and read some about our Lubbock County Judge, the IMNVHO not so honorable Tom Head, lately.
County Judge Tom Head, who's not a lawyer -- nor even the commonest sort of county judge in Texas, a retired law enforcement officer with some passing familiarity with county, state and federal laws, however IS the apparently ineducable genius who said the President would turn our nation over to the UN and he wanted a tax increase so we could have experienced and trained deputies backing him up at the county line when the next Civil War starts, to stop the invading blue-bereted UN troops. He said all this in interviews with the local FOX-TV station (which, oddly, may be the nearest thing to a "liberal" newsroom in town, 'cause their news director's old school) and the rabidly right-wing Lubbock Avalanche Journal.
I say apparently ineducable because back in 2009 the county sent this guy to a conference on racial sensitivity, and this is how far that training evidently sunk in.
This morning one of our county commissioners (the only Democrat on the court) advised Judge Head that in light of those ill-advised remarks, he ought to take a break:
County Commissioner Gilbert Flores then fired back at Head saying he was embarrassed and felt betrayed by the statements. "I am very disappointed by the comments that Judge Head made yesterday. I am constantly defending my community in my travels around the state of Texas, especially when I venture into the larger cities like Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio, down in the Valley, and they constantly have to remind me that I live in West Texas."
"We need to change the image that we have throughout the nation and throughout the state, and the comments made by Judge Head yesterday don't help that. If this was a military court you'd probably be court martialed and you'd probably be charged with treason. Tom, I think you better plan to go fishing very soon," Flores said.
Video of some local reactions and links to our county Democrats' responses over the Itzl:
KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock
Since he's come out publicly with his "pure paranoid fantasy," we've had local Dems answering up in Commissioners' Court hearings and calling for his resignation -- out loud, in front of God and everybody, right here in Lubbock Texas. And some of the other county officialsare suggesting Head, not having misspoken, is flat-out wrong.
But here and now on a national forum I want to send kudos to Susan Barrick of Lubbock:
The woman who got up and sparked the debate was Sue Barrick, and she said, "I was astonished to hear that we were raising money in order to prepare for the eventuality that if president Obama were to be re-elected there would be a civil war and that we would have to meet opposition at the county line."
The Judge then defended himself, saying that his statement was taken out of context.
"As emergency management director I have to prepare for the worst case scenario. I'm not an alarmist. I don't think these things that I mentioned yesterday are going to happen, but I have to prepare for the very worst thing that could happen," Head said. "Worst case scenario, the U.N. comes in and does all their stuff. That's probably not going to happen but I have to prepare for it. Worst case scenario we probably wont have an F5 tornado go through Lubbock, but I have to prepare for it."
Lubbock County residents have another chance to be heard on the tax increase August 27th. That hearing might be fun too.