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Anonymous
Guest
This is only the outer shell of the "radical right extremists" that are finding a home with this ********* movement....
Besides this "party leader"- I see by the blogs where another Montana ********* candidate- Kristi Allen-Gailushasis -now " has declared war on the gay community"...
Same old sh*t I heard for years coming out of the Aryan Nations, KKK, and Neo Nazis....And always doing it in the name of being good Christians and Patriots... :roll:
Besides this "party leader"- I see by the blogs where another Montana ********* candidate- Kristi Allen-Gailushasis -now " has declared war on the gay community"...
Same old sh*t I heard for years coming out of the Aryan Nations, KKK, and Neo Nazis....And always doing it in the name of being good Christians and Patriots... :roll:
Tea Party removes leader after Web post
By KIMBALL BENNION • Tribune Staff Writer • September 7, 2010
The Big Sky Tea Party Association removed its president, Tim Ravndal, after inflammatory comments from his Facebook page surfaced in national blogs and local media.
In a press release, Board Chair Jim Walker of the Tea Party group based out of Helena, called Ravndal's comments "unacceptable," and said that the group learned about them Saturday, when an article about the comments was published in the Tribune.
The exchange between Ravndal and another Facebook user named Dennis Scranton was originally posted on July 23 on Ravndal's personal Facebook page.
Ravndal's original post expressed his frustration at an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over rights for same-sex couples. Ravndal expressed that he thought marriage should only be between a man and a woman and giving rights to same-sex couples would be a violation of the constitution.
That post was followed by a comment from Scranton that read: "I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions."
Scranton's post seemed to reference the 1998 beating death of Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming who was gay.
Ravndal reply read: "Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?"
Ravndal apologized for the comments in the initial Saturday article, saying he did not know Scranton's comments had anything to do with the Matthew Shepard case.
The association's board of directors met the day after the article was published and voted to remove Ravndal from the group's leadership and from its general membership.
Ravndal did not return the Tribune's request for comment Monday..
"The discussion in that Facebook conversation is entirely outside the position of the Big Sky Tea Party," Walker said in the statement. "We continually make it known that we will not tolerate bigoted dialog, behavior or messages at our functions, our meetings or within our ranks."
Roger Nummerdor, a former president and current member of the association's board or directors, said Ravndal's statements were "completely" outside the Big Sky Tea Party's mission statement, which he said focuses on such principles as limited government and fiscal accountability on a government level.
"We try not to go outside that scope," Nummerdor said.
Nummerdor said that Ravndal's comments were posted before he was made president of the association, and that no one knew about them until the Tribune's article.
"My jaw dropped when I read it," Nummerdor said.
The Big Sky Tea Party Association is not a statewide organization, nor does it consider itself as a political party, Nummerdor said. It is based out of Helena and represents one of 15 or so other loosely-knit Tea Party organizations across the state.
Nummerdor said that no decision has been made yet on who will replace Ravndal, but said they will likely come to one in a regular meeting scheduled for today.