Sunday, February 01, 2009

Disgusted with NJ Family Court

First and foremost, I would like to apologize in advance for the legnth of my story.  I was asked to write a summary for an attorney.  The following is what I came up with.  It is not the entire story but most of it.  If you have any questions pertaining to any of this information feel free to contact me.

Unsure where to begin, which beginning to a start from? The very beginning when we first started dating? The beginning of the battle back and forth for Tristin? I just don’t know? It seems like I have been waiting for this moment forever, the moment someone actually takes the minute to listen. I have contemplated this opportunity thousands of times in my head, what I would say, what I would do, how I would act.

Now, finally someone wants to hear from me. What happened? How? And Why? I must say for the very first time in my life I am speechless and cannot put a word down on paper. Suddenly, I have drawn a blank. I can’t think of one word to write, or say. I have been sitting here for days trying to think! Nothing wants to come out. It is Sunday June 25, 2006 at 2:26 in the afternoon. D-Day is tomorrow, she wants it by then. And still I am sitting here trying to think of what to write. I am filled with anxiety; I don’t want to forget anything that might be important. I am afraid if I don’t remember every detail it will hurt in the end. So, I guess I am going to do my best and pray.

Adam: Born: November 19, 1974
Tristin: Born: September 8, 1997
Dawn Michelle: Born: October 13, 1969
Melissa: Born: April 1, 1978

From the beginning, Adam and I started dating June 5, 1995. I should have known right from the start to turn and run. But, I didn’t. The relationship was abusive mentally and physically since the beginning. If Adam didn’t get his way with something you were demeaned and hit. A prime example being, if I didn’t agree with him or listen to what he said or wanted done he would throw me to the floor, sit on top of me with his knees on my shoulders, spit on my face and slap me. Adam is about 6’0 and at the time about 218 pounds, and training to become a professional body builder. I am about 5’3 and at the time weighed about 95-100 pounds. We had broken up many times. He always found a way to go back out again.

To jump ahead some. After I became pregnant it slowly became worse. The first thing I was told is that he wanted a son, and if we didn’t have one it was over. Then when he found out it was a boy, he told me that I would never take it away from him. He made that statement several times before Tristin was even born. He told me that if I ever tried to take him away he would kill me. After Tristin was born, things became even worse. The fighting the arguing was on a constant basis. It never ended. Adam, I think was upset because he could no longer be the center of attention. The baby was God he was now on a back burner.

Some time after Tristin had been born, Adam and I had and argument over what should be prepared for dinner, I refused to make what he wanted for dinner, so he decided he was going to slap me around the kitchen, then he punched me in the face and pushed me down the stairs. When his parents came back from their weekend getaway in PA, his mother wanted nothing to do with it. When she saw my face, she said he is my son; I can’t do anything about it. You must have given him a reason. Afraid to do anything, I had to stay. If I called the police once he came back it would just have been worse. I couldn’t go to my parents; he would have just followed me there and made things bad all the way around. There was no where to hide or turn.

I guess now as l look back on most of it, I am not surprised at the way he is, look at his family, there was never a dull moment in that household. The sanest one in the family is his sister. To this day I idolize her. Smart, great head on her shoulders, responsible, funny, great mom. Their Dad however; controlling, bossy, sneaky, never around, showed no respect to the mother, thought he was Gods gift, woman were beneath him, had an affair with a drug addict.

The mother, no self respect or pride, no self esteem, doted on everything the father did, no matter what her children did no wrong. The brother, now he was the best, has a great wife, but it wasn’t enough for him, just days before the wedding he gets caught sleeping with the maid of honor under the pool table, of course this isn’t the first time he strays away and poor wife never knows about it. He was even sleeping with my sister. He has no work ethic, morals, devious, vindictive and will look right at you and stab you in the back, he just like Adam will do whatever it takes to get what they want no matter what needs to be done.

I actually wish I had a tape recorder for half of what went on. This was the most racist family I ever met, excluding the sister. You could never have a conversation with anyone about someone of a different color without hearing a racial slur, and don’t ever think about bringing anyone in the house that wasn’t white. Not unless you wanted them to get chased down the street by a raving lunatic trying to kill them.

Anyway. Then it is decided that we are finally going to move out of Adams parents basement. To a trailer in Jackson. Since Adam co-signed on a house for his brother and wife, his credit was destroyed and he couldn’t get a mortgage for anything else. I must say this did not last long at all. The violence became worse and along with the beatings came nonconsensual sex. It didn’t matter if you said no or not, if he wanted it he was getting it.

Adam never cared for Tristin, in the first year he was born you could count on one hand how many times he bathed and changed Tristin. Everything was a battle. I could never leave the house without taking him, even if it was to grocery shop. No matter what I had to take him. He also managed to get fired from a job he had for a few years making decent money. He chose not to look for more employment. When the money got tight and started to run out if became worse.Then he takes a bouncing job at a gentlemen’s club called Fantasies in Keyport. Which he also got fired from.

On, August 16, 1998, we got into a huge argument. Adam threw me and Tristin out of the trailer. My friends mother came to pick us up. (He would not give me the keys to my vehicle) We stayed at her house for the night. The next day when I went to visit anther friend, Adam showed up at his house escorted by police with a restraining order, and in relief of it he wanted custody.

Adam stated in a previous motion he filed with the court that DYFS granted him initial custody. He also lied when he filled out the paperwork for that. He said on one page he was employed and the next that he wasn’t. He also stated on his paperwork that DYFS had been involved for a court investigation. The Ocean County Court never requested and investigation. In fact, Adam called himself. He cleaned the house and went grocery shopping and made it a point to show the woman the receipt and then laugh about it. “It was easier than I thought.”

I had to fight tooth and nail to get my truck back. He has actually told the courts that it belonged to him. My grandfather gave me that truck! I went to the house several times to get it while he was working. He in fact took went to such great lengths to make sure I wasn’t going to get it either. I went there with the police; he took the distributor and the rotor off of the truck so it wouldn’t start. How much more vindictive can you be? The he found out I was there and called the police and told them he owned the vehicle. He was partially telling the truth. When my grandfather gave me the truck Adam would not give me the money to register it unless I let him go on the title as a lien holder. I fought and finally got it back. With loose valve covers and all. So in no time all the oil came out and I had to buy another car. I guess he thought if he blew up the motor I would have no choice than but to go back to him.

In the meantime, I continued to reside with my grandmother. Adam stated in previously that the Court and DYFS gave him custody. Wrong, Adam had his attorney Mr. Kwasnik from Edison, draw up custody papers. On August 22, 1998, I was told by Adam that if I did not agree to it and sign the papers he would either a) kill me or b) run off to Canada. (Most his family still reside there.) Adam has denied this allegation over and over again. So, I sign the papers. I didn’t know what else to do. I just turned 20, I had no lawyer, no support system, and really other than my grandmothers house I had no where to live. So, then we tried to work it out again. Same things different days. I leave again, this time alone and without my son.

Adam slapped me around and literally through me off the front porch with nothing except what I was wearing. I walked to a neighbors house that let me use the phone. I took a bus to Sayreville and stayed with my friend Mary. After a fight and a struggle I eventually got my vehicle back. My stay with Mary was a short lived dream. After, Adam found out where I was, he would show up at all hours of the night and be harassing. The one night I remember vividly, is I came home from work, Adam was there in the parking lot. I didn’t want a confrontation so I left the parking lot and got back on the highway. Adam followed me and chased me all the way up Route 9 North, when he saw I wasn’t going to stop he kept trying to run me off the road. That wasn’t the first or the last time.It was almost Christmas time; Adam wanted to try to work it out one more time. So, I go to his house for the week. It wasn’t so bad during the day but once bedtime came it was a whole different story. Right back to the same antics. I will take what is mine. He dream was short lived.

After the holiday I went back home and didn’t go back. New Years would be the last time I saw Tristin. Adam would not allow any visitation, or take anymore calls. I gave it a little time then drove down to his home on a Sunday and found it empty. Completely abandoned. I had no one to help me this time. My parents weren’t speaking to me, his family wouldn’t tell me anything.

I was working fulltime and saving my money. At last, I had enough money saved. July of 1999, I went to an attorney who filed custody papers. It had been months since I saw or heard from Adam. I finally found him. He moved to PA. To his parents summer cottage. He was still unemployed and on welfare. The State of NJ made him move back! He moves in with his parents. I didn’t get custody, but I found a start visitation.

Things weren’t bad for a while. No arguing or anything. Adam’s dad helps him get a job at PSE&G. He enrolls Tristin in daycare at the YMCA in Plainfield. I helped him every week with the expense. I started giving him $60.00 a week and giving him money for other things, such as diapers, food, clothes, etc. Then Adam took Tristin out of the YMCA and placed him with a young girl named Stephanie. Who didn’t speak any English and lived behind his parents in the apartments.

A few times we had some indifference about the way that Tristin was treated when it came to Adam and discipline. I didn’t feel it was necessary to discipline Tristin physically. He was a child who would listen when spoken to. I have never in my life seen a child look at a parent with as much fear as Tristin looks at Adam. I have never seen a child become physically ill when disciplined or wet themselves until, Tristin. Adam has stated to the courts a multitude of times including in the best interests evaluation that he has never resorted to physical discipline with Tristin.
2001 Everything goes fine for a while. We even took a vacation to my parents together. We took Tristin out to dinner every once in a while as a family, and Adam started to seem like he was finally calming down. This wasn’t about to last forever either. It was all about to change again, this time for the worst.Adam slips and falls on the ice while at work. So, now he is on workmen’s compensation and a lot of prescription medication. His attitude and demeanor changes with each day. Most days were bad days.

Adam decides that he is going to leave Tristin at my parents house in Virginia for the summer on one of his trips. Because he was going for surgery and would not be able to care for him.

(In the meantime he is so injured he can’t work but he can buy a 700 or so pound motorcycle, take frequent trips out of state. He can’t walk for a living reading meters but he can handle motorcycles and travel?) The best is, you express your concerns to the court, he is addicted to prescription medication, and he is so doped up that her 10 year old is raising my son in their house. Why he is too stoned to get out of bed to take care of the kids, and she lays around depressed and unmediated all day long. They should both be evaluated.

Well, on one of Adams trips there, he becomes angry with Tristin because he wets through his diaper and clothes. He starts yelling, screaming and beating him. Adam removed the diaper and clothes Tristin had on, still yelling and screaming, started beating him while he was bare. My father witnessed this particular incident. He said Tristin kept shouting Daddy stop! My father went to get my mother, afraid what would happen if they called the sheriffs department, my father went back to the family room and grabbed Adam by the arm. He told Adam to get off of Tristin. My parents have both expressed their concerns for Tristin but also feel afraid and unsure what to do. My parents have both noticed the change in Tristin when he is around his father and away. (I didn’t find out about this until a few years later. At which point my father typed and signed an affidavit of the events that occurred.)

In this same summer, Adam meets a married woman with a 10 year old child, on the internet. Who had lived in North Carolina. She came to my parents house to meet him. My parents first impression of the woman was not kind. She behaved and acted inappropriately in front of their children. She went back to North Carolina and he went back to New Jersey. They start a long distance relationship. A few months later they decided that they were going to move in together. She leaves her husband and starts for NJ.

The next big thing that happens is that her family gets a hold of my information and contacts me. They tell me that I want to continue to see my child alive and healthy to get him out of the situation ASAP. Her family gave me her ENTIRE history. They started off by telling me her birthday and social. Then goes into how many times she has been married. Twice to be exact, and neither of them was to her childs father. Rick. Whom she tells her daughter is dead, but he is alive and well in West Virginia. The first time she was married was to a guy named Willie Cox, which last a whopping 6 months. Then to Todd. That lasted two years. I am unsure what the deal was with the first guy, I think he was a drinker or something. The second guy was real nice from what I hear. His parents took a liking to her daughter and loved her like their own.

During the time of their marriage, Michelle went to Daytona Bike Week, (without Todd) and turns up pregnant. No one knows where that baby went. I was told that Michelle was not a hygienic person, did not keep a house, and was abusive to other children. Michelle, bit her 6 year old nephew. She has locked her daughter in her bedroom numerous times, Tristin has complained of being locked in closets by Michelle. Michelle has been noted to be verbally and physically abusive by her family. Tristin complained on a few occasions of being called names and a pain in the balls.

Michelles family informed me that she is BI-POLAR. She was on a medication called EFFEXOR (she decided to stop taking this). She was admitted to the Psychiatric Ward of the Charleston Area Medical Center. Her psychiatrists name was Dr. Gina in West Virginia. Michelle was treated for psychological problems as a child. Michelle’s biological father is BI-POLAR, he takes LITHIUM. Michelle’s brother Leon also suffers from metal problems.

Michelle has denied this to the courts. She was court ordered to receive a BI-POLAR examination. I contacted the Mayo clinic and some reputable psychiatrists who have said that a BI-POLAR examination cannot be done in two 45 minute sessions, weeks apart. They have stated that normally the exam would be conducted under constant 24 hour supervision for at least 7 days, by a psychiatrist not by a clinical psychologist. Adam also has complained of many of the same issues concerning Michelle. He has said that she is extremely moody, unhygienic, insecure, controlling, and mean to the children, does not keep the house cleaned at all, and is constantly crying and having fits of rage. He has said that she will call him almost every 10-15 minutes when he is out of the house.

Adam had gone to visit my mother when she was in NJ and expressed how he knew something was wrong with her. She is always crying, she is very moody, she won’t take care of the house, herself or the kids. And this wasn’t long after he brought her there. I spoke to him briefly about it and he said he had to find a way to send her back to North Carolina. The next thing you knew she was pregnant again. Then supposedly they got married.

Adam became irate with my mother because I had expressed my concerns to the court again about Michelle’s condition. He sent her an email yelling at her about. He told her I told you those things in confidence and you went back and told that bitch! Except what Adam didn’t know, is that HER family was constantly contacting me. Via phone, internet, whatever they could. Michelle’s family has also expressed concerns of both the childrens safety. Michelle’s family has stated that she was molested by her Biological father as a child, and that it became consensual as she became older. They have expressed that Michelle tries to dominate every situation she is in, especially when it comes to a personal relationship. She does not want to feel any intimidation so she will do what it takes to rid of it.

I petitioned the court on December 5, 2001, pleading with them for the safety of Tristin, I begged them to not allow Adam to move in with this woman, or at least give me residential custody. Adam was trying to conceal Tristin once again and lied to me about where he was moving. I compelled the court for him to reveal his true address to me. Everything truly went down hill from here.

Adam moved in with Michelle into his parents house, then into an apartment in Franklin Township. Tristin was forced to share a room with a 10 year old girl. I requested a Best Interest Evaluation be done; the courts did not do that until 2003.I tried to tell the courts how Adam was raising Tristin. For the most part to be a racist. I was amazed at the slurs that Tristin knew.
He had no respect for other people, including law enforcement. Adam had gloated and laughed about being pulled over and Tristin screaming “pig” at the officer. He didn’t think twice to tell him they were bad. I don’t know who he would have told him to look for if he was ever lost or needed help. It was at the point where I had close friends on a local PD come to the home in full uniform and in a police car. They helped us teach Tristin to have respect for law and its officials.
Another incident that I can remember is when Adam took Tristin through the drive-thru at McDonalds, Tristin had become irritated with waiting so he started yelling at the guy in front of them to move. Calling him names such as “bindi” and dot head. I worked a lot with Tristin to teach him how to be respectful towards other people, no matter what they looked like.

Adam, still contacted me on civil terms here and there, and still avidly spoke to my parents.
Adam, continually expressed concerns about the situation. Adam and I constantly argued over the court orders. Each time a petition was filed Adam would call DYFS, falsify information so that they would conduct and investigation.

The first time he did this was in July of 2002, on Sunday July 21, 2002, I had filed for a child support reduction and the hearing was on July 22, the next day. Tristin and I had spent the weekend in Cape May and the beach. Adam called DYFS that evening and told them that I had punched and kicked Tristin in the face. (Ironically, Tristin did not have any bruises. Adam never took him to the doctor for it.) DYFS did not contact me until August concerning the incident, they handled the case terribly, when I called the same case worker because Tristin had come to my home with infected blisters and Bacterial Conjunctivitis and bruises, their worker Kofi told me he did not think it was necessary to go visit Tristin.

There different issues on three different dates, they didn’t do anything. So, documented it with the police and saved the doctor bills. Adam actually called DYFS and told them that I gave Tristin Bacterial Conjunctivitis, in an hours time. When I rushed Tristin to the doctor she told me that he had, had it so long that I didn’t bring him he would have gone blind. (This was all on a Friday at about 7:30 in the evening; I had picked Tristin up at 6:00pm)He even went to such great lengths to include my ex boyfriend in on his sick tirade. JD and his family were so good to Tristin. They all had loved him like he was their own. They all had done something on their part to create happiness for Tristin.

Things had become so horrible that I had to obtain yet another restraining order. After numerous threats from Adam and Michelle I had no other choice. The same evening at about 3 in the morning the window was broken out of one of our cars parked in the street. Of course, Adam denied it. But we had never had that problem before.

Continue Reading Disgusted with NJ Family Court

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Bravery - Burma Monks

There may be 10 to 20,000 of them, instead of one - but they are still standing in front of a tank.

Myanmar police, soldiers deployed to pagodas and monasteries

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:34am (Mla time) 09/26/2007

YANGON—Military-ruled Myanmar deployed armed soldiers and riot police to key pagodas and monasteries around Yangon on Wednesday, in a bid to prevent Buddhist monks from staging anti-junta protests, witnesses said.

Also during the night, Myanmar’s most famous comedian Zaganar, who had publicly thrown his support behind the monks, was arrested at his home, a friend told AFP.

“Zaganar was arrested around 1:30 am at his home,” because he brought food and water to the monks to support the protests, a friend told AFP.

Zaganar, along with other prominent movie stars and artists, had vocally urged the public to support the monks leading the most serious protests against the military regime in nearly two decades.

On Monday and Tuesday, he delivered food and water to monks as they prepared for their protests that drew 100,000 people into the streets.

Protesters defy junta (The Hindu)

The barefoot art of war (Salon)

Not my area of expertise, but I would say this is shaping up to be an unstoppable event - my hopes are with it having a good outcome.

[update: 9/26 4;30pm] Police Clash With Monks in Myanmar

collection of links from Kai

Marisacat also has an excellent pulling together of news reports and events.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Send a Net, Save a Life

An emergency appeal from Nothing But Nets, a grassroots organization that sends insecticide treated bed nets to affected areas in Africa.

Here is part of an overview of the crisis:

Armed movements, including fighting spreading from the Darfur region of Sudan (neighboring Chad to the East), have forced over 200,000 Chadians from their homes in recent months, and send them flooding into refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan border, particularly around Goz Beida, a major refugee host area.

Displaced from their homes, these Chadians face a growing threat…from a tiny mosquito. In June the rainy season arrived – with malaria following right behind. As the climate gets wetter, disease transmission will rise sharply and continue on through November.

The sudden influx of Chadians into refugee camps has left tens of thousands of people highly vulnerable to malaria.

[...]

The challenge is urgent—without outside assistance, officials estimate 25% of these internally displaced people will die from malaria. To save lives, we need to send 40,000 nets in the next six weeks.

Go here to see how you can help.

via UN Dispatch

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Bloggers and the Beast: ABC/Disney, Promoters of Hate Speech, Steps In It

A cautionary tale of a small, obscure blog, a media behemoth and *cough* “containing the story”.

I broke a thermometer once, when I was a kid, and was absolutely fascinated by the resultant mercury “spill”. Unaware of the dangers associated with the substance, I’d put my finger out to touch one of the globs and have it either skitter away or break up into many smaller globs. The more I pushed at them, the more little silver nubs there were spreading all over the table, creating entire colonies. Who knows how far it could have gone had not my mother walked into the room and swiftly wiped out my little world.

Bloggers, while just as likely to multiply when you attempt to stomp on one, are a little tougher to wipe out, though, as ABC/Disney will no doubt soon discover.

Here is the story, so far, as I understand it.

Spoko, a proud Z-list blogger (meaning few had ever heard of him outside of his friends, small circle of readers and other bloggers) toiled away in relative obscurity on his site, Spoko’s Brain, chronicling the venomous eliminationist rhetoric and hate speech coming from the San Francisco(?!) radio station with the call letters KSFO. Here is how Spoko describes it (posted at Online Blogintegrity, which is making sure that Spoko’s voice can still be heard – via Bouphonia):

From I am Spoko

KSFO is a Disney affiliate whose radio hosts broadcast violent rhetoric directed toward journalists, liberals, Democrats, Arabs and Muslims all over the SF Bay Area and to the world via the Internet.

And it’s here, apparently, where he ran afoul of the Mouse:

I commented about the content of these host’s broadcasts on my blog and informed KSFO’s advertisers about what they were supporting by letting them listen to the exact audio quotes from the hosts.

This was the result:

Two days before Christmas I got a Cease and Desist letter from ABC regarding my use of audio clips from KSFO radio hosts Melanie Morgan and Lee Rogers on my blog, Spocko’s Brain (see attached PDF).

Why the C&L Letter Now?

In mid-December I got confirmation that a major national advertiser, VISA, pulled their ads from the Melanie Morgan and Lee Rogers show, based on listening to audio clips I provided them. I also think that FedEx, AT&T and Kaiser are considering pulling their ads. Visa isn’t the first advertiser who has left KSFO, multiple advertisers have left the station, especially from the Brian Sussman show. In July of this year when KSFO lost MasterCard as an advertiser someone from KSFO “outed” me on a counter-blog (which I won’t link to). This same person has also threatened me with local and federal criminal action for using the audio (which I clearly used under the fair use portion of copyright law). And because they have suggested violence toward me (in addition to talking about suing me “for everything I have”) I have chosen to remain anonymous.

As Thers has said, 95 percent of blog fights don’t mean anything, but I think this one does since KSFO is using the full weight and force of an ABC/Disney lawyer and copyright law against a private citizen blogger. I dared to use the audio content in question for nonprofit educational purposes (I don’t even have ads on my blog!), and thus under the protection of the Fair Use Doctrine set forth in Section 107 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.§107.

While most of the material used at Human Beams Magazine that is not produced by our own columnists, or submitted by writers, is used under the creative commons license, on some rare occasions we have reposted parts of articles or other material under the Fair Use Doctrine, as is the case with many other web publications, especially blogs.  Spoko has not, from what I gather, recorded and reposted full radio programs on his media criticism blog, but small snippets of the relevant hate speech - fully credited to their sources, that being the point - for advertisers (and others) to reference when making their decisions about listening to or advertising on the programs.  In my totally not a lawyer way, I am having trouble seeing how this violates the Fair Use Doctrine as opposed to possibly just impacting the profit margin.

This is a rather important situation, not only because of the hate speech (which is good to highlight in and of itself) but because what it means for the rest of us, bloggers and other online publishers.

Spoko again:

It’s about Money not Ideology

Talk Radio is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is also a regulated industry because the public gave the broadcast airwaves to radio stations. There are rules. First there are FCC rules with fines of $315,000 for obscene and indecent speech, thanks to the Christian Right. Interestingly, the radio union, (which KSFO hosts hate so much) worked very hard to stop those fines from being directed to individual radio hosts. So the corporation will bear the burden of any fines. Next, there are guidelines at the local station level, the network level and the parent company level. So even if the inciting of violence and hate speech is ignored by the FCC, the continued violent rhetoric has been, and continues to be, approved at the station level (KSFO) the group level (KGO-KSFO) the company level (ABC Radio) and the parent company level (Disney). They are ALL aware of this speech, and because they have not acted in a meaningful way, they all are giving approval for it to continue.

No Management Action

When Keith Olbermann and Media Matters ran Melanie Morgan’s comments about “putting the bull’s-eye on” Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, management did nothing. Morgan did a jokey non-apology where she never even mentioned she used the term bull’s-eye.
I’ m guessing Lee Rogers may have gotten a memo telling him to stop talking about burning people alive, torturing them and blowing their brains out, because on November 30th, he defiantly said to management and advertisers, “Nobody is gonna tell me what to talk about or not talk about or in what fashion on this radio program. It ain’t gonna happen!”

ABC/Disney acted only when they lost revenue. Then they went after ME with a cease and desist letter.

Why me? I’m not the one saying journalists should be hanged, thieves should be tortured and killed, people should be burned alive, stomped to death or have their testicles cut off. I’m not the one saying that millions of Muslims should be killed on the presumption that they are extremists or just because they live in Indonesia . I’m not the one who says that lying is as natural as breathing to Egyptians and Arabs or demanding that a caller “Say Allah is a Whore” to prove he is not an Islamist. I’m simply documenting this speech and providing it to the people who are paying KSFO hosts on commercially supported broadcast radio.

They have Lawyers, Guns and Money. I’ve got a 5th tier blog and no money

Because I and some other listeners hit right-wing talk radio in the pocket book, they are acting like wounded animals and brought out the big guns, Corporate Lawyers. Am I scared? Hell yes. They can easily squish me like a bug and tie me up in legal battles for the rest of my natural life (and Vulcans live a long time), not to mention that unlike KSFO radio hosts, I’m not getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and generating millions of revenue for a multibillion-dollar parent company. If I pursue this further I expect the next step is a “CyberSLAPP” suit.

I don’t want to consider the possibility of Morgan’s good friend Michelle Malkin deciding to publish my address and real name so that her minions can send me death threats or “white powder” in the mail. Chad Castagana, was charged with mailing more than a dozen threatening letters containing white powder to liberals. He got the idea from someone that journalists, liberals and democrats were the enemy and deserved to die.

Brian Sussman proudly poses with his handgun in KSFO publicity shots and says that he thinks that everyone should have the right to have a machine gun. Maybe I’m over reacting, why would they attack me? I’m not famous, I’m not an elected official, I tried very hard to be accurate about what THEY said BY USING THEIR OWN WORDS.

I tried to help companies protect their brands from being tainted with the violent rhetoric and anti-any-religion-but-right-wing-christianism speech. I wanted to help the VPs of marketing avoid being associated with Lee Roger’s “testicle talk” or Sussman talking about cutting off a finger and a penis of an Iraqi in his imaginary torture sessions.

It’s about Brands: All the Blessings, None of the Taint

I have found out that KSFO is sold to advertisers as “a Disney affiliate” with all the associated family-friendly connotations. So KSFO is getting all the benefit of the Disney name as well as the massive infrastructure of ad sales at the national level. Clearly ABC Radio doesn’t want KSFO hosts’ horrific comments to actually reach advertisers. Advertisers are kept in the dark so KSFO can benefit from the Disney brand glow (ABC Radio News creditability glow?).

Advertisers should be able to decide if they want to keep supporting this show based on complete information. We already know that management at ABC and Disney support these hosts, which means that the ABC/Disney Radio brand now apparently includes support for violent hate speech toward Muslims, democrats and liberals.

But instead of directing the hosts to refrain from violent rhetoric and hate speech, they go after the weakest person with the fewest resources. It’s cheaper and easier.

Bottom line: ABC/Disney is supporting and profiting from this violent speech, they should at least also accept any negative connotations or financial impact it might have to their image.

There is more there, including actions you can take, sample letters to advertisers, and other advice.

If you’d like to listen to some of the hate rhetoric that Spoko has documented - (what? You, like ABC/Disney, thought that stepping on one blog (blob) would stop the spill?) – you can find links to the various snippets here,  and here. If I come across more (or get some time to put up some here… I am doing major catching up from holidays and illness, though) I will add to this post.

In the meantime, if you want a laugh and to see how not to contain a story, do a Technorati or Google blogsearch on KFSO and Spoko, or just Spoko, as well as a regular news search. Obscure and unnoticed but by a few no more, is he… nor is the venomous rhetoric that is being spewed over our airways.

Let, some might say, a thousand stories bloom.

Monday, December 11, 2006

50 Bullets-No Memory; Dancing in Santiago; Israel Blocks Tutu?; Questioning Diamonds

Newsy Bits

The New York Times adds details and layers to this story that is in not going to go away. Unarmed men, a wedding day, and a hail of bullets have combined to make this story something that even those whose common reflex is to blame the victim in police shootings have a hard time justifying.

50 Bullets, One Dead, and Many Questions

A police sergeant who arrived seconds later described the scene this way: The Nissan had crashed into a van in the middle of the street. Smoke was coming from its radiator. The man in the driver’s seat was slumped back. His passenger was lying across his lap with his arms hanging outside the driver’s window.

The sergeant, Michael Wheeler, later told investigators that both men appeared seriously injured and likely to die, according to the records. A plainclothes officer stood close by, his pistol still trained on the two men in the car. A third man lay on the street nearby.

Minutes later, the shooting scene on Liverpool Street in Jamaica, Queens, was choked with patrol cars and the scrum of officials that follows a police shooting. A captain ordered another uniformed sergeant, Donald Kipp, to locate and inspect the weapons of the men involved in the shooting. In all, five plainclothes officers had fired a total of 50 bullets.

But one after another, in conversations with Sergeant Kipp or Sergeant Wheeler, the men said they could not say how many shots they had fired. Two said they were unsure whether they had even fired at all, including a detective who investigators later learned had fired 31 shots, emptying his 9-millimeter Sig Sauer pistol, reloading and emptying it again during the frenzied barrage.

How safe can you feel, even not being a young Black man, with police officers on the streets that can fire 31 one bullets at someone, stopping to reload, and then not remember even doing it?

via P6

   * * * *
From the BBC:

There was dancing in the streets of Santiago - and water cannons

Thousands of Chileans have taken to the streets following the death of the country’s former military ruler, Augusto Pinochet, at the age of 91.

Jubilant opponents danced in the centre of Santiago, Chile’s capital, before clashes broke out. Police used water cannon and tear gas to control crowds.

Supporters mourned Gen Pinochet outside the military hospital where he died.

The general took power in a 1973 coup, and more than 3,000 people were killed or “disappeared” in his 17-year rule.

He was accused of dozens of human rights abuses as well as fraud but poor health meant he never faced trial.

I may not rejoice in the death of any person but, for some, I do not mourn.

Update: via Tapped, Randy Paul of Beautiful Horizons augments the New York Times’ rather thin list of key dates in Pinochet’s career with a few of the “forgotten” items, in Wanted: A Strong Wooden Stake and Several Garlic Bulbs

   * * * *
Also from BBC, this doesn’t look (or sound) too good.

Israel ‘blocks Tutu Gaza mission’

Israel has blocked a UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip that was to be led by South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, the UN says.

Mr Tutu’s team would have investigated last month’s killings of 19 civilians in an Israeli artillery barrage in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.

But Israel had not granted the former Archbishop of Cape Town the necessary travel clearance, a UN official said.

The Israeli government said it had not formally denied visas to the UN team.

Mr Tutu’s team was supposed to report its findings to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council by Friday.

Spokeswoman Sonia Bakar said Mr Tutu had other engagements and could not wait any longer for Israeli permission to travel.

“It has been cancelled. We were supposed to go yesterday (Sunday),” she said.

An Israeli government spokesman said it had not made a final decision on whether to grant visas for Mr Tutu’s team.

He said the government did “not have a problem not with the personalities, we had a problem with the institution. We saw a situation whereby the human rights mechanism of the UN was being cynically exploited to advance an anti-Israel agenda”.

[...]

It [the Human Rights Council] asked Mr Tutu to assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors and make recommendations on ways to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli attacks.

Maybe it’s considered less of a gamble to keep him out completely, than to have him speak and the world listen.

   * * * *
From Canada.com

Some good news -

Diamond trade on the defensive

Betsy Vereckey, The Associated Press
Published: Monday, December 11, 2006

NEW YORK—This holiday season some diamond retailers say they are seeing heightened consumer concern about conflict diamonds, the gems mined in war zones that are sold to fund armed conflict and civil war.

Sales of so-called conflict diamonds have helped finance wars that killed millions in Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia over the past several decades, and efforts to address the problem have been made within the diamond industry.

But human rights groups are now taking the issue straight to consumers, and with Friday’s release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ new film Blood Diamond, diamond retailers are preparing to face more scrutiny than ever before.

Many large retailers, such as Tiffany & Co. and Zale Corp., say they have enacted policies to help stem the flow of conflict diamonds. And during the all-important holiday season, when at least half of annual jewelry sales are recorded, retailers want their customers to feel they can shop guilt-free.

There is more there, including various sellers of diamonds and jewelry and what measures they are taking to ensure that their diamonds are not drenched in blood.

I’ve never liked diamonds.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Newsy bits - Throw the Bums Out! Lebanon, Mexico… more

That’s our problem here in the US… not enough people out of work.

“We have no work. We have nothing else to do, so we came to overthrow the government.”

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 1 — The official goal was to overthrow the government, but the atmosphere was bizarrely festive today as hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah supporters poured into the center of Beirut, banging drums, chanting slogans, pressing shoulder to shoulder as they surged past army troops seeking to keep order.

Families with little children, old people and young people all heeded the call of Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim party and militia, packing buses and cars all over the country. By nighttime, however, only several thousand demonstrators remained, smoking water pipes, playing music and vowing to stay, some in tents, until the Western-backed government falls.

“We are having fun, yes,” said Hussein Hanoum, 27, of Hermel in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon, as he lay across a sidewalk in the midst of a huge crowd. “We have no work. We have nothing else to do, so we came to overthrow the government.”

The mood was light-hearted, but the impressive turnout underscored the challenge this politically divided and fragile country faces as it confronts its most dangerous political crisis since the end of a 15-year civil war in 1990. The government was holed up in the Grand Serail, an Ottoman-era building on a hill overlooking the demonstrations. The prime minister, Fouad Siniora, said that the people could stay in the streets as long as they like, but neither he nor the other ministers would resign.

[....]

Not quite a triumphant and auspicious start to governing, I’d say. Or end, as the case may be.

Mexico Swears In New Leader, Quickly

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 1 — It was not pretty, but Felipe Calderón, the new president of Mexico, managed to take the oath of office in Congress today, while leftist lawmakers whistled and catcalled and the losing leftist candidate staged a huge protest march down the central avenue of the capital.

Mr. Calderón quickly took the oath of office, and Mr. Fox handed over the traditional presidential sash and left the chamber. The entire ceremony lasted four minutes.

All the while, opposition politicians blew whistles and held up banners suggesting Mr. Calderón was “a traitor to democracy.”

Earlier in the day, fisticuffs and pushing matches broke out between right-wing and left-wing lawmakers as they jockeyed for position in the chamber, with leftists trying to obstruct the entranceways and the conservatives ringing the dais and podium.

Never before in modern Mexican history has a president been sworn under such chaotic and divisive conditions.

[...]

Speaking to his supporters, Mr. Lopéz Obrador charged once again that the election was fraudulent and that Mr. Calderón’s victory was engineered by a “neofascist oligarchy.” He claimed the “imposition” of Mr. Calderón as president amounted to a “coup d’etat.”

“We are not rebels without a cause,” he said. “Sometimes they forget the heart of the matter, which is that they robbed us of the election.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Houston Judge Terrified of Peaceful Protesters - Assigns Them Combined $39.1 Million Bond

Houston crackdown on right to peaceful protest, freedom of speech…

44 Janitors Arrested in Non-Violent Civil Disobedience in Houston Held on Combined $39.1 Million Bond

For peaceful protestors charged with Class B misdemeanors, bond for each set at unprecedented $888,888 cash; For Harris County man recently charged with murder, bond set at $30,000

HOUSTON – In an unprecedented transparent attempt to severely limit the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech of low-wage Houston janitors and their supporters, a Harris County District Attorney has set an extraordinarily high bond of $888,888 cash for each of the 44 peaceful protestors arrested last night. Houston janitors and their supporters, many of them janitors from other cities, were participating in an act of non-violent civil disobedience, protesting in the intersection of Travis at Capitol when they were arrested in downtown Houston Thursday night. They were challenging Houston’s real estate industry to settle the janitors’ strike and agree on a contract that provides the 5,300 janitors in Houston with higher wages and affordable health insurance.

The combined $39.1 million bond for the workers and their supporters is far and above the normal amount of bail set for people accused of even violent crimes in Harris County. While each of the non-violent protestors is being held on $888,888 bail…

For a woman charged with beating her granddaughter to death with a sledgehammer, bail was set at $100,000;

For a woman accused of disconnecting her quadriplegic mother's breathing machine, bail was set at $30,000;

For a man charged with murder for stabbing another man to death in a bar brawl, bail was set at $30,000;

For janitors and protesters charged with Class B misdemeanors for past non-violent protests, standard bail has been set at $500 each.

More than 5,300 Houston janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages and benefits of any workers in America.

Community activists and leaders expressed concern and dismay today at the police’s use of horses to intimidate and corral janitors participating in the non-violent civil disobedience Thursday night in downtown Houston. The police’s choice to use horses to stop the protest resulted in four people being injured, including an 83-year old female janitor from New York.

In a statement released today prior to the bonds being set, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee said, “A protest is a sign of freedom in the United States and exercises our basic rights to free speech.”

Photos and video shot by people in the crowd during the incident are available on www.houstonjanitors.org

Background:

More than 1,700 SEIU janitors in Houston have been on strike since October 23 over civil rights abuses and a failure to bargain in good faith by their employers, the five national cleaning companies ABM, OneSource, GCA, Sanitors, and Pritchard.

With five of the most influential players in Houston’s commercial real estate industry refusing to intervene in the dispute, the workers’ strike against five national cleaning firms is increasing in scope and intensity. In the highly competitive market of contract cleaning, it the building landlords that hire the cleaning firms that negotiate and set rates for janitors’ wages and benefits. These five major landlords, Hines, Transwestern, Crescent, Brookfield Properties, and the oil giant Chevron, have the power to settle the strike by directing the cleaning contractors they hire to provide higher wages and health insurance all workers need to support their families.

In every city, the janitors work for many of the same national cleaning firms in buildings owned by the same national commercial landlords. But, while janitors in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and other cities make more than $10 an hour, have health insurance and full-time work, Houston workers are paid an average of $20 a day, with no health insurance for part-time work.

Last fall, 5,300 Houston janitors made the historic choice to form a union with SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Their decision capped one of the largest successful organizing drives by private sector workers ever in the Southern half of the United States. Since forming a union with SEIU, Houston janitors have been seeking a raise to $8.50/hour, more hours, and health insurance in a citywide union contract. For more info, visit houstonjanitors.org

More than 225,000 janitors in 29 cities are members of SEIU.