Today being "Tax Day" brings to mind my past inabilities to obtain complete and correct copies of my back federal income tax returns from the years I was married and filed jointly with my husband.
In 2005, the two private investigators (one ex-FBI and the other ex-DEA) from the Boerne area I'd hired to help me gather evidence against Ed Hodges and others regarding a fraudulent trust document began insisting that I needed to obtain copies of my back tax returns from the IRS but would not explain why. The former DEA agent said he had a good friend who worked for the IRS in Austin and that he'd get his friend to expedite my requests, so I went online as the p.i.s had instructed me, printed out the proper forms, filled them out, and mailed then to the IRS in Austin on 5/15/05, along with my check for $468.00 to pay for copies of the returns from the years the p.i.s had asked me to obtain ($39.00 each).
On 6/21/05, I received a check from the IRS for $351.00 with no explanation. Then on 6/29/05, I received copies of my federal tax returns from 1998, 1999, and 2000 (which happen to be the same ones handed to me by my divorce lawyer and accountant during my divorce negotiations that they said they'd been furnished by my husband and his accountant, except that these new copies had some unusual markings on them) plus a letter from the IRS dated 2/27/05 saying my returns from the other years I'd requested were not available, which explained the refund check I'd received.
I noticed that this packet had been mailed from zip code 78741 instead of 73301 where the IRS office was located, but no one would tell me whether this was significant or not. When I told the two p.i.s I was unable to obtain the documents they'd asked for and requested contact information for the one p.i.'s IRS friend so I could try to find out why I'd been denied copies of my records, the p.i. told me there was nothing more I could do and refused to give me his friend's information.
I have never been able to obtain complete and correct copies of my back tax returns from the government. In retrospect, I never actually saw any of these completed returns while I was married, either; my husband always brought home the signature page only for me to sign, and I did so because he insisted on having his father, his office manager, and their family's accountant handle all our finances and at the time, I had no reason not to trust them completely. In fact, on one especially memorable "Tax Day", I remember my husband suddenly bursting into an all-female fashion show being held to raise money for a local charity, running up to me while I was on the runway, asking me to sign our tax return, and then madly dashing out to howls of laughter from the audience which, as I told him later, was extremely embarrassing for me. (In retrospect, this incident has taken on an entirely different significance.)
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Letter To The Editor
This Letter To The Editor was published recently by the Kerrville Daily Times. Dr. E. C. Thorton's words are clear and eloquent and need no further explanation.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Layer Cake
My previous post seems to have resulted in a significant increase in the harassment directed at us, so I believe now might be the right time to continue my discussion of community-wide participation in crime and domestic abuse.
This time of year, the Texas Hill Country is a beautiful place to be, with the scenic hills covered in wildflowers, the temperatures moderate, and the weather generally dry. The local chambers of commerce market the area as a cheap and fun vacation destination that's a day's drive or less from most major Texas cities. The large bed and breakfast industry promotes intimate, personal experiences in hospitality. Life here seems wonderful, so perhaps after visiting, you decide to move here. The "welcome lady" calls on you with a basket of freebies and interviews you for her column in the local newspaper entitled "Newcomers".
Then, if you are a more worldly person than I am (in retrospect, I'd led a very sheltered life), you begin to notice the drug dealers on every street corner downtown and in the parking lots after school. You see free beer being generously dispensed to tourists waiting in lines (and the results when they try to drive off!) and the handbills advertising parties with live music being held in unusual places that are placed under windshields and into people's hands. You start realizing that some of those "little old German ranchers" in their pickup trucks are speaking German slang into sophisticated cell phones and radios. You discover that many of your neighbors take lots of long driving trips of various kinds. You notice heavy security in unusual places around town. You realize there are a lot of small airstrips, warehouses, greenhouses, and semi-truck facilities on the ranches of way too many people who explain their wealth to you by claiming to have "won the lottery".
At this point, you probably start asking questions. You find out about the local ties to former presidents, high-level national politicians and judicial figures, prominent celebrities and musicians, and military leaders in sensitive positions. You learn about the Austin music producer who seems to own half of the county, never goes anywhere without bodyguards, and whose wife was murdered. You hear about local ties to major media corporations. You are told about (and see for yourself) the small plane that files in from Dallas around the same time every evening. You realize that the questions the "welcome lady" asked you were designed to find out details about who you are and what you're doing here. Local ties to the military, the government, and the security industry begin to take on whole new meanings. You start seeing public employees acting suspiciously, and you begin having run-ins with public officials who are acting improperly. You also realize there are too many suspicious deaths locally and that news in general isn't being fully or accurately reported here.
By this point, local "insiders" have usually determined that you've figured out way too much and are no longer welcome here. Your name comes up at one of the many secretive meetings held around town under the guise of other things (church, school, hospital, bank, utilities, conservation, organizations, etc.). The word is put out (undoubtedly also through the Internet) that you're now targeted for harassment, stalking, and illegal surveillance. (The latter two of these, which each facilitate the other, are considered necessary because of concerns about what you now know and who you are telling about it.)
You will now find that most of your personal (i.e., non-junk) mail and packages will arrive open, late, and/or with visible signs of tampering. (We often see unauthorized persons coming and going from employees-only areas at the local post offices.) Your phone lines will be filled with static. You will receive prank phone calls and faxes at all hours. Parades of 50-100 or more vehicles will drive by your house repeatedly. Stuff will be thrown in your yard, some of it bizarre. (Someone once wadded up their children's baptismal certificates from the local
Catholic church into balls and tossed them onto our front porch early on a Sunday morning.) You will be followed everywhere you go, have your private conversations repeated back to you in public, be aggressively tailgated by persons who pull in behind you and turn on their headlights, and be slandered and libeled outrageously. Local businesses and merchants will all suddenly start cheating you outrageously.
Because I led a very sheltered life growing up and was prevented from learning about my husband's various indiscretions by the fact that entire communities, his entire family, and my own entire family were all covering up for him, I did not realize what was going on until after my husband suddenly left me for another woman in 1999, I began to find suspicious items in my husband's things, and my children and I began to be the victims of the severe harassment, stalking, and illegal surveillance touched on above. When some of these incidents involved threatening situations, got overtly physical, or involved what appeared to be drug trafficking and it became clear the local police were involved, I wasted no time in going to federal law enforcement, the press, and other outsiders. This only increased the illegal and paranoid behaviours directed at us, but it also probably saved our lives, since the people behind all this could not afford the close personal or financial scrutiny of their affairs that would have resulted if anything had happened to us after I'd made so many complaints and requests for help.
Now I've finally made it to the innermost layer of life here, my own. The harassment here over the last few days is pretty typical as to types of incidents, but they're generally spread out over longer periods of time. Last Thursday morning (our one weekday morning to sleep a little later), one of my adult children and I were jolted awake around 9 AM by a prank phone call; later, I was followed while running errands, and a woman with green fingernails tried to cheat me at a local business, laughed about doing it, and got mad when I politely insisted she fix the problem. When I went out several times, my ex- and/or his wife turned up nearby on bicycles or in various vehicles; they clearly knew I was coming and were waiting for me. Saturday morning the kids and I were suddenly awakened at 8:30 AM by our dog barking and growling at a tall man in a dark jogging suit who was standing in front of our house; as soon as I reached the window to try and see who it was, he turned and jobbed off (heading east) so I couldn't see his face. Then when I drove off 30 minutes later to run an errand I'd only just decided to run, someone posted a bright red sign reading "Garage Sale" with an arrow pointing towards our house on the hospital's property next door just long enough to make certain I'd seen it before taking it down and speeding off. A heavy-set German local I recognized then tailgated me on a motorcycle. Our house was buzzed by a low-flying plane, and another flew overhead circles above me when I walked later.
Yesterday afternoon, two young women pulled in behind me at a stop light and made exaggerated hand movements simulating hair-brushing and makeup application, then sped off when the light changed. (This was done to let me know they'd had access to illegal surveillance of me in my bathroom getting ready to leave a few minutes earlier.) On the way home, my youngest offspring and I were passed by a group of at least 50 motorcycles and a parade of approximately 30 vehicles on a normally deserted country road.
This morning I was awakened around 7 AM by approximately 5-8 people just east of our house and 2-4 people along the street in front of our house who were all loudly yelling out owl-hooting noises. Later, we picked up and removed the objects shown below that had been thrown into our front yard (probably by city workers). We also picked up and removed 5 golf balls that had been laid out in a trail in our pasture in locations they could not possibly have been hit into that were left by a trespasser/s who wanted us to know they'd been there.
Just move away, you say, which is clearly what the people doing all this to us want. Unfortunately, however, moving won't solve any of our problems and may actually make some of them worse. For example, because of the fraudulent trust document Ed Hodges manipulated and forged my initials on that the county clerk's office filed despite its not being properly notarized, I currently do not have clear title to my house and land (my only significant assets) according to county documents, and there are serious legal and financial consequences if I abandon the property and leave as many of the DV organizations are advising. Further, I've been told by many different people over the years that my ex-husband openly brags about continuing to stalk, harass, and share illegal surveillance of me wherever I go, and knowing what I do about his national, international, and high-level government, military, and law enforcement contacts plus the fact that the kids and I have previously experienced stalking and harassment on trips lead me to believe he absolutely does have the capabilities and the mindset to do this. Meanwhile, we continue to be forced to keep our house attended at all times in order to try and prevent the constant break-ins that in the past have resulted in stolen documents and other items, vandalism (all of the pulls were once removed from the dresser in my bedroom and one of them was broken, for example), and the leaving of threatening notes and bizarre items in strange places, which means my kids and I can't do anything away from home together as a family and not all of us will be able to attend my youngest's upcoming high school graduation ceremony.
The few people and organizations who've actually looked into helping us have had some pretty terrible experiences: threats, computer hacking, and much more. I'm followed everywhere by local law enforcement, both to see who I'm talking to and meeting with and also so they can run the license numbers of anyone else monitoring us, stop them, and confiscate any recording or photographic equipment they find. It doesn't take many incidents like these before potential rescuers with the noblest of intentions are forced to give up.
Meanwhile, my financial situation and that of my children who are still dependant on me is becoming quite desperate, as my ex-husband is well aware (and doesn't hesitate to show by some of his comments here). My alimony ends in February of 2011, and I've been told my ex- vows he'll order harassment of anyone who hires me. One of my adult children who lives with me since breaking off all ties with their dad in 2005 when he "got scary" while trying to force them to sign a trust document like the one posted here earlier, has already had numerous job applications stolen out of the mail over the years, had job applications interfered with, etc. When law enforcement at all levels and the entire legal and justice system refuse to protect you, what in the world are you supposed to do? (Blog about it to make people aware we are a lot closer to a national situation like Mexico's than you think and that the pretty icing on top isn't going to be able to cover up the layers of the cake for much longer.)
From the top to the bottom and the inside to the outside, the flavor of the layer cake that is life here is "Control". I'm still not sure about who's actually running the bakery.
This time of year, the Texas Hill Country is a beautiful place to be, with the scenic hills covered in wildflowers, the temperatures moderate, and the weather generally dry. The local chambers of commerce market the area as a cheap and fun vacation destination that's a day's drive or less from most major Texas cities. The large bed and breakfast industry promotes intimate, personal experiences in hospitality. Life here seems wonderful, so perhaps after visiting, you decide to move here. The "welcome lady" calls on you with a basket of freebies and interviews you for her column in the local newspaper entitled "Newcomers".
Then, if you are a more worldly person than I am (in retrospect, I'd led a very sheltered life), you begin to notice the drug dealers on every street corner downtown and in the parking lots after school. You see free beer being generously dispensed to tourists waiting in lines (and the results when they try to drive off!) and the handbills advertising parties with live music being held in unusual places that are placed under windshields and into people's hands. You start realizing that some of those "little old German ranchers" in their pickup trucks are speaking German slang into sophisticated cell phones and radios. You discover that many of your neighbors take lots of long driving trips of various kinds. You notice heavy security in unusual places around town. You realize there are a lot of small airstrips, warehouses, greenhouses, and semi-truck facilities on the ranches of way too many people who explain their wealth to you by claiming to have "won the lottery".
At this point, you probably start asking questions. You find out about the local ties to former presidents, high-level national politicians and judicial figures, prominent celebrities and musicians, and military leaders in sensitive positions. You learn about the Austin music producer who seems to own half of the county, never goes anywhere without bodyguards, and whose wife was murdered. You hear about local ties to major media corporations. You are told about (and see for yourself) the small plane that files in from Dallas around the same time every evening. You realize that the questions the "welcome lady" asked you were designed to find out details about who you are and what you're doing here. Local ties to the military, the government, and the security industry begin to take on whole new meanings. You start seeing public employees acting suspiciously, and you begin having run-ins with public officials who are acting improperly. You also realize there are too many suspicious deaths locally and that news in general isn't being fully or accurately reported here.
By this point, local "insiders" have usually determined that you've figured out way too much and are no longer welcome here. Your name comes up at one of the many secretive meetings held around town under the guise of other things (church, school, hospital, bank, utilities, conservation, organizations, etc.). The word is put out (undoubtedly also through the Internet) that you're now targeted for harassment, stalking, and illegal surveillance. (The latter two of these, which each facilitate the other, are considered necessary because of concerns about what you now know and who you are telling about it.)
You will now find that most of your personal (i.e., non-junk) mail and packages will arrive open, late, and/or with visible signs of tampering. (We often see unauthorized persons coming and going from employees-only areas at the local post offices.) Your phone lines will be filled with static. You will receive prank phone calls and faxes at all hours. Parades of 50-100 or more vehicles will drive by your house repeatedly. Stuff will be thrown in your yard, some of it bizarre. (Someone once wadded up their children's baptismal certificates from the local
Catholic church into balls and tossed them onto our front porch early on a Sunday morning.) You will be followed everywhere you go, have your private conversations repeated back to you in public, be aggressively tailgated by persons who pull in behind you and turn on their headlights, and be slandered and libeled outrageously. Local businesses and merchants will all suddenly start cheating you outrageously.
Because I led a very sheltered life growing up and was prevented from learning about my husband's various indiscretions by the fact that entire communities, his entire family, and my own entire family were all covering up for him, I did not realize what was going on until after my husband suddenly left me for another woman in 1999, I began to find suspicious items in my husband's things, and my children and I began to be the victims of the severe harassment, stalking, and illegal surveillance touched on above. When some of these incidents involved threatening situations, got overtly physical, or involved what appeared to be drug trafficking and it became clear the local police were involved, I wasted no time in going to federal law enforcement, the press, and other outsiders. This only increased the illegal and paranoid behaviours directed at us, but it also probably saved our lives, since the people behind all this could not afford the close personal or financial scrutiny of their affairs that would have resulted if anything had happened to us after I'd made so many complaints and requests for help.
Now I've finally made it to the innermost layer of life here, my own. The harassment here over the last few days is pretty typical as to types of incidents, but they're generally spread out over longer periods of time. Last Thursday morning (our one weekday morning to sleep a little later), one of my adult children and I were jolted awake around 9 AM by a prank phone call; later, I was followed while running errands, and a woman with green fingernails tried to cheat me at a local business, laughed about doing it, and got mad when I politely insisted she fix the problem. When I went out several times, my ex- and/or his wife turned up nearby on bicycles or in various vehicles; they clearly knew I was coming and were waiting for me. Saturday morning the kids and I were suddenly awakened at 8:30 AM by our dog barking and growling at a tall man in a dark jogging suit who was standing in front of our house; as soon as I reached the window to try and see who it was, he turned and jobbed off (heading east) so I couldn't see his face. Then when I drove off 30 minutes later to run an errand I'd only just decided to run, someone posted a bright red sign reading "Garage Sale" with an arrow pointing towards our house on the hospital's property next door just long enough to make certain I'd seen it before taking it down and speeding off. A heavy-set German local I recognized then tailgated me on a motorcycle. Our house was buzzed by a low-flying plane, and another flew overhead circles above me when I walked later.
Yesterday afternoon, two young women pulled in behind me at a stop light and made exaggerated hand movements simulating hair-brushing and makeup application, then sped off when the light changed. (This was done to let me know they'd had access to illegal surveillance of me in my bathroom getting ready to leave a few minutes earlier.) On the way home, my youngest offspring and I were passed by a group of at least 50 motorcycles and a parade of approximately 30 vehicles on a normally deserted country road.
This morning I was awakened around 7 AM by approximately 5-8 people just east of our house and 2-4 people along the street in front of our house who were all loudly yelling out owl-hooting noises. Later, we picked up and removed the objects shown below that had been thrown into our front yard (probably by city workers). We also picked up and removed 5 golf balls that had been laid out in a trail in our pasture in locations they could not possibly have been hit into that were left by a trespasser/s who wanted us to know they'd been there.
Just move away, you say, which is clearly what the people doing all this to us want. Unfortunately, however, moving won't solve any of our problems and may actually make some of them worse. For example, because of the fraudulent trust document Ed Hodges manipulated and forged my initials on that the county clerk's office filed despite its not being properly notarized, I currently do not have clear title to my house and land (my only significant assets) according to county documents, and there are serious legal and financial consequences if I abandon the property and leave as many of the DV organizations are advising. Further, I've been told by many different people over the years that my ex-husband openly brags about continuing to stalk, harass, and share illegal surveillance of me wherever I go, and knowing what I do about his national, international, and high-level government, military, and law enforcement contacts plus the fact that the kids and I have previously experienced stalking and harassment on trips lead me to believe he absolutely does have the capabilities and the mindset to do this. Meanwhile, we continue to be forced to keep our house attended at all times in order to try and prevent the constant break-ins that in the past have resulted in stolen documents and other items, vandalism (all of the pulls were once removed from the dresser in my bedroom and one of them was broken, for example), and the leaving of threatening notes and bizarre items in strange places, which means my kids and I can't do anything away from home together as a family and not all of us will be able to attend my youngest's upcoming high school graduation ceremony.
The few people and organizations who've actually looked into helping us have had some pretty terrible experiences: threats, computer hacking, and much more. I'm followed everywhere by local law enforcement, both to see who I'm talking to and meeting with and also so they can run the license numbers of anyone else monitoring us, stop them, and confiscate any recording or photographic equipment they find. It doesn't take many incidents like these before potential rescuers with the noblest of intentions are forced to give up.
Meanwhile, my financial situation and that of my children who are still dependant on me is becoming quite desperate, as my ex-husband is well aware (and doesn't hesitate to show by some of his comments here). My alimony ends in February of 2011, and I've been told my ex- vows he'll order harassment of anyone who hires me. One of my adult children who lives with me since breaking off all ties with their dad in 2005 when he "got scary" while trying to force them to sign a trust document like the one posted here earlier, has already had numerous job applications stolen out of the mail over the years, had job applications interfered with, etc. When law enforcement at all levels and the entire legal and justice system refuse to protect you, what in the world are you supposed to do? (Blog about it to make people aware we are a lot closer to a national situation like Mexico's than you think and that the pretty icing on top isn't going to be able to cover up the layers of the cake for much longer.)
From the top to the bottom and the inside to the outside, the flavor of the layer cake that is life here is "Control". I'm still not sure about who's actually running the bakery.
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Brush-Off
I have collected lots of letters like this one over the years that I've received in response to my requests for help for myself and my children. I can to some extent understand getting the brush-off from private individuals and smaller organizations, since it's clear we're up against very powerful people with unlimited legal and financial resources.
This letter, however, is from a national organization whose specificly stated purpose, as they freely admit here, is to help victims like my children and me. Although this letter is a bit more curt (and rude?) than most, I have received similar correspondence from numerous government agencies (both state and federal) that are also supposed to be helping victims of crime and/or domestic violence and abuse.
Now I'm learning from national victims' advocates that the problem of victims desperately turning to various agencies that are supposed to be helping them but instead give them the run-around or turn them away altogether is not only widespread but actually more common than not. Government agencies are in fact some of the worst offenders in this regard. (One of my own examples of a response from a government agency is posted below under "Response From DOJ".) Worse, I'm also learning that major corporations, private organizations, and individuals (including celebrities) are donating large amounts of money to these same agencies that are turning away desperate victims. I've been shocked to learn of countless victims wanting to leave critically dangerous situations being turned away from the very shelters that are supposed to protect them.
While it's an important and necessary resource in crisis situations, fleeing from an abuser these days often doesn't even result in significant relief for victims, given the prevalence of identify theft, stalking, harassment, computer hacking, illegal surveillance, cyberbullying and slander, private documents and information for sale openly, etc. Here in Central Texas, we victims also have to contend with the appalling corruption in law enforcement--see "Illegal Surveillance Summary", "What's The Buzz?", and "What's The Buzz Revisited" below for more information about this.
If you examine the comments my ex-husband has made all over this blog, you will quickly see that he is completely unafraid of being prosecuted or sued for any of his actions, slander/defamation, or abuse. I'm in contact with other ex-wives who are in similar situations and are also unable to get the help and support they desperately need from the same agencies that are accepting government funds and large private donations but continue to turn needy victims away. How many innocent lives have been wrecked or lost because victims couldn't get help from agencies that were supposed to protect them? (Do you even care?--when entire communities are actively involved together in stalking, harassment, slander, libel, and other criminal acts against innocent victims as is happening here, this question has to be asked.)
National victims' advocates are now using our case and others that are similar to try to educate donors about how to make better use of their money for assisting victims. Savvy, well-connected abusers who, in this age of easy information sharing and great wealth made from criminal enterprises (who therefore cross all socio-economic lines) are aware of the lack of help for victims, and they exploit this situation by deliberately and systematically overwhelming their victims. The violence and other abuse then escalate because abusers aren't facing any negative consequences of their actions. The experts say, and I concur, that there's already plenty of information and resources available for identifying abusive behaviors and convincing victims to leave. What's needed far more is individual, one-on-one advocacy for victims that will actively assist them in dealing with these overwhelming situations and enable them to obtain real, lasting relief from the abuse.
I'm requesting that those who do seriously care about helping victims prove it by going to http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/201?m=a3ecbdfa and signing the online Domestic Violence (DV) Reform petition there. Doing this won't take more than just a few seconds, and you'll be taking part in a critical effort to effect much-needed change. Texans in particular should welcome the provisions in this petition for insisting on detailed public audits of government agencies that are turning victims away in order to find out what their funds are being used for and holding them accountable. You can also contact National White House Advisor on Violence Against Women (aka Domestic Violence Czar) Lynn Rosenthal at lrosenthal@ovp.eop.gov and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden through the contact form on his website and insist that they support one-on-one advocacy for victims.
Finally, I'm also asking you to carefully examine your own behaviours and those of your family members, close friends, and associates in an effort to make sure you're part of the solution to domestic abuse, violence, and crime and not part of the problem. To paraphrase Mother Theresa, before you go to India to work for good, try looking for opportunities within a 2-mile radius of your own front door. Let's all work together to make the U.S. in general and Texas in particular a leader in real advocacy, assistance, and support for innocent victims instead of the national embarrassment the entire DV program currently is.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Possible Hate Crime
Today, Easter Sunday, my children and I enjoyed a very nice, quiet day together. This was in stark contrast to what happened to us on Easter morning last year as documented in this entry from one of our logbooks. We had all been up late having fun together the night before Easter last year, and it was very disturbing and frightening to have been suddenly jolted awake by loud noises being broadcast from downstairs in our house.
Since we are well known to be practicing Christians, it was Easter morning, and the loud noise that was somehow broadcast in our house was definitely the sound of a nail gun being fired repeatedly, I wondered if this incident of harassment qualified as a hate crime. I asked the FBI this question when I filed a complaint with them about the use of sophisticated federal equipment (some of which is manufactured here by the same companies that make equipment my ex-husband uses in his business) for purposes of harassment, stalking, and domestic abuse when I filed a complaint with them, but of course I never received any kind of response.
We have had many, many similar disconcerting, startling, and extremely obnoxious incidents involving various broadcast harassing noises directed at us over the years, both inside our home, outside our home, and even in other locations around town over the years; I will be glad to provide additional information on this to the proper authorities. These noises are a great deal louder than normal, so there's no question of them being real. My children and others have heard them many times at the same time I hear them, and certain people around town later make specific mention of them or even joke about them. (I can name many of these people that have knowledge of what's been done.) The DOJ, DHS, and other high-level federal agencies are aware this is being done to us, but instead of protecting us and prosecuting the perpetrators, all they do is cover the situation up.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner--Not
Because I'm a committed Christian (a real one, not a fake one), as soon as I realized the kids and I were having very serious problems finding proper legal representation, I began requesting help from various Christian organizations that claimed to handle women's and children's issues because I felt sure one of them would be appalled at our situation and would assist us.
I contacted the Christian Legal Society and received a very nice emailed response that contained referrals from them to one attorney in Austin and another in San Antonio. I called the one in Austin, but his secretary called me back and said he couldn't help us, so I tried the one in San Antonio. This San Antonio lawyer had me fax some sample documentation to his office and then was kind enough to actually call me back himself to tell me he couldn't help us because of the people he'd be up against. (Note: This attorney's call was the closest thing I've had to a truly Christian response from a lawyer so far, and I was impressed by his honesty, although of course I was disappointed that he couldn't help us.) When I went back and emailed the CLS that their referrals had turned us down and asked for another, they sent me the numbers for the Texas State Bar's referral service, even though I'd told them originally that I was asking for their help because the referral service wasn't working out.
I also contacted Focus On The Family to ask for legal assistance, and I mailed them a packet of sample documentation to show them how serious our situation was. They mailed my documents back to me along with a cover letter that was addressed to me at my ex-husband's office address (which he uses as his home address)--which I hadn't even given them! This letter also contained an alternate address for their organization that the letter said I should use, but when I did, my correspondence was returned to me with a notation that the new address was actually an old one that was no longer in service.
More recently, I read somewhere that the Pacific Justice Institute, with offices in California and Washington, D.C. provided Christian legal support for women's and children's issues, so I contacted them and asked for assistance, but they responded with an email refusing to help us. They also began mailing me repeated solicitation letters asking me to contribute to their organization. (I didn't.)
Then a few days ago, I received the invitation to a fancy, expensive dinner in California from them that is posted here. Notice that Focus On The Family founder Dr. James Dobson is one of the persons being honored at this event for "exceptional contributions to upholding faith and family". The guest speaker is none other than Karl Rove, whose stated residence for voting purposes happens to be here in Central Texas and about 30 minutes from our house.
I won't be attending this event; I guess the PJI will have to use this post as my RSVP. So far, I personally haven't seen any Christianity, justice, or defense of faith or family from this organization--just harassment. (I would love for them to prove me wrong!) Oh, and FOF continues to send me spam emails almost daily.
I contacted the Christian Legal Society and received a very nice emailed response that contained referrals from them to one attorney in Austin and another in San Antonio. I called the one in Austin, but his secretary called me back and said he couldn't help us, so I tried the one in San Antonio. This San Antonio lawyer had me fax some sample documentation to his office and then was kind enough to actually call me back himself to tell me he couldn't help us because of the people he'd be up against. (Note: This attorney's call was the closest thing I've had to a truly Christian response from a lawyer so far, and I was impressed by his honesty, although of course I was disappointed that he couldn't help us.) When I went back and emailed the CLS that their referrals had turned us down and asked for another, they sent me the numbers for the Texas State Bar's referral service, even though I'd told them originally that I was asking for their help because the referral service wasn't working out.
I also contacted Focus On The Family to ask for legal assistance, and I mailed them a packet of sample documentation to show them how serious our situation was. They mailed my documents back to me along with a cover letter that was addressed to me at my ex-husband's office address (which he uses as his home address)--which I hadn't even given them! This letter also contained an alternate address for their organization that the letter said I should use, but when I did, my correspondence was returned to me with a notation that the new address was actually an old one that was no longer in service.
More recently, I read somewhere that the Pacific Justice Institute, with offices in California and Washington, D.C. provided Christian legal support for women's and children's issues, so I contacted them and asked for assistance, but they responded with an email refusing to help us. They also began mailing me repeated solicitation letters asking me to contribute to their organization. (I didn't.)
Then a few days ago, I received the invitation to a fancy, expensive dinner in California from them that is posted here. Notice that Focus On The Family founder Dr. James Dobson is one of the persons being honored at this event for "exceptional contributions to upholding faith and family". The guest speaker is none other than Karl Rove, whose stated residence for voting purposes happens to be here in Central Texas and about 30 minutes from our house.
I won't be attending this event; I guess the PJI will have to use this post as my RSVP. So far, I personally haven't seen any Christianity, justice, or defense of faith or family from this organization--just harassment. (I would love for them to prove me wrong!) Oh, and FOF continues to send me spam emails almost daily.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
They Do What?
In my previous post, I discussed the prevalence of drug use in our communities in Central Texas. Now I'd like to illustrate the scope of the problem more overtly.
Shown here is an announcement that was published in the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. Reading the portion I've marked will allow you to discover that they actually have to publish it in the newspapers ahead of time when community events will need to be drug-free.
There is no other possible explanation for announcements like these than that law enforcement is being deliberately selective about when and where drug laws are enforced. (This particular event is held yearly and is marketed to families, so I'm guessing they'd had complaints in the past.)
You simply can't have situations like this if law enforcement is doing their job properly. And please don't try to convince me that the DEA and DOJ don't know about this; when law enforcement is dysfunctional on such a large scale, there's no way they could not know what's going on here.
There are a couple more important pieces of information you need to have. This particular announcement was actually published on 4/27/03 (!!) and was included in my complaints to the U.S. DOJ that were the subject of their response posted here on 9/20/09 and entitled "Response From DOJ". If this isn't a documented, clear-cut example of local, state, and federal law enforcement conspiring together to aid and abet organized crime, I don't know what is. It makes you think twice about suspicious death cases like those of Theresa Vallado, where local police were the last people to see her alive, and Linda Muegge, where local police showed up at the scene way too quickly according to published newspaper accounts.
Please keep in mind that we are located in Central Texas, well inside the United States and not right along the border. (Suddenly this side seems less safe and secure and more like what's going on in Mexico, doesn't it?) With a situation like this, is it really any wonder victims of drug addiction and crime find it impossible to get the help they need, deserve, and are entitled to here?
You might find it helpful at this point to go back and read or re-read my post of 12/8/09 entitled "Texas As A Third World Country" below. How entire communities can base their economies on narcotourism is beyond me. (What were they thinking?)
Update: Things don't exactly seem to be getting any better... (Remember, these are high school students being discussed here.)
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