Rob's Blob » Rights

Husband’s Suicide Yesterday, Wells Fargo to Evict Wife Tomorrow Anyway

Robert Coss — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:15:05 +0000

Just like the last VICTIM OF WELLS FARGO I wrote about, Wells Fargo claimed that Norman and Oriane Rousseau had missed a mortgage payment. But the payment HAD been made in person at a Wells Fargo branch by Cashier’s Check, and Mrs. Rousseau has the receipt for the transaction.

The Rousseaus file a dispute with Wells Fargo over the supposed missing payment. Wells Fargo “investigates” and comes back saying that the Rousseaus had stopped payment on the check. They stopped payment on a Cashier’s Check? Seriously?

I don’t want to spend too much time on this ridiculous point, so here’s how Rousseau’s lawyer explains this technical yet wholly insipid issue, and then we’ll move on…

The teller’s receipt establishes that the cashier’s check was in the custody and control of Wachovia on April 1, 2009, and the research by the Cashiering Department should have concluded that Wachovia screwed up by not applying the cash-equivalent funds to the Rousseau’s account. After delivery and acceptance to the branch office, it was Wachovia’s responsibility to safeguard the instrument; Wachovia itself effectively stopped payment on the cashier’s check.

Okay, so let’s get back to the meat of the story…

Concerned that they could not resolve the payment dispute but told they should apply for a loan modification, the Rousseaus hired a law firm and submitted a loan modification application. After that it was standard operating procedure at Wells Fargo… we lost this, and we lost that, resend this, and resend that… for almost a year.

Good Lord, Wells Fargo, could you please do something differently just once? This article is almost becoming a form letter.

Wells Fargo then of course told the Rousseau family not to make their payments, that they were being considered for a loan modification and that making their payments would immediately disqualify them.

So, they saved their payments just in case Wells decided to deny them a modification. Saved every single one just in case the bank decided to act like… well, Wells Fargo Bank.

Then Wells sent them a Notice of Default, but when they called to say they wanted to reinstate their loan, Wells said what they always say… IGNORE IT… don’t worry about it, everything’s fine, it’s just an automated sort of thing… why, you’re being considered for a loan modification.

Then Wells filed a Notice of Sale on October 28, 2010. Their home would be sold on November 22, 2010. And still Wells said… IGNORE IT… it’s just another automated sort of thing… your loan modification is still pending… and please re-submit some documents.

It was November 10, 2010… just 12 days before their home was to be sold… when the Wells Fargo representative told the Rousseau’s that their loan modification had been denied. The reason: Insufficient income.

Yeah, but you know the funny thing about that is that their income hadn’t changed a nickel since they applied for the loan modification. So, what’s the deal? Did it take Wells Fargo a year to figure out the Rousseau’s income was insufficient? Is that the story I’m supposed to be buying into?

You’re a liar, Wells Fargo. Either you knew you weren’t going to approve their loan modification, or you’re the most incompetent financial institution in the history of the world. And you don’t just do this sometimes, you do this all the time… and especially to people in their 60s or older. Why is that do you suppose?

In case you’re wondering what I’ve been up to, I’m actually collecting Wells Fargo stories at this point. I figure it’ll be a hoot to put them all together into a book. What do you think? Should I autograph a copy for you when it’s done?

That same day the Rousseaus found a lawyer and discovered they had a RIGHT TO REINSTATE their loan. (Nice of Wells not to tell them that, by the way.) They contacted Wells and requested a reinstatement quote… TWO DAYS LATER Wells finally gave them the phone number for RCS, the trustee.

But, RSC said that reinstatement would take two weeks and trustee sale was going off as planned in 8 days. Wells got them their reinstatement quote too… it was dated November 15, but received via email on November 17, 2010.

And it expired in two days and had to be received in Texas by November 19, 2010.

The Rousseaus had more than enough in savings to reinstate their loan, they told Wells Fargo that… but now they couldn’t get the money from their IRA in time for the 2-day deadline and Wells refused to postpone the sale.

So, the Rousseau’s home sold at the trustee sale on November 22, 2010.

Next the Rousseaus go through a series of lawyers. Finally, they get a good one and in July of 2011, the court grants an injunction contingent on them making a monthly payment of $1800.

But, by December of 2011, Wells finally wore the Rousseaus down and they just couldn’t make December’s payment. They used up all their money fighting Wells Fargo, and Norm had been unemployed since the foreclosure. He was taking odd jobs as a handy man to make ends meet.

Wells Fargo immediately goes to court… gets the injunction dissolved… then proceeds with the Unlawful Detainer… the lockout is set for May 15th, 2012… at 6:00 AM.

THAT’S TOMORROW MORNING… AT 6:00 AM.

Over this past weekend, Norm Rousseau talked with their attorney who is working pro bono by the way. Basically, his lawyer tells him…

“Look… let’s face the facts here. We’ll proceed with the lawsuit. We’ll fight like hell to get you back in the home, but you have to be ready with some sort of plan so you’re not left homeless and on the streets.”

Norm found someone who has a 27-foot motorhome he can use, but after he gets it home on Saturday… it stops running… it won’t start. But, Norm Rousseau is a man in his 50s with mad skills. He goes to work around the clock taking apart the engine, doing everything he can to get it running so that on Tuesday morning he will have somewhere to house his family. He’s up all night Saturday night, but still can’t get it running. It’s too big to tow with a car.

His mind must have been wandering late on Saturday night. What must a man, a father, a provider be thinking when he knows that everything in life has somehow gone terribly wrong and there’s nothing left to do? He must have been imagining the sheriff pulling up to evict his family on Tuesday morning… just two days away, as the motorhome’s engine lay in pieces in his driveway.

I can only imagine what must have been going through his mind as he worked tirelessly, without sleep, on that engine and electrical system… as the clock ticked away the hours, I’m sure going faster and faster as time was running out. Damn, it’s already 11:00 PM… then it’s 3:00 AM… and then 5:00 AM… and then before he knew it… a most unwelcome sun was shining… 9:00 AM…

I can almost hear him thinking: “Damn it, what am I going to do? How could this have happened?” I can hear him swearing under his breath as he fights with the old parts trying to get them to work together again… I can see him staring at the engine as the will to go on was leaving his soul…

Norman and Oriane Rousseau had bought their home in Ventura, California in 2000, putting nearly 30 percent down, which was their life savings. In 2006, every time they went into the World Savings branch they’d get pitched on refinancing into one of World’s infamous Option ARM loans… that are now illegal, I believe. After a couple of years of being pitched, they finally bought into World Saving’s lies.

They had told World Saving’s loan officer, ERIC COOPER, that they were only interested in obtaining a conventional 30-year, fixed-rate loan. They wanted consistent payments over the life of the loan.

But COOPER assured them that they could significantly reduce their monthly payments… by more than $600 per month, with a lower interest refinanced loan. COOPER said that the new Pick-A-Payment loan product was better suited to their situation.

He described the Payment Option ARM as the new industry standard. He pointed out that the lower interest rate and payment flexibility were valuable advantages that were not available with other loan products. And he said that even more importantly, unlike the previous WORLD loans, the interest rate was tied to an index with historically low rates that were continuing to decrease.

According to COOPER, industry experts projected the interest rates to continue to fall, and so their monthly payments would be EVEN LOWER than their initial payments.

Even under the worst case scenario, COOPER assured them, the historical data for the index indicated that changes in the interest rate would only be slight, and if an increase should occur it would have a negligible effect on their monthly payments… no more than a few dollars.

And besides, COOPER explained, the loan would only be around for a couple years, as they should expect to refinance within the next two years to take advantage of even more favorable interest rates and as the steadily rising housing values would surely increase the amount of their equity in the property.

Then COOPER went for the close…

On the condition that the Rousseaus apply for the new loan that very day, he would agree to waive their pre-payment penalty, stating that there would be virtually no costs to refinance beyond a $35.00 application fee.

Yeah, COOPER, you’re a real peach.

COOPER also convinced the Rousseaus that it was in their best financial interests to consolidate approximately $25,000 in unsecured debt in the refinance transaction, citing the benefits of the lower interest rate and the convenience of having only one payment.

The Rousseaus provided COOPER with accurate and truthful information regarding their income and assets, and COOPER was such a nice guy that he offered to complete the Quick Qualifying Loan Application on their behalf.

Gee, thanks COOPER.

It was right around November 1, 2007, that WACHOVIA arranged for a notary to complete the closing at the Rousseau’s home. The notary discouraged their review of the documents and directed them straight to the signature lines, but the Rousseaus noticed that a pre-payment penalty in excess of $4000.00 was included in the closing costs… the fee that COOPER had promised to waive if they applied that same day. They called COOPER and he apologized for the oversight, but tried to get them to sign anyway, because it would only add a couple of bucks to their payment.

They said… no… they’d reschedule the appointment and wait for the four grand to be taken off their bill, thank you very much.

Two weeks later, the notary returned and they signed the paperwork for their new $368,000 state of the art loan.

Now, the Rousseaus didn’t know it at the time, but COOPER was a lying sack of garbage that had misrepresented just about everything having to do with their new loan.

The 7.2% interest rate of the new loan was actually higher than their old loan and higher than the 6.8% quoted by COOPER. The “significant reduction in monthly payments” was an illusion accomplished by comparing the fully amortized payment of the 2006 loan with the negative amortizing minimum payment due under the new loan.

The new loan, at annual change dates, added deferred interest to principal and the loan amortized, with payment increases capped at 7.5% for ten years. Then, the new loan recast when negative amortization reached 125%.

The Rousseaus were never told about the new loan’s fully amortizing payment of $2,497.94 per month, in fact their payment amount was intentionally misrepresented by COOPER. And the new monthly payment could never decrease because it represented the minimum payment possible… the negatively amortizing option that meant payments would increase at each change date.

But that wasn’t enough for our boy COOPER. The Rousseaus were charged $2,640.00 in origination fees for the “low cost” refinance, which made a tidy profit for World/Wachovia/Wells/Whatever bank.

And best of all, an undisclosed Yield Spread Premium (“YSP”) of $4,195 was charged for placing them in a loan with an interest rate .50% higher than they qualified for, and that YSP increased their monthly payments by $123.32, or $44,395.20 over the life of the loan.

The truth is that the Rousseaus were a heck of a long way from being considered well qualified for their new loan. Their fully amortized payment represented a total debt-to-income ratio of 27.91%, but that percentage was based on income figures that were grossly overstated by guess who? That’s right… COOPER.

The Rousseaus told COOPER their total gross annual income was, $76,000, but somehow it got listed as $136,800 on the application. You know… the application that good old COOPER was nice enough to fill out for the Rousseaus.

So, it was Sunday… yesterday… around 10:00 AM… and Norm couldn’t get the motorhome running. He must have realized that he couldn’t handle the shame of seeing his wife and stepson evicted with nowhere to go… living on the street. I don’t know how anyone could face that reality. I don’t think I could.

How could it be that just 12 years before they had put their life savings down on their first and likely last home? They had done everything right, but nothing was right anymore, and I’m sure to Norm Rousseau, nothing would ever be right again.

Their church had offered to help them, maybe find them somewhere to stay temporarily, and that would be fine for his wife and her son… but not for him. I’m sure he wept as he looked at the engine parts laying there, realizing that it was over.

Norm Rousseau called me a couple of months ago. He wasn’t asking me to help him, in fact, he never even told me about what he was going through with Wells Fargo. No, Norm was concerned about someone else who was losing a home. A really good person who’s done so much for so many others, was how he described her. It wasn’t right what the banks were doing he said. He was hoping that I could do something to help someone he knew, because she was someone who had helped others… but he didn’t say a word about himself.

Norman Rousseau gave up over that engine that sits in pieces in his driveway today, the sun shining down making the metal parts hot to the touch. Maybe it was the frustration of having nowhere to turn for justice, maybe it was the shame he felt that somehow he had let his family down… even though that was not the case at all.

Sometime mid-morning on Sunday Norm Rousseau ended his own life. He went into his garage and shot himself. At one point he could have reinstated his loan, that’s what he had planned to do, but Wells Fargo had made that impossible… they stripped him of everything he had.

And now, his wife and stepson are to be evicted at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning. They have nowhere to go, they have no money, they are still in shock over the loss of Norm.

And I don’t know what to do really. I’m going to call the sheriff’s office in Ventura… see if I can persuade them to drag their feet for a week before locking them out. Their lawyer is trying to file something with the courts, but maybe you can think of something too.

Maybe you can forward this article to people in the media. Tell them what’s going on… maybe someone will care enough to do something. It’s 11:21 AM and I’ve been up all night again, I can’t really keep this up much longer… but somehow I felt like telling Norm’s story was the very least I could do.

Since Wells Fargo had already done the very least they could do.

Rest in peace, Norm Rousseau.

Mandelman out.

http://mandelman.ml-implode.com/2012/05/husbands-suicide-yesterday-wells-fargo-to-evict-wife-tomorrow-anyway/

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Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)

Robert Coss — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:54:16 +0000

Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)

Uploaded under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license from http://bit.ly/ShirkySOPA

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Confirmed: Apostle Paul Spotted at OCW

Robert Coss — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:35:08 +0000

Photo is conclusive proof. St. Paul taking advantage of free speech.

Would you be a Christian if he didn’t?
Will your children’s children be Christian if you don’t?

History records that Paul’s message cut across the business of the 1%-ers of his day who cared more about profits than truth.

Acts 19:23-27 About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen; 25 these he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. 26 “You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all. 27 “Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.” NASU

Rome provided Paul a space to speak and he used it.

What is becoming of America?
Does the old adage regarding free speech in America apply here; use it or lose it?

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Poland in 1980 and Wisconsin in 2011: History Rhymes

Robert Coss — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:44:33 +0000

“And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment. All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it. James 5:1-6 from THE MESSAGE translation

clipped from www.politicsdaily.com

Poland in 1980 and Wisconsin in 2011: History Rhymes

Analysis by
Gerald J. Beyer

Mentioning the campaign against unions by a Republican governor in 2011 in the same breath as the anti-labor repression by Communist authorities in Poland in 1980 is sure to raise eyebrows. Yet as Mark Twain supposedly said, if history doesn’t repeat itself, it sometimes rhymes.

And there are some striking similarities between that Communist-era episode and the ongoing standoff between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the state’s public employees. They were not lost on the current president of the Solidarity trade union in Poland, who sent a letter of support for public workers on behalf of the union’s 700,000 members.

“We are witnessing yet another attempt of transferring the costs of the economic crisis and of the failed financial policies to working people and their families,” wrote Piotr Duda, president of Solidarnosc, the Polish word for Solidarity. “Your victory is our victory as well.”

Indeed, both in Communist Poland and in Wisconsin today, the target was unions and their collective bargaining rights. And in both cases, we see the Roman Catholic Church supporting organized labor.

Led by the gutsy electrician Lech Walesa, workers of the Solidarity trade union movement went on strike in August 1980 to regain their freedom and their rights. Over 18 days, they negotiated with Communist party officials, who were actually more willing to make concessions than Walker has been to this point.

The governor is obviously not a Communist. His pro-business credentials are undeniable, as evidenced by his cozy relationship with the billionaire Koch brothers and his corporate tax cuts (which are arguably a cause of Wisconsin’s fiscal crisis). Yet, he sure is acting like the Polish Communists in one real way: they, too, staunchly opposed free trade unions and collective bargaining.

Walesa and other Solidarity leaders did not relent. They insisted that free trade unions and the right to collective bargaining were absolutely essential to guaranteeing freedom in Poland. Yes, they wanted wages that would feed their families. Yes, they wanted to work in safe conditions. But above all they wanted a voice in assuring the dignity of work. “Everything else would follow,” argued Walesa.

According to Timothy Garton Ash’s eyewitness account in “The Polish Revolution,” when it was all over Walesa told the throngs of workers “we now have the most important thing: Our Independent Self-Governing Trades Unions. That is our guarantee for the future.” The workers in Wisconsin are on the same page: they are willing to concede economic benefits, but they will not budge on their right to collective bargaining.

In its steadfast demands, Solidarity had a strong and venerable ally: the Catholic Church. Labor rights had been a pillar of Catholic social teaching since the 19th century, and Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow and the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, had for decades proclaimed the church’s support for a broad human rights agenda, including the rights of workers.

Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II in 1978, two years before Walesa led the Gdansk strike, and the pontiff’s 1981 encyclical on human labor, “Laborem Exercens” — published while Poland’s internal struggle was growing — buoyed Solidarity’s case for independent unions. In the pontiff’s words, workers have the “right … to form associations for the purpose of defending the vital interests of those employed in various professions.”

Moreover, the pontiff declared unions are a “mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice, for the just rights of working people.” The Polish government wanted to keep this mouthpiece silent. Likewise, Walker is attempting to squelch the voice of workers by eviscerating unions’ primary purpose: negotiation of wages and benefits. He also wants to break their backs by forcing unions to hold annual recertification votes and to collect membership dues outside of payroll deductions.

Just as the church leaders stood up for Solidarity, Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee has raised his voice. In a recent statement, he quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who has argued that unions are more necessary than ever in the global economy, especially given the tendency of governments to limit the “negotiating capacity” of workers in the name of “economic utility.”

Listecki also cited John Paul II’s positive appraisal of the role that unions play in promoting social justice and the common good. The archbishop exhorted his fellow citizens to realize that “hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers” and that it is wrong to “marginalize or dismiss unions as impediments to economic growth.”

He echoed what the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote long ago, namely that economic decisions must not take place over the heads of workers whose livelihoods depend on them. On Thursday, the point man on social justice issues for the American hierarchy, Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, also reiterated that point in a letter to Listecki expressing “support for and solidarity” with the statement of the Wisconsin bishops.

“Catholic teaching and your statement remind us these are not just political conflicts or economic choices; they are moral choices with enormous human dimensions,” Bishop Blaire wrote. “The debates over worker representation and collective bargaining are not simply matters of ideology or power, but involve principles of justice, participation and how workers can have a voice in the workplace and economy.”

Such words could have easily come from the Polish bishops, who unequivocally supported Solidarity’s bid for workers’ rights.

Moreover, diverse faith traditions share this insistence on the rights and dignity of workers. That was evidenced by the support for workers coming from Jewish leaders and the decision by religious leaders in Wisconsin and Illinois to offer their houses of worship as sanctuaries for Democratic state senators who walked out of the legislature last week to block a vote on Walker’s proposal to roll back collective bargaining rights for public employees.

The Wisconsin governor is acting against the best impulses of democracy. The right to participate in discussions about wages and benefits is vital for a truly democratic and free-market system. As Pope John Paul II stated, a democracy that fosters the common good, “requires the effective exercise, even in the economic sphere, of the right of all people to share in the decisions which affect them.” A “free economy” needs legal structures and institutions such as unions to ensure “equality between the parties” so that “one party would not be so powerful as practically to reduce the other to subservience.”

The right to unions and collective bargaining is also necessary for human freedom. As both the Solidarity movement and Catholic social teaching have attested, freedom is fulfilled by participating in the construction of a just society. Unions safeguard workers’ ability to function in this capacity.

Perhaps progressives and the tea party could find agreement in opposition to the fact that Gov. Walker would give government more coercive power and encroach on workers’ ability to freely sell services in the marketplace. Union demands are not always justifiable, and sometimes workers must sacrifice a portion of their own livelihoods for the sake of the common good. But taking away their freedom is never acceptable. It is unethical, undemocratic, and un-American.

I’m certain the Polish freedom fighters who threw off the yoke of Communism would agree. Their motto was “no freedom without solidarity.”

In spite of the dangerous precedent set by Gov. Walker’s obstinacy — other states are weighing similar anti-union legislation — we can take heart in the solidarity between Wisconsin workers, student protesters and religious leaders – another parallel between Poland in 1980 and now. Perhaps like the Communist party officials in Poland, Walker may be unwittingly galvanizing an unstoppable alliance. A recent poll revealed that a clear majority of Americans oppose his attack on unions. When the dust clears, we may be indebted to him for our own era of solidarity.

Gerald J. Beyer is author of “Recovering Solidarity: Lessons From Poland’s Unfinished Revolution” (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). He is associate professor of Christian social ethics at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

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The Wheels of God’s Justice in America

Robert Coss — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:56:30 +0000

clipped from www.lewrockwell.com

Paying To Be Raped

Every single day millions of us are being subjected to the shameful processes of being searched, screened and viewed naked, patted, groped, fondled, poked and stroked by badge-wearing strangers – police under a different name. Every single day. Millions of us, Americans. Being violated. Being degraded. You know exactly what I am talking about. I am taking about me, you, your mother, her brother, his brother’s wife and toddler son, their grandmothers. I am talking about the systematic degradation of our people. I am talking about being raped of our dignity, privacy, and decency. I am talking about a daily systematic rape we actually pay to be subjected to. I am talking about severe violations we elect people to bring upon us. Yes, I am talking about traveling, TSA police, and being reduced to naked and helpless subjects of government police practices.

Considering its short tenure, the motherland police force, aka Department of Homeland Security, has had a one-of-a-kind success. In less than a decade it is now the third largest cabinet police department. It has around 200,000 employees, and that’s without counting contract employees – which exceed this number. Now remember, we still have the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA…plus all the other state and local police forces from before. TSA makes up over 60,000 of DHS employees. This 60,000 federal police force oversees 450 airports, so that makes it around 133 police per airport. And that’s in addition to local airport police.

What do I mean by not so gradual and systematic degradation? I mean in less than ten years, they went from this:

to This then to This

And now to this, this, this, and this all together:

Next, coming soon, very soon, it will be This

and This

Last week TSA announced that airline passengers should expect to see and feel additional pat-down procedures at U.S. airports over the coming weeks to provide another layer of security. They said passengers should continue to expect “an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, among others.”

The following blurb comes from CNN, thanks to one of its employees who chose to speak up a little, only a little (all emphasis in bold are mine):

Rosemary Fitzpatrick, a CNN employee, said she was subjected to a pat-down at the Orlando, Florida, airport on Wednesday night after her underwire bra set off a magnetometer. She said she was taken to a private area and searched, with transportation screening officers telling her the pat-down was a new procedure.

According to Fitzpatrick, a female screener ran her hands around her breasts, over her stomach, buttocks and her inner thighs, and briefly touched her crotch.” I felt helpless, I felt violated, and I felt humiliated,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that she was reduced to tears at the checkpoint. She particularly objected to the fact that travelers were not warned about the new procedures.

Okay, up to this point I was pleasantly surprised to see this piece being run by a mainstream outlet, and the fact that this woman didn’t take the rape in silence and go away the way most do when it comes to these government sanctioned and implemented systematic rapes, but then I reached the following:

“I am appalled and disgusted at the new search procedures and the fact that passengers have not been made aware of the new invasive steps prior to entering the security area,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “It appears once you enter the security area, passengers forfeit their rights. There were no signs, video information, etc. at the entrance of the security area at the airport. Why?”

She added: “As an experienced traveler for work who was in tears for most of the search process, I have never experienced a more traumatic and invasive travel event!”

First, let me give her due credit for saying out loud that she objected and felt: helpless, violated, humiliated, appalled and disgusted. But after that, it is my turn to be appalled. Is the process supposed to get less humiliating, appalling, traumatic, and disgusting if the violators give prior notice about the violations, the rapes, to come??!!! Please walk with me through the following reasoning:

Two rapists are brought before a judge. One had caught his victim by surprise through a blitz attack, then violently raped her. The other had stalked his victim for a while, sent her some disturbing warning notes, and then violently raped her. Victim one turns around and tells victim two: Why do you feel violated?! Your rapist gave you the courtesy of warning notes – and that makes his rape much less of an offense than my rapist!!

My question to CNN’s Fitzpatrick is this: Next time, when these people squeeze your breast, poke your buttocks and stomach, and grab your crotch, will you feel okay? Far less violated? All because now you know what to expect?!

After reading the piece I quickly scanned other news sites, both mainstream and alternative. Almost all of them picked up the story and reported it per the original, and the strongest cursory comment at one site was that the story and Fitzpatrick’s experience was “unsettling.” Wow! How hard-hitting! But that was not what I found, and find, so very “unsettling.” Not at all.

What I find truly unsettling is that we only have a handful like Fitzpatrick who come forward screaming about the horrifying, humiliating, violating, traumatic …nature of these federal police practices (abuses) in all our airports. Now that is truly unsettling, shocking, and appalling as far as I am concerned. Millions are going through these routine rape processes (Yes, RAPE: raping you of your dignity, privacy, humanity, and more. Ok?!) without a peep. What is going on here? Have “their” systematic humiliation and degradation practices been so successful that millions take it regularly without any protest, objection, action, counteraction?!

I am talking about the hard-core ACLU following liberals. Where the he … are you?! I can’t hear or see you. Where is the protest? Give me a holler, and let me know where and when and I’ll be there to join. Here I’m hollering on the record. And no, don’t go file a couple of lawsuits and say that you’ve done your share; that lazy move hasn’t worked for at least a decade!!

I am talking about those on the extreme right of those mentioned above. What happened to your slogan of small government and keeping a tight rein on federal government practices? Isn’t this as close and personal it gets, when your feds are squeezing your testicles while breathing inches from your face, and while you are fully paying for these squeezing and probing services?! I thought you’d attributed these practices to those commies, shouldn’t you be barking when it is in your own backyard?

I am talking about old fashion patriarchal guys. Where are you macho and good ole cowboy mentality testosterone walking bags when your wives and daughters are being fondled, squeezed, and intimately probed? Shouldn’t you be roaring like lions and throwing punches like John Wayne when it comes to those who violate your “women”? Don’t you feel your manliness under attack when they make you stand in front of them, with your legs apart, arms up to each side, while their hands wrap around measuring your buttocks?

I am talking about us Americans, those to the right, the ones on the left, the upper class- lower class, and those in the middle…Here we are, the entire nation, being violated and raped on a daily basis by our servants whom we pay for dearly. Last time I checked we were paying them over $7 Billion – here it is with all the zeroes: $7,000,000,000. Please, don’t even try to bring up that “security” punch line so overused and abused, because last time I checked they were not providing much in terms of “security.” In fact they couldn’t even secure their own personnel files and records.

Soon they will be bending us over to give us a thorough cavity search. After that it will be all cavities… And after that…There will be one or two who may stand up and scream. And for “them,” one or two, even ten will be very easy to quash and “eliminate.” Yet, I am still here, still hoping; hoping that somehow I’ll get to see that number in the tens of thousands and beyond, and that’s the only hope I see to stop our expedited degradation process. They say it always starts with one. Well, here I am, willing to be one. How about you?

Reprinted with permission from BoilingFrogsPost.com.

November 13, 2010

Sibel Edmonds is the founder and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers. She has appeared on national radio and TV as a commentator on matters related to whistleblowers, national security, and excessive secrecy & classification, and has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The American Conservative, and others. Her book, Shooting the Messenger, co-authored with Professor William Weaver, is forthcoming from Kansas University Press in the fall of 2010.

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Raising Up an Orwellian Generation

Robert Coss — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:38:28 +0000

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What Would Jesus Do?

Robert Coss — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 12:58:31 +0000

clipped from thetruthergirls.wordpress.com

Dealing with Police: Traffic Stop

Posted on September 19, 2010 by thetruthergirls| 1 Comment

This was an interesting interaction that was recorded by someone on the World Freeman Society forum.

Ok, so here’s the way it went down… I recorded it on my cell phone but it’s an old phone and I don’t have any way to put it on my computer…

I was traveling to Calgary in my girlfriend’s truck (which is registered, insured, etc) and I obviously do not carry a “Driver’s License” anymore….

I was going about 130 in a 110 zone and sure enough the lights started flashing in my rear view mirror… The highway sherriff (a female) approaches my window…

Me: Good morning officer! (with a big smile) Are you a peace officer?
Her: Yes I am
Me: Have you observed me breach the peace today?
Her: You were speeding, 131 in a 1… (I cut her off)
Me: Violating a statute is not breaching the peace. Have you observed me breach the peace today?
Her: I need to see your… (I cut her off again)
Me: You don’t need to see anything, have you observed me breach the peace today?
Her: I need to see your…. (again cut off)
Me: According to the constitution act of 1982 I have a right to be free from interference with my personal affairs and the right to refuse interaction with a peace officer who has not observed me breach the peace, Is that correct?
Her: Well… (cut off yet again)
Me: Am I being detained?
Her: Sir I need to… (cut off)
Me: No, have you observed me breach the peace?
Her: No but you were (cut off)
Me: Am I being detained?
Her: Sir I… (you know by now that I cut her off again)
Me: Am I being detained?
Me: Am I free to go?
Her: No I need to (again)
Me: Am I being detained? I have a right against this. Am I being detained?
Her: No I just need (yup, again)
Me: So if I’m not being detained then I’m free to go right? Am I free to go?
Her: No I need (haha ya, again)
Me: If I’m not free to go then I’m being detained right? Am I being detained?
Her: No you’re not I just… (you get the picture)
Me: If I’m not being detained then I’m free to go… (starting truck again)
Her: (with hand on gun) Sir I need you to step… (wanted to say “out of the vehicle” but I cut her off again)
Me: If I’m not being detained then I am free to go right? Am I free to go or am I being detained?
Her: No…. (cut off)
Me: So if I’m not being detained and I’m not free to go what am I? I’m gonna drive away now (I put the truck in gear)
Her: (almost yelling at this point) Sir I need you to!… (cut off)
Me: You don’t need anything, I’m going to drive away now (I know I shouldn’t have used the word drive but whatever)

So at this point I let my foot off the brake and coasted forward a few feet. She just stood there with the most CONFUSED look on her face, and I had butterflies in my stomach that I thought were going to break through the skin and fly away…
I was expecting her to come chase me down and taser me or something but I looked in the mirror and she was still just standing there with a look that clearly said “What the hell just happened here?”

To read the full post go here:
http://forum.worldfreemansociety.org/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=6013

LEO has one job to do, round up the sheeple and bring them before inferior (fake judges) so they may steal your money. Road side is not place to argue with an idiot (LEO), he/she are far to stupid to understand anything more than getting you rounded up and before that judge.

Robert’s comments below…

Resisting Evil Depends on Knowing What is Right

Rom 13:1-7 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. NASU

In other words, don’t give honor to those who abuse their power. Don’t even fear them. And don’t submit to those that cause you to fear for doing good. What is the difference between that peace officer coming up to you with a gun and a civilian, or a Nazi, or a Muslim, or a fanatical Christian coming up to you with a gun and a little intimidation?

This guy, in my humble opinion, is not far from the kingdom of Heaven.

Rev 21:7-8 He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8 “But for the COWARDLY and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” NASU

A prelude to God’s wrath is calling evil good and good evil as it was in the day of Isaiah just before Israel went into judgment. Many Christians I know have come to calling evil good and good evil without really knowing what they do. They tear down society but think they do good.

Isa 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! NASU

This attitude, this ignorance is repugnant to God and is a spiritual sickness found in the church. It must be confronted and rooted out.

“Since you [so called Christian] sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along [that would be me]. You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down — even slap your face!” – 2 Cor 11:15-21 (The Message translation)

And regarding speeding; don’t strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Do you know someone that speeds? Do they seem to be putting the nation at risk of losing its liberty and justice for all? But corrupt people in positions of public service do put the country at risk.

Matt 12:1-7 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, 4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? 5 “Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? 6 “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. NASU

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The Least Of My Brothers

Robert Coss — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:53:01 +0000

clipped from blog.faithinpubliclife.org

The real Stephen Colbert

Comedy Central news anchor Stephen Colbert testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security today about his experience doing farm work with committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren earlier this year.

Colbert’s presence brought a much needed jolt of attention to the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, and his trademark satire exposed the argument of opponents as both uninformed and morally flawed.

Colbert impressively managed to stay in character for the majority of the hearing, but poignantly let down his guard to answer a final question from Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA). Asked why he was interested in working on this issue, Colbert, a Catholic, quoted from the familiar Gospel passage Matthew 25 to explain his desire to speak for the powerless.

COLBERT: I like talking about people who don’t have any power, and this seemed like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come but don’t have any rights as a result. And yet we still invite them to come here and at the same time ask them to leave. That’s an interesting contradiction to me. And, you know, “whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers,” and these seem like the least of our brothers right now. A lot of people are least brothers right now because the economy is so hard. And I don’t want to take anyone’s hardship away from them or diminish anything like that, but migrant workers suffer and have no rights.

I thought it was an inspiring answer and a great example of putting faith into practice.

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A Muslim and Christian Chat about Common Human Interests

Robert Coss — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 04:50:18 +0000

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Sheriff says he’ll undermine gun ban

Robert Coss — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:28:18 +0000

rebelling against rebellion I say.

clipped from www.gazette.com

The Colorado State University Board of Governors voted unanimously Tuesday to place students at both of its campuses in harm’s way with a sweeping weapons ban law-abiding citizens will obey and criminals will ignore.

Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden, outraged by the ban, told The Gazette’s opinion department he will undermine it in the interest of student safety.

Alderden said ban advocates have been unable to cite a single study or statistic to show that students will be safer as a result of a weapons ban.

“There are volumes of statistical and anecdotal data that show populations are safer when law-abiding citizens are permitted to carry concealed weapons,” Alderden said.

Six years after Alderden began issuing permits, he noticed the homicide rate in his jurisdiction had dropped.

At CSU-Fort Collins, the ban includes pepper spray, in quantities greater than an ounce, and Tasers.

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