Gozarks, November 2007

"The Violent Radicalization Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007," HB 1955, just went to the Senate. Give pause for thought about what may be happening with this potentially very dangerous Bill as presented in its current form with vague definitions: Is it a potential return to McCarthyism, the persecution of innocent Americans? See our take on this Orwellian proposal to sanction "Thought Police" click here.

Also see this article in the Joplin Independent

And whilst digesting these things, consider the general 'wrongness' of 'we the people' supporting any publicly funded action with delves 'the violent radicalization' of anything!!! -- most especially in the namesake of 'prevention'. This is double-speak at the nth degree of ego-aggrandizement; hubris covertly masquerading as humility.

If we really truly earnestly seek peace through the strength of
Constitutional justice, then we must focus the totality of our attention upon what it is that we do desire and name our 'committees' thusly, ie: "The Comity of Mutual Civility and Respect."

Also, just in time for your holiday gift giving <smile>, we are pleased to announce the debut of our new print publication, the Populist Patriot. Freely available for your perusal online, our pamphleteer tabloid is available in hard copy (for those who don't do the Internet) and makes a highly meaningful alternative to a conventional holiday gift.

Especially considering that if HB 1955 passes, the work of groups such as The Committee For Honest Law Enforcement could be 'criminalized' on the whim of an elite (self-appointed) collective of (our nation's most powerful) 'elected' officials. As history teaches, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

(((hugs))) ~Christine

Happy Thanksgiving...

My response: Earnestly, I hear (with my heart) what you're saying. And though, based on my actions, it may seem that I am foresworn otherwise, I detest the conventions of 'organized' groups; the hierarchy & dogma that thwarts creative initiative. It is rampant and longstanding. (remember Luane's and my audacity at taking our job descriptions seriously, al la "The World's Biggest Potluck Supper" annual convention idea...??? <which I still believe was a stroke of genius and remember with great aghastness when Jim's spouse Janet said to me --- after the whole concept was humiliatingly disused and dismissed to oblivion by the rest of the board --- that it was just "too big an idea"... that she and the others 'just didn't have the experience' to pull of something so 'big'... which I asserted then and reconfirm now is no way to go about 'changing' the systems of the world... which was -- I thot -- supposed to be what that whole thing was about, but I wildly digress)...

Although maybe not, because I also remember the protagonist/antagonist role play performance we staged at that one meeting, which was absolutely outstanding... and I *know* that if our learned approach to consensus-driven collaboration were cohesively and consistently adopted as the 'minimum standard' by each individual the whole world would be a much better place.

Thus I am determined to 'do' (aka: reinvent, step-by-step, cooperatively) all things in manners which uphold the integrity of the overarching goal, aka: convivial, egalitarian, cohesive individual/community life quality. Under which heading it must be noted that the doing of certain things requisites the (free will) collaboration of individuals acting together cohesively, developing strategy, laying plans, making agreements... ie: co-operating. (which of course to my bias eyes was the bone of contention in the regional newspaper publication fiasco that you witnessed)... people seem not to want to 'share'... people seem to want to be 'the top dog'... people say one thing and do another.

Yet there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- that I can do 'about them' or their (imho) ill-gotten behavior. De facto, however, the one thing I do have absolute, total and perfect control over is 'me'... which (to my wandering mind) brings us to what I see as perhaps the most significant fact of all, that at base line we are, each of us, 'born into' a de facto 'group' called 'citizenship'. This endowment comes autonomically with our cultural heritage and genetic heredity. We get it and we have it and we are essentially 'obligated' to serve it (one way or another) at least so long as we derive any measure of benefit from it... and also I dare say that when we -- the citizens -- feel that we are NOT deriving meaningful benefit from our citizenship, then it is our duty to 'change the rules' which govern the systems of (simply put) the way people play...

Thus my drive to inspire a cognizant coming together of uniquely independent participants, each willingly focused on achieving one unilateral goal: Happy Thanksgiving... For everyone, everywhere... all of the time... Beginning with 'us' here and now.... (((hugs))) ~C [read more]

Watts pleads 'no contest' on harassment charges...
I really wish I did not feel compelled to make the following assessment of the (alleged) 'justice system' that my daughter Shalom and our family (including myself) have endured since April of this year.

To my first hand experience now suffering the boon of hindsight, from the moment our lives were threatened by my daughter's jilted boyfriend last March and we went to local law enforcement seeking help, our family's life has been hellacious.

Repeatedly and redundantly we have been treated with disdain and pandered to (by 'officials' of our 'justice' system); our time has been wasted by (alleged) investigators who (of their own admission) started looking into the facts of the case l-o-n-g AFTER charges had been filed and so (we were told) it was not possible to prosecute these violent wrongdoings to the full extend of the law [see PDF notes on harassment law in Arkansas] which, by legislated definition, convicted Daniel Watts of First Degree Stalking (Class B Felony) and Terroristic Threatening (Class D Felony).

Consequences of conviction on these charges demand at least 2 to 8 years imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine.

Instead, because of blatant incompetence and/or what certainly seems now to be willful collusion the on the part of law enforcement and prosecutorial officials to 'protect' a local 'snitch', Daniel Watts was charged only with Harassment (Class A Misdemeanor) and 'got off' with a 'no contest' plea-agreement which will cost him $100 per month for the next 5 months.

Pretty cheap dues for fully-vested membership in the good ol boys wife beater club. And it is not just my family being terrorized by 'the system' this way: It is all of us.

By divine providence we were (on Friday, November 2, 2007, during open court) given a living illustration of the outrageousness of the arbitrariness (and complete indifference to 'women as human beings') that was upcoming in Shalom's case in an unrelated yet factually similar matter that came before the bar preceding the (pretense of the) 'trial' of Daniel Watts.

The culprit in this other case was also facing harassment charges brought against him by a woman he had, from what seemed self-apparent, at one time had some sort of substantive relationship with. Announcing that a 'plea agreement' had been reached by all parties, DPA Acklin and Judge Aldworth together, mirroring each other's sentiments, addressed the victim: "Do you agree with the conditions of the plea?"

"Reluctantly," the woman stammered as a look of dejection mixed with resolute perseverance grimaced her whole countenance.

Notice that this woman was never called to the stand to testify and thus denied her day in court. Consequently she was prohibited from reciting for the record the list of grievous causes which led to the present circumstance.

Procedurally, she and her complaints were relegated to the land of 'persona non gratis' it being emphatically illustrated that what she had to say really didn't matter; her will was to be ignored.

Given by 'her' attorney (aka: the Prosecuting Attorney who is paid at OUR collaborative expense) only one option (which amounted to letting the man who violated her sanity off the hook with a teeny slap on the wrists) she was doing as she had been told she must do. Instructed that there was no other recourse (aka: daddy knows best), she resigned herself (as all women too often do -- because we have been subjugated and battered into reluctant servitude of our relegated fate) to the 'voluntary' sacrifice of her honor.

She wanted him hung by his nuts, I'm sure, so that he would experience some sense of the brutality he had inflicted upon her. Not literally, of course, but in the emotional vein I guarantee you that she wanted him to 'feel' the pain he had unabashedly thundered on her. She wanted the abuse she'd suffered at his rage to be made public knowledge, so he would be scorned by his peers, segregated from society, interdicted from brutalizing others like he'd brutalized her.

She wanted vindication but probably more she wanted the court to order him to get some psychological help... so that he would be able to see that what he had done was 'criminal'; so that he would be accountable for his actions... apologize and make earnest amends.

Still, even though the man's vile nature was self-evident as he angrily stormed from the courtroom and slammed-open the door, she got not a micron of satisfaction. And when Shalom's time came, the story was exactly the same.

The jackal Watts (age 29) presented himself before Judge Aldrich's bench with a swagger. As a plea of 'no contest' was entered on his behalf this sociopath who threatened the lives of myself and my children, promised to burn our house down, terrorized both of my daughters by attempting to ram his big pick-up truck into their tiny little car, and endeavored to coerce sexual favors from a girl barely 18 years of age on threat of doing all this to her and more (and doing it 'quietly' with 'insider connections' so that no one would ever be able to convict him of any crime), turned his eyes toward my daughters with a sickly malevolent smirk.

We watched in silence as this arrogant jerk and his smug demeanor got off essentially scot-free, even though this was his second 'conviction' as a brutalizer of women. Jail time and all but $500 of his fine were suspended. No order was made by the court for mandatory 'anger management' counseling nor for the man to publicly apologize for the emotional rape and battery he'd inflicted on all of us.

Factually, this tiny slap on the wrist actually earned 'bragging rights' for this vile coward amongst his chauvinistic clan, at the same time renewing his confidence that his 'insider connections' ensure a 'get out of jail free pass' for whenever he decides to brutalize women again.

All of which of course is horrendous enough in its own right, but now consider that since this whole thing started it has become an openly established fact that all the while Daniel Watts was voraciously terrorizing us he was a Confidential Informant in the employ of the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office. And that everybody from Sheriff Bradley to Judge Aldworth to DPA Acklin knew (or should have known) this fact... yet rather than throwing the book at this evil f*ck and making an example of him so that others never dare to follow suit, our 'law enforcement system' is PROTECTING him and thus sanctioning his abusive, terroristic, domineering and violent behavior as 'the way we do things around here'...

Frankly, this whole thing sucks and I am not alone in my disgust for this malevolence. Take a look at what other have to say about Confidential Informants and notice that not a word of it is good. Then get in touch with The Committee For Honest Law Enforcement in Van Buren County and join our crusade for the revival of a genuine justice system to aggressively interdict and incarcerate all VIOLENT CRIME OFFENDERS and at the same time end the use of Confidential Informants forevermore....

The foregoing is part of a series of investigative reports looking into the ramifications of the War on Drugs researched and authored by Christine Louise Beems, editor emeritus gozarks.com and chairwoman of The Committee. [INDEX HERE]

TAPED CONFESSION
"He admitted to me that he sold pot to Mr. Kelley..."
Confession (slow download -- high quality audio)
Confession (quick download -- low quality audio)

~ ~ ~

The Ozarks are a great place for enjoying a vacation. Your family might want to consider a timeshare might be a great option for yearly vacations. Timeshares are a great way to vacation if done right. Timeshare resale can help save anywhere between 30-70% of what retail cost might be. Anywhere in the Ozarks might be a great place to rent and buy timeshare properties, but it is also a prime location for those who are looking to sell timeshare properties too!

If the general conversation here is of interest to you I highly recommend the following books. Order here through Amazon and we at Gozarks actually earn a few cents...!!!! Thanks!!!