Geez, oh, pete...

I came home yesterday to find a notice of a certified letter waiting for me. It seems that the office of Joni Fixel has decided to violate the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct by contacting me directly, rather than communicating with my legal representative.

Rule 4.2 Communication with Person Represented by CounselIn representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of the representation with a party whom the lawyer knows to be represented in the matter by another lawyer, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer or is authorized by law to do so.

Of course, Joni knows that my attorney is the respected Kevin Winters of Foster, Zack and Lowe as she has communicated with him on many occasions and appeared in Court across the aisle from him when MCRGO's Executive Director, Anti-Gunner, Charles R. Perricone (you remember - he used to be the Speaker of the House, an office the Michigan Daily newspaper says was sort of expensive for him to buy his way into) tried to get away with claiming I was "infatuated and obsessed" with him due to his being part of a two-year long lawsuit (and now, an additional lawsuit for defamation and slander) in which I have been found to be on the right side of the law every step of the way.

Oddly enough, it appears Joni is unaware that there is a Court Order in place that addresses this matter. You see, they "terminated" my membership once before but finally offered it back to me (I suspect they knew that was a losing battle) and an order was entered in July of this year that contains language that says:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the only remaining issues in this case, that being the termination of the membership of Neva Li from MCRGO, is resolved by virtue of MCRGO reinstating Neva Li as member of MCRGO subject to all terms and conditions of membership. MCRGO will not terminate Neva Li's membership in a manner inconsistent with both Michigan Law and MCRGO Bylaws.

Michigan Law. Wouldn't that be an idea for the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners, its Executive Director and its attorneys? Just follow the law.

Now, why would they want to try yet again to remove me as a member? The recent election results explain that pretty clearly. Seven hundred sixty seven votes for me as a Director. Almost fifty percent of the ballots that were returned contained a vote for me. Two spots open up in my region next year and I intend to run again.

And in the case of MCRGO's attorneys, my suggestion is, follow the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct. I understand that the MCRGO Board of Directors and its Executive Director are bound by no such rules of ethics, but Ms. Fixel certainly is.

One last suggestion, for now: Ms. Fixel and Mr. Naumcheff need to read the Court records surrounding this case, they really do. I've posted a lot of the relevant orders and records in this directory, but they really need to review everything that has gone on up to this date and try to get their client, who appears to be Mr. Perricone primarily, to be a little more forthcoming in the real truths behind all of this.

And one final comment. Mr. Naumcheff didn't quite tell the membership the truth the other day at one of the meetings. He told us that any document "not signed was not public." Untrue, of course. Many of the documents filed with the Court are not signed. They're still public. Of course, I also have the right to make things like my own deposition public. I know it, you know it, the Judge has reinforced the concept repeatedly. It's only MCRGO and its continuously changing teams of attorneys that don't seem to get it.

Trust me - it isn't infatuation, no matter what he tells his wife...

Mr. Charles R. Perricone - you remember him, perhaps because, some years ago, he paid good money to be the Speaker of the House for a short time - according to the Michigan Daily at the time, he won by "contributing $4,500 to each" Republican lawmaker - claims I am infatuated with him.

This is the Executive Director of MCRGO that disarmed me with a spurious PPO a month or so ago - see this file for details.

Of interest in the continuing saga of his fabrications and manipulations is this transcript of the PPO hearing.

I cannot imagine how his wife believes some of the tripe he feeds her. Just a little bit of applied logic would seem necessary here at some point in time.

As I told some friends of mine earlier today when we pondered him actually saying out loud that I am supposedly infatuated with him:

... he has to tell his wife something about all of this so telling her that I am infatuated with him worked, I guess, for someone not intuitive enough to ask the next question(s). "So, what's your obsession with her? Why are you always writing about her in the On Target and in emails? Why do you keep trying to get other groups to trash her? Why do you have people spying on her? Why don't you just comply with the law and the Judge's orders and do what you should be doing?"

If my husband had spent two years in Court constantly being told by the Judge that the organization he was responsible for directing was not following the law, and whose actions helped place the organization in that position, we'd have more to discuss than the woman who filed the suit.

But that would never happen because I am married to an ethical man.

Director of MCRGO, Kerry Miller

Kerry Miller wrote to me and asked me to post this:

Please post this is what they want me to sign this, so I would have to lie to
protect Chuck. I will stand up for MCRGO because the members have only listened
to Chucks lie's and we should not pay this guy 75% of the money we take in.

The following two letters were attached:

http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/MCRGOconflictletter.pdf
http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/MCRGOWAIVER.pdf

Seven Days

This order was signed by the Judge in this case yesterday, December 16, 2005:

THIS MATTER coming before the Court on Ms. Neva Li’s (“Ms. Li”) request for costs and fees pursuant to this Court’s Orders of September 1, 2005, and October 26, 2005, the Court having reviewed the Bill of Costs and Supporting Affidavit, and being fully advised in the premises, Now Therefore:
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that attorneys’ fees and costs in the total amount of $13,822.92 are awarded and are to be made payable to Ms. Li and sent to Foster Zack & Lowe, P.C. within seven days of the date of this Order.

Friday, December 23, 2005. Pay up or we're back in Court for the third or fourth time on Contempt. Next comes a Show Cause hearing on failure to provided all documents as ordered (despite two trips to the office to copy) and a myriad of other issues, which I will detail here in the next few days.

Meanwhile, our responses to their appeals can be found here:

1. Amendment to Appeals Brief - mine
2. Brief in Support of my Motion to Affirm the Judgement
3. Motion to affirm - a sort of request for permission type document.

And then, there is the following letter to their new attorneys in response to their "response" to my defamation/slander lawsuit. Interestingly enough, their response includes a countersuit on Mr. Perricone's behalf, which apparently the members are supposed to pay the attorney's fees for.

Dear Joni and Brett:

I have reviewed the above document in preparation of an Answer. I thought it would be better and more of a professional courtesy to send you this letter before I move for an immediate Motion for Summary Disposition. My Motion for Summary Disposition at this point would be based on the defects in the pleading that relate to the defamation Count I - Business Defamation of MCRGO and Count II [sic] – Personal Defamation as to Defendant/Counter Plaintiff Perricone. Pleadings that allege defamation must be specific. In other words, the pleading is defective if it does not contain the defamatory words specifically - verbatim. The elements of defamation must be specifically plead including the allegations of the defamatory words and the connections between the parties (Pierson v Ahern, 2005 WL 1685103) (Mich App, Jul 19, 2005) (NL. 260661) Hightower and Hightower, Inc. v Community Living Services 2004 WL 2452008( Mich App, Nov 02, 2004) (NO 248882) Rouch v Enquirer and News of Battle Creek Michigan 440 Mich 238, 487 NW 2d 205, 20 Media L.Rep. 2265 (Mich Jul 15, 1992) (NL. 89799). The defamatory statement must be specifically verbatim without exception. My notes indicate that I have somewhere around the 28th of December to provide an Answer. As a Christmas present I would like to give you the opportunity to correct the defects in your pleading. Provide me an amended pleading with the specific verbatim allegations no later than December 20, 2005. If you do not wish to amend your pleading, I will move for Summary Disposition on those 2 counts for lack of specificity and include a Motion for Summary Disposition on tortuous interference before my Answer.

The second issue in this letter concerns the private affirmative claim for Mr. Perricone, individually. Mr. Perricone cannot bring his own private claims that are paid for by MCRGO. The question is whether the Board of Directors is paying for an affirmative action that only Mr. Perricone stands to benefit from. If this is the case, it is well beyond the authorization of the Articles of Incorporation and well beyond the indemnification as set out in the Bylaws. Please provide us a copy of the Board resolution passed, adopted and approved consistent with the Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws of MCRGO (not the Ops Committee) where the Board authorized the payment of attorney fees advance, (which is not indemnification) of individual Board members and where they authorized payment of attorney fees for an independent, individual affirmative action on behalf of Mr. Perricone. If you wish, I can send a discovery request Monday morning and get the documents.

Finally, as to the first Li v MCRGO litigation, we are in the process of finishing the inventory of the documents that we copied at MCRGO. I will be sending that to you in a couple of days with an Affidavit as to what we received as well as a request for MCRGO to provide what is still lacking consistent with all the Orders. At that point we can see what we can do to get the rest of the information in the next week or two.

Thank you for your attention to these matters. Looking forward to hearing from you.

I look forward to hearing from them as well.

Now, I am off to the meeting where they will "announce" the new Board members. Considering the endless character assassination that the Chairman of the Board and Mr. Perricone have engaged in for the last two years, and the fact that they control the vote count process, I hardly expect to be successful in my bid but I will be attending the meeting.

Charles R. Perricone, Who was ONCE Speaker of the MI House

He signs his name "Honorable" but I reserve that title for those who are.

Not those who pretend to be "Pro-Gun" while disarming woman and engineer the law so that it creates zones where law-abiding citizens must go unarmed and unprotected.

I read a quote today that fit him so perfectly - fit what he has done to MCRGO so neatly, that I felt I must share it with all of you.

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. As enemy at the gates is lessformidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself." ---Marcus Tullius Cicero

This is the man who refuses to bring the Secretary's Book out of the safe at A&E Printers of Lansing, Michigan, where he put it two years ago after illegally removing it from the office. This is the man who refuses to provide legitimate documents to Board members when they request them of him. This is the man who keeps the membership database locked away at A&E Printers in Lansing, Michigan, rather than in the principal office as required by State Law. I wonder if any Board member has ever gotten around to ordering him to return them, as required by Law, or if they are just going to continue to allow him to flaunt the Law and the organization's Bylaws.

And this is the man who tells us over and over again that he is a former lawmaker. Former, as in done, over, not one any longer and, in my opinion, never should have been one in the first place.

But this is also the man who deems himself above the law and will come back to face a Judge and explain to him exactly why he attempted to interfere with the Court's Orders with his obviously spurious attempt to place a Personal Protection Order against me for a year.

Read the Judge's discussion of the Order in the transcript where he says, "I’ll tell you, this would appear to have all the earmarks of an intent -- an effort to interfere with and disrupt this Court’s jurisdiction and power to enforce its orders."

Maybe this time he won't be able to hide behind his claim that it is all the Board of Directors' fault.

I know he won't be able to when it comes to the slander and defamation suit because the evidence is going to clearly show exactly who he is and what he has done.

And I, for one, look forward to my Day in Court.

The Rights of the People...

The Second Amendment states:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

You may have heard it said that the Second Amendment protects the First:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
------ (Emphasis mine.)

On October 21, 2005, both of those rights were slammed into abeyance for me.

Charles R. Perricone, one-time transitory Speaker of the House (who purchased the job with well-placed gifts and contributions), retaliated for our continued success in Court. Our efforts to force the Board and its Executive Director, Mr. Perricone to comply with the law, the Bylaws and numerous Court orders did not go unnoticed by Mr. Perricone, despite his failure to actually acknowledge any of them.

His response to them, however, was not quite what the Judge (or we) in this case hoped for. His path was to fabricate a tale of woe and attempt to have me stripped of both my First and Second Amendment rights.

A moment's pause here. Please take a few moments to read through these records and our motion.

I'd been asked for details on why my Concealed Pistols License was suspended but because Mr. Perricone apparently did not want his statement to come into the public eye (and how does that work anyway, when a document is filed in a public matter?) perhaps because it so obviously reveals his anti-gun stance, or perhaps because he admits that he does not have a Concealed Pistols License himself - while serving as the Executive Director of a pro-firearms rights organization and claiming to be the reason we have Shall Issue in Michigan today.

In any case, until we won our dismissal today, I was not allowed to speak on this matter, although I did speak openly about my loss of CPL - or as openly as I was allowed to.

Just a quick reminder on the idea of Mr. Perricone's claims that he is the reason we have Shall Issue in Michigan today. He is the reason we have Criminal Empowerment Zones, certainly, and must continue to fight for our rights under both the United States and Michigan Constitutions.

But his fabrications and fantasies hit bottom today and were soundly rejected. We will continue our fight to clean up MCRGO unabated and I will enjoy the same rights and responsibilites as every other law-abiding Michigan citizen, despite the efforts of the Once and Thank Heaven Never in the Future Former Speaker of the House.

And now a short public service announcement. If you are ever looking for an attorney who will be a pit bull for your rights, I want to recommend Mr. J. Kevin Winters of the Okemos firm of Foster, Zack and Lowe. He is incredible and he not only fights for me, he seems to believe in me. He's smart and he's dedicated and he has been incredibly patient and hard-working in this matter.

I'd like to also add my thanks to Jim Simmons, pro-gun attorney extraordinaire, for his invaluable assistance in walking this through the system on this side of the state while Kevin, another pro-gun attorney extraordinaire, was finishing up handing Mr. Perricone his hat and sending him home empty-handed on the other side of the state.

Kudoes to the Oakland County Gun Board for their immediate - within moments - reinstatement of my Concealed Pistols License.

Today, the system worked.

Friday...

Veteran's Day.

Plan something good for the veteran you know or one you don't.

Send a card, send some popcorn and a movie, contribute to a veteran's group or even stop by a veteran's hospital.

If nothing else, pause in your day and say a prayer of thanks.

You owe your daily freedom to each and every one of them.

Miss you, Doc, I really do....

Explain this to me - and your constituents...

All of the following are good Bills, but not going anywhere. Why? Stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by supposedly Pro-Gun Senator, Alan Cropsey.

Could it be because MCRGO didn't develop them and no Pro-Gun Bill that they didn't develop isn't going to be allowed to move? Could it be that because the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is more concerned with making MCRGO look good, while he uses his office to slander me and interfere with my Civil Rights, than he does about good, solid, pro-gun legislation?

HB 4186 of 2005 House Bill Weapons; concealed; renewal date of concealed pistol permit; establish as same day as expiration of permit when renewed prior to expiration date. Amends sec. 5l of 1927 PA 372 (MCL 28.425l).

HB 4186

3/24/2005 REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY - STALLED

HB 4643 of 2005 House Bill Weapons; licensing; issuance of concealed pistol license renewal; require within certain period of time. Amends sec. 5l of 1927 PA 372 (MCL 28.425l).

HB 4643

8/31/2005 REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY -STALLED

HB 4642 of 2005 House Bill Weapons; other; licensed spouse to carry or transport another licensed spouse's inspected pistol; allow. Amends sec. 12 of 1927 PA 372 (MCL 28.432).

HB 4642

9/14/2005 REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY - STALLED

None of them were "developed" by MCRGO and none of them are moving. Why? Whose Committee is not moving them?

If the only pro-gun bills that are allowed to move are those originating from MCRGO, then the folks blocking them are not pro-gun, they're only pro-MCRGO and that's not good enough.

Someone commented to me this morning, "My Dad is now 82 years old. I was so proud to help him get his CPL."

I've helped hundreds get their CPLs and I've been very proud of that as well. I've worked with hundreds of children via the Eddie Eagle program as well, but Mr. Perricone, the Fugacious Former Speaker of the House (an office which he is widely known to have purchased, by the way), blocked that program from becoming a part of every child's life in one Michigan County. Why? Because I would have done the training and he couldn't have that once he became irritated with me. He has worked, it would seem non-stop, to block every effort I made since October of 2003 to work on any firearms rights issue.

What happened in October of 2003? I found out that he wanted to put Ralph Mabry on our Board of Directors, and then went on to find out that Mr. Perricone had lied to me on many, many occasions. Character assassination is his stock-in-trade, I am afraid.
Who is Ralph Mabry? That's for another day, but for a start, Google up the words Ralph Mabry fraud department justice and see what you get. The man isn't even allowed to get anywhere near the pension fund of the Union he is President of and Mr. Perricone wants him on our Board? He heads up a Union that has endorsed Anti-Gun candidates to the tune of millions of dollars worth of donations over the years and Mr. Perricone wants him on our Board?

One word. "WHY?"

And as I said to the poster on my site’s forum, “Proud of your dad getting his CPL? My family was proud of me, too.”




What kind of man disarms a woman because she wins a court case against him? What kind of so-called Conservative, albeit transitory, Legislator puts so much work into silencing one woman?

Well, to quote another poster of my site, "That would be an inadequate "girly-man."

Ten Days...

Ten days until the First and Second Amendments of our Constitution are reinstated for me.

I can't wait.


<

How Could She Sue a Pro-Gun Senator?

I've watched slam after slam (mostly from the self-serving Charles R. Perricone, once-upon-a-time Speaker of the House) on how I am such a terrible person because I have included in my suit a supposedly pro-gun Senator, Alan Cropsey.

Short answer is, I believe in the law and Senator Cropsey isn't following it. He's one of the people who sat back and watched the law be broken and was fully aware of it.

But there's a longer answer as well.

Despite Mr Kliemann, also on MCRGO's Board of Directors, and his demand that I stop emailing any member of the Board that was also a sitting Legislator, I know who I sent emails, letters, etc. to. Senator Cropsey made the same decision to violate the laws and Bylaws that various other members of the Board did. If anything, frankly, I would think that his ethics, as a sitting Legislator, would demand that he follow the law, which he knew was legitimate, and the Bylaws of the organization he professes to love so well, not to mention those Court Orders that keep coming down the pipe.

Years ago, I explained to him that our Bylaws didn't allow for him to be the Legislative Chair. I pointed out the Bylaw, quoted the Bylaw - but no, the good Senator decided to heck with any of that. He'd do as he pleased and as Mr. Perricone pleased and on with the show.

Of late, he has even used his office to personally attack me to tens of thousands of Michigan citizens in an attempt to make them believe that I am wrong for expecting our organization, his and mine, to follow the law, the Bylaws and standing Court orders.

That would seem like enough, wouldn't it? Well, frankly, it is.

But let's take a look at that "Pro-Gun Senator" idea.

For the last seven months a very good Bill has been stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which the Senator is Chair. For those of you who know how committees work, you know that if the Chair wants it to move, it will move.

H.B. 4186 would give everyone the full 5 years they are paying for when they apply for the Concealed Pistols License and was passed by the House 109-0 on March 23rd.

109-0.

As it stands now, if someone has a CPL and then has to apply for a renewal, and they apply early to avoid letting their CPL run out before their renewal comes through, it is entirely possible to lose a month or two or even, as I did, four or more months. Introduced by Representative Tory Rocca in the first few days of February, 2005, the Bill would establish that when a person renews an expiring CPL, the starting date of the renewed license will be the expiration date of the old one, even if the person renews the license before it has expired.

Good Bill, seems sensible, no big deal, really. However, it was developed and offered by a Pro-Gun group that Senator Cropsey and Mr. Perricone, who served briefly as Speaker of the House and was then sent home, have decided are their "competition." How that works, I have no idea, but it's past time Senator Cropsey abandon that ill-founded idea and do more than give lip-service to the idea of being Pro-Gun.

Certainly, Mr. Perricone has been demonstrating for years that he was an Anti-Gunner, from working to establish Criminal Empowerment Zones to his recent interference with my Right to Keep and Bear Arms as a law abiding citizen.

But with Senator Cropsey heralding the Castle Doctrine Bill (also a good Bill) and shouting from the rooftops how Pro-Gun he is, I'm asking for some proof and so are a lot of other Pro-Gun activists.

H.B. 4186 is an excellent common sense Bill. It's been sitting waiting for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee since March 24th. Two-hundred-twenty-two days.

Move it, Senator Cropsey - the ball is in your Court, so to speak. Make it happen; you know you can. Put aside your feelings about the so-called competition and guide this Bill though to the success it deserves. Give CPL holders their money's worth.

Heaven knows gun owners are the reason you're in office. How about a little loyalty to your constituents?

But They Still Don't Get It...

Here is a perfect example of why this case has dragged on as long as it has....

Compare the Court Order of April 13, 2005 and the information contained in the following with what has been offered by MCRGO as a plan for compliance.

The addendum at the bottom of the page that refers to the "Ex-Parte Motion to Recall Warrant" was soundly rejected by the Judge, as earlier referenced.

The warrant remains outstanding and our attorney will be filing an objection to this "plan" today.

Such a foolish waste of time, energy and money.

Do the Right Thing - Part 2

Well, it's been five days since the Judge issued an arrest warrant for Dale Shantz President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners.

He has neither acknowledged the warrant, nor, as far as anyone knows, responded to it. He continues to ignore the Court's orders and has certainly not turned himself in, as any responsible, upright and law-abiding citizen would. Perhaps he is being told not to worry, that the warrant is no big deal, that Mr. Perricone will "take care of it" as he was told so often over the last three years.

Let's review that last three years. No, Mr. Shantz was not the organization's Chairman for all of that time, but he certainly sat on the Board of Directors and he has certainly defended the actions of an overpaid former Speaker of the House (please don't ever forget Mr. Perricone once briefly held office - he'd be quite upset if you did) and others who have blatantly violated the law and the Bylaws.

The organization went from over 12,000 members to its current 5,900. That is the number being given, but a recent discussion with a PAC member revealed it was more like 4,000. Either way, it is more than a fifty percent loss in three years. How long before it ends up just the hundred or so Life Members are left at this rate of attrition?

The organization has spent almost two years in Court fighting doing what is both legal and right. The cost has been tremendous. Their behavior cost them thousands of members and supporters and the cost of dragging this through the Courts in terms of dollars has been incredible. Certainly, the Cost to MCRGO members must now be approaching $100,000, especially because the Board continues to be in contempt and the fines and costs continue to mount. There is the contempt fine of $100 per day for every day they ignore the orders, and there is also the costs of any attorney fees, not only on their side, but to our attorney as he continues to try to get them to comply.

We will be back in Court today with yet another Show Cause motion, sadly enough.

When will this end? When the Board fully complies and the second Slander/Defamation suit is settled. That could also be years from now, but is not a case where the individual members of the Board will be able to hide behind MCRGO's corporate veil.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time Dale Shantz resigned. From the Chairmanship and from the Board. If he is not willing to set aside personal animosity and do the right thing for the organization, then he needs to relinquish the reins.

Before he does any further damage.

Anonymous Asked...

How is it that you are unarmed now? What have you done to lose your license? Details, need details.
--
Posted by Anonymous to Neva at 10/30/2005 12:24:12 PM

My answer:

Nothing - absolutely nothing. Read the rest of the blog, especially this post. I was notified that I had to appear in front of the Gun Board and that my license was immediately suspended. No details, no charges, no reasoning given.

I have done nothing other than continue to fight this case in Court. I have not been arrested or charged, and I have taken no action that would warrant such an egregious violation of my rights. When I know more, everyone will know more. I have never hidden anything and I will continue to bring all of this into the light.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant." I love that quote - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis was right on target, I believe.

Read - you'll see. Look at the public documents available here. In fact, check back on Monday and look at the latest transcripts. You'll read of the MCRGO's attorney's objections to public documents being posted. They want to avoid the members being informed of the realities of what has happened.

I believe the membership has the right to know. I believe that Michigan State law must be complied with. I believe that the Bylaws, flawed as some of them are, must also be complied with. I believe in ethics and putting aside personal feelings to make sure that our organization is following the right and legal path.

That's what this two year long fight has been about and that is what this fight will continue to be about.

The fight will end when the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners Board of Directors makes the decisions, and follows through on them, to correct its violations and get back to the business of the fight for firearms rights.

Some Thoughts...

I wonder if the attorney for MCRGO, who should be reporting to the Board and explaining their legal rights and responsibilities to them, is doing so.

I wonder if he is doing what he is supposed to be doing for the organization or just reporting to, listening to, and taking orders from Mr. Perricone.

I wonder if he's told Dale Shantz, "Don't worry about the warrant; Chuck and I are taking care of it."

I wonder if some of the members of the Board of Directors might be considering getting their own attorneys since this has now gotten to the point where individuals are going to jail.

I wonder how soon we will see Dale Shantz resign as Chairman, President and Director on the Board.

I wonder if it's already happened.

I wonder if the rest of the Board is now ready to see Mr. Kliemann step up to the plate as Acting Chair.

I wonder when the Board will start complying with the Law, the Bylaws and the Court's orders.

But Why Would They Defy the Law?

People have asked me what Mr. Perricone and the Board of Directors are hiding that they would go to the lengths they have to avoid compliance with the law and Court orders. Some ask if it's financial wrong dealings, some ask me if it's something to do with Campaign Finance, one even asked, "Could there be something he is hiding that if found out could get him killed by one of his mob buddies?" I don't know what kind of "buddies" Mr. Perricone has, if any, but I do know he is expending a huge amount of energy to stomp on one lone schoolteacher from SE Michigan.

Sometimes I think that it's nothing major, just Mr. Perricone's escalating reaction to being thwarted at something he wanted.

He wanted the Board hand-picked so they would rubber stamp everything he wanted to do. He got that, except for Barbara Stockford (now President of SAFR), Rich Dillard, Gary Bengtson, and Ian Kinder. From Day One, he treated Barb and Ian totally without respect. If they wanted anything, he set out to block it. His emails to both of them were disrespectful and clearly, he wanted them gone. Dillard was more tolerable to him because he thought that Rich had political aspirations and that he could manipulate him through that. Bengtson he thought he could work because "any attorney will go for the money."

As time went by, he harassed Ian, even using both me and Carol Bamberry to push, threaten, etc. until finally, Ian saw his whole livelihood threatened and he resigned from the Board.

Then Dillard resigned, citing personal reasons.

Then we got emails from Bengtson complaining that the other members of the Board - Kliemann specifically - but others as well, were calling and trying to force him to resign, but he wasn't going to do it.

Then the next day, after who knows what happened during the night, he resigned.

Then Barb went, but that wasn't good enough - they advised the Board to have her removed as a member.

Then there was me. I'd watched him, looked at things, found evidence of tampering with the election, with him using our organization for both political and financial gain, not for our organzation, which was his job, but for himself and for this other organization, the Michigan Regional Carpenters Council, long associated with such activities as illegal Union issues, multi-million dollars "loans" to casino people (later barred for organized crime connections) and headed by a man Mr. Perricone openly admitted he wanted on our Board of Directors - a man barred by the Federal Government from having anything to do with his own Union's pension fund due to illegal loans. This same client supposedly endorsed a pro-gun candiate for Governor, MCRGO's choice for governor, but through my explorations (and with the help of some others) I found that they had given a vast amount of money to anti-gun candidates and an extremely small amount to our choice for Governor. The implications of this are obvious.

The more I looked, the more I found. The more I asked questions, the more my efforts to serve on the Board were blocked. From the moment that I challenged the idea of Mr. Perricone's refusal to assist Barbara, while she was still on the Board, to get the records and answers she was looking for, he never had another civil word to say to me and I became "The Enemy," despite my only trying to do what any reasonable individual would - my fiduciary duty as a Board member.

Follow the law, follow the Bylaws and do the ethical thing in representing our members, which is where my loyalty lies. To the membership, not to Mr. Perricone, not to the Board. The people of this organization, the ones that current practices have driven away and the members removed (often for no other reason than opposing the way the organization was/is being run) are the ones to whom I owe my loyalty and my efforts to bring this organization back to what it once was.

Mr. Perricone, and the Board, seem to be doing several things:

1. They'll do anything to try to make the membership believe that they are right and I am wrong, despite the Court's decisions and the obvious facts. This has been an ongoing smear campaign that has resulted in a second lawsuit, against the Board members personally, that will go on and will result in a jury trial with me as Plaintiff and all of them as Defendants, along with the organization itself.

2. They take one step further, and further and further to try to force me to give up on the suit. They have tried to force my attorney to quit, denying me representation just because we have positively affirmed every point in Court. They have enlisted TNUSA, and even slandered Sam Washington and MUCC (and I am not a member of MUCC and have never met Sam Washington). They have gone so far as to enlist legislators and the Speaker of the House (Mrs. Perricone's employer) to call MUCC in an effort to pressure our attorney to quit this case.

3. Simply not recognizing that the Court has the right, and the responsibility, to make the decisions that have been made in accordance with the law and in the best interests of the membership. Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” a quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, refers to the benefits of openness and transparency. As Judge Giddings told the MCRGO attorney the other day, "We don't do things in the dark around here."

Macomb County Attorney Jim Simmons has volunteered to appear in front of the Gun Board with me and that will ease some of the burden on Mr. Winters, which I greatly appreciate. Jim knows gun boards, knows the issues and has been in front of the Oakland County Board before. I am sure that with the incredible amount of proof we have to offer on Mr. Perricone's motives for this "one step further" in his pattern of slander and defamation, we will have my CPL restored, but this is completely undeserved and as previously stated, will have the opposite effect from what he hoped for.

I will not give up this fight. It would be wrong and I am not going to do anything less - I owe that to the membership and I pay my debts.

I appreciate the support I am getting from so many people, and from our attorney, who is not only an excellent attorney but extremely supportive - he'd make a great cheerleader, God love him - he called me this AM with nothing more than a "How are you holding up?"

And in the end, I'm going to hold up just fine.

Underhanded Dealings Don't Always Work...

Sometimes they do for a little while, though.

I've been stripped of my concealed pistols license temporarily. Of course, I will challenge it. There's absolutely nothing to support this action and it is, without a doubt, at the instigation of Mr. Charles R. Perricone - the man who purports to support concealed carry for all law abiding citizens.

Today, the attorney for MCRGO went to the Judge ex parte and tried to have the warrant for Mr. Shantz' arrest vacated. He claimed that we had everything and we were ok with it and that there were no remaining issues.

Except.

We had the hearing Wednesday and the warrant for Dale Shantz arrest was issued. Since that time we have received no further information nor was a corrected copy of the database was sent or delivered to us, but still Mr. Robert G. Fleming (P44610) went to the Judge and claimed that we had everything. Mr. Fleming, if we didn't have it two days ago and you haven't give us anything since then, sir, it appears to me that you just told a great big whopper.

The Judge immediately called our attorney via speaker phone (not Former Speaker of the House phone but still...) and went through the issues fairly quickly and then explained to the attorney for MCRGO the facts of life on things such as this. One of his main objections, it seems, is that I am posting public records documents on the internet, which the Judge promptly informed him was my Constitutional right.

Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners, eh? And their idea of Pro-Gun is to go after my concealed pistols license and work to abrogate my Second Amendment rights as well as my rights under the Michigan Constitution.

Nice work, boys. Truly the honorable thing to do. Lose in Court - make sure a woman is unable to protect herself.

That'll teach me, won't it?

Legal Paper Links as Promised.

These orders and the bench warrant, etc. are the result of yesterday's Court Hearing. I referenced them earlier and promised to share them as soon as I received them.

Like any Court Document in this issue, I am making no attempt to hide or conceal them and as they become available I will continue to share them. Watch this spot - there is definitely more to come.

http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/order-bench-warrant-shantz-10-26.pdf
http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/contempt-order-10-26.pdf
http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/bench-warrant-order-shantz.pdf
http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/memo-bench-warrant-shantz.pdf

Now Mr. Shantz Needs to Do The Right Thing...

A warrant for the arrest of Dale Shantz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners (MCRGO), was issued today. He is subject to arrest by any law enforcement officer in the State of Michigan.

Do the right thing, Mr. Shantz, and turn yourself in. It may save you being arrested in an embarrassing situation - in front of your wife, friends, co-workers.

Remember, you have until Friday to get the Board of Directors to develop, vote on and pass a resolution that outlines how you will get the remaining materials to us.

And before you try again to claim that I am "crowing," what you need to admit, to the membership and to yourself perhaps, is that you know I never wanted this. I begged you to follow the law and our Bylaws, but you were the one who felt that our organization didn't need to do so. You and your fellow members of the Board of Directors were the ones who attacked me for wanting to do my job, then blocked me from doing my job, then decided to ignore a Court order and contravene the law.

What are you, the Board and the Executive Director working so hard to hide? Please don't claim that it's the database because anyone can read the inventory offered as evidence by MCRGO that says quite clearly in several areas that the organization intends to ignore the Court's order and not provide required information.

The motion for a Summary Disposition that was requested by the attorney for MCRGO in the slander/defamation and Civil Rights violation lawsuit was denied as well. Next step, sworn depositions from Mr. Perricone and the other members of the Board, including the State Senator who recently attacked me via email to more than 10,000 people. He lied to them; I wonder if he will lie under oath as well.

Young Marine Reservist Does the Right Thing...

I have to admit I got a kick out of this story.

The realization that he might have had to shoot Hall was unnerving, he said. Having been to Iraq, Thailand, Korea, and Okinawa, Doncaster has faced some hairy situations, but coming face to face with an armed civilian still rattled the Marine - after the fact.

But even being hit with capsaicin (pepper) spray didn't stop him from persuing and detaining Steven Mark Hall, and armed attacker who had, moments before, attempted to abduct a grandmother and the two year old child with her. He was carrying three pairs of handcuffs, a collapsible baton, a knife, a Taser, brass knuckles and pepper spray, which he used on several customers and employees of the Wal-Mart where the incident occurred - including the Marine who refused to give in and allow this animal to go his way.

Corporal Kevin Doncaster is licensed to carry a concealed weapon and was that day - a Glock .357 SIG. He doesn't like to leave it in the car where it might get stolen and he is armed and ready to defend himself and others. He did a fine job and he is a credit to his nation, to his family, to his community and to himself.

I'm not surprised, though, because our men and women in the Armed Forces keep us safe on so many fronts and we owe them everything for doing so.

For those who would have us go about as sheep, unarmed and unable to protect ourselves, shame on you. I am reminded of a definition for gun control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

Great job, Corporal - and thank you for helping the women who might have been his future victims.

Kathleen Parker, et al.

Kathleen Parker, a columnist at townhall.com makes a valid point today in discussing the wonderful news from Iraq.

Ms. Parker tells us:

Here are the headlines you may have missed: "Iraqi democracy takes bow to standing ovation, global applause" Or "Iraqi voter turnout another blow to al-Qaida."

Where are those headlines? Ten million Iraqis, voting in favor of their new
Constitution, changing the face of their Country and the future of their
children, with our help. Where are the proud, supportive, cheering headlines?

They are far too rare.

Ms. Parker further shares with us:

The Port Huron (Mich.) Times Herald, for instance, greeted readers with: "Iraq takes first step into future," while the Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, Pa., led with: "Iraq's new era." I'll have what they're having.

You know what is one of the oddest ideas for me? Their voter turnout was roughly the same as ours in our last Presidential election.

Not one of us faces death for going to the polls, or even possible dismemberment, but do we get out and take care of business on the same level and with the same commitment?

No, we do not. Generations of men and women have fought for our freedoms and brought freedom around the globe to so many and yet when it comes to recognizing that or even doing our part to ensure that those freedoms never disappear....

It makes me sigh.

Veteran's Day is coming up as are Thanksgiving and Christmas. Take a moment to praise a vet, to offer thanks for what they have done and for what our Armed Forces are doing today. Remember those who gave you your freedom and celebrate the freedom that we, as a Country, have helped bring to so many.

MCRGO refuses to follow Court Orders

Given my encounters with the Court System lately, my respect for the foundations upon which this Country was built has only been strengthened.

Without the law we are nothing. It is unfortunate, of course, that we have so many laws that have no meaning, are redundant, or simply non-functional and/or unenforceable, but we have this wonderful foundation and if only we could get back to some very basic principles, so many other problems would be non-issues.

"We may be tossed upon an ocean where we can see no land---nor,perhaps, the sun or stars. But there is a chart and a compassfor us to study, to consult, and to obey. That chart is the Constitution." - Daniel Webster

http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/Order-of-Contempt-10-18-05.pdf

The first document is the order of contempt that may send the Chairman of the Board of MCRGO to jail. He has made some spectacularly bad choices and the Board, as a whole, has allowed a rogue employee to endanger the very existence of the organization.

http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/Fleming-Letter-10-18-05.pdf http://www.cpltrainer.com/mcrgo/Fleming-Letter-10-18-05-2.pdf

The two documents above are letters sent the day following our Court appearance. Sadly, the choice was made to send out an email via MCRGO that added further to the slander and also violated Judge Giddings' very specific instructions.

There will no doubt be further developments today. Poor choices have been, and continue to be, made.

Some main points...

I know that there are folks who read this blog for information on the ongoing lawsuit. It was a very long day and since we had an hour and a half drive and stopped for dinner as well, we are quite late tonight and thus, this will be an abbreviated version of what will come later.

The Court found in our favor on virtually all points and the following points will be incorporated into two separate orders to be entered and signed tomorrow.

• Membership list must be on Mr. Winters desk by noon Wednesday, October 19, 2005 or Mr. Shantz must report to the Court by 1:30 PM on Wednesday with his toothbrush because he is going to jail.
• They must comply in full with the order from September 1, 2005, which means that all data given must be up to that date, the database included.
• Require all members of the Board of Directors to come up with a specific plan for bringing the organization into compliance with this Court's order.
• It must be in writing, adopted by the Board and served on Mr. Winters on or before Friday, October 28, 2005 at 4:00 PM.
• All records must be "up to date" to September 1, 2005.
• All out of pocket expenses to Mr. Winters.
• All attorney fees on this matter of contempt are to be paid on or before November 14, 2005.
• Fines are continued at $100 per day and must be paid in full along with attorney fees and costs by 4:00 PM on November 14, 2005.
• Some neutral party must be found to accompany me (and them) into the office to say whether the stuff they are giving me is "everything."
• Defendants, MCRGO and Dale Shantz were found in "continuous and contemptuous lack of compliance with the Court's order."

There is one additional point I wish to address right here, right now.

Mr. Fleming, the MCRGO attorney, threatened to call my job and tell them that I was not sick today. Since my subpoena is already on file with our office and using a sick day is simply a matter of what we call a day I am forced to take off, I don't have anything to worry about.

On the other hand, should Mr. Fleming be so stupid as to make that call, I will see him up in front of the State Bar Association so fast his head will spin. Further consequences I will leave to our attorney, Mr. Kevin Winters, and whatever tort suit he chooses to file on my behalf.

I don't take to threats well, especially not from attorneys who cannot even manage to keep his own clients from being threatened with jail time, who has obviously not followed legal procedure and had his clients' appeal dismissed for failure to even file a timely brief, and who makes childish mistakes and then tries to blame them on others.

Here is an example.

Mr. Fleming made a point to complain to the Court that I had posted documents on my web site that revealed his clients' telephone numbers to anyone viewing those documents.

In fact, the documents I first saw did not have the phone numbers on them. However, when we retrieved the documents from the Court clerk, the documents that Mr. Fleming filed with the Court himself, those documents did have the phone numbers on them.

Mr. Fleming apparently wanted the Court, and his audience to believe that when I post court documents, which are a matter of public record, it would be acceptable for me to alter those documents. No doubt if I had, Mr. Fleming would then claim I had not posted a true copy.

You cannot have it both ways, now can you?

Mr. Fleming also complained to the Court that I was asking for documents from MCRGO that I should have been responsible for as the Secretary of MCRGO. In other words, since I was the Secretary and I was responsible for documents that MCRGO would not allow me to access and thus, I was forced to file suit to gain access, I was now supposed to be seen as unreasonable for not being able to produce the documents that....

If that sounds silly, it is.

As to the claim that I did not do my job, or somehow did not provide Mr. Berg, who did not take over the Secretary job from me as Mr. Fleming claimed in open Court, but rather, from Brad Foster (yet another Director who resigned), with documents necessary to do his job, well, that too, is bunk.

Example:



If Mr. Berg doesn't have that document, surely blaming me is the wrong path. But then it has been wrong and foolish all along to blame me for wanting our organization and its Directors and Executive Director to follow the law.

Time to do the right thing, members of the Board. Time to be the responsible Board of Directors that the Michigan Colation for Responsible Gun Owners membership deserves.

Past time, in fact. Two years past time.

Our President and the work we do as a Country

Main Stream Media over the past few days has chosen to focus on the non-story of the President "rehearsing" a "conversation with U.S. troops."

Oh, my God, he rehearsed a speech before he gave it. Why, that's un-American or unconstitutional or something.

The article ends with a quote from an "advocacy" group claiming to speak for veterans and then appears to somehow disparage the opinions of the officers involved in Iraq.

Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.

"If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

Someone wants to know what the soldier on the ground thinks, they should ask some of the volunteers over there rather than shove their own bleeding heart politics at us. That's not reporting, that's editorializing, and it's a hell of a lot more dishonest than the supposed horror of rehearsing a speech. Ask a soldier about the job he's doing and see what he thinks.

I did.

Objectively, when I think about it, this is historical stuff... turning points in human history stuff. We aren't talking nickel and dime adjustments in the course of history, but rather major tectonic plate-shift stuff.

And I'm a small part of it.

Tomorrow (today) will be a historic day for Iraqis, and for America because of the Iraqis. Too bad the MSM won't report it as such. Imagine having the opportunity to comment on history in the making, but refusing to see the forest for the trees.

He has much to be proud of, and because of the job he, and so many others like him, elected to do, a Country and its people have freedom and we may well have an ally in our war against animals like the ones who piloted our planes into our own buildings in their declaration of war against us.

When this Constitution passes, and it certainly appears that it has, Iraqis will go to the polls again in two months to elect a new, four-year parliament in a step that "Washington says will mark its full emergence as a sovereign democracy and new Western ally."

Job well done. Extremely good form.

Two more....

MCRGO's attorney will have to amend his complaint once more.

Two more members, upon being subpoenaed to appear in court this coming Monday and apparently discovering they were being sued, have withdrawn their affidavits.

I wonder if any of those members were aware that their affidavits were going to be used to sue them.

Somehow I rather doubt it.

What a shame. Even more of a shame is that no one making these kinds of decisions at MCRGO appears to be ashamed.

A very wise man would have said...

"Good form."

Today, two of the affiants in the so-called "interpleader" case withdrew their affidavits and demanded that their names be taken off the suit filed by the attorney for MCRGO.

Lee Zeidler and Sandra Brooke-Brown appear to have been taken aback by the filing of a lawsuit against them by the organization they had previously worked to support. If I understand correctly, a fellow MCRGO member and attorney notified our attorney, Mr. Kevin Winters, that they were not going to be a party to this matter any longer.

I must say, I understand the feeling of betrayal they may have felt.

I have to say, just when I think that the current management can't spring any further surprises, this lawsuit against its own members was a big one.

Shame is, they have a lawyer that doesn't even know that their name is the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners and filled out the Summons and Complain in the wrong name.

Monday. 2:00 PM. Ingham County Courthouse. Maybe then the work to bring this organization back on track can really begin.

One additional point...

The Lee Zeidler I thought I knew is a pretty good guy. He seemed dedicated and did some good work for firearms rights. I want to believe that he got duped by people he hoped he could trust, but there is one serious problem with a portion of his email that I cannot let go by without comment.

He said, "Now, to continue, you have a fudiciary duty to the Board that you were elected to, if you dont wish to continue that, then leave, and stop acting like an anti-gunner!"

Our fiduciary duty as elected members of a non-profit organization's Board of Directors is to the members, not to the Board. It would be a good thing if we could work together and move the organization forward but we have obligations and responsibilities and they are not to our fellow Board members.

• We must follow the law.
• We must work for the members' best interests.
• We must fulfill the trust of the membership.

I have worked very hard and sacrificed much to fulfill my fiduciary responsibility to the membership that had enough faith in me to elect me to the Board and I have filed to run for the Board for yet another term. I hope I will be re-elected and I hope that I will be joined by Directors who will follow the tenets listed above.

At this point, the organization has some very serious problems. Correcting those problems will take Directors willing to follow the law and commit to a complete review of the corporation's past and present operations. Bylaws violations continue daily as do violations of State Law, according to the Secretary's sworn testimony at the last Court hearing. No less than $30,000 has been wasted avoiding compliance with the law. Fines and costs due to me because of the Contempt of Court have climbed over $10,000. Our own members are being sued. Even when we resolve this Court Case, the management of MCRGO still faces a defamation/slander suit that may also be very expensive to defend. Every Board member that has supported the flaunting of the Court orders in place should, in my opinion as a member, step down. The actions and decisions by Board members that have led us to this place in time have not been ones that men and women of conscience can look to with pride.

Our members are not being served by a Board making the choices that are being made.

And by the way, equating wanting to follow the law and encouraging others to do so with supposedly being anti-gun is just plain bunk!

He said, then he said, then I thought...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

I think we damaged his calm...

Or perhaps more on target, she did.

About three years ago, I watched a marriage come apart. It was not the least bit entertaining. Off and on since then, some things have been.

Went to the movies tonight with a great friend and a goodly woman (all in one body, how cool is that?) and saw Serenity.

Well, first we went to dinner but that's a whole 'nother post altogether. But let me just say that I would love to know if the manager was accurate in his assessment of, "There's gonna be trouble..."

The movie was really good - lots of fun and probably all the more so for the company. I won't dwell on it. If you like action and guns and adrenaline and witty repartee, you'll love this movie.

We're on our way out, scurrying for the "Ladies Room" because, after all, this was a two hour action packed flick and neither of us got up and went to the loo, fercripesake, but as we exit, with her rounding the corner to the left because she's younger and faster (we won't even address better looking because that has zero to do with speed) and I look to the right and there's her ex.

And I say, "Hey..." and kind of flip my hand up in a half-ass sort of wave because he's still my husband's pal and all that and.......

His eyes roll right over me like I'm not even there and focus a little bit past me and then he gets this deer in the headlights look and.......

Flees.

One of those truly abstract moments in life.

Go check out Bug Eyed Earl - it's been a while.

I mean to say.

Next Step....

Signed today by Judge Giddings:

IT IS ORDERED that the Defendant and Mr. Charles Perricone, MCRGO Executive Director, Mr. Dan* Berg, MCRGO Secretary, Mr. Dale Shantz, MCRGO Chair and President and Mr. James Kliemann, MCRGO Vice Chair and Treasurer will appear before this Court on October 17, 2005 at 2:00 PM to show cause why this court should not enter an Order:

1. Finding the Defendant in deliberate willful contempt;
2. Assessing maximum fines allowed by law;
3. Assessing maximum sanctions allowed by law;
4. Imprisoning Mr. Charles Perricone, Mr. Dan Berg, Mr. Dale Shantz, and Mr. James Kliemann until they fully comply with the April 13, 2005 Order;
5. Award Ms. Li her out-of-pocket costs including any lost wages;
6. Payment of Ms. Li’s attorney fees associated with this matter;
7. All costs, expenses, fines, penalties and sanctions assessed MCRGO must be paid only from MCRGO revenue without payment by others and/or by Charles Perricone and the individual Members of the Board of Directors of MCRGO individually with no reimbursement; and Require that MCRGO fully comply with the September 1, 2005 Order.

*Dan is actually Doug. Either way, he faces possible imprisonment.

The defendant's attorney was also fined $250 on Friday by the Michigan Appellate Court. Not sure whether it's for being incompetent or if we need to consider whether this so-called Appeal is nothing more than a delaying tactic.

Sanctions Order.

Patton Won't Be There For Ya, Buddy

For those who read this blog or my home page, I've discussed the issues facing me in trying to deal with the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners (MCRGO). I had filed suit to try to get the Executive Director and the Board to follow the law and our own Bylaws. It's a complex issue and much of the legal papers can be found in this directory.

As the case developed, I won point after legal point and it became clear to even the folks who believed they could get away with anything - well - that they would not be getting away with anything. I suppose they became desperate and they began to flail about for any way to try to get me to give up. I don't know what kind of people they are used to dealing with but trying to ruin my life was not the approach that would get them the results they were after. Amazingly enough, they told such obvious lies, so easily proven to be lies that to most thinking folks, they just end up looking foolish, I suspect.

I spoke with my attorney and we filed a slander and defamation lawsuit, in addition to the original lawsuit and got a restraining order that we later got turned into an injunction. Not much seems to stop some of these folks, though, because they continue to lie and atttempt to interfere with my right to run for the Board of Directors, make a living, and do meaningful volunteer work. All in an effort to put so much pressure on me that I will give up in this fight. It is foolish because, in the end, it is not going to work and it's going to be a costly process as well.

It has moments that almost approach low comedy, though.

Recently, one Director of the MCRGO, Kerry Miller, after being served with the slander/defamation suit papers, then finally seeing the last legal papers asking that the entire board of Directors be jailed (and I will discuss our change in tactics on that in another week or so - we need to get out next Court appearance out of the way first) approached the rest of the Board and, including me and several others in an email said (paraphrasing here), in very frank language, that he did not intend to go to jail and that they needed to comply with the original order and then offered some possible negotiating points for settlement of the slander/defamation suit.

The response was a deafening silence, of course. But then an email came from David Aviles, who has, perhaps, been watching too much TV. I say TV because if he'd actually read the history behind what he said, he might have noticed some very key differences.

What was his response, you ask? One word, "Nuts."

History buffs might recognize the response of General McAuliffe to the demand from the Germans at Bastogne that he and his troops surrender.

Details here.

Now, McAuliffe was later vindicated in his response. He was victorious in the end and awarded a Distinguished Service Cross. As a very dear friend would say, "Good form. Good form, indeed."

However.

He had General Patton and the Third Army to back him up and knew that they were on their way to do so. I would suggest that Mr. Aviles does not have anyone approaching that caliber and his troops faltered long ago.

I also suspect that Judge Giddings will not be awarding him a Distinguished Service Cross.

But that's just my not all that humble opinion.

A little bit about Doc...

I've never talked much about the man who changed my life - transformed it, really. I don't know why, except it's hard to explain him to anyone. Always was and it probably won't get any easier now that he is gone.

He died last week - motorcycle accident at 58. I want people to know about him, understand what he did, for me, probably for many others, but for me...

Perhaps this will end up being far too disjointed, but over time, perhaps it will also let you get to know one of the most amazing human beings I could ever hope to know.

He has - no, had ( I am trying hard to remember he is gone but he is still so with me...) another name but every so often I called him Doc and even more often, he called me MLM.

"Doctor Frankenstein" and "My Little Monster." Who I once was and am no more is because of him and that is a very fine thing. He was proud of me. That alone was a very fine gift.

Doc collected elephants. When we first met, he told me this but warned me, "Don't ever buy me one."

He offered no explanation for why I should never buy him one but he was quite firm and so for a long time, I did not. Later, I decided, "Ah the heck with your bossy butt, I'll buy one if I want to."

I saw this one...




... and loved it. It was/is made from polished agate from Michigan and it is very small but finely carved and its trunk rears up in what seems an almost victorious trumpeting. I bought it, but then, chickened out on giving it to him for about 3-4 months until finally, in a burst of brave, the next time I saw it, I tucked it in a pocket and then hanging out, I reached in my pocket and held it out in the palm of my hand. He was delighted.

He told me he hated to have people buy him elephants because they bought stupid ones, plaster of Paris or little cast iron ones or and the elephant never looked, or felt, proud. He told me I could buy him a damned elephant any time I chose. His eyes were damp and his voice caught for a moment, then he cleared his throat and we went on as though it had never happened.

Only it had.

And there it sits on his shelf.

Pro-Gun Legislators Take Heed

I live in Michigan, where we have a "firearms safety inspection" program. Those three words are, of course, a completely false label. There is rarely any type of inspection done and most of the clerks who look at the firearms barely know one end from the other.

The end result, though, is the firearm is registered with the state police and that record is a forever issue in a State database. Until now, I found it offensive that such a database existed. That's all - just "offensive."

As of today, it scares the hell out of me.

http://www.wdsu.com/video/4932666/detail.html

http://www.ktvu.com/video/4946889/detail.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/national/nationalspecial/08cnd-storm.html

"Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here. No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said. But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons."

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2005/09/09/simon.katrina.new.orleans.forced.evacuations.cnn

How can anyone justify doing this? How can any government take away the only means of self defense left to human beings stricken by an already horrendous disaster? What about the Second Amendment? What about Louisiana's own Constitution?

The right of each citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged, but this provision shall not prevent the passage of laws to prohibit the carrying of weapons concealed on the person.

They are confiscating legal guns, knocking down old women in their own kitchens to drag their legally owned firearms out of their hands.

http://www.neshobademocrat.com/Main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=297&ArticleID=11102

Arguella joined a few refugees who sat around a folding table set up under a plastic canopy next door. On the table among the soda cans was a rifle, just in case. In the old cemetery nearby, grave robbers have been picking clean unearthed skeletons.

The authorities cannot stop looters, and in fact, are among those who have been looting, cannot stop grave robbers, for God's sake, and they want to take away legally owned firearms?

By what authority? Certainly there is no moral justification for doing so and I have yet to hear any legal justification.

Is this really what we have a National Guard for?

http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/NewOrleansGunConfiscationSmall.avi

National Guardsman:
"You don't want to think about the stuff you're going to have to do if somebody pops around the corner"

Reporter:
"You mean shoot an American?"

National Guard:
"Yeah."

I am sickened. Michigan Lawmakers, take two steps now. End the so-called safety inspection now and immediately begin finding some kind of way to protect our citizens from a government gone mad.