The Salt Lake Tribune confirms, dismissals are imminent.

The Pharisee's musing that some cases were about to be dismissed, seems to be a valid one. The Salt Lake Tribune shares that view;

"(Barbara Walther) has ordered that a massive child custody case involving a polygamous sect be split up, a move that may be the first step in dismissing some cases while investigation continues in others."

Then there is this UNAMERICAN and DISGUSTING reference;

"Walther also ordered that attorneys' requests for information gathered by the state be suspended until she adopts a discovery management plan."

A "discovery management plan?" There is nothing in our constitution about a "discovery management plan!" There is plenty about a right to a speedy trial. The "discovery management plan" is now shown to be a simple assertion that the STATE has the RIGHT TO SAVE IT'S CASE. There IS no such right to compete with the rights of the accused who are INNOCENT until proven guilty.

As innocent people they have the right to getting their lives back as soon as possible, that is what a speedy trial is all about. If you, as the state, undertake to arrest 650 people all at once, and then find out three months later that is imposing a hardship on you, that is part of the built in advantage given to defendants in this country.

In justice, the prosecution has so much power that the founders sought offsets to that power to prevent TYRANNY. They fully realized this would allow many guilty people to go free. Unfettered government power in criminal prosecution would lead to and had led to the oppression of the free, which is more noxious than the unleashed (but not as organized) criminal.

Texas, YOU stuck your hand into the hornet's nest. So far you've only managed 4 felony indictments that had nothing to do with the original premise for entering YFZ and NOTHING to do with anything you saw while at YFZ. Is Discovery "unmanageable" for you right now? TOO BAD. The Founding Fathers would rather the CHILD MOLESTER go free, than the STATE be able to invent methods that infringed on the freedoms of all citizens.

That's right. The constitution of this country expressed a PREFERENCE for CHILD MOLESTERS getting away with their crimes rather than creating a justice system that could catch them all. Once again, that is because the Government that could catch them all, has been shown to, and will, OPPRESS ALL OF US with that power, and the result, believe it or not, would be ever so much worse.

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What a concept, there is no evidence of a crime that did not occur.

In the Austin American-Statesman it seems that Texas has a hard time grasping the obvious. When there is no crime, it's hard to find.

"'The FLDS group is very difficult to penetrate,' (Texas Attorney General Greg) Abbott said. 'They have a veil of silence that they operate under, and as a result, the kind of evidence that's necessary to prosecute the crimes that they may be committing is difficult to obtain. I think with what Senator Reid is proposing, what the committee is considering, it will provide greater tools for the federal authorities to help go in and begin to eradicate some of the criminal activity that may be taking place.'"

You said it yourself Greg, "may be taking place." Examine your own words for a moment. They mean that there COULD be NO CRIME taking place. Nothing leaves no trace, which COULD account for the difficulty of penetrating the "veil of silence." There always is silence when no one makes a sound. There is no evidence when something does not occur, making it "difficult to obtain."

What a concept. Spend time and money on places that crimes aren't difficult to find, because they actually leave evidence. The idea that you THINK there is a crime, and are frustrated by the absence of evidence leads many people to believe that they were wrong. But not Texas. Not Greg Abbott. More →

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So Many Parallels to the FLDS Fiasco in Vermont Library Case.

Hat tip to "Strange Justice."

Yahoo News/AP - "(Judith) Flint was firm in her confrontation with the police.

'The lead detective said to me that they need to take the public computers and I said "OK, show me your warrant and that will be that,'" said Flint, 56. 'He did say he didn't need any paper. I said "You do." He said "I'm just trying to save a 12-year-old girl," and I told him "Show me the paper.'"

Cybersecurity expert Fred H. Cate, a law professor at Indiana University, said the librarians acted appropriately.

'If you've told all your patrons "We won't hand over your records unless we're ordered to by a court," and then you turn them over voluntarily, you're liable for anything that goes wrong,' he said.

A new Vermont law that requires libraries to demand court orders in such situations took effect July 1, but it wasn't in place that June day. The library's policy was to require one.

The librarians did agree to shut down the computers so no one could tamper with them, which had been a concern to police.

Once in police hands, how broadly could police dig into the computer hard drives without violating the privacy of other library patrons?

Baker wouldn't discuss what information was gleaned from the computers or what state police did with information about other people, except to say the scope of the warrant was restricted to the missing girl investigation.

'The idea that they took all the computers, it's like data mining,' said Caldwell-Stone. 'Now, all of a sudden, since you used that computer, your information is exposed to law enforcement and can be used in ways that (it) wasn't intended.'"

It turns out that all we really needed on April 3rd was a 4' 10" 56 year old female librarian at YFZ.

The parallels are interesting. One is the confidence of law enforcement that they did not need a warrant. Granted, in Texas they got warrants, but the first one was invalid, the second one was based on events seen at YFZ that the most flattering evaluation counts as misinterpretation. Texas is now functioning on no warrant at all.

With both warrnts gone though, nothing stops Texas. Just as with the computers that Vermont sought from the Library, "data mining" can go on forever, and in fact has in Texas. We are well past the non existant Sarah and the abusive Dale, her fictional husband and we blew past the "pregnant underage girls" who wouldn't have been prima facie evidence of a crime anyway, had there been any such underage girls.

Now we're functioning on "Data Mined" from the raid, but not part of the raid's primary intent or the alleged secondary purpose created by "seeing" other crimes. Texas did not "see" Teresa Jeffs' diary. They didn't "see" the record of spiritual marriage arranged and conducted by her father. That was "mined" later.

We can clearly see the danger in the case of Vermont, yet too many of us don't see the wrongness of what is still happening in Texas. What's the justification? In Vermont, "We're trying to save a 12 year old girl," in Texas, "We're trying to save a 15 year old girl." It's offered as the justification for any extreme of behavior and trampling of rights by law enforcment. "We're trying to help, the children."

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Does Teresa Jeffs "Spiritual Marriage" justify the YFZ Raid?

I believe it will be shown that Texas obtained all of it's evidence in a false context. Repeatedly I have stated that I agree that law enforcement can enter a home or homes on false premises and discover clearly evident crimes and proceed with their search. Provided of course it is shown they did not participate in the creation of that false premise so as to obtain an excuse to enter a home. That would be the conspiracy angle most of us intimately familiar with the case entertain from time to time. I am one of those that does believe there was a conspiracy. I am not certain it involved law enforcment.

A hypothetical for comparison to the YFZ raid would be that law enforcement breaks down the door of a home in search of evidence of a murder or murders. Upon entry there is no such evidence and a room to room search produces no such evidence. During the search a law enforcement officer sees "Zig Zag" rolling papers. Everyone in the home is arrested on suspicion of drug dealing.

The search expands. No marijuana is found. No drugs whatsoever. Months pass. Eventually law enforcement in an exhaustive search finds a storage unit for one of the children in the family and in that storage unit, a single joint is found with DNA on it from one of the children.

The question is, does this justify the search, the continued search, the expansion of the search and remove law enforcement liability for the search under false premises? This is a grave danger we all face, for in fact it is argued that we have already created such a legal context for this behavior. If it's a crime of "Child Abuse" then all bets are off and on the mere suspicion of such abuse police may search and search and search and search and search until THEY are satisfied there is no abuse. There is no time limit to this search, there is no limit to the scope of this search. The search's parameters can be changed or reset or expanded at any time to incorporate new crimes until one is found, or until law enforcement tires of the affair.

Let us review how it is that Texas came to be in possession of the evidence of Teresa's "Spiritual Marriage" and the basis for which they now suspect her sexual contact with a much older man. First, there was the raid looking for "Dale" who was the "husband" of "Sarah." The only law enforcement agency in a three state area that BELIEVED the call was genuine was Texas. Arizona received a similar call, Utah as well, both declined to follow up on those calls, both came from Rozita Swinton. Allegedly. The allegation is in fact of such a strong variety that we know those calls came from a phone that Rozita had in her possession. Texas will not prosecute those crimes, nor will Utah, nor will Arizona, not because they can't be sure, but because the cases are of the "open and shut" variety. The evidence for Rozita's guilt as the hoaxer is only exceeded by the evidence for Jack Ruby's guilt in shooting Oswald.

That's strike one, but Texas is not out unless a conspiracy is shown to have existed. For the sake of illustration, let us suppose that on one sunny afternoon in downtown Eldorado, representatives of Texas and Colorado and Utah and Arizona sit down with Flora Jessops for lunch and during the conversation musing on how to "get" the FLDS, it is decided that if entry is gained to YFZ, there will be SOMETHING found so it doesn't matter. Colorado passes a note to Flora with a name on it, and says "here's you're wacko, wind her up and turn her loose, problem solved."

I cannot bring myself to beleive in a conspiracy THAT obvious and extensive but lesser versions of it are more and more beleivable as times goes by. I am particularly struck by Arizona and Utah dropping cases against Rozita, Texas refusing to seek her arrest and the skillful but obvious hiding of Rozita FROM the press. The latest such subtrifuge successfully moved Rozita's date with the press from BEFORE the Grand Jury week, (which now includes a US Senate hearing) to AFTER the Grand Jury week. If anything should tip you off that there will be an indictment, the scheduling of the US Senate hearings by Harry Reid should remove all doubt.

Surrender Monkey Harry is no idiot. He intends to conduct his hearings in light of the sensational allegations of Teresa Jeffs' "sexual abuse" at the hands of an older man, and with the full cooperation of her father. You can be confident that the DAY he announced the date of such hearings, that he had the details of the Houston Chronicle's story in hand.

So absent that conspiracy evidence that would be so convienient for friends of the FLDS we move on to the second issue. Why did Texas continue to search? Because (absent a conspiracy) they certainly COULD, if they saw evidence of a crime while at the YFZ ranch. Enter the myth of "pregnant underage girls." We know now that they saw no such people.

Among the large group of girls and women that Texas took into custody were two pregnant women. Both have been shown to have been of age to the satisfaction of Texas. Both gave birth. If there was a third girl or woman or perhaps more, they weren't "seen" for this simple reason. No FLDS woman/girl at YFZ that was SEEN and judged to be "underage" has given birth since the raid, other than those two. They were not underage. Any pregnant underage girls at YFZ at the time of the raid were mostly likely no more than five months along. Why? It's almost August.

Thus there were no "pregnant underage girls." What then was the "crime" or "crimes" that Texas supposedly saw that caused the ongoing investigation that turned up the evidence of Teresa Jeffs diary and "spiritual marriage?" This little uncomfortable question is the one with no acceptable answer.

Jesus once raised the bar on the men ready to stone the woman "caught in adultery." She was caught in the "very act." He asked for one to come forward to cast the "first stone" that was "without sin." Everyone left. If we as citizens of his country allow the public humiliation of Teresa Jeffs to continue, we do a far more ugly thing than the stoning of the adulterous woman. We allow the destruction of lives at YFZ to go on, knowing full well that if our lives were turned inside out as theirs were, as Teresa Jeffs was, that we could be made to LOOK as bad, worse even, and we probably WOULD be worse. Who among us could stand the scrutiny of having all our possessions thrown onto the lawn of our homes and pawed through? Our computor hard drives exhaustively searched for porn or financial records or tax returns? Our cars stripped to the floor pans like in the "French Connection?"

The answer is that if we did this to the very persons who conducted the raid, we'd have no law enforement left to protect us and we really all ought to be in jail with them. There are limits. This has gone too far. Texas cannot tell us why they were searching the YFZ ranch, they can only tell us what they found when they were there. The search is not the evidence they saw. They only have evidence from the search. They saw NOTHING. Thus they did not "see" evidence and proceeded with a search, they searched to find evidence. That is what they are NOT allowed to do. That is illegal search and seizure. Our Government is NOT permitted to search your home to find a crime. They are permitted to name a crime for which they have SOME evidence, and then search your home. More →

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Who reads what sites on the FLDS Issue? Where's the interest?

When it comes to WHERE people go outside the mainstream media to get their information about the FLDS Fiasco, where do people go? These are United States Alexa rankings for some blogs and some websites. I hardly pretend to make it all inclusive but I've included the three ANTI FLDS sites that I know of, that should be considered prominent.

"Free the FLDS Children" - United States - 31,339
"FLDS View" - United States - 79,512
"I Perceive" - United States - 121,156
"Texas Polygamy" - 145,851
"The Common Room" - 153,680
"The Modern Pharisee" - United States - 199,050
"The Hope Organization" (Child Brides) - United States - 261,641
"The Tapestry Against Polygamy" - United States - (ranking too low to quantify)

The top three are all WRITTEN by members of the LDS church, the FLDS church or include FLDS in their name. I didn't include blogs like "Grits For Breakfast" which has covered the FLDS controversy from day one, but is also not primarily about the raid and it's fallout. I did include "I Perceive" who seems to have gotten a lot of gravitational assist from the issue. Kurt has written some great articles over the last several weeks and is getting information people don't even HINT at to me. My blog in fairness is not about the FLDS either, but it has primarily been about that since mid April and will be for at least a little while longer.

Recently a blog mentioned a petition, I believe it was the Brooke Adams, where ANTI Polygamy/FLDS persons were trying to get support and it pretty much got signed by the people who came up with the petition. The PRO FLDS petetition, not necessarily the PRO POLYGAMY petetition was getting an overwhelmingly larger response.

What does this say about public view and opinion of the issue? It would seem to suggest that there is more sympathy for the rights of the FLDS than the concern about stopping their rumored child abuse. That's all it is now, a rumor started by people who HATE the FLDS.

The only ANTI site that draws a bigger crowd than mine on the subject, is "Texas Polygamy," which makes a show of being neutral, but is in fact an ANTI FLDS site. Based on the above rankings, Bill at Save the FLDS Children and Kurt at I Perceive should have their own Discovery channel documentary made about their interests, just as Flora Jessops did. It would probably pull more in the way of rankings. I'd like to be on too, but Texas Polygamy outranks me. It should be noted however that I've only been blogging in earnest since April and I don't have the sexy name that Bill chose. More →

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The Three Month Anniversary of the FLDS Raid.

April 3rd, 2008. The Raid. May 3rd, 2008, the one month anniversary. June 3rd, 2008, two months. It has now been THREE months since Texas invaded YFZ with no cause, stayed for no cause and only two members of the YFZ ranch were arrested.

What were they arrested for? For "crimes" having to do with slight obstruction and resistance to an illegal search and seizure. One was charged with a 3rd Class Felony, another with a misdemeanor. More →

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The Grand Jury Final Report for June? No Indictments?

With this confusing story it seems that the Grand Jury is done for the month, and won't meet again for another month. There were no indictments. My UNDERSTANDING is that the Grand Jury has to be empaneled to issue the indictments, and if they're done, and there are none, no one knows even now who to indict and for what. That is frankly amazing. Alan Futrell seems as confused about it as I am.

The San Angelo Standard-Times - ELDORADO - "With today's meeting of the Schleicher County grand jury at an end, no indictments have been issued and the panel has agreed to meet again July 22.

Alan Fatrell (sic?), the criminal defense attorney for the 16-year-old daughter of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs, told reporters earlier in the afternoon that the grand jury would call one more witness before recessing until July 22. However, he said he did not know whether the continuation means the panel will not issue any indictments until that date."

Unless a Grand Jury can have a PHONE conference and issue indictments this turned out to be one big wet firecracker. That in and of itself should be a major news story across the country in the MSM. They can't even get a Grand Jury in their own home town to tell them what they think might have happened, when they are SPOON FEEDING them the "Evidence." My only guess is they were trying to gather evidence against Warren Jeffs, otherwise unless and indictment comes out, Walthers looks like a complete moron and hack.

UPDATE: It's probably fair to say we don't like each other much but I have no reason to think that "Texas Blues Man" over at "Coram Non Judice" is SUBSTANTIALLY wrong about this one, so I'll pass his answer along to you about Grand Juries in Texas;

"Hugh, the GJ is still technically in session, and they serve for the term of the court. In this case, the term ends on September 30th, so a quorum (9 jurors) can meet at any time between now and then.

If they decide to indict, the DA will prepare the indictment and the foreman will sign it.

Conceivably, the GJ could have indicted some today, and it is merely waiting for the copy for the foreman to sign, but more likely it will be ready for signature in July.

They can meet at any time until the end of the term, but usually will meet once a month or so - more often if needed.

Also, the term of the GJ can be extended for 90 days if needed.

Finally, if the indictments were sealed, they could already be issued and they are just waiting to serve them."

There were no indictments today, signed or unsigned by the foreman. That is unless news reports are wrong and about such technical details they usually are not in this case. I have no reason to suspect that the San Angelo Standard-Times got it wrong. This does mean that Barbara can call a quorum of the GJ at any time including tomorrow and get an indictment issued. The last time the GJ met they handed down 18 sealed indictments right away but the indictments were said to have nothing to do with the YFZ case so I doubt that there are any sealed indictments.

IMHO the failure to hand down any indictments in this case indicates it's extreme weakness. It would sound like the DA and the Judge were trolling today, trying to find something on which to build a case.

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6 Months Pregnant

So far I have not heard anything about the birth of a child to the last remaining supposedly pregnant FLDS supposedly underage girl. What comes out of the Texas CPS in terms of information is grossly flawed most of the time, and that is putting it politely.

At the point this picture of popular actress Halle Berry is taken she is 6 months pregnant. Is she just eating too much or does she have a bump? We all knew at this point that she was pregnant.

If you look at Ms. Berry's breast, it seems larger than her child. Halle is wearing clothing considered not so chaste by the FLDS.

By contrast, here are 6 girls and or young women of the FLDS.

Is the girl on the far left pregnant? Is the girl second from the right pregnant? I mention this because we are rapidly approaching the day that the raid is 6 months old. We still have confusing reports of how many girls were seen pregnant. I have published what I believe to be evidence that the one girl that is now supposedly still pregnant, was not far enough along to show, and in fact this is the only girl that CPS can now point to as BEING pregnant at the time of the raid.

Enough is enough. The second warrant is invalid. It is based on "Seeing" pregnant underage girls at YFZ and we now know there is only one possible girl for this description. Reports in the press say this one girl (it HAS to be her) was so indefinitely pregnant that she had to be asked to take a pregnancy test, which she refused.

How then does Texas have ANY cause for ANY of the actions it now continues to pursue? Do we wait until the end of of July and ask what a 5 month pregnant woman or girls looks like in a "Prairie Dress?" The truth is Texas didn't SEE ANYTHING. They're not erring on the side of caution unless that caution is for their own hides. They've just busted down the door of the YFZ, they've just finished defiling their "Temple" and they've got nothing so they came up with this laughable concept that they could "See" pregnant underage girls and could also "See" the fact that they had become pregnant IN Texas (we already know there were visitors there from Arizona and Canada that day) and had done so with an "illegal" partner.

Had the girl been from Utah, she could have been as young as 14, and 8 months pregnant and her child's father an ADULT and no crime would have been committed.

So I'm laying on the horn a bit about this but it's the only remaining shred of a premise that Texas clings to for claiming they have cause to continue to investigate. The press continues NOT to ask these questions loudly. They should be. They aren't. Yet here we are approaching the 3 month anniversary of the raid, and ONE of the girls in the FLDS picture above, could in fact be more pregnant than the picture of Halle Berry at her 6 month mark. They could be not pregnant at all.

Should I remind you all of the commercial based on that awkward moment "I'm not pregnant?" Does Texas now say "Thank you?" More →

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Why the MSM is still staying out of the FLDS Fiasco

There is Bill O'Reilly (and those like him) and their "sex bed" comments and unbridled mouths that has put them in the position of having to eat too much crow, but then there is the rest of the MSM Establishment. I now include my old conservative "mentor" at the EIB institute, Rush Limbaugh as MSM Establishment . I cannot tell you how disappointed I am in him over this business. He's been a coward.

Why?

It's very simple. The creep of cultural values has led us to believe that 15 year old girls, are "children." Never mind that I was told by nearly every girl in grade school that she was "more mature." Never mind that biologically girls do mature faster than boys, we've accepted that they are "children." The rest of the world outside western culture does not, but we have. That is a rather recent development as well. William Petty is quoted as saying during the 1600's that "Irish women marry upon their first capacity." (Ireland: A New Economic History, 1780-1939 By Cormac Ó Gráda).

In Korea, it is stated that "in older times, most brides were teenage girls" though the age has now risen to mid twenties. In this century, among the Yoruba of Nigeria it is observed;

"Marriage age is most closely related to education in the case of women. Olusanya found that girls in Ibadan with no education had an average marriage age of 18, compared with 23 for secondary-school leavers and 25 for university graduates (1967). Many children enter school relatively late and have their schooling interrupted by their parents' financial problems. Some are over 20 by the time they leave secondary school. Generally, the higher the level of education, the more likely the couple are to come from different towns or different Yoruba subgroups."

It is generally desired by most quoting such statistics that "smart" or "advanced" or "educated" people don't marry young because they are smarter more advanced and educated, neglecting the fact that education takes time and postpones marriage.

If it is a choice between morality and education though, I choose morality. That is the highest form of education. I conclude that western civilization with it's emphasis on education and women's rights has in fact produced a whoring society that cannot wait just as those of us in times past could not. But in times past, it wasn't a sin, it was acceptable. Now it is pedophilia.

Since this creep of cultural values has now taken firm root, pedophilia has now encompassed a formerly normal inclination that is turned criminal. Pedophilia has gone from having sex with prepubescent children to include fully developed young girls whose status as women in times past was determined by marriage and sexual experience, but is now determined by age. That age being set by our educational mores and laws commanding all young people to stay in school to a certain age.

Since that expanded definition of pedophilia is now determined to be by whatever law a state passes, we have a situation where in 2005 you could have sex with a 14 year old in Texas on a given Friday in August, and on the next Friday night in September, you were liable for life imprisonment and the branding of "pervert" and "pedophile." The stench of pedophilia is so powerful that none of our MSM friends or enemies are willing to stand by the FLDS for fear that after all the DNA evidence comes in, there will be found one pedophile by legal standards.

So they stay away. Never mind that even if this one instance is discovered, the incidence of such pedophilia as legally defined is much greater outside YFZ. One pedophile is enough to drive away all interest on the Right and Left in protecting the rights of our citizenry. In fact, one pedophile discovered by breaking down every door of every church in a suburb and imprisoning all children until they were found would justify it. In fact just the RUMOR that there was a pedophile would justify the destruction of all rights of every person until every semen stain was examined and everyone's DNA tested. It wouldn't matter that we discover a pedophile we had not known about before hand, the safety of the children would be so transcendent that the gross violation of everyone's rights would be justified.

Texas is thus allowed to keep investigating even though they investigate nothing. To investigate something, they would have had to have the suspicion of a certain crime, which even now they do not have. But they believe and so does all the MSM establishment that ultimately, if they keep investigating everyone that such a "predator" will be found. They're sure of it. If they then support the clear rights of those being wrongfully investigated now, they will be shown to be the supporter of pedophiles later. And that they fear, will be the end for them. More →

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FLDS = Ham Sandwich

After two months of investigation, Judge Walthers and Law enforcement have enough evidence to....

Posted: 3:30 PM - The Salt Lake Tribune - ELDORADO, Texas - "Hours after signing an order releasing FLDS children from state custody, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther arrived at the Schleicher County Courthouse in Eldorado to swear in a grand jury that may be considering indictments related to the polygamous sect."

...Appoint a grand jury.

For those of you who don't get it that means they have no evidence they are confident will produce an arrest or points to a crime. So they want you fine people of Texas to give them a vote of confidence before they go persecute, uh, prosecute someone.

This is what they should have done in the first place, not invade. How do you appoint a Grand Jury after you've already raked through 600 some odd people's lives lock stock and barrel for two months? You mean you can't find a crime?

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Sunday Morning Article Roundup, FLDS Photo Analyzed

The only article I found that had new and interesting information was this one in the Salt Lake Tribune, Battle over FLDS kids gets rough;

"Willie Jessop, an FLDS member and spokesman, traveled to San Antonio on Friday and, until Saturday, had never seen the photographs.
He said he doesn't know the girl or anything about her situation.
He accused the state of making a calculated, unethical move by using and publicly releasing the photos.
'If that was your daughter, would you want the court to leak it to the media?' he asked. 'The state put those photographs out to insinuate there were marital relations that involved sexual intercourse, and that is not true.'
The girl, now 13, is in state custody and, like other children, has received a physical exam.
Whatever her situation, it does not 'give the state the right to take children away when it does not have anything to do with them,' Willie Jessop said."

I trust the FLDS on these issues. Why? I have not been lied to by them. Willie does a good job of showing that the state could care less about the girl in question. She will doubtless be identified by the information given by the state who used her callously to weight their case before the Supreme Court of Texas and in the public eye going into a long weekend.

The physical exam probably has told the state what it wants to know about her sexual condition. Since they have been so bold to USE the photograph, I daresay they already know the state of her chastity and would have also leaked that information if it would have aided their case. They didn't leak that information so we can assume she is chaste.

The rest of the news seems to have been articles written in advance of the weekend and are analysis oriented. By and large they are good. There's little to do in the way of breaking them down and analyzing them myself, because they are analysis. The above article in the Tribune is worth reading and contained that little snippet of new information so I offered my views.

Moving to the Deseret News.

Will signing abuse papers come back to haunt FLDS? Just like it sounds. Future criminal cases could use the "admissions" the service plans are based on. Never mind that those signatures were extorted.

Utah, Texas laws are similar, FLDS population isn't. Why has Mark Shurtleff settled on a strategy of driving the FLDS out instead of rounding them up? Try putting 10,000 kids in foster care.

And there is a nice short little time line piece that you can put on a 3 x 5 card and impress your friends with. Seem brilliant. Pick up chicks. (psst, that was for Polygyny enemies, it will lather them all up) Texas timeline.

I suggest everyone run over to the Dallas Morning News and rip them a new one for bannering this story that is in their index section as NEW TODAY; "31 of 53 teen girls at FLDS ranch are pregnant or had baby ." Oh please. They're throwing up a story that's a month old and offering it as NEWS. It's FIVE you morons. Give them a big comment raspberry. After following this story in the press I'm not sure I can believe anything I read or see anymore. I have to cross reference and verify something before I even begin to suspect it is true.

There is a good speculative but researched article over at the Abilene Reporter-News asking "Why did FLDS sect pick Texas?"

Dawn Knobloch wrote a column for the Amarillo Globe-News; "Texas applying cookie-cutter justice to FLDS" that I have mentioned before. Oddly right after I did it got referenced in other blogs. The Amarillo paper has never printed anything GOOD before, so I get suspicious that people aren't giving the proper hat tip. Oh well, as long as the story gets out. I can't really take credit for noticing that Dawn has a keen mind and writes well. Give it a look, she puts Ellen Goodman to absolute shame.

The Modern Pharisee starts his new job Tuesday and will be moving his palatial digs (an RV folks) to Arlee Montana tomorrow. Now critics can truly label me trailer trash. In any case if something breaks the rest of the day, I doubt I'll be on it. Today the wife is the absolute boss. More →

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The outrage of Texas

That's right, we want all the mom's to be single parents on welfare.

"If they take a hard line on polygamy, you're putting a lot of moms out there who are now single parents," she said. "If abuse is even living on that ranch, you've made them all homeless, and that's a real potential problem."

To my knowledge, few if any YFZ ranch dwellers were on welfare prior to the raid. They're starting to get on the welfare roles now. They will all be if the moms get their kids back the way the state wants it to be.

Honestly, those of you who think Polygyny is wrong. Is this better? No dad. Working Mom. Welfare? Public housing? Public Schooling? Do you REALLY believe that? If you count up all the boys and girls that fled YFZ or were kicked out in the way that the enemies of the FLDS want you to, is this still not a lower delinquency rate than society at large?

This is the path of liberalism. Find an exception and dwell on the pathos and tragedy of that exception. The same liberals will travel as anthropologists to another land and marvel at the efficiency of a tribal group that does similar things and try to preserve them as some sort of necessary curiosity.

What jaw dropping hypocrisy. More →

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Attorneys try to separate FLDS cases.

Brooke Adams is a great writer and a great observer. All of that means Great Reporter. There's not much to comment on here. You need to read it though to see if you're up to speed for next weeks battles in court. The Salt Lake Tribune.

"'If individual children were wrongfully swept up in this raid because they have been neither abused nor neglected, the ongoing injustice to them is an unnecessary and indescribable tragedy,' said Polly R. O'Toole, a Dallas attorney who represents one child."

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And the Cost Goes Up. It's now $10,000,000.00

It didn't even take a day for the cost to go up. In a story dated for Tomorrow (hehehehe, I am a prophet, it's one of the pleasures of being in Mountain time with papers writing in Central time);

The Houston Chronicle - AUSTIN — "Last month's raid of a West Texas polygamist sect's ranch and the removal of the more than 460 children living there has cost the state at least $10 million in sheltering and legal costs, according to estimates provided by state offices Friday.

Records released by Gov. Rick Perry's office show $7.5 million in estimated costs for April, including expenses related to the weeklong search of the Yearning for Zion Ranch, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect.

The costs of sheltering the children and some of their mothers for three weeks in San Angelo city facilities added to the offices' estimate. The period covered ends April 23, after the state had won temporary custody of the children based on arguments that underage marriages at the ranch put all of them at risk of child abuse, and was moving them to foster facilities around the state.

Additionally, the state's Office of Court Administration estimated legal costs associated with the custody wrangling has been $2.3 million."

The story also appears in the San Antonio Express-News.

By the way, I think the FLDS "broke away" a long time ago. They've been a "breakaway" sect longer than the LDS had existed at the time the FLDS "broke away." When are they just the FLDS? I don't hear anyone referring to the "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" as being "breakaway."

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Ask Rick Perry Why He's Wasting Your Money Texas, on the FLDS FIASCO

I was waiting for this one. It's the tip of the iceberg, I promise you.

The Austin American-Statesman - "The massive child welfare operation that began in early April with a state raid of a West Texas ranch owned by a polygamous sect cost nearly $7.5 million in the first 19 days, according to records from Gov. Rick Perry's office.

A spokeswoman for Perry cautioned that the numbers — obtained through the Texas Public Information Act — are preliminary and unaudited, and Perry's office has yet to release official costs."

And they've got NOTHING. No charges, no evidence, no warrants, no suspects. PULL THE PLUG NOW. Where are the "Fiscal Conservatives" on this issue? This has been going on for 43 days, not 19. Expect the costs to treble, quadruple. More.

Rick, you owe the taxpayers of Texas an explanation for this state funded personal hate crusade.

Pull up a chair, get your popcorn. It's the epic real time CPS reality show, with no winners, on Texas Taxpayer Pay Per View.
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Where is the FLDS Special Prosecutor?

Maybe I need to dig deeper in the stories but I haven't seen a specific special persecutor named yet by Texas. What's up with that?

Is it just the Attorney General's office for the state of Texas? More →

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A Good one from Prairie Fire

On a slow news day, a good bit of writing is worth pointing to.  Prairie Fire;

"After being fed information from the devious Flora Jessop for four years, the state of Texas believed that it could swoop in and remove the children from the YFZ ranch, the distraught mothers would follow them out into the bossom of the benevolent CPS, and all would gladly assist their CPS liberators in securing their freedom. But the liberated children and mothers haven't been as cooperative as the state had expected them to be, so now the state is on the defensive by publicly attacking the people they claim they are trying to save and protect."

Read it all.

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Prediction on the "Next Big Thing"

It will be tomorrow. Tuesday offers the cover of the West Virginia Primary which will give the 24 hour news networks an excuse to cover something else.

It has been the pattern of Texas to announce things like Special Prosecutors and move kids on days when the news is dominated by some other event. I remain (a little) surprised that I have heard nothing on the MSM regarding the Mental Health Workers condemnation of Texas CPS. More →

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The Common Room

When someone says it better than you, you just point. All the FLDS can do now, is roll over. More →

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CNN still drinking Kool Aid. Find out the TROOF about the FLDS.

When you go to CNN's FLDS section, the lead story is still this one.

Records point to four teens who could be "Sarah"

There is no Sarah you MORONS. She died when she set the charges for the destruction of the twin towers, for George Bush. No really, it's the TROOF.

Then there is this one.

(CNN) -- "In the secretive, illegal world of American polygamy, life has been good to 67-year-old Wendell Loy Nielsen of Eldorado, Texas."

No, it's not illegal, or there would have been an arrest or arrest warrant. People are still reading this section of CNN and think there is still a "Sarah" and still think Polygamy is illegal, and it's not. As Flora Jessops, a rabid anti Polygamy activist and FLDS opponent says herself, "Polygamy is not illegal, Bigamy is."

"By his own account, Nielsen has 21 wives -- and 36 children.

His oldest wife is 13 years older than he is, and his youngest wife is 43 years younger -- she's just 24."

Because cohabitation is legal among adults, since any statute of limitation or "repose" has gone by, Nielsen cannot be charged with anything. And he hasn't been. IF IT WAS ILLEGAL YOU MORONS, WHY IS HE NOT UNDER ARREST?

"His oldest child is 21 years old, and his youngest is a 6-month-old baby."

Well, good for him.

"That's one of the longer, single-family genealogies uncovered in a CNN review of the 'Bishop's List' -- a series of documents listing the age, marital status, children and address of the members of the Yearning for Zion polygamist ranch in Eldorado, Texas."

And yet no one is charged, with anything. Maybe that will happen later today, this year, this decade.

Now, what I want to know is still, was the pregnant girl that was "underage" that they saw after they entered the compound one that they now regard as potentially underage by their hyper scientific eyeballing method one of the girls they now say is "underage" and pregnant. Folks, they may have NO underage girls they know ARE pregnant.

Was she carrying around a sign that said "I have the Bishop's Record, Take it from me?"

At least they admit, at the end.

"No formal criminal charges have been filed in the case. The next court hearing regarding the state's custody of 463 sect children is set for later this month."

"Formal Charges?" Isn't that a bit redundant? I was not aware of being able to hold people against their will on "INFORMAL charges." More →

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