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You've got to flush it out!

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stevenfulop.com powered by justjoe seems like a reasonable request to me.

Damn right we'll get to the bottom of Steven Fulop register variations. Pool your resources, people.

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I liked Hillary in the 90s but really got turned off when she decided to pass herself off as a neocon war hawk - a la Gore and Kerry. Isn't two bungled elections enough? (One more time. If you're a conservative and have a choice between a Republican and someone trying to pass themselves off as a Republican, you're going to vote for the Republican.) That and the obvious: Hillary Clinton is the Republican Party's dream candidate for 2008. The fun guys at Fox "News" are damn near foaming at the mouth when they heap praise on her. I cringe at the thought of her as the -Democrat candidate- in 08.

This is a short clip from a recent speech in Los Angeles. If he keeps fighting like this I'm with him all the way.

https://www.justice.org/pressroom/vaccinesafety/news.aspx

The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC):

Even more sweeping is a provision empowering the new agency to shield from any legal action those producing vaccines, drugs, medical equipment or other products turned out to combat pandemics or bioterrorism. Such a broad exemption from liability is hardly justified on the record. A study reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association found, for example, that there had been only 10 lawsuits in 20 years over flu vaccines. Drug companies don't get out of the vaccine business because of liability, the study's authors said, but because of low profit margins and unpredictable demand. These are two factors that clearly should be more fully dealt with in any legislation to spur the production of vaccines, for instance, for an avian-flu pandemic.? [December 16, 2005]

Countries that still use the death penalty:

* Afghanistan
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Bahamas
* Bahrain
* Bangladesh
* Barbados
* Belarus
* Belize
* Botswana
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Chad
* China (People's Republic)
* Comoros
* Congo (Democratic Republic)
* Cuba
* Dominica
* Egypt
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Ethiopia
* Gabon
* Ghana
* Guatemala
* Guinea
* Guyana
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Jamaica
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Korea, North
* Korea, South
* Kuwait
* Kyrgyzstan
* Laos
* Lebanon
* Lesotho
* Libya
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Mongolia
* Nigeria
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Palestinian Authority
* Qatar
* Rwanda
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and the Grenadines
* Saudi Arabia
* Sierra Leone
* Singapore
* Somalia
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Syria
* Taiwan
* Tajikistan
* Tanzania
* Thailand
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Uganda
* United Arab Emirates
* United States
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Yemen
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

NJ Senate approves abolishing death penalty

by Joe Donohue
The Star-Ledger
December 10, 2007

The state Senate this afternoon approved making New Jersey the first state in 40 years to abolish the death penalty.

The Senate voted 21-16 to approve the bill slated for a Thursday vote by the state Assembly, after the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee voted 5-1 in favor of it today.

The measure would repeal the death penalty and replace it with mandatory life in prison without possibility of parole. If approved by the full Assembly, the bill goes to Gov. Jon Corzine, who has called the change a move in the "right direction." Corzine has until the lame duck legislative session ends on Jan. 8 to sign the bill.

New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 and has eight men on death row, but hasn't executed anyone since 1963. It would become the first state to abolish its death penalty by legislative action since 1965, when both Iowa and West Virginia repealed their capital punishment statutes.

At today's 2 1/2-hour Assembly hearing, 21 people testified on the repeal, including Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were murdered in Pleasantville. She said the problem is not with the death penalty, it's lack of enforcement.

"Enforce the law, that's all you have to do," she said. "It's easy to come out and say don't execute."

Revisiting Violent Past on Eve of New Jersey Death Penalty Vote

By JEREMY W. PETERS
The New York Times
December 7, 2007

TRENTON, Dec. 7 ? So remorseless was Ambrose A. Harris for raping and shooting a young Pennsylvania woman in the back of the head that he mockingly dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief as the victim?s father sobbed on the witness stand.

In 1996, a Superior Court jury sentenced Mr. Harris to die for that crime, but not before he could kill again. As he awaited the outcome of an appeal, he flattened another death row inmate?s skull by climbing on top of a stool and jumping down on the man?s head over and over until he was sure the job was finished.

For many, there is little question that Mr. Harris, 55, represents the worst that human nature is capable of ? an impenitent killer who seemed to revel in the pain he inflicted.

Yet like so many violent criminals, Mr. Harris is the product of a turbulent upbringing. According to court testimony, his mother, recalling once to a social worker how she never wanted children, said that the doctor who delivered Ambrose had to throw water in her face to force her to push during labor.

When Mr. Harris was a boy of 12 growing up in Trenton, he was committed to a state mental hospital for more than a year. Doctors noted then that he was ?violent and homicidal,? with an I.Q. of only 78.

As the New Jersey Legislature prepares to decide this week whether to become the first state to repeal the death penalty since the United States Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, Mr. Harris?s case renews focus on issues of justice and morality in the debate over capital punishment.

When advocates of capital punishment in New Jersey, where no one has been executed since 1963, make their case, they often point to Mr. Harris as the type of a killer whose life would be spared if the death penalty were eliminated.

But opponents of executions contend that cases like Mr. Harris?s show that questions about good and evil and life and death are too complex to be settled by a judge or a jury.

?This is God?s domain,? said Sister Elizabeth Gnam, who has counseled prisoners for 19 years at the New Jersey State Prison here, where the state?s death row is housed. ?They?re human beings. And because they were given the gift of life, I don?t feel it?s our responsibility or even our right to judge that life is over for them.?

Mr. Harris is hardly the only inmate on New Jersey?s death row with mental and physical scars from childhood.

Lawyers for Jesse Timmendequas, whose rape and murder of Megan Kanka, 7, led to Megan?s Law, which requires community notification when a convicted sex offender moves into an area, said that abuse at the hands of Mr. Timmendequas?s mother started in the womb. She drank so much during pregnancy that Mr. Timmendequas was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Life did not get much better after that. His father later beat and raped him, lawyers said.

Brian P. Wakefield, who killed an elderly couple in 2001 while robbing their home, started a life of crime early. According to testimony at his trial, his mother taught her children how to shoplift. And physical abuse was meted out by Mr. Wakefield?s drug-addicted father, who beat his son with an extension cord.

Of all the arguments against capital punishment ? that too many innocent people have been exonerated, that it is costly and ineffective, that it is biased against minorities and the poor ? the argument that even the most vile killers deserve some pity because they are human is the hardest to sell.

?I don?t try to make that argument,? said Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, Democrat of Union County and a sponsor of the bill to abolish capital punishment in New Jersey. ?It?s tough because passions run really high when you have very heinous, horrible acts.?

Death penalty proponents say they believe that examples of crimes like Mr. Harris?s and Mr. Timmendequas?s are some of their most persuasive arguments. ?If you asked the question, Does somebody who rapes and murders a kid, and then taunts the family at trial, deserve to die?, my guess is you?d find about 90 percent of the citizens of New Jersey would say yes,? said Robert Blecker, a law professor at New York Law School who has argued for keeping New Jersey?s death penalty in place.

On the morning of Dec. 17, 1992, Mr. Harris went looking for a car to use in a robbery. It was raining, and according to testimony at his trial, he did not want to ride his bike. So he carjacked a red Toyota belonging to Kristin Huggins, 22, who had driven to Trenton to paint a mural at the Trenton Club, a private social club a few blocks from the State Capitol.

He forced Ms. Huggins into the trunk, letting her out only to rape her and then shoot her. He dumped her body in a shallow grave under a bridge.

Despite all the publicity that has surrounded the case, the Huggins family has remained private, saying little publicly about the murder or what punishment they think Mr. Harris deserves. Reached by telephone, Ms. Huggins?s brother, James, said that he supported the death penalty but declined to say anything about Mr. Harris.

Mr. Harris had a violent past. Medical records indicate that he had scars all over his body at a young age, the result of abuse and neglect by his mother, Mattie Williams, who he complained beat him. Ms. Williams herself spent time in prison for murder. When he was 4, he was struck by a car while he walked by himself to his grandparents? home. His mother later told a social worker that she had been unaware that a 4-year-old should not walk down the street alone, according to court testimony. Ms. Williams died in 2003.

The Department of Corrections denied a request from The New York Times to interview Mr. Harris from death row. Several attempts to interview him by telephone were unsuccessful.

By the time Mr. Harris was released from a state mental hospital at age 13, doctors had classified him as mentally retarded. A ?certificate of insanity? signed by a doctor in 1964 described him as ?a mental defective.?

From 1972, when he was 20, to 1992, when he murdered Ms. Huggins, he spent almost all of his time in prison for robbery and burglary convictions. His life on death row is hardly charmed, but it is more of a life than some would like to see him have.

The New Jersey State Prison authorities classify him as ?noncongregate,? which means he is not allowed any contact with other prisoners. He eats alone in his tiny cell. When he is permitted recreation time, it is alone in a small, fenced-off area of a prison courtyard.

To allow Mr. Harris to mingle with other prisoners could have deadly consequences, as the state learned in 1999. One day when death row inmates were briefly moved to a recreation pen while their cells were being fumigated, Mr. Harris lunged at another death row inmate, Robert Simon, ultimately stomping him to death as stunned corrections officers scrambled to intervene.

Though his appeals go on, it seems that Mr. Harris will probably spend the rest of his days behind bars, even if the state?s death penalty is repealed. Last week, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld his sentence.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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Hear hear. And since we're extrapolating, I'll bet he's got a bomb making factory in his apartment. Punks like this need to be sent to Bahrain for an attitude adjustment. And then on to Guantanamo if he still hasn't learned to keep quit and submit to authority.

Maybe they've commissioned a study to assess the feasibility and cost of resetting the clocks. And of course an off duty police officer will need to be there.

Their $140G bought them nothing?

By Earl Morgan

November 06, 2007

A letter to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, dated March 17, 2005, begins, "Dear Mayor Healy: I am pleased to enclose the following contributions to the Healy Team," and goes on to list by name, check number and amount contributions totaling $140,000 for the mayor's campaign war chest.

The letter was written by Jersey City real estate developer Joseph Panepinto and faxed to the Rev. Francis Schiller, developer and the chief legal eagle for Jersey City real estate interests, to be presented to his honor at a breakfast meeting.

Mayor Healy has declared on several occasions that campaign contributions have no bearing on any decisions he makes concerning Jersey City.

In fact, when I called the Mayor's Office for a comment on the list of big-time developers mentioned in this letter, a spokesman for Healy relayed this message: "No decision regarding the city of Jersey City, while I was a councilman-at-large or mayor, has been influenced in the slightest by campaign contributions or the lack of them. My only criteria has been what's good for the people of Jersey City."

It would be nice to take the mayor at his word, but considering all the talk coming out of Washington about how special interest money is influencing political decisions, the mayor's comments would appear to make Jersey City an anomaly, the only place in the nation where campaign money doesn't matter.

Given the sordid political history of Jersey City and Hudson County, that strains credulity.

The memo marks Panepinto as the fund-raiser for 12 $5,000 checks and others that range in amount from $600 to $2,500.

Schiller is credited as the fund-raiser for three $10,000 checks, including one from his own law firm's political action committee, and others for other amounts. Developer Joe Barry is named as the fund-raiser for three contributions totaling $20,000.

The memo goes on to detail contributions raised by Panepinto and directly submitted to the Mayor's Office, including $5,000 each from developer Dean Geibel and attorney Rudy Garcia.

The memo also claims another $15,000 raised by Panepinto was given directly to former Jersey City Housing, Economic Development and Commerce Director Jack Beirne. (The director of HEDC directly handling campaign money? It's one of those things that make you go "hmmm.")

A notation on the memo says the checks handed over to Beirne were payable to the Jersey City Democratic Party.

Lastly, the memo assures the mayor that additional sums of $5,000 from former U.S. Congressman Frank J. Guarini and attorney Peter G. Sheridan "will be forthcoming."

I'm sure the $140,000 tally of campaign money made the mayor's bacon and eggs during breakfast with Schiller taste better.

The mayor says this money flowing into his campaign coffers from Jersey City's most prominent lawyers and developers buys them no influence in his decisions involving tax exemptions. Well, we report, you decide.

Copyright 2007 The Jersey Journal. Used with permission.

Hmmm... I moved in and the cable was still on. (The 99 channels with no box that is.) They said they would have to come out and climb the pole to disconnect the digital phone so they could hook me up with internet and cable. I called 5 times and made 3 appointments. That was March. Cable is still coming in like a champ. Digital phone still not disconnected.

So being that I have free cable (I guess for life), I've managed to put up with the slow Verizon wireless broadband internet I'm now using.

It is what it is I guess.

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You're one of the more civilized people who post here, so I'm not posting this to start a flame war with you. That being said, it seems to me that she created this organization to advocate a no-leash agenda.

That son of a bitch Dr. Sears messed my head up.

Montgomery Greene, you've been livin' hell to me
You've screwed me since August 13
I've seen 'em come and go and I've seen them die
And long ago I stopped askin' why

Montgomery Greene, I hate every inch of you.
You've cut me and have scarred me through and through.
And I'll walk out a wiser weaker man;
Mr Ciesmelewski why can't you understand.

Montgomery Greene, what good do you think you do?
Do you think I'll be different when you're through?
You bent my heart and mind and you may my soul,
And your drywall turns my blood a little cold.

Montgomery Greene, may you rot and burn in hell.
May your walls fall and may I live to tell.
May all the world forget you ever stood.
And may all the world regret you did no good.

Montgomery Greene, you've been livin' hell to me.

Thank you for warning us about this dangerous thug. I'd say extensive criminal record is a safe bet. What kind of an animal puts a comma before a conjunction?

profile.myspace.com

so i was at macy's with my mom last week shopping and the guy at the counter told me to go to this website when I got home because they are giving out a limited number of free $500 gift cards! it works, i just got mine in the mail today!!! check it out its such a sweet deal, but he said there arent that many left! let's all go shopping next week with our free $500 macy's cards haha!!

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I don't know, having to take time out of your day to go sit in court for something you didn't do seems like a big deal to me. (But then, listening to dim-wits try to talk their way out of violations they did commit can be entertaining.)

Quick reflexes and fast legs to avoid being bit by hamparkvet's dog.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online ... 50807/met_168340341.shtml

Can their idea work in Northwest Jacksonville?

By Paul Pinkham,
The Times-Union
May 8, 2007

ATLANTA - The East Lake community has heard its share of nicknames over the years:

Atlanta's worst neighborhood.

Little Vietnam.

Hellhole, said Eva Davis, 72, who's lived there 36 years. She recalled a day when shootings were commonplace, poverty was the norm and the drug trade flourished.

"I got a first cousin that was shot right in front of my house," she said. "He wasn't but 17 years old."

But that was before a philanthropic developer, a unique public-private partnership and the game of golf transformed the area, something a handful of community leaders are hoping to replicate in Jacksonville.

Davis and others now use different words to describe the once-blighted neighborhood on Atlanta's east side.

"A little bit of heaven on Earth," said businessman Mike Myers, delaying his round of golf to help a class of second-graders on the driving range of the public course that helped prime East Lake's metamorphosis.

According to the East Lake Foundation:

Violent crime has dropped 95 percent at the former East Lake Meadows housing project, once the most dangerous neighborhood in Atlanta.

Students' test scores at the neighborhood charter school are consistently higher than their peers in the Atlanta school system; the school's predecessor was the lowest performing in the district.

Only 5 percent of East Lake's public housing residents rely on welfare, compared with 59 percent before redevelopment began 12 years ago.

Two weeks ago, a group of Jacksonville business and nonprofit representatives traveled to Atlanta to see the neighborhood for themselves. They were led by Pepper Peete, who runs The First Tee on Golfair Boulevard and has a vision for the high-crime neighborhoods around the nine-hole golf course. First Tee is a World Golf Foundation program, co-sponsored by the PGA Tour, that teaches golf skills and sportsmanship to children who wouldn't normally be exposed to the game.

"I left there [Atlanta] with an amazing amount of hope," said Ray Purvis, senior vice president of community development for the YMCA of Florida's First Coast. "There's a lot that we can glean from what they did there."

Worst to best

In 1993, Atlanta developer Tom Cousins read a newspaper article that said the majority of inmates in New York's prison system came from a handful of New York City neighborhoods.

He asked the police chief whether the same was true in Atlanta and was assured that it was, said Carol Naughton, executive director of the East Lake Foundation.

"Then he said the worst one is East Lake Meadows," Naughton said. "It wasn't called Little Vietnam because of the ethnicity. It was called that because it was a war zone."

The public housing project was built next to East Lake Country Club, one of Atlanta's most storied golf courses. In its heyday, it was the home course of golfing legend Bobby Jones.

But that was decades ago. By the '90s, crack houses lined the fairways and the club was near bankruptcy.

"It got so bad that people would get robbed [at gunpoint] playing golf," said Todd Rhinehart, executive director of the The Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Traditional attempts at help had been made by the government, faith groups and even former President Jimmy Carter, but the results were minimal, said Imam Plemon El-Amin of the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam.

"We'd be able to help one or two people there, but they would really have to move out of that project area to continue the change in their lives," El-Amin said. "It took the commitment and the vision and the financial connections of Tom Cousins to really rebuild that community."

Cousins had donated to charitable causes before, but at East Lake he saw an opportunity for measurable results, Naughton said. He set about to build a new community with golf as its economic engine. He took as his inspiration a book written by a Catholic priest about Jesus showing up to transform a modern-day city, El-Amin said.

Cousins bought the country club in 1993, then developed a plan to tear down East Lake Meadows and replace it with a new, mixed-income apartment complex.

"The way it was designed, you couldn't tell by where somebody lived whether they received a rent subsidy," Naughton said. Any former resident who wanted to stay could, provided they were working or in school and didn't have a serious felony record.

The plan wasn't without controversy. Cousins wanted to replace the Atlanta Housing Authority's control over the complex with the newly formed East Lake Foundation, and that took time to work out. But his biggest hurdle was winning residents' trust.

As neighborhood association president, Davis did much of the negotiating with Cousins and his representatives. They met every week for two years in sometimes stormy sessions to plan East Lake's future. Many residents, including herself, were initially suspicious, but Davis said she came to realize Cousins shared many of her dreams for the neighborhood.

Other residents, particularly the criminal element, were less supportive.

"They firebombed my house - that's how much they liked it - and came back later and shot it," Davis said. "Those were the drug dealers."

By 1998, Davis and other residents were moving back into the new Villages of East Lake, a 542-unit complex with a suburban feel and a 50-50 mix of subsidized and market-rate apartments. Cousins carved a second golf course, this one public, into the complex. Proceeds from that course and the pricier country club help fund the foundation as do revenues from The Tour Championship held at the club in September.

The educational component

Housing wasn't the only thing that changed at East Lake. In 2000, the foundation opened Atlanta's first charter school with longer school days, strong after-school and mentoring programs and a higher ratio of male teachers to compensate for absent fathers.

"We came to the conclusion that the educational component was going to be critical in helping families break the cycle of poverty," Naughton said.

Though 85 percent of Drew Charter School's 785 elementary and middle school students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, a poverty indicator, test scores have risen dramatically. Of the 249 students who have finished eighth grade at Drew, the school has kept track of 241, and none of them have dropped out, said Chris Bennett, who runs an after-school mentorship program at Drew for high school students.

Attached to the school is a new YMCA that functions as a community center. Nearby, the public Charlie Yates Golf Course houses a First Tee program that provides golf instruction to the children of East Lake.

The neighborhood's success has brought new businesses, like Publix, to the area, something El-Amin said would have been unheard of 10 years ago. And average home prices in the surrounding area have soared from $45,000 in 1996 to $280,000 in 2005, according to the foundation.

Big dreams

Peete looks at East Lake and dreams of a similar future for the neighborhoods around Jacksonville's First Tee.

In many ways, the area around Golfair and Moncrief Road is similar to where East Lake was 15 years ago. Police statistics show it is one of the most violent areas of the city, fueled in part by the crime-infested apartment complexes west of the golf course across Moncrief. Home values are low, and aside from the nearby interstate, retail businesses are scarce.

But in other ways, a transformation already has begun. New homes are springing up across Golfair - 13 last year - in what was a field. They are being built by the nonprofit Northwest Jacksonville Community Development Corp., which has plans to build 20 more this year and is looking into taking over several nearby apartment complexes. The group has worked with police to bring crime down by attacking and buying condemned houses, said Executive Director Paul Tutwiler.

"It's about understanding that this is a catalyst for change," Tutwiler said. "We're revitalizing the spirit of the community beyond what people see."

Banker John Donahoo, chairman of First Tee's board in Jacksonville, said the challenge now is developing a common vision for revitalization of that neighborhood. In addition to residents, he said participants should include representatives of the YMCA, School Board, the city, First Tee, Community Development Corp. and Job Corps.

"You can almost visualize what this could be like. I think it's very doable with the ingredients that we have there now," said Donahoo, one of those who visited East Lake last month.

Those ingredients include A. Philip Randolph Academies of Technology and the Clanzel T. Brown Park and community center. Peete said critical pieces would be a YMCA and another school as well as buy-ins from the community, city and business leaders.

City Councilwoman-elect Denise Lee said neighborhood revitalization was why she championed The First Tee during her last stint on the council. She predicted winning community support won't be difficult.

"Any improvement that would help deter crime and help create pride and quality of life, I don't think you would find anybody opposed to it," Lee said. "Except the criminals, and hopefully they will be run out."

paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4107

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The "got-to-hire-locals" rule is stupid beyond belief. Work where you want to work, I say. If you're fast and you know what you're doing you can't lose. Survival of the fittest.

On the west coast the only interaction I had with the unions was paying my dues on time. But here the union reps act like tin horn Joseph Stalins. And the workers? I've never seen such a bunch of lazy conniving fat f*cks in my life. And the quality of the work? Oh my God...

Now I know why some people hate the unions so much. Sad.

So that's what all that smoke was on 440. How the hell do you get a fire boat to Linden Ave.?

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Doesn't Martin Scorsese teach there?

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So long as there is a steady stream of hand guns flowing into the Northeast from the South this measure won't do a bit of good.

I guess I should add a post-script to this.

After I made that phone call and reported the episode here she made an appearance. She didn't knock on my door. I just heard the security gate open, female foot steps and a banging noise. A loud banging noise. Bang bang bang. I don't know what she was hitting with that hammer but she was beating the hell out of it. (Lovely. I've manged to freak out a crazy person. And this time I didn't do anything wrong. But then, I was in construction mode. [I'm wired on coffee. Don't bother me. Please.])

You see, when I signed my lease she was acting girlish. Like she wanted our relationship to progress. But I was getting crazy relationship vibes. (Danger Will Robinson. Danger danger.) Once or twice of that is enough for me.

So I'm thinking, is it possible to get a Taser like they use on Cops? I'm not interested in killing someone. The thought of that doesn't get me off. A mild seizure would be fine. Just long enough so I could dial 911 while continuing to multi-task on my notebook. That may seem cold, but if you can't multi-task while subduing your landlord you're way behind the curve.

Thank you all very much. I actually hadn't taken the sign down and left the nasty message, yet, when I started this thread this morning. Believe it or not, I can blow things out of proportion and be an asshole at times when I'm pissed off. I was on my way out the door for a company fishing trip and decided to give myself a few more hours to think about it before launching into a war with my landlord.

So I get home, phone in hand, and read your posts, which got me good and fired up. (You know how you have butterflies in your stomach when you're about to read someone the riot act.) And Robin, your post was beautiful. Nothing like going to battle with ammunition and intelligence.

Remember, she's a girl in her late 20s who's flighty. But she's also a pushy little thing. Not a bitch, not to me, just assertive.

So I used the strategy I sometimes use of letting someone go on a bit and make a few verbal mistakes before I lift up my arm and release the cavalry.

So I say, "this is Brad at this address."

"Yeah," she says...

"I come home and there's a 'for rent' sign in my window."

"Well I tried to call you but you never answer your phone."

"But you couldn't leave a message?"

"Well I'm sorry I did that but I had something else to talk to you about which would have been kind of awkward to say in a message."

"OK, what would that be?"

"You need an area rug in your apartment."

"Oh, I intend to," I say calmly and earnestly. "I'm having problems with my bank. [another thread I'm about to post] I just switched banks and as soon as my card comes and I close out my account with my first bank I will buy the rug. In fact, they made me miss a Furniture Liquidator rug sale."

Now... lets get back to the first issue...

[Men... raise your weapons and fire at will.]

"You have no right to enter my apartment when I'm not there. I have *exclusive possession* over my apartment..."

"Well no, actually," she starts to say like I knew she would...

"no... when you enter my apartment without my permission you are breaking the law. I posted this online last night and now I have the legal facts right in front of me."

Then I fired off the facts in Pinky's post.

By the time I got done with her she was apologizing profusely. It was all I could do to hang up.

Thank you all!

I came home from work last night to find people asking if I knew where my landlord was. She was supposed to meet them there to show them the upstairs apartment and didn't show up. (She's flighty.) One of them pointed to a "for rent" sign in the second floor window. (My window.) I said, "that looks like it's taped on from the inside." Sure enough, it was.

She didn't ask me beforehand. Didn't even leave a note. She just let herself in and put it up. I've seen some outrageous bullsh*t in my time but that blows my mind. I'm sure it says on my lease that "landlord can enter property if need be," but this is ridiculous.

So I took the sign out of my window and left a nasty message on her cell phone. Why, Lord, oh why?