The following Ad can be found on Craigslist, it was written anonymously

Some Advice From Your Public Defender

First, let me say I love my job and it is a privilege to work for my clients. I wish I could do more for them. That being said, there are a few things that need to be discussed.

You have the right to remain silent. So SHUT THE #%*  UP. Those cops are completely serious when they say your statements can and will be used against you. There’s just no need to babble on like it’s a drink and dial session. They are just pretending to like you and be interested in you.

When you come to court, consider your dress. If you’re charged with a DUI, don’t wear a Budweiser shirt. If you have some miscellaneous drug charge, think twice about clothing with a marijuana leaf on it or a t-shirt with the “UniBonger” on it. Long sleeves are very nice for covering tattoos and track marks. Try not to be visibly drunk when you show up.

Consider bathing and brushing your teeth. This is just as a courtesy to me who has to stand by you in court. Smoking 5 generic cigarettes to cover up your bad breath is not the same as brushing. Try not to cough and spit on my while you speak and further transmit your strep, flu, and hepatitis A through Z.

I’m a lawyer, not your fairy godmother. I probably won’t find a loophole or technicality for you, so don’t be pissed off. I didn’t beat up your girlfriend, steal that car, rob that liquor store, sell that crystal meth, or rape that 13 year old. By the time we meet, much of your fate has been sealed, so don’t be too surprised by your limited options and that I’m the one telling you about them.

Don’t think you’ll improve my interest in your case by yelling at me, telling me I’m not doing anything for you, calling me a public pretender or complaining to my supervisor. This does not inspire me, it makes me hate you and want to work with you even less.

It does not help if you leave me nine messages in 17 minutes. Especially if you leave them all on Saturday night and early Sunday morning. This just makes me want to stab you in the eye when we finally meet.
continue reading "Some Advice From Your Public Defender"

Fan Pages

The majority of Facebook pages require a user to register to access a specific page. This would not be a problem if everyone in the world had a Facebook page however this is not the case. The Forced Login function also prevents search engines from being able to index individual pages.. Fan Pages allow non-registered visitors access to the public page which allows them to see to all of your links and media that you have posted about your product, brand or organization without any type of registration.

Once you have discovered a few fans, you are then able to keep them updated as you would on your profile page. These updates are crucial to keeping your fans informed about new products and promotions by involving them what’s going on!

As an administrator of a Fan Page, you are able to control the flow of information and personalize your page with the addition of Links, Notes, Photos, Videos, Events, Discussion and Applications. (as stated above, these features are all visible to non-registered Facebook visitors unlike your personal profile)

When a Facebook user becomes a fan of your page it is published in their news feed thus feeding the fuel for others to discover your page as well.  Fan Pages are free and quite easy to make. Within minutes you can have your page in the public arena. Administrators have the opportunity to promote their pages with social ads, exposing them to a much wider audience very quickly.

Here are a few of the Fan Pages that I currently administrate:

continue reading "Facebook Networking 101 - Fan Pages and Groups"

Between four million and five million otherwise eligible voters nationwide are estimated to have lost their federal voting privileges because of current and past felony convictions. As many as 40 percent of that number are African-American; Women represent about 500,000 of those. In some cases, released ex-felons are not routinely informed regarding the steps necessary to regain their right to vote and often believe—incorrectly—that they can never vote again. Moreover, even if they seek to have the vote restored, few have the financial and political resources needed to succeed. All states except Maine and Vermont bar felons from voting, though some allow felons to regain their right to vote in some circumstances.

Revolutionary Father Thomas Paine said: “The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another.” The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, enacted in 1870 following the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation that declared slaves free men, declared: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

However, the Supreme Court in the 1974 case Richardson v. Ramirez, Justice Rhenquist’s reading of Section 2, ruled that felony disenfranchisement could not be challenged under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, therefore leading recent suits brought under the Voting Rights Act, which bars imposition of any burden that results in the denial of voting rights “on account of race or color.”

The Rehnquist opinion in Richardson v. Ramirez read the provision as an exception to the Equal Protection Clause of Section 1 of the Amendment and a grant of authority to the states to disfranchise any person convicted of a crime. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment reads in pertinent part: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

To fulfill the standard established by the Voting Rights Act, members of a protected class would have to fully demonstrate that they were investigated, arrested, prosecuted and convicted (therefore becoming disenfranchised) by profound numbers, thus out of proportion to their propensity to commit crime because of racial profiling and other discriminatory practices. For scores of years, applications for restoring voting rights have languished without official action. For that neglect, fourteen States disenfranchise ex-offenders who have fully served their sentences, regardless of the nature or seriousness of the offense.

continue reading "Disenfranchisement: The Dirt Under the Rug"

“Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages globally per day. In other words, spam makes up 45% of all emails. Some research companies estimate that spam email makes up an even greater portion of global emails, some 73% in fact. The United States is the number one generator of spam email, with Korea clocking in as the second largest contributor of unwanted email“

I have grown accustomed to opening up my email box to discover  the onslaught of an overnight spam-a-thon held in my favor… but now.. now it seems that there is no place safe, no inbox, no instant messenger. no wall or comment box, no tweet, nothing is held sacred anymore..  I have administrated numerous websites, forums and online communities and have come to the conclusion that if given the opportunity a spammer would tag your grandmother’s coffin at the burial site!

“The most prevalent type of spam is advertising-related email (this type of spam accounts for approximately 36% of all spam messages).  The second most common category of spam is adult-related in subject and makes up roughly 31.7% of all spam. Unwanted emails related to financial matters is the third most popular form of spam, at 26.5%“

What seems to be the most disturbing trend is that many of these “email magicians” are becoming extraordinarily successful at motivating semi-intelligent individuals to actually send them money!  Although these types of scams only comprise about 2.5% of spam email, the bottom line is staggering!  Over $240 Million Dollars was lost to internet scams in 2008.  Last year, more men than women were scammed over the Internet with the  average loss $765 for men and $522 for women.  The report published  last year by the National White Collar Crime Center,  also shows the amounts lost increased with age. Victims in their 20s lost $385 on average while people over 60 reported lost an average $760 per scam. (of course this is only representative of “reported crime”).

“An Oregon woman who is out $400,000 after falling for a well-known Internet scam says she wasn’t a sucker or an easy mark.  Janella Spears of Sweet Home says she simply became curious when she received an e-mail promising her $20.5 million if she would only help out a long-lost relative identified as J.B. Spears with a little money up front” (read more)

Although I have never been a victim of identity theft, phishing, auction fraud, pyramid schemes nor taken the chance to help a long lost relative who happened to be an oil tycoon in Africa… I, just as you, receive numerous unsolicited promotions and advertisements ranging from tips on how to satisfy my lover to winning foreign lotteries.  Most of these find there way to the digital trash bucket and do not have the opportunity to impede my day.  However,  every now and then I am forced to digest this intolerable gibberish.

continue reading "My Least Favorite 4 Letter Word!"