Debra Steinsaltz Shelves Books in South Florida

Interesting. Judicial candidate Debra Steinsaltz doesn't name names, yet all South Florida has seemingly associated a story shared at a recent judicial forum with the very person that has talked up the family bio to anyone that will listen as a personal platform to steamroll hateful lawmaking through the Florida legislature as well as South Florida, particularly so in Miami.

And obviously, continues to do so as noted in a blog post written by Buddy Nevins of BrowardBeat.com.

I'd say Debra Steinsaltz has thrown the door to a kitchen that is certainly not clean.

Read on, especially when Mr. Book discusses ethics.

Candidate Debra Steinsaltz should have thought before she spoke at the second Broward Judicial Watch judicial forum on Thursday.

Answering a question, Steinsaltz told the forum audience that she once had a client who was a nanny accused of molesting the child of a major political insider.

During the preparation for the trial, Steinsaltz said she learned many things about the victim’s family and hinted the family had deep dark secrets which would cause them “embarrassment”.

Although she never mentioned the victim’s name, it was obvious to everybody I talked to at the forum that she was referring to the family of Ron Book. He lives in Plantation and is one of the state’s best known and most ubiquitous lobbyists.

Assistant Public Defender Steinsaltz defended, Waldina Flores, a nanny convicted of molesting Book’s daughter Lauren a decade ago.

(...)

A livid Book now says he is interested in helping Steinsaltz’s opponent, County Judge Peter Skolnick. Book could raise Skolnick thousands of dollars easily.

Barry Harris, Steinsaltz campaign consultant, had no comment.

Reached by telephone after the forum, Book said that Steinsaltz’s “ethics speak for themselves. This is typical of a (Broward Public Defenders) office that conducted themselves in an unprofessional manner throughout this entire case.”

Book said one assistant PD was so “unprofessional” that he was “forced to file a Bar grievance against him.” The Assistant PD was taken off the Flores case.

Steinsaltz handled the second Broward case involving Flores. After she was sent to prison for molesting Lauren Book, the former nanny violated the rules of her original sentence by writing the teenager.

She was prosecuted again and got 10 years for the letter writing added to her original 15-year sentence.

Book said that Steinsaltz was obviously “using the words of a pedophile” about his family in an attempt to “further her candidacy.”

“This is a woman who deficated (sic) and urinated on my child and then fled the state before she was caught. If this candidate wants to use this case and her defense of this pedophile, I believe the voters can make their own decision.”

Book said he doesn’t know Skolnick from “Adam’s housecat” but he would be interested in helping his campaign. He also said he would review the tape of the judicial forum to see if there was “further action” he should take against Steinsaltz.

7/30/10

Lauren Book recently decided against a Broward County School Board run.

Tree at Last

No problem.

I'll register my address.

But good luck finding my house.

Read more about invisible tree houses here.

(No worries about birds. A special film can be applied to the glass that only winged ones can detect).

The Pentagon and Porn

Well, this could prove interesting.

Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports.

The investigations have included employees of the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — which deal with some of the most sensitive work in intelligence and defense — among other organizations within the Defense Department.

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The more than 50 pages, compiled by the investigative service, part of the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s Office, contain summaries of investigations initiated since 2002, including some cases that remain open.

Read more over at The Boston Globe.

No Unemployment Compensation for Sex Offenders?

The Senate is scheduled to vote on HR-5618, the "Unemployment Benefits" bill this afternoon.

The bill is apparently headed to the floor without deletion of the following phrase disallowing sex offenders from receiving unemployment benefits.

‘‘(2) ensure that benefits under this Act are not provided to any individual convicted of a sex offense against a minor (as such terms are defined in section 111 of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (42 U.S.C. 16911)); and..."

Visit eadvocate's site for more information about what you as a citizen can do here.

Sad. Sad. Sad.

Making a List, Checking it Twice

I recently read that the Internet was the new Wild Wild West.

Apparently, a couple of Utah state workers thought the same and deputized themselves to sieve through a workforce database to compile a list of 1300 persons who allegedly entered the USA illegally.

The list was then forwarded to state officials.

Here's the not so funny punchline, delivered by a spokesperson for Utah Governor Herbert.

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"The use of private information to intimidate the Latino community is wrong and wrong-headed," Archie Archuleta, head of the Utah Coalition of La Raza, said.

"The fact that a third party is using this information to target children and pregnant women is extremely troubling," he said.

Welcome to our world.

Tiny Houses

A possible answer to residency restrictions....downsize and take your home on the road.

(...)

You'll discover why you really don't need to own land to call one of these small houses home. Jay's portable homes can be put nearly anywhere. These structures have been placed in backyards, RV parks, rural settings, and even in a National Park. Imagine the freedom of being able to pick up and move as you wish. Tired of your neighbors? Don't like your view? Just pick and move.

Scratch the National Park, but imagine the possibilities. :)

Read more about the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company here.

Ten years ago, Jay Shafer downsized to an 89-square-foot house and reinvented both his lifestyle and career in the process.

To Pick Up Arms

A recent SF commenter mentioned the constitutionality of the picking up of arms. What does such an action mean to this blogger?

A class action suit could be a modern day form of "the picking up of arms". What I've always felt here at Smashed Frog is that the politicians who have developed and passed the sex offender laws never ever will back off. To do so would prove political suicide, especially should a heinous crime--such as the Jessica Lunsford murder--ever again occur. (Which has happened, with these very laws in place....no comment from the politicos who believed words in a law book could rubber-stamp prevent children from future harm).

A successful class action would take politicians off the hook and I believe court action is what these types are hoping for, but that aside, working in the background on our behalf is the current financial budgetary situation forcing many individual state legislatures to a "come to Jesus" meeting with themselves regarding the collateral dollar impact made on the state coffers by the very laws they passed.

Just think of the tax dollars these dumbbells have lost, preventing persons from application and receipt of FHA mortgages or designating people with a identifier that serves as a huge inhibitor in finding work. (That being said, public notification and the registry ends professions as well, as in ending careers for those who hold any sort of licensure or certification at the time of conviction and registration).

Not to mention the costs to the taxpayer to enforce the registration and public notification laws....

We must hold these politicians accountable. It's my feeling that many who visit here are of all different sorts of political beliefs; however, what holds us together is a common fate.

Make certain to do what may appear the very minimum. Vote local. If the right to vote is no longer yours (yet one more sneaky way to keep the status quo) ask your family and friends to vote and knock some of these long-termers out of the running, particularly at the primary, where incumbents are the most vulnerable to ousting as predictably, only the most fervent voters fight the August heat to pull the lever).

Here in Florida, I think a political shuffle will occur, basically because most citizens have had enough. It's not just about money, it's about what this state has become....a zero-tolerance prison-builder and family divider in collusion with wealthy Floridians, who have passed the taxes on to the rest of us.

Poisonous Misuse of the Registry by Congress

e (and others) feel the recent amendments added to congressional proposals discussed here are nothing but "poison pills", additions inserted to defeat the bill (or at the very least, slow down the process) much like the GOP did with health care.

Not about RSO's at all.

Misuse of the registry? Or freakin' dirty politic, per usual?

Additionally, sometimes these poison pills do become some form of the passed legislation, as was noted a few years back with home weatherization funding, where the county added criteria disallowing registered sex offenders from the granting and receipt of these federal dollars.

Also disturbing--somewhere along the line, an individual actually brainstormed these exclusions, poison pill or not.

Sick.

HR 5072 Amendment 12: No FHA Mortgage for Sex Offenders

eAdvocate's recent posting of proposed bills before Congress offers continued proof of the attempted exclusion of those designated as sex offenders from opportunities provided all American citizens and how such exclusion simply violates human rights.

Within each bill lies a caveat which denies persons "convicted of a sex offense against a minor" access to these benefits if passed.

--Unemployment Benefits: HR 5618: Restoration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2010. Sponsor Rep. Jim McDermott (WA-7).

--Small Business Loans: HR 5297: Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010. Sponsor Rep. Barney Frank (MA-4).

Read the specifics here.

Equally disturbing, is an amendment to proposed FHA legislation that utilizes the same verbiage to disallow the award of FHA mortgages to those convicted of the same offense. As explained by proponent Rep. Chet Edwards (TX) the addition of Amendment 12 (added to the FHA Reform Act of 2010 (HR 5072) inhibits "...any kind of federally financed reward or taxpayer-backed benefit to sex offenders reentering our communities."

I can deduce many reasons why Mr. Edwards might formulate such a hateful premise in his peanut of a closed mind, but my first thought is sex offenders bring down property values and make home sales difficult for homeowners and realtors. I'm aware of one particular incident within my community where a homeowner lost the sale of property located next door to because the adjacent neighbor was listed on the state registry. No way to tell if that person was a low-level offender or not as the Florida Sex Offender Registry doesn't bother to differentiate.

As I like to say. Too. Bad. So. Sad.

However, I'd also like to point out how such a FHA disclaimer could effect the housing and shelter of family members living with a person designated as an offender. Or not.

Because should this amendment somehow survive, someone in that same household could get the FHA mortgage on their own merits. Once the family moves into the neighborhood, I'd suggest a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner open house.

No State Can Add or Take Away

The federal government is asserting in court that Arizona has overstepped its authority by the passage of state law to make an immigration violation a crime.

According to the federal policy, "..."no state can add or take away" from the (immigration) policy set in Washington, with the current focus "...to target "dangerous aliens" such as violent criminals, fugitives and gang members, rather than to arrest and deport the millions of illegal immigrants living in this country."

Which would imply, the federal laws are the laws of the land.

If that's an accurate statement, then when it comes to federal SORNA policy, why is substantial compliance achieved by states employing a different system of registration and public notification, as long as registerable offenses carry the same or greater sex offender registration and notification guidelines as SORNA?

Apples and oranges or just nonsensical?

Smashed Frog Goes Botox

I finally did it, NG.

A girl's got to keep up appearances and it was way time this blogger found a new look (although still in progress).

A Froggy Fourth to you all.

Jim Greer: You're the One the Dems Want

After an afternoon chatting with my friends via 1970's state of the art communications, my mother had had enough of her then sixteen-year-old daughter monopolizing the telephone. She yelled at me to "Get OFF than PHONE!", and followed up with the usual "NOW!"

I gave her the typical teen OK, OK and kept talking.

She promptly picked up a pair of scissors with the longest blades I had ever seen in my short life and promptly cut the cord of the land line.

Someone should've cut the cord on the conversation between disgraced and ousted former Republican Party chair Jim Greer and his co-hort, Delmar Johnson.

If you have not heard the audio between these two, head here and take a listen. The potential fall-out on the Florida Republican Party, well, it's electrifying.

For Frogger researchers interested in helping the Florida Democratic Party figure out who else may be listed in the Greer Rolodex, documents released in the case against Greer can be accessed here.

Enjoy.