Exposing The Publisher: Using Sandy Hook To Further An Agenda

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook School shooting in Connecticut, I was left with a feeling of disgust and deep, personal sadness. Working for an inspection company, using Infrared techniques in the mid 2000’s, I had an opportunity to work for that school district. Though I never had the opportunity to visit that school in particular, I did work with many in that community.

However, when I read this article blog posted by the Publisher of that over opinionated web site, that I hate to mention, I had never felt more disgusted by a human being in my life. Not even the shooter of this cold blooded, child massacre could disgust me more than the man named Mark Hallburn. Known in my world as The Publisher.

For those of you new to whom this man is, let me give you a reason, a bullet point list if you will, why I go after scumbags like this.

Certified delusional.
Grandiose sense of entitlement.
Manipulative.
No compassion for anyone, other than himself.
Liar.
Cheater.
Criminal.

Look, my list could go on but what really bothers me about someone like this is he uses our 1st amendment like it was a cheap whore. He refers to that anytime he is stifled to saying something, anything, whether it’s true or not. But he has twisted his lies and halve truths around so much in his lifetime that nothing he says is even close to the truth. He then will abuse your right to free speech when your opinion is a counter or doesn’t agree with his. He has blocked myself and many detractors from posting the truth or viable comments from his web site, his Facebook page and other places. That’s not a complaint. I don’t care that he does that to me. I will still get the truth out.

Back to the original crux of this blog post. (Note, I did not claim to be a journalist of a news site, but let me be perfectly clear on what you are about to read. I did my research on this subject, which I can promise you, the Publisher…did not.) What disgusted me the most about The Publisher’s recent blog post that he tries to call a news story? The fact that he would even remotely use it in his ongoing custody battle with his second ex-wife and the judge that is over seeing that case. In a nutshell, Mark’s past has caught up with him and he has limited visitation with his son. For a good reason. Everything this mostly unemployed, criminal blowhard (and lets not forget the documentation of his delusion) has been taken into account in his custody battle, including the risk of flight with the child. Yet he tries to blame judges for the massacre in Newtown.

We begin with his first paragraph;

The Sandy Hook School massacre has left many people asking why. Before the shell casings cooled, the ‘why’ debate started. Gun critics blamed the National Rifle Association. Mental Health critics blamed the lack of mental health care. Almost overlooked in the debate were headlines from The Los Angeles Times: Connecticut Shooter Was Estranged From Father. The sub headline stated that the shooter “Hadn’t seen his father in two years-despite the father’s efforts. Another headline read, “Upset by divorce? Outsider? Seeking clues in school shooter’s past.

First off, Adam Lanza wasn’t set off to do what he did by not being able to see his father. It was his mental instability that led to these horrific acts. A product of today’s culture and politically correct nature. If a parent was to blame (and they weren’t) it would be his mother more so than his father. You see, Nancy Lanza was ready to move to Washington state (she is also a bit of a Survivalist as it turns out) and get Adam some help. Adam thought he was just going to be sent away. If that was his trigger, then what could anyone do?

Yet, here is The Publisher, taking an LA Times (very liberal and out of touch with this story being 3500 miles away) article and using it as a basis for his story to do one thing. Further his agenda. He hates Judge Kelly (the judge in his custody battle) so much that he will grasp at any shred of information that will help him sell his side of the story.

His side is false. I did my own research. A few phone calls and some friendly advise later and I was able to get the court documents (which are now of public record) of the Lanza’s divorce. Here is what I found;

The documents suggest the couple argued very little. They agreed to split up their jewelry, clothes and family photos and the usual banal items. Adam would live with his mother, the couple agreed, and they agreed to talk about the important decisions when they came up.

If they couldn’t agree on something when it came to Adam’s upbringing, Nancy “shall make the final decision,” according to the Sept. 24, 2009, settlement approved by Judge Stanley Novak.

Reading it over, there is nothing in the divorce court file that mentions why the couple decided to split or any underlying problems. The file simply says the marriage “has broken down irretrievably and there is no possibility of getting back together.” There was never a time that Adam Lanza was denied a chance to see his father nor was peter Lanza denied a chance to see his son.

So what The Publisher has done once again is taken someone else’s opinion, that happens to fit his agenda, and made it the underlying problem of Adam Lanza when quite clearly, he was just unstable. I could stop right there Mark continues;

There are many psychological studies and statistics that prove that children who come from broken homes suffer. Too many to list here. Many others prove that children without the strong presence of fathers in their lives also suffer. Yet America allows these situations to continue.

I don’t argue that point at all. That is true. But I say it is only a small part in this situation with Lanza. It certainly isn’t the judges fault.  What i take umbrage with is that he is saying we are  allowing this to happen.  No we aren’t.  What we have allowed is a decline in our family nucleolus.  We’ve forgiven too many moral inconsistencies and not been heavy handed enough with punishment and correction within the homes.  We try, oh we do indeed try, but we’ve been forced to get a second job while the spouse has been forced to get a full time one as well, leaving out kids to fend way too much entirely by themselves.

Here in West Virginia, Putnam(redeacted).com has identified two judges whose anti-fatherhood and anti-family stances are improper: Kanawha County Family Court Judge Michael J. Kelly and Supreme Court Justice Menis E. Ketchum.

In the case of Bill Henry, Kelly refused to return Henry’s runaway teenage daughter to him. She was staying with friends. In doing so, Kelly improperly stripped Henry’s right to be a father to his daughter. At one point the insensitive and arrogant Kelly said that “Anyone can live with anything for 19 days” but never reversed his temporary order.

We don’t know what happened in this case.  Number one, the video that the Publisher was given was edited and cut down to a 5 second clip of Judge Kelly’s quote.  We have no context to why that was said.  Number two, this is a child’s case and all records are sealed.  There is no information available as to why the Judge decreed what he did and there is no basis to what actually happened.  Again, a douchebag saying things to make you believe someone is corrupt.

In the case of Putnam(redacted).com Publisher Mark Hallburn, Kelly reduced Hallburn’s parenting time to less than 70-percent based on false allegations in a temporary custody hearing. Later, it was determined that the allegations were false and made merely on “beliefs” rather than fact. Despite numerous requests, Kelly has refused to reverse his fatally-flawed ruling and even rejected an Emergency Father’s Day visitation motion because he did not receive it 10 days before Father’s Day. Obviously Kelly does not understand the definition of “Emergency.”

I am surprised that The Publisher doesn’t pull a hammy when he reaches for these preposterous statements. First off, the allegations are, indeed, true. It’s been proven before in the past. This means that when it extends to the custody hearing, it’s still true. There are NO false allegations here. There is only fact that Mark cannot function normally within normal society and that has been proven time and again as well. The Publisher is also known to file a harassing amount of FOIA’s, lawsuit paperwork and motions such as this “emergency” fathers day visitation motion. He also demands the most ridicules forms of compensation when he feels wronged. Ten million dollars from AEP when his power flickered for 9 seconds, 1 million from a doctors office for making him wait and most recently he wanted his dead mother unearthed and brought back to life. I’ll let you read that and soak it in.

Done?

I know right!? Let’s continue;

Sidebar:

During the broadcast of my radio show I was informed (by a reliable source) that Mark Hallburns visitation rights sit at 25%.  That’s semantic’s you douchebag!  The Publisher says “below 70%” yet the real story comes out.  It’s such a small percentage because of his own wrong doings.

End Sidebar.

When Ketchum asked for-and received Emergency Father’s Day motion from Hallburn his arrogant response was to violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and order Hallburn not to contact the West Virginia Supreme Court about the case any longer. Kelly later retaliated by refusing to let Hallburn’s son travel with him out-of-state SPECIFICALLY because Hallburn complained to Ketchum who responded with the illegal order.

::coughBULLSHITcough::

How is this breaking his 1st amendment right? He’s already proven to be a harassing lunatic and can’t grasp the concept of “a right to” and “an abuse of” the first amendment. Judge Kelly wasn’t retaliating against anything. He was simply doing his job of protecting the child in this case. By the way, this was when The Publisher wanted to take his kid to see his dying grandmother which you just read about.

Kelly’s antics are nothing new. The group Men and Women Against Discrimination (bunch of crackpots) called for Kelly’s removal (didn’t work, failed miserably) from the bench years ago after he testified that he ignored (no, did his job) state law about parental custody. In the Hallburn case he commented that state law would not allow either parent to get primary custody-then, in his wrongful temporary ruling, gave primary custody to Dolores Halburn. Nearly a year later, because Kelly has not issued a final (close enough, just a matter of final details) divorce decree, that “temporary” ruling remains in effect, denying Mark Hallburn his proper rights as a father. This is classic Kelly misconduct (actually, he is just letting Mark hang himself): Acknowledge the law, then circumvent it (which The Publisher does with the truth). He clearly does this because the West Virginia Supreme Court, including Ketchum, allow Kelly to do this.

When Ketchum handed down the Administrative Order, he violated federal constitutional law. When Kelly cited that order and retaliated against Hallburn, he also violated federal constitutional law.

What law?  The right to be a douchebag, pond scum swiller?

Kelly and Ketchum claim to be highly educated men. However, their arrogance and misconduct only prove that they are fools that somehow managed to earn law degrees-then sucker voters into electing them. Kelly and Ketchum lack common decency and common sense. Therefore they have no business serving on any bench.

Blah Blah Blah. You know, I thought I was bad when I got on my rants about things that piss me off. At least I had the common sense to get my facts straight before I go off at the mouth. The Publisher has his running like a whip-poor-wills rear end. So Judge Kelly doing his job is nothing more than just antics and shenanigans to The Publisher? That’s just like the losers that owe money in Judge Watkins court and they get all PC and defensive when he yells at them for it. They bring false charges and force the man to change something that wasn’t really wrong to begin with. Oh and as far as the decree for Mark’s custody hearing? It’s pretty much final. But due to Mark’s own paperwork crush on the court system, it hasn’t been officially finalized. Thus, Judge Kelly can change this to fit the situation properly. This means Mark will lose even more visitation time because of his own selfishness, senselessness and stupidity.

I will state that after reading up on some cases that both Kelly and Ketchem have been involved with, they are truly intelligent and forthright men. They take their jobs to heart and have a passion about the law. They will not let a few bad apples make this system weak and for that, people point at them and say “he’s not fair, he’s not smart.”

Some may say that removing two judges over two cases is extreme. However, there are many more people that contacted Putnam(redacted).com citing abuse by Kelly. They are simply afraid that he will retaliate against them (like he did with Hallburn) and do not want their names and cases published. This alone is grounds to remove a judge. No one should have to fear retaliation-including the loss of precious time with their children.

This is not an outright lie…but it’s pretty close. No one of importance has contact The Publisher other than a few jilted Kool-aid drinkers and of course, The Publisher’s own cronies, namely Troy Sexton, whom just has a problem with the entire system because, well quite frankly, he’s an idiot. You see, in a nutshell, The Publisher likes to embellish things and he does it so much, he actually believes his own stories. But there will never be one ounce of proof supplied. By the way, no one other than the criminals that have faced these judges fears any due process.

In fairness to the courts, there are abusive fathers. Same for mothers. Each should be kept from their children until counseling and other intervention takes place. However, neither Hallburn or Henry abused their children and too many fathers are held back from parenting simply because ignorant judges automatically award primary custody to mothers.

Abusive fathers? Yes, there are certainly abusive fathers. I can name one right off the top of my head that The Publisher pals around with and defends. Troy Sexton. Oh wait, there’s another. Convicted child molester, Bob Harper. As far as Hallburn is concerned, what Judge Kelly is really doing is keeping the kid safe from a volatile, angry man that has little to his name and a shoddy job track record. There would be no way that kid would be safe with that man over the course of time. Visitations (and less of it in this case) is the key to the child’s safety.  Also, in Bill Henry’s case, we don’t know the man and we don’t know what happened behind closed doors that made the child run away.  He doesn’t air any dirty laundry in some blog publicly.

At this point, I know I have pretty much poked holes in every argument or statement The Publisher has made but I will offer up evidence that he alone has provided. I want you to read this next quote closely and if you have an ounce of common sense you will see the evidence as plain as day.

Complaints have been filed against both Kelly and Ketchum with the West Virginia Judicial Investigative Commission. It claims to have processes to deal with bad judges. However, those processes are broken and must be immediately replaced. The JIC has no option other than to do the following: 1) IMMEDIATELY order Kelly and Ketchum to restore every moment of lost time with their children. EVERY moment. This means rolling back the clock-which will be a huge challenge for Kelly and Ketchum-but is their problem. 2) IMMEDIATELY remove from the bench. 3) Throw them into prison for violating federal constitutional law. 4) Set down standards to make sure this does not happen again. 5) Change the way the JIC conducts business so that judges are properly supervised to make sure this does not happen again. 6) Turn over custody rulings to juries consisting of parents. 7) Order the West Virginia Supreme Court to immediately allow temporary orders to be appealed. 8) Turn over all courtroom videos to the news media for us to publish. (Redact the names of cases and digitize the images of petitioners and respondents) 9) Allow reporters into family law courtrooms to keep an eye on judges. 10) Allow the public to address the West Virginia Supreme Court justices at every hearing. 11) Transform the JIC into a civilian review board. 12) Two-year terms for all judges. 13) Recalls for all public officials-elected, appointed, and hired. This must include judges. 14) Term limits for all elected public officials-including judges.

All of these things must happen by the close of business, Friday, December 21, 2012 so that fathers can make sure their rights to be with their children are not violated on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

First off, there are no viable complaints. Secondly, most of them are filed by The Publisher himself. But did you read that? An insane rambling of a list of things that he wants done to the judges, the system and the Constitution itself and he wanted all done within a few days so he could what? Spend a few hours with a boy that doesn’t really want to spend anymore time with him other than to get some fast food and a bike. Other than that, the kid would have had to sit around on the couch watching movies and cartoons that his dad bought (that will turn him as gay as Perez Hilton) while daddy plays newspaper man and posts his drivel on an online diary of hate.  I don’t even have to go over the insanity that is this list he posted that he demanded be done. Do I? DO I?!

I didn’t think so.

Finally, the nail in the coffin for this entire article. The one line in this entire article that goes a long way to prove that Mark Hallburn, aka The Publisher, is nothing more than a raving lunatic with a sense of entitlement bigger than our national debt. It also shows how much of a threat he is to the general public.

It’s highly unlikely that any West Virginia father will shoot up a school like the incident in Connecticut. However we simply cannot afford another Sandy Hook incident or any other problems with our children because of the courts continuing to improperly interfere with the rights of fathers to parent their children.

A threat? Indeed.

It proves that this man is no more than a low life, looking to get first in line with his hand out for the government cheese, using and stepping on anyone (including his kid) to get there. As the great Mike Balburn, who’s super secret identity remains hidden for obvious reasons, the one that leads the way in revealing the ugliness of Mark Hallburn’s antics has pointed out on many occasions;

“Given his degree of agitation and volatility noted during our examination, any threats made by Mr. Halburn should be taken seriously and dealt with appropriately.”

Taken directly from Mark Hallburn’s own psychiatric report. It’s time to put this guy in his place and that means an extreme decision. Remove him from public and lock him away where he can pretend to be a news reporter, a home owner, a job holder and a loving father all he wants, only, he won’t be hurting anyone with his pretend life.

Exposing The Publisher: To Sell Or Not To Sell.

I admit it.  It’s been too quiet here of late.  granted, I’ve tossed around a comment or two at the trailer park of posting forums called Topix but lately I’ve been more of a lurker when it comes to the antics of The Publisher, whom I am about to expose one more time.  My apologies if “expose” brought other visions to your sick and twisted little minds than was intended.

Currently, The Publisher: Mark Halburn of Putnam(redacted).com,  is facing some changes in his life.  It would appear that all his ranting, raving and acting like a general fool has gotten him in a little hot water with the lady of the house.  You know, the one that pays for his domain name for his “news” (Blog) site when he’s spent all his money on KFC and Taco Bell because a coupon for a freebie wasn’t enough.  Knowing things are about to change for The Publisher, I decided to try and alleviate him of the burden of his web site by offering to buy it.  Now, being an entrepreneur, I figured that I could buy his web site and actually turn it into a credible news site.   Of course, that was just crazy talk.  With all the damage he has done using that domain for his blogging and political attacks the best I could do is buy the domain and dismantle it.  But, I figured I would go in with high hopes and with a professional manner.

What follows is based on actual events.  No names were changed to protect the innocent.  There wasn’t any.

Now, as you see I just wrote up a quick e-mail saying I was interested and I expected there would be some back and forth where we would eventually work out an idea.  Would I pay for the just the domain and the name?  Could I be convinced this was a successful business and I could take it over as a business?  If so, would I get all the information I needed?  As you can see, I only offered to buy the web site, meaning the domain, so I could perhaps continue to run the site.  As you can also see, with no discussion, little fan fare and lacking in reality, The Publisher fired back with a price of $250,000.

$250,000!?

Yeah, I know all about the fact he wants $300,000 for his little blue shack on a hill which is only worth $89,000 appraised, but good lord.  I was even surprised by the price.  $250,000?!  Whew.  Well, despite the quoted cost, I figured I would push this for all it was worth.  At this point?  I was done being serious about buying the site because I knew it would never happen.  Not with a guy that had zero touch with reality.  However, I kept up the charade to see what I could get.

At this point, I had my accountant working on more research on this site to see how much something like this would actually cost to run, what kind of billable income there actually could be and what kinds of overhead there would be.  In an effort to learn more from The Publisher, I asked for the obvious, as you can see.  By the way, we tabbed that this site, with it’s readership and projected readership was worth about $2500.  He fires back by making this a package deal.  $250,000 for the site and the “office headquarters”, which he quoted at an addition $300,000.

::laughs:: Whoa there Nelly.  What the hell just happened here?

So, his “office building” is up for grabs too?  Office building?  You know,  his soon to be second ex wife’s house, whom she shares with her mother.  So now it’s gone from $250,000 to $550,000 but he did say “package deal”.  I assumed the original asking price of $250,000.  My question here is, does it come with a wife, kid and a mother-in-law in that asking price?

By this point he has no clue what he is doing.  All I wanted was a balance sheet or an income and expense report to see what the numbers were.  He tosses out the $2500 a month “billable” mail and then adds in a taunt about the “great debate” that I no showed to, like I was ever going to debate the mentally retarded.  Oh, and because I am from Vermont he decides to taunt me with a maple syrup joke.

Hahahahahaha!  Yeah, like I have not heard that before.  Who’s the dumb one?  me for living in a state that is famous for maple syrup or guys like Mark Haburn that pay $60.00 a gallon for it?

He gets a little ahead  of me in the mail trade off’s, but he starts to offer some of the costs associated to this because he doesn’t want to send me anything.  He doesn’t trust me.  As you will see later, he even says that.  He’s right though, he shouldn’t.  He ends with sort of a “take it or leave it” finality.

At this point I decided to really get the facts.  He’s called his web site a business for years and granted, we have seen a business licence and he has filed taxes on it, but I still say it’s not a business and I will tell you why a little later, just bear with me.  I went right after him.  I wanted a list of everything and if you are a business person serious about selling your business, you would offer that up.  Especially if you were asking 100 times what it was actually worth.

This is where he starts to attack me, saying that his “employees, contributors, editors and webmasters” would not work for me.  Of course they wouldn’t because he is all of that.  He’s had one contributor (another crazy “journalist” named Lawrence Smith) do some work for him and at one point he claims it’s all volunteerism.  We’ll get to that little white lie later.

As you can see, I kept at it.  I want that information now and at this point, I was willing to give him like a$1000 bucks just to dismantle the damn site and let him watch all his years of “hard work” disappear.  Plus, he’s been claiming for years that he has had editors, writers and photographers all working for him.  He’s claimed an office just outside of city limits he was renting.  If so, then I wanted the proof.

This was my last real attempt to get the information from him.  It worked too.  Mark said he was “traveling”.  I didn’t believe him because he was at Marshall University Graduate College taking pictures and playing journalist again.  That’s not traveling.  he says in his next mail that he wasn’t in Putnam County.  That was true.  He was just across the line in Kanawha County.

Let’s wrap up the capture’s here, shall we?

There you have it.  $1000 was my final offer.  Of course he turned it down.  My research of his “clients” revealed what we already knew.  He does a “barter” with them and once you enter Hotel Haburn, you will never leave.  He’s got a few fish on the hook that should have wiggled before they wrote the check but even when they are done paying him, he has left many of them on, just to have some sort of “proof” he has advertisers.

So, I asked for income and expense reports.  Employee lists.  Since this was a web based business, I wanted verifiable traffic logs. Lists of visitor IPs, ISPs, OS and location.  He also would have had to send that same inform for his .com as well as his .org because of his change over last year.   So, what did I eventually get after pressing?  One page of his 2010 Tax forms.  One page.  Just a page from an online tax form that could have just been filled out with numbers and made into a jpg.  However, I believe the form page I have is real.

Now, let me say that I have never doubted that the web site is registered as a business.  I have seen the proof.  I still call it a non business though, at least in the way Mark claims it.  He’s not a journalist, he’s a blogger.  Bloggers make money by selling advertising too.  The good ones at least.  The ones that are read.  The ones that are worth paying for.  He’s not a successful businessman, much less a successful member of society and he just can’t, won’t and will never see that.

Remember when I said I don’t believe this is a viable business?  Here is why.  It’s not for the fact that his profit (which is what you pay taxes on when you run your own business) was only $2448.  At least it made some money, on paper.  But don’t believe what you see.  This “business”?  Is really a tax shelter.   I can also wrap up my explain of the little white lie I mentioned.  He says that his contributors and “photographers” (interesting note here from Mike Balburn; the exif information that is embedded in photographs reveals that Mark takes all his pictures) are volunteer yet on his little tax form he supplied me, he writes off $1150 in contract labor.  There is nearly 9 grand in car expenses, nearly $12oo in utilities.  It goes on and on.  Basically, he’s paying 100% of his household bills with income from his various jobs he’s held over the course of the year plus about a closer number of $600 for “advertising” on his site.  By the way, speaking of advertising, he wrote off $1500 in advertising for his own site.  $1500?!  On what?  Plus 4400 in “other expenses”.

Business?  No.  Tax shelter?  Yes.  Yes indeed.

So this begs a question.  Will Mark ever sell his web site for $250,000?  No.  Will he sell his house….oh wait, I’m sorry… his wife’s house for $300,000?  No.  His soon to be ex wife may be able to sell the house and move away but she won’t get that much for it.  If she thinks she can she is either as crazy as Mark is or has been so brain washed by Mark that she is a walking zombie.

Update: Rumor mill has it that Doed’s might have pulled the divorce papers.  I will now go with the latter for the reason behind her brainlessness.

So there it is, folks.  The Publisher has been exposed.  He’s been pants’d in the middle of I64, if you will.  He want’s no less than $250,000 for a web site that is worth no more than $2500, he still has delusions of being a businessman and a journalist which we have proven time and again that he is not and he uses his business licence to set up a tax shelter for his pathetic life.

To sell or not to sell, that’s no longer a question.

Exposing The Publisher Detta, Tama, Tento (#10)

Dit. Tama. Cette. Diese. Questo. Este. Detta. Acest. Tento.

Any way you choose to say it, it all means the same.

The number 10.

In my continuing effort to make sure that you, the reader, the listeners or those brothers and sisters in arms in Putnam County, are fully informed of the story telling that The Publisher likes to tell over at Putnam(redacted).com, I bring to you EtP10. In a continued effort of yellow journalism, The Publisher has once again “created” a story out of nothing. Once again, he attacks Mayor Edwards, accusing his “staff” of planting political signs for the Mayor’s reelection campaign in The Publishers yard. I present to you;

“Here’s Your Sign.” 

As always lets begin with the title of his attack piece.

Edwards Campaign Harasses Critics Again

Right off the bat, he accuses.

Signs Placed In Front Of Home Without Permission

The byline. Even though you eventually come to find out that The Publisher says that he doesn’t blame the Mayor for personally putting signs up in The Publisher’s yard, he leads you to believe such. This is bait and switch.

During his 2007 campaign for mayor, Scott D. Edwards chose to campaign on a Hurricane street corner across the street from the employer of this publisher’s wife. This publisher has been one of Edwards’ strongest critics, citing his anti-family and anti-jobs stance that hurts the City of Hurricane and Putnam County.

Wow. I think I just heard a hamstring snap as he reached for that first statement. The Publisher accuses Edwards of picking a spot specifically because The Publishers wife worked in a building across the street? I’m going to let that sink in for a moment.

First of all, while chatting up the mayor in casual conversation over cheeseburgers and a Pepsi (note: that’s what I was having when I wrote him an email, I have no clue what he was having), I got the impression Mr. Edwards had no idea that The Publisher’s wife was working in any building on any of the street corners he chose to do his hand waving and hello’s. As any smart, intelligent, politically oriented candidate would do, he chose his spots strategically. Highest traffic flow gets you to wave that hand and say hello more which translates into “impressions”. It’s the smart thing to do. Edwards did not choose a street corner based on a critic or where that critic’s wife works. End of story.

All this is, is an attempt to once again for this critic, The Publisher, to try and sully the name of a candidate, The Mayor, just because his panties are still in a bunch about Walmart. It’s all about Walmart. “Edwards is anti family…” because he brought in a Walmart. “Edwards is anti jobs…” because he brought on a Walmart.

Shortly after he was elected, in a tainted election, while this publisher was working in South Carolina, a City of Hurricane inspector cited this publisher’s pregnant wife for weeds on a hillside behind our home. Edwards’ business, Netranom Communications, (the Old Town Hall building) and the current Hurricane City Hall had tall weeds, but they weren’t cited. City inspectors have repeatedly refused to cite Edwards for the issues at the Netranom building. It’s part of Edwards’ double standard and dirty politics.

Tainted election? There has never been proof of this. It was a sore losers late attempt to try and change the minds of those that had already spoken though the ballots. Sam Cole lost in a close election and he didn’t even care until someone started to whisper in his ears about “rigged elections” and “unsafe ballots” or some other hooha. Could it have been Mark Halburn? An obvious critic of Mayor Edwards that was doing the whispering through his opinionated web site? I’ll let you be the judge. Never mind the fact Cole had a solid recount done with the same results. You can count 100 times and nothing was going to change.

As for the weeds part of this yellow journalism piece? Oooops. There goes the other hammy! Seriously? Is there any proof that his second wife was ticketed for tall weeds? Any proof at all? Do they really enforce that statute anymore? Oh, wait. Weeds at a computer business as well, no ticket there? Oh, ok. So basically we have another untruth out there, tossed up like a softball by The Publisher. Excuse me while I take a swing here. He takes a picture of tall weeds in behind the City Hall building and tries to sell that (with no proof) as to have been taken in 2007?  I call dirty journalism.

::bat crack::

I will say this though. Don’t be a stooge, Mr. Publisher. Cut your damn grass if you are looking to make an impression to sell that double wide.

So when Edwards’ re-election campaign signs showed up in the grass in front of our home, Thursday, May 12th, 2011, we weren’t surprised. Edwards says he didn’t do it. We believe him. However, we don’t believe he didn’t know a supporter was putting them there. And despite Edwards assertion that the culprit will be prosecuted, more than 24 hours after the trespassing and malicious mischief occurred (I decided to leave all his spelling mistakes and grammatical errors…that‘s not me), no one from the Hurricane Police Department had fingerprinted the signs. Chief of Police W. “Mike” Mullins hung up on this publisher when he was asked why the signs were not fingerprinted and why the Walmart surveillance video had not been viewed.

Oh my. There are so many things in this little paragraph that just tickle me pink. He totally believes his lie and thus herein lies the crux of my expose’ in this article. It is my belief that Mark Halburn aka The Publisher, did in fact steal signs from various places about the city of Hurricane and deliberately destroyed them to “create” a story to put Mayor Edwards in a negative light.

When asked about the accusation, Mayor Edwards responded with the following quote; “ Me nor my people did this — not sure who did. He emailed me and said he was out of town and demanded 1 trillion dollars per sign per day for yard space rent.”

Yep. You heard that right. One trillion. I have to wonder if Mark sat there laughing manically, his pinky finger resting at the corner of his mouth when he wrote up that email to Mayor Edwards?

Oh yeah, you want to see the entire email The Publisher sent Mayor Edwards? I thought ya might;

“For the second campaign in a row, you have chosen to harass my wife. Last time you campaigned in front of her employer. Today, while I am out of town, she awoke to find TWO of your campaign signs in our front yard. Since these were UNAUTHORIZED, the overnight space rental fee is $1 TRILLION per sign. Yes, I WILL be making this public as just your latest unethical conduct! How do you sleep at night? The payment is due IMMEDIATELY at the City National Branch, in Hurricane! Mark.”

I giggled. Seriously. Until I laughed. Is this guy crazy? Wait!

Don’t answer that.

When I talked to Mayor Edwards a few days later about the missing signs he stated that he had been told a few signs were missing. To quote; “Well, they were stolen from what appears to be random locations… Some in subdivisions and some on main roads.” 

I agree that the culprit be prosecuted. Go ahead and look at any Walmart footage. It’s not going to show anything than an empty parking lot and a few cars rolling up and down Progress Way. As far as the finger printing goes, yeah, do that too. It will find that Mark’s greasy little paw marks are all over them in specific places, not just from “uprooting” them from his yard and crunching them in a barrel to take pictures of the offending signs. The Publisher could be nailed with theft of property, burglary and destruction of said property. Who knows, if he stole enough of the signs and it’s proven he did, then it could be a felony. There’s a hell of an add to the ole rap sheet for ya. No wonder Mullins hung up on his ass. Oh yeah. Can I answer the question of “How do you sleep at night?” for the Mayor? Thanks. Like a hard working Mayor.

::bling smile and a thumbs up!::

We removed the signs and placed them in a more appropriate location. Edwards was sent a bill for the space rental for the time that the signs were in the grass. Naturally, Edwards hasn’t paid the bill. He sent the following email:

“Thank you for letting me know that there were some of my campaign signs in your yard. If they are still on your property, I will be glad to come and get them, but I do want you to know that I did not place them there. Actually, I noticed numerous signs of mine had been moved to different locations last night. I was out until midnight, so it had to have taken place between midnight and 7 am, which is when I noticed the others that were moved. If it happens again, please let me know and I will remove immediately.”

The “appropriate location” was a garbage bin. First off, if The Publisher was any kind of decent human being and this was indeed a prank by someone knowing how much of a critic he is to Edwards, he would have called and said “I have your signs, come get them or I will bring them in. They are not supposed to be on my lawn.” I would not have deliberately broken the law and destroyed them and then taken photographic proof of this.

As far as Mr. Edwards paying the bill? Well, a collection has been started and the office is up to $6.75 in coins and dollars. We here at a State Of Mind have started a matching collection of $6.75 in Pepsi cans so we are well on our way to paying off this two trillion dollar debt. That’s a lot more than the liberal Publisher’s current leaders administration has saved up towards it’s trillion dollar debt.

As for Mayor Edwards going out of his way to respond, it’s a lot more than he needed to do. He was polite and apologetic about this happening and has not once accused Mark of any wrong doing. I have and I will stick to it. What surprises me is The Publisher didn’t burn these signs. He is a suspected firebug after all.

So far, Edwards has not picked up the signs for fingerprinting despite a request to do so.

So here it ends. Number ten. A decology, thus far, of Exposing the Publisher. The Publisher wants the police to investigate, finger prints to be taken, signs to be picked up and trillions of dollars to be deposited into his account. Huh. I just realized we can add extortion to the charges in this little episode (temper tantrum?) by The Publisher. I bet no one thought of that yet, did they. Especially The Publisher.

One final note. The Publisher posted a photo of a supposed Mayor giving a photographer the middle finger. I chose not to repost that. But I did come up with something of my own to cap off this expose, if you will. I call it a three finger book for The Publisher to read.

I just hope he can read between the lines.

Exposing The Publisher #6

In this hard hitting series of Exposing The Publisher, number six focuses on a recent story that was the “top headline” story of the day that ran for two days during the week of the 4th. First, it should be noted that The Publisher over at Putnam(Omitted).com never dates his articles. This fact plays an important part in the following expose’.

Oh yeah, I call this one ” I kain’t stand da noise!”

MAYOR EDWARDS ADMITS ZONING DOESN’T CHANGE NOISE IMPACT

“For months, Hurricane Mayor Scott D. Edwards has told neighbors of the Walmart that to get the city to order the retailer to build a sound wall that they must change their zoning to residential.”

Actually, to be honest, it doesn’t matter what the zoning is. Changing the zoning permits won’t force Walmart or any other business to build any sort of sound wall or plant trees. A study would have to be done to see if the noise emitted, the distance sound waves travel and the actual decibel levels, effect any sound waves have on neighboring dwellings, would warrant the need of sound protection. One man complaining constantly about ambient noise (lets face it, we all have seen the video, it’s just ambient noise) does not make a study on sound wave effects.

“The neighbors have accurately said that zoning has no impact on noise levels and that the fast-talking Edwards has been throwing up a false argument to protect his pet project.”

What? I don’t even understand this statement as far as an argument in The Publishers favor. I just got done saying zoning doesn’t make a difference. The way he stated this line makes one wonder if he is crazy because it comes across as him stating an obvious; that something on paper (zoning) doesn’t effect something of a physical nature (travel of sound waves). Really, is he crazy or did I just read that that wrong way?

“As he has used the lame argument to stall the sound wall, Edwards has had council members and other politicians buying his rhetoric, including C. Brian Ellis and West Virginia State Senator W. “Mike” Hall. All along, Edwards has refused to provide any scientific evidence or statements from sound engineers that zoning has any impact on sound waves.”

“Of course, anyone with common sense knows that the reason Edwards never produced any evidence or sound engineer opinions is that there isn’t any.”

Those last two paragraphs/lines are more rhetoric than Edwards has ever let slip from his lips. Seriously. In a vain attempt to make himself sound sane, The Publisher uses his opinionated desperation to once again, disparage the Mayor.

“Now, Putnam(Omitted).com has a recording of Edwards admitting that the zoning has no impact on sound waves.”

Of course he does because The Publisher calls Mayor Edwards at least 4-5 times a week to complain about this or that. I have no doubt that this is one statement that is actually true.

“There’s no difference,” says Edwards. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Of course he doesn’t want to talk about it with The Publisher…he’s sick of talking about it! Matter of fact, there is nothing to talk about! It’s just The Publisher ranting hysterically. Who wants to deal with that, other than the now famous Trash Bloggers Alliance.

“Now that Edwards has finally spoken the truth on the issue, it remains to be seen if Hurricane City Council members will stand up To Edwards and take care of the more than 20 residents that endure the excessive noise from Walmart traffic on a daily basis.”

Edwards has always told the truth. He even admitted that yes, the zoning was changed years ago to simply fit the needs of Hurricane as it grew and evolved. Not to mention the fact that this is a NORMAL course of city evolution. Edwards doesn’t need to be challenged by people that support him. He needs to have a security detail thought because The Publishers obsession with calling the Mayor as much as he does, borders on the creepy.

“Edwards has promised that if a commercial offer were to be made on the neighbor’s homes that the city would gladly re-change the zoning back to commercial again. But he has a credibility problem about his statements and promises.”

Wait a second. Didn’t The Publisher just state in his opening line something about changing it back to residential? Let us check, shall we? To save you the scroll back effort, I’ll re-quote; “…to get the city to order the retailer to build a sound wall that they must change their zoning to residential.” Seriously? This guy calls himself a Publisher, says he has an editing team and calls this a legitimate business and he lets this make final copy? By this point, any reader that is not in the know about this guy is going to look at this as complete tripe and hit the X button in the upper right corner. What really kills me is he flip flops back in the next points. God, this guy is worse than John Kerry in his flip floppy decisions.

“Neighbors of the Walmart don’t want to change the zoning for two reasons:

Realtors have advised them that keeping the commercial zoning will make it easier to sell their homes.

Neighbors of the Walmart don’t trust Edwards after he promised to enforce the City of Hurricane noise ordinance during the July 2nd, 2007 city council meeting, then failed to keep that promise, instead going to court to have the ordinance nullified.

The Walmart neighbors have lived in their neighborhood for decades, up to 40 years. They have endured excessive construction and traffic noise for up to four years. About 15 lawsuits have been filed over construction blasting and construction noise simply because Edwards and the City of Hurricane have failed to enforce its noise ordinance as well as common sense and decency for its longtime citizens.”

Ok, lets tackle these one bullet point at a time.

Point #1: Of course realtors have suggested the zoning stay commercial (though as of this moment, based on this article, we are unsure what the zoning actually is) as it can bring a bigger payday. However, it won’t make things easier to sell. Based on a personal opinion here with the current direction of the economy (we are headed into the worst depression since the 20’s) there isn’t going to be a lot of commercial property changing hands in the near future in many places, much less Hurricane, WV.

Point #2: The only “neighbor” that doesn’t trust Mayor Edwards is The Publisher. But he’s not going to tell you that. He makes these blank statements so that if another Edwards hater happens to be linked to the article, he’ll get a misleading representation to add fuel to the fire. It’s a crock statement.

Point #3: More smoke. Those 15 lawsuits? All filed by The Publisher over the course of the last 3-4 years. Again, omitting the whole truth is unethical. And I will state again, there is a reasonable amount of evolution going on here. There are but a few neighbors still on Grace Drive and one of them is a huge salvage yard or whatever it is. Things have changed. Evolution has come to that part of Hurricane and The Publisher is doing nothing to better his position by complaining and demanding. He better be careful because ever since The New London, CT incident (the start of it) there is something called Eminent Domain. He’ll never get the $350,000 he is asking and Hurricane has plenty of time to wait him out before they hand him Eminent Domain papers and a check for what the property is actually worth.

“Edwards is a member of the Putnam County Development Authority Board of Directors which put together the Walmart project and served as a non-elected Hurricane City Council Member when the Walmart was planned. He was elected mayor in 2007 in a disputed election that included a decisive ballot box with unsealed envelopes.”

The Publishers version of the Florida “Chad” incident.

“Putnam(Omitted).com has reported that the City of Hurricane changed the zoning without the neighbor’s knowledge or permission, up to four decades after they bought their homes.”

Again, this is now harping, not reporting and again, it’s called city evolution.

“Meanwhile, Edwards refuses to put the Walmart sound wall and trees on the city council agenda, preventing a vote on the matter. When asked why, after the June meeting, he simply said, “because I don’t want to.” This means one man, the mayor, is preventing an entire neighborhood from having peace and quiet, something he enjoys every day-in his neighborhood across town from the Walmart.”

Ha! I love how he says “one man” in that statement. Why? Because it’s one man behind all this bullshit we are exposing now. The Publisher. He is “speaking” for all the residents. The only resident that complains is him. The only resident that hates Mayor Edwards is him. The Publisher. I’d also like to point out that The Publisher once again lied. He says Mayor Edwards enjoys his quiet in his neighborhood across town. I beg to differ. he can hear the caterwauling of The Publisher from his house every day.

“Putnam(Omitted).com used to publish a daily diary chronicling the daily excessive noise. However, we pulled it after Edwards’ supporters and Walmart supporters harassed this publisher and family members.”

Bullshit. It’s still up there. He just doesn’t make public the link for fear of one person. Your’s truly. Between myself and the commenter’s to this blog site making light of his lies and incessant bitching, he can’t stand it so he only allows it to be seen when he is all bent out of shape over something Walmart related. As it is, his latest effort is only updated through June 25th and that was released all at once. So it’s still pure BS and a crock.

“Councilman Ellis looked stunned when Putnam(Omitted).com informed him of Edwards’ admission, and councilwoman Lana Call says “The city can’t afford it,” while ducking the real issue of the city forcing disruptive businesses to endure the cost of sound walls.”

I happen to agree with Lana Call here. Of course the city can’t afford it. They have had to endure not only the down economy but the lawsuit wrath of The Publisher. That costs time, money and effort and each one (I know he has admitted to the 15 as stated in this piece earlier but there have been dozens more…all unsuccessful but disruptive none the least) adds to the time it will take to make a recovery.

Now.

Remember I said to pay attention to the fact that The Publisher never dates his stuff? Well, if you take out the last two lines of this story, you will find that this “article” was posted several months or even years ago. I know I read this entire piece about a year and a half ago when we first were turned on to the antics of The Publisher. Of course, he will call me a liar because there are no dates on said article. That doesn’t prove I am a liar, it proves he is unethical by deceiving the readers with old posts and added lines or changed facts when he has been called out.

As an added note here regarding this article, I have been invited by the Mayor or Hurricane himself to (at some point of my convenience) to give him a call. I am sure Mr. Edwards will be happy to put some truth behind the spin job that we have just exposed.

I Have A Dictionary

I use it quite often. However today I was quite surprised at what I found when I looked up the word Plagiarism.  Low and behold what do I see?

Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination. Some individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they plagiarized unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or give the appropriate citation.

I’d like to say you could have knocked me over with a Q-tip but I’m not surprised that The Publisher’s picture is in the dictionary, associated with this word.  Here is just one of many examples found and exposed by Mike Balburn* over at PutnamLIES.com.  Please also note the bold text that has been highlighted.

Feel free to comment!

*Special thanks for Mike Balburn for the use of the picture.

Exposing The Publisher #4

For months, Mark Halburn has boasted that he doesn’t allow comments from readers on his site to prevent things like unsubstantiated attacks or false statements from appearing. He claims he doesn’t have the time to moderate these kinds of posts, so as long as that’s the case, readers will never truly have the chance to interact, respond or refute the publisher’s work.

Mark Halburn is self-serving, unscrupulous, unethical and an embarrassment to the thousands of hardworking men and women who call themselves journalists. The reason we do these posts is to pick through the lies, the half-truths and the garbage to show you exactly what Mark Halburn is all about — something you’d never get from reading only his news site.

So, we encourage you to please pass along these “Exposing the Publisher” posts to allow Putnam County residents to see that their self-proclaimed news leader is really the leader in telling outright lies.

Fact: Troy Sexton is an employee of Turnpike Chevrolet in Nitro.

Fact: Turnpike Chevrolet has been a banner advertiser of PutnamLive.com

Fact: Since that banner advertisement, no negative coverage of Troy Sexton has appeared on the site in original form. The only negative stories are simply links from other publications, and these links are buried to mislead the reader.

Fact: It has never been mentioned that Turnpike was/is an advertiser. This clear conflict of interest should have been stated up front in any positive article written about Troy Sexton. You’ll notice it’s not.

Fact: These are truths you’ll only read here.

Introduction by Flipper, the Editing Bottlenose

Article by Tyler Hollywood

SEXTON:  Report  Says  Children  Weren’t  Abused

“Troy Sexton has been saying all along that he never abused his children. It appears he is telling the truth. “

My Response: Are you high? There is nothing about Troy Sexton that I would want to get behind and support here. What is this “publisher” thinking by throwing his support behind a child beater with a crocked up disorder like Intermittent Explosive Disorder. That is a complete bullshit disorder, made up as an excuse for the criminally stupid.  He lost his temper and made a bad choice. You live with shit like that, not find a scapegoat. By the way, anyone I know that says they have this? Can leave the room now.

Shit stains.

“Sexton, who was convicted of multiple domestic battery charges after he pleaded no contest claims he is the victim of a “witch hunt” after he spoke out against an accuser at his sons’ football practice.”

My Response: Witch hunt my ass. He was witnessed picking one kid up by the ankle and carrying him like that and pushing the other one down to the ground. There was nothing to be accused of. He did it and was seen doing it! Witch hunt my ass.

Shit stain.

“I pleaded to keep my kids out of having to go to court,” says Sexton. “I was protecting them. I had no idea people would turn me into a ‘villain’ and that I would go to jail.”

My Response: Bullshit. You pled no contest because had you pled innocent, you’d end up in jail for much longer and you knew you were fucking guilty.

Shit stain.

“But Sexton did go to jail, for 30 days, then admitted he made harassing phone calls when he says his family was being harassed. (And served 20 days in jail, concurrently). He also is serving two years of supervised probation for his domestic battery convictions, something he is very critical and angry about.”

My Response: He should shut his whole and be happy he’s not in jail for two years. Sexton went to jail because he broke the law. He should be in jail longer for beating up his own kids. But no. We give these asswipes carte blanch with these stupid disorders and excuses. Doctors, lawyers, fake newshounds and child beaters should all be herded up and shot.

Shit stains.

“Through the process, Sexton has been made the target of many abusive comments on many Internet blogs-usually by anonymous bloggers.”

My Response: Fuckin right he has. He deserves it. He’s the one that wants to be a public figure. Posting incredibly boorish You Tube videos about his man crush on Joe Beimel and beating your kids IN PUBLIC!

I can’t say shit stain anymore. I’m being fined $25 bucks each time I say it.

“I made the phone calls,” confesses Sexton. “I fought back like any father would do.” He says there is a huge difference between chewing someone out on the telephone and being a child abuser.”

My Response: You made the phone calls because you don’t know when to shut your hole. By the way, yes, there is a huge difference in chewing someone out on the phone and being a child abuser. You did both! Beat your kids and then harassed the witnesses.

Shit stain. I don’t care anymore. Put it on my tab.

“So Sexton doesn’t claim to be an “angel.” And he has provided a copy of an official report, verified by PutnamLIVE.com, that says he didn’t abuse his children, so he isn’t a “devil” either.”

My Response: Umm…look at that report a little closer, Mr. Publisher. Oh, at least Sexton admits he’s not an angel, but you, Mr. Publisher, can do no wrong and your shit doesn’t stink. I beg to differ.

“That Children’s Protective Services report says that allegations involving two of his children were investigated and in each case, the child “WAS NOT ABUSED BY TROY SEXTON.” The report, posted above, used capital letters.”

My Response: Number one, you can’t even read that report on your fucking 1996 web site, Mr. Publisher. You purposely supplied a shitty copy. If you read that entire thing it shows some namby pamby didn’t want to pull the trigger on the word abuse because of some apathetic reason, or the fact he or she believes in this whole IED bullshit. If you read further, the risk of these incidences happening again with Troy are moderate. Not slim. Moderate. Now why state that if it wasn’t abuse of some kind. There is no gray area here and you fuckstains at CPS are ignoring that fact.

“CPS would not comment on the report, other than for verification, and was stunned that PutnamLIVE.com obtained a copy. “We don’t release those,” said a CPS employee who declined to be identified. “‘lease tell us you didn’t get that from us!’

We didn’t.”

My Response: Then where did you get it? No doubt they were very surprised to find out you had a copy. Did Troy give it to you? All in an effort to gain some sort of sympathy? Sympathy from a no talent hack that threw Sexton under a bus over at the TBA blogs? If not from Troy, how did you get the document, Mr. Publisher? Hmmm? It certainly wasn’t through any FOIA attempt. That’s not public. And I gotta say, for you to be publishing the document on your blog has got to be highly unethical. I hope you get busted.

“But while Sexton was cleared of abuse, the report does go on to say that the ‘Risk that abuse and/or neglect may occur in the future was also found to be MODERATE.’ “

My Response: Oh look. I think I just pointed out that very thing. How nice of you to notice that too. Troy? Bus. Bus? Troy.

Shit stain.

“It should also be stated that Sexton was not accused of abusing all of his children or his wife. He says there is a good reason for that.”

“I love my wife and children. I would never hurt them. I didn’t hurt them,” Sexton stresses. “This whole thing has been a nightmare. Someday I will tell the whole story. It’s scary what they put me through.”

My Response: We already know the story. What’s scary is Troy Sexton not sitting in some jail cell, awaiting to be popped in the bung hole by some cell block leader named Damian. Oh, and I have a feeling why he hasn’t been accused of abusing his other kid or his wife…

…he hasn’t been caught doing that yet.
::collective gasp::

Hey hey hey…just my opinion. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

“Even Putnam Circuit Judge O.C. “Hobby” Spaulding questioned the motives of law enforcement when Sexton’s wife’s home was searched even though police knew Troy Sexton was not staying there.”

My Response: S.O.P people. Standard Operating Procedure. Live with it, shit stains.

“I do get the feeling that it has turned a little, and the state is only doing this as punitive,” Spaulding said, in open court. Still, Spaulding sentenced Sexton to 30 days in jail, a major reduction from the six months previously imposed by Putnam County Magistrate Kimberly M. Blair-Caruthers.”

My Response: See? This is what kills me. This judge had no nutsack. Either that or Troy’s wife was under the judges desk messing up her lip stick. Fuck you, Spaulding. You are a politically correct pansy and shouldn’t be wearing a robe.

“Sexton says nothing can undo the jail time or the harassment that he has endured from his critics. All he wants to do is clear his name and enjoy the family that he was separated from. And, he may move out of Putnam County, because he doesn’t feel like he will ever be treated fairly. “The system hates me,” Sexton says.”

My Response: There’s a reason you are hated, you fuckstick. You beat your kids. You are borderline retarted too. And no, that’s not an excuse either in my book. You deserved more jail time, you deserve the harassment that you have been getting (because Lord knows you have done more than your fair share of harassing others) and you will never, ever clear your name. Not even with the help of some shit for brains blogger that thinks he is more than the waste of air he is.

It’s Called Progress (Way)!

Ya know what? I hate how this guy hides details. “The no truck zone in front of our home…” That is such bullshit. I mean really. Give me a break. The home is several hundred feet away from Grace Drive, an unpaved, original road. That being said, the road that is supposedly (I have seen no proof of this at all) a “No Truck Road” is actually Progress Way, which was built by Walmart 12 feet BELOW that of Grace Drive. It’s also further away from “the home” than Grace Drive is. Look. I have proof dating back to original construction of Progress way.

Thanks To GOW for the crop and resend!

Speaking of Progress Way, I call that a little sweet irony. I’ve always told Mark that what is going on around him is progress. I find out today the “offending” road he constantly complains about is not Grace Drive, but Progress Way! HA! I laughed until I pee’d a little. Maybe I should have that checked. I kid. I kid.

So, on to answering his questions.

1) Why can’t these Walmart delivery morons honor the no-truck zone? A) No doubt because there is no such “rule” on that road. It’s Walmarts. They can do what they want with it.

2) And why doesn’t Hurricane Police cite these idiots!(?) (I had to add the question Mark to correct his punctuation). A) Because you have bashed, libeled, and pissed off the police department (as well as the city officials) to the point that they wouldn’t send you help if you dialed 911 come break in or fire.

I gotta tell ya, if I was the Mayor of this City, I’d wait until Mark and his Korean like family (how many people live there now?) are out of the house and I’d have a wrecking ball “accidently” level the home.

No, really. I would.

When Did Ignorance Become A Point Of View?

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”

Confucius (Teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, 551-479 BC)

How far will one man go to prove to the rest of the world that he alone is right? Dare I say to the edge? On March 8th. 2010 I took the liberty to ask Mark Halburn for some information about his current issue with the City of Hurricane. All I asked for was simply the name of the attorney he is going to use to “bring action” against the City of Hurricane and the name of the journalist that had joined him when he executed an FOIA request. What I got was a no comment about the attorney and the name of the journalist. A freelance hack by the name of Lawrence J. Smith. A man so popular amongst readers in Putnam County that his Twitter account (one of the current, most popular main stream networking sites) is chock full of…23 followers.

That, however, is neither here nor there. The issue I take today is Mark’s slanderous libel he has bestowed upon the City of Hurricane, a city that has become sort of sister city to this writer. In Mark’s vain attempt to prove that he wasn’t wrong in his recent article about zoning changes that affected his second wife’s dwelling (in which he comically proved himself wrong with incorrect documents), The Publisher has posted yet another article. I would dare say that of all the “articles” he has written and of all the yelling and screaming he had done on his Wal Mart blog, this recent article borders on the criminal.

The latest fiasco starts rather incorrectly. A copy and past of his Freedom of Information Act request he sent late in the afternoon on February 12th, 2010. Why someone would start a “news article” with that is beyond me. In it is proof of his own mistake and he doesn’t even see that.

“I plan to exercise my right to exercise my right to view and copy such documents with my own copier. Please contact me to set up an afternoon appointment for me to make these copies.”

This was underlined, by the way, as sort of an ‘in tour face’ statement, in my opinion. What The Publisher failed to realize was that in that statement alone, he had just put all the “misleading” squarely on his shoulders of responsibility. In a nutshell, he didn’t read what he was given. He didn’t get what he wanted because of this line in his request.

“1) All records related to the zoning of the homes and land owned by Dolores Martin-Halburn, Margaret Martin, and John Clay, located on what is now called Grace Drive, in Hurricane, WV. These records are to include any and all Hurricane City Council voting records and minutes related to the zoning of said properties.”

As a matter of fact here, nowhere in this FOIA request does he state the specifics of said property to even give the city a decent chance to find said records. No parcel number. No tax map identifiers. The city did not mislead or fail to deliver what was asked for. It was Mark himself that failed. How did he expect them to find exactly what he needed when he didn’t help at all with any information supplied. He just demanded.

Since he failed to read what was supplied he posted an “article” about how he was able to “nail the Mayor’s backside” to some proverbial wall. When it was pointed out he was dead wrong in a published “article” on his “news site” he totally blew a nut. Now he is bringing action against the city and supposedly has proof. He doesn’t. He just has more of the same rhetoric. The newest “article” starts;

“An attempt to mislead (trashy web site named removed to avoid possible, future action) by City of Hurricane officials has backfired with legal action being planned against the town.

In February, (that 1996 web site) filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Mayor Scott D. Edwards asking for “All records related to the zoning of the homes and land owned by Dolores Martin-Halburn, Margaret Martin, and John Clay, located on what is now called Grace Drive, in Hurricane, WV. These records are to include any and all Hurricane City Council voting records and minutes related to the zoning of said properties.”

Firstly, he’s only thinking about bringing action against the city. He says he has lined up an attorney but he won’t supply the name. That’s because no one is going to touch any suit Mark Halburn wants to bring against the city, or anyone for that matter. It’s Mark blowing smoke.

Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, Mark failed himself when he did not specify a parcel number or tax map number. The city did their best to get together what he had requested. The city didn’t mislead Mark, he misled himself.

“Those records should have included zoning maps, legal announcements in newspapers, and correspondence with affected homeowners. And they should have been provided within five business days of the time that the request was filed.”

Uh, no. That’s actually an incorrect assumption. Again, no information was supplied to help in that task so no zoning maps and corresponding documents could be provided. Oh yeah, there is also this;

“West Virginia Code §11-1C-7 requires specific payment for the production of the tax map sheet.” (Thanks Lenny!)

No matter how much you beg and plead to have reproduction costs dropped or changed, you are not going to get what you want unless you pay. As a matter of fact, Mark even tried.

“I request a waiver of all fees for this request. Disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government, and is not primarily in the interest of a business trying to get information on industrial competitors.”

Ha! Public interest. No one but Mark Halburn is interested in Mark Halburn. It should have read “in the interest of creating a libel and slanderous account of Hurricane…” Plus, and I am beating a bloody, dead horse here, he didn’t supply enough information to get what HE wanted. Getting back to the article, he really starts to bite in deep.

“But the City of Hurricane violated the law, waiting until the first week of March to provide two documents that it represented as 1994 zoning changes for the properties listed in the FOIA request. PutnamLIVE.com published those documents based on statements made by a city staffer. Freelance reporter Lawrence J. Smith witnessed the statements. Maps for the properties were not provided, despite the specific FOIA request for “All documents.”

There is only one problem: The city lied. Those documents represented property where Saturn of Charleston-Huntington and the current Hurricane Chevrolet later were constructed.”

Ok. The City of Hurricane did not violate anything. Mark likes to harp on this “5 day” thing but here are some simple facts. He sent his request on February 12th. A Friday. Monday was a state holiday. No doubt the request was accepted as of Tuesday the 16th. They have 5 “business” days to process a request. That’s just a guideline, actually, for a request such as this. There was no pressing matter discussed or proven. As it is, they had until (officially) the 22nd of February, taking into account holidays and non business days. Add in the fact that they have a city to run, had NO INFORMATION on exactly what was requested and you can toss in a few days to that guideline of 5 days. Mark also harps on “all documents” but you don’t get what you don’t pay for. See above. Oh yeah, even the city manager knew Mark screwed up.

“Edwards tried to pass the buck for his city’s misconduct by sending (the horrible excuse of a web site) the following email: ‘I am assuming that you did not read the property description on the Zoning Change Planning Commission letter……. Since it does NOT describe the property where your wife’s house is. It specifically describes the property where Hurricane Chevrolet is.'”

This is what you get when you do not provide adequate information in your FOIA, douche bag. You get nothing and you get called out for it.

“(Shit for Brains) could not read the maps because the city failed to provide them-as required by the FOIA request.”

Again, you didn’t pay for them. Let me remind you; West Virginia Code §11-1C-7? This sinking in yet?

“Several days after (that site we won’t mention) called out Edwards to provide the proper documents, City Manager Benjamin Newhouse sent an email that, again, only partially complied with the FOIA request, but, again, indicate that the city changed the zoning (During a May 3rd, 1993 meeting) of the Walmart neighbors from residential to business-something that they (including the wife of this publisher) have all said was done without their permission or knowledge and after they bought homes that were zoned residential.”

So what? Really? So what? We already knew the zoning had been changed. The only person that cares is Mark Halburn. He’s just so embarrassed that he is wrong and has been proven wrong that he is all pissy and now just creating the misconception of impropriety. That’s wrong. I proved that the night before this blog posting on my radio show.

“So even in the second set of presented documents, the city has apparently contradicted its longstanding statements that the Walmart neighbors bought commercial properties. In a vain attempt to save face, it is digging a deeper ethical hole that it cannot possibly climb out of. It is important that no one at city hall is now denying that the zoning of the Walmart neighbor’s homes was switched. The question that does remain is what, if anything, will Edwards and the city do to rectify the injustice.”

Looking at this in a rational and realistic manner, Mark is all bent out of shape over one mans off handed remark about “buying commercial property” when in fact they did not. So Mark sent himself on this wild goose chase that dates back 17 frickin years. Something that has only become an issue in the last few because of Wal Mart. The man has a sick affliction over all this and is now creating his own potential problems of libel and slander. Something he always complains about when people talk about him. He ends his recent diatribe with this;

“Violating the FOIA law is a misdemeanor in West Virginia. Unfortunately, Putnam County Prosecutor Mark A. Sorsaia effectively protects violators by refusing to enforce the law.”

Mark? You never admitted that you were wrong in the article you recently have buried on your web site. The path you are about to choose is also wrong. Like everything else you do in life you are not approaching this with any rationality, clarity and certainly with no realistic outcomes expected. You are throwing a temper tantrum over nothing. Your apathetic, entitlist ideals continue to sap the energy and finances of a perfectly normal city such as Hurricane. The city is not going to do the work for you, Mark. They are not expected to and should not have to. Hell, if you were unsure of your tax map code or your parcel number because of a lack of tax record upkeep, well, that’s on you. But Jesus Christ, man, they even give you a number to call so you can get that information.

Face it, dickcheese, you failed. You failed yourself and like all the other apathetic shitholes in life, you have to go and finger point and blame someone else. Well, I want you to take my suggestion, Mark, to help you find your answers. The answers to the blame, the fault and who is responsible for the wretched condition you are in and the direction that we, as a nation are heading if things don’t change. If you do this one thing Mark, it will also reveal the one person who can help you the most. You like to finger point, so I implore you to take your finger, Mark and stand before the biggest mirror in the house and point…and you shall have all your answers.

Revelations! Mark 11:26

You know what amazes me about the Mark Halburn situation I find myself in? That each day we find out something new about him or his situation. All these years he’s been complaining about the noise from Wal Mart which sits several hundred yards from his little blue hovel but the way he makes it sound, the parking lot is on his front porch.

For years he has been complaining about the plows, street sweepers, the every day traffic, June bugs flapping their wings and even Interstate traffic that is a mile away. We all know he is blowing smoke so he can try and sell his house as a commercial property, there by getting some more money that it’s actually worth. It’s appraised at roughly $89,000, or in that ball park. But yeah, Mark would take a check of $350, 000…no less.

Crowd: What?

Yeah. I know, right. $350,000.

::collective laugh::

30,000 comedians out of work and this guy is trying to be funny. I wish that were the case. He is dead serious. So he invents all these noise problems to prove to the world that it’s better to but the property as a commercial property so no one has to deal with that noise as a residential and of course, to bump up the price. These complaints have continued for 5 years.

Then we find out a Revelation! On the 27th of February (a month after his trespassing conviction, mind you, he dials up the current fixation of his, Lee of Cryptic Bullshit. See, Lee and he are having a go around so Mark decides to try and get even. He pranks Lee with a fake voice and some crude remarks then tries to deny it by posting this;

“Lee is continuing to libel me with false accusations. I did not call him. I was sleeping. A simple subpoena off all of our telephone records will prove that none of us called him. Two adults will testify that I was sleeping. A scan of my CPAP record card will prove that I was sleeping. Lee continues to libel me and Tyler is allowing the libel.”

So he was dead asleep and his CPAP machine can prove….wait what?! He has a what? He has a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine?!  Hold the phone here.  If he has one of these and uses it to sleep, how the hell does he hear all that noise from Wal Mart?!  Have you heard these things?  No way is Mark hearing all this noise from Wal Mart with that machine on.  Holy Liar Pants On Fire, Batman!  Mark just threw 5 years of complaining out the window!

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I hope he gave himself a nice reach around there because he just fucked himself.  Funnier thing?  I have proof he was up and about when he said he was sleeping.  He told Lee he was sleeping and the CPAP machine can record the time (even though Lenny has proven you can turn the damn thing on and not be wearing it) of 11:56 when the prank call was made.

173.80.180.152 is the IP address of Mark at his little hovel.  It’s the same one as listed in the graphic above.  Note that he was looking at my site at 11:36PM, 20 minutes before he made the prank call to Lee.  Yet, he was able to settle down into bed, get the CPAP affixed over his head and fall asleep into a deep sleep in 20 minutes.  Someone get me a buzzer.

::BUZZER::

Thank you.  so, not only have we caught him in his lie about prank calling Lee, we also find out that his noise problem is complete and utter bullshit as well because of the CPAP machine.  Double win!

For some reason, though, I have this vision of the Knights That Say Neet.

“It’s only a flesh wound!  Come on.  I can still fight!”

Give it up Mark.