Money? Ego? Politics? More?
What's their motivation? (Or, why do City Hall apparatchiks rage? Why do they seek to chill free speech rights?
Why do they make impertinent, untrue and bigoted remarks about me? I'm not the issue.
It reminds me of what St. Augustine Chief Operating Officer John Regan told me shortly after the criminal investigators arrived. He said, "because of what you have done," there will be a "long process."
I did not deposit contaminants in the Old City Reservoir. I reported them to federal officials. (National Response Center Report No. 788280, filed on February 17, 2006). Our City has such contempt for the environment that it broke the law. Our City Hall is guilty of "blaming the messenger," when it needs to have cleaned up its mess – starting nine (9) months ago, instead of shillyshalling, lallygagging and delaying the FDEP-ordered cleanup.
Our City officials lack the intellectual rigor or emotional maturity to answer any questions at all for nine (9) months on their possible environmental crimes – illegal dumping of arsenic-contaminated city dump contaminants – 20,000 cubic yards worth, or enough to fill in six Olympic size swimming pools or cover a football field to a depth of 11.2 feet? As the Bible asks, "why do the heathen rage?" Why do they use shills (now that the Record has blasted Mayor GEORGE GARDNER for his Philistinism)?
1. Who is William L. Leary? I have never met him. His expressing opinions on administrative-judicial retaliation (without benefit of a jury trial, including denials of due process and trials in absentia) is at best incomplete. Leary's driving under the inference regarding First Amendment violations by Tennessee and the U.S. Department of Labor range from the misguided to the misanthropic to the libelous to the supercilious.
Our society benefits from informed discussion of issues.
That's why I invited Bill Leary, who is a former George W. Bush Administration environmental policy advisor, working in the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS) to appear on our podcast six days ago. So far, Bill Leary's not called me back.
Why not?
As William F. Buckley, Jr. once asked, "why does baloney reject the grinder?"
Mr. William L. Leary moved to St. Augustine last year and has already distinguished himself as a political patronage appointee (read: hack) to the Planning and Zoning Board, zealously defending in an October St. Augustine column the righteousness of developer Chester Stokes getting "brownfield" tax credits to construct homes on the former Ponce de Leon Golf Course, destroying wetlands and wildlife habitat in the name of "tax ratables."
Bill Leary's column in last Sunday's Record was unadorned with any identification as to the etiology of his sarcasm and ridicule. Again, I have never met the man.
When I called him last Monday, he said he was busy cooking for a dinner party and would call me back the next day.
He's not called back yet.
Last year, the Record printed an AP article quoting Bush environmental advisor Bill Leary as telling those concerned about delays in funding Everglades' cleanup to "be calm."
Mr. Leary is anything but "calm" in using a bludgeon to defend City Hall from questions.
Who put the idea of trashing me in Bill Leary's brain?
What do you reckon?
In any event, I wear this irascible scold's scorn as a badge of honor.
Unlike Leary, I've fought hard to protect environmental, nuclear and trucking whistleblowers, exposing corruption in our government and business, winning punitive damages thrice against federal agencies 2002-2003 (earning the hatred of nuclear weapons plants and DOL Chief Judge John Michael Vittone).
I've published seven articles on human rights issues in American Bar Association publications (two in the Judges' Journal), as well as publishing columns and letters critical of cartels and their co-opted political appointees in the Bush Administration, including the stolen 2000 election.
Bill Leary, come on down – we look forward to interviewing you for our podcast and will be following your new career as a coverup-artist here in St. Augustine.
2. Who is Clara Waldhari?
A different kettle of fish is presented by the seething the cauldron of emotions posed by one Clara Waldhari, wife of City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt.
I've never met nor talked with her, but we exchanged pleasant PMs (Personal Messages) on "Talk of the Town" before she evidently decided that I am a rat-fink.
I suppose my offense, in her eyes, was asking questions about her husband's actions (and those of his boss) on archaeology, and questioning the obscene, vulgar, crass and mean-spirited antics of one Willett Albright Boyer, III, who abused "Talk of the Town" for the purpose of advancing private agendas on archaeology. Boyer works for a Jacksonville consulting firm, has a Master's in Archaeology, and posted opinions and conclusions with which his UF Anthropology Department Chair and major professor for his Ph.D. disagreed with when I called their attention to them. Waldhari blames me for "ruining" Boyer's career. Boyer refused to behave civilly (or speak), while continuing to insult good and decent people who care passionately about preserving indigenous archaeology sites, including Red House Bluff, a 3000-4000 year old indigenous Indian village threatened by a condo and strip mall development (which our City Commissioners approved without Halbirt ever having seen the ESI report and without the ESI report ever having been forwarded to state officials).
Willett Albright Boyer, III allegedly took over and bossed an unsatisfactory "compromise" on the Tremerton site, one that left Native Americans and SAAA members uncomfortable (leaving indigenous graves behind a wall in a gated community, leaving SAAA responsible in perpetuity for monitoring it, without right of access or funding for legal activities). Willett Albright Boyer, III was the mentee of Ms. Waldhari's husband, City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt.
Ms. Waldhari knows her husband (and other city professionals) deserve independence and whistleblower protection against pressures from developers and City managers like WILLIAM B. HARRISS and MARK KNIGHT. Cognitive dissonance is such a powerful force. In her heart, Clara Waldhari knows I'm right. She was kind enough to sponsor me for SAAA membership – she's got good ideas and intuitions (though sometimes misguided).
The issues of illegal dumping involve right and wrong – it's wrong to pollute anywhere. It's worse to pollute without state or federal permits, violating SJRWMD orders, treating the land and people of this beautiful city and county as expendable. It's wrong to engage in environmental racism in dumping while denying annexation to West Augustine.
It's wrong to take a 3000-4000 year old Native American village archaeological site and turn it into condos and a stripmall without proper investigation. Go ahead – "Google" the words "Red House Bluff" to learn more about former NY lawyer Robert Michael Graubard's plans and the City's coverup. We've still not gotten answers about what Graubard and our City are trying to do to a 3000-4000 year old Indian archaeological site (Mayor GEORGE GARDNER, meekly dissenting). Never letting the facts get in the way of a rant, Ms. Waldhari and city officials abused confidential information to insult Mr. Harry Metz and other dedicated archaeological volunteers. In addition to Halbirt's wife, Ms. Waldhari, another of the people "piling on" Mr. Metz was possibly a City Commissioner.
"Talk of the Town" bullies practice blacklisting (see below for more on threats to activists), while abusing their cloying affectation of "anonymity" on "Talk of the Town" to torment, curse and ridicule anyone who disagrees with them. Ms. Waldhari's idee fixee is defending the indefensible – our City's warped priorities of destroying historic Native American archaeological sites. She's ab used venom and personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with City Planning and Zoning Director MARK KNIGHT (her husband's supervisor). As in Waldhari's Record column today, she's generally acted on TOTT as an enemy of free speech, with a vengeance. Waldhari and friends posted pages of anti-Gay remarks on the Bridge of Lions Rainbow flags, with Waldhari and friends belatedly deleting three (3) of 32 pages them when I questioned them about it earlier this year.
Waldhari's friend, Willett Albright Boyer, III, was deleted from "Talk of the Town" earlier this year, even writing obscenities and vulgarities and other filth on Easter Sunday.
Some of Waldhari's "Talk of the Town" friends were reportedly deleted by the St. Augustine Record a few days ago as a result of hostile remarks, including one recidivist sexist, homophobic poster's calling a former County Commissioner a "whore." What passes for "dialogue" by some of the tatterdemalion termagants who post anonymously on "Talk of the Town" makes Rush Limbaugh look like a choirboy, G. Gordon Liddy look like a scholar, and Pat Buchanan look like a gentleman. Earlier this year, I found that "Talk of the Town" had degenerated into a forum for city and county officials to chill dissent. I posted on "Talk of the Town" and endured a heap of abuse. I stuck to inconvenient truths, starting with A (archaeology). On ToTT, I shared FDEP photos of our City's illegal dumping, rebutting City Hall spin that the dumping was "trivial," or a "mistake," or that it was never the "Old City Reservoir." And stuff and nonsense. I was congratulated by one ToTTer ("Phred") for posting zealously turning ToTT back into the forum for local issues that it was intended to be (with numerous, virulent hate-Ed threads springing up as part of City Hall's disinformation campaign, complete with obscene remark, remarks about my mother, homophobic remarks, obscenities and repeated ad hominem links to disbarment information and other irrelevancies.
When my former client, Hanford (Washington) nuclear whistleblower Edwin L. Bricker posted to defend my honor from the "anonymice," they attacked him with glee, with one of the "anonymice" even falsely personifying hself/herself as Ed's wife, Cindy, while spewing lies and anti-Gay remarks about Ed Bricker. There were false statements about Ed Bricker (by that sexist poster recently kicked off ToTT). There were even threats of violence.
It seems that some in St. Augustine have not advanced far since 1964.
Those in City Hall remind me of what was said 100 years ago by scholar Edwin Alvord Ross about "criminaloid" personalities (they're in a hurry and not particular about the means of achieving their goals.
I asked people on ToTT to agree to voluntary civility standards, including not making sexist, homophobic or obscene remarks, statements about posters' personal appearances, or statements about their mothers. The response was what you'd expect from an enraged mob.
I share Clara Waldhari's pain. I take her at her word in her E-mails that she's a victim of chemical sensitivity syndrome, the sequelae of working with old files as an archivist for the National Park Service.
Ms. Waldhari knows her husband (and other city professionals) deserve independence and whistleblower protection against pressures from developers. Cognitive dissonance is such a powerful force. In her heart, Clara Waldhari knows I'm right.
It's wrong to take a 3000-4000 year old Native American village archaeological site and turn it into condos and a stripmall without proper investigation. Google "Red House Bluff" and "Robert Graubard" for more information about what our City is trying to do to a 3000-4000 year old Indian archaeological site (Mayor GEORGE GARDNER, meekly dissenting). making some City Hall computers into full-time monitors of "Talk of the Town," with City officials and apparathiks angry. In fact, Mayor GARDNER told me at a City Commission meeting that he no longer enjoyed me this Spring that he no longer enjoyed "Talk of the Town." As Judith Seraphin said to GARDNER in today's Record (quoting Harry Truman), "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." I wear GARDNER's and other City Hall defenders' scorn as a badge of honor.
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