Wednesday, August 27, 2008

ABC Producer Arrested In Denver

This is what happens when the police ignore the First Amendment and bully the media.

ABC Producer Arrested In Denver

Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown's Palace Hotel.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

Video taken at the scene shows a hotel security guard, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

The sheriff's officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

About 15 minutes later, on-duty Denver police arrived and placed Eslocker under arrest after Eslocker asked why he was being ordered away from the front of the hotel. Dozens of pedestrians can be seen walking by the hotel, located in the heart of downtown Denver.


This is so wrong, I don't even know where to begin. I just hope the Denver police dept. has a good amount of money put away. Makes you wonder who the Denver Police Department works for.

95% of the time the police work well with the media. This is when the five percent rears it's ugly head.

Monday, August 18, 2008

I Hear You Knocking But...

I don't want the damn Watchtower. I don't want to be woken up by my children, after only twenty minutes of my nap time (I still work overnights), telling me that there's a guy with a shirt and tie on with a ticket book at our front door.

I don't want to talk abut Jehovah. Or Yahweh or Buddah, Shiva, Mohhammed, or Confucius either.

I don't want any damn literature or pamphlet.

I want you to go away. Quickly. As in right now.

I have nothing against you or your religion. But as of right now...


I want to sleep.

I want my home to be a bastion of privacy from people knocking on my door, scaring my kids and waking me up to talk about God.

I want to sleep.

I want to pick you up by your collar and belt and physically heave you fifteen feet or so into the air whilst I grumble, "You woke me up...", as you land on a patch of grass in my front yard. Hopefully that patch of grass has been used by my Blue Heeler as her chosen toilet that morning.

And no, I don't want to by frozen meat out of the back of your truck. I don't want to help you with your college student trip to Uzbekistan by buying magazines.

I wonder if a "No Trespassing" sign will work...

Sunday, August 10, 2008

What A &^#$@!* Day !!

It started out very badly. One of our cats passed in the morning. We sort of knew it was going to happen but it's not a pleasant time when it does. Max didn't suffer. He just went kind of quickly. He was very loving yesterday, wanted petted, did the normal rub up against you cat things a cat will do when they are affectionate. He also kept staring at me. I loved on him all morning, then went to bed for the day (my night..). I woke up and could not find him. I finally did though, in our basement. He was just laying there, breathing but hardly moving. I picked him up and brought him upstairs. We wrapped him in blankets to make him comfortable but he jumped out and ran downstairs. We decided that we'd take him to the vet to be put down if he made it through the night.

This morning, I woke up and found him, still alive, in the same position in the same spot as yesterday. So I called the vet and got a noon appointment for him. My wife came home early from work and we went downstairs to get him. We couldn't find him right away but I finally did. He managed to settle down in a small space between two boxes and pass away in peace. I dug a small grave for him in our back yard and we placed him in it. He'll be missed.

Oh but the day got better. We were to go to a Lake County Captains baseball game. They're the Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, in case you didn't know. We we supposed to go with my oldest son's boy scout pack. We told the pack leader we would all attend so that would be four in our family for tickets. We got to the park and went to the will call window to pick up our tickets. We're told that there are only two available for us under our name. We try to figure out why that happened (the pack leader screwed up...royally, but that pales in comparison.)

We try to see if there are two closer seats to where we're supposed to sit and of course the answer is "No." But they'll bend for us and comp the two tickets we were given and they'll sell us two other tickets for a total of four tickets together in a different row but at least they'll be together. So, we pay the $14 and get four tickets together. We go to those seats and see that someone has put a jacket and umbrella in one of our seats. I moved it and sat down.

We waited for the game to start when we saw someone from our boy scout pack. I went over to talk to them and explain why we weren't sitting with them. I came back to find my wife talking to a older couple. Seems that they had two of the tickets we were just sold. So the Captains double sold the tickets.

Wonderful.

So, we go and get an usher and explain the situation. He calls over a Captains staffer (an intern with a radio) and we explain the situation abut the lack of tickets for us, the exchange and buying the tickets for those four seats. The intern takes our tickets and says, "I'll see what the problem is and be right back." He comes back about 5 minutes later tells us they double sold the seats and hands us four different tickets. This time the tickets are for the "General Manager Seats" right behind home plate. Section 110, Row S, Seats 13, 14, 15 and 16. So off we go.

And you guessed it....

THERE WAS SOMEONE ALREADY SITTING IN TWO OF OUR SEATS. We showed him our tickets for those seats. Then he showed his tickets for those seats. Guess what? THEY DOUBLE SOLD THOSE TICKETS ALSO!!!

Mother......

Anyways, we go to guest services and are livid. I started to yell at poor Justin, the kid from the Captains guest services department, until my wife shooed me away with the kids to go watch the game we're now two innings into. Well, after another half inning down, my wife comes over and finds me. She says Justin will be back. He's checking on four seats that are first row, right behind the visitor's dugout on the third base line.

Justin comes back, hands us vouchers for free food and four tickets for those coveted seats. He asks us to follow him and escorts us to those seats. The seats are empty and they're wonderful. We couldn't believe our luck.

(say it with me, everyone....)

UNTIL.........

The skies opened up.(Ahhh, you thought I was going to say people showed up and wanted their seats, didn't you??) Lightning, thunder, torrential rains. Heck, if fire fell from the sky, locusts ate our hot dogs and Lake Erie turned blood red, I wouldn't have even batted an eye. It was beyond surreal at this point.

We went to the concourse and shoved ourselves into the mass of humanity huddled together for shelter. We had had enough. The kids were freaking because of the storm and most importantly, they weren't able to get a foul ball!!! Oh the HUMANITY!!

We left. We ran though horrendous rains that soaked us, as well as almost everyone else, when going to the parking lot. It was raining sideways, people.

So, here I am, dry now, at home and blogging about our night from in hell.

Oh, the total number of innings we actually got to watch tonight? Less than one whole inning actually sitting down and watching.

I don't think if they even gave us luxury box passes for the suspended game, I'd go.

A letter to their guest services and ticket offices are going out on Monday.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Here Kitty Kitty

Sent down to northern Medina county overnight to check out a man attacked by a mountain lion.

Yes. I said a mountain lion.

I didn't find a scene when I got down there but apparantly the guy has it as a pet. And he was very uncooporative with the authorities.

I thought I was in for another giant rooster attacking cars story.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry