We dont need no "new" stinking badges!

In January 2009 it only took a few days to find out newly elected Liberty County Sheriff Henry Patterson was not going to be the typical law and order conservative most rural counties hope to elect.
  
Two of Patterson’s early decisions showed he was unsympathetic to many of the voters who were looking for someone who would help tighten the budgetary belt and remake the image of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office.  Patterson began developing a far worse legacy from the get go.

One of the new Sheriff’s first moves was to insist on scrapping the badges being worn by a department made up of over forty law enforcement personnel.  That may seem like a small thing but at a cost of approximately $80 a badge, Patterson managed to create over $3000 in unanticipated and unnecessary expense because the badges looked like DPS badges.  He also refused to try and recover any of the taxpayers’ money by denying his folks the opportunity of buying their old badges.

More than a few would have paid $25 to $40 and kept their old badges and the county could have at least recovered from some of Patterson’s makeover shopping spree.  Patterson’s also expanded his “style” campaign by throwing money at a re-branding effort that stuck a new Liberty County Sheriff’s Office stickers on just about anything that stood still long enough to aim a peel and stick at.

Another of Patterson’s initial moves was to hire a much traveled lawyer to serve in his small group that was considered “leadership”.  It signaled to some that Patterson was eager to fulfill his campaign promise to clean up the department and the county government.  And it could have been a good move.  But hiring local lawyer Steve Green was far from being good for the county. Patterson, and any other sheriff in Texas, did not have to have a lawyer to wade through the tricky laws that are involved in firing employees.  When Patterson took office he had a free hand to hire and fire anyone.
 
What Patterson and Liberty County got when Steve Green was hired was someone that had come from the Liberty County D.A.’s office to the Chambers County D.A.’s office to the Harris County’s County Attorney Office… all in a short period of time.  He was just as unimpressive and popular in each of these places.  Rather than fulfill his campaign promise to clean up whatever he thought was the problem on day one, Patterson hired a piss-ant bean counting lawyer that had less experience on the streets than possibly any of the people he became the judge and jury over.

Green helped Patterson drive the morale in the Sheriff’s office straight into the ground as lawmen that had never been in trouble one day in their careers began to worry as Captain Knit Picker entered his career in the LCSO with a regulation busting beard and a sharp eye he used to aim his write-ups at anyone he wanted to coerce.  So Liberty County got a high priced rookie who made the atmosphere among the forty or so deputies stink.  And he also kept whatever problems Patterson was referring to in his campaign and risked lawsuits by what seemed like some kind of continuing, never ending internal affairs investigations being run by a very green Steve Green.

January of 2013 is a much rosier looking picture for those who know Bobby Rader. Rader will be a great boss for those who act like professionals and do a good job for Liberty County’s citizens.  The politics and the pettiness and the good ole boy images of past administrations should all consider themselves on notice.  Jobs will be secure for those who are there to give a good days “professional” work.  Training will be more available.  Men and women who risk their lives to protect the communities in Liberty County will hear a great deal more encouragement and a whole lot less as the “gotcha” attitude will be replaced by professionalism.

As for the badges, you can bet Sheriff Rader will be using his budget to make us proud of those who wear a Liberty County badge rather than blowing it on someone’s idea of style points.  Rader has some real good people to work with and some people that need to go find another profession right away. You can bet he will hit the ground running to clean up the Green and Patterson mess.  No more peel and stick cover ups, just a roll up his sleeves and work hard sheriff- Finally…

What happens when you get caught with your pants down?

As many people who follow the news and Liberty Dispatch know, some of the corrupt public officials in Liberty County feel entitled to break the law when it is convenient for them.  There are two definite standards of legal accountability in Liberty County, one which applies to the corrupt in power and one which applies to the rest of us.  Let’s start by saying that there are many great political figures in Liberty County, an example is our District/County panel of Judges.  An example of corrupt officials in Liberty County is County Attorney Wes Hinch and Pct. 4 Commissioner Norman Brown, to name a few.

In Norman Brown’s case- for over two years we at Liberty Dispatch have been deluged with complaints about Brown’s people driving carelessly and imprudently almost killing people.  When people have called Norman Brown he won't talk to them about their complaints, nor will his people.  This is the legal accountability standard for Brown and his corrupt friends.

Recently, in a Commissioner’s meeting Norman Brown in open court started spouting private medical information about county employees and naming people with cancer and other diseases.  Even Liberty Dispatch contributor Ray Akins has had his medical information splashed across the net and public by corrupt Liberty County officials and the heads of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office along with the now fired CEC, Jail Corporation.   CEC Jail Warden Timothy New not only publicly divulged private medical information he also allegedly dealt in drugs and a sex ring for the benefit of himself and his corrupt officers.  Further, the irresponsible news media in Liberty County took the illegally disseminated detailed medical  information and regurgitated it to the public.  Some of the offending news media companies have been sued in district and federal court for their tortuous acts.

To top off what Commissioner Norman Brown did by publicly disclosing private medical/HIPPA information, after the commissioners meeting, Brown did just what a corrupt public official would do when caught with his pants down… corrupt Norman Brown told the local media "do not print" what he said.  Only Liberty Dispatch and The Cleveland Advocate had the guts to post the truth.

Liberty Dispatch would like to make it known that Liberty County judge Craig McNair(R) neither agreed with Norman Brown’s actions nor tried to cover up Norman Brown’s legal violations.  Our county judge McNair believes in everyone’s medical and financial privacy – unlike corrupt Public Official Norman Brown.

More lawsuits are sure to follow.

The corruption in Liberty County continues.

CRUZ ,RUBIO, AND THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM

As difficult as it is for many of us to believe this country would embrace the wildest tax and spend politician ever to reside at 1600 Pennsylania Avenue, they did. Barack Hussein Obama has already set new records for the U.S history books to record on such things as “most money borrowed by any President”, and now he has four more years to drown the economy in more borrowing and spending as the record is inflated to numbers unheard of before he arrived. But what are we sensible, practical voters to do now that we lost and theman has the credit card and the printing press ready to spray U.S. currency all over the place as he digs the hole even deeper.

 

One group of principleless Republicans is pushing for the more conservative of the two parties to become less conservative. That is not an option for anyone with a soul and anyone who aspires to help this country adhere to the creed “in God we trust.

 

What about the other extreme though. Some conservative zealots have said what most of us only have joked about. Peter Morrison, treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party, wrote a column in the post-election edition of his Tea Party newsletter this week calling for an "amicable divorce" from the U.S., the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.

 

"Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?" he wrote. "Let each go her own way."

Giving up our principles or giving up on the country is a ridiculous reponse to what can clearly be fixed by working on attracting conservative hispanics to the more conservative of the two parties. If that looks like a long re-building idea to you then you have not connected the dots to the runaway election of Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz, a conservative Republican, is a former college debate champion and Supreme Court litigator, and a top notch public speaker. He requires no teleprompter to find the words to connect withhis audience. His closet is without any Mormon or Muslim connections. He is one of several political newcomers who offer hope to Republicans after a disappointing election.
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Ted Cruz, a lawyer who was solicitor general of Texas from 2003 to 2008, combines a compelling personal biography with philosophically pure conservatism. He won his Senate primary in an upset over mainstream candidate Lt. Governor David Dewhurst earlier this year, partly by adhering to the secure-the-borders mentality popular with most Texas Republicans. He promised to triple the size of the U.S. Border Patrol and to build a larger border wall than his opponent proposed. In January, when he is sworn in, he will become one of the most right-wing members of the U.S. Senate. A Tea Party favorite who also happens to be Hispanic. Which means he also starts out with credibility with both the hispanic community and the conservative community. A Reaganisque plan from him to allow the 11 million hispanic illegal immigrants to stay here with a legal status that enables them to work here, but does not offer them full cituizenship, could be part of a solution that also includes the mega-fence and fills the holes terrorists must surely be licking their chops to keep open.

 

Texas may have the answer. The answer may be Ted Cruz. Or Florida’s Marco Rubio. Someone who can speak and connect with voters. The liberal message of Obama has been tried and socialism is not a message of hope, but a it is a slow promise to losing the freedoms we have enjoyed all of our lives.

LIBERTY COUNTY OFFICIALLY “REPUBLICAN” WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALLY “DEMOCRAT”

In the most negative campaign ever run by an incumbent President, the 44^th President of the United States held on to the White House as half the country went to bed Tuesday night knowing the man they trusted to turn the economy around was still at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

 

In Liberty County the impact of Barack Obama being at the top of the local voters ballots was not quite so positive for local Democrats. More than three out of every four voters voted for Mitt Romney as Obama set the county record for the lowest percentage vote for any incumbent or for any Democrat or Republican.

 

For years many of Liberty County voters have said “I vote for the man, not the party”. And for years elected officials thought that they had some great personal magnetism or a brilliant strategy or that voters recognized their special talents and abilities. Some ridiculed local Republican candidates who fared poorly in the polls. But the evidence is in. Local Democrats were beaten every bit as badly as Republicans were just a few years ago. People did not go down the ballot and “vote for the man” as much as some tried to claim.

 

What does this say to us? First we must point out that KSHN radio after all of these years finally came out with a little campaign of their own to discourage straight ticket voting. It would have been perceived as fair and balanced to have done that when Republicans had a 100 year losing streak! But back to the point – what does it say?

 

A political candidate’s first decision is choosing the party he or she will run in. To many voters in what is known as the Bible belt, this decision is becoming increasingly important as Democrats have embraced same sex marriage, liberal laws governing abortion, and an attitude of “ask not what you can do for your country, but ask what your country can do for you.”

 

The same local Democrats that seemed invincible as they held office for years were easily beaten tonight. The party they ran in was a major reason for most of their defeats. Todd Fontenot, Lee Groce, and Phil Fitzgerald, all Democrats, were called an "evil empire" by their fellow Democrat Commissioner Melvin Hunt. But despite Hunt’s efforts to separate himself from the entire stench of recent local scandals around the courthouse, he could not overcome his party affiliation with Obama and his lack of effort to stop what he clearly recognized as “evil”. All of the money wasting and politically partisan game playing were seldom challenged. Connie Henderson working for Democrats and receiving a county check was never made an issue. Bond money and ever rising property appraisals was never an issue. So Melvin is defeated too.

 

Tonight in this country Barack Obama was re-elected. And now most voters in Texas will have to depend on God and the Republican dominated House of Representatives to protect us from someone who has indicated he thinks he can improve on the outdated ideas in the U.S. Constitution. But also tonight in this county Liberty County has been totally emancipated from more than a century of one party dominance. We are now electing people from a party that polls show are more in line with the values of the people in this area. Now all we have to do is be vigilante and keep from allowing the corrupt from getting a toe hold in this party.