Banned in Amherst! (again)

Mary Streeter—private owner of what most people mistakingly think is the official public Amherst Town Meeting listserve—warned me on May 29 after I asked His Lordship to schedule an election to replace Selectboard partner in crime Anne Awad.

“Discussions of a person(s) will not be tolerated on this listserv. This is the only warning that will be given before removal from this group.”

And yeah, I was sorely tempted to “reply all’ with a smart ass comment thus guaranteeing my banishment from the herd. But I controlled the urge (my martial arts training) and did nothing.

Until yesterday morning, when I tried to send the listserve the Springfield Republican article about the residency fiasco embroiling Ms. Awad and husband Robie Hubley

My Yahoo account returned the following:
We are unable to deliver the message from amherstac@yahoo.com
to amhersttownmeeting@yahoogroups.com.

The email address used to send your message is not subscribed to this group.

So then I tried sending via my AOL account (figuring she’s not the very tech savvy and may not have banned both addresses) but soon received the same error code.

Looks like I’ve been given yet another “time out”. Although last time Mother Mary said it was a limited ban. This time nothing. Expelled, perhaps, forever. Banned in Amherst--the town that cherishes freedom of speech.

Funny how an exceedingly minuscule group of malcontents complain about the Amherst July 4’Th Parade banning anti-war propaganda. But here we have a deliberative, legislative body where the only thing silent is the “h” in Amherst and I’m kicked off without warning.

Well, I did get a warning…sort of. But then banning me anyway is sort of like a cop firing a warning shot--into the back of a perp’s head.

Her nose keeps growing L-O-N-G-E-R

UPDATE: 6:05 PM

So I just called (from my business) a publicly published Amherst phone number 256-1042—just to see if Mr. Hubley or Ms. Awad were home.

Of course I get voice mail and hang up (actually I was hoping the message would say “this number has been changed to a South Hadley number”)

About 5 minutes later my business line rings and it’s Mr. Hubley asking if I just called his number. “Hey Robie! Yeah, I was just calling to see if you were actually living in Amherst”

All-in-all the resulting “conversation” lasted about 10 minutes. Mainly consisting of Mr. Hubley yelling in a shaky voice about “leaving me alone”, or “it’s a personal matter” and “I hope you go to confession because you are an evil person”.

He refused to explain why he would purchase a $310,000 home in South Hadley while supposedly still living in an Amherst condo half that size and half that price--one that is currently up for sale.

Or why he took out a Homestead declaration on the South Hadley home that identifies it as his and her “primary” residence. Or why they lied in the Amherst Bulletin Letter to Editor saying they had switched the Homestead back to the Amherst condo.

And he sounded real nervous about potential Federal bank fraud charges over the FDIC mortgage that requires them both to live in the South Hadley home by June 10.

And any time he used the phrase “it’s a personal matter,” I would respond with “then why is this all available on a official Massachusetts state database?

At that point he yelled something slightly unintelligible and slammed down the phone.
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6:55 PM: So Mr. Hubley just called me back at my personal home phone number (only available to Amherst Town Meeting members) and wanted to “apologize for losing his temper”.

Apology accepted. But when he insisted, “he was not hurting anyone” I tried to interject that he was shortchanging the voters in his precinct.

Once again he accused me of “tormenting” him and then hung up (although a tad less aggressively).
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6:45 AM (original post)

So now it’s the old “residency is in the eye of the resident,” or like ‘Ultimate Frisbee’ where the players act as referees, or Hampshire College where there are no grades.

Obviously the Amherst Town Manager has been hoodwinked: “If she declares her residence (to be here). I take that to be true.”

But Ms. Awad also declared:

“The homestead declaration, cited frequently by this newspaper (Amherst Bulletin) as proof that we are already living in South Hadley, was an error on our part. We were unaware that such protection can only apply to one’s primary residence. We removed the homestead declaration as soon as we realized the error. It now applies only to our Amherst home as it has for years."

Oh really? A check this morning at the Registry of Deeds shows she has not “removed the homestead declaration” on their spacious South Hadley abode or reapplied it to their (up for sale) diminutive Amherst condo.

So Mr. Shaffer, if she can't tell the truth about the Homestead declaration--how can we the voters take anything she says to be true?

And don’t you just love His Lordship Gerry Weiss’s defense of Robie Hubley: "He goes to every meeting"? So does Frank Well’s cat!

Bad news for Pinocchio

What you lookin at

No sense of humor

Bully drops a bomb
So His Lordship Gerry Weiss sent a routine housekeeping message over the privately owned (so she can trample First Amendment rights anytime she wants) Town Meeting Listserve, and I of course used the opening to ‘respond all’:

To: amhersttownmeeting@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 29 May 2008 10:18 pm
Subject: Re: [AmhTownMtg] 20B and procedure

So, ugh, it sounds like Town Meeting will drone on beyond June 10'th. And on THAT DAY, according to a legal FDIC mortgage, Ms. Awad and Mr. Hubley (although by a Homestead decree signed April 10 he has ALREADY vacated the town of Amherst) become "primary residents" of South Hadley.

Could you please do your job and schedule an election to replace Ms. Awad--preferably when it will not cost taxpayers a ton of money. Thanks.

Larry Kelley
Precinct 5
Legal and Spiritual resident of Amherst

To: amhersttownmeeting@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 29 May 2008 11:45 pm
Subject: Re: [AmhTownMtg] 20B and procedure

A reminder to everyone that this forum, especially the poster of the
last message:

Discussions of a person(s) will not be tolerated on this listserv. This
is the only warning that will be given before removal from this group.

Mary Streeter
Group Moderator

The Pounding continues...

Click to enlarge: Article over on right above the fold.

So Bully for the Bulletin for continuing to question this sad story of aging, arrogant, political has-beens who desperately cling to their “power.”

The first thing I learned in Journalism 25 years ago (News writing and Reporting 101 at Umass) is always check the spelling of a source name. Although most readers will not notice a misspelled name the person you interviewed sure will and they will wonder what else you screwed up.

And the second thing I learned--even more important--was NEVER LIE TO A REPORTER!

At this point (with the Registry of Deed’s office still showing no change in the Declaration of Homestead being South Hadley) I’m starting to question the couple’s sanity.

Unfortunately, the Amherst Town Government Act does not have a provision requiring town officials undergo psychiatric review.

Enough is Enough!

Okay, so here is my uniform for Amherst Town Meeting this evening. And yeah, I sit directly in front of Anne Awad. If the Moderator has me arrested, I will sell "Free Blogger Kelley" T-shirts to make bail.

UPDATE: 10:15 PM. No I didn't get arrested; but then, the Moderator went WAY out of his way (as opposed to the normal just going out of his way) to avoid calling on me for anything, thus I could not stand up and display my nifty shirt (maybe I'll do a print run of 100 and hand them out at the next Town Meeting). But Town Meeting has a few nights left and it's my official uniform until we dissolve--although I did promise Stan Gawle, who sits next to me, that I would wash it.

An 'Only in Amherst' Movement

No blood for oil. And if only Americans stopped mowing their lawns how much oil could we save? Then there would be no need to go to war with Iran.

I remember the night of 11/1/06 asking Amherst Town Meeting to consider what they would do if Iran had a missile warming up on a silo that contained nuclear or biological materials aimed at the heart of Israel?

They overwhelmingly passed the nonaggression, appeasement article anyway. You would think an overly educated community like Amherst would not have to be reminded that those who fail to learn from history (giving Hitler the Sudenland) are doomed to repeat it.


EMBASSY OF PAKISTAN
INTERESTS SECTION OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
2209 Wisconsin Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20007

Tel: (202) 965-4990 Fax (202) 965-1073 www.daftar.org

In the Name of the Almighty

December 7, 2006

Ms. Sandra J. Burgess
Amherst Town Clerk
4 Boltwood Ave.
Amherst, MA 01002

Dear Ms. Burgess:

We would like to express our appreciation for the courageous stance of the participants of the Amherst Town Meeting in urging diplomacy with Iran and expressing opposition to any U.S. military action against our country. Your letter along with the attachments was submitted to the office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Upon receipt of any response, this office will notify you accordingly. The staff of this office would be more than happy to respond to any questions you might have.

Sincerely,

A. Mohzabadi
for Mostafa Rahmani

Yeah, gotta love that December 7'th date of dictation and the "In the name of the Almighty" heading. Kind of like the last recorded words from the cockpit of United Flight 93.