Tag Archives: Oregon

Hanging The Flag

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Upside down flagA neighborhood in Pendleton, Oregon is furious with a homeowner who’s begun flying his flag upside down as a protest against President Barack Obama. The upside down flag is recognized internationally as a symbol of distress.

Oregon has long been one of the most left-leaning states in the country and it’s full of Homeowners Associations. The surprising thing is that an Oregon neighborhood is protesting any display of the American flag at all, right side up or upside down. While this blogger takes no public position, left or right, on politics, he still believes that American citizens have a Constitutional right to Freedom of Speech. And historically that means freedom of expression, even if the way a belief is expressed nauseates others.

We’ll see what happens in this case. But this kind of display of the American flag usually ends up in lawsuits, liens, foreclosures, or even violence.

Our Supreme Court has recognized that citizens have a right to desecrate Old Glory. That couldn’t happen in some countries. I find it interesting that in certain totalitarian regimes like Cuba it’s impossible to fly the flag upside down. It looks the same either way. That has to have been an intentional design by a country that didn’t want its citizens putting out calls of distress.

If an official flag is ever designed to fly over HOA Amerika it will also have to have a design that can’t be flown upside down, sort of like the all-white flag of surrender.

Just a few random musings on a dull afternoon.

http://tinyurl.com/lf2eq8a

original source:

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2013/06/03/oregon-man-flying-american-flag-upside-down-to-protest-obama-presidency/

 

Another Creepy Vegas HOA

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Las Vegas homeowners are lucky in one respect: They have Darcy Spears of KTNV-TV, who does frequent investigative reports under the “HOA Hall of Shame” moniker. Her latest report involves a dysfunctional HOA called the First Light Homeowners Association.

The board of First Light  is apparently somewhat vicious to many individual homeowners. They hate the spying, the discrimination, the retaliation, the indiscriminate towing of cars. People are afraid to go home. They’re afraid to open their mailboxes because of the threats, the fines, the foreclosures. 

I should also mention the massive decline of property values in Las Vegas Homeowners Associations.

Caveat emptor, buyer beware.

First Light is a neighborhood you might not enjoy living in.

http://tinyurl.com/azr5q45

original source:

http://www.ktnv.com/contact13/hoahallofshame/207282771.html

Thank God For The Foot Soldiers

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No army can operate without generals, officers and foot soldiers. It’s the foot soldiers who are thrown into battle and suffer the most injuries and fatalities.

My father, a Lt. Colonel who commanded a tank battalion in Europe in 1945, was massively wounded when a bazooka hit his tank in the German town of Kaiserslautern.

All his life we kids asked him questions about being an officer in the military and what the experience was like. He refused to answer those questions, always referring to the heroism of foot soldiers who paid the highest price in the war to defeat facism. His biggest love in life was the common soldier who fought on the front lines.

My reason for writing this: There are foot soldiers in the war for a return to Constitutional rights in HOA Amerika. They don’t have websites, they don’t get interviewed, they don’t write talked-about books. But their research into the ugly, systematic abuse of homeowners, along with their ongoing emails which inform us of abuses we’d never know about otherwise, are invaluable in our battle.

Cynthia.

Jim.

Brad.

Nila.

Jonathan.

And many others.

Our community is too small, because we’re able to identify most of our ranks by first names only. But it’s growing, I promise you it’s growing.

And thank you from the bottom of my heart.

When the Aftermath is Worse than the Fire!!!

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Guest Blog by Nila Ridings

Where is Uncle Billy Bob? Sounds like he was hired to restore the Heritage Landing Condos in Saint Charles, Missouri but has headed off to….fishing trip? Guadalajara? Elsewhere? Residents are living in hotel rooms but the contractor is MIA. Who hires these losers, anyway?

Ten months ago, the Jahnke family and Scott Collins were told they would be back in their condos by the end of 2012 after a fire in July. Collins is reduced to tears because the restoration left his place in worse condition than pre-fire. And poor Debra Jahnke is so stressed out she’s on blood pressure medication and anxiety drugs. She says a new home could be built from the dirt up faster. And ten months in a hotel is, well, miserable. 
 
Ahhh, but the big question is: Why the shoddy work? Who IS the contractor that is showing up on a sometime”ish” basis? And the biggest question of all is…”Where’s the insurance money?” “And the property manager?” Oh my! Imagine this, NOT AVAILABLE for comment on camera!
 
In emergencies, condo dwellers are left at the mercy of property managers who hire the cheapest labor and produce the shoddiest work. That means owners are zapped with future expensive repairs. And, of course there’s no “go to” source for answers.

http://tinyurl.com/a68b2us

original source:

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Residents-wait-more-than-10-months-to-return-after-fire-say-repair-work-shoddy-and-incomplete-207933971.html?ref=next 

 

Tiny Improvement in Texas

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The Texas Legislature has passed a bill to protect people who xeriscape their lawns from the HOA Lawn Nazis. If the Governor signs it, it’ll become law.

The tougher thing to understand is why Texas waited so long. The state is desperately short of water, it’s suffering under an ongoing drought. Clean drinking water is going to be the world’s challenge as environmental conditions continue to deteriorate under human stewardship.

The kind of bluegrass mandated by many Homeowners Associations is horribly thirsty. But Texas homeowners who try to conserve water have been harassed, fined and liened countless times over the years.

This gives the HOA management monsters one less way to rake in money. No need to feel sorry for them, though, as long as they can continue stealth towing of vehicles, fines for solar panels, and lawsuits over the display of the American flag.

http://tinyurl.com/all7y5u 

original source:

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/05/xeriscaping-bill-passes-house-preventing-hoas-from-restricting-drought-resistant-landscaping.html/