True colors are as true colors do. If you dare to criticize Mitt Romney, Bain and / or their financial interested - you will pay a price. Of this, I can personally testify. Unfortunately, I am sad to say, we have learned I am not the only one these nefarious turd's seek to destroy. Thus, I bring you the story of Jody May-Chang - a journalist with tenacity. For her having the audacity to report on the facts, she has found herself in the cross hairs of a billionaire ruthless brute named Frank Vandersloot.
Mr. Vandersloot owns a company entitled Melaleuca in Idaho. Forbes denotes in an October 2011 report (here) the fact that, in 1999, Frank Vandersloot dabbled in politics. How Vandersloot went after a school program to discuss sexuality issues; and a campaign against Morgan Stanley Dean Winter for inviting Bill Clinton to speak at a bond hearing. Forbes describes Frank Vandersloot's Meleleuca biz as;
Melaleuca is a pyramid selling organization, built along the lines of Herbalife and Amway. Vendors get commissions on the products they sell and also on products sold by vendors they recruit
However, Mr. Vandersloot is no longer just a dabbler. He is "All In" on the Mitt Romney campaign to become POTUS. Mr. Vandersloot is a Mormon too and (apparently) a homophobe. As denoted by this MSNBC video by Rachael Maddow - if you do not do a story in the manner that Vandersloot approves of he does not play nice. Rachael has a great history lesson and details on why Montana rejected the US Supreme Court "Citizens United" decision - as she leads into the facts about Vandersloot;
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
UPDATE: 4/25/2012 12:27pm Pacific
Thanks to Commentor "my2petpeeves" - we have the PBS link to the Mormon purported connection to Boy Scout child abuse / pedophile Cover Ups. It would seem that Bain Capital frauds get one side of Romney's camp scorn and any attack upon a "Real" issue of child abuse is also another No No issue that a Romney connected person will unleash wrath upon a messenger reporting bad faith. See the Boy Scout pedophile/ Morman Bishop scandal at this link here;
http://www.pbs.org/...
Salon's Glenn Greenwald Reports on Vandersloot's Threats
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If you took the time to watch Rachel Maddow's whole 8 minutes - you now have a good insight into this entire Diary. But, before we delve into Jody May-Chang's story; we need more background - corroborative - on the methods of Frank Vandersloot. As denoted by Salon's Glenn Greenwald - Frank Vandersloot is "
fair game" as a public figure because Mr. Vandersloot is a:
-- devout Mormon and has been an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) since 1965. Over the last decade, he has continuously inserted himself into the political realm in all sorts of inflammatory and influential ways, clearly making him a public figure and fair game for scrutiny.
Salon's Greenwald story details the lengths of money and power Vandersloot utilizes. The story is entitled - "
Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics". It details how Vandersloot placed an entire full page ad in a paper and "outed" a reporter and the "jihad" that Frank Vandersloot engaged upon to stymie news stories. A Utah paper (the Post Register) reported on a possible pedophile ring with Mormon connections and possible cover ups on abuse in the Boy Scouts. The series is entitled "
Scout's Honor" and won the prestigious prize known as the "
Scripps Howard Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment".
Vandersloot forces Mother Jones to yank story
Giving corroborative evidence to the fact that Vandersloot is a big bully on his quest to quash opinions - Mother Jones caved into the heat and have corrected / redacted parts - when their story "Pyramid Like Company Ponies Up $1 Million for Mitt Romney" wound up in Vandersloot's cross-hairs.
Forbes faced Vandersloot scrutiny and corrected story
It does not get more prudent, with many a better general counsel and nationally (maybe even internationally) known - as the likes of Forbes. Yet, according to Greenwald's Salon story - Forbes was put under pressure by Vandersloot's legal power house too. The original Forbes link (here) states "somethings gone awry". That is why you must go to Forbes other link (here) to get the story. I think Forbes should be ashamed of itself - it seems to pander to Vandersloot and his company.
Vandersloot's lawyer copyrights' threat letter attempting to quash release
Demonstrating how bizarre and inane the power and money of legal over reach/ intimidation can get - Vandersloot's attorney sent a letter (here) to Blogger "d2" and also sued to get the real name of Bloggers. The court granted the disclosing of who "d2" is and denied Vandersloot's litigation request to find out who "Thomas Paine" is of the Blog "43rdStateBlues".
When the letter was published, the attorney (after the fact) - had his letter "Copyrighted" and then demanded the letter be redacted from "d2"s Blog. How a threat can be copyrighted is absurd. Forcing the Blogger to be revealed as a measure of justice is damn near intolerable.
Vandersloot picks on a Fighter tenacious; LGBT activist Jody May-Chang
Jody May-Chang is an independent journalist, spokesperson and activist for LGBT. She is Editor of "
PrideDepot.com" website. Jody wrote what Salon's Greenwald calls an "innocuous" posting in 2007 about Frank Vandersloot support of U.S. Senate hopeful Lt. Gov Jim Risch - entitled - "
Risch's anti-gay backer tries to sensor public tv". Risch sought to win the seat vacated by Larry Craig.
It is now on the record, that Salon's Glenn Greenwald will help gather financial and moral support for Jody May-Chang, should Vandersloot's powerhouse become more thuggish in their approach to Jody.
This is my declaration - that I will assist as well (as I hope this report does).
CONCLUSION
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Anyone who seeks to stymie a report on child abuse - especially pedophiles corrupting an organization that seeks to gleam our best and brightest to leadership futures - is just plain Evil. Those actions speak 10 times louder that the bogus words and the bad faith is corroborated by the ad hominem personal attacks on the reports.
Glenn Greenwald concludes with this remark - apropos on the quest to quash;
Anyone who is the national finance co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign deserves probing, substantial scrutiny. That’s equally true of someone who continues to use their vast wealth to influence the outcome of our elections and our most inflammatory political debates. And it’s certainly true of someone who has made it a regular practice of threatening journalists, bloggers and activists who shine light on his political and business practices. Journalists like Jody May-Chang who focus their journalistic light on people like Frank VanderSloot provide all of us with a vital public service, and deserve our full-fledged support when they are targeted with threats and retribution.
The Post Registers Dean Miller great reflection
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It is absolutely amazing, that the Post Register witnessed a rise in readership and attributes such to the fact that they fight the powerhouses desire to quash honorable, investigative journalism ('are you listening WSJ')? Mr. Miller concludes his story (as is denoted on Harvard's Neieman Reports
here) with this great insight into what needs to be today - for main stream journalism to thrive;
One of the sweeter moments of our year occurred when we received figures from our circulation audit. While the sales numbers of other U.S. newspapers were in free fall, we were among the nation's faster growing daily papers. For us, these numbers testified to the value of fortitude. Publishing uncomfortable truths needn't be an act of hot-blooded courage; it should be a cool-headed exercise in focus: Find the civic heart of a story, steer a steady course to it, and serve the public's legitimate interests in openness and justice. Do that and, even when the story rocks your boat, trust that the waves won't capsize it.
It is a great thing - to see integrity fighting against tyranny, cronyism & corruption
I hope we see more such journalism - Now!
UPDATE
Jody May-Chang points out some errors within (and I am too tired to hunt them down)
Thus, here's her comment corrections - We are honored that she noticed.
1. The Post Register is an Idaho Falls, ID newspaper in VanderSloots own back yard.
2. PrideDEPOT.com is my old news blog and has been dormant for several years. It is now an archive. My current blog is on may-chang.com
3. My last name does not have an 'e' at the end. That I must say happens all the time, even I do that from time to time. ;^}
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For those who are not sure what the story is completely about, it is indeed complicated. I strongly recommend watching the Maddow video and or reading the Salon.com piece. That should clear up any questions readers might have.
For those who are interested in knowing more specifics about VanderSloot's anti-gay antics. I have a piece on that here: http://boingboing.net/...
Thanks for the support everyone!!! blushing...