TheVerifiableTruth.Com Exposes the Tom Shields Blame Game

TVT Exposes the Tom Shields Blame Game

Ever since I first discovered TheVerifiableTruth.com a few months ago I have come to understand what a thorough professional job they have done tracking and uncovering details regarding BarWest and the Indian gaming issues in Barstow. It is obvious that they are also following me and my efforts to raise consciousness about Ancestral Rights and why BarWest should never be allowed to proceed with their Reservation Shopping projects here in Barstow.

Completely independent of the role that I have played in exposing BarWest in Barstow, TheVerifiableTruth.com has been doing much the same but in a highly thorough and comprehensive way, and with a much larger focus on the BarWest scams across the Nation and in their home town of Detroit, Michigan. In fact, they have done such a thorough job that you have to search their site for all of the stuff relating to just Barstow. Use the following link to do just that:

TheVerifiableTruth.Com

or cut and paste this URL:

http://www.theverifiabletruth.com/search/label/Barstow


Now that the CA compacts are in their final death throws, BarWest has dispatched Tom Shields in an all out sleazy smear campaign to attack any and all of those who would expose their questionable and corrupt practices. That obviously includes me on a local level and TheVerifiableTruth.com on the National level and always the tribes that Shields likes to slander as those pesky, “wealthy and greedy” tribes.

There isn’t much can do to those local tribes with real Ancestral Rights except call them names. But the ‘blame game’ for the failed compacts is levied at all that don’t roll over for Reservation Shopping. Recently, TheVerifiableTruth.com wrote a post exposing the BarWest ‘Blame Game’ and Smear Campaign. The piece they posted is entitled:

Tom Shields is so desperate he's manufacturing conspiracy theories to shift blame for Barstow failures somewhere else


The expose explains how it is “humorous or perhaps even pathetic to know that Ilitch spokesman and political operative Tom Shields is so desperate to find someone to blame for Ilitch's failure to produce a casino in Barstow the last six years that he's manufactured a big conspiracy theory that ties together the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians located in San Bernardino County, California; a Barstow citizen activist who TVT has featured on this blog once or twice; and that "full-time anonymous blogger" TVT. This is an all too frequent strategy for Shields when he has no where else to turn. Shields can't admit his clients' shortcomings or failures.”

The article goes on to identify three objects of Shield’s main focus on the current blame for the failure of their compacts here in Barstow: 1. San Manuel Band of Indians 2. Barstow Citizen Activist Larry Halstead and 3. TheVerifiableTruth.com

Here is what the TVT post says about me:

“Perhaps the loudest opponent of the Ilitch/Malik Barstow casino scheme is a local Barstow activist, Larry Halstead. Apparently Halstead is the chair of the local Democratic Club and he ran for Barstow City Council in 2006. It's quite obvious he wasn't one of the candidates that Ilitch/Malik backed with their $200,000 Barstow campaign budget in 2006. Rather, Halstead raised money from alternative sources and from what TVT has gathered the San Manuel Band of Indians contributed to his campaign. Needless to say, Halstead did not win his race for City Council given his modest campaign budget. Rather than address the numerous questions and concerns Mr. Halstead has raised about the Ilitch/Malik Barstow casino scheme, their spokesman Tom Shields has desperately taken to making personal attacks on Halstead. It's mostly based on hearsay. Because the San Manuel Tribe gave Halstead a campaign contribution, Shields has now stretched that acknowledged truth to accuse Mr. Halstead of being on the tribe's "payroll." TVT encourages Mr. Shields to document his claims with something other than his manufactured rumors! Perhaps Mr. Shields should first reveal who the anonymous donors to his $200,000 campaign fund really are. And then explain why 98% of his $200,000 budget had to come from people who don't live or work in the remote Mojave Desert community.”

Read the Whole Story Here: TheVerifiableTruth.Com

Red Faced Mayor Exposed as Pawn of BarWest

Be careful of what you do in the dark,
as it WILL be revealed in the light!

Mayor Dale held a hastily called 'Special Meeting' on Tuesday, August 28 at 3pm. The word went out through the community that Dale was going to use the power of his three vote coalition to shit-can City Manager Hector Rodriguez. Dale never liked him and voted against his confirmation. He has been working overtime to undermine him ever since. More on this in another post but leave it to say here that the Council Chambers were packed with Rodriguez supporter representing a wide spectrum of the community. Included in the audience was former Council Members Gloria Darling, Helen Runyon, and Gil Gurule. After blasting the Mayor for trying to get rid of our much beloved City Manager the audience went to the lobby to await the outcome of the closed session.

When the Council resumed the open session, it was announced that the matter of the City Manager’s job status would be continued. The Mayor then skipped ahead to another highly contentious issue, the MicroMedia contract which was the real story behind his attempted firing of the City Manager. Between the two of these agenda items the Mayor was well on his way to having the worst meeting of his life if not the worst day of his life.



But then came the big bomb shell of the night during Council Reports. (see 51:45 in the "Following Closed Session" video). Joe Gomez took the mayor to task on his unauthorized letter of August 21 that he unilaterally sent to the U. S. Dept of the Interior. The letter written on City stationary, was referenced as "Re: The Chemehuevi Tribe's Recent Assault on Barstow" The three page letter is a vicious attack on the Chemehuevi and their claims of Ancestral Rights in the Barstow area.

Councilman Gomez reported that he had confronted the Mayor on August 20 when the Mayor had showed him the letter and before it was mailed. He had put the Mayor on notice that he could not send a letter out like that on his own and that he must get approval from the Council at large. This goes way beyond a breach of ethics and may well be a violation of government codes.

Joe continued to chastise the mayor for sending the letter on city stationary for over five minutes. He told him that he had warned him not to send it and that the mayor was getting in the way of Barstow ever getting a casino. Since the BarWest Compacts are DEAD by ALL accounts except within the BarWest Kool-Aid Club, the Chemehuevi casino project is the only hope left for Barstow to ever see a resort casino project in this city. Furthermore, Joe told the mayor that he was inviting a lawsuit from the Chemehuevi. Joe had copies of the letter along with a memo from the Nick Mederios (the city's lobbyist), a letter from Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations (TASIN), and a letter from Chairman Wood, which he made available for circulation.

A red-faced, pissed off Dale sat and listened while Councilman Gomez leveled charges that could well be the death blow to Dale’s sorry, and in my opinion, corrupt career. At the conclusion of this explosive revelation, Dale asks: “Are you done with your comments? I intend to respond, I just want to make sure you are done with your comments.” Dale then turns to Councilman Curran for him to give his comments under Council Reports. While Steve had yet had a chance to read the letter, he chimed in that as the head of ethics for the council, he had issues with the mayor sending out the letter and agreed with everything that Gomez had said about it.

When the mayor finally responded (see 1:1:35 in the "Following Closed Session" video).He stood by his decision to send the letter and during the comments he was looking straight at me. I was on the front row and I started laughing at the ridiculous hypocrisy of his comments. The mayor noticed and remarked about my laughing and I can be heard to shout hypocrite at him. He said it wasn't hypocritical and said that he does not regret sending the letter.

The audience was in shock by this whole revelation and everyone sat with their jaw dropped. I believe that this was the beginning of the end for this mayor. It was easily his worse night ever. It was a beautiful thing to witness. There is consensus that it is a total impossibility that the mayor wrote this letter. I have been told that Dale only has a sixth grade education, He simply doesn't have the talent that Tom shields does and the letter reflects Tom's style. If you listen to the mayor, he sounds like a damn hillbilly as he totally slaughters the English languages with poor verb use and sentence structure like: "he done gone and..…”

Led by Shields and his accusations of me extorting him and the tribe, the BarWest Kool-Aid Club has been on a all out attack of me with allegations that I am a paid hack for “the other side” which he also refers to as “those wealthy greedy tribes.” But from the beginning, Dale has been working overtime to violate the Ancestral Rights of the rightful legitimate local tribes. BarWest has been flying him around in a Lear Jet on lobbying junkets. He has totally transformed the Council into a public relations firm for the truly greedy outside Detroit developer that specializes in the vile practice of Reservation Shopping that is the curse of all tribes that respect the concept of Indian Sovereignty.

In the process, Mayor Dale has been complicit with Shields in helping BarWest to buy influence, corrupt local leaders and compromise the institutions they represent. The good people of Barstow have been lied to and deceived at every turn as the mayor has divided the town and put at risk the chances that we may ever have a casino project in this town. As I told Larry that afternoon, he should not be lulled into a false sense of security. Even as we speak, plans are underway to file complaints with the District Attorney, the Grand Jury, the U. S. Attorney, and with the Attorney General of both CA and the U.S. I have ever reason to believe that this will all end with indictments, recalls, or both.

The True Story of My Involvement with Indian Gaming

The True Story of My Involvement with Indian Gaming

Originally I was project neutral on the issue of Indian Gaming in Barstow. I wasn’t until my research showed the pattern and practice of BarWest buying influence and bullying their way into a process of violating the Ancestral Rights of local tribes as they engage in the despicable practice of Reservation Shopping that I saw the light. I was also turned off by their right wing orientation and their relation to the Jack Abramhoff scandal and Rep. Richard Pombo who I consider one of the worst, most corrupt congressman ever.

Pombo who was soundly defeated in last year’s election was the guy that Tom Delay established as the powerful chair of the House Resources Committee. He used that position to try and abolish the Endangered Species Act, reverse the ban on oil drilling in the protected artic areas, and run interference on the investigations of his mentor Tom Delay. Pombo himself was the number one object of the Jack Abramhoff scandal.

Upon these myriads of revelations, I denounced my support for the BarWest project and for two years or more I started speaking out about all of the influence peddling that BarWest was doing in Barstow. In my opinion, BarWest bought and paid for our Mayor who has been doing their bidding ever since.

During the last election, BarWest made a deal with Chamber of Commerce President Tim Silva that if he would turn the Chamber into a PR branch of BarWest, they would make him the next Councilman. Tim got the chamber to support BarWest and against the Chemehuevi, something that would violate the ethics of any chamber and is undoubtedly illegal when the city gives this chamber $50k in annual support along with cheap rent at the Harvey House.

On the last day before the deadline to file, I was talked into running by some LOCAL activist that felt by doing so I would be able to amplify my voice on issues that I was already speaking out on, such as the environment, local corruption, equal access and economic development. As it turned out, Tom Shields had already secured victory for his two candidates primarily by getting the local caucus and the rest of the BarWest Kool-Aid Club to get out the absentee vote. Shields ran their campaign like the Carl Rove of Barstow and it was financially backed through their local PAC. He ran a slick campaign, the likes of which Barstow had never seen and that their two candidates would never have been able to wage on their own. It was a campaign that did not even rely on the involvement of the candidates themselves. In fact he was instrumental in canceling the only debate that would of exposed the total lack of experience and incompetence of his two candidates.

Initially, I had no expectations of winning but my message of economic development, exposing corruption and protecting our environment, resonated with the community. It also garnished the attention of some highly respectable residential and commercial developers. These were quality 'community planning' oriented developers who had a 50 year history of having been scorned by the local cronies who have held power in Barstow since time immortal. The local cronies use Mayor Dale and Economic Development Director Ron Rector to steal projects away from any developer that is not part of the ‘local cronies’ and move them to the cronies‘ properties.

The developers that supported my candidacy felt that the only way to proceed on their quality projects was to change the political landscape. The irony is that they are all Republican and they supported this strong Democrat leader because I have a background in business and have always worked closely with the business community which is most often Republican in orientation. My parents were both GOP Republicans (NOT neocons) and I was raised in a GOP environment. While I have never been a Republican, I have embraced many of the old values of the GOP such as balancing the budget, less government regulations, protecting privacy rights and civil rights. All of which have been lost on the neocons that are destroying the Republican party in my opinion. Nonetheless, any of the old fashion GOP type people that I have been involved with are those that can relate to my approach and values in business.

Along with some small individual donors, these Republican developers who I highly respect, financed 100% of my campaign. It was not until a week before the election that I made contact with a member of the San Manual Tribe when I was participating in an event of Congressman Joe Baca. I told them that I was fighting the cause for Ancestral Rights and Indian Sovereignty and against reservation shopping. I explained how I was alone in fighting for what is the cause of the true legitimate Native American fight for self determination and that I could sure use some back up. After much deliberation within their tribal leaders, they broke from their long standing policy of NOT getting involved here in Barstow and reluctantly made a one-time campaign contribution of $2500. That much needed contribution was received a month after the campaign and was used to retire some of my campaign debts.

For the record, I have NEVER received a singe penny from any tribe to represent them in any capacity. I have NEVER been asked to represent a particular position or take any action on their behalf. I Have solicited input on how I could support a legitimate project here in Barstow but have yet to get any input or advice whatsoever.

Over the course of the past few years, I have come to know Chairman Wood of the Chemehuevi Tribe and on one occasion I had the opportunity to meet their Vice-Chair Shirley Smith. I have been taken back at how honorable they have been and have always taken the high road. I know for a fact that they did not support either Measure H or the recall of Councilman Luellig. I have NEVER seen nor is their ANY record of the Chemehuevi ever attacking BarWest or engaging in the underhanded tactics that is the hallmark of BarWest.

As a Political Scientist, I have a life long passion for the values and causes of the Democratic party. I have been a community activist on issues such as the environment, alternative medicine, equal right, code enforcement, and civil rights. I have come to view Ancestral Rights as being the equivalent of civil rights for Native Americans.

While I would feel honored to serve as a consultant to any tribe seeking to secure or preserve their Ancestral Rights, this has yet to happen. If it did, you would hear it out of my own mouth first and not something that would be hidden before being leaked by the likes of BarWest and their scumbag spin doctor Tom Shields who is now making false allegations of extortion against me. I would wear a consulting contract with a tribe with legitimate Ancestral Rights like a badge of honor. And I would be anxious to be ‘in the face’ of the Mayor, Tom Shields and the entire BarWest Kool-Aid Club. All of my ‘speaking out’ on this issue has been motivate SOLELY by a desire to expose local corruption and standing up for Ancestral Rights. Also, I feel that by speaking out on this issue it might hasten the day when a legitimate, local tribe can bring a casino project to this historically economically depressed community.

I am currently serving as a consultant on economic development and politics. I do this to support what is my main cause and passion. My wife Michelle and I are the founders of the Earth Haven Foundations for Kids which deals with children who are born with substance abuse to parents that are drug addicted. We are the adopted parents of a total of eight of these children and we will take on more when funding becomes available.

THIS is your 'Verifiable' honest to God truth. In my opinion, Tom Shields and his BarWest Kool-Aid Club are directly attacking these child victims by attacking me with their filthy lies, character assassinations and deceptions which are nothing more than the worst kind of libel and slander. But then we all expect nothing less from these sleaze bags.