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Postcards from Splitsville - A Child's Perspective - If we only listened to them more!

Postcards from Splitsville

National Fatherhood Summit - Grand Rapids, Michigan - Please attend and spread the word on this critical event!

Please attend and help spread the word on this critical event leading up to the 2008 Family Preservation Rally! The National Fatherhood Summit will be held in Grand Rapids Michigan and this is going to be a huge event. The speakers list below is truly incredible!! Much of the information is below and you can also visit the webpage for the National Fatherhood Summit.

WHERE: ABUNDANT LIFE MINISTRIES
1725 DIVISION SE
GRAND RAPIDS, MI 49503

PRICE: $20.00 ADVANCE-$25.00 AT THE DOOR

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JANUARY 3RD
REGISTRATION AND FELLOWSHIP
3:00 PM – 8:00 PM

JANUARY 4TH
AGENDA: 8:30 - 9:30 AM - PRAYER BREAKFAST

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

Judge Willie Lipscomb 36th District Court Detroit
Representative Rick Jones Judicial Committee
Edward Bartlett - RADAR
Carol Rhodes – Author “FOC Enemy of the Family”
Cmdr. James Semerad – Dads and Moms of Michigan
Apostle Arthur Bailey – Abundant Life Ministries
Bishop W. Durham – Families for Justice and Equality
Robert Pedersen- A Child’s Right
Mike McCormick – ACFC
Dr. Stephen Walker – ACFC
Rev. Edward Pinkney – BANCO
Lary Holland – Get off the Bench
Tony Taylor – Dads Custody Support Group
Bessie Hudgins – Three Sides to Every Story, Inc
Minister Ronald Smith – Children Need Both Parents, Inc
Representative Tom Pearce - Child and Family Services Committee
Representative Jack Hoogendyk Child and Family Services Committee
Senator Mark Jansen
Representative Glenn Steil Child and Family Services Committee
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Dr. Linda Neilsen – President of ACFC & Author “Embracing your Father”

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM – LUNCH-BOOK SIGNINGS

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM – BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Domestic Violence Law Reform
501(c)(3) instructions – Organizing
Medication of Children
Spiritual Aspect of Fatherhood
Title IV-D
Parental Alienation
Family Preservation and Reconciliation Act

3:00 – 4:30 PM

PRAYER – FELLOWSHIP – UNITY

WHO IS INVITED
THIS EVENT IS FOR 2ND WIVES, NON – CUSTODIAL MOTHERS AND FATHERS, CUSTODIAL FATHERS AND GRANDPARENTS…..ALL FAMILY SUPPORT UNITS

WE ARE BEGINNING THE YEAR ON ONE ACCORD AND INTERJECTING THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF FATHERHOOD COMBINED WITH ACTIVISM.

BRING YOUR PLANNERS AND LET’S GET BUSY

THIS IS THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF EVENTS LEADING TO DCRally2008

Sponsored by

Children Need Both Parents – an ACFC affiliate
Dads and Moms of Michigan – an ACFC affiliate
And Abundant Life Ministries

FOR MORE INFO CONTACT:
Minister Ronald Smith
Children Need Both Parents, Inc.
616-301-1515

Complaint: Michigan DHS Violates Federal and State Laws

Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Inspector General -- AUDIT
"Review of Undistributable Child Support Collections in Michigan From October 1, 1998, Through December 31, 2004," (A-05-05-00033)

August 4, 2006

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Complete Text of Report is is available in PDF format (388 kb). Copies can also be obtained by contacting the Office of Public Affairs at 202-619-1343.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our objectives were to determine whether the Michigan Department of Human Services, Office of Child Support (State agency) appropriately reported program income for undistributable child support collections and interest earned on program funds.  The State agency did not recognize program income of $6,662,322 ($4,397,133 Federal share) for unclaimed collections held by Friend of the Court offices that should have been considered abandoned and transferred to the State Treasurer pursuant to State law.  The State agency did not report program income totaling $390,695 ($257,859 Federal share) for undistributable child support collections that were transferred to the State Treasurer for the quarters ended December 1998 through December 2004.  In addition, the State agency could not provide documentation to support resolution of a prior Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) Division of Audit finding and recommendation regarding undistributable collections totaling $1,121,298 ($740,057 Federal share) that were not reported as program income.

We recommended that the State agency: (1) require the Friend of the Court offices to transfer the unclaimed collections to the Unclaimed Property Division and report program income for undistributable collections totaling $6,662,322 ($4,397,133 Federal share); (2) report program income for undistributable collections of $390,695 ($257,859 Federal share) that were transferred to the State Treasurer; (3) provide program oversight to ensure that undistributable collections are identified and reported as program income on the quarterly Federal financial report (Form OCSE‑396A); (4) implement adequate policies, procedures, and controls to ensure that undistributable child support collections reported on the quarterly report of collections (Form OCSE‑34A) are recognized as program income on Form OCSE‑396A; and (5) work with OCSE to resolve the recommendation from 1999 to adjust for undistributable collections totaling $1,121,298 ($740,057 Federal share) not reported as program income.  The State agency generally disagreed with our findings and recommendations.

Review by Economics Researcher: Taken into Custody

Good to see this excellent review of Stephen Baskerville's breakthrough book. I have also seen that people in the divorce "industry" itself, often judges, their government employees in the FOC and lawyers,  are really beat up about the injustice that they realize they are inflicting on fathers. The problem is, as this review points out, no one knows what to do about it. The machine has become too big. It now seems to have a momentum, a life, of its own. This is why we need to continue to inform others and implore them all to become politically active to rein in the power of the Divorce Industry to destroy the lives of parents and their children. Let’s use this review by sending it to your politicians and judges maybe even to some of your local lawyers out of the Yellow Pages along with yet another message to these folks for them to be champions of change.

BY Jennifer Roback Morse
November 25 - December 1, 2007 Issue | Posted 11/19/07 at 3:13 PM

Most Americans have made their peace with no-fault divorce, believing easy divorce to be an enhancement of individual liberty. But a new book by Stephen Baskerville argues that permitting unilateral divorce allows an unprecedented scope for government intrusion into ordinary people's lives. Taken Into Custody has several breakthrough insights.

First, no-fault divorce frequently means unilateral divorce: One party wants a divorce against the wishes of the other, who wants to stay married. This fact means that the divorce has to be enforced. The coercive machinery of the state is wheeled into action to separate the reluctantly divorced party from the joint assets of the marriage, typically the home and the children. Involving the family court in the minutiae of family life amounts to an unprecedented blurring of the boundaries between public and private life.

People under the jurisdiction of the family courts can have virtually all of their private lives subject to its scrutiny. If the courts are influenced by feminist ideology, that ideology can extend its reach into every bedroom and kitchen in America.

Thus, the social experiment of no-fault divorce, which was supposed to increase personal liberty has had the unintended consequence of empowering the state.

I had an unusual opportunity to see this first-hand last summer when I did a Continuing Legal Education workshop for judges. Most of the judges had significant experience with family courts, so they were unusually well-informed. My audiences are usually amazed when I point out that family courts perpetrate greater invasions of personal privacy than any other governmental agency. Not the judges. I had expected some resistance from them on this point. After all, they are the ones doing the intruding.

When I ran through my usual litany of courts telling fathers how much money they have to spend, how little time they get to spend with their kids and who gets to spend Christmas Day with the kids, the judges were all shaking their heads. I asked: "So, do you enjoy that part of your jobs?" The audible moaning said it all: They hate that part of their jobs.

Audiences are sometimes surprised to learn that women initiate most divorces. They are even more surprised when I tell them that women aren't necessarily worse off economically after divorce. After all, "the most quoted demographic statistic of the 1980s" was the claim that women's standard of living falls by 73% after divorce, while men's rises by 42%.

I usually have to take some time to refute that claim. But the judges already knew that. They all started shaking their heads when I flashed those statistics on the screen for the purpose of refuting them.

One of the judges got exasperated. He stood up and said, with obvious disgust in his voice, "These women want me to throw their husbands out of the house, make him pay child support, while she keeps the kids to raise herself without interference from him."

General nods of agreement all around the room.

No fathers' rights advocate could have said it better.

But fathers' rights advocate Stephen Baskerville has harsh words to say about the entire no-fault industry, including the judges. The court-appointed therapists, the domestic violence experts, the visitation supervisors, the teachers of parenting classes, all these experts seem to be there to help divorcing families. But on Baskerville's telling, they simply extract additional payments from the family, and do nothing to save the marriage.

He reports that even mediators find that they are not allowed to try to preserve the marriage. Their role is simply to talk the reluctant party into acquiescing. Baskerville represents all these professionals, including the lawyers and judges, as having a self-interested motive in stoking the flames of personal resentments and maintaining the divorce industry.

What then, of my judges, who were obviously disgusted with the system and their role in it?

I have also talked to many family law attorneys who are fed up with narcissistic and myopic clients. How can it be that all these people are keeping the system going out of their own self-interest, and yet profess disdain for that same system?

I think the answer lies in what economists call perverse incentives.

No one likes the actual outcome of the system, but no one has an incentive or the ability to change it. So people go along, following the rules as laid down, trying to make marginal improvements to the best of their ability, and still being sickened by the whole sight. The incentives are so perverse that it is as if everyone were motivated by a desire to create as many divorces as possible.

Baskerville has done a great service in laying out these twisted incentives in detail. I hope that family law practitioners will read this book with an open mind, and not take it personally when Baskerville accuses them of bad faith. He may be over the top about people's motivations. But his analysis is essentially correct.

The public is getting past the "happy talk" about "good divorces," because the children of divorce are finally telling their stories. We desperately need to get past our fatalism about the inevitability of divorce.

Taken Into Custody makes it crystal clear that the law has created incentives to divorce. Therefore, the law can be changed to reduce those incentives. The publication of Taken Into Custody could be the turning point in restoring some balance to family law. If you care about the condition of marriage in America, read this book.

Jennifer Roback Morse is the senior research fellow in Economics at the Action Institute and the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World.

Please Attend the Van Buren County Equal Parenting Symposium on Nov. 14th

Have You Been Hurt by the Family
Court in Van Buren County?

– Why are children forced to forfeit one of
their parents and denied the love, care, and
guidance of a fit and able parent?

– Do You Have Only a Minimum Amount of
Time with Your Children?

– Have You Been Threatened with
Incarceration If You Don’t Pay Child Support?

YOU’RE NOT ALONE.

Please attend the
Equal Parenting Symposium
on Wednesday, November 14, 2007
to find out what is wrong with the Family
Court and what you can do about it.
This event will take place at the Carnegie
Center (old Paw Paw Library), 129 S.
Kalamazoo St. (M-40), Paw Paw, Michigan
from 7:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
Questions? Call 616-291-1685

Numerous speakers such as:

Carol Rhodes - Former Child Support Enforcement Officer and author of Friend of the Court Enemy of the Family

Ronald Smith - Children Need Both Parents, Inc.

Darrick Scott-Farnsworth - A Child's Right

and many more!

2008 Equal Parenting Bike Trek Is Already Picking Up Momentum. Simply Amazing!

Twice as many sponsors! Twice as many commitments to donate! An additional cyclist added to the team! More advertising of the event! Two billboards to promote the event - locations are Battle Creek and Lansing. We are anticipating roughly 3-4 times the amount of media coverage!

Rally in Battle Creek, MI - Volunteer Now

We are seeking volunteers to rally at an upcoming case in Battle Creek, MI.  We need enough people to capture the media's attention and more.  We are looking for 200 people minimum.  Please contact us as a possible volunteer knowing that the date will be subject to change.  Please submit your volunteer form now.

A Child's Right soon to become A Child's Right, Inc.

Early 2008 A Child's Right will team up with Children Need Both Parents, Inc for a fund-raiser in the Battle Creek Michigan area for the sole purpose of obtaining the final funding for a non-profit corporation.  A Child's Right is honored to work closely with Minister Ronald Smith and Children Need Both Parents, Inc.  This will certainly be an exciting event and a night of fun for all.

A Child's Right was started in recognition of Robert Pedersen's son and daughter.  The organization was created to help parents, children and communities with the negative ramifications of divorce.  A Child's Right has also been very active in working on equal parenting bills in the state of Michigan.  A Child's Right was also very active in helping with the 2007 Family Preservation Rally and the Equal Parenting Bike Trek. 

A Child's Right has affiliated itself with Dads and Moms of Michigan and Children Need Both Parents, Inc.  What started out as a dream will soon become a reality - A Child's Right will soon become a non-profit corporation and will align itself very closely with Children Need Both Parents, Inc which is increasing being recognized as a significant national organization.  Stay tuned for more information on the fund-raising event to help make this a reality.  We are very thankful for the leadership of our Executive Director - Darrick Scott-Farnsworth and all of those who have chosen to volunteer for A Child's Right.

Minister Ronald Smith of Children Need Both Parents Inc.

DaddyBlogger Guest Authors & Custody Case Question

A brief update to our readers - We will have several guest authors taking over on DaddyBlogger.com until we know the status of Robert's child custody case.  Right now that will be 100% of our focus and we hope you enjoy those who will be writing in place of Robert and I. 

We also have a question for our readers and would appreciate you submitting any information you have in our comment section.  We are currently researching this but would like to know if any of you can pinpoint a case that reviews this concern.  Question:  In a shared custody situation - if a child or children is moved by the custodial parent right next door to a child sex offender can there be a request made for the safety of the children to be moved elsewhere?  Part of being a pro-active and protecting parent is utilizing what is provided to the public (for free) for your children's safety - the child sex offender registry.  We are told that most judges would rule on the side of caution to protect the children and to avoid the potential nightmare of this falling back on the judge if something in the future ever did happen.  While we are currently researching this we would appreciate it if you could forward to us, if any of you may know of a particular case where this issue/concern was ruled on.  Please provide case number and state.  You can submit this via comments under this post or you can email us.  Thanks and we hope to be back writing soon.

Erik this is the most I can provide

(See Post Below)  I had to actually cut and paste only portions of our retainer for the forensic trial consultant for you.  If I copied the entire retainer document it would actually give the opposing party an outline of our strategy for our upcoming court case.  I copied the portions which would not give the opposing party too much information.  I also provided a copy of the actual signature page - when signing a retainer agreement you will have to sign it along with the attorney or forensic trail consultant.

Robert Pedersen, hereinafter referred to as the Client, is desirous to employ Dean Tong, hereinafter referred to as the Consultant, regarding said Client’s Family Law case in Michigan.

Said Client is responsible for furnishing the Consultant the following:

[information deleted]

Said Consultant is responsible for providing the following:

           1.To critique and opine on said Clients’ legal discovery, alerting the client

               to Consultant’s impression on achieving equity-at-law.

           2.To effect necessary legal research on Michigan, and Federal Law.

           3.To help effect the selection of all necessary experts – including Private

              Investigators, Abuse Testing Experts, Medical Experts, Polygraph Examiners,

              Psychologists - including Forensic Evaluators, Attorneys, including those who

              can litigate Pro Hac Vice, if necessary, et al.

           4. To network with Client and counsel regarding motion practice, and

              complete case strategy. In addition, said Consultant will provide the Client’s

              Attorney with necessary scientific journal articles which are admissible

              under Learned Treatise (Federal Rule of Evidence 803.18) and/or via the Court

              taking Judicial Notice of the same.

And said Consultant will help formulate questions for depositions

              and direct/cross examination of our witnesses and adverse witnesses at future

              hearings/trials.

           5.  [Information Deleted]

Said Client is responsible for signing this Retainer Agreement and mailing or faxing back the same along with the legal documents, timeline and payment to consultant’s address published below.

This Retainer Agreement was executed this ___ day of June 2007

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This is just an example taken from Robert's personal case with several portions deleted for the reason stated above.  You will then have to pay the attorney or trail consultant and sign the retainer agreement.  If you are hiring a forensic trial consultant you will also need to hire an attorney.  The forensic trail consultant is for strategy of your case and to help you obtain respected experts on PAS, psychological exams, etc.

Download retainer_signature.JPG

We hope this helps Erik!  Sorry so rushed but we are on a two week pause.  See everyone soon.

Angela

Retainer Agreement Example for Forensic Trial Consultant.

Erik W. emailed us asking about what to look for in a retainer agreement when seeking the services for someone in the legal profession.  To help you and others we will be posting an actual retainer agreement that we have from the forensic trial consultant we hired for our upcoming case - we hope to have this posted by tomorrow morning.  We will  black out the price paid for his services for our own personal and financial privacy.  Keep in mind that a retainer agreement will be different depending upon the services that you are seeking.  We have no such example for our local attorney and Robert does not remember ever signing one for him, thus Erik will have to settle with the example notged above.  We hope this helps and sorry so short - DaddyBlogger will be on pause for two weeks as explained in a prior post. 

DaddyBlogger.com Two Week Pause. WHAT!?!?

UPDATES

DaddyBlogger.com will be taking a two week pause starting Monday November 5th.  We have decided to do this for the sake of preparing for a potential lengthy and costly child custody case for Robert.  Those of you who have been following this knew that we were suppossed to get an answer to our proposal this past week.  We are assuming that the answer is no to Robert's proposal because the other party is now requesting to respond in writing which buys more time.  It seems that going to court is now inevitable because Robert offered everything upfront that he could.  In fact, many have told us that the accomodations we make are way too generous for the case we have.  We will not take such advice because the long-term goal is to make long-term peace for both families involved and that is the reason why Robert offered everything he could upfront. 

Because of this we will not be accepting a counteroffer; only the essential terms of our proposal with some minimal flexibility.  Since our time this week will be dedicated to the final stages of preparation for going to court we will be taking a two week pause on DaddyBlogger.com.  No this is not a joke.  We are very confident that if we must go to court that we will win; our team is excellent and we have prepared for far too long.  However, going back to court is the last thing that Robert and I want, especially with our baby boy on the way! 

So -

Please join us and pray for long-term peace for both families and the children.  We are sorry to disappoint every one over the next two weeks by not posting anything new, however we anticipate the next two weeks to be very intense from a preparation and time management standpoint.

We will have one single posting during this time in regards to promoting the upcoming Van Buren Equal Parening Symposium.  There are many speakers scheduled such as:  1) Minister Ronald Smith 2) Robert Pedersen 3) Jim Semerad 4) Carol Rhodes and many others!!  The media will be present at this event and the attendance is already looking very positive.  So stay tuned for this.

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2008 Equal Parenting Bike Trek Update

1) More than double of the sponsors already when compared to 2007.  Several are quite large and one is a magazine!!

2) We have obtained two billboards to help promote this event - One will be located on Columbia Ave in Battle Creek, Michigan and the other will be located on Cedar St in Lansing Michigan.

3)  We have added an additional cyclist - Attorney Brian Downs

4) We anticipate the media coverage to be almost double in scope including several national sources which we have been working on for some time.

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Did your court case go bad?  Want to reclaim your rights as a parent?  Do your kids miss you too?  The well organized and funded nationwide launch of class-action lawsuits will soon be upon us.  This is something that has been methodically planned for several years.  Please consider adding your name to the class action lawsuit against your county to restore your parental rights.  Visit the national page for more information.  If you live in Michigan visit here.  Congratulations to Ronald Smith for being added to the national board of directors!  This is another page you might want to visit for more information. 

2008 will be the year that changes everything - an even more impressive Family Preservation Rally in D.C., Michigan Equal Parenting Bill progression and the launch of the class-action lawsuits nationwide!!

Always remember - It is a child's God given, fundamental right to be loved, guided, educated and nurtured by both fit and willing parents - to deny this is wrong. 

Richar Farr of KRights Radio on Ronald Smith's TalkShow. Discussion on Undistributed Collected Child Support

Yet another excellent show for Ronald Smith on TalkShoe! This weeks guest was Richar Farr with KRights Radio. Robin Denison joins Ronald Smith as co-host. The topic of discussion is undistributed collected child support - so what happens to the money? Listen to this highly informative and energetic interview which exposes corruption within the child support agencies. Zero download time!

Also, if you have not visited KRights Radio with Richar Farr lately you will be surprised with the numerous changes and all of them make KRights Radio just that much more powerful!  A must visit!

Deconstructing America - very powerful YouTube videos.

Dr. Stephen Baskerville, Ph.D. describes similar accounts in his new book "Taken Into Custody".  Dr. Baskerville is interviewed in both part one and part two of the videos located below.  Please help spread the word about the following two videos!