Author: William

City Council Tyranny Escalates in Elk Grove

I normally don’t take calls from telemarketers, but tonight I made an exception. I’m glad I did. Tonight’s call was from a political opinion surveying company. I have taken calls from them in the past. I guess I’m just their textbook hardcore Conservative and they use my opinion as a baseline.

Anyway, I live in Elk Grove and there is an on going rift between the Elk Grove City Council and the Community Services District.

Long before the incorporation of Elk Grove, the Community Services District (CSD) was in charge of providing fire protection and caring for regional parks in southern Sacramento County including the area that is now Elk Grove. CSD in a model agency and has received many awards and recognitions. The CSD is governed by five elected members.

The city council decided that parks and recreation should be part of their duties, so they created their own parks department and tried to forcible take all parks in the city away from CSD. CSD gets state, county and local tax money for their funding plus development fees. The city is trying to take away their parks and then get that portion of the budget that CSD has allocated for caring for existing parks as well as land and money already set aside for future parks.

In the original plans for incorporation, the community leaders of Elk Grove had divided the jurisdiction of services in Elk Grove between CSD and the new City. There was no duplication of services. The city was created to provide the services and local representation that residents felt was lacking from the County Board of Supervisors. It was viewed as more cost effective if the CSD provided seamless fire protection to all areas of the south county and did likewise with the areas parks.

In the last year, the city council has engaged in a naked grab for power with both CSD and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff’s Department was contracted to provide police protection to the City of Elk Grove. Recently the city voted to sever their relationship with the Sheriff and create their own police department. Two of the five members voting on this change are sworn officers on the payroll of the Sheriff’s Department. Can anybody say “conflict of interest?”

The resulting police department would duplicate many of the services currently provided by the Sheriff except at a higher cost to the city. Of course we loose high end police protection like helicopters and SWAT.

Anyway, CSD won’t roll-over to the aggressive tactics of the Elk Grove city fathers. This leads me to the subject of tonight’s telemarketing call.

The city fathers are shopping the idea of two ballot measures to emasculate CSD as retribution. The first idea they are floating is taking all parks and recreation services within the city limits away from CSD and giving them to the city council. Their argument is elimination of duplicate services and cost savings to taxpayers. Oh yeah, there was no duplicated services until the city created their own parks department earlier this year. Of course, they don’t currently have any parks that they are responsible for; yet…

If this measure passes that would leave CSD primarily responsible for fire protection in the south county and a handful of parks outside the city limits. The second proposed ballot measure will deal with this issue. It would create a City Fire Commission composed of five elected members; this would strip the five elected members of CSD of the last service that they provide to the City of Elk Grove. Furthermore, these measures would effectively split CSD into two mostly non-contiguous geographical areas. This would impact the level of service to rural areas of the county.

The questions that the telemarketer asked me were the typical Doctor Seuss approach, would you vote YES for a clock or a rock or a sock or a block …I answered NO to all his permutations of the two proposals. Furthermore, I did give the Council and unfavorable rating.

The city fathers are banking on the fact that few people know the background of cityhood or the relationship of the City to CSD. The locals demanded that there would be no changes to CSD as a condition to support creation of the City of Elk Grove. Without this assurance the incorporation effort would never have had the support needed to prevail on the ballot. Unfortunately for CSD many of the voters in Elk Grove were not here five short years ago when cityhood became a reality. Now the daughter of CSD is attempting to engineer its demise and strip the carcass.

Fatwa: PR Band-Aid for Silent Community

A group of North American Islamic clerics and organizations have finally issued a Fatwa that purports to condemn terrorism.

Eric Hogue is among many that have vocalized the questions that many of us have asked for years. Among these questions is: Why now? What does this really mean? Are they for real or just providing some positive public relations? Is this enough to satisfy you of the sincerity of the Islamic community?

Hearing the discussion on his program this morning caused a flurry of thoughts to race through my head. My first reaction was to recall many recent terror attacks in the West.
• On 9-11 did they condemn the terror? No
• Did they condemn the shoe bomber and other foiled terror plots? No
• When our troops in Iraq were attacked by suicide bombers was the terror condemned? No
• When Western civilian contractors in the Middle East were beheaded did they condemn terror? No
• When the Spanish commuter trains were bombed, did the respond? No
• When the same resorts in Egypt were bombed on two occasions killing vacationing European and Israeli tourists, did they condemn terror? No
• When the trains in London were bombed did they condemn terror? No
• When a lone US Congressman suggested that if we were nuked that an attack on Muslim holy sites should be an option, did they respond? YES

My conclusion is that either these clerics finally figured out that they have been tone deaf for four years and it has resulted in deep seated distrust of their people because they have been perpetuating extremism by their silence or the Congressman has advocated playing by their rules and got their attention.

Either way, a press release is too little, too late. These folks need to police their own if they want to stem the growing distrust that non-Muslims have for Islam. They need to backup this Fatwa with action. Turn in terrorists before they attack. Condemn every act of terror from here on out, yes, even those acts committed against Israel. If they are not with us, they are against us.

I have heard several parsing of the actual text of the Fatwa. I find little comfort in the wording because clearly it allows for killing in some unnamed circumstances. “Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…”

What is just v unjust killing? Are non-believers of Islam covered by this or only other Moslems? How is “all people” defined? Is there a universal understanding or is everyone left to decide that for themselves?

I’ve been around enough theologians to know that each word was approved and no more specific than it had to be to get signers to the declaration. Unfortunately, there is enough room in this Fatwa to drive a Humvee through it without getting a scratch.

Many of the signatories of this proclamation have had ties to terror groups in the past. Are they finally seeing the light or feeling the heat? Or worse yet, are they covering their clerical butts because they know another attack is in the works in the US and they need plausible deniability?

I’m sorry fellas but you will have to backup your nice Fatwa with lots of action. As long as terrorists have aid and comfort from your community, you have not done your part. When the extremists are afraid and outcasts among your people then I will believe your polite words.

Congress Sets Sail for The Island

My wife and I went to see The Island last weekend. In this movie, we are introduced to a world where the rich and powerful grow clones of themselves so that they can stay young and harvest spare organs to keep themselves healthy. There are shades of Logan’s Run and Freejack in this film.

The mad scientist running the cloning center found that growing bodies for organs was not enough. The clones would not stay healthy without allowing them to live. The clones are allowed to develop enough to be part of the community waiting to go to The Island.

Getting to The Island was the goal of the clones inhabiting the center run by the mad scientist. The clones lived to win a lottery whose winners thought they were going to the only spot on earth untouched by a global ecological catastrophe. Of course, the clone was actually selected because their owners needed spare parts.

Like real life, the clones were not considered human, and were treated as property. At the convenience of their owners, the clones were harvested. The reality that the clones were sentient beings was a closely guarded secret; a secret that some were willing to kill in order to keep it that way. Hence the chase scenes as the clones struggle to unravel their purpose and their humanity.

Likewise, Congress is grappling with the issue of fetal stem cells. Should some human beings be created and harvested so that other human beings might live? One group of humans has no voice, cannot vote and many deny that they even exist as anything but tissue.

The other group is acting from self interest, desperate that some scientist can get the winning sample to prolong their lives. This group of humans vote; the older they are the more they turn-out on Election Day. There is no limit to the amount of government monies that they are willing to spend to put off death.

In our culture nothing is worse than suffering and being ravaged by disease. We talk in terms of quality of life. We make a mental balance sheet and when the liabilities outweigh the benefits, we try to find a way to change the balance or check-out before it hurts.

It is no wonder that the purveyors of eugenics including the abortion industry are trying to exploit our fear of death and suffering to create a socially acceptable justification for the slaughter of even more pre-born humans. Now instead of throwing children away in the name of convenience, we can comfort ourselves that its ok because we are furthering the science of prolonging life.

What irony that we justify snuffing out life to prolong life. DR. Mengele and his ilk would surely be proud that the nation that defeated his Nazis and gave the world the Nuremburg Trials has adopted his ideology.

Adventures at Del Taco

Man cannot live by bread alone. That is why God created Del Taco!

Del Taco is the best breakfast burrito in fast food. But it is also the most evil. The Macho Bacon and Egg Breakfast Burrito is 1,030 calories. The small hash brown that you get in the Combo Meal is another 250 calories. The medium coke is 230 calories. Total value of this Combo Meal is 1,510 calories with no drink refills.

The proper way to eat the burrito is to unwrap it, place lots of hash browns and hot sauce in it, fold the tortilla back up and then wrap it with the foil wrapper. It works better with a fresh tortilla but there is no guarantee that you will be served one that is soft. Don’t eat this in a moving car; it is the only fast food that I park my car to eat. Remember, napkins are our friends.

I order this once a week, usually on Saturday or Sunday morning. Depending on my plans, I purchase from one of three different locations. All three stores claim to be open 24 hours a day but this is a crock as I will explain shortly. In the mornings, two of the three stores have huge amounts of litter in their parking lots on a regular basis. Both of these stores are next to McDonalds which adds to the contrast in management styles of the franchise owners.

The worst of the three stores from which I occasionally purchase food is located on Calvine Road just off Highway 99.This store has been closed on several occasions when I have tried to purchase food on my way to work—between5:30 and 6:15 am—despite the fact that their sign clearly states that breakfast is available from 11 pm. On other occasions they have been out of diet coke, bacon, eggs & hash browns. (There is a store on Florin Road that I tried to order from at 6:00 am and they refused to serve me so I never went back.)

The Del Taco on Laguna Blvd by Petco is much better than its Calvine counterpart. They have never had a shortage on food items that I have ordered. (Their proximity to Petco does not seem to be responsible for the abundance of food.) However, they have a very slow drive thru. I have been stuck in it for over 45 minutes in the evening. The best franchise of the three that I visit regularly is located in West Sacramento. The parking lot is usually spotless. They have the same cook every time we go there. We buy food there about three Sundays a month. Only once have they ever been closed and that was for an employee meeting.

Everywhere you order the breakfast burrito from Del Taco, is made a different way. The ration of lettuce and eggs
varies considerably. Once the cook even put refried beans in it, yuck! Guess which of the three stores did that
mistake?

When it is cooked properly there is nothing better. If good food and a breakfast adventure is on your list of weekend
chores then try Del Taco.

 

CAIR Unmasked: Live

Hugh Hewitt spent almost three hours this week with Hussam Ayloush—a spokesman from the Southern California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Wow, what an eye-opening interview.

The CAIR representative kept trying to pass himself off as an average American guy who just happens to defend the rights of people who read the Koran and pray to Allah. He did a good job defending his point of view in a partisan sort of way. That is until he was asked to denounce actions that Muslim folks had taken against non-Muslims and then he was unmasked. (You could tell that he was holding back from revealing what he really believed.)

Hewitt nailed Mr. Ayloush with a question about the unprovoked attacks on Israel in 1948 and 1973. The CAIR representative saw nothing wrong with surprise military attacks on Israel with no provocation. He also had excuses about why the people in the Palestinian refugee camps were taught in school with maps that purposely-left Israel off the Middle-East maps.

At the mention of Israel, Mr. Ayloush went into attack mode and accused Hewitt of being a Jew lover and a hater of Islam. He then went on to accuse Hewitt of being a racist and a bigot. When pressed for answers, Ayloush went into a lame retort that he is a simple engineer and not a politician. In other words he was not qualified to speak on these matters. Excuse me, Hussam Ayloush, you were there as a spokesman for CAIR! This dumb bumpkin from the carpet bazaar act may work with some folks but he picked the wrong host on which to pull that stunt.

CAIR was revealed to be what I have often heard them accused of being, they masquerade as loves of peace and democracy but their true aims are the same as the terrorisms that plague the world today. They are obstructionists to a solution. Instead they run interference and provide cover for those sworn to kills us.

I often wonder if their brother Muslims were such caring and loving people as Mr.Ayloush claims, then why have they forced the Palestinians to live in refugee camps for over half a century? There is more than enough land and money in the Arab countries that if they wanted to absorb the Palestinians into neighboring countries they could. Apparently, it is better politics for Arab rulers to keep the peasants stirred-up about a non-existent external threat (Israel)that oppresses their brothers than to confront the oppression in their own nations.

CAIR will provide political cover and legal representation for terrorists but is not interested in rooting out the terrorists in their own community. Its too bad. If they wont deal with their own people, they will create a situation where those outside the community that they claim to represent will have to do it for them. They are setting-up the circumstances that they claim to be trying to prevent. (This is a common tactic of many special interest groups.) When a crackdown begins on their people they will have no one to blame but themselves.

Thanks Hugh for giving Mr. Ayloush enough rope to hang himself with his own words. Transcript on July 25 & 26 at RadioBlogger

 

Trump Thumps United Nations

Hugh Hewitt started his show on Friday with the testimony of Donald Trump before some obscure congressional committee that has been asked by the United Nations to give it money to renovate its building in New York. This is one of the best pieces of audio I have ever heard for a host of reasons. It illustrates what is wrong with the UN, the complicity of the US government, fact that Congress has many ignorant as it relates to the real world—members and the brilliance of Trump.

The Donald isn’t my favorite political person but his comments on rebuilding the World Trade Center and this Congressional testimony are two high watermarks this year that have earned my respect.

The audio is from C-SPAN and is not copyrighted. I have several friends that will be getting audio CDs of this from me.

 

Roberts Opposition Begins Attacks

Ann Coulter is outstanding in her field. Well yeah; but this time she’s all alone screaming her lungs out. Noooooooo!!


Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt is strutting around like the rooster in the barnyard. He has always advocated John Roberts as one of the top three choices for the Court.


Granted, there is not that much of a paper trail at the Appellate level, but Roberts has an extensive record as an attorney and advocate for causes that Conservatives support.


I trust Hewitt. He has demonstrated good judgment on many issues and Roberts is his friend.


While it is true that only God truly knows a mans heart; on the outside, Roberts seems to be a good choice. I am amazed that the usual suspects on the Left are already resorting to digging dirt on his wife. They are upset that he is married to a woman that is Catholic and Pro-life. The Left is angry that Roberts might be a rarity in politics, a Catholic that believes in the teachings of the church. This is quite a contrast the lapsed Catholics that dare sit in judgment of him such as DUI Kennedy.

Roberts family should be off limits to this confirmation process. The fact that the Left has to resort to such tactics is an indication that they lack a hook for their fundraising letters.


I think this process will have some delays but Roberts will ultimately be confirmed. Replacing the Chief Justice will be a cakewalk when that time comes but if there is a third opening in the court during the second Bush term, it will be all-out war because this will be the vote that will permanently move the Court to the Right and Liberals will have lost all three branches at this point.


Oh, look for the Chief Justice to retire shortly after Roberts has been confirmed.

Nuke Mecca?

US. Rep Tom Tancred  has touched off a firestorm of controversy by commenting that in response to a nuclear attack on the United States, a military response to such an attack might include bombing Moslem holy sites such as Mecca.

Hugh Hewitt spent most of his show on July 18th trying to defend pluralism and verbally spank the Congressman for his remarks. Many former military members called Hewitt’s show defending the idea that all options must be on the table including nuking Mecca. I think Hewitt was surprised that so many would agree with the Congressman. Hewitt tried to dismiss the Congressman as a fruitcake that should apologize as soon as possible.

While Mecca would not be at the top of my targeting list, I think that we learned that it is a bad idea to publicly rule out any type of target. As soon as we announced that mosques in Iraq were off limits to American soldiers and should be protected, guess where all the terrorists congregated? Had we then destroyed the buildings, perhaps it would have been a good tactic. However, more Americans died due to these politically correct limitations on the war.

I think the President was right when he said that you are either with us or with the terrorists. I just hope Iran and Syria get visited by some of the more elite members on Uncle Sam’s payroll.

Hewitt discounts the assertion that the Global War on Terror is a religious war. I believe that it has been since the Beirut barracks bombing. It just took us two decades to take it seriously. We may not be at war with all of Islam but we are at war with a denomination within the Islamic world. The people at war with the West are the true believers. Those that believe their scripture is the word of their god and take it literally are the ones we are fighting.

In the West, if I believe that the Bible is true and should be taken literally I am a good Christian. Why is this normative for me but if I follow Islam, and believe the same things about Koran, then I am a terrorist. It seems to me that destroying the West is the true form of Islam, and the type that George Bush hopes that the Islamic World will adopt is a heretical form. This isn’t the view being popularized today but based on its history; I think it is a more realistic view of Islamic history.

It is clear that the God of Christianity is incompatible with Allah. People like Hewitt will take pluralism over orthodoxy. Pluralism is just a temporary cease fire until one side gains an advantage over the other. The political consensus in the West is just a new version of Roman theology. In ancient times, you could believe in any god as long as you declare that Caesar is Lord. Now, in America you can have any god as long as the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court is Lord. This was never the intent of the Founders. Freedom of religion as found in the First Amendment was intended to allow for a variety of Christian sects not equality of all faiths or freedom from religion. Both are distortions of original intent.

Forcing a pluralistic template upon the Mohammedans of the world will not succeed. 9-11 was the modern equivalent of the barbarians sacking Roman in the declining years of the Empire. Will our leaders get a spine or repeat history? I think we have yet to properly identify our enemy and have the will to deal with them.

American Hiroshima

Joe Farah, the man behind WorldNetDaily.com, posted a very disturbing article titled “Al-Qaida nukes already in U.S.” The article makes many profound assertions about the next attack on American soil.

According to captured al-Qaida leaders and documents, the plan is called the “American Hiroshima” and involves the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons already smuggled into the U.S. over the Mexican border …

I read the article twice yesterday, once at lunch and the second time last night to my wife. Her reaction and mine was how can this be? Farah’s article is part fact, part Tom Clancy and part Mission Impossible. But we must ask ourselves are his assertions true?

Unfortunately, there are no sources sighted to backup many of his assumed facts.

Farah claims that “Al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union – including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads.” He goes on to assert that several nuclear weapons have already been smuggled into the United States.

This article then begins to morph into a long form advertisement for a forthcoming book about this very subject. This begs the question of whether this is a factual article or an advertisement dressed-up as a news item. Finally, the article then shifts to advocating better border security and the Minuteman Project.

I have spent enough time on his website to wonder aloud if Mr. Farah will be the publisher of the book that he plugged in this article. He uses his book sales to subsidize the support staff of his website. At the very least, I’m sure that this book will be among those offered to readers of his website.

The fact that the book plugged in this article will probably end-up for sale on this website forces me to question if this is journalism or profiteering.

As for the claims made in the article, I’m sure we can agree that Al-Qaida wishes they had nukes. However, I’m in the camp that believes that if they had them they would use them.