Alleged Republican Heather Carter
Thanks, Scottsdale Republic. They recently published a letter from a reader exposing alleged Republican Heather Carter for the fraud that she is. As someone who is "a lackey of the teachers' union" and some one who is pro illegal crimmigrants, she clearly is not a true conservative. However, just in case you were still in doubt, the very next letter was from our old friend David Shaeffer, a member of the Cave Creek school board, extolling her virtues. Strange days, indeed! A bleeding heart liberal who bleats non- stop about the plight of the "children" endorsing a so-called Republican. Hmm! Wonders never cease.
Methinks old Heather is secretly wishing that Mr. S. had kept his endorsement to himself. Aren't we glad he didn't?
Gary Kiernan | Cave Creek
Back
McCain’s lobbying money and Native Americans
Here is another reason to vote McCain out of office. Corruption!
This article was written by Susan Bradford, the author of Lynched, a book which provides complete coverage of McCain’s Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings on tribal lobbying.
Yesterday Politico reported that Sens. John McCain and Tom Coburn identified projects in which the Obama Administration had essentially misallocated or wasted taxpayer money, including, for example, a $54,000,000 program for a tribal Connecticut casino owner. However, over the years, tribal gaming interests connected to McCain have been the beneficiaries of federal government largesse, including stimulus money.
For example, in 1986, McCain and his mentor, Congressman Morris Udall, sponsored HR 4216, the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act, which required the Secretary of Interior to pay $30,000,000 plus interest to the authorized governing body of the Tohono O’odham Nation of Arizona, a tribe which was divided in half in 1853 between the United States and Mexico through the Gadsden Purchase or the Treaty of La Mesilla.
The O’odham have separated into four federally recognized tribes in McCain’s state of Arizona: the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Gila River Indian Community, the Ak-Chin Indian Community, and the Salt River (Pima Maricopa) Indian Community.
The Replacement Act required that the tribe invest the money in “interest-bearing deposits and securities” while allowing the governing body of the tribe to “spend the principal, interest, and dividends for ... economic development.”
Apparently, McCain was not concerned with protecting the taxpayers’ interests as he wrote a provision into the bill, which stipulated that “the Secretary (of Interior) shall not be responsible for the review, approval, or audit of the use and expenditure” of the money.
Talk about writing a blank check!
Last year, on McCain’s watch, Indian tribes in Arizona received at least $3.2 billion in federal government grants for energy efficiency and conservation projects in which $437,800 was dispersed to the Tohono O’odham Nation; $616,200 was set aside for the Gila River Indian Community; $35,200 was given to the Ak-Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa; and $137,000 was directed to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
Currently, the Gila River Indian Community, which owns the lucrative Vee Quiva and Wild Horses Pass Casino and the nationally acclaimed industrial park, the Lone Butte, is represented by Vic Fazio – a former California Congressman employed at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who also represents Anheuser-Busch, McCain‘s family business.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which maintains a database of “heavy hitters,” Fazio rubs shoulders with a “select fraternity of corporations and special interest groups that consistently bring the biggest bags of cash to political fights.” Holding the number one position is AT&T, a Fazio client which spent $45,279,674 on lobbyists between 1989-2010.
Last year, the Gila River Indian Community paid $1,310,000 in fees to lobbyists. In 2008, the tribe was represented by Steven Heeley, a former majority staff director and chief counsel to McCain on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. At the height of the Abramoff scandal, in 2004, when McCain held hearings in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to investigate Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff’s alleged overcharging of Indian tribes, lobbyists for the Gila River Indian Community paid out $2,180,000 in lobbying fees – that’s over $180,000 a month, an amount which eclipses Abramoff’s $150,000 per month in lobbying fees. Yet somehow, McCain did not think to expand his investigation to see whether this tribe was truly getting its money’s worth.
The Ak-Chin Indian Community, which reportedly only has 750 members, recently completed a $20,000,000 expansion of a casino, which is managed by Harrah’s Entertainment – another Fazio client which has already paid $2,000,000 in lobbying fees for the first half of 2010.
Susan Bradford is the author of Lynched, a book which provides complete coverage of McCain’s Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings on tribal lobbying.
Delite Gaddie | Mesa
Back
Your article in the Republic
Dear Ms. Valdez:
I wrote the following letter to your editor after reading your article.
Space did not permit me to discuss other points. For example, I suggest you write an article that explains how a poor couple like Jose and Juana had six thousand dollars to pay the coyotes that smuggled them over the border. Believe me, there are few couples in my extended family that can raise six thousand dollars. You might also explain where the thousands of back packs full of illegal drugs came from that the border patrol has found abandoned in the desert. (I assume you have seen the video of the border patrol collecting these back packs.)
You might also write an article describing the plight of a typical refugee family that is fleeing death, persecution and even mutilation of their young daughters. You might get a hundred or so of them together in a large room, lock the door, and then explain to them why you believe that Mexicans, simply wanting a better economic life, have the right to illegally occupy homes and classrooms in the US while these refugees watch their family members being literally killed and mutilated while they wait in the legal immigration line. I would like to be a fly on the wall during such a meeting.
Another article you might consider would record the stories of the Guatemalans and other nationalities that have entered Mexico illegally. Show us how these illegal immigrants are treated under Mexico’s immigration laws.
Then sum it all up and explain your definition of “racism.”
Sincerely,
Jack C. McVickers
P.S. You might also explain why you see no difference between legal and illegal immigrants. Expound a bit on your concept of the rule of law and why everyone is subject to our laws except Mexicans.
Dear Editor of the Arizona Republic:
There is an elephant in the room that Francisco Gutierrez, Linda Valdez and other supporters of illegal immigration would like us to ignore. (Arizona Republic, 7/25/2010). Mr. Gutierrez asked Tom Horne why he hated Mexicans. Ms. Valdez praised Jose and Juana, both illegal aliens.
The question that should be addressed is why Mr. Gutierrez, Ms. Valdez, Jose and Juana believe Mexicans have a right to come to the U.S. ahead of those people of other nationalities that are also seeking a better economic life. Is this not a racist belief? And while only the cold-hearted among us do not have empathy for the people like Jose and Juana who have been neglected by their own governments, we also have empathy for the uncounted millions of people of other nationalities who live with even greater economic hardships. We have even greater empathy for the fifteen million refugees who each year flee their homelands for their very lives. That is why we Americans, a people governed by the rule of law, give priority to immigrate to political refugees ahead of economic refugees like Jose and Juana.
And so I ask, “Who are the real racists in this debate?”
Jack C. McVickers | Scottsdale
Back
Israel
Now is the time to demand that Congress and the White House stop sending U.S. tax dollars to the PA, which continues to demonize Israel and incite hatred and continued violence. Now is the time for Palestinians and their leaders to truly recognize Israel and raise their children to have jobs – and not Jihad.
Mrs. Hauwert | Tempe
Back
Federal ruling on gay ‘marriage’
On Wednesday, the heavy hand of the Federal Government once again frustrated the will of the people. Judge Vaughn Walker overturned the part of the California Constitution that states that marriage is between a man and a woman as “unconstitutional.” This ruling is a complete abandonment of common sense and the laws of natural order. Now a person can call themselves a tree, but that doesn’t make them one. Likewise, redefining the institution of marriage to include persons of the same sex does not change the nature of the relationship. Homosexuality is, and always will be, a disorder. I suppose that if gays want to adopt kids, and teach them this sick way of life, there is nothing that the rest of us can do except to voice our displeasure.
Joseph Rodrigue | San Dimas, California
Back
CCUSD is falling apart
As a teacher in the Cave Creek Unified School District, I may be a bit iconoclastic in my views, but I suspect that I do not stand alone in my criticisms of our school district. As a long-time member of Cave Creek community, I have never seen educational morale so unspeakably low.
Students are unchallenged and unmotivated, parents are discouraged and disappointed, and teachers are exhausted, overwhelmed, and severely underpaid. The only person who still seems to have a smile on her face is Debbi Burdick, and that’s probably because she was undeservingly signed on for another three years as District Superintendent. Our district is falling apart from the inside out.
Curriculum information is non-existent which leaves the schools disorganized and every teacher compiling their own curriculum. There is no alignment and no consistency. How are our students supposed to build on prior knowledge when everyone is learning something different? Visit the website for any other school district and you will find curriculum maps, scope and sequence, district goals, and content area expectations. Go to the CCUSD website and all you will find is a plethora of misleading animations advertising our excelling schools and state-of-the-art programs. Where are our curriculum leaders? Where are our curriculum maps? How are teachers supposed to know what to teach? How are we ensuring alignment to the state standards and building off of prior knowledge? The CCUSD website is a perfect analogy of the dynamics of this district: let’s look pretty on the outside and maybe nobody will notice the disaster on the inside.
Anonymous Teacher for obvious reasons
Back
Random thoughts
I can once again breathe easy not that our beloved "Republic" has come out with their recommendations on which Republicans to vote for in the upcoming primary. I'm thinking it was either E.J. Montini or Karl Marx that did the research for their recommendations. But I repeat myself.
Americans are going to be much healthier now that Michelle Obama has come out against "eating cake." Hmmmm, I wonder how she got those thighs, hips and derriere, I'm betting it wasn't from chowing down on carrots and celery. Thank God Air Force One is a JUMBO jet.
Tom Carbone | Phoenix
Back
Reelect no one!!
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. It's my sincere belief that to return John McCain and Jeff Flake to Washington, is ill advised if we want to "Change it back." We need fresh, new, conservative and committed members in the peoples House and Senate. Returning retreads, especially one as old and tired as John McCain, is NOT going to help us change the disastrous direction this country is headed.
All of us should examine each candidate and listen carefully to his thoughts on the size and scope of our Federal government. Instead of just telling us they are against earmarks, how about some legislation eliminating them rather than attempting to vote "no" on bills that contain them (a virtual impossibility, and they know it!). And since when do we believe someone who is all of a sudden listening to the people, when he was diametrically opposed to them 2 years ago on the subject of Amnesty? Do you honestly believe there should be any talk at all of a carbon tax? What would be the point other than to legitimize the hoax that is “man-made global warming?" Jeff Flake has collaborated with Bob Inglis, S.C., on a supposed revenue neutral carbon tax that will affect us for the next 30 years. Is that not a little like allowing the camel's nose in the tent, giving consideration to how our legislators like to "tweak" tax laws once they have been created and whenever they need more of our money?
Please folks, study your candidates. Know what you are voting for. This is the most important election of our lifetime. It will determine whether we will complete Obama's agenda of transforming the United States of America into a second rate socialist democracy or returning it to the great republic we have been for over 200 years. Rule number one in 2010: RE-ELECT NO ONE.
An American for Sovereignty | Nancy Bailey | Mesa
Back
Letter to Mayor Jim Lane and Council
According to an article in the August 11, 2010 edition of the Scottsdale Republic, you will soon be asked to consider a formal position on SB 1070. Because of the political orientation of the petitioner's, we can assume you will be solicited to officially declare rejection of SB 1070 by the City of Scottsdale.
Freedom of speech and tolerance allows for such things as Scottsdale Human-Relations Commission member Carolina Castillo-Butler's preposterous request that the Scottsdale City Council publicly condemn SB 1070. The Mayor, council members, the police chief and officers have taken oaths to support the enforcement of all laws.
The Scottsdale Human-Relations Commission's request to disavow law and support law breakers and lawlessness is in direct conflict with our laws and would promote Scottsdale as a sanctuary city.
SB 1070 is not about race. It is about enforcing our immigration policy and federal law on the books. While volunteering for a local law enforcement organization, I recently had a front row seat to immigration demonstrations in Phoenix. I witnessed protesters here illegally marching under the flag of another country while defacing and trampling the United States flag. What is the message here to law abiding citizens and non-citizens here legally? The protesters demand preferential treatment in the immigration process and condemn laws protecting our nation. We live in a city governed by laws in a state governed by laws in a country governed by laws.
Why would any organization petition a council of law makers to become law breakers?
As you expect, I urge you to not only reject this attempt to erode the values and laws of the United States, but I ask you to instead make a declaration of reaffirmation of SB 1070. Declare that Scottsdale will not be a sanctuary city condoning lawlessness.
Bill Crawford | Scottsdale
Back
This will make your blood boil!
Fellow Patriots,
If what you are about to see and read doesn't make you scream, "Enough is Enough," nothing will.
Just today the Newspaper USA today reported on the average government vs. private salaries for 2009. I have included the article below for you to read. Here is the bottom line. Remember this is for 2009.
Federal Employee Annual Salary: $ 81,258
Federal Employee Annual Benefits: $ 41,791
Total Federal Employee Annual Pay: $123,049
-------------------------------------------------------------------
State Employee Annual Salary: $ 53,056
State Employee Annual Benefits: $ 16,857
Total State Employee Annual Pay: $ 69,913
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Private Employee Annual Salary: $ 50,462
Private Employee Annual Benefits: $ 10,589
Total Private Employee Annual Pay: $ 61,051
------------------------------------------------------------------
We the People spend $128 Billion per year on Federal Employee Pay. Don't these people work for us? How is it that they make so much more than we do year after year?
It is way past time for a big CHANGE in Washington D.C. but We the People have to do it. It is our responsibility.
Please share this information. Here is the article:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm
Red Mountain tea party leader | Email
Back
