Trenk and his bobbleheads


Trenk and his bobbleheads (Durkin, Monachino, and Spitzer) lied to get elected. Their entire campaign was based on lies – mainly by excoriating the sitting town council on issues ranging from the proposed resort, property tax, open space, financial mismanagement, secret and illegal financial dealings, the water company, the wastewater treatment plant, dishonest town manager, intentional malfeasance of all kinds, etc., etc., etc. Now, based on Usama Abujbarah’s Notice of Claim and potential lawsuit, they are going to have to get real in a hurry or go on the stand, under oath, and it’s going to be interesting. A couple of them are not likely to survive that and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group.

Unfortunately, it’s you and me that are going to have to pay the piper for their egregious and dishonest actions. Most troubling for Cave Creek residents is that no matter where you stand on the issues (win, lose or draw), it’s going to cost the town hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars that are badly need for real health, welfare and safety projects. Already, tens of thousands of dollars have been funneled to the town’s law firm, which has a history of very generous billings, to defend the mandamus issue as well as paying for the unqualified Mr. Glassman. Ultimately, the civil rights case could drive the town’s insurance rates up significantly and for the long term.

This town council slate is on track to inflict more financial damage to the town in 6 months than all previous town councils combined.

Bob Williams
Cave Creek

Right on, Steve LaMar!

Steve, your September 18 Guest Editorial was excellent. You expressed quite well what many are thinking and know. Too bad others haven't taken the time or are incapable of finding what the Cave Creek Rural Western life style is about.

I was luckier. I had a brother (Cactus Willer) who moved here in the 50s; I started visiting in 1955. When I moved here in 1974 from the high life in San Francisco, he took me for a horse ride. I found out "the back of a horse is good for the soul of man.”

He spent several years debriefing me to understand the Cave Creek life style and the "Code of the West." Basically, trails that tamed the West, by using the horse.

I understood and started my ongoing interest in trails as a 1986 committee member writing the trail segment for the First Master Plan, required for incorporation of our town.

Then I spent eight years as the town's Volunteer Trails Coordinator working on trails guided by Ian Cordwell and Bambi.

I spent weekends for two years as a member of "The Copper County Mountaineers" restoring the 50 mile "High Line Trail" on the Rim from Pine to Colcort.

I was a Member of the Sheriffs Posse 26 for years, riding the Mountains around Cave Creek, McDowell Mountains, Superstitions, Four Peaks and Tonto National Forest in Search and Rescue missions.

I horse packed for eight years with "The Los Hombres" through the Matazell Mountains, to Joe Wager's former Ranch on Stoleman Lake Road, South of Mormon Lake. Up in the spring and down in the fall. 125 miles each way, 5 days.

I rode 50 mile Endurance Races and the 100 mile race in the Tevis Cup in California's Squaw Valley Mountains.

All of this was my payback in time and energy, for being able in the 70s and 80s to ride from my barn down to the New River Road Trail, to the Cave Creek Wash crossing, to the County Park Trails, down to the old pig farm, up to the mesa between the Seven Sisters and Elephant Mountain, waved at Don Sorchych as we passed his house, down to the Creek Trail all the way back to New River Road after a stressful week working as a Phoenix bank officer.

Guess what? You will never get to do that, because the Dudes, Drug Store Cowboys, Smooth Mouths, Carpet Baggers and Critically Judgmental ( IT'S MY PROPERTY) closed most of the trail. We never talk much to them because they haven't earned the right to do so and they are probably too busy trying on Cowboy Hats. No, I am not a 'wanna be cowboy'. I am an equestrian who enjoys the Cave Creek good life.

What have YOU done for the good of the Equestrian Cave Creek life style?

Vern Willer
Cave Creek

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My hat is off to Bambi Muller

My hat is off to Bambi Muller for all the trails my husband and I enjoy. Sometimes we walk but more often we ride our loyal horses. I saw Steve LaMar's big hug for her in the last council meeting and she deserves that and more. Other than that the meeting was plain stupid. Wear western clothes and claim you are wild west? Give me a break! No one on our council would know the front from the back of a horse. Well maybe (Ernie) Bunch would but he is a holdover not a slater.

And can you believe that guy has filed a suit against the town so we can't have a horse trail on someone else's property? And he probably calls himself a Creeker. I understand he came from the flat lands of Illinois and has no clue of the niceties of a western town. Let’s hope in the next election we get back to being Cave Creek again.

Mary and Jeffrey Madleyson
Cave Creek

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Syria, lies and video tape

It would appear Barry Soetoro is a very visually motivated guy. After the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi was burned to the ground, the staff brutalized and murdered, his entire senior staff shifted blame to a "disgusting" video demeaning Allah. All lies. This was an orchestrated terror attack with pin point scheduling for 9/11.

With little or no hard evidence of its authenticity or actual origin Obama hangs his faltering credibility on another amateur video depicting the horrific death of an estimated 1500 innocent men, women and children. The video is basis for his demand that the U.S. punish Syria's Bashar Assad, but to bash Bashar he needs congressional authorization and/or an international coalition; he has neither. We may be grateful he does not. Syria's three strongest allies are Russia, China and Iran.

Iran would love an excuse to retaliate, with Israel their target, China holds the bulk of U.S. credit markers (redeemable on demand?) and Russia works feverishly to broker a pipeline deal with Syria to supply Europe with Middle East oil - where rubles go so goes Russian control and Russian weapons. Putin has out maneuvered Obama and Kerry at every turn. He the hero, they the gang that can't shoot straight, even when only shooting the bull.

Since day one Obama's goal has been to weaken America on the world stage, completion date scheduled for 2017, safely out of office and blameless again. This time Barry tripped over his own Red Line, then lied to the world in an attempt to save face for his White House. What we need is a new and competent face in the White House.

2016 seems a distant dream.

Randy Edwards
Cave Creek

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Change your policy

I think you should change your policy about needing a signature to publish a letter or editorial. I remember a great column you had named "Your View." It was well read because it was anonymous and people said what they meant. That said, I would like to give you my view of what is going on in Cave Creek but keep my identity to myself. The people you call the dark side are mean and I don't want my house egged or my tires flattened.

You have turned down other letters I have written because I wouldn't share my name, please print this one as ‘name withheld.’

First of all I voted for the old council and thought they did an outstanding job. I never will understand why voters voted in the people you rightfully call a slate. They are nasty people and are against everything the town stands for. I went to a couple of council meetings and was so offended I won't go to another. These people, the slate, are clueless and I find employees at town hall to be terrified. I don't know what happened to Vince Francia. I voted for him countless times but never will again. He reminds me of John McCain, a politician I detest.

I pray for Usama's success in his lawsuit. It will be painful for the town but we deserve whatever we get. I for one wish I was young enough to run in the recall but I will work on the behalf of all volunteers as long as I am not in the limelight.

Name withheld
Cave Creek

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Wake up people!

I’ve become aware of a book on the history of World War II written by Robert Welch who founded the John Birch Society back in 1958. This book is based largely on the explosive allegations it contains about the alleged crimes of General Dwight Eisenhower in the war in Europe, which have never been properly investigated. To stop the treason of today, which will continue unless we stop the modern-day traitors destroying our country now by economic and political means, we should read the book, “The Politician”, (see the Internet and JBS.org). We need to understand such critical history exposing the treason against the U.S., including the thousands of our prisoners of war that Eisenhower allowed Joseph Stalin to kidnap to the Soviet Union for forced labor. Eisenhower stood on Lenin’s tomb and was given the highest honor of the Soviet Union. That reportedly came with an annual monetary payment. We must use historical understanding to stop the current treason now upon us – wake up people!

Sincerely,

Ed Nemecheck
Landers, California

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Friends,

I often speak about the nation’s “unsustainable debt.”  That isn’t just a phrase; it’s a reality that the politicians in Washington simply refuse to face.

If we needed proof, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently released a report that described the growing national debt in precisely those terms. CBO said, “President Obama and lawmakers have been cutting the wrong kind of federal spending as they try to avoid the unsustainable buildup of debt that is projected in the coming decades.”

While CBO puts it a bit more politely, what they really said is that Obama and Congress are nibbling around the edges with temporary sequestrations and “cuts” in programs while refusing to do anything about the real causes of a debt that is on the verge of hitting $17 Trillion.  Those real causes, of course, are Medicare and other “nondiscretionary” expenditures that are literally consuming the private economy.

So what are the President and Congress doing?  They are taking to the airwaves for “made for TV” political posturing about raising the debt ceiling and playing chicken with threats to shut the government down at the end of the month.  Nowhere in all this drama are any real efforts to reduce the size of the government -- and therefore its cost...or any mention of the entitlements that are the true drivers of that “unsustainable” debt.

Instead, we are getting the same old song:  We aren’t going to touch Medicare or Social Security, and we aren’t really going to cut defense spending, but we HAVE to get the budget and deficits under control.  Friends, it can’t be done!  You know it, I know it, and the American people know it.

We have to call them out.  Republicans and Democrats alike.  We have to say, “Quit playing games with our financial future. Quit pretending you are doing something when you aren’t.  And take a break from the Fox News and MSNBC appearances and get to work.

Calling the politicians out is up to us.  It is up to the Our America Initiative to be a powerful voice – and it is up to liberty-minded supporters such as you to make that voice heard.  Your contribution makes it possible to reach more and more people via the Internet and the media, and mobilize those Americans to put the heat on Washington, DC.

In less than two weeks, Congress and the President will make some kind of deal to avoid another budget “crisis.”  Of course, that deal – whatever it is – will actually do nothing about the real crisis. It will just put the hard work off to another day, and our financial security will just keep disappearing.

We can’t let them get by with another back room deal that risks our economic freedom. Go to OurAmericaInitiative.com and help us call them out.

It’s important.

Thanks, as always, for your generous support of liberty – and for joining me in this fight for America’s future.

Gov. Gary Johnson
Honorary Chairman

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Sinema

Hi there,

I wanted to flag this rich piece of hypocrisy for you.

Kyrsten Sinema during a taped interview at a Washington bar, said she regretted the fact that ObamaCare passed with only Democrat support. http://www.nowthisnews.com/news/bipartisan-pub-crawl-obamacare-edition,

She seems to be forgetting that she was a driving force in Arizona behind the law. Sinema was selected by President Obama to help shape the bill. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20428063.html.

She held a rally urging people to support it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF5iNICO6os

She even bragged about attending the bill signing. http://www.azhousedemocrats.com/2010/03/sinema-to-attend-landmark-health-reform.html

It didn't seem to be a problem to her then. Now, in the midst of a tough reelection, she's suddenly trying to rewrite history.

"Kyrsten Sinema can't be trusted to fix President Obama's disastrous healthcare law because she was the one who helped craft it. She can write all the press releases she wants, but she cannot rewrite history," said Matt Gorman, NRCC Spokesman.

Matt Gorman
NRCC Rapid Response Director

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Setting the record straight on drug discounts

On behalf of the safety net hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of America’s most vulnerable and low-income patients, we are writing about a recent Letter to the Editor that appeared in Sonoran News regarding the 340B drug discount program (Peter Pitts, “Low-cost drugs, ill-gotten gains,” September 4).

Twenty years ago, President George H.W. Bush and a bipartisan group of lawmakers enacted the 340B law. In its most simple terms, it requires pharmaceutical companies with profits in the billions to give their best prices to the hospitals and other health care providers that the poor, the uninsured, and the underinsured turn to when for-profit providers say to them, "Sorry, but you're not my problem. Go somewhere else." Since that time, Congress has voted repeatedly with strong bipartisan support to expand 340B to rural, pediatric, and certain cancer hospitals that treat high numbers of these patients.

Stretching resources, reaching more vulnerable patients and providing better services is precisely what safety-net hospitals across America do with their 340B savings. They use them to provide prescription drugs for free or at a discount; offer medication management and clinical pharmacy services; increase the number of patients their pharmacies can serve; avoid restrictive drug formularies; reduce patient wait times and extend pharmacy hours. This is just as Congress originally intended.

Mr. Pitts’s group, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI), is heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry, according to extensive reporting in national publications. CMPI’s tax filings cleverly conceal this information. Mr. Pitts has spent his career as a public relations executive for the drug industry.

Furthermore, it is both disingenuous and offensive to claim that patients are being taken advantage of through the 340B program, as Mr. Pitts does. Documented, independent research by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that 340B hospitals use their savings to improve health care services and lower the costs of medicines for patients.

If Mr. Pitts would like to truly address the critical issue of the high cost of medicine, he should look no further than his funders in the pharmaceutical industry. Spending on pharmaceuticals in the United States topped $325 billion in 2012 and is projected to skyrocket in the coming years. With profit margins regularly hitting 30 percent, it’s clear high prices are denying patients access to their medicines, not their local hospitals.

In Arizona alone, there are a number of hospitals that benefit from 340B, including several public and religious-based institutions. We suggest anyone with questions about the program visit them to learn more about the work they do and the patients they serve.

340B is a small program with huge benefits. Without it, many of our nation’s most vulnerable patients would have nowhere to turn to for life-saving medicines and services. To learn more about the 340B program, visit 340BFacts.com.

Ted Slafsky, President and Chief Executive Officer
Safety Net Hospitals for Pharmaceutical Access
A national association of nearly 1,000 hospitals enrolled in the 340B drug discount program.


Editor note: New York Times article titled "Dispute Develops Over Discount Drug Program" written by Andrew Pollack was published February 12, 2013. These excerpts are pertinent:

Some senior Republicans in the House and Senate are investigating the program, which they say has suffered from murky rules and lax enforcement.

“If ‘nonprofit’ hospitals are essentially profiting from the 340B program without passing those savings to its patients, then the 340B program is not functioning as intended,” Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said in letters sent to three medical centers last October.

To read the New York Times article in its entirety:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/business/dispute-develops-over-340b-discount-drug-program.html?pagewanted=all

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How many full time jobs has ObamaCare cost America?

They say the sign of a great man is his ability to admit when he's wrong.

In March of 2010 Warren Buffet said that if he were Obama he would redo Obamacare because if he doesn't "average citizen will suffer."

Despite the predictable disasters of cuts in full time jobs, reduced medical coverage, higher premiums, Obama seems to enjoy driving our economy into the ground.

His lavish vacations are intentionally rubbing salt into the wound. But as I've said many times, the less disposable income Obama's policies leaves us with, banks make more usurious profits with increased credit card debt. The bigger debt Obama and his Liberal Republicans and Democrats can run up the PRIVATE Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs make out like even bigger thieves. Obama has closed down more coal fired electrical plants than our brave flight crews destroyed in Germany during WW II. It is not within Obama's personality to admit to any mistake and his consistent pursuit of taking down America may be no accident. The only question left is if Obama is willing to start WW 3 over Syria to make his long list of embarrassing failures a moot point in his historical legacy.

I pray there are still enough clear thinking Americans who have not turned into drone-like Obamabots to save America in the next election!

Sincerely,

Joseph DuPont
Towanda, Pensylvania

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