Thank you Cave Creek
On behalf of the Cave Creek Caring Citizens committee, I wish to thank every Cave Creek Citizen who participated in the recent recall election. You have exercised your right as a citizen.
And personally I wish to sincerely thank those who voted the right way. Those who have insured that our beautiful town is now in the hands of citizens, like you and me, who truly care about our town and culture and about the environment inn which we all live.
Allow me to be honest with you. The road to achieve what we just did was a tough one. At times many of us wanted to quit our fight and just live our lives, accepting what we had, a Town Council and a Town Hall controlled by those who cared less about our town and its citizens.
The newly elected council members are all worthy of our trust. I have full confidence in every newly elected council member. In their honesty, in their motives to run for office, and in the decisions they will make on our behalf. There are no hidden agendas now. No secretive meetings. No idiotic decisions that will cost the tax payers hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.
Many attempts were made to derail this recall. Many court cases filed. We lost some of the battles, but at the end, we won the war. We won our town back.
Be happy. Be proud. Be sure that we are in good hands.
A very special Thank you goes to Susan Clancy, Steve Lamar, Dick Esser and Mark Lipsky, who all volunteered to run for office. It only proves their character, their resolve, and their commitment for a better Cave Creek. I salute them and I support them. As for our fair weather mayor, whether he turned over control of "his town" to the Trenk led "slate" out of fear for his position or out of his peaceful nature is a question you should answer yourselves. My opinion is that we need a strong mayor, one who is not influenced by others. A mayor who can think on his own and not bend with the wind.
Hani Saba
Cave Creek
Your priorities for new council
Don,
Well, I expected to disagree with your priorities, but you had me at "return to a 5 day work week." All of your points are positive. The only thing missing would be to examine town departments with a citizen committee to examine ways to reduce the town budget. As you said there are many people in town with more specific knowledge of engineering, public works, public safety, and planning than any town manager or council could possibly know. An advisory board to the town manager? Many cities and towns have more citizen involvement than we do. For instance I know one department that could be reorganized that would save money and increase service at the same time. I realize you backed the recall, but I hope you will hold this new government accountable as we move forward. We have a lot of work to do.
CW Jensen
Email
Campaign signs
Congratulations and thank you to the people responsible for the quick removal of all those campaign signs!
Sandra Stroner
Email
Elections and voting
Good Morning Don,
I have what may be a silly question, but knew you would know the answer. My husband and I are Republicans and love you by the way. My question is this ... we live in an unincorporated area (Maricopa County Island). We have a Cave Creek address, Scottsdale water and pay county taxes. But in our taxes we pay for Cave Creek School district taxes.
With that said, we never get to vote for any thing in Cave Creek or its School District. For instance, the recall. Why is that? Is it because we are not incorporated into any city? We feel like we don't belong anywhere.
Thank you for your time and keep up the great reporting.
P. Bailey
Email
Hi,
You are right about your situation. Yes, all that you mentioned is because you are in an unincorporated area. There are advantages to living in the county rather than a town or city (less regulations, more freedom from the Gestapo, etc.). BTW the slate lost and this weeks' web page has all the details.
Keep smiling, and thanks for liking us.
Don
Thank you for the quick response and I just read the results online! That is great news.
P. Bailey
Dear Don
Though we never met, we feel like we are “old friends” through your newspaper editorials!
We moved here about two years ago from Sun City Grand, and were thrilled to read your conservative paper and gain perspective on our new community. We were shocked to learn of the Trenk slate and the subsequent damage to Cave Creek since they “took over” the council.
Your courageous newspaper kept us informed and involved and we are very thankful for your major contribution to the town of Cave Creek.
We know you must be very happy to see the “new team” elected and you are the major reason we know Cave Creek will be restored to the charm and conservatism she deserves!
May God generously bless you.
Reggie and Beth Court
Cave Creek
Can't be for real ....
To the Arizona Legislature:
Y'all want to make sure that criminals can buy guns in perpetuity (Sierra Vista Herald, March 10, 2015). To that end, you are ready to sign a "compact" with other states making sure neither the voters nor future legislators can overturn it. Since you're oblivious to so many things, there's no doubt you're also oblivious to the following: "No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, ... enter into any agreement or compact with another state ..." (Constitution for the United States of America, Article I, Section 10.3). But then, when did you ever care about the Law, or the Constitution, or your constituents.
H.G. "Dutch" Smittenaar
Sierra Vista
Loretta Lynch
Dear Senator Flake:
The fact that you are considering voting for Loretta Lynch for Attorney General demonstrates your misinterpretation of your job as senator. It also demonstrates a lack of understanding and dedication to the rule of law.
You are proceeding on the belief that you personally have a decision to make. You aren't personally involved. The matter is between Lynch and The Constitution.
In a baseball game the referee isn't there to express his personal desire; he's there to compare the situation to the rule book. The rule book delivers the decision, not the referee.
Remember how often the Republican Party says it believes in the rule of law, not the rule of men. It's saying it believes the law book, The Constitution, will make the decision. The senator, in this case, is just there to see if the situation meets constitutional law. The Constitution decides it.
When Lynch approved President Obama's amnesty by executive orders, that unconstitutional decision disqualified her. Period. That's how you should vote: not qualified.
The departure from the rule book is destroying America. The way back is for those elected to return to The Constitution; it will make the decisions.
The electorate's job is to be informed and to vote out all those who are elected and depart from the rule book.
Down with the rule of men! Long live the rule of law – the rule book – The Constitution!
Arden Druce
Camp Verde
Another chaplain needs your help
Yet another military chaplain has landed himself in trouble for following the teachings of his faith. Lt. Commander Wes Modder, a decorated U.S. Navy Chaplain who has served with distinction for 19 years, has been removed from his duties and will be brought before an official Board of Inquiry and could be ultimately forced out of the military.
Why is such drastic action being taken against someone who was recommended for early promotion? Chaplain Modder expressed biblical views of sexual morality, including homosexuality, when counseling another officer. For this, he is accused of "failing to show tolerance and respect."
Chaplain Modder – a Christian chaplain – gave biblical counsel about sexual morality, and now he's in danger of losing his job. This kind of intimidation must not be allowed to continue. The chaplaincy exists in order to give spiritual care to men and women who serve our country, sacrifice much, and are often daily in harm's way. When a chaplain is not allowed to speak the tenets of his faith, what is left for him to speak?
Please read the petition below to the Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus calling for Chaplain Modder to be fully restored and all charges to be dropped against him. If you agree with it, click the link to sign it. We will deliver your petition to them to show them that the American people will not stand for their military being whitewashed of faith.
Sincerely,
Lt. Gen. (US Army-Ret.)
William "Jerry" Boykin
Executive Vice President,
Family Research Council
Dear Secretary Carter and Secretary Mabus,
The action taken against Lt. Commander Wes Modder is unacceptable, and must be rescinded immediately. Chaplains in the military must be allowed to fully and freely represent in word and in deed the faith communities that have endorsed them. Chaplain Modder should be free to counsel according to his biblical faith on the issues of sexuality, morality, and any other issue. I urge you to take action to restore Chaplain Modder and ensure that his religious freedom is secure.
How implausible is this?
Assume that Hillary as correct that there were about 60,000 emails on her personal server.
And let's assume that, as she just stated, her staff reviewed each of these emails and discarded only those that were personal. She said that they were fully read, not just searched by keyword. Ok so how long would that take.
Emails might be just a line or two, so to open it up (a few seconds) read it (a few more seconds) and then press delete and wait for it to delete, Then go to the deleted items folder, open it and delete again. All of this might take just 20 seconds or so. And that is if it is a few lines of obviously personal info.
Or it might be a long email. It might have attachments. It might be a mix of personal and sensitive government information. Reading it and deciding to keep it or delete it could take as much as ten minutes. How fast can you read 5 pages of text?
So let's be on the conservative side and assume that these emails would require just a few minutes each to OPEN, READ, DECIDE, SAVE or DELETE, then DELETE again.
After all that, the server must be reformatted to remove all trace of these emails, but we will not include that in the math.
So here is the math: 60,000 emails X 2 minutes each = 120,000 minutes ÷ 60 minutes in an hour = 2,000 hours of work.
Assuming one could do this for 6 hrs a day, that would be 333 days of work.
A month has about 19 work days (excluding vacations, sick days, personal days etc, and assuming that the worker (s) on this project had nothing else to do it would take almost 18 man months to complete.
Soooooo do we believe Hillary?
Not me.
Rich and Sandy Bail
Scottsdale
Of course Hillary is above the law
The Hillary #ClintonEmails are the big story – even with some of the mainstream media! If Hillary were a Republican, she'd be finished over her foreign fundraising and her private email server, but Hillary knows she is above the law. She brushed off the allegations at her staged press conference because Obama and Hillary both seem to think that as the "first black" and the "first woman," they are immune from normal accountability.
Hasn't Hillary compromised national security more than Petraeus in keeping a private email system, and, if so, why isn't SHE being indicted as he is? And what about Obama? Although Obama says he "just found out" about Hillary's private email account, the White House disclosed that he regularly emailed Hillary on her private email account.
In news that the White House would probably prefer to keep under wraps, the Justice Department has cleared Officer Wilson of civil rights violations in the Ferguson incident. Now we can clearly see that the whole Ferguson hoopla was built on an edifice of lies. Even Anderson Cooper and Van Jones (kind of) agree that the "hands up" protest was based on falsehoods!
Here's what I want to know: why is no one naming the 35-year-old black woman who deliberately lied about Officer Wilson and provoked the riots and mayhem? When police returned to interview her, she refused to open her door and barricaded it with a couch! Where is the outrage about her actions that mirrors the outrage about Officer Wilson's actions?
I'm excited to have completed over half of my time in confinement, and I hope to see many of you at one of my first speaking engagements after my term is up! I'll be talking at FreedomFest 2015 in Las Vegas this July, along with a full lineup of other liberty-lovers. Check out the details and register now.
If you see my latest film, America, you'll better understand what motivates not only Obama and Hillary, but the entire anti-American left.
Sincerely,
Dinesh D'Souza
ObamaCare: Of hypocrites and heroes
What do you call someone who opposes the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, standing instead for free markets, private charity and personal responsibility in healthcare?
What do you call that person when, in a tough situation, he acts in accord with his beliefs, relying on private charity to help him pay the bills associated with an expensive health emergency?
I can think of a lot of names for someone like that. "Hypocrite" is not among them. Some ObamaCare supporters seem a little mixed up on the subject.
Richard Mack, former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, opposes ObamaCare and declined to sign up for subsidized health insurance under its provisions.
When he suffered a heart attack in January, his family set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for his care. As I write this, the campaign has nearly met its $30,000 goal. By the time you read this, it will probably have surpassed that goal.
Donors to the fundraiser have the option of commenting, and a funny thing happened on the way to the goal: Lots of people made small donations for the sole purpose of publicly chiding "Sheriff Mack" (as his friends and fans still call him though he's no longer in office) for his opposition to ObamaCare.
The remarks range from "agree to disagree, but I'm happy to help you" at one end to strident and, in some cases, nasty at the other. "Hypocrite" seems to be among his detractors' favored terms.
But hypocrisy involves "insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have." And in this, as in so many other instances, Sheriff Mack is the exact opposite of a hypocrite.
Sheriff Mack believes that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. He also thinks it's a very bad idea. Many Americans agree with him on both counts.
He declined to accept subsidized insurance under the ACA, and when he found himself in a catastrophic health situation he asked for assistance.
Not from the government. Not at the expense of unwilling taxpayers. Only from those who were willing to voluntarily help him. Just as he advocated for before he was the one who needed that assistance.
Sheriff Mack is well-known to libertarians for his previous stands against gun control and other violations of Americans' rights by the federal government. In fact, he once ran for Congress on the Libertarian Party's ballot line. Not all libertarians agree with him on every issue, but most of us respect him for his principled actions even when we disagree.
He practices what he preaches. Every time. No exceptions.
He's not a hypocrite. He's a hero.
Thomas L. Knapp
Director and senior news analyst
William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism
Vietnam Veterans’ benefits
Senators Gillibrand (D-NY) and Daines (R-MT) in bipartisonship March 9, 2015, introduced to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Senate Bill S.681 titled The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Agent Orange Act. The Bill is to companion with House Bill HR-969 of the same title. Both Bills are important to those veterans who have been ignored for VA benefits ever since 2002.
It is beyond comprehension why our legislators continue to ignore this group of veterans who served at sea in the combat waters of the Republic of Vietnam. These Navy veterans were also in Harms Way and were poisoned with the herbicide Agent Orange Dioxin. Tens of thousands at sea have come down with the same diseases as those troops with boots on ground and proven by the Institute Of Medicine (IOM) that Dioxin is in fact just as deadly at sea as on land. The IOM investigative report is what Congress and the VA goes by to determine certain benefits for veterans that involve herbicides such as is the case relative to the Vietnam War. These legislative Bills are supported by all service military organizations.
American people stand up and be counted. Call, write your members of Congress and Senate. Urge them to pass Bills HR-969 and S.681. Your voice must be heard to save lives.
John J. Bury, US Navy retired,
Vietnam Veteran
Media, Pennsylvania
