Your protest for CCUSD
Dear Student: You are a sadly disillusioned child that has been fed so much propaganda from CCUSD staff that you can’t see the forest from the trees.
Take a lesson in accountability, fiscal responsibility, integrity and leadership. Then evaluate the people with whom you associate at CCUSD and ask yourself what is missing within these ranks. Examine their behaviors and methods and means that they employ in an effort to boondoggle the voters and taxpayers. Then, take a look at the elderly and retired people that live within our community and witness how they are being taxed out of their homes, because followers like yourself as opposed to traditional leaders continue to misinform and distribute propaganda, thereby inflating the tax structure.
Where is your compassion for these people? It could be your grandmother or grandfather. Do you see them waving flags and signs, “It’s for the Grandparents and Elderly?” There are two sides to every story and you are absolutely blindsided with your ambition.
Proceed with your protest if you so desire but you will be recognized as simply another community fool doing the dirty work of the incompetent and dishonest. Do some research on our economy and then ask yourself if you would be willing to subsidize a dishonest administration with your tax dollars. When a country suffers difficult economic times, everyone must suffer and that includes you and the teachers. No one is exempt. I trust that one day when you graduate and get a job and start seeing your paycheck dwindle away to unnecessary taxes, you will then see the light.
I implore you to take off your blinders and educate yourself with the facts before going out in the public eye and making a fool of yourself. The voters have spoken and all you are doing is spilling sour grapes.
Name withheld by request | Scottsdale
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A City of Scottsdale gift catalog of reasons why governments go broke
My hometown makes me proud. In the midst of a 40 percent drop in home prices, foreclosed homes on every block, vacant stores in every strip mall, double-digit unemployment, a bursting commercial real estate bubble, and a $2 billion state deficit, what did the City of Scottsdale do? It mailed a Christmas gift catalog to its 235,000 residents, asking what free stuff they wanted from Santa.
Hey, if the U.S. Congress and President Obama can pretend to be Santa, so can the Scottsdale City Council. The only difference is that Scottsdale can’t print money like Washington can.
Ho-ho-ho!
The mailing wasn’t called a gift catalog, but that’s what it was. Disguised as a “General Plan Update 2011 Questionnaire,” the catalog came in residents’ bills for water, sewers, and trash pick up.
Instead of asking residents if they thought they were paying too much for those essential city services, the questionnaire, er, catalog, asked them to rate in importance a long wish-list of mostly nonessential services and municipal malarkey. Showing no originality, the wish-list parroted what is learned in municipal planning seminars across the land by shortsighted city central planners, who make excellent reindeers for pulling Santa’s sled.
They have an unthinking and obedient herd instinct, they live in a fairy-tale world, and they crap on taxpayers below.
The wish-list included all of the standard paeans to public spending, central planning, and political correctness, including such goodies as public transit, arts and culture, low-income housing, pedestrian paths, high-density development, livable neighborhoods, public open space, senior centers, and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh, let’s not forget “respecting cultural heritage,” “facilitating human connections,” “respecting the environment,” “embracing diversity,” and, right out of the Obama book of platitudes, “embracing change.”
There is so much reindeer crap in the air in Scottsdale that residents should wear rubber suits when they venture outdoors.
Taking the lead from the Santa Claus City Council, the reindeer-like planners advocate low-income housing but aren’t bright enough to understand how restrictive zoning and building codes have driven up home prices. They advocate senior centers without seeing the big Buicks, Lexus’s and BMW’s in the parking lots of existing centers, due to seniors being the wealthiest age group in Scottsdale and America. They advocate public transit without wondering why transit riders aren’t willing to pay the full cost of their ride in fares if public transit is so wonderful. And they advocate art museums without wondering why hoity-toity residents need taxpayer subsidies instead of paying the full cost of the museums out of their own pockets, especially when middle-class movie goers pay the full cost of movie tickets out of their own pockets instead of mooching off of taxpayers.
As further evidence that the reindeer are good at defecating on taxpayers instead of thinking, they didn’t put any prices on the wish-list. Nor did they ask any questions about tradeoffs between taxes and services, such as, Would you be willing to pay higher taxes to build more senior centers? Even more telling, they didn’t ask what the city could do to save money and cut spending in these hard times.
I have to sign off now. My wife and I have to put on our rubber suits for our two-hour walk, during which we’ll count the number of luxury cars in front of senior centers and the number of for-sale signs, auction signs, for-rent signs, and short-sale signs in front of Scottsdale homes.
Craig Cantoni | Scottsdale
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Blog comment posted on Arizona Republic’s article by Alex Bloom
The Bozos who think the protest was the product of a 14-year-old girl's own mind and conscience need educational therapy. Oh wait, you can't get education in the CCUSD because they waste taxpayer money on bureaucrats and administrators. The money those fools spent on consultants (trying to figure out why they lost the previous override ballot measure) was another example of waste and mismanagement. But I digress.
The force behind the protest was Kiwanis of Carefree, which is controlled by a corrupt core of angry old men who basically hate anyone or anything that tries to shine a light on real truth. They have already organized a campaign of threats against Sonoran News advertisers, and now have enlisted CSHS students to pitch in. "Being passed out was a list of advertisers for the paper with the idea to ban business at these places as an effort to hurt the paper." This is right out of the Kiwanis playbook. Corrupting students is even more despicable than corrupting politics in their stinking speed-trap town.
LovetoDance | Posted Nov-21 @ 8:02 AM
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Prosperity is just around the corner
I am confused. The Dow Industrial stock average goes up, and Chairman Bernanke of the Federal Reserve says (he thinks) the recession is (almost) over. Somehow I expect the Government to find a way to finance the production of bumper stickers that resurrect the 1930s claim that “Prosperity is Just Around the Corner.” And yet, when I drive around town – any town, including Cave Creek – I see closed shops and restaurants, vacant store fronts, and commercial “For Rent” signs. Most people have trouble seeing signs of the “recovery” that incumbent politicians speak of.
It appears to me that when the government speaks of “the American People” they are speaking of Wall Street (and Washington) and listening to the amplified audio words of Nancy Pelosi and Mr. Reid, who pull the strings of most of the Democratic congressmen and senators.
“Job creation” seems to be the big problem, and the Democrats appear to believe it can be solved by bailing out banks and brokerage houses that are “too big to fail.” To me, a simple man, it appears that the government cannot “create” jobs unless it hires more government employees, goes on a road-building spree, or does something else which results in an increase in taxes on people who cannot pay them because they are broke and have no jobs.
I think the way to foster creation of jobs is for the government to somehow encourage the people, the entrepreneurs, who actually build, or invent, or manufacture things which other people, foreigners we hope, want to buy. People who have money, that is.
Wall Street is a closely packed bunch of “players,” “traders” and gamblers, who call themselves “investors,” who are truthfully no more productive for the economy than the little old lady who sits on a stool in front of a one-armed bandit in the gambling casino and pulls the lever all day and into the night, hoping for the big payoff she believes is, like prosperity, “just around the corner.”
Elections are now decided primarily in favor of the candidates who can raise the most money, by promising to the voters the most lucrative support for the special interest groups and their lobbyists. Prosperity apparently stops just west of New York and Washington, D.C. with outposts of the wealthy in Florida and the Bahamas.
So what can we do about all this? Frankly, I don’t know, but a start would be to defeat most of the incumbent senators and members of the House at the next election. Unfortunately, however, we Arizonans have no opportunity to vote against such people as Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, to name only the cream of the crop.
Ralph G. Smith | Cave Creek
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We’re being led down the primrose path!
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredibility … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Sound familiar? Yes, the Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. Don’t you feel a parallel to our present time?
Many people think they’re walking a primrose path to paradise but will find instead it’s walking a road to perdition.
If America follows the road traveled by the socialists we will suffer the consequences like those who traveled that road in the last 20th Century.
Communism, Nazism, Fascism, and Secular Humanism are the deadly ‘isms’ of the last century that destroyed millions of human beings. Secular humanism is still responsible for the deaths of thousands every day – it’s called abortion.
When you combine the ideas of atheism, socialism, and evolution you can expect the consequences of bad ideas since they reduce people to the spiritual, moral and intellectual level of a fish.
We are now witnessing the U.S. government seeking to remake America into a socialistic paradise, one in which it will inject its authority into every area of life its citizens allow it into.
We know for a fact that the U.S. House of Representatives already consists of 4 socialist organizations:
• The Congressional Progressive Caucus
• The Congressional Black Caucus
• The Democratic Socialists of America
• The Democratic Progressive Caucus
These socialist organizations provide leadership for the various House committees.
These caucuses and eight other government-run enterprises that are nearly financially broke are putting us further and further into debt.
History will record whether our nation can survive this kind of debt, but history has already recorded others that have not.
A. Vanderhye | Scottsdale
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Obama Birth Certificate
I have read and been intrigued with all the attention given to the possibility of Obama not being born in the U.S.A.
Regardless of where he was born, he is not a U.S. citizen by his incessant placation to the "global citizen."
1. Obama is not a Christian, he is a soft core Neo-Muslim, with his sympathies and bows to the radical and comical. Neither Christian or Muslim can respect his faith.
2. He is not a capitalist, he is a socialist, by his declarations and appointments of his socialist government of Czars.
3. He is not a nationalist, with his custom world renown re-make of the presidential seal to his own likening.
4. He is defiantly not a patriot by allowing the trials of 911 terrorist to be tried in civil court instead of a military trial.
His globalist credential qualifies him to be the President of the U.N., not the U.S.A. However, they would be smarter than us and probably would not allow someone with his lack of leadership run their world.
I don't care how or where he was conceived, born, or how he lobbied as a neighborhood coordinator, he is not a strong leader, he does not believe in the spirit of America, home of the free, land of the brave. He has done nothing for our county except prove that a person of color can be president.
Dave Kendall | E-mail
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Weapons?
A firearm is a weapon ONLY when used as such. Until then, it is a survival, or hunting, or recreational tool. On the other hand, the bowling ball that was dropped by gangbangers off a New Jersey Turnpike overpass, crashing through the windshield and killing an infant in the back seat, was indeed a weapon. So was the swordfish used by a man to attack his estranged girlfriend. So were the baseball bats used by Philadelphia gangbangers to bash young Eddie Polek to death. So was the frozen turkey that a Tempe, AZ man used to batter a carjacker in the store's parking lot. So was the cucumber that a two-time felon used to simulate a pocketed handgun to rob a storekeeper ("Is that a gun, or are you just happy to see me?"). This last perp was sentenced to a life term, since this was his third strike.
I have a fat notebook filled with news clips that I use in my CCW classes to illustrate what constitutes a weapon.
In the meantime, I suggest the so-called "coach" petition Congress to ban assault bowling balls, assault seafood, assault baseball bats, assault poultry and assault produce, among other devices.
J-P. A. Maldonado | Phoenix
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Dear Carefree and Cave Creek Citizens
Thank you so much for supporting our bi-annual Triple Header Recycling Event.
We broke our own past record for Safe Drug Disposal as well as document shredding. ABCO Document Shredding had to send up an extra shredding truck to accommodate all of the documents brought in.
My sincere thanks to Sheriff Arpaio and MCSO for participating in our Safe Drug Disposal Program. This time around we collected almost 100 pounds of outdated/unused prescription drugs. What a coup to be able to keep that amount of drugs out of our water supply and away from our children. I should also mention that people from as far away as Anthem came to participate in our Safe Drug Disposal Program.
A special thanks to the following businesses and organizations that funded the free document shredding: ABCO Recycling, Bad Donkey, Boland Law Group, Carefree Consultants Inc, Estate Planning, Foothills Chiropractic, Jessco Electric, Sonoran News, The Soroptomists and Westech Recyclers.
Once again, I thank you all for participating and I hope you will please support the above businesses and organizations without whom this event would ever have been possible.
Councilman Bob Coady | Carefree
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Reply to Ron and Barb, Disappointed in Carefree
Ron and Barb: I'm saddened that you are disappointed with us folks in Cave Creek now that we have voted to accept Walmart as a retailer in our town. I understand that you fear that the character of Cave Creek has been forever changed by our desire to save our collective rear ends from having the town go bankrupt. I have a question for you though, where was your disappointment when Lowe's moved in? Or CVS, or Home Depot? I assume that you are still doing business in Carefree so to me your disappointment seems a tad far-fetched. You know you may be right that some of the products at Target might be of better quality than Walmart brands but it seems to me that the last time I was in a Walmart (two days ago) they had products from manufacturers like Apple, HP, RCA, Sony and many more. I guess you folks in Carefree don't lower yourself to that kind of stuff.
So I guess I have to say that if you feel that you can't support any of the businesses in Cave Creek, we will miss you! Gee, I wish my nose would stop growing when I tell a lie like that.
Bill Warner | Cave Creek
PS: bet we see you in the grocery section down the line.
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