Congress: No accountability
It is not about what political party a member Congress belongs to, it is about accountability for government to do what is right. The Blue Water Navy Agent Orange Act has failed. House Bill HR-543 was stalled in the VA committee even though there were 258 co-sponsors in support of the Bill, enough for a House vote. More Vietnam vets will die, many cannot pay medical expenses, some are forced to take second mortgages on their homes or sell their homes. Does Congress care? Most do not. However we vets do have a few caring friends in Congress. They are a minority. There are those in Congress so full of greed to fill their own pockets for the next election rather than provide proper VA benefits to our veterans who come home sick and broken. This is especially true of the Vietnam War veterans. With the 2014th Congress in session will our Vietnam veterans be once more denied what they have earned? The dollars needed for VA benefits is a trifling amount compared to the hundreds of billions we give away. Perhaps our Congress should serve on the front lines in war. Let them know how it feels to dodge bullets and be sprayed with herbicides. In time of war the enemy does not care about race, creed, or political party. Our Congress discriminates against those who served our Country, there is no accountability. To our Members of Congress, in ten more years there will be no Vietnam vets left living for you to contend with, what a shameful legacy.
John J. Bury, US Navy retired, Vietnam veteran
Media, Pennsylvania
An observation
The NYPD has suffered through the murder of 2 police officers and the shooting of 2 more officers yesterday yet the disgusting individual given the office of the Mayor of this previously great city continues to prove that he is ill equipped to govern and mediate.
Is this an echo chamber? This story sounds very familiar doesn't it?
It leads me to believe that sooner rather than later NYC will follow Detroit (and other cities) into the garbage dumps and shanty ghost towns that is the fate of all cities that cede their control to liberal progressive, regressives.
When those that work on Wall Street and/or large corporations finally realize that their safety and the safety of their families is threatened and under attack by the simple act of remaining in this cesspool they will pull their heads out of their backsides and realize that in this computerized electronic era it is easy to change, relocate and operate from ANYWHERE. They will wake up and disperse to cleaner, safer areas where they and their families are removed from the inner city criminal element. It will be bye bye to NYC and the Big Rotten Apple that has spawned the filth and vermin it has allowed to destroy it from within.
Tom Carbone
Cave Creek
Development in Carefree Town Center
Shortly after the November election, in which Carefree voters soundly defeated (again) the two propositions which would have extended mayoral and council terms, you received a communication discussing a rebirth of sorts, of the CarefreeMatters monthly newsletter formerly published by Councilman Bob Coady. The newsletter will be brief, monthly, and will be sent following the Carefree Town Council meetings. The goal is to provide you with unbiased, concise information relating to important meeting content, decisions and plans that will affect you. You will have a choice as to whether or not you wish to remain on the distribution list for those mailings, which should begin after the February council meeting.
The following note from former councilman Jim Van Allen, while not of the format planned for the newsletter, contains very important information regarding huge expenditures being considered by the mayor and council. The decisions that will be made will fundamentally change the character and financial standing of Carefree forever.
WILL CAREFREE BE NEXT??
Carefree friends and Stakeholders we are now facing a total of three or four major "hits" to YOUR money and future. Very important meetings are scheduled for Jan. 14 and 27, both at 5 p.m. in the Council chambers.
On Jan. 14 you will hear the latest on the potential ASU Cultural Center. As presently planned this will be a new building adjacent to the long awaited "Ed Lewis Project." What they want to do is for Lewis to build the new building (cost estimate to us $2.5 million); after it is built Carefree is to buy the building and furnish it to ASU for free. This building would go next to the Lewis project S.E. of the Post Office. Lewis says that this is vital to be able to get financing for his whole project. Ongoing maintenance costs are unknown and how they will be paid remains uncertain.
On Jan. 27 a 'Special meeting' is planned to review another cultural building adjacent to Town Hall. This of course is the mayor’s way to get his new Council Chambers built. The cost of the Chambers has been offered at $1.5 – 2 million. If the Cultural Center is to be added the costs will double (or more). The Mayor refuses to do the right thing and just extend the present lease for 5 years on the room we already have. None of the Stakeholders, nor many of the town residents want this ... even some of the mayor’s backers say NO WAY!!
You will hear propaganda about how we can borrow the money needed and pay it back from the $5,700,000 the Water Company will soon start to repay to the town. Folks, that $5.7 million came from the reserves of YOUR town. It is not 'tooth fairy cash' to waste on projects that are not going to add to the direct Economic Development of Easy Street. There is no assurance that the cultural users will be around in the future. You will hear how private donors will flock to help with the monthly cost...and the town will not have to continue to support the buildings. Does that sound realistic, with two new buildings to support? Let's take a look at some recent problems other sister cities have faced:
Scottsdale: they have LOST the Heard Centers TWICE, once at Summit and before that at El Pedregal. (They also left Surprise holding the bag.)
Mesa Gateway Airport: Mesa is now faced with having to write off its $80 million loan to this airport development. No hope to collect.
Phoenix Sheraton Hotel: In the past 6 years this hotel has LOST MORE than $28 million dollars of the city’s money. The city owns the hotel having paid $350 million to build it.
Glendale: This town continues to suffer millions of dollars from the failed hockey rink deal. It will never recover those losses.
Tempe: This town has a long history of throwing millions to develop hotels, apartments and business centers. Currently they have almost $100 million on the table to different groups.
All of the above fiascos were done under the veil of "New Economic Development" for their towns. Not one penny was given to 'nonprofit' developments like Theaters or Art Cultural Centers.
Our mayor and several council members will do their best to do a snow job on us. You need to attend the meetings … be heard … and be aware of the facts surrounding their plans to dramatically alter YOUR TOWN … by wasting YOUR money.
See you at the meetings.
CarefreeMatters
Freedom of the press in France and the U.S.
We join the rest of the world in mourning the brave staff of the magazine Charlie Hebdo, gunned down by religious fanatics for defending freedom of the press.
Meat industry fanatics in the U.S. have devised a more subtle means of stifling freedom of the press. The states of Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, and Utah have enacted "ag-gag" laws that impose criminal penalties on investigators seeking to expose animal abuses and safety violations in factory farms.
According to an Associated Press report in yesterday’s papers, four members of an animal protection organization were charged with violating Utah’s ag-gag law. They sought to document the daily transport of thousands of pigs from the infamous Circle Four factory farm in Cedar City (UT) to the Farmer John slaughterhouse in Los Angeles.
Ag-gag laws are clearly unconstitutional and are being challenged in federal courts. Assaults on press freedom need to be confronted wherever they rear their ugly heads, even when they assume the legitimacy of a state law.
Sincerely,
Clark Duncan
Cave Creek
Intrusive medical questionnaire
Twice in the past year I have had to fill out medical questionnaires, due to change of domicile. As a "MediScare" patient, both times I came across the following question: "Are there any firearms in your home?"
My answer in both cases was, "See Bill of Rights, Articles 2 and 5." To date, Heinrich Himmler's Schutzstaffel - SS, currently commanded by Eric Holder, has not kicked down my door. We shall see.
Name withheld by request
Email
Stop liberals from regulating free speech!
Liberal allies of Barack Obama on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) are attempting to regulate political speech on and off the Internet, and to restrict our constitutionally protected freedoms. We have a short window of time to stop it!
Under current FEC guidelines (from a unanimous, 6-0 decision in 2006), political advertising or commentary posted on YouTube is exempt from campaign reporting requirements. Democrat FEC Vice Chair Ann Ravel apparently finds this unacceptable, and speaks unfavorably of “this effort to protect individual bloggers and online commentators.”
As if free speech is unworthy of protection!
If Ms. Ravel has her way, any video you post of your own political commentary will fall under the scrutiny of the federal government.
After six years of Obama Administration overreach and encroachment into our personal freedoms, none of us should be surprised. What’s important, though, is that we stop their latest assault on our Bill of Rights.
If you think outlets like YouTube and the broader Internet should be free from federal government control, you must join me in standing up and being heard–NOW.
But it isn't just YouTube that the FEC is going after. Obama's FEC is engaging in the same kind of political repression that we have seen over the past few years with the IRS targeting. The new proposed rules will limit individuals' rights to associate and to form political organizations. The broader implication of this FEC rule would be a total crackdown on non-profit organizations that exist to petition the government on a variety of issues.
We have the ability to tell FEC Chair Ann Ravel and her Obama Administration friends HANDS OFF the Internet and HANDS OFF our precious, Constitutionally protected freedom of speech. We must do this, and urge others to as well:
Make an official comment against any new government intrusion before January 15. Note, you’ll need to leave your full name and postal address for your comment to count. It takes a few minutes, but believe me, it’s worth it. Speech-stifling power grabs such as this get shut down all the time, but only when we speak out and register our comments.
To submit your comment, visit http://sers.fec.gov/forces/addcomments.htm?pid=93617. Spread the word. The comment period ends January 15, so act now well before the deadline so that we can start putting points on the board right away!
In liberty,
Jenny Beth Martin
Tea Party Patriots
K. Dee McCown
College Station, Texas
December 28, 2014
Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Attorney General Holder,
It is unlikely that we met while I served in the FBI. That being said, we served at the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the same years and on the same "team" conceptually speaking. During my service in the FBI I worked with a number of U.S. Attorney Offices in the United States to include a tour at FBIHQ where I worked with the Department of Justice (Main) on a daily basis.
I begin my letter with this comment to highlight that I am not a bystander on the topic of law enforcement in the United States. I worked and managed a variety of federal investigations during my 12 years of service in the FBI, to include the management of several Civil Rights cases in the State of Texas.
In fact, during my last tour in the Bureau, I was an FBI Supervisor responsible for managing federal investigations in nine (9) Texas counties, many of which were rural; in places where one would suspect racism to flourish given the narrative often pushed by Hollywood and urban progressive elites like yourself. I performed this mission diligently and under the close supervision of two FBI managers; an Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) and Special Agent in Charge (SAC,) both of which happened to be African American and outstanding law enforcement professionals. I also performed this mission serving side by side with a variety of law enforcement agencies at the Federal, State and local level.
I have observed you closely during your tenure as Attorney General and notably during these last tumultuous years; watching you negotiate a number of controversial public matters to include the ATF Fast and Furious scandal, Black Panther Party intimidation at voting booths, IRS targeting of American citizens (citizen groups opposed to the Obama Administration,) the ignoring of U.S. Immigration laws, DOJ criminal indictments of select news reporters and your management of several high profile criminal investigations involving subjects of race, notably African Americans.
Until today, I chose to hold my tongue. However, with the assassination of two NYPD Lieutenants last weekend in New York City, at the hands of a African American man with a lengthy criminal record, fresh from his participation in anti-police activities; coupled with numerous "don't shoot, hands up," and "black lives matter" anti-police protests (some of which are violent) occurring daily around the nation, I am compelled to write you this letter.
To be blunt Mr. Holder, I am appalled at your lack of leadership as the Attorney General of the United States and your blatant politicizing of the Department of Justice. Your actions, both publicly and privately, have done nothing to quell the complex racial issues we face in our country and have done everything to inflame them. As the "top cop" of the United States, you share in the blame for much of the violence and protests we are now witnessing against law enforcement officers honorably serving throughout our nation.
During one of your first public speeches as Attorney General you made it a point to call America "a nation of cowards" concerning race relations. That speech, followed by other public announcements where you emphatically opined that the odds were stacked against African Americans in regard to the enforcement of law, your intention to change the law and permit convicted felons to vote after incarceration, and your changes to federal law ending "racial profiling," are poignant examples of how detached you remain from the challenges faced by law enforcement officers serving in crime ridden neighborhoods throughout the nation. These opinions are also indicative of a man that lives and works in the elitist "bubble" of Washington D.C.
Your performance, as the nation's Attorney General, during the Trayvon Martin case in Sanford, Florida and the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri clearly highlights your myopic view on this topic. Contrary to your embarrassing prejudgment in the Brown case and evasive post trial remarks on the Martin case, neither Brown nor Martin were targeted and/or killed because of their African American race. Rather, as non-emotive investigations determined, both teens died as a consequence of their own tragic and egregious behavior; behavior that involved a violent assault on a law abiding citizen in the Trayvon Martin case, and a violent assault on a young police officer in the Michael Brown case. Yet you, as the number one spokesman for law enforcement in the country, blame the deaths of these men on years of institutional racism and the alleged epidemic targeting of African American men by police departments around the country; nothing could be further from the truth. Following the Michael Brown case Grand Jury decision all you could muster was the following comment: "The Department of Justice is currently investigating not only the shooting but also the Ferguson police department in what is called a "patterns and practices" inquiry to determine if the police department has engaged in systematic racism."
So, let's get this straight. At a decisive moment in history when our nation required a strong and unbiased voice from its' senior law enforcement official, you Mr. Holder, made it your personal mission to join with other racial antagonist and politicize a tragic event, accusing a young white police officer of a racially motivated killing in what we now know was a justified self-defense shooting of a predatory felon. Your behavior is unbelievable. You sir, have sacrificed your integrity on the altar of political expediency. You, Mr. Holder, are the "coward" and hypocrite you so loudly denounce when speaking of broken race relations in America.
Further to this point Mr. Holder, law enforcement officers around the country remain dismayed and shocked at the counsel you keep; that being your close relationship with none other than Al Sharpton, a racist "shake down artist" who spreads hate, divisiveness and the promotion of anti-law enforcement sentiment throughout the country; a tax evading fraudster who has unbelievably visited the White House over 80 times in recent years. It is simply beyond my comprehension as a former federal law enforcement professional, that you, the Attorney General of the United States, joined arms in common cause with a charlatan like "the Reverend" Al Sharpton; and it speaks volumes to your personal character and lack of professional judgment.
Violent crime, out of wedlock births, drug abuse, rampant unemployment and poverty found in many low-income minority neighborhoods are not a result of racist community policing and racial profiling as you so quickly assert, and frankly most law abiding Americans are exhausted of hearing this false narrative repeated time and again by you and others in the racial grievance industry. While no one, me included, would ever suggest that African Americans have not suffered from institutional racism in the past, I would strongly argue that we no longer live in the Mississippi of 1965, nor do we live in a country that even closely resembles the "Jim Crow" South of yesteryear. Those days, thankfully, are in the past as are the generations of Americans that supported such egregious behavior and endured such suffering.
Rather, Mr. Holder, we live in a day and time where the root cause of many problems faced in our African American communities can be attributed to the breakdown of civil order due to the rejection of institutional and family authority and the practice of counter-culture values; and most notably, from the absence of strong male leadership in fatherless black families. The reason that our local police officers are so often entwined in tragic events in black communities is because it is the police that have filled the void in these communities that should be occupied by moral and strong black men leading family units with Godly values. You, Mr. Holder, especially, should be thanking the police rather than persecuting them for the gap they fill in these communities because if it were not for the intervention of local police many African American neighborhoods would be in a state of total anarchy. Yet tragically, you and your race-baiting colleague Al Sharpton (a paid media personality under contract with MSNBC news) choose to remain silent because to publicly speak this self-evident truth threatens to not only alienate and offend the most loyal voting constituency of the Democratic Party but diminish your and Al Sharpton's self-serving power base in these suffering communities. God forbid that you would suggest individual citizens accept responsibility for their own behavior and the collective failure of their communities; it is so much easier for you and others like you to make excuses, play the victim card, and pander rather than address the real root causes that plague many low income neighborhoods.
Mr. Holder, the public is aware of FBI statistics that tell a different story than the one you and Sharpton preach. We know that young African American males, representing a tiny fraction of the U.S. population, are by far the greatest perpetrators of violent crime in America when compared to their peers in other ethnic groups, and, we know that citizens of African American descent overwhelmingly make up the majority of their victims. We also know that incidents where white police officers shoot and kill black perpetrators are rare and on the decline. We know further that although there are legitimate and bona fide Federal Civil Rights investigations in the United States worthy of pursuing, they are miniscule when compared to the false narrative portrayed by you, President Obama and Sharpton declaring rampant discrimination against African American men by police officers throughout the country. You are just plain wrong.
In closing Mr. Holder I will leave you with this thought; you were given a rare opportunity to lead with integrity during a variety of divisive and controversial issues during your tenure as the 82d Attorney General of the United States and rather than be a man of moral courage you chose instead to cower, further inflame racial tensions, advance false narratives and play progressive political activist.
Time and again you chose to "politicize" the mission of the Department of Justice rather than pursue justice and now, tragically, we are witnessing the fruits of your irresponsible behavior in the murder of two innocent police officers in New York City, assassinated by a man motivated by the flames of racial hatred that you personally fanned. How many more police officers will be injured or die in the coming days because of the perilous conditions you helped create in this nation. You, President Obama and Al Sharpton own this problem lock, stock and barrel and now it is your legacy. As thousands of NYPD officers turn their collective back on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, another dishonest politician and Sharpton disciple, so too do countless Federal law enforcement officers turn our backs on you.
K. Dee McCown
FBI (1997 - 2008)
CC: Senator Mitch McConnell
Senator John Cornyn
Senator Ted Cruz
Senator Harry Reid
The Honorable Bill Flores
The Honorable John Boehner
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
World terrorism serpents - Be wary
My wife and I were walking an Appalachian path a few months back when a poisonous copperhead snake struck at my wife. The snake was big. My wife was carrying pepper spray and amazingly with one quick move sprayed that deadly serpent. The snake was stunned as we lunged forward to safety. We were so very lucky. Either one of us could have died or lost a limb if that poisonous serpent had been successful. Journalists and cartoonists in a French newsroom were not so lucky this week. They were totally caught off guard by striking terrorists that ended their unsuspecting lives.
The attack on a Paris, France magazine killing twelve people is chilling. We must not allow such a heinous event to freeze us and keep us from practicing freedom and eliminating terrorism.
Christians, Muslims, Jews, white people, black people, Americans, French and all must be freedom united.
ISIS, militant Islamists, Taliban and others are working to destroy our freedom of speech, religious freedom and equality. Sometimes we think we have problems in America. If we want to understand problems look at Syria and parts of Iraq or any other region that is ruled by militant religious extremism. Ten journalists and two police officers sacrificed their lives for freedom of speech in Paris.
The French magazine Charlie Hebdo was internationally known for its satirical cartoons that outraged many Muslims. Some of those militant Muslims retaliated by enacting a bloodbath.
On September 11, 2001 we watched thousands die horrifically in New York City at the hands of terrorists. We have watched or heard of the hundreds killed in Mumbai through various attacks. We have seen parts of videos of journalists and humanitarians beheaded by terrorists. In France we saw a helpless police officer executed by terrorists after they had executed an entire newsroom. The accounts go on and on. Evil exists in the world and is alive and well.
People across the planet must unite. Good people must stop fighting each other. We have problems in our country and it could be a lot worse if we do not work together. We have no problems like what we could have if we lost our freedom.
Americans must be strong. We must practice our faith boldly. Speech and freedom to express ourselves must not get quieter but louder. Police officers and the military need our full support. They have tough jobs. We need them to be as effective as possible.
Our job each day should be to do our part to keep our freedom. Treat each other kindly. Help each other. Practice the Golden Rule. Keep each other safe. Yet, unfortunately we have to live warily. Evil is a slithering serpent that might strike anyplace and anytime. Being caught off guard could be fatal.
Dr. Glenn Mollette
American columnist and author
www.glennmollette.com
China buying U.S. companies
According to Forbes Magazine November 24, 2014 issue, which I paraphrase below, since the year 2000 Chinese companies have made almost 900 purchases of U.S. assets worth $43 billion. China’s billionaires are gobbling up U.S. companies at a record pace.
Most disturbing are the implications of these purchases by Chinese Communist companies on our national security. Ralls/Sany purchased four wind farms in Oregon near a Navy weapons system base. Wanda group purchased 342 movie theaters previously owned by AMC Entertainment. WH Group bought Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor. Lenovo purchased Motorola and part of IBM’s server business.
"In five years China’s direct investment in the United States has grown from $2 billion a year to $14 billion."
We should limit the purchase of U.S. companies by the Chinese Communist regime, and probably restrict the ownership of U.S. companies to less than 30 percent of outstanding shares of stock.
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, New Hampshire
