Amanda like Ketchup (It's Mustard!!!!!!) 

Another angle 

Cicily and Frankie 

BBQ at church 

Got my car door shut on the 23rd.

It's my eleventh wedding anniversary today.

We're going out Wednesday (it's more convenient).

Kindergarten Program 

Apparently John Kerry is going to be in a lot of hot water if, in an attempt to circumvent the rules so he can spend more money, he doesn't accept the nomination at the Democratic Convention in Boston.

recent photo 

GREAT QUOTES IN HISTORY

"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." ...William Penn


"The more a civil society tolorates evil, the more innocent people in the future will suffer and blood will be spilt trying to uproot it"


"tolorence is a word for those with no morale conviction"


"Wars aren't fought for peace; wars are fought for victory. Peace comes after you've gotten rid of the oppressors...


"In countries under arbitrary government, the people oppressed and dispirited neither possess arms nor know how to use them. Tyrants never feel secure until they have disarmed the people." -from the Connecticut Courant (1788)


"A government that is big enough to give you all you want or need is a government that is big enough to take it all away"....Barry Goldwater



""Liberals are trying to rewrite history, because they were proved so catastrophically wrong about the Cold War. They were wrong in every sense. They were wrong, first of all, morally, because they failed to appreciate the nature of the evil that we were up against. They tended to excuse the Soviets? behavior, they tended to justify it, or they tended to ignore it, whereas they were very focused on every sin that could be possibly be attributed to the United States." -- Mona Charen Author, Useful Idiots"


"1935 will go down in History! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!"---Adolf Hitler


"Americans are gulible... little by little we will spoon feed them socialism and before they know it they will be Socialists"---cold war Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev


"The meer absense of war doesn't mean thier is peace"


"Of course war is terrible...but what's worse is living under the hand and paranoid whims of a ruthless tyranical murderous dictator"...Wesley D Scott


"A lie told often enough becomes truth"--- Vladamir Lenin


"History proves that socialism and communism are open doors for ruthless paranoid tyrants"...Wesley D Scott


"If muslims were as nuts and cold blooded during the crusades as they are today...which I believe they were...the crusades were not only right but were justified"...Wesley D Scott


"Liberals steal what's not theirs and give it to others to buy votes and call that compassion"...Unknown


"Liberals want to Tax, Tax, Tax you to death and beyond and then turn around and do it again to your children and thier children and so on and so on"


"Liberals thrive politically from chaos such as poverty, crime, victimization and immorality why would they want it to stop? they gain and keep power from it!" Wesley D Scott



"Liberals are generously willing to give to anyone who needs anything! but just with your money and not their own"


"The government is the religion of liberals and you it's slaves and subjects"...unknown


"Liberals do not want America to be the "land of opportunity" but the land of dependence on THEM!"


"Peace at all costs is a recipe for war that cost all"!"


"It's so easy for Liberals to say forgive or have mercy on criminals when they themselves were not the victim"


""To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace." George Washington"


"Having a job or income is one thing but if you have to vote to keep them is not your vote bought?"


"Beware of the man/women (or group) who promises you other peoples money in exchange for a vote for them"


"Democrats claim to be the party of and for the constitution but tell me where in the constitution does it authorize government to implement such things as welfare programs, forced retirement saving programs, Medicaid, Medicare or Universal Healthcare? I think they have the U.S constitution confused with the communist manifesto"


"It's easy to say we want free this and free that when your not the one flipping the bill"


"If you think money is the root of all evil wait until you see power for power sake in action"


"Beware of politicians who say they "care" for you and your plight...DONT FORGET THEY ARE STILL POLITITIANS"


"The right to control one's body is a feeble argument for...abortion. Mere ownership does not give me the right to kill innocent people whom I find on my property." -- Pro-Choice philosopher Mary Warren


"Corruption is devastating to any system and people will suffer but history proves that suffering is far worse and much longer for people in a non free type socialistic/communistic system"


"It's not what kind of person you really are.. that is irrelavent...It's what kind of person people 'think' you are that's important"...father of John F Kennnedy & Sen. Ted Kennedy...Joseph P Kennedy


"If most people do not trust government then why do they keep voting for those who will make government bigger?"


"We know what works: freedom works. We know what's right: freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life for man on earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state.".....George H.W. Bush

"Peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever." Ronald Reagan


""We are the showcase of the future. And it is within our power to mold that future-this year and for decades to come. It can be as grand and as great as we make it. No crisis is beyond the capacity of our people to solve; no challenge too great." Ronald Reagan


"Sunshine everyday makes a desert"...Unknown


"Im here to make decisions weather they be right or wrong..Damn it! Im going to make them"---Harry S Truman


"Our enemies send other people's children on missions of suicide and murder. They embrace tyranny and death as a cause and a creed. We stand for a different choice, made long ago, on the day of our founding. We affirm it again today" We choose freedom and the dignity of every life. --George W Bush


"...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious." -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister


"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly...it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over." -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister


"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -John F. Kennedy


"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke

The latch that doesn't want to close. 

The dent. Uhhgg 

September 11, 2001: Was God Present or Absent?

Thanks go out to Ross McDonald for inspiring this fun project and posting great links on his blog atthat have helped me learn, albeit slowly, how to make a better blog site.

An angry Berkeley resident's letter (click to enlarge, maybe it's legible) 

"Off To Bed" Courtousy of F.G. Rhodes 

Buffalo in Yellowstone (courtousy of F.G. Rhodes) 

My sister and I. Pennsylvania a few years back. 

oops, how did that get there! 

A Party at There.com 

Mirror Editor Fired Over Iraqi Abuse Photos
Despite mounting expert criticism of the pictures, and a statement by the government Thursday that they were fake, Morgan insisted his stories of abuse by troops were accurate.


"The pictures accurately illustrated the reality about the appalling conduct of some British troops," he said.

Unbelievable (I guess, in the media, the ends justify the means).

'Senior officers from the regiment accused the Mirror of putting the lives of British soldiers at risk. One picture showed a soldier apparently urinating on a prisoner.


"That photograph was a mocked-up fake and it wasn't taken in Iraq. This is a deadly serious business because people's lives have been placed in jeopardy by what has turned out to be utter and complete nonsense," Sheldon said.



Can we investigate Kerry's self confessed war atrocities?


WASHINGTON — A nationwide probe into child pornography trafficking using Internet file-sharing networks has resulted in 1,000 investigations and at least 65 arrests, federal officials announced Friday.


The broader investigation centers on the growing use of "peer-to-peer," or P2P (search), networks that allow users to connect computers directly with one another to exchange files rather than using traditional Internet servers that are easier to track.

"No one should be able to avoid prosecution for contributing to the abuse and exploitation of the nation's children," Attorney General John Ashcroft (search) said.

Agents from the Justice Department (search), FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sometimes working undercover, have infiltrated many of the networks in the past few months to identify people involved in distribution of child pornography.

Charges against the 65 people arrested so far have included possession and distribution of child pornography and sexual abuse of children. The 1,000 investigations have involved more than 350 searches of computers and other property, officials said.

Among the specific cases:

—Jimmy Richard Morrison faces federal pornography distribution charges in Wyoming alleging he was a P2P client named "Pedokiller." Authorities said that Morrison used the P2P networks because police were known to be examining Internet chat rooms for child pornography activity.

—Mathew Fling was indicted in New York in February for child pornography in an investigation that also led to allegations that Fling molested two girls, ages 6 and 8, during the past four years. Fling faces state charges in the molestation case.

—A P2P investigation in Lincoln, Neb., led to the arrest of Jeremiah Zalesky on charges that he molested the daughter of a couple with whom he was staying. Child pornography images were later found on his computer, officials said.

The maximum sentence for a federal child pornography distribution conviction is 20 years in prison.


Can't we just send them to Iraq wearing placards that say,"Allah sucks"?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119984,00.html


Congressional Hearing On Same Sex Marriages Shows True Colors of Some Congressmen

CAPITOL HILL - The hearing started off on a biblical note with the amendment's sponsor, Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) explaining the main reason why traditional marriage must be saved.

Musgrave said, "We are created as male and female, and for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined with his wife and the two shall become one in the mystical, spiritual, and physical union we call marriage."

This hearing is part of an overall plan by Republicans on the Hill to build support for a federal marriage amendment. The fear is that if they stop holding hearings on this, support for an amendment will slip because it will not be on the congressional agenda anymore.

Well, it was certainly front and center on Thursday, and on display were the passionate arguments from both sides. Lawmakers pressed gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) throughout the hearing.

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) said, "If we don't draw the line here at this point with a constitutional amendment, then where and how and under what legal circumstances could a line be drawn somewhere between homosexual marriage and bigamy, polygamy and group marriage?"

Congressman Frank says there is a line to draw. "You do say, yes, that two consenting adults that could be an element of social stability, but if you get into three and four or five, no, that has inherent difficulties, that's not the way for children."

King asked, "So you would draw the line at two people?" Frank responded, "Yes."

Then the issue turned toward the Bible, with Frank saying marriage has not always been between one man and one woman. He said, "It is often been between at least one man and at least one woman. Figures such as Joshua or Abraham in the Bible, for instance, were in that situation."

Later in the hearing, Congressman John Hostettler (R-IN) took issue with this comparison, saying Abraham was married to just one woman. And while on the subject, he brought up how homosexual behavior has in part led to the destruction of a society.

Hostettler said, "You will admit that there is biblical precedent for a former residence of Abraham's nephew Lot, and an adverse impact on society in the case of Sodom."

Then the issue turned to a study done by secular social scientist Stanley Kurtz, which details how gay civil unions in Scandinavian countries have contributed to the decline of heterosexual marriage and the rise of out-of-wedlock births. Jay Sekulow, from the American Center for Law and Justice, cited that survey, to make the point that if you let marriage be anything you want, it loses its special purpose.

Sekulow said, "The uniqueness of the relationship as viewed by the state, changes; therefore, those entering into it view the uniqueness as no longer important, and that's why you're seeing an increase in the amount of out-of-wedlock births. That's why you're seeing a decrease in the number of marriages. It's the uniqueness of it and the special categories on which it was based, and the special protections on which it was based, that have been removed. And that's not a trend for four years, that's been a trend in the context of Europe for about 15."

Frank responded, "They haven't had same-sex marriage in these countries for 15 years."


Sekulow disagreed, and both men continued to argue the point.

Finally, Congressman Melissa Hart (R-PA) interrupted the discussion by saying, "I think I'm asking the questions here."

And Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) asked for order in the court.

Minutes later, the Kurtz research came up again.

Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) commented, "I would ask for unanimous consent that the Kurtz's research be submitted as part of the record because that does show..."

But Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said, "I object to that travesty. I withdraw my objection. I was just emotional."

But just a moment later, Congressman Nadler again laid into the Kurtz research. "I think the last hearing showed pretty conclusively that as a matter of social research, that Mr. Kurtz's work is a piece of garbage, actually."

Clearly the issue of homosexual marriage is a contentious topic on Capitol Hill. Voters, however, are heavily opposed to it. And it is almost certain to be the top cultural issue in this year's elections.

House Approves Resolution: U.S. Courts Cannot Judge Based on Foreign Law

A House subcommittee has approved a resolution to make it clear that the court decisions in the United States should not be based on foreign laws. Recently, there has been a growing movement in the courts to cite laws from other countries as a basis for the decisions judges come to, in cases before them. The backers of the resolution say Article VI of the U.S. Constitution clearly states that the Constitution and the laws of the United States are the supreme law of the land. Yet, six Supreme Court justices have written or joined opinions that cited foreign authorities, including courts in Jamaica, India, Zimbabwe, and the European Union, to justify their decisions. This legislation does not have the rule of law, rather it would simply be an affirmation that the U.S. House of Representatives recognizes that U.S. decisions should not be based on foreign court decisions.

Harkin Introduces 'No Junk Food' Bill for U.S. Public Schools

Democratic Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) has introduced a bill that removes candy, chips and other snack foods from the vending machines in the nation's public schools. The bill would give the Department of Agriculture the authority to regulate sales of junk food at schools. It would also provide grants to schools so they could provide healthier food alternatives. At the press conference announcing the bill, there was also a survey released by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which showed that 75 percent of the drinks and 85 percent of snacks sold in school vending machines are of poor nutritional value. Critics of the bill say this is "legislative lunacy." The Center for Individual Freedom has criticized it, saying that the federal government shouldn't be involved in decisions like this. Instead, it should be up to local school districts and the parents.

A Soldier's Father Speaks Out

A gentleman from Virginia, proud parent of a decorated Army officer
serving
in Iraq, writes to us, "I am so fed up with the anti-American
propaganda
coming from some Americans that I wrote the open letter below. I will
appreciate it very much if you include it": [text of letter follows]

An open letter to some political partisans, especially certain
politicians
and people in the media: I have a son who is an American soldier in
Iraq.

I care very much about what affects him and his comrades in arms.

I am not fooled, when you partisans spew propaganda that helps our
enemies
and harms our soldiers, then tell us you support our troops.

I am not fooled, when you focus on, highlight, and exaggerate the
negative
things that happen in Iraq, while ignoring our positive
accomplishments,
then tell us you support our troops.

I am not fooled, when you focus attention on American soldiers killed
and
wounded in Iraq, to use these brave patriots as an anti-Iraq-war
political
football, then tell us you support our troops.

I am not fooled, when you keep criticizing why and how we invaded Iraq
-
that is done; our troops are there - then tell us you support our
troops.

I am not fooled, when you engage in constant, carping criticism of what
the
U.S. has done and is doing in Iraq, then tell us you support our
troops.

I am not fooled, when you search for and trumpet to the world anything
that
will diminish respect for our soldiers and their leaders - even when it
endangers greatly their lives, then tell us you support our troops.

I am not fooled, when you tell our soldiers and the rest of us that
they are
stuck in a "quagmire" and will suffer a Vietnam-type defeat, then tell
us
you support our troops.

I am not fooled, when you spout propaganda that undermines the morale
of our
soldiers and the American public and boosts the morale of our enemies,
then
tell us you support our troops.

You are giving aid and comfort to our nation's deadly enemies! They
know
they cannot defeat us militarily in Iraq. However, you cause them to
think
they can win here politically by breaking our will, if they kill and
wound
enough of our soldiers.

You despicable partisans! You are stimulating our enemies to attack our
soldiers and the people working with them. The blood of many Americans
and
Iraqis is already on your hands. And your hands collect more blood
every
day!

You are determined to regain the political power you have lost, and you
believe your presidential candidate and congressional candidates will
win,
if the U.S. fails in Iraq.

If your anti-American propaganda contributes to the deaths of many
Americans
and Iraqis, that is a price you are willing to make them pay. You are
pathetic and dangerous!

I am not fooled, when you contemptible politicians and other political
partisans, including many in the media, tell us you support our troops.
I
know that is a lie!

I am not fooled, when you claim spreading your pernicious, divisive,
anti-American venom makes you patriotic. I know it does not - and I
know you
are not!

General "Black Jack" Pershing was born September 13th, 1860 near Laclede, MS. he died July 15th, 1948 in Washington, DC
Highlights of his life include:
1891 Professor of Military Science and Tactics University of Nebraska
1898 Serves in the Spanish-American War
1901 Awarded rank of Captain
1906 Promoted to rank of Brig. General
1909 Military Governor of Moro Province, Philippines
1916 Made Major General
1919 Promoted to General of the Armies
1921 Appointed Chief of Staff
1924 Retires from active duty Education West Point.

Just before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks on the United States forces in the Philippines by Muslim extremists. So General Pershing captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to posts for execution. He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the, now horrified, terrorists. Muslims detest! pork because they believe pigs are filthy animals. Some of them simply refuse to eat it, while others won't even touch pigs at all, nor any of their byproducts. To them, eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise (and those virgins) and doomed to hell. The soldiers then soaked their bullets in the pigs blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. The soldiers then dug a big hole, dumped in the terrorist's bodies and covered them in pig blood, entrails, etc. They let the 50th man go. And for the next forty-two years, there was not a single Muslim extremist attack anywhere in the world.

Who would Al Queada vote for?

a) George Bush

b) John Kerry

April 26, 2004
California Political News and Views
published by Stephen Frank
stephenfrank@sbcglobal.net

Bumper sticker of the week:  KERRY: MAN OF MANY MANSIONS

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends. They can
subscribe directly by sending an email to stephenfrank@sbcglobal.net


Major news story--- The Mayor of San Francisco knowingly violates the law
over 4,000 times and says "sue me".  Now a San Francisco member of the State
Assembly, Mark Leno, (while not related to Jay Leno, his legislation is as funny
as Jays' monologues) wants the legislature to allow same sex marriage. I guess
he never heard  Prop. 22, passed by the voters of California, overwhelmingly. 
The people said marriage is between a man a woman, period.  That is the law
in California.  Yet, San Francisco Democrats appear to be lawless
politicans...anything goes if they want it.  Some might call them hedonistic politicians,
but then they are from San Francisco.

On Tuesday Leno got an Assembly committee to pass his bill to violate Prop.
22.  What part of democracy don't the Democrats like--the fact people control
government?

Now is the time to write to Governor Schwarzenegger, asking him to uphold the
law and announce he would veto this bill.  Why should tax dollars be spent on
a bill that violates the voters decision?  The Governor made it clear during
the Recall he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, only.  I
believe he was sincere and truthful, and I support his statement.  Now, lets
stop the lawlessness of San Francisco before it spreads even further.

A Boost For Gay Marriage In The State www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/8990491p-9916630c.html

Four years after California voters approved a measure restricting marriage to
a man and a woman, an Assembly panel Tuesday endorsed a bill that would
legalize same-sex unions. "Never in the history of this country has this issue
moved forward through a legislative policy committee and passed out successfully,"
Assemblyman Mark Leno said after his measure cleared the Judiciary Committee.
Despite the 8-3 vote along party lines - with Democrats in favor and
Republicans opposed - AB 1967 faces substantial political hurdles this election year.

******************************************************************************
******

Karen Hughes the first conservative/Republican speaker entirely brought and
paid for by UCSB Arts & Lectures in at least the last four years at UC Santa
Barbara. She will be speaking on Sunday April 25 at 3:00pm at Campbell Hall.
Hughes wrote the recently published "Lessons Learned in the White House" General Public $10 / UCSB students $8

Charge tickets by phone: (805) 893-3535 / www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu or
email:
a&l-info@sa.ucsb.edu

If you are in the neighborhood, try to see it.  The great news is that UCSB
College Republicans are strong on this campus and very active.  Throughout
California they are growing and getting more successful each semester.  They just
held a widely successful state convention at UCLA, received lots of publicity
and exposed the UCLA administration as toadies of the Left and censors of free
speech

Thanks to Nick Romero for sending me the info at the Karen Hughes event.  If
you are nearby, show your support.

******************************************************************************
******
DON'T FORGET-- DEFEAT BOXER!!!  Go to www.jonesforcalifornia.com and sign up
to give California a Senator who represents all of us.  Also, show Boxer that
the grass roots for a Republican counts as much as liberal/radicals do for
Howard Dean.  Go to the web site and donate what you can, $5, $10, $25 or $50 to
Bill Jones for Senate.  Send a message, the Boxer vote on the Laci and Connor
Bill will not be forgotten!  Go to www.jonesforcalifornia.com and donate what
you can afford.


Table of Contents

1)  Car Pool lines used to frustrate drivers, not help them
2)  Political Tidbits
3)  Unions stop Wal Mart--create higher costs for poor, loss of jobs
4)  Tax dollars for campaigns, not schools, liberal dream!
5)  Why do liberals want to keep poor and minorities uneducated?
6)  Educators lie about drop out rate--CYA in action
7)  Time to protect our voting rights.  Democrat Shelley allowed uncertified
systems
8)  Government releases criminals--they commit violent crimes--no surprise
9)  Another Gray Davis/union bought bill declared unconstitutional
10) Liberals: stop terrorism by stopping new housing for poor and middle class


******************************************************************************
******
POLL FOR THE WEEK:

Question for this week:

SHOULD THE LEGISLATURE VIOLATE PROP. 22 AND ALLOW SAME SEX MARRIAGES IN
CALIFORNIA?

Yes or No answer to stephenfrank@sbcglobal.net   Please pass this poll to
your entire email list.  Thanks.

******************************************************************************
******

1)  Using our gas tax money for social engineering.  The ghost of Adrianna
Gianturco and Jerry Brown must be in Sacramento.

Car-Pool Puttering www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=91097

Just in case you still entertained the slightest notion that car-pool lanes
in California were intended to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic rather
than bully people into state-approved behavior, a bill making its way through the
state Legislature should disabuse you of that idea. It would allow hybrid
vehicles that get at least 45 miles to the gallon to use the car-pool lanes even
if they have but a single passenger. That makes the motivation clear.


2) Political Tidbits

A.  State Loses Suit, While Counties Lose Funding

http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~23127~2093451,00.html

San Diego County's charge that the state mandated social services without
giving the county enough money to pay for it is correct, the courts have ruled.
And because of that, all other counties face a loss of funding unless the state
acts to prevent it. Clearly, that's what the state should do, and Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger is working to fix the problem. But the whole issue says much
about California's tangled, dysfunctional lines of responsibility for providing
and paying for public services.

B. Unions win, taxpayers and poor lose.

State Workers Will Keep All Holidays http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/9018543p-9944481c.html

Legislation to reduce the number of paid holidays for California's 200,000
state workers has died in an Assembly committee. AB 2460 would have reduced the
state's 14 paid holidays to 12. Each state department and agency would have
decided for itself which two to cut. The Assembly Public Employees, Retirement
and Social Security Committee rejected the bill by an 8-1 vote Wednesday.
Assemblyman John Campbell, an Irvine Republican who proposed AB 2460, touted the
bill as a way to improve service to the public and save more than $20 million in
overtime pay for staffing essential health and safety programs on holidays.

C. UC's Ill-Advised Raises http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/23/EDGKS68PH41.DTL

Talk about insensitivity. At exactly the moment that the University of
California is raising fees and turning away qualified freshmen, it is also
substantially raising the salaries of some top officials. Incoming UC San Diego
Chancellor Marye Ann Fox will earn $350,000, some $70,000 more than her predecessor.
In February, new UC Provost Marci Greenwood received a raise of $111,000 more
than her previous salary as chancellor of UC Santa Cruz. In June, UC Senior
Vice President Joseph Mullinix received a $78, 000 raise after he received
another job.

D. More Democrat corruption (they should work in the UN): 

Fund-Raising Complaints Filed Against Machado http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/9003913p-9929888c.html

State Sen. Mike Machado was accused in a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday of
violating state campaign finance laws in soliciting more than $1 million for a
4-year-old campaign account. The San Joaquin County Democrat used his old
campaign account to solicit larger donations than allowable under limits set by
Proposition 34, adopted by voters in November 2000, the suit claims. The
Sacramento Superior Court action and a related complaint to the state Fair Political
Practices Commission seek to alter Machado's fund-raising practices and to force
refunds of any illegal contributions.


3) Politicians are afraid to allow citizens the freedom of choice in
stores--yet same politicos don't mind giving woman right to abort their babies. 
Lesson:  Woman are smart enough for an abortion, but not smart enough to know where
to buy a loaf of bread.

S.F. Taking Steps To Lock Out Wal-Mart http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/20/BAG8N67NRE1.DTL

Retail giants such as Wal-Mart would be banned from San Francisco under
legislation to protect smaller stores considered by a Board of Supervisors
committee Monday. "Wal-Mart and those other large retailers have been making a very
aggressive push into the Bay Area. It threatens existing jobs and small,
neighborhood-serving businesses," said Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who co- sponsored the
ordinance with board members Bevan Dufty and Matt Gonzalez. "We need a higher
level of scrutiny of projects whose consequences would be this severe."

From Roger Hedgecock:

WAL-MART FACTS from the current edition of the Economist:

**8 out of 10 American households shop at Wal-Mart at least once a year

**Wal-Marts impact on the U.S. economy is so great that it has
single-handedly kept inflation in check. Driven down the inflation rate.

**Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in Mexico.

**Wal-Mart hires 600,000 people a year.

**At the monthly Wal-Mart real estate meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas the
firm approves more than a billion dollars worth of land purchases (every month)

**Wal-Mart has trouble in Germany in some part because Wal-Mart folks refuse
to learn to speak German.

**At any given moment Wal-Mart faces about 8,000 lawsuits.


4)  Take money from school and health care, less money for roads and public
safety--give the money to politicians to run for office instead.  This bill in
Sacramento is moving!  Beware.

Toward Cleaner Elections http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/20/EDGTO66II11.DTL

There may be no way to keep the influence of special-interest money out of
politics, but there are plenty of better ways than the dialing-for- dollars
democracy that rules the day in Sacramento. Assemblywoman Loni Hancock,
D-Berkeley, has proposed a system of public financing modeled after Maine and Arizona.
Under Hancock's AB2949, candidates who can establish their viability by raising
a certain threshold of $5 contributions from registered voters-- 500 such
donations for an Assembly candidate -- would be entitled to public financing. Her
bill faces a key vote today in the Assembly Elections Committee.


5) Liberals destroy educational opportunities for minority children...put
them into bad government schools.  In Washington, D.C., the parents are getting
out!  Why can't California parents also get good education for their children?

One Verdict on Vouchers
Washington Post   April 21, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29231-2004Apr20.html

DURING THE SCHOOL voucher debate in the District, critics often contended
that residents opposed the idea. Now there is evidence that the critics got it
wrong. Last week D.C. Parents for School Choice, a group that worked hard for
passage of the new publicly funded scholarship program, provided the Washington
Scholarship Fund with names of more than 1,400 families representing 3,000
students who are interested in the voucher program. If ever there was evidence of
a demand among parents for educational options, this is it.

The Washington Scholarship Fund, which administers the congressionally
approved scholarship program, will still have to work out the details, including
identifying parents and students eligible to receive as much as $7,500 a year in
tuition, fees and transportation costs to attend private or parochial schools
in the city. But parental interest is not at issue.

Even before D.C. Parents for School Choice delivered names to the scholarship
fund, it was plain that parents in the nation's capital were looking for
alternatives to the troubled D.C. public schools. It is no accident that more than
13,000 children have abandoned the regular public schools for public charter
schools, or that the District, with 37 public charter schools, is among the
leaders of the nationwide charter-school movement. Parents are looking for
something other than a public school system plagued by cost overruns, mismanaged
payrolls, and an administration incapable of purchasing enough toilet paper and
books. This fall, hundreds more low-income District students, armed with
federally funded vouchers, will search for another educational home. For that
exodus, the school board -- and D.C. Council members who voted yesterday to
preserve the discredited status quo in school governance -- can thank themselves.


6)  Educators may need ethics classes.  They refuse to tell the taxpayers and
parents the truth about our schools and the billions they appear to waste.

Public Schools Hiding Actual Dropout Counts http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~24781~2101643,00.html

The California Department of Education will shortly release its latest high
school dropout rates. It will do so with as little fanfare as possible, keeping
even the release date a secret, because even the people who compile these
phony numbers no longer bother to defend them. Until 1998, the CDE, in its annual
dropout press release, trumpeted a dropout rate that was derived from totally
unaudited reports from its districts. School district administrators,
reassured that nobody would double-check anything, simply assumed that students who
disappeared from class without an explanation had transferred elsewhere.


7) Has the time come to end the use of computer voting?  Shouldn't we have a
paper trail, at a minimum?  Why has Democrat Secretary of State Shelley
allowed uncertified voting machines.  Why has Democrat Bill Lockyer not used his
offic to stop this?  Why do Democrats like voting problems?

Voting panel recommends that California stop using touch-screen machines http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/04/22/politics1
656EDT0700.DTL

California should ban the use of 15,000 touch-screen voting machines in the
November election because the equipment malfunctioned in last month's primary,
an advisory panel said Thursday. The state Voting Systems and Procedures Panel
said that the machines made by Diebold Election Systems did not perform well
last month.... The panel cited a litany of other problems, including fears
that the systems are vulnerable to security breaches. The 8-0 recommendation
affects machines only in San Diego, Solano, Kern and San Joaquin counties. If
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley goes along with the recommendation, those
counties will have to revert to paper ballots.... Mark Radke, Diebold's marketing
director, said the company disagrees with the recommendation and plans to outline
its objections to Shelley, who has until April 30 to make a decision....


8)  Why Three Strikes are needed.  We need to keep career criminals inside
prisons, not on the streets.  Los Angeles have proved this point. 

L.A's In-And-Out Jails http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%7E20954%7E2102181,00.html

At least 73 inmates released early this year from the Los Angeles County Jail
have been rearrested within weeks, in some cases days, on new charges as
serious as kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, according to an LAPD audit
obtained by the Daily News. The three-month Los Angeles Police Department
audit completed April 1 has fueled criticism of the controversial Sheriff's
Department program under which up to 400 inmates are being released from jail after
serving only a fraction of their sentences.


9)  Another baby step in returning sanity to the business climate in
California.  For years unions have been using tax dollars to fight business, now
businesses can do the same.  The better policy is to allow no one to use tax
dollars or government policy to interfere with contracts between businesses and
unions.

Labor Loses Battle In Appeals Court http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/22/BUGQ368ODM1.DTL

A California law prohibiting employers from using state funds for anti-union
activity violates federal labor law, a federal appeals court has ruled, in a
victory for business groups. The law "alters the balance of forces in the union
organizing process, interfering directly with a process protected by the
(National Labor Relations Act),'' the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco said Tuesday. The union-sponsored law was signed in 2000 by then-Gov.
Gray Davis, who had vetoed an earlier version in 1999.


10) Liberal hypocrisy:  Senator Sheila Kuehl wants to stop terrorism.  Good! 
How?  By stopping the building of homes for the poor and middle class.  She
is the cause of high housing costs, prefers rich to poor.

Slow Growth To Fight Terrorism? http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=91401 

Opponents of development and property rights are nothing if not clever. Their
latest plan to slow growth in Southern California - and thereby shut tens of
thousands of moderate income people out of the housing market - is being sold
as a means to help assure the nation's military preparedness. Today, the
California Senate is expected to hold hearings on SB 1462, which would create the
innocuous-sounding Southern California Military Greenway Commission. The idea
is to "consider the impact of new growth on military readiness activities
carried out on military bases, installations, and operating and training areas" as
well as land adjacent to military installations as well as air space and
training routes, according to the bill language.


Dear Kings County American Legion,
>
> As some of you may know, one of my sons serves in the military. He
>is now stateside, here in California. He called me yesterday to let me know
>how warm and Welcoming people were to him, and his troops, everywhere he
>goes. Telling me how people shake their hands, and thank them for being
>willing to serve, and fight, for not only our own freedoms, but so that
>others may have them also.
>
> But he also told me about an incident in the grocery store he
>stopped at yesterday while in uniform, on his way home from the base. He
>said that ahead of several people in front of him stood a woman dressed in
>a burkha.
>
> He said when she got to the cashier she loudly remarked about the
>US flag lapel pin the cashier wore on her smock. The cashier reached up
>and touched the pin, and said "Yes, I always wear it".
>
> The woman in the burkha then asked the cashier when she was going to
>stop bombing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.
>
> A gentleman standing behind my son stepped forward, putting his arm
>around my son's shoulders, and nodding towards my son, said in a calm and
>gentle voice to the Iraqi woman: "Lady, hundreds of thousands of men and
>women like this young man have fought and died so that you could stand
>here, in MY country and accuse a check-out cashier of bombing your
>countrymen. It is my belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR OWN
>country we wouldn't need to be there today. But, hey? if you have now
>learned how to speak out so loudly and clearly I'll gladly pay your way
>back to Iraq so you can straighten out the mess you are obviously here to
>avoid."
>
> Everyone in line, and within hearing distance, cheered the older
>gentleman, coming forward as they reached for their wallets. The woman in
>the burkha left the store in silence!
>
> One Nation, UNDER GOD, Indivisible
>
> PERIOD!!!!

It's gettin to be a crazy world out there. I wonder how it ends?