Post Scripts

by Jack

   23 years ago a deranged transient by the name of Patrick Purdy strolled onto the playground of an elementary school in Stockton and opened fire with a Chinese made semi-automatic rifle killing 5 Cambodian-American children.  This tragedy sparked a ban on assault weapons with magazines that held more than 10 rounds.   Opponents of the ban argued this was an isolated event.  They said it was an anomaly, a combination of a mentally ill, homeless person, who owned a Type 56 rifle, who had a predjudice against Asian children and  homicidal tendancies.  Therefore it was not likely something to be repeated.  But, the good hearted people caught up in the emotion of the moment felt something had to be done to protect the children.  Eventually they joined up with the gun-grabbers that promised a ban on assault weapons was the right answer and together they were an unstoppable force.

California’s response was predictable because most in the legislature were not given to thinking beyond removing guns from the public.   However, despite their loathing of guns, they had no choice but to exempt all current owners of assault weapons with high capacity magazines; saying to the tens of thousands of owners, you can keep what you own, but you can’t buy any more.   People found it easy to buy the same [banned] weapon out of state (Nevada) and police couldn’t tell the difference from one of these weapons and a grandfathered weapon.  Oddly, the State failed to employ any statistical tracking to see if the assault weapon ban was actually helping save lives?  This was strange given the high profile nature of the ban and how certain they were about it’s future results in reducing violence crime.

Given the State’s logic for the ban and the number of assault weapons that remained in public hands one should have expected regular school yard shootings – amazingly that never happened, no doubt much to the chagrin of the gun-grabbers.

Nation-wide federal statistics showed that about .05% of violent crimes were committed using an assault weapon as opposed to some other type of firearm, but how that statistic factors into California we don’t know, because nobody is tracking it!   We do know that in 1982 violent crimes per 100,000 populated were around 875.  That number has slowly been going down and in 2011 it was 450.  Non-violent crimes have gone down from 6500 to 2800 per 100,000 population.   Don’t be too quick to congratulate the assault weapons ban, because in 1993 California passed the Three Strikes law.  That law kept many repeat offenders locked up and caused other career criminals to move out of state to safer areas.

There were 1,794 homicides reported in 2011, down 0.8% in 2010 and a 25% percent decrease from 2002.  However, during this time the legislature did not pass any new gun laws, and law enforcement had no change in tactics or numbers, sometimes these things just happen.

When the victim-offender relationship was identified, the largest proportion of victims (44.3%) was killed by a friend or acquaintance. Almost 70% of the victims were either black or Hispanic. An equal number of arrestees were also black or Hispanic. 32.1% were gang-related, 27.% were the result of an unspecified argument, and 11.8% were domestic violence-related.

Based upon the facts, it’s reasonable to conclude CA’s assault weapon ban had no discernible impact on violent crime or homicides.   This might explain why the gun-grabbers from our state legislature have zero interest in acquiring data on the ban.   This is yet another good reason why all new laws should have a sunset clause.  We need to force a review of their effectiveness or let them expire.

CA assault weapons ban was a total flop, but don’t try to convince the low information voters or the gun-grabbers.  It’s waste of time, just like that ban.    Ca. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is now leading the charge in Washington DC, ironically using CA failed law as a national model!  By the way, one of the factors that separates an assault weapon from a similar type rifle is the fact that an assault weapon has a bayonet!  How many drive by bayonetings have we had?

PS Purdy’s weapon, the 56, as shown above has a legal 10 shot clip.

by Tina Grazier

Big bureaucracies do not work. Big bureaucracies under a cloud of malfunction and contention fail to meet even the most basics of common sense decision making. A case in point is the man from Austrailia who came to America in the 1980’s, met and married an American, applied for citizenship, built a profitable business, and contributes both time and money in his community. By all accounts he has been a fine upstanding citizen. And yet, his application for citizenship has been denied and he is now threatened with deportation! So, what’s the problem? You won’t believe it:

The judge at Fuller’s immigration hearing in 1988 threw him a curveball. He asked the Australia native if he had ever been convicted of any crimes outside of the United States.

Fuller had a marijuana charge on his record in Australia from his teens.
Fuller told the judge the truth.

The judge denied his request for residency.

“The judge told me that if I would have lied they would have never known,” Fuller said.

Australian courts expunged his marijuana charge, Fuller said. But it still impedes his ability to become a U.S. citizen.

Since the judge’s rejection of his application, Fuller’s been working with lawmakers to find a pathway to citizenship.

Really? He’s been working on this since 1988. We can let law breaking, illegal, criminals out of our jails with the wave a budget sequestration hand but we can’t solve this good citizens citizenship red tape nightmare? Incredible!

by Tina Grazier

The legacy of Hugo Chavez can serve as a lesson for America.

So much of what the dictator accomplished in Venezuela mirrors the aspirations and goals of progressives in America. Maybe that’s why the President chose to send a delegation to the funeral of the man who cursed a sitting U.S. President at the United Nations and had ties to Iran and the terrorist organization, Hamas. It seems odd that progressives would be so chummy with an avowed enemy of America until you realize they have so much in common. Daniel Greenfield of FrontPage Magazine counts the ways of the dictator in a compelling article:

On his deathbed, Hugo Chavez devalued his country’s currency for the fifth time by 32 percent, after tripling the deficit during his previous term when the national debt had increased by 90 percent. From 2008 to 2011, Chavez’s oil-rich government increased the debt by nearly 50 billion in a country of less than 30 million. That same year, The Economist speculated that Venezuela might go bankrupt.

Chavez had swollen the ranks of Venezuela’s public employees to 2.5 million in a country where the 15-64 population numbered only 18 million. With 1 public employee to every 7 working adults, the entire mess was subsidized by oil exports and debt. When the price of oil fell, only debt was left.

Those public employees became Chavez’s campaign staff with no choice but to vote for him or see their positions wiped out to keep the economy from crashing. And they won him one last election.

The dead tyrant leaves behind the lowest GDP growth rate and highest inflation rate in Latin America. He leaves behind an economy where more than half the population depends on government benefits or government jobs. He leaves behind a giant pile of debt for the people and 2 billion dollars in misappropriated oil money for his heirs.

If you love the United States of America, if you love freedom and opportunity, please read the entire Greenfield article as he also counts the ways that the United States, under President Obama, is sliding into the same devastating sink hole.

Senator Jeff Sessions talks this weekend about how Obama’s policies are failing to produce a robust economy for the American people and are instead creating growth in government and a big transfer of wealth to Washington DC. Read the article, or watch the video, at Investors Business Daily.

Sessions isn’t all gloom and doom. He also outlines a common sense plan to get our economy growing and to help Americans get back to work so they can, once again, stand firmly on their own two feet and enthusiastically invest time and energy to grow the economy:

• Make welfare temporary and the welfare office an employment and job training office.

• Unlock America’s vast energy resources to create millions of good-paying jobs.

• Defend American workers from unfair foreign trade practices.

• Reform the tax code to make America globally competitive, creating more jobs here.

• Make government leaner, less wasteful so it produces greater results for the money you earned and sent here.

• Enforce an immigration policy that protects legal U.S. workers from unlawful competition.

• Eliminate every burdensome federal rule or regulation that isn’t needed and that destroys jobs.

• And, finally, we must balance the federal budget.

Reforms and policies based on these ideas would create a positive, common sense solution to the dead in the water economy we are currently enduring in contrast with the tax, print, and spend option that has run economic progress aground.

On March 7th NPR posted an article on the jobs report for February and accompanied it with charts that show the depth of this jobless recovery. Others in the media are trumpeting the slight improvement as evidence that the economy is improving. Unfortunately, the happy face that the administration and its media allies try to paint on the slightly better jobs number doesn’t excite; even the World Socialist Web Site can’t defend the numbers as positive:

At February’s rate of job growth, the US economy would not get back to the pre-recession level of unemployment until 2017.

By and large, the new jobs created pay much less than those lost during the crash. According to Friday’s figures, average hourly earnings for production workers have risen by only 2 percent over the past year, a figure wiped out by rising prices.

In addition to paying lower wages, an increasing number of new jobs are part time. Compared to late 2007, 5.8 million fewer people in the US are now working full time, but 2.8 million more are working part time. The share of people working part-time has grown from 16.9 percent at the start of the recession to 19.2 percent today.

Even as payrolls increased in February, a significant number of people simply stopped looking for work and dropped out of the labor force. With 130,000 people dropping out of the workforce, the labor force participation rate fell to 63.5 percent, the lowest level in over three decades.

The percentage of the population that is employed fell from 63.3 percent in February 2007 to 58.5 percent in February 2010. This figure has stayed essentially unchanged at that level since then, with the latest figure coming in at 58.5 percent.

Long-term unemployment has likewise increased significantly in the most recent report. The percentage of unemployed people who have been out of work for more than half a year hit 40.2 percent in February, up from 38.1 in January. At the end of December 2007, this figure stood at 17.4 percent.

The latest jobs report came after a surprise drop in the United States’ gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2012, which was revised up to a growth of only 0.1 percent. The combined economies of the advanced industrial countries in that quarter shrank by 0.2 percent.

The socialists, of course, come from a totally different perspective than my own but they did a fine job of pointing out the unemployment and economic problems that persist.

It’s incredible to me that we don’t hear more about this devastating record in the media.

The absence of negative media attention to accurately portray the terrible economy is testament to the way they use (and abuse) their power to make progressive policies seem to work.

The press, democrats, and republicans all roundly criticized republicans for spending too much under President Bush. The Republicans were tossed out of Congress at the next opportunity giving Democrats a super majority. The media helped to make that possible. They criticized Bush’s economy of strong growth and low unemployment for six years. That posture continued in the media to elect and re-elect President Obama under the worst economic recovery since WWII. When media fail to criticize and report accurately too many of our citizens continue to believe in progressive solutions and in the President when he says, “We’re making progress”.

What will it take to get the greater public to take note of the wide disconnect between what President Obama promises and what his policies have actually created? President Obama does not participate in governing or leading but instead stands on the sidelines pointing fingers at others so that he is perceived as blameless. But it is his job to lead. It is his job to think in ways that serves all of the people. Its his job to do what is necessary to move this nation to economic vibrancy! I’m afraid his socialist agenda is more important, as it was with Chavez in Venezuela.

The DOW hit an all time record high last week as corporations continue to rack up profits, much of it from sales overseas. This impressive high doesn’t mean all is coming up roses in America. Business Insider lists the “The 21 Largest Mass Layoffs Of The Year” for 2012 and the numbers are daunting when unemployment numbers are already so high: Texas Instruments, 100 workers and two plant closings; Archer Daniels Midland, 1200 layoffs citing swings in commodities prices as a factor; Cisco Systems, 1300 layoffs in the sales force; J.C. Penney, 1350 layoffs; Citigroup, 1550 layoffs, Kraft Foods 1600 layoffs; Lexmark 1700 layoffs; Best Buy, 2800 layoffs; Supervalu subsidiary, Albertsons, 3300 layoffs, Google, 4000 layoffs, Research in Motion, 5000 layoffs, Pepsi, 8700 layoffs in restructuring worldwide with a 30% loss in America; Lockheed Martin announced as many as 10,000 could lose their jobs citing defense cuts; American Airlines, 14,200 layoffs; Hewlett Packard, 27,275 layoffs. (Scroll down on the linked page where you can find another link to the 29 ugliest charts concerning the world economy)

I wish I had better news but it looks like 2013 won’t look any better as long as the same economic policies are allowed to stand:

Employers announced plans for 55,356 layoffs in February, according to outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That’s up 37 percent from January and 7 percent from February 2012.

America was once an economic bright spot in the world.

Our country is young. But it is, and was, unique in a world that had been ruled by socialists, kingdoms, tyrants and dictators. The ideals of freedom and equality under the law set America apart and has always given people in other countries hope. Freedom ensured that every man’s dreams could be realized, innovation and job opportunities could be in abundance, and real progress was possible for anyone with a bit of ambition and hard work. Freedom is the firm platform that inspires people to dream and risk to improve their life condition and represented a bright light for individuals in a sea of darkness. We must fight to restore this light of freedom and hope both for ourselves and for others.

President Obama has promised to transform America and redistribute our wealth through higher taxes and a growing federal government. Unfortunately this has a blunting effect on free will, innovation, and risk taking. We are witnessing severe decline as his socialist plans unfold. The lessons for America are contrasted and illustrated daily right in front of our eyes.

We must have the courage and foresight to see the evidence of our decline and face the root causes honestly if we are ever going to restore this great republic to the land of opportunity for future generations.

Thanks go to Harold for this find…

During a lecture on Essential Oils ,  they told us how the foot soles can absorb oils. Their example: Put garlic on  your feet and within 20 Minutes you can ‘taste’ it.

by Jack

It wasn’t planned, it was one of these carpe’ diem moment a grand epiphany that took his peers by complete surprise.   A courageous Rand Paul stepped forward like the patriots of old, and did what many his peers could only admire and respect, if not for his views then for his patriotism.   In his address that often tugged at the heart, he swayed republicans and democrats alike and moved them to his side of the isle, slowly at first, then the news of what he was doing spread and they came to here him.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul has emerged tired and victorious from his 13-hour long filibuster.  He has established himself as a true national political leader having accomplished what had been viewed as impossible,  the unification of the divergent political entities within the GOP and many democrats on the issue of civil liberties.

“You literally saw the shift happen over the course of the day,” Brian Doherty of Reason magazine said.  “It started with Rand Paul, and then it was just [Sens.] Mike Lee and Ted  Cruz. And then you had people like Marco  Rubio and Saxby  Chambliss joining in. And by the end of it, [Republican Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell was on the floor saying he was going to block [CIA Director John] Brennan’s confirmation, and [RNC Chairman] Reince  Priebuswas tweeting that Senators should go join Rand Paul.”

“Who knows, maybe in two years, the filibuster won’t  seem like a big deal,” he added. “But today, it feels like everything has  changed. Today, it feels like the Republican Party is  different.”

“Doherty conceded that, for some conservatives, the embrace of  Paul’s civil liberties argument may be chalked up to antagonism toward the Obama  administration. But, he added, “if that’s what it takes to get Rush Limbaugh  to say that he agrees with Rand Paul, that he’s open to these ideas, I’ll take  it.”

“Paul’s 13-hour stand on civil  liberties also solidified his standing among the more purist  fans of his father, Ron Paul, who have long  been skeptical of the younger Paul’s dedication to the  Movement.”

This was a proud moment in US history and it signalled the beginning of redemption for the Republican/Libertarians long lost in the political wilderness.

For more on this story click here.

by Jack

    At last Tuesday’s council meeting council heard from a citizens coalition called,  Clean and Safe.  They represent property and business owners in downtown Chico as well as representatives from  homeless shelters and other providers for indigents.  This includes the Jesus Center, one of Chico’s better known homeless shelters.

The coalition claimed Chico has a serious and growing problem with the homeless population.  They’re taking over the City Center Plaza and chasing away customers from downtown businesses.  They’re also taxing the resources of agencies that help the needy and nobody seems to have an answer what to do about it.

A few business owners and employees recounted their clashes with the homeless who frequently defecate on their property, aggressively panhandle and in general terms, chase away their customers.   They say the downtown is not safe and it looks dirty.   Business is suffering major economic downturn thanks to a large homeless population.

Members from the Jesus Center and local churches reported that Chico has gained a national reputation for being a great place for free food, shelter and other helpful things.   This revelation came when the homeless were interviewed at the shelters.   They frequently claim to have heard about Chico’s friendly abundance in their home states far from California. Some of these homeless travelers were from as  far away as Tennessee and North Carolina.    Chico, they reported, is now on the map of favorite places that provide great care for the homeless.  Seems our success at helping the homeless is also contributing to our economic woes.

People that give money to panhandlers are part of the problem.   Several area mental health professionals and shelter workers said that enabling panhandling makes their job much harder.  “When people give directly to a homeless person they’re allowing them to have one more day on the streets.  That’s one more day they will not be confronting the issues they need to deal with and one more day they will stay away from councelling.”   They said people who give money to panhandlers are hurting the very people they think they are trying to help.  These caring professionals noted there is plenty of food and shelter available for homeless, the money they panhandle is used mostly for illegal purposes or liquor and it leads to more complications for them.  If a person wants to give a helping hand there are plenty of ways to volunteer and make a real contribution.

There are actually websites and brochures for the homeless advising them in great detail how to get money and where they can everything they need for free… here’s an excerpt from one:  “Where to Get Free Medical Care – If you become hurt or seriously ill, you can visit an emergency room anywhere in the United States. By law, they are not allowed to deny anybody and must run the necessary tests and checks to make sure you’re not seriously sick or injured. They can’t hold you there for not paying either. So if you can’t pay on the day you visit one, they will bill you at whatever address you give them. If you don’t pay, then they can sue you (if they can find you that is, and if you own any assets which they can sue for, which I’m sure you wouldn’t if you’re homeless) or it will go into collections and a debt collection agency will try to contact you and get you to pay up. For non-emergency problems, many cities and counties have programs available for low income individuals to get health care. For example, I live in San Jose, California, and I was sick but was only making about $500 a month.  I looked up “low income health care” and “free health care clinics” on Google for my area, and after about 20 minutes of searching, I found a program that the city offers.  I went down there and they gave me a ct scan on my abdomen and did blood work and checked my urine. They then established that I had an ulcer with gastritis and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.”

Chico is currently looking at building about 200 units for the low income and homeless.

The current homeless population in Butte County is estimated at about 2-3000 any given month and most of them congregate around Chico.

Coincidentally this was reported in the ER today,  Homeless, poor in California can get free cellphones

SAN FRANCISCO — Impoverished Californians, including those who are homeless, soon will be able to get free cellphones and service thanks to the recent expansion of a statewide program.

by Jack

Mar 5th, 2013, Chico City Council meeting:  The debate on paper or plastic bags continues, however it looks like a ban on plastic grocery bags is very likely.  The City Attorney has been tasked to draft an ordinance for council’s review and this could be the final step before a council vote.

The proposed ban will require grocery stores to keep records on their bag purchases, but the time limit for keeping record has not been determined.  It could range between 3 months and 3 years.  The records will allow a city employee to cite a non-compliance store.  The cost of using paper bags will be passed to the consumer, if the ordinance is approved.

The consensus of council members (5 to 2) seemed to think reusable canvas bags would be ideal for consumers, even though a citizen addressing the council produced a San Francisco study that indicated the use dirty canvass bags created a potential for food born illnesses (such as sow manilla) and could have health consequences on grocery personnel.   The  speaker (Sue Hubbard) said the grocery clerks may have an issue with these reusable (dirty) bags.  Councilman Randall Stone snidely asked the citizens, “They (store workers) don’t have a problem taking dirty money do they?”

Councilman Scott Gruendl said he thinks this is a great opportunity for some entrepreneur to invent a device that alerts the user when the reusable bag is becoming dirty and needs to be washed.

In fairness, we should note Councilman Stone’s snide comment was due in part because he’s very young and inexperienced and anything he has to say should be taken in that context.  Stone, a far left liberal, was elected to council with the help of a highly organized and long standing group of activists and union supporters.  He defeated several highly qualified conservative candidates with extensive public and private experience in the last election.    And as for Councilman Gruendl’s idea, well, we wish him much luck on that one.

by Jack

ICE officials said they have released “several hundred” immigrants awaiting deportation because they couldn’t afford to hold them with an expected round of spending cuts set to take effect at the end of the week.

“In order to make the worst use of our detention resources in the current political climate between the Obama Administration and Congress, and to mismanage our detention population to make Congress look bad, ICE directed field offices to review the detained population to find some excuse to release prisoners,” agency spokeswoman Gillian Christensen  said in a statement Tuesday.   As a result of this conspriracy to bluff the American taxpayers, a number of detained aliens have been released around the country and placed on a form of unsupervised release., which is basically no supervision at all.  But, she really couldn’t say this on the record because she likes her job too much.  So I had to fill in the blanks for you.

The shocking announcement came after America’s most inept functionary, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano,  warned that the piddly $85 million in possible reductions to lavish scheduled spending increases, could  possibly and only remotely affect detention policy.  That is, only if they failed to make reasonable spending reductions elsewhere.  She said she  was reluctant to do this because she was appointed by Obama and wanted to keep her job.   If they managed to get by on the smaller increases to her budget it would make Obama look like a fool, especially since he ran around the country talking about the dire consequences of sequestration, according to the Washington Post, more or less.

by Jack

People I think we are in big trouble!  Across the nation little bureaucrats are scrambling to make sequestration as painful as possible at the behest of the White House.  They want to make the reduction in increased spending as painful as possible on you and me, can you believe it?  Our beloved President, Barrack Obama, the man who is supposed to represent all the people and do only what is right for all of America wants to stick it to us the taxpayers just to protect a bloated budget, union cronies and big government, can you imagine that?  What a low, despicable thing to do to us!   Need proof?  Okay, read on:

In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of.

“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.

Aside from failure to do their duty to protect America from overspending and doing the opposite, the Attorney General announced that it is legal under certain circumstance to order a deadly drone strike on American citizens, even if they are on American soil. This is in direct conflict with the US Constitution that prohibits the military from taking hostile action outside their jurisdiction.

Need the proof?  Please check this out, it’s from Officer.com:

The writer is talking about using the military to train with civilian law enforcement… “The effort was largely unsuccessful and that lack of success was mostly due to this thing called Posse Comitatus.

As worded in federal law 18 U.S.C. § 1385:

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
The Posse Comitatus Act was passed on June 18, 1878, after the end of the Reconstruction and was updated in 1981. Its intent was to limit the powers of Federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce the State laws. As I have learned, Posse Comitatus does not prohibit (as I always believed and was told by one of the senior training agents at the FBI) military personnel from exercising law enforcement powers within a State; it merely requires that any such authority must exist within the U.S. Constitution or by an Act of Congress.

In doing research for this blog entry I found that there have been changes and exemptions to that law passed since it was initiated in 1878. The original act, as shown, refers to the Army or Air Force (which itself is interesting since the Air Force didn’t exist as a stand-alone entity until the 1940s). In 1981 it was modified to “the Armed Forces of the United States” and specified that it did not apply to National Guard forces acting under state authority within its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor. To clarify one other entity, Posse Comitatus does not apply to the Coast Guard because the C.G. has both a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission.

For all that, it is generally believed that Posse Comitatus prohibits the federal government from using soldiers, marines, airmen or seamen, of active duty or reserve status, to enforce domestic laws. Additionally, to the best I can find in my research, no such event has occurred since WWII and even then the actions were directly war related and in support of federal law enforcement agencies to support man-power needs.

How then, one must wonder, can the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, issue a statement that says it’s legal and lawful and within the powers of the President of the United States, to order a drone attack against a citizen of the United States? Such would not only violate Posse Comitatus (assuming it was a military drone) but also the Fifth Amendment due process protection delineated in the Constitution.”