Government Working in Our Best Interest?

 Ebola. The very name sends shivers up my spine. To catch Ebola is a death sentence. And like so many of the lethal diseases in the last 100 years, this too comes from Africa.

The director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Tom Frieden spent hours at a press conference trying to assure Americans that the spread of this horrendous disease can be stopped. When asked why he has not called for a halt to travel to and from the African nations where this disease is prevalent, he said it was not necessary and even claimed it would be counterproductive.

Are you convinced? I’m not.

I don’t want to be a fear monger, but didn’t the CDC make the same claim regarding AIDS? Yet, it spread from its origin in Africa to every corner of the world leaving a deadly path in its wake. Even Frieden admits that, “the only thing like this [Ebola] has been AIDS.” To which I might add, they not only failed to stop, they also continue to fail to control the spread.

According to the web site Avert (http://www.avert.org/), AIDS started in Africa some time between 1884 and 1924, then traveled to Haiti around 1966. Fifty-nine years later, we find AIDS in every village and hamlet in the country.

Can they really stop the spread of Ebola? Despite the Pollyanna attitude of the CDC, I’d have to say no to that too. At least our government hasn’t shown any positive steps to keep the disease out of our country.

The CDC recently announced steps taken at New York airports to screen for Ebola, but what about the hundreds of other international airports in America. And their idea of screening is limited to taking passengers’ temperatures. So, if you’re entering the country with the flu or having hot flashes, you’re going to the isolation ward.

Are there even effective screening procedures in place? According to an article from NBC News in New York, federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are saying they are not prepared, and have not been trained to implement the government’s new screening procedures. Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/health-workers-federal-agents-blow-whistle-nations-emergency-preparedness-prepared/#8Oza6HSJ5wspaAU2.99

And what is the World Health Organization (WHO) doing about the spread? Near as I can tell, that would be zilch. There are no restrictions on travel to or from the African countries where Ebola is epidemic.

And what about leadership from the Oval Office? Obama says, “you can’t get Ebola from setting next to someone on a bus.” Yet, the CDC advises to avoid public transportation.

This is yet another incidence where our chief executive has placed our country at serious risk. His refusal to disallow visitors from African nations with the Ebola epidemic, refusal to effectively secure our borders from terrorists or disease carrying illegal immigrants, and by allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the country without health screening has opened the country up to horrendous consequences.

Should we be scared? Well, I’m not going into doomsday mode – not yet. But we need to realize that our government is not always looking after our best interest, as it should. And when the government says everything is peachy, check the peach for worms.

One Good Man

 The other day I had a nice chat with Nathan Westphal. Nathan is the current President of the community group in my area called Residents Association of Greater Lake Mathews, RAGLM for short, and he has been a dynamic presence in our community. Nathan created and maintains the highly informative web site and on-line forum (www.raglm.org) that gives everyone in the community an opportunity to voice their concerns whether a RAGLM member or not.

RAGLM is a great organization that works to maintain a quality of lifestyle within the unincorporated areas of Lake Mathews, Gavilan Hills, Gavilan Springs, Mockingbird Canyon, and Woodcrest. Their motto is: "To keep the rural lifestyle, protect the open spaces, and to preserve the wildlife in our area known as Greater Lake Mathews." Their goal is to give our community a voice at the county level, and they have done an excellent job of it.

But Nathan Westphal is more than simply another community organizer. He has genuine concerns about many of the larger problems that face our county and state. Not just content to point out these problems, Nathan is one to take an active part in creating solutions for them.

A major problem within California and certainly within our county is water. Most of Southern California is served by a quasi-governmental agency, the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and it’s sister agencies the Eastern Metropolitan Water District (EMWD) and the Western Metropolitan Water District (WMWD). An elected board of directors controls each of these agencies.

Beyond the serious issue of water scarcity due to the drought, there are major issues of agency administration, water quality, and rates we all pay for the water we use. Nathan followed these issues with the WMWD very closely, and decided to run for a seat on the WMWD board of directors in this upcoming election.

The issues he finds with WMWD include (from his website http://nathanwestphal.com/):

Cost of Water:

The cost of water in our region is getting out of hand. Just since 2009, we have incurred two new charges on our bills (Water Reliability Charge, MWD Readiness-to-Serve Charge) as well as a new tier structure and pumping zone charges. In this same period, WMWD has built two new facilities as well as holding more than $14 million in customer reserves. I would ask if these charges are supposed to be set aside for emergency purposes, why then do we build elaborate facilities and continue to increase pay of employees? I will stand for the customers and fight these unnecessary fee increases to make sure your money is going where it is supposed to go and not just to the expansion of WMWD.

Restriction of Resources:

With ever expanding development in western Riverside County, it is imperative that we find new ways to deal with our already scarce resources. I believe that new developments should be held accountable to existing residents when it comes to resources. We cannot allow business as usual. We must stop planting high water use lawns in medians simply for cosmetic reasons. We need to partner with developers to find ways to develop smart ideas while continuing to expand our local economy. We cannot just continue to rezone and pack homes into areas already suffering from restricted resources. Currently, 'Will Serve' letters do not go through the board of directors for a vote, but get automatically sent upon request to new development. I would argue that will serve letters should be voted on by the board and will work hard to make this a reality.

Accountability:

Recently the board voted to give their GM a 2% pay and pension increase. The board just voted to increase sewer rates in the Murrieta area as well as adding an annual property tax in some areas to collect monies on top of the collections they already take in from ratepayers. Currently WMWD is working to implement a new ordinance to allow further restrictions on water usage, as they did in 2010. These new restrictions are more severe than the ones originally implemented by WMWD. Additionally, these new restrictions, as well as the previous ones, only affect residential ratepayers as commercial ratepayers are not subject to the same-tiered structure. Should we not all be treated equally? In August of 2013, when the Riverside Grand Jury recommended the board tie stipend decreases to rate increases, the current incumbent stated, "I do not make enough money to support my family. All the work we put in, we do not get paid for." Last time I checked this was a public service and not a career. Changes must be made at Western and I will fight to make positive changes without the prospect of increasing my own stipend or increasing rates.

Well, there you have it. Nathan Westphal has my vote. I am confident he has a thorough grasp of the issues and will fight to make a difference. On Tuesday, November 4^th I urge you exercise your right to vote, and if you are within the WMWD Division 3, please vote for Nathan Westphal.

Course Corrections

Ships at sea do it; Space ships and satellites do it; even aircrafts do it. When a vessel is off course, a correction must be made to hold it to a true course. Our country’s ship-of-state is way off course. November fourth we will have a chance to make a crucial course correction.

The approval rating for congress is at an all-time low, and the President’s isn’t much better. In California – the land of fruits and nuts – things are getting nuttier by the day.

Ever since the October 2001 high of 84%, the approval ratings of Congress have been in the toilet. Today it hovers around 18 percent. One amazing factoid is that during that high in approval both the Senate and House were controlled by – you guessed it – Republicans. In fact, the oft-maligned 43^rd President George W. Bush was in the Whitehouse during that period. How soon we forget.

True, Republicans wrenched the House leadership from Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in 2012, but the Democrat controlled Senate and the head Democrat in the Whitehouse continue to kill any worthwhile legislation coming from the Republican controlled House. At present there are 352 bills sitting on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nevada) desk, awaiting action.

Here’s another interesting factoid; 98 percent of those bills languishing on Reid’s desk – or possibly in his round file – passed with bipartisan support, 50 percent of the bills passed unanimously – with no opposition, 70 percent of the bills passed with two-thirds support in the House, and over 55 bills were introduced by Democrats! Clearly, the blockage in this process is not with the Republican controlled House of Representatives. The Democrats in the Senate that are holding up the works!

But what the heck, even if a bill could squeeze out of the Senate, there isn’t much of a chance Obama would sign it unless there were some political advantage for the Democrats.

Why are the Congressional approval ratings at an all-time low? There you have it. The Democrats are fouling up the works.

Then of course, we have the great Blue State super-majority in California running things into the ground. The California unemployment rate, while dropping, is 7.4 percent, still higher than the national average of 6.2 percent. Now look at the unemployment rate of Texas, at 5.1 percent. Could the fact that Texas is so easily sucking businesses from California have anything to do with the difference in unemployment rates?

This state is leaking jobs faster than a cheesecloth patch on the Hoover dam. And it is only bound to get worse. Not only has the state not done anything to stem the leak, they continue to make it worse with more asinine regulations and additional taxes disguised as “fees.” The trend toward much higher minimum wages, the ban on plastic bags, and the state grab of motor vehicle fees from cities are but a few examples of the hostile – there can be no other word – actions taken by the Democrat super-majority and Governor “Moonbeam.”

Folks it’s payback time. Time to reverse this assault on normality. Drive the Philistines out. Purge our government of the foul insidious virus that is destroying our state and the country at large. Help change the catastrophic direction of our ship-of-state away from the rocks we are now headed for. On November 4, vote the Democrats out, and restore some sense of reason to our government. The course correction is in your hands.

Tarnished Gold

I was born in California. All my life it was known as “The Golden State.” In 1968, that designation became the official nickname of California. Today most of the real gold is gone and what is left is akin to iron pyrite, aka “Fools Gold.”

I’m speaking metaphorically, of course. There may still be real gold in “them thar hills”, but politically and economically this state has definitely lost its luster.

At one time California was the economic powerhouse of the nation. It was said that if California were an independent country, it would have the world’s seventh largest economy. I don’t know how true that is, but today it seems more like a third-world country.

The blame for this sets squarely on the shoulders of California voters. This is not just a blue state it is deep blue – as blue as the California sky on a clear day. And while many may say, “what’s wrong with that”, they might want to just open their eyes for a moment or two.

California used to be the address for a business to have. Today other states, Texas in particular, find it far too easy to pluck businesses – and jobs – from California. And who could blame a business for leaving? This state has become like the airlines; there is a fee for every little thing you do and then there are taxes and additional taxes, and regulations and more regulations.

It’s safe to say that California has a hostile attitude toward business and industry.

Wait a minute, something about this just does not compute. California is a blue state run entirely by Democrats, but don’t Democrats claim to be champions of the working class? Where will the working class work when the businesses leave the state? Oh, I see they will work for the government. And where will the government get the money to pay these workers, from businesses? But the businesses are leaving the state.

What will the additional workers actually do? Aah, they will police the new regulations and fees the state will impose on remaining businesses to increase revenue. Well that will solve everything.

Okay, wakie, wakie, time to see the daylight. As one very popular Californian once said, “government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem.” Thank you Ronald Reagan.

The sole function of businesses is not to provide jobs. It is to make a profit and increase the wealth of its shareholders. But guess what, no business can function without workers – duh! Jobs are created when businesses thrive. Profit is not a dirty word. It doesn’t even have four letters. In a capitalist system, profit is what makes the world turn. Don’t discourage profit; embrace it.

Is there hope for California to regain its luster? Maybe, but it won’t come easy or quick. Losing businesses is like a squandered youth, once it’s gone it’s gone and not likely coming back.  Fortunately, there are new businesses and industries being created every day – just not many in California. We can lure these businesses – and jobs – to California if our state government has the will to do so.

First, we need to clean house in Sacramento. Get rid of the obstructionist Democrats. That includes governor Moonbeam. You have the opportunity to make a dent in obstructions blocking new businesses in November. “Throw the bums out!” Or you can stand by and wave good by as more and more jobs leave the state.

It is your choice. Do you want to live again in the Golden State or reside in the “Fools Gold State”?

Is Vladimir Putin The New Joseph Stalin?

Well … maybe. There can be no doubt Putin is giddy with power. Here is a man who started his career in the old Soviet KGB and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before moving on to bigger and better things when the Soviet era came to a screeching halt. Since 1999 Putin has been alternately President and Prime Minister of Russia – the part left when all of the former Soviet satellites left the communist system. I think it’s safe to say he thrives on power. It is also safe to say he is a communist who at one time was and still may be loyal to the Soviet communist system.

Joseph Stalin – that is not his real name, by the way, he was born Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili and went by a number of aliases – was the son of a poor Georgian cobbler who was seldom home during his son’s childhood. Stalin probably would have remained a dirt-poor peasant had he not been able to obtain a position in the seminary. He was never ordained, probably due to his reputation as a troublemaker in school.

Stalin had ambition, but could never quite bring himself to perform his own misdeeds. He always enticed others to do the dirty work. Somewhere in his early years, Stalin became a dedicated Marxist, and believed he was championing the cause of the simple workers. Eventually Lenin and Stalin came together in their common cause, but Lenin never trusted Stalin.

Following Lenin’s death Stalin weaseled his way into becoming the head of the Council of Supreme Commissars. Stalin had always been Paranoid by degrees and had no qualms about steamrolling over friends and colleges to achieve his goals. In later years, that included having friends and colleges killed or condemed to gulags at Stalin’s whim.

Had WWII not broke out Stalin might have been just another footnote in Russian history. He took the reigns of the military and through little real military talent of his own managed to allow his generals to fight a war that nobody gave the Russians a chance of winning. The Soviet people were duped enough to believe Stalin had accomplished this feat, and with the ruthless elimination of his top generals at war’s end, no one could or would set them right.

With Europe in a volatile state of flux after the war, Stalin had little trouble gobbling up countries that Hitler had invaded then abandoned. Thus the Soviet Union was formed.

Fast forward to Glasnost, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Boris Yeltsin taking the reigns of the Soviet Union. Up to this point the communist state existed as Stalin had left it upon his death. Yeltsin brought an end to the one-party system and opened the country to western ideas. Communism collapsed of its own oppressive weight, and countries under the thumb of the Soviet system were able to finally achieve sovereignty.

Okay, the communists didn’t just dry up and blow away. They gave themselves new titles and assimilated into the reorganized Russian government. Sixty some years of communist indoctrination didn’t just flip a switch and disappear. It remains as an insidious virus within the new Russian government.

Putin is a large part of that holdover from the old Soviet system. In the last fifteen years, he has solidified his power base, and now appears to enjoy the same degree of power Joseph Stalin wielded.

But is Putin another version of Stalin? The personalities may be different – Putin doesn’t seem to be as paranoid as Stalin, although he may be just as ruthless – but you can bet Putin has the same desire to restore the old Soviet Union. The question is what lengths is he willing to go to achieve his goals? He has recently shown that may have no hesitation at using atomic weapons, and even test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine.

Taking Obama at his word about being flexible, Putin took Georgia and the Crimea with only hollow protests from our Commander-in-Chief. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that the full Ukraine is next on his shopping list, and he is certain we will do nothing more than impose sanctions that he can circumvent.

After the Ukraine falls, what is next, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, maybe even Poland? This guy is only 62. Imagine the damage he can do with the rest of his years.

Putin may not be Stalin, but he is certainly following in his footsteps. Are you ready for another cold war?

Do We Need More Laws?

Do you have any idea what laws govern your life, or even how many there are? I’m not talking about the immutable laws of nature and physics; I mean the manmade laws that are imposed on our everyday life.

This is the land of the free – as long as you follow the laws, rules, and regulations of your local authority, county authority, state, and federal government. Of course, if you leave the country, or deal with foreign countries, you have more laws and regulations. Even if you take a boat off shore, you still have to deal with Maritime law.

You are quite likely breaking several laws or regulations at this very moment – and you don’t even know it.

I spent some time at the computer trying to figure out just how many laws pertain to my particular life. It’s an impossible task. Believe me, there are thousands, possibly millions of laws pertaining to virtually every aspect of your life. And for any holes those codified laws might not cover, there is this nebulous thing called common law.

If you are doing something right now, or even if you are doing nothing, there are laws that govern that.

When I was younger, I worked as a police officer in a small community. One of the first things I learned was the power of selective enforcement. It’s a term that cover’s an officer’s rear when some laws are not enforced. (“I choose not to arrest that jay-walker because I’m busy with a bank robbery right now.”) The truth is, there are just too many laws to enforce every one of them uniformly all the time.

That doesn’t seem to deter lawmakers, though. Every year they crank out ever more laws – even knowing that many will never be enforced.

At what point are there enough laws on the books? When are there so many laws that one more can’t be written?

I think I found the key to this problem. As long as we have lawyers, there will be lawmakers. As long as lawmakers turn out laws there will be lawyers. Guess who the vast majority of lawmakers are – you guessed it, lawyers. It is a self-serving vicious circle. And one for which we pay dearly.

It’s called the Justice System, but where is the justice in being arrested for breaking a law you don’t even know about? And we are told ignorance of the law is no defense. True, many of the basic laws are simply common sense for any moral person – don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t assault others – just common sense. But even within these core values, there are so many definitions attempting to cover every detail that one could easily break the law without ever realizing it.

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and venture a guess that not one person knows every manmade law that governs our lives. Oh, they are codified somewhere, and I am certain someone could find a law, rule, or regulation to cover virtually any circumstance. I just don’t understand how a nation that prizes freedom as much as we do can have so many laws, rules, and regulations.

Yet, we have full-time governmental bodies that continually turn out more laws, rules, and regulations in volume every year. When do we say enough? When do we tell lawmakers to clean up the legal code? Get rid of old laws that no longer fit in today’s environment. When do we say that if a law isn’t taught and clearly published to the citizenry, it is not a valid law?

C’mon people, after 238 years of constant lawmaking, shouldn’t there be enough laws already? Do we really need more?

What, Me Worry?

These are the immortal words of Mad Magazine’s iconic Alfred E. Newman. I can still see his brain-dead smirking face. These days, this also seems to be the apathetic attitude of the American public.

Thirteen years ago, a group of crazed Muslims kicked us in a soft and sensitive spot. We came out of our apathetic stupor for a moment or two when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon came under attack. These Muslim thugs had poked a sleeping tiger, or so we thought.

After a few months of air strikes, we had Al Qaida on the run. Unfortunately, for us, they ran straight for what we considered a “friendly nation”, Pakistan. Pakistan turned out to be a very friendly nation – for Al Qaida. Our leaders had little stomach for storming a country that has atomic weapons. So, we picked and poked at Al Qaida locations taking their leaders out one-at-a-time.

Meanwhile the other Muslim radicals in Afghanistan, the Taliban, kept us at bay for thirteen years, until our president decided to turn-tail and leave the Afghanistan people to their own devices. Well if you don’t have the will to win, you might as well retreat.

On September 11, 2001, Al Qaida showed the world America’s vulnerability. Many theories have been floated as to just why Al Qaida attacked a nation that had no ax to grind with them. My theory is that like a dog licking his rear, they did it simply because they could. Once again, as in December 7, 1941, our leaders knew of the threat but were not politically motivated to take preventative actions to protect us.

Today – in good part because of our lack of resolve to win in Iraq or Afghanistan – there is a cancer metastasizing in the Middle East. No matter what name they go by, Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Al Qaida, Taliban, ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State, or any of the myriad of aliases these Muslim thugs come up with, they all have one thing in common: they are groups of murderous and extremely dangerous tyrants. And they are out to eliminate – read kill – all men, women, and children that are not of their ilk.

No, these animals are not interested in negotiating peace, cease fire, or even discussing reasonable cohabitation. They have but one goal, and that is to murder everyone that does not subscribe to their version of Islam.

These vermin destroy mosques and kill fellow Muslims that are not of their particular sect or radical views. If it were a matter of race or ethnicity, it would be termed genocide or at the very least ethnic cleansing. Yet, the one body that pretends to be caretaker of the world, the United Nations, has done nothing to stop the killing and devastation being wrought on people in the Middle East. Of course, what can they do? The UN is merely an item in the expense column of Western country’s budgets. They never really do anything but carp about funding, the climate, and try to foist their socialist agenda on other nations.

Many other nations, including the US, have citizens willing to fight alongside these radicals. It’s not a novel situation. Americans fought alongside Russians in the Bolshevik revolution, also in the Spanish war. This time, though, these people are being indoctrinated with ideas that could very well result in attacks on our own country.

True, Lenin’s unfulfilled goal may have been to spread communism to the entire world, but there is no indication that he advocated killing every non-communist man, woman, and child. ISIL, or ISIS, or Islamic State – whatever they want to call themselves – is a murdering bunch of radical thugs with no moral compass or sense of decency.

As the Commander-in-Chief of all of our country’s military, one might reasonably believe he would have some inkling how to handle the situation. Yes, one would think. One would be wrong. Obama confessed on live TV that he has “… no strategy for dealing with ISIL.”  It seems Obama believes a strong tongue lashing and name calling will get the job done.

Our leaders are asleep at the wheel, and we are apathetic enough to let them be that way. Action is needed NOW!

What, me worry? You bet! You need to start worrying, before Mohamed’s misguided horde shows up at your door with machine guns and bloody machetes, and the latest fashions at the mall are suicide vests with designer labels.