Don’s home and he’ll be back!
Shari Jo Sorchych | Cave Creek
To everyone who has called, sent cards, and kept Don in your thoughts and prayers during his hospitalization following a stroke, thank you!
I’m pleased to write that he will fully recover with time and a rigorous rehabilitation schedule. In the interim he will be working primarily from home.
Again, many thanks to all who expressed concern and sent wishes for his recovery.
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Important notice for Carefree citizens
Bob Coady | Carefree Councilman
I have filed the initiative to place direct election of the mayor on the May ballot. I am now collecting signatures. I will be outside of the Carefree Post Office, Friday, Dec. 12, from 8:30 a.m. till (?). I will be keeping the petitions close by, so if you see me out and about, just ask to sign.
I would like this to be a grass roots movement by the people. If you wish to help, by taking a petition around to friends and neighbors, please contact me. It would be greatly appreciated.
Please remember, you must be a registered voter in Carefree to either sign the initiative or act as a volunteer. I look forward to seeing you in town.
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Cronkite Award
John P. Brebner | Carefree
Your editorials and opinion pages are like cool breezes of October and a gentle shower in the desert in August. Keep the faith – we’re in this together.
The Nov. 22 front page story in Arizona Republic featured the PBS anchor receiving the “Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.” This hit a nerve with this reader.
The revered Sir Winston himself was among the first of the oversupply of elite “journalists” who realized their giddy power to sway reader opinion of public figures. These hacks, calling themselves “reporters and journalists,” are fed table scraps by slick politicians: bits of personal information to write about until they become ingratiated buddies, like family, attending private cocktail parties – and fellow members of the in-crowd at the yacht club.
They have morphed into press agents and changed newspapers into the house organ opinion pages we see.
The above self-congratulatory Cronkite Award, in my view, joins other Awards of Dubious Distinction, such as:
• The Nobel Peace Prize
• The Edmund Fitzgerald Award for Seamanship
• The Donner Award for Camping Cuisine
• The Hindenberg Award for Aircraft Innovation
• The Dan Rather Pisa Trophy for Slanted Journalism
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Letter regarding Chief Justice McGregor
Lee Ewing | President, AFIC | Tucson
Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth V. McGregor has conspired with the Hispanic Bar Association's letter of Sept. 12, 2008. In their request to eliminate the term (ILLEGAL ALIENS) and (Undocumented Worker) from Arizona Courthouses. The Chief Justice forwarded the letter to her Vice Judges, and stated she would circulate its context at the Oct. 21, 2008 meeting with other Judges.
The Appellate Courts, and Municipal are influenced by the direction of the Chief Justice. Many Arizona Courts are members of the Hispanic Bar Association causing a conflict of interest. The Commission on Judicial Conduct is located in the same building as the Chief Justice giving the appearance of Impropriety, and collusion. This fiasco is of the highest order of corruption by Mexican Illegal Aliens, and the Hispanic Bar Association.
Telephone calls have be made to the Chief Justice by angry citizens. Letters have been written, and many complaints filed with the Commission on Justice Conduct. A petition was signed and sent by certified mail to the Commission.
A Protest Rally against Chief Justice Ruth McGregor will be held outside the Supreme Court, 1501 W. Washington St., on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The general public is invited to participate in the rally. Sponsored by Arizonans for Immigration Control, and other groups.
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A piece of Presidential history
Paul M. Weyrich | Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation
When pundits are asked to name the best presidents of the 20th Century Harry S. Truman’s name always comes up. That is interesting because when he left office in 1953 he had even lower approval ratings than President Bush now has. Truman was eligible to run for another full term but his own party told him, “Don’t even think of it.” He and incoming President Eisenhower didn’t like each other. Compared with today’s cordiality between President Bush and President-elect Obama that transition was worse than a cold shower.
How will history judge Bush? Many of us won’t be alive when the first verdict is in. He has made his share of mistakes. The one issue for which most of the public blames Bush derives from their belief that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. There should have been no invasion of Iraq and no war in Iraq. Retired Army Major General Jerry R. Curry, in spite of his exceptional achievements, both military and academic, in his retirement has become partisan and, hence, controversial in some circles. However, his credibility seems strong. General Curry has said on that matter history will judge differently because U.S. operatives found a large stockpile of concentrated natural uranium (550 tons) in the heart of Baghdad.
This is known as “yellowcake” and is evidence that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear program designed to make weapons of mass destruction. The operatives had to sit on the information lest terrorists find out about it and try to acquire the uranium. Ambassador Joseph Wilson denied Bush’s claim that Hussein wanted to buy “yellowcake” from Niger.
Wilson had been told otherwise by a former Prime Minister of Niger, Assane Mayaki. Wilson did not give the report any credibility and insisted that there was no evidence that Iraq wanted to purchase yellowcake. British intelligence insisted Iraq did seek yellowcake from Niger. Bush chose to ignore Wilson and cited British intelligence on the issue. Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, an employee of the CIA who sent her husband to Niger, were outraged.
The media picked up on this story and Bush has paid dearly ever since. Bush could have had the last laugh on his critics when the yellowcake was discovered. Instead he has not said a word while the yellowcake was extracted from Iraq and passed through two continents before it safely reached Canada.
Bush has not acknowledged this transaction but the Associated Press has. General Curry said Bush put his country above his personal reputation. He said we can thank God Bush did what he did. Curry said Bush wanted to keep the information quiet because terrorists are still around Iraq. Curry went on to tell the whole story of Wilson and Plame, who pushed the line that Bush lied. They insisted that it was Karl Rove who exposed her as a CIA operative and should go to jail for doing so. The leak, it turned out, came from Richard Armitage, another Bush opponent. Much of the public continues to believe that Bush was responsible for the leak, never mind that Plame had not been in the field as a CIA operative in six years.
Curry said, “Now that Saddam's uranium has been made public, and is no longer a threat to the world, do you think these aforementioned parties will apologize and admit they were wrong? Don’t count on it.”
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Bad business practice by Curbside Recycling & Disposal
Dawn Houghtaling | Scottsdale
I am a resident of Rio Verde/ Scottsdale and am very upset by Curbside’s business practice of still feeling the need to implement a fuel surcharge when fuel is at the lowest price it has been in four years. When I called to question them about it, I was told that as long as they were driving trucks, there would be a fuel surcharge. I find this to be ridiculous! I also run a trucking business and can understand when it is necessary for a fuel surcharge. I paid my bill to Curbside minus the fuel surcharge and sent them the following letter with my payment:
“Enclosed is my full payment for trash pick-up/disposal. With fuel prices being the lowest they have been in over three years, there is no longer a need or reason for a fuel surcharge. I also operate an over the road trucking business and have not been charging a fuel surcharge since diesel has dropped below $3 a gallon. Please stop trying to rip people off with this no longer necessary fuel surcharge. If you do not accept this payment, I will have no choice but to report your business ethics to the newspaper, BBB and whomever else necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Curbside has ignored my request and sent another bill for the amount of the fuel surcharge.
I do not think that Curbside should be allowed to continue to rip people off and make extra money under the guise of a fuel surcharge.
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A new job for the new President
Scott Jones | Founder and President,
Peace and Emergency Action Coalition for Earth (P.E.A.C.E.)
In 1799, when George Washington died, Henry Lee presented to the House of Representatives this resolution: "To the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." We would be hard pressed to find any other statement about any subsequent president that places the laurels of accomplishment in peace and war at the same level.
More than 200 years later, and deep into an era of the existence of weapons of mass destruction which have an irrefutable capability of dissolving civilization and destroying all life, we hold our president responsible to be the Commander-in-Chief of our military, the principal war maker, but there is no balancing responsibility for the president to make peace. This is more than a lack of symmetry; it is a defect of great moral and practical significance.
The pledge of a presidential candidate to maintain a military force second to none, if it stands alone, is also an admission of intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy. We have a great deal of practice using violence. We have not developed our nonviolent capacities for creating a global culture of peaceful conflict management.
Any president who would fail as Commander-in-Chief to defend the country against perilous threats would likely be impeached and convicted for the high crime of dereliction of duty.
Is it not obvious that it is also appropriate for the president to be held directly responsible for proactive peace strategies designed to resolve issues before violence takes place and war is contemplated? If the president was constitutionally designated the principal Peace Maker of the country, he or she would have this responsibility and could be held accountable to carry it out. Such a constitutional statement would provide the legal basis to begin to institutionalize peace in our country.
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Glenn Beck: 20,000 troops to deploy ... in America?
Glenn Beck | Syndicated Talk Show Host
The Pentagon is deploying 20,000 troops inside the U.S. for domestic security. I'm sorry, but I'm trying to figure out how that one works exactly, and that's not Barack Obama doing it. That's George Bush doing it. How exactly are we deploying those troops? Are they under the President's power? Because I don't want George Bush or Barack Obama, I don't want Ronald Reagan controlling the troops inside the country. You don't do that, period. The federal government does not deploy troops for domestic security. The governor does it with the National Guard. They answer to the states. You cannot allow them to have that control.
This is not a problem with the Republicans, it is not a problem with the Democrats. It is an American problem, and Americans will need to solve it. Americans are going to have to solve it by standing their ground.
If our federal government, God forbid we get our hands on a dictator, God forbid. … I'm telling you we're on the eve of fascism. Prepare. Prepare your heart and prepare your mind and prepare your children. If you hear any message other than "Be a peacemaker," if you hear any message that leads you in any direction of hatred, you're on the wrong path.
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Government bail-out
Ed Konecnik | Flushing, New York
It is unreasonable, not to mention unconstitutional, to suggest the government bail-out every business or institution that is failing. In the real world, bankruptcy and failure are options which serve to cleanse and filter out incompetence. In effect we are subsidizing incompetence in the name of “fairness” while being told failure is not an option; in fact, the greater the failure, the larger the bail-out.
Success and excellence are a result of many factors. By eliminating risks and the consequences of failure, we inspire and encourage mediocrity. Many schools are already protecting students from “failure” by eliminating exams, test scores and grades. Will failing students demand a “bail-out” as well?
Some businesses and professions place a high premium on excellence and competence. Would you consider having a medical procedure performed by a “bailed-out” surgeon? Whenever I travel by air, I take some measure of comfort knowing there are no bad pilots; the incompetent ones are no longer with us.
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Cave Creek Water Co.
Nancy Bayfield | Cave Creek
Beth Longbrake, who complains about "one fiasco after another ever since the Town of Cave Creek took control of the water company" obviously did not do her homework before coming here.
To set the record straight: There were many, many problems with the water supply long ago under the old privately-owned Cave Creek Water Co., and Global did nothing to address them after purchasing it. The town inherited the problems along with the system, and at last the problems are being addressed, now that the town management is in a position to do something about them.
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