May 14, 2008 - San Gabriel Valley Examiner

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COMMENTARY Hats Off to the Ladies! B2 S.G.V. EXAMINER May 8 - 14, 2008 Over the last 20 to 30 years our dress in general has been casual. Often, when I expect to see people dress professionally, they dress in jeans or other type of raggy type dress. I guess I am from the old school and it is still hard to accept. I have a hard time dealing with a guy who I am trying to do business with when he is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Same when I walk into an office and the receptionist is dressed like she is in the to do cleaning or has been removing trash. If that is representative of the company, I don’t think I want to deal with them. Do you remember when a nurse dressed like a nurse? Today they wear what I think they call scrubs. To me this looks like something out of an operation room where they get contaminated with blood and other types of other contaminates. I always think it is dirty. They also look like pajamas at times. Let’s go back to the “whites” and look the part. Those scrubs give me the creeps and seem filthy to me. Again, just me, I guess. I had a friend many years ago who was wanting to develope some land just off the freeway. He went into city hall a number of times with his business partners and he could not 623 W. Foothill Blvd. Glendora, California 91741 Phone (626) 852-3374 Fax (626) 852-1904 E-mail: sgexaminer@aol.com George Ogden That’s just the way it is! get over every time he went and the lady who wore bib overalls like a farmer. The next thing was the city manager’s assistant was wearing sweat pants and sweat shirt and she was showing a class of students around city hall that was a 4 grade class. This upset him and he took his business to El Toro and built a huge motel, restaurants and recreational facility there. He didn’t feel the city was being very well represented by the people. He felt that if they are like that, which he thought was sloppy, then their work must be the same. Those people are long gone, but yet that casual style still is there. A recent weekend project brought me to Palm Springs. Got there on a Friday and left on Sunday. I was amazed on how many women, young and old, dressed like “ladies” either wearing a dress or skirt. You just don’t see that much anymore. I thought that guys dressed better as well. They actually had “Dress Shops” on their main street. Sure, there were some sloppy dressed men and women there, but they were certainly out numbered by better dressed people. I have to say, it was nice to see this. The ladies seemed to draw and get a little more respect and in my opinion, they deserved it. So my hat is off to you. One thing that I did find out, is that over half the people there in Palm Springs are gay. So, there may be that possibility that the women dress nicer there so they can get the attention of the males... since they have to compete with both, other women and the gay men. “That’s Just the Way It Is!” Depression or Recession? Face it, we are in a recession. Oil companies in this quarter (3months) posted billions of dollars in profits. At $4.00+ a gallon, the oil industry blatantly refuses to help the people in the United States by reducing the fuel prices. In order to help us get out of this recession, congress must unite in going after these greedy oil tycoons and have them lower these gas prices. Congress must also stop giving everything to other countries for free in exchange for exhorebant amounts of money, gifts, gratuities, and favors. Also, congress must unite in everything they will do to help Letters to the Editor Opinions Are The Writer’s us in this recession. To help those in foreclosures, the government must lower the interest rates, and do away with the A.R.M. (adjustable rate mortgage) and place these people in a fixed rate. One senator blamed the public for foreclosures. Realistically the public is attempting to buy a house in good faith, but it is the lender that has the final say. Credit Card companies must work with people with poor credit that have taken out loans. Increasing a person's credit card to 29 to 35% because they defaulted on their loan is ridiculous. If they can't pay the loan, what makes you think they can pay those added fees? As fuel prices rise, so will everything else be affected. Trucking, groceries, food and travel. When your check comes in from the government, most people will either pay bills, buy food or use it for gasoline. As for helping the economy, well that's put on hold, because of the oil industry that has even triggered famine, rioting, and deaths in many countries, and are running the United States of America into the ground too. Are we now looking at signs of a DEPRES- SION? God Bless America. Ron Legault Covina Duarte to Accept Applications to Fill All City Commissions and New Mayor's Youth Council DUARTE - The City of Duarte will begin accepting applications on May 15 to fill every position in all of its commissions. The action follows months of City Council deliberations that resulted in the restructuring of commissions, the establishment of new advisory bodies, and the expiration of terms for all current commissioners as of June 30. "Many of the commissions were formed more than 20 years ago. Issues have changed. The review was needed to ensure that the current commission structure is complimentary to today's issues and determine whether it was appropriate to combine, eliminate or create new commissions," said Deputy City Manager, Karen Herrera. Duarte citizens interested in serving on a commission will have until June 10 to apply. Applications must be received by the City Clerk at Duarte City Hall; 1600 Huntington Dr. by 6 p.m. Application forms will be available from the City Clerk or on the City's website: www.accessduarte.com. City Council members will interview applicants beginning at 4 p.m. on June 23 and June 24. Appointments will be announced at the City Council meeting on June 24, and the new commissioners will begin their terms of office on July 1. Six commissions and a newly established Mayor's Youth Council offer interested citizens A SURPRISING thing happens when you DON’T advertise NOTHING! a variety of opportunities to serve their community in an advisory capacity to the City Council. For more information about how to apply for a commission appointment, call the Duarte City Clerk's office at (626) 357- 7931, ext. 223. EUGENE F. MOSES Publisher/Editor INDAY MOSES Associate Editor Edward M. Moses, Esq. Legal Counsel Michael Wood Photographer and Writer George Ogden Senior Staff Reporter Patrick Murphy Entertainment / Health Editor Ken Herman J.J. McDonough Ken Eliasberg Ralph E. Shaffer William K. Hayes Lorie Pope Pauly Jorge V. Rosales Lynda Siminske Contributing Writers Brian Lee Jones Tech Writer San Gabriel Valley Examiner, published weekly by Eumo Enterprises, has been adjudicated as a newspaper of General Circulation for the County of Los Angeles, California in Court Case No. KS 005341. Mission Statement • We believe that journalism should be free from any motives other than relaying information to its readers. It should not be used to win a favor by flattery, to enhance a particular political interest, or for the purpose of financial gain. • We also believe in accuracy in fact and context. Journalists should be accountable for any news or subjects they write about. • We believe in growth. Therefore, complaints or mistakes erroneously committed will be entertained and investigated diligently and corrected accordingly. • We believe in performing our journalistic work to the best of our ability and will continue to present the facts clearly and fairly. DISCLAIMER Views and opinions of writers, contributors and columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or the newspaper. SUBMISSION POLICY All submissions for publication become the property of San Gabriel Valley Examiner and will not be returned. San Gabriel Valley Examiner does not guarantee submissions to be published. All submissions are subject to editing, including to conform to space limitations. The San Gabriel Valley Examiner
May 8 - 14, 2008 COMMENTARY S.G.V. EXAMINER The Best Book That Has Been Written On The History And Progress Of The Radical Left's Current War With America I want to take time out from my election coverage to commend an outstanding book to your attention. As most of you know, I am a great fan of David Horowitz. Why? Because, in my opinion, no one is doing more to keep America in business - in short, to keep America, America. His website - again, in my opinion - is the best on the web. No other site covers the same important territory with the insight and completeness that his (FrontpageMag.com) does. For that reason it is my home page and where I begin the day. Whether it's the war on terror, the depleted and biased state of academia, or just significant news items of the day, to me no other site is as consistently informative and intellectually invigorating as Horowitz's. Also, his writing is nonpareil. Good writing is the product of clear thinking, and Horowitz is not only a clear thinker, but he has that rarest of gifts - the ability to express himself succinctly; there is neither pretense nor waste in his writing. Also, he has the ability to take a profound subject, and deal with it in a manner that any layman can understand. Finally, he does an Ken Eliasberg excellent job of connecting the dots. I have read every one of his books, starting with his autobiography, Radical Son (also a must read for it documents his journey from the far left to his present position on the right, and, in the process, documents how the country was moving further left as he was turning right), and I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every one (I recommend all of them; for the reader's benefit I include a bibliography of my top 10 at the end of this column). While all are excellent (and easy) reads, with the possible exception of Radical Son, none are better than Horowitz's latest effort, Party of Defeat. Why? Because it vividly points up the peril to America - at a time when we face a struggle for survival, we are divided in a way that we have never been. And because of this House-Divided status, our very survival is being weighed in the balance (and may very possibly be found wanting). We are trying to fight a vicious and dangerous enemy with one hand tied behind our back. Or, put another way, America is fighting Osama bin Laden and radical Islam; the Democrats are fighting George Bush and America. Or, as Horowitz and Ben Johnson, his co-author, put it in the opening paragraph of the book's introduction (which is republished on their website, frontpagemag.com on 4/11/ 2008): "The object of war is to break an enemy's will and destroy his capacity to fight. Therefore, a nation divided in wartime is a nation that invites its own defeat. Yet that is precisely how Americans are facing the global war that radical Islamists have declared on them. And there you have it - the theme of Party of Defeat. But that's merely the head note - the destination, if you will. It is the journey that makes this book a compelling read, one well worth your while. Horowitz acknowledges not just the right to criticize one's government, but points out that this right is particularly important during a time of war. Indeed, at such times, the right to criticize rises to the point of a need - after all, for a participatory government to thrive, it is essential to have participants. That said, he points out that the left has gone well beyond the point of legitimate criticism; indeed, it has gone beyond the point of any form of acceptable criticism. Or, in my own terms, I look at criticism of one's government in the following 3 contexts: 1. Constructive criticism - legitimate criticism 2. Destructive criticism - useful-idiot criticism 3. SUBVERSION - fifth-column criticism Permit me to elaborate on these categories of taking issue with your government, and forgive me if space and time prevent me from dealing with this subject in a more expansive manner. Constructive criticism.- It is not just desirable but necessary for a democracy to have an informed electorate (unfortunately we no longer have such a body; ergo some of the idiotic criticism that you frequently encounter). In that context, one can expect that all members of the electorate are not going to agree with all of the actions of their government. Here it is hoped that, once the decision has been made by the appropriate decision-makers to go to war, criticism would deal with strategy and tactics and lighten up a bit on the initial policy decision to go to war. Or, at the very least, criticism should not take the form of trying to undermine our leadership in this endeavor. And, indeed, some criticism may be entirely legitimate, and a positive contribution to the war effort. Destructive Criticism. - Criticism here takes the form of an irresponsible (but possibly well intentioned, though misguided) effort to question the wisdom of the policy decision and the worthiness of our cause. This is the criticism of the usefulidiot class. These are people who, while they may not provide direct support to an American enemy, find themselves in sympathy with our enemy's position, or, at the very least, B3 not particularly supportive of our position. For the most part they are viewed as more misguided than venal. At best this is the "can't we all get along" crowd; at their worst, which is more typical, this the moral equivalence crowd, or, put more appropriately, the crowd in search of a moral equivalence. This is the crowd that spawned Ward Churchill (and Pastor Wright) who found America deserving of 9/11 - the crowd that found America's civilians devoid of innocence (via our own left-wing (useful?) idiot). This is the crowd that finds that America didn't just do something wrong; rather, America is something wrong. You know, the distinction that counselor John Bradshaw made between guilt and shame, i.e. guilt being the emotion addressing one's response to having done something wrong, and shame being the feeling attendant on believing that one IS something wrong. Why don't these guys just find a country that is more compatible with their belief system, e.g. France (oops, I almost forgot, France is moving right - they're find- Please turn to PARTY / B7 In 1930s, '40s, Art Cohn Fought Sports' Color Line Fifty years ago this spring the journalist I most admired as a teen ager died unexpectedly. "Art Cohn," his obituary read, "was the most controversial sports writer ever to hit Long Beach." The obit writer erred. Art was the most controversial sports writer on the entire West Coast - ever! Cohn began covering sports for the Press-Telegram while still a student at Long Beach Wilson High in 1926. He moved to the Oakland Tribune as sports editor a decade later, and at the time of his death was a San Francisco Examiner columnist. Thus this champion of social reform toiled for three of the most conservative publishers in California: the Prisks, Knowlands and Hearsts. Art dedicated his career to making sports truly All-American... before there was a civil rights movement. How, he asked in 1940, could the organization that controlled bowling be named the American Bowling Congress when its CSUP Prof. Ralph E. Shaffer MANIFESTO bylaws limited membership to white males? How could anyone's All-American football team omit UCLA's Kenny Washington simply because he was black? How could two black Oakland tennis champions be denied entry into the Pacific Coast championship tournament? Why is a Negro allowed to sit on the heavyweight boxing throne while no member of his race is allowed to wear a golf crown? While sports fans were aware of this discrimination, few bothered to protest. After all, integration had its limits even in progressive California. Cohn attacked those who knuckled under to bigots or were bigots themselves. He never forgave U.S. Olympic chairman Avery Brundage for insisting that the U.S. Olympic team must participate at Berlin in 1936. He posted an open letter to Brundage: "You and your bootlickers forced the United States to send an Olympic team to Nazi Germany in 1936 when every decent-thinking American was dead set against it. That was no sport festival, it was a political demonstration. You, as America's representative, made no outcry when Jesse Owens was insulted by the Nazis. Hell, you didn't even bat an eyelash when a couple of Jewish boys couldn't make the trip to Berlin because, it was said, they might affront Herr Hitler. "No, Avery, you have never stood up for the so-called principles for which the Olympic Games are supposed to stand." Football provided Cohn with glaring examples of rank discrimination. Where was UCLA's great Kenny Washington on New Years Day, 1940? Not in San Francisco's Shrine East-West game. "Fourteen East-West games have been played. But no Negro, no matter how outstanding, has ever played in them. It is an unwritten law, immutable as the commandment that bars Negroes from organized baseball." Later Cohn smarted when University of California authorities considered benching black players. Cal Berkeley and UCLA scheduled games for late December, 1941, with Georgia Tech and the University of Florida. Stub Allison, the California coach, told Cohn: "We want to play Walter Gordon [Cal's black halfback] but we will not have any fuss with Georgia. If there is any question the boy will be held out." Cohn: "California -- your California and mine, the taxpayers' alma mater--would not fight for the civil liberties and moral rights of Gordon, and every other Negro student attending the many branches of the state university." Because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Cal- Georgia Tech game was never played, so Gordon escaped the ignominy of being benched. The UCLA-Florida game wasn't canceled. But Clarence Mackey, the brilliant Afro-American back who led UCLA in scoring, didn't make the trip to Jacksonville. Cohn: "Mackey is a Negro and Southern teams are allergic to Negroes. This is your university, fellow taxpayers, supported by your money, reflecting your beliefs. You must be proud of it." Discrimination in youth baseball rankled Cohn in 1940. Tournament officials surrendered to Southern prejudice and prohibited two black players on a San Diego team from playing in a championship game against Albemarle, North Carolina. "Albemarle protested and the boys were declared ineligible because they had committed the crime of being born black. Without these two key players San Diego lost the title. "This happened in the championship series of a tournament sponsored by ... the American Legion." Cohn's civil rights crusade was lost in the backwater of West Coast sports. Minor league baseball bowed to the white's only policy of the majors. Golf, tennis and bowling, controlled by eastern interests, ignored Art's barbs. In 1945 Art gave up. He left Long Beach for a highly successful screen writing career. Art Cohn never received the recognition he deserved. His reward came with the end of the color line. Contact Cal Poly Pomona professor emeritus Ralph E. Shaffer at reshaffer@csupomona.edu. Magistrating by Maelstrom I couldn't sleep last night, so I read Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 gothic piece "A Descent Into the Maelstrom". It didn't help me to sleep, but it did make me intensely aware of the chicanerous ploys California's Governing Elite use to manipulate us citizens. The tale is about a seafarer who survived being sucked into a vicious vortex that periodically developed off the coast of Norway, when conditions were just right. When active, this giant whirlpool sucked-in everything within miles, whirled them deliriously around its aquatic walls, as it drew them deeper and deeper into its ever-darkening abyss, to smash them against the frothy rocks below. I won't tell you how the story ends. You'll have to read it yourself, because this column is really about our fiscally-irresponsible, self-serving California Hierarchy. Why did a vicious maelstrom conjure-up images of our Estute Rulers? Because our Governing Elite do to the rights and fiscal well-being of us citizens what the vortex does to every- J.J. McDonough thing around it: Suck it all in, whirl it insanely around, drag it down and smash it . . . until we citizens find ourselves with fewer rights than ILLEGAL ALIENS (who really have NO RIGHTS UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION), and are rendered almost fiscally destitute. We threw out a previous Sociocratic governor because of his -- and his Royal Legislative Lieges' -- irresponsible administration and fiscal turpitude. Of course, we citizens aren't pure, either. We elected The Arnold to correct the suicidal course our state was on. He tried to work with the Sociocratic Legislature, but they would have none of it. Then, he placed a series of measures on the ballot - - measures that WE had ASKED HIM to enact when we elected him! But, we followed the legislature's mendacious propaganda . . . AND DEFEATED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE MEASURES! Are we now getting what we deserve? The Arnold took office with a $10-BILLION deficit. Now, thanks to legislative malfeasance, we have a $16-BILLION deficit (actually, an $86-BIL- LION deficit, if you count bonds and other measures that have been added, which our great-great-grandchildren will have to amortize). Next year's deficit is prophesied to be $20 BILLION!! How do our legislators of the twelfth highesttaxed state in the Union intend to correct this in these trying times? LEVY MORE TAXES, WHAT ELSE! -- when the dollar is practically worthless; when gas prices are speeding past $4.00 toward $5.00 a gallon, and people have to decide between buying gas to go to work, or food to feed their families; when unemployment is increasing (and many companies STILL prefer to violate federal laws by hiring and retaining CHEAP ILLEGALS over U.S. workers); when diverting corn and other crops to ethanol and global famines create shortages that drive food prices beyond the apex of our incomes. While all of this -- and more! -- is breaking the tax-paying citizen's back, what do our Royal Solons plan to do? Why, RAISE TAXES, of course -- even though they could easily CUT THE DEFICIT by $10 BILLION! That's how much money California SPENDS ANNUALLY to support ILLE- GAL ALIENS! Another area to consider is this: California legislators are THE HIGHEST PAID -- and among the MOST INCOMPETENT -- in the nation. The jobs and salaries of the rest of us depend upon our performance. Since we politicallypartisan Californios would NEVER consider firing our affiliated legislators -- or decrease the power of their Party -- they should at least be willing to take a pay cut. Better yet, we should pass a constitutional amendment declaring that state legislators must set a cap on REA- SONABLE taxation, live within their means in accordance with a zero-based balanced budget, and establish emergency setasides. If they fail to do so, they should forfeit salary, benefits and perquisites until they do. I realize that all of this is fantasy. California is an UNMAN- AGEABLE, Socialist state. We Californios are dedicated to maintaining the power of our Sociocratic Legislature, and the "expensive freebies" our Legislative Overlords and confiscatory taxation have provided us -- even if it devastates our state. As long as we retain this attitude, we will have to get accustomed to being indentured servants to our Ruling Elite, and riding the maelstrom down through its inevitable, devastating abyss. If you get a chance, check the figures on MOVEMENT IN- AND-OUT of California. At last count, MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOU- SAND people (businesses and producers) MOVED OUT than moved in. Yet, the population continues to increase significantly. How can population increase when more people move out than move in? I know that YOU know the answer. It's our Sociocratic Legislators who can't figure it out. But, they don't care -- as long as they BELIEVE they can continue to tax-tax-tax! Unfortunately, A LARGE PROPORTION of the increase IS A DRAIN on state services and resources, rather than contributors to the state's well-being. Our Ruling Regals are going to have to manipulate a fancy shell-game if they expect to prestidigitize their way out of this one. As words to the old song go: "Nothing from nothing leaves nothing". Are those birds I see flying to other states? No, they're OUTBOUND Winged Taxes and Consumer Spending!! Contact J.J. at jj_mcdonough@msn.com The San Gabriel Valley Examiner
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May 14, 2008 - San Gabriel Valley Examiner

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