Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Auto Sales looking much better these days (Press Enterprise by Jack Katzanek)
10:50 PM PST on Saturday, November 27, 2010
By JACK KATZANEK
The Press-Enterprise
Automotive dealers in Inland Southern California wonder if they will ever see the kind of robust sales numbers they saw before the recession took its hold on the area two years ago.
But there might be some reasons for them to take heart. Figures suggest that sales of cars and trucks are recovering more rapidly for dealers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties than they are for the country at large, but the industry is still adjusting to new consumer attitudes.
Sales of new vehicles nationally is 11 percent higher in the first 10 months of 2010 than in the same period last year, according to data culled by the automotive research website Edmunds.com. But several Inland dealers seem poised to surpass that pace and say they expect growth of 15 percent or higher this year.
Story continues below
Paul Alvarez / Special to The Press-Enterprise
"This is still the Inland Empire, with high unemployment and foreclosure rates," says Bill Hatfield, owner of Hatfield Buick GMC in Redlands.
Part of that can be explained by the depth of the recession and how far sales fell in 2008 and 2009. Many had nowhere to go but up, and the loss of more than 15 Inland dealerships in that period has eliminated a fair amount of the competition.
The automotive industry is a significant employer in the Inland area, with more than 16,000 workers, but that is down from about 25,000 three years ago, according to state Employment Development Department data.
Also, car sales contribute more than a third of the sales tax revenue in some Inland cities, mostly the ones without major retail destinations such as malls.
There is some pent-up demand that's pushing sales up, analysts say. But there's a trend that could affect all car dealers for a while: drivers worried about the economy are willing to hold on to their cars for longer periods, even as odometers get well into six digits.
Late last year, the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research reported that the average car on United States' roads is now 10.5 years old, a record.
'SOME GOOD LESSONS'
Santa Monica-based Edmunds.com analyst Ivan Drury said he expects between 11.3 million and 11.5 million cars will be sold nationally this year. That's up from 10.4 million in 2009 but well below the 16 million or 17 million cars sold a few years ago. Drury doesn't anticipate the sales volume to get back to that level before 2014.
"People are being forced to hold on to them longer. There are vehicles out there with 150,000 or 200,000 miles on them," Drury said. "This economy is teaching people some good lessons."
Story continues below
A 35-year old photo with John, Bill and Bob Hatfield of Hatfield Buick GMC. The dealership almost was closed because of GM's bailout.
Drury said the typical car owner used to hold on to a new car 4.5 years before trading it in for something new. That had increased to 4.9 years by October 2009 and it's up to 5.2 years now.
Also, Drury said there's been more of a willingness on the part of consumers and dealers to meet in the middle. More buyers are now interested in certified used vehicles with strong warranties, some as high as 100,000 miles.
"Sales of certified pre-owned cars have been a boost and a lot of dealerships are realizing it," Drury said. "They see that more used cars are what the market is looking for, and they won't certify it unless it's a good car."
PENT-UP DEMAND
Sales are up about 15 percent at Quality Nissan in Temecula, said Erik Duncan, the sales manager, and part of that is because of low interest rates and warranties up to 100,000 miles.
"The good deals are a matter of perception for the customer," Duncan said.
General Motors' comeback from bankruptcy is being closely watched in the automotive world, and last weekend's sales activity at Dutton Motor Co. in Riverside was encouraging, said Michael Whitney, the general manager for new car sales for the GM dealership. The deals include zero-percent financing and deferments of the first payments for up to 120 days.
Whitney said there is pent-up demand, but it's still a difficult economy for some.
Story continues below
Paul Alvarez / Special to The Press-Enterprise
Hatfield Buick GMC in Redlands saw sales this year jump about 18 percent from a year ago.
"There are a lot of people who want to buy new cars right now, but it's still a little bit challenging," Whitney said. "But I think we're going to be up at the end of the year."
Hatfield Buick GMC in Redlands was almost closed because of GM's bailout and restructuring, but the Detroit automotive icon relented last spring. Now the third-generation downtown dealership is up about 18 percent from a year ago, said Bill Hatfield, the president.
But Hatfield said that people in the Inland area are still weighted down by economic problems.
"You have to remember that last year was pretty dismal," Hatfield said. "So we're still not back to where we want to be. It's a good time to buy if you're in the situation where you can buy, and you absolutely have to buy, but this is still the Inland Empire, with high unemployment and foreclosure rates."
REPAIR SHOPS BUSY
When the recession became critical about two years ago, mechanics such as Jerry Lubben, who owns Dee & Walt's Auto Repair in Redlands, became popular. Many people who would have scrapped their older cars were forced to patch them up and keep them on going.
Lubben said he's not as busy as he was a year ago, but people are still hesitant about getting a new car.
"Quite a few have had engine problems or transmission problems, and they're repairing them rather than buying a new car," Lubben said.
Dan Cheng, a vice president and partner for business consultancy A.T. Kearney, said much of the sales increase is being driven by fleet sales to companies such as rental agencies, but he anticipates the consumer market to come back faster than other analysts. He said it will be more of a "V-shaped" recovery, with an increase of better than 20 percent next year.
Cheng said he wasn't surprised so many people decided to hang on to their 10-year-old vehicles, but he doubts this trend of a "new frugality" will continue once the economy improves.
"At some point you start to ask yourself if the cost of servicing an older car, the inconvenience, the risk of having a family member out on the road, is worth it," Cheng said. "Those types of things factor into the decision."
Reach Jack Katzanek at 951-368-9553 or at jkatzanek@PE.com
U.S. Supreme Court confers on Obama's Elegibility (by Caleb) Nov. 29, 2010
Posted by Caleb on November 29, 2010 · Comments (71)
Is this the case that will break the presidential eligibility question wide open?
The Supreme Court conferred today on whether arguments should be heard on the merits of Kerchner v. Obama, a case challenging whether President Barack Obama is qualified to serve as president because he may not be a “natural-born citizen” as required by Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution.
Unlike other eligibility cases that have reached the Supreme Court, Kerchner vs. Obama focuses on the “Vattel theory,” which argues that the writers of the Constitution believed the term “natural-born citizen” to mean a person born in the United States to parents who were both American citizens.
“This case is unprecedented,” said Mario Apuzzo, the attorney bringing the suit. “I believe we presented an ironclad case. We’ve shown standing, and we’ve shown the importance of the issue for the Supreme Court. There’s nothing standing in their way to grant us a writ of certiorari.”
If the Supreme Court decides to grant the “writ of certiorari,” it may direct a federal trial court in New Jersey to hear the merits of the case, or it may choose to hear the merits itself. The court’s decision on the writ could be announced as early as Wednesday.
Read More: By Brian Fitzpatrick, WND
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Temecula pot bust leads investigators to drug tunnel from Mexico (Press Enterprise, By John Asbury) Nov. 26, 2010
Temecula pot bust leads investigators to drug tunnel from Mexico
11:04 PM PST on Friday, November 26, 2010
An almost 14-ton marijuana bust in Temecula on Thursday led federal authorities to discover a sophisticated drug tunnel between San Diego County and Mexico.
Temecula Border Patrol agents seized the drugs after stopping a big rig on Interstate 15. In the ensuing investigation, four more tons of pot were seized on a ranch in northern Mexico and three tons were found inside the tunnel, while eight people in two countries were arrested, according to a report from the San Diego Tunnel Task Force.
It was the second time this month that a Temecula bust led to a search in the same Otay Mesa industrial center, and then to the discovery of a drug tunnel.
Both tunnels are believed to be the work of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, said Mike Unzueta, head of investigations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego.
"We think ultimately they are controlled by the same overall cartel but that the tunnels were being managed and run independently by different cells operating within the same organization," Unzueta said.
Working off a tip that came out of a large drug bust in San Bernardino County in June, the San Diego Tunnel Task Force began conducting surveillance on the Otay Mesa warehouse complex, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Thursday, agents with the tunnel task force -- made up of the U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- followed the big rig up Interstate 15 from a warehouse and requested Temecula Border Patrol agents to stop it for inspection, according to the task force report.
The search of the tractor-trailer revealed 27,600 pounds of marijuana. Border Patrol agents arrested the driver, who was not identified, on suspicion of drug smuggling.
Agents then searched the warehouse where the truck originated and discovered a 90-foot-deep, half-mile-long drug tunnel that ran from an industrial complex to a stucco home in Tijuana. The home was attached to a garage large enough to accept deliveries from big rigs.
The tunnel had a pushcart rail system and was outfitted with advanced electrical and ventilation systems. Its walls were supported with wood and cinder blocks.
Tunnel task force officials described it as more sophisticated than the tunnel found earlier this month, which ran parallel to Thursday's tunnel and had entrances to two Otay Mesa warehouses 800 feet apart. That was discovered Nov. 2 in a search after Temecula Border Patrol agents stopped a big rig carrying 10 tons of marijuana.
U.S. authorities do not know how long the latest tunnel had been in operation.
On Thursday afternoon, U.S. authorities contacted the Mexican military, which searched the ranch in northern Mexico where more marijuana was found. Mexican authorities arrested five people, according to tunnel task force officials.
In addition to the truck driver, U.S. authorities arrested two men in El Cajon who were seen at the Otay Mesa warehouse.
Unzueta said investigators began to look into several warehouses in the Otay Mesa industrial center on a tip that emerged from a June drug bust by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
Fernando Luevano, 32, a Los Angeles semi driver, was stopped on Interstate 10 in Rancho Cucamonga hauling 19 tons of marijuana, 2,700 pounds of cocaine and 67 pounds of methamphetamine worth an estimated $45 million. Luevano had come north on Interstate 15 and was thought to be trying to leave the state.
Including Thursday's bust, more than 75 border drug-smuggling tunnels have been discovered in the past four years, mostly in California and Arizona.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach John Asbury at 951-763-3451 or jasbury@PE.com
What not to wear? Clothing a security line issue (by Daisy Nguyen, Associated Press) November 23, 2010
What not to wear? Clothing a security line issue
What's in style at the airport? Clothes that get you through security with minimal hassle
A TSA officer searches a passenger at a security check-point Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, at Seatttle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. There are new requirements at some U.S. airports that air passengers must pass through full-body scanners that produce a virtually naked image. Those who refuse to go through the scanners are subject to thorough pat-downs. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It was no crime of fashion, but Wendy Gigliotti's bulky sweater and ankle-length skirt made her a target of airport screeners.
A female Transportation Security Administration officer at Sacramento International Airport told her, "We can't tell if there's something under your skirt." She was then frisked in a way she said felt more intrusive than a physical exam.
"I felt not only like a criminal, I felt absolutely violated," said Gigliotti.
Gigliotti is among the travelers feeling mortified or even outraged by the more thorough security pat-downs the TSA began using this month as the holiday travel season begins.
Travel experts say the new scrutiny underscores the need for better airport fashion choices that can help people breeze through screenings with their dignity intact.
Clothes loaded with metal studs are suddenly a no-no, as are bras with underwires. Slacks instead of skirts are preferred. Any baggy clothing can require extra inspection.
"It's difficult enough to fly right now, so let's be sensible about it," said Susan Foster, author of "Smart Packing for Today's Traveler." "Let's minimize all the hassle."
Melissa Wood of Marina Del Rey said she prepared for a possible pat-down at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday by wearing tight jeans, a snug sweater and slip-on sheepskin boots. She said she made sure to take out all belongings from her pockets and stuffed them in her purse before reaching the conveyor belt.
"I don't want any problem when I reach the checkpoint," Wood said.
Another passenger evoked the Disneyland rule.
"We should dress to the airport like we dress for Disneyland, and by that I mean dressing comfortably with a good pair of shoes," said Aliise Becker, who wore a turtleneck, blue slacks and coat for her flight from Sacramento to Los Angeles. "The days of dressing to the nine to travel is a thing of the past."
The new search technique allows airport security screeners to use their palms and fingers to probe for hidden weapons and devices around sensitive body parts, including clothed genital areas and breasts. In the past, TSA officers brushed along those body parts with the back of their hands.
Opponents argue the more intensive screening violates civil liberties including freedom of religion, the right to privacy and the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches.
Federal officials insist the procedures are necessary to ward off terror attacks like the attempted bombing of a Chicago-bound plane last Christmas by a Nigerian man who stashed explosives in his underwear.
Recently, a San Diego County man who resisted the groin check, telling an officer, "If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested" became an Internet hit when he posted tape of the confrontation online. On the Alex Jones syndicated radio show, a frequent flier complained that a TSA officer put his hands down his waistband because he was wearing baggy sweat pants.
Gigliotti said she wasn't aware of the enhanced security measures, so she was shocked when the TSA officer ran her hands up and down her legs last week.
TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said that they have not received any written complaint from her.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn noted the public embarrassment that can come with additional security on Wednesday as she and city officials sought to ease the public's concerns on the issue.
"I go through the lines like everybody else. I have to take off my shoes. Sometimes I forgot to check the condition of my feet. I have to take off my jacket. Sometimes I forgot that the blouse I wore wasn't meant to be seen in public. But you know what, these are small inconveniences, these are small embarrassments in light of what we're trying to do," she said.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said he has been hearing about women complaining of TSA officers searching under their skirts.
"It certainly is a problem, that's why I recommend going through the scanning machines," Stempler said. "They're well vetted and they should be more comfortable than these aggressive pat-downs."
Some passengers and flight crews are fearful the imaging machines emit an unhealthy dose of radiation. The government insists they're safe, but agreed on Friday to let uniformed pilots skip the screening.
An Internet campaign is urging airline passengers to boycott the physically revealing scanners on the day before Thanksgiving and insist that any pat-down they receive as a result take place in full view of other passengers.
On Twitter, many joked that they might as well show up to the airport in their birthday suit.
Clothing options that may not be wise are T-shirts selling on the Internet that mock the pat-downs. One provides guidance to TSA officers to "firmly grasp" the buttocks, while others riff off the "don't touch my junk" line, including one for Fondle Airlines, motto: "Fondling junk since 2010."
Saturday, November 27, 2010
A Warning Shot? Experts Believe Missile From Chinese Sub Fired Off U.S. West Coast/ Experts: Mystery contrail was from Chinese Missile (World Net Daily Exclusive)
A Warning Shot? Experts Believe Missile From Chinese Sub Fired Off US West Coast
Although the U.S. Defense Department and North American Aerospace Defense Command have speculated publicly that the unidentified contrail of a projectile soaring into the skies off the California coast – and recorded by a KCBS television crew – came from a jet and posed no security threat to the U.S., several experts are raising provocative and disturbing questions about the government's official response, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Two governmental military experts with extensive experience working with missiles and computer security systems have examined the television video and conclude the mysterious contrail originating some 30 miles off the coast near Los Angeles did not come from a jet – but rather, they say the exhaust and the billowing plume emanated from a single source nozzle of a missile, probably made in China.
They further suggest the missile was fired from a submerged Chinese nuclear submarine off America's coast, and point out that the timing of the alleged Chinese missile shot coincided with an increasing confrontation between the U.S. and China, and was likely meant to send a message to Washington.
Indeed, the Federal Aviation Administration documents that there were no aircraft flying in the area at that time, the night of Nov. 8.
"The question that still must be answered is why NORAD's muted response was simply that North America was not threatened, and later our government approved the lame excuse that the picture recorded was simply an aircraft leaving a contrail," said retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Jim Cash.
A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and commander of an F-15 squadron and an F-16 wing, Cash was assigned to NORAD as an assistant director of operations at the Cheyenne Mountain complex near Colorado Springs, Colo., and is fully knowledgeable of NORAD procedures.
"There is absolutely no doubt that what was captured on video off the coast of California was a missile launch, was clearly observed by NORAD, assessed by a four-star general in minutes, and passed to the president immediately," he said.
Even more ominously, cautioned Cash: "We must question the timing of this shot across our bow. The president was abroad being diplomatic, which means trying to placate China which is becoming overly concerned with our handling a totally out-of-control deficit in spending."
Wayne Madsen, a former naval officer who has worked at the National Security Agency and the Naval Data Automation Command, said the inability to pick up what he described as a Chinese Jin-class submarine-launched ballistic missile isn't the first time U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare sensors have failed.
Madsen, who today is an investigative journalist, said the Pentagon is working "overtime with the media and on the Internet to cover up the latest debacle. However, even some reporters who cover the Pentagon full-time are beginning to question the Pentagon's version of events ... over the skies west of Los Angeles."
Dr. Lyle J. Rapacki of Sentinel Intelligence Services, LLC, said the contrail incident off the Los Angeles coast is "fraught with peril" due to the defense systems and protocols in place that should have detected the alleged submarine.
"The decision to officially announce that North America was not threatened," he said, "and all the excitement was due to an aircraft leaving a contrail is a decision that reaches beyond the four-star general level and goes directly to a decision made by the commander-in-chief."
G2Bulletin calls to the Pentagon and NORAD for comment beyond previous official statements were not returned.
View a video report with pictures of the Missile here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GofjDDWX_M
Posted: November 19, 2010
8:00 pm Eastern
WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
 Contrail was recorded in this image by KCBS-KCAL in California |
Although the U.S. Defense Department and North American Aerospace Defense Command have speculated publicly that the unidentified contrail of a projectile soaring into the skies off the California coast – and recorded by a KCBS television crew – came from a jet and posed no security threat to the U.S., several experts are raising provocative and disturbing questions about the government's official response, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Two governmental military experts with extensive experience working with missiles and computer security systems have examined the television video and conclude the mysterious contrail originating some 30 miles off the coast near Los Angeles did not come from a jet – but rather, they say the exhaust and the billowing plume emanated from a single source nozzle of a missile, probably made in China.
They further suggest the missile was fired from a submerged Chinese nuclear submarine off America's coast, and point out that the timing of the alleged Chinese missile shot coincided with an increasing confrontation between the U.S. and China, and was likely meant to send a message to Washington.
Indeed, the Federal Aviation Administration documents that there were no aircraft flying in the area at that time, the night of Nov. 8.
(Story continues below)
"The question that still must be answered is why NORAD's muted response was simply that North America was not threatened, and later our government approved the lame excuse that the picture recorded was simply an aircraft leaving a contrail," said retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Jim Cash.
A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and commander of an F-15 squadron and an F-16 wing, Cash was assigned to NORAD as an assistant director of operations at the Cheyenne Mountain complex near Colorado Springs, Colo., and is fully knowledgeable of NORAD procedures.
"There is absolutely no doubt that what was captured on video off the coast of California was a missile launch, was clearly observed by NORAD, assessed by a four-star general in minutes, and passed to the president immediately," he said.
Even more ominously, cautioned Cash: "We must question the timing of this shot across our bow. The president was abroad being diplomatic, which means trying to placate China which is becoming overly concerned with our handling a totally out-of-control deficit in spending."
Wayne Madsen, a former naval officer who has worked at the National Security Agency and the Naval Data Automation Command, said the inability to pick up what he described as a Chinese Jin-class submarine-launched ballistic missile isn't the first time U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare sensors have failed.
Madsen, who today is an investigative journalist, said the Pentagon is working "overtime with the media and on the Internet to cover up the latest debacle. However, even some reporters who cover the Pentagon full-time are beginning to question the Pentagon's version of events ... over the skies west of Los Angeles."
Dr. Lyle J. Rapacki of Sentinel Intelligence Services, LLC, said the contrail incident off the Los Angeles coast is "fraught with peril" due to the defense systems and protocols in place that should have detected the alleged submarine.
"The decision to officially announce that North America was not threatened," he said, "and all the excitement was due to an aircraft leaving a contrail is a decision that reaches beyond the four-star general level and goes directly to a decision made by the commander-in-chief."
G2 Bulletin calls to the Pentagon and NORAD for comment beyond previous official statements were not returned.
Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Old papers tell different tales on Obama's Past (By Jerome R. Corsi, WND) Nov. 22, 2010
Old papers tell different tales on Obama's past
Contributing to the impression of shifting sands in his official biography, two newspaper articles from 1990 – apparently based on interviews with Barack Obama – reported that the future president left Hawaii for Indonesia when he was 2 years old, not 6 years old, as he relates in his autobiography.
On May 3, 1990, the Associated Press widely published a feature story on Obama highlighting him as the first African-American named as president of the Harvard Law review.
"Obama moved to Southeast Asia at age 2 when his parents divorced and his mother married an Indonesian," the Associated Press reported. "Until the fifth grade, Obama attended Indonesian schools, where most of his friends were the sons of servants, street peddlers and farmers."
The Associated Press article was widely published throughout the United States in newspapers that typically picked up and reprinted AP stories.
Here is the screen capture of the AP report as published by the Chicago Daily Herald on May 3, 1990:
Here is a close-up of the key two paragraphs:
Assuming that Obama was 10 years old in the fifth grade, this 1990 AP report would have placed Obama in Indonesia for eight years, from around August 1963 until August 1971, when he was 2 years old until he was 10 years old.
Read More: By Jerome R. Corsi, WND
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Obama Appoints Homosexual Propagandist to Education (by Steve Baldwin, Western Journalism)
By Steve Baldwin, WesternJournalism.com Exclusive
Obama's Gay Advocate in Education
In a stunning move, President Barack Obama has nominated homosexual propagandist Kevin Jennings to be the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education in charge of the “Safe and Drug-Free Schools” program. Aside from overseeing drug education programs, the term “safe” also means making public schools “safe” for alleged homosexual children; translated, this means Jennings’s position will be used to produce and disseminate pro-homosexual propaganda to America’s public schools.
Granted, homosexual propaganda in our schools has become common place, but the appointment of Jennings ensures that for the first time ever, the Federal government will be funding and promoting homosexual propaganda on a large scale basis. This nomination makes clear that President Obama believes America’s public school children should be exposed to deviant sexual lifestyles having nothing to do with academics.
Who is Jennings? He’s the founder and, until recently, the President of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the nation’s leading homosexual pressure group working to insert homosexual propaganda into America’s public schools. GLSEN’s budget is in the millions and they are the driving force behind the formation of over 4000 homosexual clubs on our colleges, high schools and even middle schools. Most of these clubs were formed by homosexual faculty members trained by GLSEN.
But this appointment shouldn’t surprise anyone. Obama has supported the homosexual agenda his entire political career. Indeed, within 24 hours of winning the presidency, his website posted the most aggressive pro-homosexual agenda of any president in American history.
Obama supports “hate crimes” legislation, which criminalizes even thoughts in opposition to homosexuality; he supports massively increasing funding for AIDS “prevention” programs, despite the fraud and abuse rampant in such programs today. He supports repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding homosexuals in the military.
He favors quotas for homosexuals in federal hiring; he wants to force businesses with government contracts to hire homosexuals; he promised homosexual leaders he will use the bully pulpit to force adoption agencies to adopt children out to homosexuals. He wants to grant health benefits to the partners of homosexual government workers, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. He even wants to create a new category of federally protected sexual deviancy called “gender identity” — a another name for transsexuals — which means that Federal and state government entities – including public schools – could not refuse to hire transsexuals.
Obama misled voters during the campaign when he claimed to oppose homosexual marriage when in fact he secretly promised homosexual leaders he will abolish what he termed the “abhorrent” federal DOMA law, an action which clears the way for states to legalize homosexual marriage. Obama even claims the Bible – specifically the Sermon on the Mount – legitimitizes homosexual unions! There is little doubt that Obama will go down in history as the most pro-homosexual president in American history and perhaps one of the most pro-homosexual leaders in the Western World.
The homosexual community was so excited about Obama’s election that during the inaugural weekend, a leading S & M homosexual group – among the sickest people alive – reserved a large room at the Doubletree Hotel in Washington DC, for a massive orgy involving hundreds of perverts, at which activities were planned that were so vile they cannot even be repeated here.
Jennings is perfect for the Obama regime since, like Obama, he’s a zealot for promoting homosexuality. He wants all children to be exposed to homosexual behavior and has spent most of his life propagating myths like the claim that 10% of all children are homosexuals, a myth key to his rational for why schools should cater to homosexuals.
But the fact remains that homosexuality is not normal behavior regardless how many advocates proclaim it to be. It is deviant sexual behavior. Indeed, there aren’t any credible geneticists today who claim homosexuality is genetic so no one is born this way. Indeed, the evidence that homosexual behavior is a learned behavior influenced by a child’s home life, role models and even homosexual molestation, remains overwhelming.
Nevertheless, Jennings has dedicated his life to the corruption of our youth. Indeed, GLSEN’s website goes into great detail about how “teachers need to incorporate gay and lesbian issues throughout the curriculum – not just in classes such as health education, but in traditional disciplines such as English, history, and Science.” GLSEN also instructs teachers how to use non-academic activities to promote this lifestyle, such as the school library, athletics, proms, counseling, speakers, and films. This saturation, GLSEN hopes, will convince many school children that engaging in homosexual behavior is perfectly normal and thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of developing more homosexuals.
At a 1997 GLSEN conference Jennings said he looked forward to the day when parents will react to reports that schools are “promoting homosexuality” by saying, “Yeah, who cares?” And GLSEN board member Stephen Glassman stated, “I don’t want to be tolerated. I don’t want to be put up with. I want to be ….celebrated.”
But we’re not talking about just college and high school students. GLSEN wants to propagandize children as young as possible: GLSEN leader Jaki Williams says that kindergarten kids need to be exposed to positive portrayals of homosexuals. She said that children that age are “developing their superego,” and “that’s when the saturation process needs to begin.” Another GLSEN leader stated, “the younger you start, the better.” GLSEN conferences often have sessions titled “But they’re too Young!….Discussing Gay and Lesbian Issues with Elementary-Age Students.” GLSEN’s websites have numerous resources instructing teachers how to create “lesson plans…for elementary schools.” GLSEN even promotes fairy tale type books that portray two fathers or two mothers. These people are sick.
As for parents, why, that’s just a minor obstacle. GLSEN conferences feature sessions about “how to deal with barriers (i.e., unsupportive parents)” of elementary school children. When GLSEN leader Chuck Jones spoke at a GLSEN conference about how to deal with opposition from disgruntled parents or faculty members, he stated, “this is war, so plan accordingly.”
Jenning’s view of Christians who actually believe what the Bible says about homosexuality is not flattering: “We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit …I’m trying to find a way to say this. I’m trying not to say, ‘[F---] ‘em!’ which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! Drop dead!” GLSEN’s materials repeatedly attack the foundational Christian belief that homosexuality is sinful and considers anyone who holds this belief to be “homophobic.” Naturally, GLSEN promotes books that misled students about what the Bible actually says about homosexuality.
Incredibly, GLSEN promotes pro-pedophile books such as One Teenager in 10, which contains at least a half dozen stories involving sex between children and adults. Another example of a GLSEN-promoted book featuring child/adult sex is Growing up Gay/Growing up Lesbian: “When I was 15, he must have been 29-39…I seduced him.. it was a wild night. We did everything.” Another GLSEN-recommended book has a story about a minor boasting about how he met his 25 year old “boyfriend” who “picked me up right away when I joined the group.”
Incredibly, one GLSEN book even discusses in detail how a man had sex in a public rest room with a young boy who then comments how the “the whole world of rest-room sex had opened up to me.” This is sick; GLSEN is promoting books that fulfill the fantasies of homosexual pedophiles who believe children WANT them sexually. Not surprisingly, GLSEN promotes many books by Alyson Publications, a leading publisher of pro-pedophile books and gay porn. GLSEN also has distributed material that refers children to adult homosexual clubs where they can meet older homosexuals.
GLSEN also promotes books that feature sex between children like this: “he let my zipper go down a little and then put a little of his hand down the waistband of my boxers…we still kissed .. as he slid his hand down further. A clear tent had formed in my boxers….” Then, of course, we can’t forget GLSEN’s obsession with promoting cross-dressing as they do in a play called Cootie Shots that is distributed to elementary schools.
But Jennings himself has no problem with child/adult sex. He wrote that when he was a teacher a student came to him and confessed he had sex with an adult but the child left his office, Jennings wrote, “with a smile on his face.” Apparently, Jennings told the kid that nothing bad happened.
GLSEN has sponsored pornographic conferences that focus on highly inappropiate sexual behavior such as fisting. One such event occurred in Massachusetts a few years ago in which GLSEN sponsored a secretive workshop titled “What They Didn’t Tell You About Queer Sex and Sexuality in Health Class: A Workshop for Youth Only, ages 14-21.” Unbelievably, this workshop discussed how minors can engage in a highly dangerous activity called “fisting” in which a man inserts his arm up the anal cavity of another man. When the homosexuals discovered the session was secretly taped, they sued to block release of the tape.
Obviously, GLSEN’s holds radical views on the development of homosexuality, believing that most children are naturally homosexual! One of GLSEN’s ideological warriors wrote on its website that “It is possible to speculate that in the twentieth century a number of cultural taboos evolved to cut short the homosocial ties of girlhood and to impel the emerging women of thirteen or fourteen toward heterosexual relationships.” In other words, homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuality is forced upon our children by our “heterosexist” culture. Indeed, GLSEN’s material constantly refer to “institutionalized heterosexism” because, God forbid, school books picture normal families and school restrooms marked either “boys” or “girls” is often not a “match [for] your gender identity/expression.” Clearly, GLSEN’s goal is to destroy any bias whatsoever in favor of “heterosexism.”
GLSEN refuses to acknowledge several massive surveys of homosexual lifestyles showing they have much higher rates than do heterosexuals regarding criminal activity, suicides, drug abuse, mental illness, alcoholism, etc. But this is no surprise; deviant behavior always leads to higher rates of unhealthy activities. If homosexuality were normal, such differences wouldn’t exist.
The reality is that there aren’t any peer-reviewed large scale studies of homosexual lifestyles that demonstrate it’s a normal lifestyle. Indeed, every year thousands of minor boys contract HIV from having sex with older homosexual men and research also demonstrates that the average lifespan of a homosexual male may be as much as twenty years less than that of a heterosexual male.
Why then, are our schools promoting this lifestyle? Shouldn’t they be counseling our children to avoid such a dangerous lifestyle? Our public school systems spend millions on the creation and distribution of anti-drug education programs but a good argument can be made that homosexual behavior poses a more serious health risk than most drugs do.
But apparently, Obama doesn’t care about the health of children. He doesn’t care that GLSEN and Kevin Jennings are jeopardizing the health of millions of school children. Indeed, the Obama administration even sent Joe Biden’s wife to GLSEN’s New York gala last May.
It is now abundantly clear that Obama is a political animal who cares only about power and destroying America’s Judeo-Christian culture. The appointment of Kevin Jennings essentially means that the promotion of a deviant and unhealthy lifestyle to our children is now a federal priority but will also ensure the loyalty of homosexual activists to Obama for years to come.
The end result is that thousands of children will be seduced into a death lifestyle; gender identity confusion will dramatically increase youth suicide, and the intellectual – if not the actual physical — molestation of children “confused” by GLSEN’s deceptive material will increase. Instead of hiring Kevin Jennings, the federal government should be investigating how GLSEN is breaking Federal and state laws by exposing children to obscene literature and encouraging illegal sexual liaisons.
About the Author: Steve Baldwin writes on legislation and does investigative research. He is the former executive director of the Council for National Policy. He was elected to the California Legislature and served six years, where he chaired the Education Committee. He also served as the Minority Whip. Baldwin has managed numerous campaigns, and he has authored two policy- oriented books, one on education and one on how America’s enemies use the media to manipulate public opinion. He has advised numerous Congressmen, including Newt Gingrich on public policy.
Friday, November 19, 2010
CORONA: Girl, 13, grabbed, raped, Police Say (Press Enterprise by Steven Barrie) Nov. 18, 2010
CORONA: Girl, 13, grabbed, raped, police say
11:07 PM PST on Thursday, November 18, 2010
A 13-year-old girl told Corona police that she was grabbed by a man, dragged behind a building and raped Tuesday afternoon.
As of Thursday evening, no arrests had been made, police said.
The sexual assault happened about 3 p.m. Tuesday behind a business in the 400 block of North Cota Street, Corona police said in a news release issued Thursday.
The girl said the man who assaulted her was sitting on the grass near Cota and River Road. She said he tried to get her attention but she ignored him and walked on.
The man then grabbed her from behind, dragged her behind the business and raped her near a Dumpster, police said.
The girl walked home and told her parents, and the family then went to the Corona Police Station to report it.
Police have not tied the incident to any other sexual assault in the city. "This sounds like a solo event," Corona police Sgt. Paul Gamache said by telephone.
The girl described her attacker as a Hispanic man in his early 20s, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-9, about 170 pounds, with a shaved head and an earring in his right ear. He was last seen wearing a black shirt and black shorts.
Anyone who may have information is asked to call the Corona police hot line at 951-817-5837.
Reach Steven Barrie at 951-368-9466 or sbarrie@PE.com
BLOCKED: Costly Unemployment Aid Extension.. by Brian Faler Nov. 18, 2010
Written by CAA Politics on November 18, 2010, 05:15 PM
BRAIN FALER
A bill to extend jobless benefits for three months was defeated today in the U.S. House, increasing the odds that some of the nation’s long-term unemployed will start losing aid.
The measure fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval under an expedited process. The vote on the bill was 258 in favor, 154 opposed.
Republican lawmakers complained that the bill’s $12 billion cost would be added to the government’s budget deficit. They demanded offsetting savings elsewhere in the budget.
The vote was a replay of a partisan dispute earlier this year that led to benefits being cut off for some jobless people for more than a month. Aid again is set to expire Nov. 30 for some of the unemployed.
Time to Be Transparent (by Cassie Macduff) Press Enterprise Column
Time to Be Transparent
10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The California Public Records Act has long been a journalist's best friend.
It spells out which government documents are open to the public and how government officials are to supply them on request.
But these days, it's not just reporters who are invoking the law, county spokespersons were told Wednesday during a workshop at the California State Association of Counties annual meeting in Riverside.
Average citizens have learned to cite the Public Records Act when seeking official documents.
Law firms are using it to go on fishing expeditions to prepare lawsuits against government agencies.
Commercial companies are using it to compile lists of potential customers.
Political operatives are using it to dig up dirt on office-holders.
And then there are "the crazies" who use a shotgun approach, demanding voluminous records to ferret out suspected wrongdoing.
That's what county public information officers face these days when dealing with the law intended to make government transparent and hold public officials accountable.
In the wake of the Bell salary scandal, public officials shouldn't play hide-the-ball, stonewall or stall the release of records that are clearly public, the information officers were told by two San Bernardino County experts: Principal Assistant County Counsel Dan Haueter and Public Information Officer David Wert.
Wert, a former reporter, considers the act a public relations tool to inspire confidence in government and demonstrate transparency.
If public agencies respond to reporters' inquiries with stonewalling and lack of cooperation, a news story that might have been neutral or even positive can turn out to be negative, he said.
Wert said if he can e-mail a document to a reporter as soon as it's requested, he does. I wish all PIOs thought that way.
But all the good PR groundwork can be undone, Wert said, if a clerk at a counter has been instructed to withhold records or stall providing them, he said.
That's one reason San Bernardino County enacted a "sunshine ordinance" declaring all county records presumed public unless they meet a narrow definition as exempt from disclosure.
Of California counties, only San Francisco has a stronger sunshine ordinance, Haueter said: It requires the county's lawyers to advise the public on the Public Records Act rather than advising the Board of Supervisors.
Haueter acknowledged there are no real penalties for violating the act. The onus is on the public to take the government to court to force the release of records.
But if a judge finds information was wrongly withheld, the government can be ordered to pay the plaintiff's attorney fees.
That happened to San Bernardino County recently, Haueter said. Although the judge upheld 97 exemptions, two were ruled unjust and the county had to pay.
It's not often the scales of justice are tipped in favor of the public. It's nice to know it sometimes happens.
Cassie MacDuff can be reached at 951-368-9470 or cmacduff@PE.com