I.E. Home Prices Buck Trend! (SB Sun 112106) Sales down 21% from

BS Ranch Perspective:

This is kind of good news, the home sales drop but the values of the homes in our area seem to be holding on to their value. that is great news. I am happy to include this in my little message area. Mostly because I know most of my friends live in the area that the real estate is going up or holding its value.

Praise God!

BSRanch

I.E. home prices buck trend

Sales down 21 percent from 2005 but values rise

Michael Rappaport, Staff Writer

Article Launched:11/21/2006 12:00:00 AM PST

The national housing market may be staggering, but anyone looking for too much weakness in the Inland Empire will have a hard time finding it.

Yes, sales may have been down 21 percent from a year ago in October, but the median price of a home in San Bernardino County still went up and houses are still selling.

"We are going to see some weakness in the market in the short term," said Redlands-based economist John Husing, who studies the Inland Empire. "But the economy is strong, the job picture is extremely strong and the population is still growing."

All are signs that make 2006 very different from the early '90s, the last real period of market weakness locally.

"Three things need to happen before the market fully recovers," Husing said. "We need to work through some of the inventory on the market. We have to deal with the properties that are in foreclosure, the people who bought homes in 2005 and haven't had a run-up in equity.

"And we need to get the speculators out of the market, the ones who bought properties to flip them."

If there's a complicating factor, it's that the area has extremely low affordability. Only 6.7 percent of residents can afford to buy the median-priced home

sold in the San Bernardino-Riverside- Ontario area in the third quarter. "Despite all the doom and gloom about housing prices dropping, affordability has improved only slightly," said Robert Rivinius, president of the California Building Industry Association.

Rialto Council to Vote on Raises (Daily Bulletin 112006)

BS Ranch Perspective:

If you were to ask me The Rialto City Council doesn't deserve a Raise of any kind. they have done nothing to deserve any kind of Raise. Whether it has been 8 years since the last raise or not is not Relevant it has to go by the job that they have done for the City of Rialto and the Citizens of Rialto. They have done Nothing, but cost the city Money. With their Special Trials to try to get the Police Department Contracted with the Sheriff Department, they were do confident that they had that Won, that they had the Sheriff Talking about it in his Address to the State of the County speech that he does every year.

But no, they don't deserve a thing for what they have done. Cost the city in the price of specialists used to fight the Court battles that didn't even need to take place that were against the Police Union and their own Constituents that Voted them into office. That were all fighting to keep the Police Station the way that it is, since they know how to fight the crime in this City better then Any Sheriff that has the Responsibility over the whole county!!

They now have done that and done nothing to get any development started on the new Easton Ave. That is a winding road in the mist of nothing with dirt and weeds on either side with no businesses, that could have and should be stared to be built. NO. there is no foresight to get this done!!

They deserve nothing!

BSRanch

Rialto council to vote on raises

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched:11/20/2006 11:13:52 PM PST

RIALTO - Future City Council members could be in store for a pay raise, if the council agrees to it tonight.

The pay hike would increase council members' pay from $715 a month to $1,001. The mayor makes 2 & 1/2 times more.

The rate could apply to the two recently elected members of the council if the second reading of the ordinance takes place between Nov. 26 and Dec. 5. Otherwise, it would apply only to new members and those re-elected after the next election in 2008.

To keep high-quality individuals willing to serve on the council, Councilman Ed Scott said it is reasonable to ask for the increase.

Scott said he spends between 30 and 40 hours a week on city business. And, he said, he and his colleagues recently lost their $600-a-month car allowance.

Scott said he hopes the other council members will support holding a meeting before Dec. 5 so that the increase will be in effect for the recently elected members - incumbent Deborah Robertson and Joe Baca Jr..

The current pay rate dates back to 1998. Under state law, the city may raise council members' pay by 5 percent a year. The increase was calculated by taking 5 percent of the current pay and multiplying that amount by eight, the number of years since the pay rate was set.

- Jason Pesick, (909) 386-3861.

West Cars Will Hit the Road in Fontana!!

BS Ranch Perspective:

I guess the adding of Toyota tot he Nascar Nextel Cup is a good change, However It will show either that the Japanese have a better understanding of Engineering when it comes to engine design and how to make a engine go faster and faster, following the guidelines of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Rules and regulations!

The addition of a Road Race back in California besides Sears Point!! is most exciting news, I would rather watch the cars turn right every now and again and not just slight right to pass an apponent!! This along with the Addition of Toyota to the race feild is really exciting news, I just hope that they also keep the oval here in California too, this brings so much Revenue to the city and the county, it is a great Family Function. We love the races!!

But most of all, If you ask me Change is always scary but a necessary thing, and sometimes it is a great thing, we will see what will happen next year when the cars warm up here in Fontana and many other cities across this Great Country of Ours! God Bless America and God Bless You!!

BS Ranch

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West cars will hit the road in Fontana

Louis Brewster, Staff Writer

Article Launched:11/15/2006 12:14:06 AM PST

FONTANA - Auto road racing, absent the past year, will return to California Speedway next year as part of the reconfigured NASCAR Grand National West Series.

The series, which has competed on the track's fast two-mile oval since the opening in 1997, will debut Aug. 11 as part of a yet unannounced doubleheader.

Last used by the Grand American Road Racing Association in 2005, the road course is a 2.8-mile, 21-turn course that utilizes the frontstretch and turn one of the oval.

Track president Gillian Zucker said the speedway "is very close to announcing a partner." Although she did not specifically mention the other series, she said it would be one "that would be exciting for Southern California race fans."

According to a NASCAR press release, the event will be held in conjunction with the Ferrari Challenge.

In past years, the West Series race was part of the NASCAR weekend that included Nextel Cup and Busch Series races. The most recent West race, sponsored by San Bernardino County, was a Friday night race in support of the Nextel Cup Sony HD 500.

Thanks to a daring three-wide pass, Mike Duncan won the Relocate Here 200 in September. However, the 100-lap race took more than two

hours to complete and was slowed considerably by seven cautions periods for 33 laps, both race records, and one red flag period.

That was enough to warrant a change from the oval to the road course.

"We've been working on it," Zucker said. "From the point of view of the number of cautions, it was not an enjoyable competition to watch. However, we wanted to give the series an opportunity to compete.

"There seemed to be some questions about whether it was in the best interest of the series to compete on the oval."

The switch to the road course will appease both sides.

"They will get the opportunity to compete on the road course at a world-class facility," Zucker said. "This will give fans an opportunity to see the drivers show off their skills."

The newly-structured Grand National will include the Busch East Series and the West Series and each division will have 13 races for developmental drivers, with the top drivers invited to the annual Toyota Showdown.

DNA Links Oiler to Two Fires!! Authorities tie Esperanza suspect to device used to ignite blazes

BS Ranch Perspective:

Now we are getting somewhere! They have got Oiler on two fires and they possibly will not have any trouble tying him into the Esperanza fire. When they first came out it was like they had only very weak circumstantial evidence, and they really never mentioned that it was strong, or anything. they just hymned and hawed around that subject and only would say that they got their man. I working in Law Enforcement for just over 18 years, became skeptical over the evidence that they did have, but seeing now that they were working under the assumption that the evidence that they got for the two previous fires if it panned out that it was good that they likely had their guy. That is why when they got the DNA Evidence they Released it right away, to make their case stronger.

It made me a skeptic also when the family, Neighbors, and his Boss at his Job came out in support of him, but Now I have to say that he more them likely is the Esperanza Fire Bug and that Bug needs to be Squashed or exterminated in some way, either by Toxic Chemicals like all the other bugs, or by Legal Injection, Electricity, or just a swift, Jail House beating when the Guards, are moving him from one area to another and one of the prisoners wants to be a hero, like the ones that killed Jeffrey Dahlmer in the Prison Beating that he got for all his Ruthless murders, and survival tools, but you cannot say that Ol' Dahlmer was one to leave his kill, he was killing to survive in the wold of hate, so he hunted the one people that he hated the most and he ate them to make their soul part of his soul!! Sick very sick individual. that Jeffrey Dahlmer.

Now that I am totally off subject, I am sure that when Oiler started that fire he didn't intend anyone to get hurt, he intended to get his wild Willey out and wiggle it around for a little bit and then watch the life of the fire take off!! Because that is what they do, they look to the fire as a life or entity that they gave life to, and the firefighter are the ones that have to kill it. They do a good job for the most part, but to now be a five time killer out of what was once just an afternoon hobby? Wow, I wonder who is sicker Oiler or Dahlmer? I would have to say that in some ways very similar that they are a tie in many ways a tie.

Die Oiler Die, for the families of the Esperanza Fire you should Die!! or live in a 4'X4'X4' cell with one hour for exercise, and that is all, This includes Two meals of bread, a multivitamin and water!! Oh! and plenty of rope to hang around with!!!

BS Ranch

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DNA links Oyler to two fires

Authorities tie Esperanza suspect to device used to ignite blazes

Jeff Horwitz, Staff Writer

Article Launched:11/15/2006 12:00:00 AM PST

DNA evidence ties the man suspected of starting the fatal Esperanza Fire to two other recent fires, according to an arson investigator's affidavit filed in Riverside Superior Court.

The devices used to start the two prior blazes - six or seven matches bound by a rubber band to a cigarette fuse - are also "similar" to the one found where the Esperanza Fire began, investigator Matthew Gilbert of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection stated in court documents.

The earlier fires were ignited June 9 and June 10 on the Morongo Indian Reservation, according to Gilbert. In both cases, he wrote, he discovered incendiary devices where the fires began and ruled out the possibility that the blazes had a natural or accidental origin.

After being processed at a Riverside laboratory of the Department of Justice, the affidavit stated, the devices produced matching DNA samples.

Those, in turn, matched a DNA swab that suspect Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, provided to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department before his arrest, Gilbert wrote.

Oyler has pleaded not guilty to murder and arson charges stemming from the Esperanza Fire, as well as arson charges in 10 other cases. On Tuesday, his

lawyer could not be reached for comment.

But as of the affidavit's filing on Oct. 31, no DNA results had yet been obtained from evidence recovered from the Esperanza Fire, the document says.

Ingrid Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, would not address questions about the contents of Gilbert's affidavit or the results of the DNA testing on the device found at the Esperanza Fire.

"That's not our document," she said. "We're not releasing any other information."

Although she declined to speak of the role that DNA evidence might play in the case, she said her agency had plenty of proof that Oyler is guilty.

"More than 30 people from different agencies met and reviewed this case and came to the same conclusion that we have the correct person behind bars," she said. "There's no question in our mind that this is the man who committed the crime."

Deborah Robertson Wins Big Announces Run for Rialto Mayor in 2008??

BS Ranch Perspective:

Well isn't this some kind of news, this woman along with Edward Scott and "Joe" Sampson, and Winnie Hanson all tried to Re-Develop the Police Department and give it to the County of San Bernardino. They wanted to allow Sheriff Penrod to try to solve the crime problems when the primary responsibility of the Sheriff is to maintain the Jail and Prisoners of the County!! They are also responsible to look for violent criminals as their second responsibility!

Deborah Robertson only came to her senses after the public had spoken. There was a massive Signature drive for a new Law that stated that the City council no longer had the sole power and decision to take the beloved Police Department of the city of Rialto and Change it without a Vote of the People of Rialto. The People of Rialto would have to vote over 50% that they would want the Sheriff Department to come in and be the law enforcer for the city.

If that Rialto City Council (Made up of Deborah Robertson: Y, Ed Scott: Y, Joe Sampson: Y, Winnie Hanson: Y, and Mayor Grace Vargas: N) had voted to go with a Law Enforcement Agency that does have it's own SWAT team that is Nationally Recognised and is a good team, they have the largest Law Enforcement Air Force in the USA with 3-5 Helicopters, 4-7 fixed wing plans of various sizes, they have the crime lab, Coroners Office, with Forensics. the Sheriff Department did away with the K-9 Division when Penrod became Sheriff or just before. Their Homicide Division is a centralized Division and responds to the Homicides that occur all over the county, and they work out of the Central Patrol Offices or the main Sheriff's Headquarters. They don't have such a great clearance record, only a 67% when the Rialto Detectives that they are trading with has a clearance rate on homicides of over 89% somewhere in that area. I am not positive on the clearance statistic for the Homicide for the Detectives of Rialto, but I do know that it is about a 25% better clearance record then the Sheriff's Department in the same area. Even the Burglaries and shootings our Detectives even though they are so much more short handed then the Sheriff Department is with all the resources that they have, Rialto does a better job then the Sheriff Department does in all aspects of the Job of keeping the Streets safer for the Citizens of Rialto.

You have to understand that this is the Safety of the people that live and work in Rialto that we are talking about here. The people that drive through, the people that Work 8-10 hours a day in Rialto and spend a majority of their time here because they work at the Warehouse such as the Toys~R~Us Warehouse or the new Target Western Distribution Center, in the North end of the city!! they have a right to be safe at work. not to mention the 90,000. to 100, 000.00 people that need to know that their City Council is looking out for their Best interest, By Making the Votes and Decisions that will make the place that they live safer and more economical to live, not more expensive and more crime riddled!!

That is just what Deborah Robinson was doing teaming up with Ed Scott, Winnie Hanson, and Joe Sampson, I am just happy now that Grace has some help on the council when Joe Baca Jr. takes over to help her. He will be an asset to the people of Rialto, he will look out to what is best for the city of Rialto I hope he will, Knowing his father like I do, I hope that he will continue to fight for the good and the better of the people of rialto. It really meant a lot to me, and a lot of people that Joe Baca Jr. stood with his father and argued for the Police Department to stay when we were down but not completely out.

I also want to Thank Owens!! The city Attorney for being such a great Strategical Genius by LOOSING EVERY COURT BATTLE AGAINST THE, (How did Mr. Owens put it?) LAWYER FROM RIVERSIDE THAT DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE VOTER LAWS IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. But when in Court!! OWENS LOST EVERY TIME!!! THANK YOU MR OWENS!!

PLEASE IF YOU ARE SMART, I KNOW YOU ARE!! YOU WILL THINK TWICE ABOUT VOTING FOR HER FOR MAYOR, BECAUSE OF HER POOR DECISIONS SURROUNDING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE POLICE, AND SAFETY OF THE CITY!!

Because of the ugliness of this battle that was done between the Police and City Council, and City Administration. The City Administrator found it necessary to bring in the Fire Department's Union to fight the Police Departments Union in fighting for their vary existence. This battle has left a Scar so deep in the city that they are no longer getting along with each other. They handle calls with each other and that is about it, other then that they are just cold and not talking to each other. I worked hard to make friends across the street and this is all cold and thrown away. There are some very good men to know and get to know and be friends with on the Fire Department, Knowing this is hard to be in this battle with my Police Brothers. but I'm in it because I am a loyal soldier. This SCAR, and hate, and insults is all caused by the city council and their fight to rid the City of the Police Department, and pulling the Fire Departments Union in to fight with them. They made certain Promises to the Fire Department I know the City Administrator did Garcia is good at that. HE promised if the Utility Tax was to pass, and the RPBA (Rialto Police Benefit Association) was to help, they would give us the Retirement package that we were asking for. the 3% @50 Retirement package, all but 2 other agencies have this retirement package. Even the Smaller City Colton has the 3% @50 Retirement and Rialto Police still does not. Upland and San Bernardino City doesn't as well.

San Bernardino City has a modified Retirement plan that is 3% @ 55 Rather then at 50, and this contract year they are asking the city to change to the 3% at 50 instead of what they have. If they get it then Upland and Rialto are the only two cities. Rialto and Upland become the training cities with a lot of turn over for the rest of the cities in the area, what that means is that they would pay to train someone to be a great police officer and they would leave as soon as they get their probationary period over with, to get that 3% at 50 Retirement package, rather than stick around and hope to get it with the Department that they are at. They will go to a department that has it and they will do it, this happens over and over and over. Rialto was a training city when I started and since My accident in 1997, I would say that approximately 90% of the Department has left/ Passed away/ or Retired due to injuries caused on duty!

BS Ranch

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Deborah Robinson Wins Big Announces Run for Rialto Mayor in 2008

Tuesday, 14 November 2006

RIALTO By Cheryl Brown Election Night Winners: School Board member Joanne Gilbert, Assemblymember Wilmer Carter and City Councilwoman Deborah Robertson. Deborah Robertson handily won re-election for one of two seats on the Rialto City Council. Incumbent Joe Sampson lost his re-election bid to former Assemblymember Joe Baca Jr. who lost his bid as the Democratic nominee for State Senate in June. Robertson announced, "I am running for the Mayor of Rialto in '08." She said that the city of Rialto residents are owed a better community. "The city is moving in the right direction. I will be working on my platform. Projects we will see in a couple of years will bring a significant amount of mixed use development. It will bring significant amenities for our middle income lifestyle," she said. Joanne Gilbert won by a big margin one of two seats in the Rialto Unified School District. She will be joined by John R. Kazalunas who beat Corey Jackson out by less than three percentage points.

Bush Says U.S. Pullout Would Cause Radicals to Use Oil As Weapon

Bush says U.S Pullout Would Let Iraq Radicals Use Oil As Weapon! (Washington Post 110506)

BS Ranch Perspective:

With our use of oil and the ties that we have on it, Iraq is one of the richest if not the richest country when it comes to the oil that we use to make the Diesel and Gas to burn in our cars and Lawn mowers and the like. I Believe that Bush might have a point. That they would price Oil to the USA at a price that would kick our Economy so high that we would really grow to understand what Inflation is all about. We would also increasingly realize the benefit of the Tax Cuts, because they would be taken away from us. the Government that gives you the protection to be free in your city, and the like will increase the Taxes just to cover the price of Patrol, and Fire Calls.

Bush could be very right in this instance and I think that we started something that we need to finish and finish Hard and Strong!! Then let them get on with their free Election and hopefully we can leave an Embassy over there with some diplomats to work as a go between to keep relations in a good order, and set up conferences between the country leaders every now and again.

BS Ranch

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Bush Says U.S. Pullout Would Let Iraq Radicals Use Oil as a Weapon

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 5, 2006; A06

GREELEY, Colo., Nov. 4 -- During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush and his aides sternly dismissed suggestions that the war was all about oil. "Nonsense," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared. "This is not about that," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Now, more than 3 1/2 years later, someone else is asserting that the war is about oil -- President Bush.

As he barnstorms across the country campaigning for Republican candidates in Tuesday's elections, Bush has been citing oil as a reason to stay in Iraq. If the United States pulled its troops out prematurely and surrendered the country to insurgents, he warns audiences, it would effectively hand over Iraq's considerable petroleum reserves to terrorists who would use it as a weapon against other countries.

"You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources," he said at a rally here Saturday for Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.). "And then you can imagine them saying, 'We're going to pull a bunch of oil off the market to run your price of oil up unless you do the following. And the following would be along the lines of, well, 'Retreat and let us continue to expand our dark vision.' "

Bush said extremists controlling Iraq "would use energy as economic blackmail" and try to pressure the United States to abandon its alliance with Israel. At a stop in Missouri on Friday, he suggested that such radicals would be "able to pull millions of barrels of oil off the market, driving the price up to $300 or $400 a barrel."

Oil is not the only reason Bush offers for staying in Iraq, but his comments on the stump represent another striking evolution of his argument on behalf of the war. The slogan of "no blood for oil" became a rallying cry for antiwar activists prior to the March 2003 invasion and angered administration officials. "There are certain things like that, myths, that are floating around," Rumsfeld told Steve Kroft of CBS Radio in November 2002. "It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Saturday that Bush's latest argument does not reflect a real shift. "We're still not saying we went into Iraq for oil. That's not true," he said. "But there is the realistic strategic concern that if a country with such enormous oil reserves and the corresponding revenues you can derive from that is controlled by essentially a terrorist organization, it could be destabilizing for the region."

Some analysts, however, said that Bush is exaggerating the impact of Iraq's oil production on world markets. Iraq has more than 112 billion barrels of oil, the second-largest proven reserves in the world. But it currently pumps just 2.3 million barrels per day and exports 1.6 million of that, according to the State Department's tracking report on the country, still short of what it produced before the invasion.

That represents a fraction of the 85 million barrels produced around the world each day and less than the surplus capacity of Saudi Arabia and other Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, meaning in a crisis they could ramp up their wells to make up for the shortfall, analysts said. The United States also has 688 million barrels of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, enough to counter a disruption of Iraqi oil for 14 months.

Even if Iraq did not sell oil to the United States, it would not matter as long as it sold it to someone because the international market is fungible and what counts is the overall supply and overall demand, according to analysts. If Iraq cut off exports altogether, it still would not have the dire effect on the world market that Bush predicts, they said. The price of oil began rising dramatically in 2002 as the confrontation with Iraq loomed, but many factors contributed, including increasing demand by China and problems in Nigeria, Venezuela and elsewhere.

The world, in fact, has already seen what would happen if Iraqi oil were cut off entirely, as Bush suggests radicals might do. Iraq effectively stopped pumping oil altogether in the months immediately after the invasion. And yet the price of oil has never topped $80, much less come anywhere near the $300 or $400 a barrel Bush cited as a possible consequence of a radical Iraqi regime withholding the country's oil.

"They're a minor exporter," said Edward Morse, managing director and chief energy economist at Lehman Brothers. "They have potential to be a greater exporter. But it's ludicrous to suggest someone could hold the world hostage by withholding oil from the market, especially a regime that needs money."

Disruptions of oil supplies certainly affect the markets, but not as drastically as Bush suggested, Morse said. He noted that Venezuela's capacity has fallen by 1 million barrels a day since President Hugo Chavez came to power there and yet it has not given him any geopolitical leverage over the United States even though he is an avowed Bush foe. But Morse agreed that Iran, for example, could "play mischief" because it already effectively controls much of Iraqi oil in the southern part of the country.

Fratto, the White House spokesman, argued that even if radicals could not move the markets dramatically with Iraqi oil, they would use the country as a base to topple other governments in the Middle East such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which would give them "a lot more oil to blackmail with."

Rumsfeld had to pay for the Failed Iraq War Policy

BS Ranch Perspective:

I don't think that it was Rumsfeld or Bush or anyone in the Republican Party that caused the Failed Election for the Republicans on the last Election!! It was bound to happen since the Press has been reporting nothing but negative about anything that they do, anything that The Bush Administration has tried to accomplish that was a good thing was presented in the press and on many of the News Magazine shows as a Negative Scary thing that was about to happen to the American Public. When the talks were turned to the subject of the Border and Mexico, Then the President feels Honestly, I believe that he wants to do the Amnesty issue!! However once he mentioned that he was going to do it or run a bill through for Amnesty there was an surge of Illegal Immigrants scattering across the border, and they don't even care about the Border Patrol, because they know that even though they have guns they are not really allowed to use them, and will not use them right away, there for the Border Patrol is shot at many times and the Government, OUR GOVERNMENT Hides this fact that this happens for fear that this could be miss understood as a call to arms or war in some way with the Mexican Government, when it is really Drug Running or the passage of Bodies or Mules that are passing the people across the boarder and into the US with no way to defend themselves other then a rock that might be laying on the ground. The whole situation is out of hand!!

President's don't have all the answers and I hate it when they stand there and state that they do!! The only one that really made me feel confident that there was going to be sunshine the next day was none other then President Reagen. Most Democrats believe that it was Clinton that gave that to them, but today it is the Republican Party that just lost their power, not because of this war, but because they have fallen away from their own principals. they don't want to lower taxes anymore. they don't want to stop that spending. man threat spending is way way out of hand.

I hope that they get a hand on the purse strings and hold them tight, because we are going bankrupt, with the spending that we have promised this next budget year.

BS Ranch


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Rumsfeld had to pay for failed Iraq war policy

Article Launched:11/13/2006 12:00:00 AM PST

One can - and indeed, many did - make the case that the time for President George W. Bush to dump Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was long ago. But Bush stubbornly ignored public concerns about the conduct of the war in Iraq, and ended up paying for it with a seismic political defeat in Tuesday's elections.

And Rumsfeld is paying for that same defeat with his job. Which is fitting and appropriate.

The midterm elections made it clear that Americans want accountability in government. Bush seems to have finally heard that message. Rather than continuing to "stay the course," he has removed the architect of America's failed Iraq strategy, and signaled that a new plan is needed.

This is good news. Rumsfeld, despite his impressive resume and remarkable steadfastness, has stumbled too many times to continue on in his position.

He misread how Iraqis would respond to the invasion. He underestimated the number of troops needed to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, and failed to provide them with adequate armor. He didn't anticipate the looting that followed liberation. And the prisoner abuses took place under his watch.

No one expects clairvoyance of political or military leaders, and no war has been

without mistakes. But the number and magnitude of mistakes in Iraq cry out for a change. Our troops deserve to know that, if nothing else, we learn from our setbacks and modify our approach accordingly.

They also deserve leaders who set politics aside and work together. Bush must stop trying to deflect criticism, and Democrats can no longer merely carp from the sidelines.

Rumsfeld's resignation and Bush's stated intent to find common ground with congressional Democrats are positive signs that a new era of cooperation may be at hand. Just maybe our politicians are at last more interested in winning the war than in defeating one another.

One of democracy's greatest virtues is that it's self-correcting. We can only hope that a much-needed correction in Iraq has begun.

Retail, Residental Project to be presented to Rialto City Residents.

BS Ranch Perspective:

Wow, this is a wonderful Idea!! Actually if they can get the monies and the developers to get involved that quickly sounds like they already have this underway. IT is weird that they didn't seek comment from "The Mouth" of the City Council "Ed Scott" on this matter, I suppose he said that he was abstaining from this decision making all the way because it was within a 500 foot area from his business, and he doesn't want to make anyone think that he has any input.

However Having said all the good stuff, there is no law that states that he cannot be behind closed doors pulling all the strings for his puppet's to work for him, I am not talking about the newly elected Baca, but Hanson, and Robertson. Flores Jr. Is well respected not only by the paper obviously but by this writer too!! I know Joe pretty well and He is a good Stand up guy, really one that you would want in your corner.

I do have to say that this over all is a great Idea, especially if it grabs the look of the old City Hall, Fire Station One, Police Station that was located where that park is located today! May it go forth and be built and make the downtown a better place for the Run~Whatcha~ Brung, and maybe we can make it more than a one day event, and it can be moved to a three day event again. It will be interesting to see..

BS Ranch

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Retail, residential project to be presented to residents

12:35 AM PST on Wednesday, November 15, 2006

By MASSIEL LADRÓN DE GUEVARA
The Press-Enterprise

Rialto officials not only want people to shop in the city's downtown area, they want them to live there, too.

Special to The Press-Enterprise A $26 million mixed-use development project in downtown Rialto that would include low-income senior housing units, retail space, a community center and underground parking will be presented to business owners and area residents Thursday.

Plans for a $26 million mixed-use development project are being presented to business owners and residents in the vicinity of Rialto and Riverside avenues Thursday in an effort to get feedback and keep people informed of the city's plans, said John Dutrey, Rialto housing program manager.

The city is looking at building 117 low-income senior housing units, 5,222 square feet of retail space, a 3,700-square-foot community center and 148 underground parking spaces at Rialto and Riverside avenues, he said.

Funding for the proposed Crossroads Project will come from federal tax credits, private sources and the redevelopment agency, he said.

Property owners and merchants are invited to attend a meeting at Rialto City Hall, where they will be encouraged to offer opinions and ask questions before the project proceeds, Dutrey said.

"We think the future of mixed-use development will become more of a reality in the downtown area because of the surrounding retail and the proximity to the Metrolink station," Dutrey said.

The Crossroads Project would be the first mixed-use project in Rialto, said Robb Steel, the city's economic development director said.

City officials hope to bring in several more mixed-use projects, he said.

"I think it will create for the downtown a 24-hour activity center and it will be a signature building on a major corner," Steel said.

The city is negotiating with the owners of a vacant church, a single-family residence and a dog grooming business to acquire their land for the project, Steel said.

The properties were appraised and offers have been made to each owner, he said.

There has been no negative response and it probably will be a matter of reaching the best price for each property, Steel said.

Once negotiations are completed, it will take six months to a year to get permits for the project, said Rod MacDonald, partner with KDF Communities, the proposed developer of the Crossroads Project.

Construction time should about 13 months, he said.

The building's design will have some elements similar to the former Rialto City Hall, which occupied the corner of Riverside and Rialto avenues.

"There has been a movement recently in Southern California to recapture the main street, and this is a good example of that," MacDonald said.

The movement gives cities more viable downtowns and provides entertainment close to home, in some cases within walking distance, for residents he said.

Joe Flores Jr., who owns an upholstery supply store on Riverside Avenue, said he thinks the project is a good idea.

"If everything works out the way they say it's going to work out, it will be an asset," Flores said.

"Anytime you can increase retail space in the downtown and bring people in too, it's a win-win situation," he said.

Reach Massiel Ladrón De Guevara at 909-806-3054 or mdeguevara@PE.com

Michael Moore, Oliver Stone's help Sought by Terrorist Group...

BS Ranch Perspective:

I knew that they were working for the Terrorist's. or it was sooner or later that the Terrorist would come to the Political party that is continually coming to the aid of the Terrorists, and their cause. IT seems like more and more that the party from the left has been fighting and fighting to get in the way of fighting the war and, well they come across as if the body count in Iraq has been that of the Vietnamese War, but if you would recall right there was about as many a day dieing there as there is dead so far in this war!! I know that we don't have a draft, it is a Volunteer Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Well, we seemed to have enough they have only started rumors and that was discovered to have been started by people on the Left, to create fear of the Right!! But There are two parties, the party of the right and the party of the wrong, not the Left, but the Wrong.

They are wrong and in the long run when they pull our of Iraq and they feel great about it, and the next tallest building in the US. is burning and on the ground with another 3-4 thousand dead, that we will be back to war, and back to Iraq possibly to finish the democracy that was started!!

BS Ranch

Michael Moore, Oliver Stone's Help Sought by Terrorist Group

Colombia's largest rebel group wants a deal with the government on exchanging imprisoned guerrillas for rebel-held hostages.

Guess who the group wants to act as intermediaries?

The negotiators of choice for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC, are some high profile Hollywood celebrities.

Listed by the U.S. government as a "foreign terrorist organization," the FARC is presently holding some 60 hostages, including three defense contractors, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, politicians, and military officers.

The FARC says it will only release the hostages in exchange for nearly 600 imprisoned rebels.

In a letter, the FARC called on Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, and Denzel Washington to help put together a hostage swap.

In addition to the aforementioned Tinseltown notables, the letter was also addressed to well-known leftists Noam Chomsky, James Petras, Angela Davis, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Earps, Clantons Share County Ties. (SB Sun 11142006)

BS Ranch Perspective:

It is hard to imagine that they didn't come into some kind of contact back then and not known who each other were, since it was not as populated as it is today, in the Redlands, Colton, Temescal Canyon area's. See, they would have come together at the big parties that were held for the crops that were brought in, and they would have been in competition for the same girls in the area, that leads me to believe that they might have had some kind of knowledge of who each other were, and they may not have liked each other, because of this prior relationship or knowledge of each other! That might have also fed into the battle at the OK Corral, that day!!

BS Ranch

Earps, Clantons share county ties

Nicholas R. Cataldo, Correspondent

Article Launched:11/14/2006 12:00:00 AM PST

During my visits to Tombstone - most recently a couple of weeks ago during the 125th anniversary of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - I've become increasingly aware of how much in common that famous Arizona silver mining town had with San Bernardino County.

Tombstone, notorious for its rowdy, mining- camp reputation during its heyday, had such honky-tonk establishments as the Bird Cage Theater, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental Saloon. The town of San Bernardino, a supply center for the gold mining ventures at Holcomb Valley during the 1860s, was noted during the same time period for its Whiskey Point at Third and D Streets - so named for hosting saloons at each corner.

While Tombstone, with its thriving Chinatown, was infamously remembered for its prostitution district, San Bernardino's red-light district on D Street just below the city limits was pretty darn notorious, too.

San Bernardino also had a flourishing Chinatown along Third Street between Arrowhead Avenue and Sierra Way.

Tombstone was best known for its tough reputation with outlaws such as the Clantons, the McLaurys, Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius.

To protect the town's citizens, there were such well-known names as

Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Luke Short and, of course, the Earp boys.

San Bernardino also had its outlaw element - Hell Roaring Johnson, the Mason-Henry Gang, the Button Gang, and the El Monte Boys. Its townsfolk were protected by men like Ben Mathews, Rube Herring, John Ralphs - and, for a short time, the Earp boys.

San Bernardino County's unique bond with Tombstone gets even more interesting.

Richard Gird teamed up with the Schieffellin brothers in 1878 to lay the foundation of Tombstone. Several years later, he moved to San Bernardino County and helped put the city of Chino on the map.

Indian agent John P. Clum, who became mayor of the famed "Town Too Tough to Die" as well as the first editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, eventually moved on to the city of San Bernardino in 1886, where he busily engaged in the real- estate and insurance business.

The Frinks were prominent early San Bernardino Valley residents. George Frink later became a stage-coach driver in and around Tombstone.

There was even a San Bernardino Ranch in southeastern Arizona.

The most interesting twist of all is that the Earps and the Clantons may have known each other long before the two names would become immortalized together in history at the O.K. Corral.

Upon arriving in San Bernardino after a seven-month-long wagon trek from the Midwest in December 1864, Nick Earp and his family (including 16-year-old Wyatt) rented a farm from a rancher named Carpenter a short distance from the Santa Ana River in what is now part of Redlands. They were to roost there for the next three years.

Meanwhile, Newman "Old Man" Clanton and his crew moved around Southern California. According to the memoirs of San Bernardino Valley pioneer William Frink, the Clantons settled in for a spell as tenant farmers in nearby San Timoteo Canyon sometime between 1865 and 1867.

Frink recalled that brother George attended San Timoteo School with one of the Clantons and ended up driving stages between Tombstone and Benson. Therefore, if the information is accurate, he knew the Clantons from both San Bernardino and Tombstone.

In Billy Breakenridge's autobiography "Helldorado", a "Mr. Frink" helped a posse, which included Wyatt and Virgil Earp, chase Apaches in 1881 just before the celebrated shoot-out. If it can be assumed here that George Frink was the "Mr. Frink," then he knew the Earps well too.

To my knowledge, there is still no proof that any of the Earps and Clantons ever actually met during their San Bernardino days. However, since there weren't a whole lot of people living in that part of the valley (there was no Redlands back then) and both clans were farming in close proximity, it is quite possible that some of the families' members crossed paths at one time or another.

Who knows? They all may have been friends at one time. Or just perhaps a longtime family feud reached the boiling point early in the afternoon of Oct. 26, 1881, when gunshots rang out in the vicinity of Third and Fremont streets in Tombstone.

Nicholas R. Cataldo is a local historian. Readers can write to him at The Sun, 2239 Gannett Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407, or via e-mail at yankeenut@excite.com.

Earps, Clantons Share County Ties. San Bernardino that is...(SB Sun)

Earps, Clantons share county ties

Nicholas R. Cataldo, Correspondent

Article Launched:11/14/2006 12:00:00 AM PST

During my visits to Tombstone - most recently a couple of weeks ago during the 125th anniversary of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - I've become increasingly aware of how much in common that famous Arizona silver mining town had with San Bernardino County.

Tombstone, notorious for its rowdy, mining- camp reputation during its heyday, had such honky-tonk establishments as the Bird Cage Theater, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental Saloon. The town of San Bernardino, a supply center for the gold mining ventures at Holcomb Valley during the 1860s, was noted during the same time period for its Whiskey Point at Third and D Streets - so named for hosting saloons at each corner.

While Tombstone, with its thriving Chinatown, was infamously remembered for its prostitution district, San Bernardino's red-light district on D Street just below the city limits was pretty darn notorious, too.

San Bernardino also had a flourishing Chinatown along Third Street between Arrowhead Avenue and Sierra Way.

Tombstone was best known for its tough reputation with outlaws such as the Clantons, the McLaurys, Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius.

To protect the town's citizens, there were such well-known names as

Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Luke Short and, of course, the Earp boys.

San Bernardino also had its outlaw element - Hell Roaring Johnson, the Mason-Henry Gang, the Button Gang, and the El Monte Boys. Its townsfolk were protected by men like Ben Mathews, Rube Herring, John Ralphs - and, for a short time, the Earp boys.

San Bernardino County's unique bond with Tombstone gets even more interesting.

Richard Gird teamed up with the Schieffellin brothers in 1878 to lay the foundation of Tombstone. Several years later, he moved to San Bernardino County and helped put the city of Chino on the map.

Indian agent John P. Clum, who became mayor of the famed "Town Too Tough to Die" as well as the first editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, eventually moved on to the city of San Bernardino in 1886, where he busily engaged in the real- estate and insurance business.

The Frinks were prominent early San Bernardino Valley residents. George Frink later became a stage-coach driver in and around Tombstone.

There was even a San Bernardino Ranch in southeastern Arizona.

The most interesting twist of all is that the Earps and the Clantons may have known each other long before the two names would become immortalized together in history at the O.K. Corral.

Upon arriving in San Bernardino after a seven-month-long wagon trek from the Midwest in December 1864, Nick Earp and his family (including 16-year-old Wyatt) rented a farm from a rancher named Carpenter a short distance from the Santa Ana River in what is now part of Redlands. They were to roost there for the next three years.

Meanwhile, Newman "Old Man" Clanton and his crew moved around Southern California. According to the memoirs of San Bernardino Valley pioneer William Frink, the Clantons settled in for a spell as tenant farmers in nearby San Timoteo Canyon sometime between 1865 and 1867.

Frink recalled that brother George attended San Timoteo School with one of the Clantons and ended up driving stages between Tombstone and Benson. Therefore, if the information is accurate, he knew the Clantons from both San Bernardino and Tombstone.

In Billy Breakenridge's autobiography "Helldorado", a "Mr. Frink" helped a posse, which included Wyatt and Virgil Earp, chase Apaches in 1881 just before the celebrated shoot-out. If it can be assumed here that George Frink was the "Mr. Frink," then he knew the Earps well too.

To my knowledge, there is still no proof that any of the Earps and Clantons ever actually met during their San Bernardino days. However, since there weren't a whole lot of people living in that part of the valley (there was no Redlands back then) and both clans were farming in close proximity, it is quite possible that some of the families' members crossed paths at one time or another.

Who knows? They all may have been friends at one time. Or just perhaps a longtime family feud reached the boiling point early in the afternoon of Oct. 26, 1881, when gunshots rang out in the vicinity of Third and Fremont streets in Tombstone.

Nicholas R. Cataldo is a local historian. Readers can write to him at The Sun, 2239 Gannett Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407, or via e-mail at yankeenut@excite.com.

Hospitals Lobbying for Illegal alien Patients...Hospitals assail

Hospitals Lobbying for Illegal Alien Patients

Tuesday 14 November 2006

Imagine, local hospitals prefer to treat illegal aliens, than the citizens that pay the bills? It is true. The Federal government has made it clear, citizens get regular treatment, illegal aliens don’t, at taxpayer expense. Otherwise, hospitals become a magnet to bring more illegal aliens into this nation. California hospitals need to set up clinics in Mexico, if they want to help the health care of Mexican citizens, instead of bringing them to Rialto to be cared for. It is time we enforce our laws, and maybe honest citizens will be able to get the health care and education they pay for. What do you think? Is it appropriate that normal care, not emergency care, be paid for by our taxpayers? Write your thoughts directly on the web site for all to see and discuss.

Hospitals assail denying health insurance to kids

Nikki Cobb, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun 11/14/06

Babies born to illegal-immigrant parents will no longer automatically be enrolled in MediCal under a new federal policy, alarming local hospitals and public-health advocates.

Hospital officials are decrying the new policy, announced late last week. They say it places even more of a burden on hospitals already struggling to care for the uninsured. They’re waiting to see what the state policy says when Sacramento officials finish it.

"All it means for hospitals is that we will have more uncompensated care," said Jaynie Boren, spokeswoman for San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland. "We don’t turn anybody away, so this overall affects the system while adding more uncompensated care."

Hospitals by law must treat anyone who walks through their doors - regardless of insurance or ability to pay. Officials say youngsters without insurance will receive fewer vaccines and preventive care, and so will end up in the emergency room, where care is more costly.

Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California, said California hospitals already provide $4 billion in uncompensated care each year. The federal government, which mandates the provision of care to all, has not been much help, he said, having given California’s hospitals $71 million in 2005.

Tobey Robertson, spokeswoman for Community Hospital of San Bernardino, called the current situation "a crisis" and said she fears the new policy will make things even worse.

"This just adds to the ranks of the uninsured," Robertson said. "It’s certain that the more people who are uninsured, the more the hospital is hurt."

Lott said the federal government is imposing onerous requirements on hospitals without helping to pay for them.

"This is the same government that also requires hospitals to provide emergency care to anyone regardless of immigration or legal status," Lott said. "They’re dealing with one problem while creating another."

He said emergency-room care for an acute or chronic problem costs four to five times as much as if the patient had been treated sooner in a doctor’s office.

Sherreta Lane, vice president of reimbursement and economic analysis for the California Hospital Association, said parents can still apply for MediCal, after proving the child’s citizenship.

But parents in the country illegally may be reluctant to deal with the government, Lane said. And when they do, the paperwork is an extra administrative hurdle, she said. It carries costs every step of the way.

"It’s ridiculous," Lane said. "It’s really onerous. It’s tough on the state, tough on the counties, and especially tough on the beneficiaries."

Lott said the federal government can decide if it wants to discourage illegal immigration, but he doesn’t like having hospitals shoulder the burden of caring for sick children without being compensated.

"The federal government wants to provide fewer incentives to illegal immigration, it would appear, by taking away this entitlement," Lott said.

That’s Armando Navarro’s take on the issue, too. The UC Riverside professor and coordinator for the National Alliance for Human Rights said the policy is one of "hatred and bigotry."

"Here we’re talking about children, poor families who need all the help they can get," Navarro said. "The dad makes $12 to $14 if he’s lucky, the mom $8 or $9. They’re barely able to pay the rent. And we’re going to punish the children?"

Julie Carrington, shopping at Wal-Mart recently, said she opposes illegal immigration but thinks leaving children without health insurance is the wrong approach.

"They’re citizens (when born in the U.S.). They should have health care," Smith said. "Why should the children suffer?"

Officials of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not return calls seeking comment.

New Council Could Pressure Mayor (Press Enterprise 110806) Morris

BS Ranch Perspective:
The BS Ranch Believes that the enthusiasm and the drive that the Mayor has will bring the new City Council Members along just fine, they will agree with what he is trying to propose, and he is one to sit down and take notes to another way or a better way perhaps of getting the same thing done with less money or more of a streamline approach, so the new blood on the council might be a welcome sigh to such a progressive mayor!! I am looking forward to see what happens with the different battles in the City of San Bernardino to see if they can show the rest of the County how to work and get things done here, for the better of the whole County. Not just for San Bernardino, but the Neighboring city that really needs some help! 

RIALTO of coarse is one that needs the help to look progressively forward. they have all that unbuilt real estate that is waiting for commercial property to be developed upon it and they are doing nothing but arguing about weather the person who lost had a unfair gain in votes at the last election!! HELLO!! Baca Jr. LOST!! Now lets get back to political stuff that matters like the growth of the city!! Rialto's Easton Ave is one that is ready and willing to be developed and they are doing nothing. What are they waiting for, the freeway to bring them in, well they should have the business there when the freeway is done not the other way around. then they miss on all that business when the freeway is running and then people that are traveling the street now, will not know what is on that street when the business is finally open!! 

BSRanch   
 

New council could pressure mayor

SAN BERNARDINO: Morris gets his tax hike, but a one-seat change puts the spending plan in doubt.

10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, November 8, 2006

By CHRIS RICHARD
The Press-Enterprise

Fresh from the landslide victory of Measure Z, a tax increase to raise $5.6 million a year for public safety, San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris will soon embark on a new campaign.

This one will be aimed at wooing a City Council reformulated Tuesday by another landslide for new Councilman Tobin Brinker. Brinker's 3rd Ward victory could shift the council majority on Morris' spending plan for the new tax dollars and his vision for downtown revitalization.

On public safety, Morris argues that crime fighting depends as much on youth crime-prevention programs as it does on police.

He has also linked the city's crime woes to its tattered, partially vacant downtown. In April, Morris pushed through a $30 million bond issue aimed at transforming a blighted neighborhood into a prosperous mixed-use development.

Until he resigned at the end of July, former 3rd Ward Councilman Gordon McGinnis strongly supported both plans, anchoring a four-vote council majority.

But three council members -- Neil Derry, Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack -- voted against the bond and questioned the youth programs.

As a candidate, Brinker also voiced skepticism. Derry, Kelley and McCammack all endorsed him.

On Wednesday, Morris said he and the new councilman, who takes office Dec. 4, can collaborate.

"(Brinker) is an intelligent man with a policy interest and background," Morris said. "He's made it very clear to me that he desires to work with me on all issues. My sense is that he's willing to listen."

Brinker noted that he has only been elected to serve the last year of McGinnis' current term, and will need to show results before the November 2007 election.

He said he is not necessarily opposed to youth programs but wants to make sure police officers are hired first.

McCammack said she expects political pressure to fund programs such as a police activities league, and she's inclined to do it. But she, too, said a community-based policing program comes first.

"Philosophically, it's difficult to vote against some of the youth programs, because they're a good thing," she said. "But, fiscally, it would be irresponsible unless you've nailed down the crime suppression first, and we haven't done that yet."

As for downtown development, Brinker said he would be inclined to support the council's previous commitments.

"But we only have so much city staff and time," he said. "If we're not focusing on bringing people where people already want to go -- the south of the city in my ward and the north -- we may be limiting our growth in those areas."

Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com

Booze, The Police and Me, Seven clinic minded volunteers get free

Booze, The Police And Me

Seven Civic-minded Volunteers Get Free Drinks; Victoria Officers Get Training In Sobriety Testing

October 30, 2006 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.

BY GABE SEMENZA - VICTORIA ADVOCATE

This story's about a dancing and bubbly blonde, a quiet but friendly veterinarian, a stiff and guarded deliveryman who came alive while playing cards - and a lively TV crew who had police officers in stitches.

The main ingredient in this story, though, is alcohol, and the narrator's viewpoint from this point on will frequently be distorted by it.

On a night just a couple of weeks ago, seven people drank alcohol that was served to them by police officers. But why? We'll get to that later.

DRINK ORDERS

When the cops ask us what we want to drink, a veterinarian jokes, "Cheap bourbon's good for me. I couldn't afford much as a kid."

Hard liquor is served, and a cop says, "Y'all start drinking."

I'm drinking expensive vodka, and my stomach - and arms and legs and back - immediately warm as I swallow it.

Chatter grows loud. Thirty minutes later, the second drink arrives. The veterinarian has long finished his first drink, and he complains that his could be stronger.

After a few minutes, a man leaves to smoke. He's bald-headed and seems rigid, but he's becoming friendlier.

I wonder for a second, since all the cups are labeled, if some of the drinks are NOT filled with alcohol - if some are placebos. What if my drink is not filled with liquor?

A man at the end of the table jokes that he's been in training for this for weeks.

A woman adds, "Oh, yeah. I've been in a triathlon."

The 20-minute Cutoff

They stop serving us alcohol for 20 minutes, after having given us two large drinks.

During the lull times, the group's energy dies a bit and people complain about not having more drinks.

Two men are escorted outside to smoke, and another is escorted into a bathroom. "Wow, this IS a controlled experiment," one jokes.

Two from the news crew try to crack the password on a police computer - and whisper funny examples of what that password might be.

In just minutes, we'll blow into our first Breathalyzer of the night.

A younger man tells me, "I was invited to do this tonight, to see at what point I'd be legally drunk. Can I beat the test? Ha! Well, I've beaten them before!"

Another says, "Well, I just felt like I was doing my civic duty."

Those at the table laugh. Everyone's face is red, and they're suddenly familiar somehow. Like we've shared drinks some other time.

"I better warn my wife," a man says, noticing that I've just typed his crass comment.

Then, everyone quiets. A police officer approaches the table to test our blood alcohol content. Everyone passes. Nobody is legally drunk. I register a .053.

happy hour

They serve us a third round of drinks, and everyone is having so much fun. I'm getting less excited about writing.

"I'm drinking alcohol that's not mine, playing poker with money that's not mine, and wearing an orange vest. It just doesn't get any better than this," a man says.

Another adds, "We need a radio, radio. Can we have some music?"

It's 7:08 p.m.

"Isn't it weird that you feel fine, but you could be illegal?" a woman asks me, after I've had three drinks. After a fourth drink, I still feel fine, but my blood alcohol is .083 - over the legal limit.

The blond woman's face is reddening, and her eyes - I think they're blue - stand out against her flushed cheeks, and for a second, she sits back in her chair, looks around, smiles, then rushes forward and shares a loud epiphany.

"Hey, guys! Think about it. Have you ever thought about what these cops have to put up with?"

The cops make us wait 20 minutes again before giving us another Breathalyzer, and I try to type, "We all want more drinks" but it comes out "we all want money drinks."

I'm starting to feel drunk, and that's not good. I'll be taking a field sobriety test soon.

The officer's concern

After a smoke break, the alcohol and tobacco in my body smack me in the face, and I feel it in my cheeks and eyes.

A cop asks me, "Are you OK?"

Why, should I not be OK? Can he tell I'm feeling drunk? What's with this guy, anyway?

I clear my throat, act professional and put my hands on the laptop's keyboard, and then look to him and ask a question for this story - as if he's part of my experiment, and not the other way around.

I type all the thoughts I can get down before taking the sobriety tests.

A woman says, "I have to go to the bathroom, and I'm going with my drink."

Wow. She's totally taking this training to the next level.

walking the line

We dread setting our drinks aside to be escorted into a nearby classroom. The room's filled with more than 20 cops. We each go through six stations and have the same sobriety tests repeatedly performed.

Walk the line. Hold your leg 6 inches off the ground and count. Look at this pen without moving your head.

"If you start feeling queasy, let me know," an officer says.

I'm drunk, and doing my best impression of a sober person. A half-hour ago, the others said I was composed. Then, in a running joke we'd used on different people throughout the night, they said they were going to vote me off the island because of my composure.

I pass all the tests, except the Breathalyzer and the one that hurt - the eye test. We were forced to follow a pen with our gaze as the pen was moved far off in one direction, then slowly in the other. My eyeballs "jumped" they say, a sure sign I'd been drinking.

I'd have been arrested had I been driving. I'm a 6-foot-2-inch, 188-pound guy and I'd had four drinks - albeit tall, stiff drinks filled with vodka.

A woman is asked to "put your hands down by your side, and take nine steps. On the ninth step, pivot and return nine steps back to the starting position."

The woman starts dancing when she's asked to walk the line. She stops at the end of that line, then stumbles, asks which way to pivot and again loses her balance. She lifts one leg 6 inches off the ground and counts to 26 - one thousand one, one thousand two - until she's told to stop.

The cops in the testing room had been taught for two days the ins and outs of giving sobriety tests, but we are their first real-life subjects.

The hope is that this will help officers know when to pluck those who drink and drive from off our streets.

My wife drives me home, and listens to my rants and hiccups until we enter our driveway. She hears this story, and then smiles. And tells me to shut up.

I'd been drinking for five hours with all the others, and for this to be "8 Hours," I had three still to go. I almost remember them.

Hiccup ... zzzzzz.

Gabe Semenza is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

God Bless America

Activists accused of violating campaign laws (daily bulletin 102706)

BS Ranch Perspective:

I attended three of the meeting regarding Voice United, and all we did was try to come up with a plan on how we were going to work on the city council and ways that we could make ourselves known and the things that the council was doing that was Wrong with the city. We just Used the Stats that were available to us, between the City of Rialto and the Sheriff's Department as Public Records and compared the two, then we made the argument at the City Council, We never collected any money, ever. At least at the three meetings that I was at there was not even the mention of money and or how or where we were going to get money to fight the city!! It was all public Volunteer as far as I knew, there was no exchanged of any Monies nor did anyone ask for any at the meetings that I attended.

BSRanch

Activists accused of violating campaign laws

By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched:10/27/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT

RIALTO - Two women who battled the city to save the Police Department have been accused of violating state campaign disclosure laws.

Their lawyer says it's retaliation by a powerful local group and an attempt to muzzle free speech in the community.

A group calling itself Citizens for a Safer Rialto and its treasurer, Rialto resident Susan Ursuy, sued Linda Chapman, 59, and Judy Roberts, 63, along with an organization called Voice United. They are credited with persuading the City Council to reverse itself and vote to keep its Police Department and not hire the sheriff to police the city.

The suit was filed March 8 in Superior Court in San Bernardino and the council changed its vote March 21.

The suit is an effort to "chill individual rights to hold elected officials accountable,"said Michael Morguess, the women's attorney.

Money for the suit came from Young Homes, a Rancho Cucamonga developer and was used to retain a high-powered Los Angeles law firm, according to campaign finance and court documents.

The lawsuit alleges that Voice United, Chapman and Roberts violated state law by raising at least $1,000 and gathering almost 6,000 signatures for a ballot initiative that would have put the department's fate before the

voters without filing campaign disclosure forms.

"My clients have filed everything they believe is necessary," Morguess said.

In court documents Morguess filed, he said Ursuy and Citizens for a Safer Rialto have not shown that his clients raised $1,000.

Voice United filed a campaign finance disclosure form at the Rialto City Clerk's office showing the group did not raise any funds or make any expenditures.

Ursuy, who said she runs a youth group for kids called the San Bernardino Valley Young Marines, said she decided to file the suit to find out the sources of Voice United's funding. She said she got involved in the controversy surrounding the fate of the Police Department to improve the city's public safety. She supported the Sheriff's Department.

Ursuy referred questions to her attorney.

Her lawyer, Dana Reed, declined to comment.

Morguess said Ursuy's attorneys, Reed and Bradley Hertz of Reed and Davidson in Los Angeles, have been unresponsive.

"I have written to Mr. Hertz and asked him point blank, Tell us what you believe our clients have not filed,"' he said. Morguess said he got no response.

He said their failure to respond "says a lot that this is an attempt really to hassle what was a grass-roots effort within the city."

It does not matter if the suit is retaliatory if a law was broken, said Terry Francke, general counsel of Californians Aware, a First Amendment organization. He said he is unfamiliar with the specifics of the case.

"If they are violating the law, then they are accountable to that violation," he said.

Citizens for a Safer Rialto received a $20,000 contribution from Young Homes immediately after state documents show it was formed in December of 2005. Earlier this year, the group spent more than $14,000 on the legal services of Reed and Davidson.

The firm lists a number of prominent clients on its Web site, including NBC Universal, Northrop Grumman Corp., Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Motion Picture Association of America, William Lyon Homes, the Building Industry Association of Southern California and the California Association of Realtors.

Greta Hodges, a lifetime resident of Rialto who supported the Police Department, said she attended some Voice United meetings.

"I think it's disgusting that somebody's trying to sue two citizens, and they seem to think we don't have a right to say anything," she said.

Contact writer Jason Pesick at (909) 386-3861 or by e-mail at jason.pesick@sbsun.com.

Saddam to HANG for SLAUGHTER of SHIITES!!! (AP Wire By Steven R Hurst

BS Ranch Perspective:

I just think that it is a great time that has come in Iraq! This termination of this case and the termination of Saddam's life will show that there is no backing up of the US this time and they are not looking back, and that if we are there long enough for both of Saddam's Son's to be Killed and now Saddam, then we are showing that we are there to play the part and get the job done. Now maybe they will start to tell on the people that are continuing to sabotage the country and the US Solders that are there trying to make peace in the city!! This is just one HUGE STEP to coming home.

I am sorry that I missed the presidents speech earlier to day, and I hope to read and catch up on it, so that I know what he said and how close I feel that the Saddam case ending is to the way that the President of the United States Feels on this matter.

BS Ranch

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Saddam to Hang for Slaughter of Shiites Nov 05 7:31 PM US/Eastern
By STEVEN R. HURST and HAMZA HENDAWI Associated Press Writers BAGHDAD, Iraq

An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced Saddam Hussein to the gallows for crimes against humanity, closing a quarter-century-old chapter of violent suppression in this land of long memories, deep grudges and sectarian slaughter.

The former Iraqi dictator and six subordinates were convicted and sentenced for the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town after an attempt on his life there.

Shiites and Kurds, who had been tormented and killed in the tens of thousands under Saddam's iron rule, erupted in celebration _ but looked ahead fearfully for a potential backlash from the Sunni insurgency that some believe could be a final shove into all-out civil war.

Saddam trembled and shouted "God is great" when the hawk-faced chief judge, Raouf Abdul-Rahman, declared the former leader guilty and sentenced him to hang.

Televised, the trial was watched throughout Iraq and the Middle East as much for theater as for substance. Saddam was ejected from the courtroom repeatedly for his political harangues, and his half-brother and co-defendant, Barzan Ibrahim, once showed up in long underwear and sat with his back to the judges.

The nine-month trial had inflamed the nation, and three defense lawyers and a witness were murdered in the course of its 39 sessions.

"Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!" Saddam cried out after the verdict, before bailiffs took his arms and walked the once all- powerful leader from the courtroom. There was a hint of a smile on Saddam's face.

With justice for Saddam's crimes done, the U.S.-backed Shiite prime minister called for reconciliation and delivered the most eloquent speech of his five months in office.

"The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime does not represent a verdict for any one person. It is a verdict on a whole dark era that was unmatched in Iraq's history," Nouri al-Maliki said.

The White House praised the Iraqi judicial system and denied the U.S. had been "scheming" to have the historic verdict announced two days before American midterm elections, widely seen as a referendum on the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.

President Bush called the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law."

"It's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," the president said.

"Today, the victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which many thought would never come," he added.

But symbolic of the split between the United States and many of its traditional allies over the Iraq war, many European nations voiced opposition to the death sentences in the case, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. A leading Italian opposition figure called on the continent to press for Saddam's sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

Lost in the drama of Sunday's death sentence was any mention of the failed search for the alleged weapons of mass destruction that Bush said led the United States to invade and occupy Iraq in March 2003.

Saddam was found hiding with an unfired pistol in a hole in the ground near his home village north of Baghdad in December 2003, eight months after he fled the capital ahead of advancing American troops.

Twenty-two months later, he went on trial for ordering the torture and murder of nearly 150 Shiites from the city of Dujail. Saddam said those who were killed had been found guilty in a legitimate Iraqi court for trying to assassinate him in 1982.

Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and intelligence chief during the Dujail killings, was sentenced to join the former leader on the gallows, as was Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents.

Iraq's former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Three defendants were given up to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder. Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid and his son, Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid, were party officials in Dujail, along with Ali Dayih Ali. They were believed responsible for the Dujail arrests.

A local Baath Party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

In the streets of Dujail, a Tigris River city of 84,000, people celebrated and burned pictures of their former tormentor as the verdict was read. In Baghdad, the Shiite bastion of Sadr City exploded in jubilation.

But in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, not far from Dujail, 1,000 people defied the curfew and carried pictures of the city's favorite son through the streets. Some declared the court a product of the U.S. "occupation forces" and condemned the verdict. Policemen wept in the streets.

"By our souls, by our blood we sacrifice for you, Saddam," the Tikrit crowds chanted.

A trial envisioned to heal Iraq's deep ethnic and sectarian wounds appeared rather to have deepened the fissures.

"This government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed," Salih al-Mutlaq, a Sunni political leader, told Al-Arabiya satellite television.

The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel, which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days.

A court official told The Associated Press that the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted. If the verdicts are upheld, those sentenced to death would be hanged despite Saddam's second, ongoing trial for allegedly murdering thousands of Iraq's Kurdish minority.

"The problem really is that this tribunal has not shown itself to be fair and impartial _ not only by international standards, but by Iraqi standards," said Sonya Sceats, an international law expert at the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in London.

Saddam's Sunni supporters, the bulk of the insurgency that has killed the vast majority of American troops in Iraq, could still explode in violence once an open-ended curfew is lifted in coming days.

But the former leader's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, told The Associated Press his client had called on Iraqis to reject violence and refrain from taking revenge on U.S. invaders.

"His message to the Iraqi people was 'Pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people,'" al-Dulaimi said.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a statement saying the verdicts "demonstrate the commitment of the Iraqi people to hold them accountable. ... closing the book on Saddam and his regime is an opportunity to unite and build a better future."

U.S. officials who advised the tribunal on standards of international justice said Saddam's repeated courtroom outbursts may have played a key part in the convictions. They cited his admission in a March 1 hearing that he had ordered the trial of the 148 Shiites, insisting that was legal because they had conspired to kill him.

"Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" Saddam asked the five-judge panel then.

Later in the same session, he argued that his co-defendants must be released and that because he was in charge, he alone must be tried. His outburst came a day after the prosecution presented a presidential decree with a signature they said was Saddam's approval for death sentences, their most direct evidence against him.

About 50 of those sentenced by the Revolutionary Court died during interrogation before they could be executed. Some of those hanged were children.

The United States has denied direct involvement in the trial, but some legal observers believe it was tainted by association with the American presence. Miranda Sissons, head of the Iraq program at the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York, said: "There will always be some doubt as to how much influence it exerted on the trial."