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We often hear a lot of talk about “spin” and “‘slant” in the news but rarely do we see a more definitive example than the Obama campaign’s application of spin to the news release explaining the candidate’s decision to drop the campaign tour visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany that was scheduled for July 25th.

Obama’s recent overseas campaign tour has been nothing less than a three ring media circus purposely engineered to provide the Democratic candidate with scads of entirely free campaign publicity. CNN, ABC and NBC joined forces and kicked out all of the stops in their combined effort to orchestrate extremely positive campaign ads for Obama which were then passed off as “news coverage” to American viewers. American soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with Middle Eastern, and European dignitaries were used as background stage props for a stage production through which Obama walked while verbalizing his carefully scripted responses to previously agreed upon questions. Everything was going according to plan until the Pentagon stepped in and interferred with the candidate’s scheduled visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center is a medical hospital providing care for the U.S. soldiers wounded in America’s war on terror and the Pentagon officials essentially felt that allowing Barack Obama, CNN, ABC and NBC news networks the opportunity to use wounded American soldiers as props for Obama’s campaign ads was just a tad bit disrespectful.

The Pentagon basically advised the Democratic candidate that he was welcome to visit Landstuhl if he wanted, however, he would have to leave his campaign staff, the photographers, the news anchors from CNN, ABC, and NBC, and his carefully scripted responses to previously agreed upon questions outside. The patients at Landstuhl are military personnel, their are young American men and women who volunteered their service to this nation’s war effort against the forces of world-wide terrorism, and they are American soldiers who bravely put everything they had to offer in life directly on the line because they knew it was necessary and right, and that freedom comes at a high cost that only they could pay. Saying that the Illinois senator has never supported the United States military defense against terrorism is an understatement. It is easy to understand why some Pentagon officials might view allowing him and his network friends free rein to manipulate wounded American soldiers in an impersonal manner, as if they were inanimate objects arranged on his own private stage, might be considered highly insulting. Even still, they did not tell him he couldn’t visit the facility, they merely told him that he would have to leave the press and spin artists outside, and if it had been the Republican candidate making the visit instead, the Pentagon would have imposed the same restrictions because the long-standing policy of the U.S. Defense Department prohibits partisan political campaign use of military personnel and military facilities. While the Pentagon relaxed the prohibition somewhat to allow the Democratic candidate’s media circus tour of American military bases in the Middle East, they weren’t about to allow him to blatantly manipulate wounded American soldiers receiving medical care at Landstuhl.

After receiving notification of the Pentagon’s objection to the candidate’s intention to take his campaign staff and a gaggle of media whores into the medical facility, Obama viewed the visit to the wounded American soldiers as one gigantic wasted effort and he blew the entire event right off the schedule. The Obama Campaign responded by releasing a statement to the effect that the candidate did not want to put injured soldiers in a cross-fire between campaigns. If the media was going to be excluded, and no photographers were going to be allowed inside, then the American public would never be able to see skillfully framed and perfectly lighted photographs of Barack Obama commiserating with American soldiers victimized by George Bush’s tragic war effort, and the entire exercise would be nothing more than time wasted that could be better used elsewhere. Rather than wasting his precious campaign time visiting wounded American soldiers who probably didn’t like him anyway, the Democratic candidate opted to fill the slot with a campaign photo shoot staged as he entered the fitness room of the luxury Ritz Carlton hotel wearing a T-shirt, black sweatpants and white trainers while he smiled and waved at tourists and onlookers.

For the most part, the liberally slanted American media played down, or simply ignored the last-minute schedule change, however, a few “news” outlets tried to imply that Obama was refused access to the medical facility by the Pentagon and some made the attempt to portray the change as being the result of Pentagon officials placing overbearing and inexplicably unfair restrictions on the Democratic candidate’s visit. In fact, one of the Obama Campaign committee’s press releases, related to the schedule change, implied that the change was made because some Pentagon officials threatened to politicize the visit, and possibly casting a negative light on Obama’s visit. Despite the liberal media’s attempt to gloss over the schedule change like a Photoshop artist erasing an prominent but unsightly zit on a screen celebrity’s otherwise surgically perfect nose, the fact remains that Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, was not denied access to the hospital by the Pentagon and he could have gone there to visit the wounded American heroes if he were willing. However, because he would not be allowed to use the wounded American soldiers as a backdrop for another one of his campaign advertisements, Barack Obama blew them completely off the schedule, and by this action he made it perfectly clear that his intended visit was not to show the wounded soldiers his support, was not to bring them comfort and was not to thank them for the sacrifice they have made for their nation; his visit was intended to benefit Barack Obama and Barack Obama’s presidential campaign only, and if he couldn’t accomplish that then the wounded American soldiers receiving treatment at Landstuhl could just go screw themselves as far as he was concerned.

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The man charged with killing a father and two sons on a San Francisco street last month was one of the illegal alien youths who benefited from the city’s long-standing practice of shielding illegal alien juveniles who committed felonies from possible deportation.

Edwin Ramos, now 21, is being held on three counts of murder in the June 22 deaths of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16. all of whom were shot near their home in the Excelsior district when the father, driving home from a family picnic, briefly blocked the gunman’s car from completing a left turn down a narrow street prompting the illegal alien to go into a rage and begin shooting.

Ramos, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was known to be a member of a violent street gang and he was previously found guilty of two felonies as a juvenile, a gang-related assault on a Muni passenger as well as an attempted robbery of a pregnant woman. In neither instance did officials with the city’s Juvenile Probation Department alert federal immigration authorities, because it was the city agency’s policy not to consider immigration status when deciding how to deal with an offender.

As a direct result of San Francisco’s sanctuary policy Edwin Ramos, a known predatory criminal and an illegal alien, was free to roam the city streets where, ultimately, he took the lives of a father and his two sons.

News Article

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The high resolution copy of the “Certification of Live Birth” offered on Barack Obama’s “Fight The Smears” website conclusively indicates that the document is a forgery, and a very poor forgery at that.

The fact that an official spokesman for the Obama campaign has endorsed the image given as being the genuine article, and its high profile use by the Obama campaign suggests a definite intention to conceal the truth about whether or not Barack Obama is actually eligible to run for the office of U.S. President.

Contrary to what the Obama campaign asserts on their website, when Hawaii became a state and the language of the 14th Amendment are not in question. However, Article Two, Section One of the U.S. Constitution requires that the President be a “natural born citizen” and not simply a naturalized citizen, and the real issue is whether there is proof that Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 and what was the legal status of his mother at the time of his birth.

According to FindLaw.com, the legal definition of a natural-born citizen that was in effect from Dec. 24, 1952 to Nov. 13, 1986, states “If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least 10 years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16.” Inasmuch as Barack Obama was reportedly born in 1961 this legal definition would have been in effect at the time of his birth. Furthermore, since Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham was 18 years old at the time Obama was born she couldn’t possibly have lived in the United States for five years after her sixteenth birthday.

Barack Obama could easily debunk this entire issue by releasing documentary proof showing where and when he was actually born and yet, up to this point in time Barack Obama has elected not to produce anything that would indicate that he is legally eligible to run for the office of U.S. President.

PDF File Containing High Resolution Copy Of Obama’s Forged Birth Certificate

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A gaggle of pro-illegal alien activists and parasitic labor union members have turned to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to file a federal lawsuit alleging that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is committing civil rights abuses by doing the job for which he was elected and for directing his deputies to enforce the laws of Arizona.

Apparently, the trouble-making activists are upset over the fact that Sheriff Arpaio, unlike the Los Angeles Chief of Police, William Bratton or the San Francisco Chief of Police Heather Fong, feels personally obligated to enforce all of the laws of his state, and to lock up every criminal that he, or his deputies can possibly get their hands on.

Since the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department first signed up for training by the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement program in April 2007, Sheriff Arpaio’s dedicated deputies have managed to apprehend more than 15,975 illegal aliens in the state of Arizona. Entering the United States without legal authorization from the U.S. Immigration Bureau or staying in the U.S. after a legitimately issued visa has expired are violations of U.S. Immigration laws, and the people who violate either state or federal laws are commonly referred to as “Criminals.” Furthermore, illegal aliens are not simply violators of U.S. Immigration laws, they are also one of the leading causes of identity theft in the U.S., they are also responsible for a good deal of welfare fraud, robbery, burglary, rape, murder, child abuse and drunk driving offenses to say nothing of human smuggling, drug smuggling and an entire array of criminal activity associated with predatory street gangs.

Robin Goldfaden, a whiny lawyer with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project petulantly complains, “The federal government has thus far done nothing to rein him in.” Goldfaden is basing the ACLU’s assertion of discrimination on the fact that Sheriff Arpaio’s efforts to round up the criminals who have entered this country illegally appear to be concentrated in Hispanic neighborhoods where the majority of the illegal aliens live.  The pro-illegal alien activists, in a mind boggling display of super-human intelligence, have been quick to point out that the overwhelming majority of illegal aliens arrested by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies have dark skin pigmentation which they believe conclusively proves that racial profiling is definitely going on. Capt. Paul Chagolla, a spokesman for the sheriff’s department, responded by saying, “We do not racially profile,” and added that the Maricopa County Sheriffs Department was not going to alter its operations.

Essentially, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a true American hero in an era where it is politically incorrect to even admit being American, let alone being an individual who stands up for the ideals that made this country what it used to be before the socialist liberals took control and decided to turn the U.S. into a suburb of Paris. Ultimately, the Maricopa County Sheriff may be taken down by the onslaught of screaming minority groups and anti-American groups like the ACLU or the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, but here’s to the hope and the prayer that Sheriff Joe Arpaio, possibly one of this nation’s last remaining real heroes, goes down swinging.

Washington Post Article

Arizona Star Article

Associated Press Article

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The World Court, also known misleadingly as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered the United States of America, a sovereign nation, to take every measure necessary to ensure that five Mexican Nationals sitting on death row in Texas are not executed until the ICJ can determine whether or not the prisoners lack of consular assistance has unduly prejudiced the outcome of their murder trials. According to the ICJ, the United States is bound by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and local authorities must inform foreign nationals being held on criminal charges of their right to consult with their country’s diplomats.  If the World Court determines that, with respect to the five Mexican killers now sitting on death row in Texas, if the United States has violated the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations the court will then press to have their cases reopened and reconsidered, and ultimately, many of the illegal alien killers now on death row in the U.S. may be allowed to go free.

Texas has at least 28 foreign nationals on death row and half of them are Mexican citizens.  One of the five Mexican nationals the International Court of Justice is very concerned about is José Ernesto Medellín.  In June, 1983, Jose Medellin and five other members of Houston’s Black and White gang kidnapped, raped and strangled to death 16 year old Elizabeth Pena and 15 year old Jennifer Ertman.  Obviously the International Court of Justice couldn’t care less about the two young white girls that Jose and his buddies raped and strangled to death.  

Of the remaining 13 Mexican Nationals on death row in Texas there are four others who were convicted of rape and murder, including Humberto Leal Jr. who abducted his 16 year old victim from a party and left her in a San Antonio ditch after raping her with a piece of lumber and crushing her head with a thirty-five pound piece of asphalt.  When her body was discovered later the board that Humberto used on her was still protruding from her vagina.  Another misunderstood Mexican National on death row in Texas is Ruben Cardenas who snatched his 16 year old victim from her home after tying her up with duct tape.  Her body was discovered in an irrigation ditch after Cardenas beat, raped and strangled her to death.  There is also one Ramiro Ibarra who beat raped and strangled to death with an electrical cord the 16 year old daughter of a family acquaintance while she was babysitting her two young nephews.  Ramiro Ibarra is not to be confused with Ramiro Hernandez who broke into the home of the man who employed him and, after beating his employer to death with an iron bar, tied up the victim’s wife and repeatedly raped her.  However, I shouldn’t give the impression that all Mexican Nationals on death row in Texas are frustrated sexual deviants.  Robert Ramos was convicted in the February 1992 murder of his wife, Leticia Ramos, Age 42, his daughter, Abigail Ramos, Age 7, and his son, Jonathan Ramos, Age 3.  All were beaten with a blunt object and died of skull fractures.  Their bodies were discovered more than a month later buried beneath the bathroom floor.  Robert Ramos married another woman three days after killing his entire family and moved her into the home where he had buried his wife and children.  Another fine example of what comes across the border when nobody is watching is Abel Ochoa who on August 4, 2002, in Dallas, Texas, Ochoa fatally shot his 29 year old wife, his 7 year old daughter, his 9 month old daughter, his father-in-law and his sister-in-law.  We also have Edgar Tamayo who was convicted in the shooting death of a Houston police officer transporting him to jail following his arrest for robbery in a southwest Houston nightclub.  Tamayo later told investigators that he was angry at the policeman for no letting him leave his keys with his wife before being transported to jail on the robbery charge.  Tamayo had previously served three years in a California state prison for robbery.  Then there is Hector Garcia who was convicted in the August 1989 killing of 14 year old Euardo Rios during the robbery of a convenience store.  The victim was waiting inside the store for his 17 year old sister, Adelmina Rios to get off from her job as a clerk at the L&S Market.  Garcia put a gun to the boy’s head and demanded money from the cash register.  As Adelmina finished emptying the contents of the cash register as Garcia ordered, Garcia repeatedly shot the boy in the head.  He then shot Adelmina in the stomach as she bent over to pick up some of the money she had dropped.  Between $300 and $600 were taken during the robbery.  Adelmina survived the bullet wound to her stomach and later testified against Garcia and his three accomplices. Ignacio Gomez, Felix Rocha, Juan Alvarez, Virgilio Maldonado and Cesar Fierro, all cold blooded murderers as well as being  Mexican citizens, are sitting on death row in Texas just like they were one big happy family.  Other than Jose Medellin, there is no word on which of these other lovely boys the International Court of Justice is trying to spring.  However, Humberto Leal Jr.,  José Ernesto Medellín,  Ruben Cardenas, Ramiro Ibarra, Ramiro Hernandez, Robert Ramos, Abel Ochoa, Edgar Tamayo, Hector Garcia, Ignacio Gomez, Felix Rocha, Juan Alvarez, Virgilio Maldonado and Cesar Fierro are fourteen good reasons why we should be planting land mines all along our southern border with Mexico.
                
Admittedly, I am of the opinion that someone should be allowed the privilege of entering the death row cell-block where these rats are currently living with flame thrower and the determination to end the debate permanently in favor of their innocent victims. Unfortunately, the court of political correctness would never allow real justice to be served in this manner and if the World Court has anything to say on the subject, justice for the innocent victims these scumbags slaughtered will never be realized at all. 

Illegal aliens kill more than 4,000 American citizens every year in this country and we are not suppose to hold them accountable under the same standards as we would our own citizens?  The first job of the U.S. Congress is to protect the American people and instead they are spending all of their time finding ways to benefit the illegal aliens who are slaughtering our children in record numbers.  Along with Jose Medellin, the other 13 Mexican Nationals on death row in Texas, and every other foreign national convicted of murder in the U.S., maybe we should consider executing some of their accomplices in the United States Congress. 

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While it can neither be proved or denied, I have this growing belief that Jesse Jackson’s all too convenient slip of the tongue, when he casually whispered to Dr. Reed Tuckson that he wanted to rip off Obama’s nuts because he was talking down to black people prior to an interview on Fox News, was actually a cheap orchestrated political ploy arranged by the Obama campaign who saw it as an excellent way to direct more public attention, or more specifically, more white public attention, to the transparent “tough love” Cosby impersonation Obama was spewing out before carefully selected black church groups. 

American political campaigns are historically overburdened with similar examples of convoluted chicanery purposely designed to win over the support of one group or another, and in the weeks leading up to Jackson’s well publicized comment numerous polls were indicating that Obama’s obvious pandering to black voters was beginning to erode his support among this nation’s dominant but dwindling white voters.  What better way to reverse the flow of growing disenchantment among white voters than an Archie Bunker like diatribe aimed directly at Obama’s own peers?

I usually try to steer a wide path around conspiracy theories, but at the same time, I am not a great believer in coincidence.  When the patient gets exactly what the good doctor ordered, it’s usually because the doctor arranged to give it to him and not because it simply fell out of the sky and landed at his feet. There is no denying the fact that Jackson’s comment was completely out of character even for him. Up to the time he began stage whispering out of the side of his mouth at Dr. Tuckson, the general appearance was that Jackson was happier than a pig in poop over Obama’s candidacy, and yet out of the blue, he chooses that moment in time to express something so outrageous and completely off the wall that it was guaranteed to attract the rapt attention of world-wide media. It seems like an all too convenient coincidence to me, and for that reason I am inclined to suspect that Jackson’s “slip” was purposely engineered and entirely orchestrated for the benefit of the Obama campaign who undoubtedly ordered it up like you or I would order fries with a hamburger.

Before anyone starts boiling the tar and bagging up the feathers, I will admit that this is all based on speculation, and to the best of my knowledge, no factual evidence to support anything I’ve said in this posting exists.  Room for doubt exists and I will be the first to admit that I might be wrong. Then again, no factual evidence to disprove what I have said in this posting exists either, and I might be right on the money.  Ultimately, I suppose that any individuals reading this will have to make up their own minds about the matter, and that is entirely fine by me.  In the long run, what I think about Barack Obama really doesn’t matter, even if I am willing to publish my thoughts.

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While John McCain is out extolling the virtues of ‘God’s Children,’ as he is now calling the illegal aliens plaguing our nation, Rigoberto Menjivar Nunez, an illegal alien that has already been deported from the United States once before, was busy terrorizing the mourners attending a Boulder, Colorado memorial service.

Nunez forced his way into the memorial gathering, grabbed the breast of a deceased woman’s sister and concluded his act by shoving pornographic pictures carried on his cell phone into the face of the dead woman’s mother. At that point the other guests bundled up the unwanted illegal alien and threw him out in the street where he was later arrested. Apparently, none of the mourners attending the gathering knew Rigoberto Menjivar Nunez and he had no association with the deceased.

Subsequent to his arrest, Rigoberto Menjivar Nunez (aka Marlos Hernandez) pled guilty to felony trespassing as part of a plea deal to drop charges of unlawful sexual contact, first-degree burglary and harassment. He was sentenced to one year in prison and the immigration authorities have put a hold on him for his eventual deportation. Despite his eventual deportation, I am sure that this country has not seen the last of Rigoberto Menjivar Nunez, and he will undoubtedly return to the U.S. shortly after his release.

While John McCain is counseling us to, “Remember that these are God’s children. They have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them,” we should all remember that while he and Barack Obama are out pandering to the more than 20 million illegal aliens currently living in America at our expense, more than 4,380 innocent American citizens are killed by illegal aliens every year and despite the fact that their blood flows through our streets, neither John McCain nor Barack Obama appear to care in the slightest.

On Monday, July 14, 2008, John McCain will be begging at the feet of the National Council of La Raza, a federally subsidized Hispanic racist organization. It will be the third time that McCain has groveled at the feet of La Raza in the last fifteen days.

As an American citizen, a lifelong Republican, a tax payer, a veteran, a responsible voter and a human being, I have to admit the belief that the 2008 presidential election will long be remembered as the single biggest embarassment in United States history.

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If you haven’t seen the short video called “NozzleRage,” and you’re as flipped out about the rising cost of gasoline as everyone else then you need to check this one out.

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By now this little tidbit of news has been milked for everything it was ever worth in the first place and practically everything that can be said about it has been said already.  However, in all of the relevant news articles I have read, none have gotten into the actual context of the ill-advised comment and that is something that is really worth looking at.

As everyone already knows, Jackson was inadvertently picked up on an open microphone telling Dr. Reed Tuckson of the United Healthcare Group, that he felt Obama’s recent speeches before black church groups about parental responsibility were condescending toward African-American audiences.  The comment was made prior to an interview on Fox News on Sunday and a portion of Jackson’s comments were aired Tuesday by Bill O’Reilly who benevolently declined to expand on any possible motives for Jackson’s expression of displeasure toward the Democratic presidential candidate.

The exact words that Jesse Jackson used in the small portion of the video aired by Fox News are as follows:

“See Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based . . . I want to cut his nuts off.  Barack he’s talking down to black people.”

Basically, the Reverend Jesse Jackson said that he wanted to rip off Barack Obama’s testicles because he was publicly telling African-Americans all over the country that they needed to forget about their career aspirations of becoming the world’s greatest rapper or basketball player and stay in school where they could get an education and actually become productive members of society, that simply having a child does not make someone a man, but demonstrating the long-term courage necessary to raise a child properly does make a man a father.  Obama has also chastised black communities for giving free rein to racist anti-Semitic attitudes, for trashing their own neighborhoods, for not encouraging proper nutrition for their children and for failing to act like responsible parents.  In one Selma, Alabama church he made the statement, “I don’t know who taught them that reading and writing and conjugating your verbs was acting white, we’ve got to get over that mentality.”  Apparently, Jesse Jackson has a major problem with the idea that African-Americans might listen to Barack Obama and take his message to heart, and for that he wants to rip off the guy’s nuts.     

Jesse Jackson has made a career out of keeping America’s black people as abysmally ignorant as he possibly could.  After all, the more misery suffered by black Americans, the more demand there is for race baiters like Jackson and Sharpton, and nothing creates more misery for a human being than ignorance.  If the black people in this country quit excusing their lack of performance on events that transpired two hundred years ago and started taking responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming some mythical white conspiracy to keep them oppressed, nobody would need the services of hucksters like Jackson and Sharpton.  The productivity of black Americans would flourish, black-owned business enterprises would be raking in the cash, inner-city slums would begin to evaporate and equality would finally become a reality because the black people in this country would have the intelligence and effective abilities necessary to be confident in their equal footing, and what the white people might, or might not think, about them simply wouldn’t matter.  Jackson and Sharpton would have nobody left to incite, and without the misery they encourage, both would quickly go broke.  This is why Jesse Jackson said he wanted to rip Barack Obama’s nuts off and it is perfectly understandable to see that he feels threatened.  His occupation thrives on ignorance and fear and anything that threatens to eliminate ignorance and fear is a threat to his future prosperity.   

Barack Obama’s message to black American’s is not new.  It has all been said many times before and by many people.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have sunk in very deep and I don’t know that it will make any difference now.  I don’t support Obama and I think he will make a terrible president if elected, possibly worse than Jimmy Carter, which is really saying something, but as far as what he has been saying in black churches around the country, I agree with him 100%. – At least he is right on one thing.

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California’s dysfunctional state legislature is feeling threatened by the latest attempt at redistricting reform which is scheduled to appear on the November ballot as Proposition 11,  and the line is being drawn in the sand as its proponents and opponents square off for what is undoubtedly going to be one hell of a good fight.

Proposition 11 would create a 14-member citizen commission to establish state Senate and Assembly districts based on the federal Voting Rights Act and non-partisan rules.  The currently convoluted legislative district boundaries in California were purposely designed to eliminate partisan competition and establish a status quo in terms of the state’s balance of power.  In simpler terms the districts were gerrymandered by the politicians themselves to maximize their potential for re-election and eliminate the threat of opposition candidates.  The establishment of California’s gerrymandered legislative districts has proven to be very beneficial to the state’s political incumbents because it virtually guarantee’s their re-election regardless of how poor their performance might be.  As far as state government is concerned, the gerrymandered legislative districts in California are nothing less than a ridiculous self-replicating joke purposely intended to ensure that nothing ever changes in Sacramento, and that the perpetual gridlock and partisan sniping so common in this state’s political environment continues to thrive forever and ever.      

During the 2004 election less than 4% of the state’s 80 Assembly districts were won by less than 55% of the vote while .4% of the state’s 20 Senate district seats were carried by same percentage of votes.  California’s 53 Congressional districts are even less competitive than the state districts and the overly convoluted, gerrymandered districts resulted in less than 1.59% of the state’s congressional seats being won with less than 60% of the vote during the 2004 election.  By assuring their perpetual re-election to office, California’s elected representatives have eliminated the need to prove their effectiveness in office and any expectations the citizens of the state might have for political accountability evaporated long ago.  Being elected to the California state Assembly, the Senate or as the representative of one of it’s 53 Congressional districts is like being granted the position of liege lord over a feudal fiefdom and the attitude of “nobility” is certainly apparent among California’s elitist politicians.     

Proposition 11 threatens to derail California’s deeply entrenched dukes and duchesses by restoring partisan competition to the state’s legislative districts and breaking the political incumbent’s stranglehold on power.  It is the best possible solution to ending Sacramento’s perpetual state of political gridlock and curtailing the non-productive and highly corrosive partisan bickering and back-stabbing that has been holding us down for so many years.  The best measure of how effective Proposition 11 will be is the extent to which its opponents are willing to go to fight it off, and that extent is very great.  Don Perata, the termed-out and departing Senate President Pro Tem, is leading the charge to destroy the redistricting reform proposition through the committee deceptively entitled “Citizens for Accountability – No on the Power Grab.”  Many of the established Democratic incumbents are lining up to lend their support against the proposition, and the lobbyists who depend on them are volunteering to bankroll their opposition.            

Proposition 11 has the support of reform groups like Common Cause, along with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the California Chamber of Commerce. The high-profile leadership council of California Forward, an organization that promotes governance reforms such as responsible budgeting has endorsed Proposition 11, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as former governor Gray Davis has voiced their support for the measure.  However the proposition’s supporters have a long uphill fight ahead of them if they want to see this reform passed because they are vastly outnumbered by the political incumbents and their deep-pocketed supporters who have vowed to do everything in their considerable power to make sure that nothing changes in California’s notoriously dysfunctional political arena.

Considering the highly deceptive campaign practices typically associated with California elections, this should be the best high-stakes political battle the state has seen in years.  Victory would return the reins of power to the people of the state where it should be, while defeat would allow the incumbent politicians the ability to continue doing whatever they please without fear of being held accountable, or the bothersome need to actually represent their constituents.  Whether or not the citizens of California have the intelligence to differentiate between the two alternatives and choose accordingly is yet to be seen.  Unfortunately, the track record for California’s citizens demonstrating intelligence during election season is not very promising.

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redistricting reform, Proposition 11, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Don Perata, Gray Davis, gerrymander, California, Common Cause, California Forward

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