PAChyderm Coalition: Mark your calendar! Wednesday, July 15, 6:00 PM

Special guest speaker:  Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas

Join us at the El Paso Bar-B- Que Grill

4303 W. Peoria,
623-931-2438
Dinner starts at 6:00 P.M.

Seating is very limited. Please contact Diane Douglas at azpatsfan@cox.net to reserve your seat.

Check out the PAChyderm Coalition website here.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office website can be seen here.

Gov. Sarah Palin takes her anti-media message to Facebook

“The response [to her unexpected resignation speech] in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction.”

How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.”

Read the complete message here.

Colin Powell: Having second thoughts about Obama

“I think one of the cautions that has to be given to the president — and I’ve talked to some of his people about this — is that you can’t have so many things on the table that you can’t absorb it all. And we can’t pay for it all,” Powell said.

“And I never would have believed that we would have budgets that are running into the multi-trillions of dollars, and we are amassing a huge, huge national debt that, if we don’t pay for in our lifetime, our kids and grandkids and great grandchildren will have to pay for it.

Over 2,000 turn out for July 4th Tea Party in Gilbert

Groups from various communities around the Valley and representing those across the political and social spectrum, turned out at the Gilbert Town Hall to protest proposed tax increases.

With many Arizonans losing their jobs and struggling to hold onto their homes, the issue of higher taxes has become a galvanizing force in unifying protestors.

Among the speakers at yesterday’s event was former Maricopa County Tax Assessor Kevin Ross, who said, “People from all over, of every age, came out to support fewer taxes.”

The event was part of a series of rallies nationwide, however it was the only one in the East Valley scheduled for the holiday weekend the East Valley Tribune reports.

Insider trading on the supposedly non-partisan Phoenix City Council

Scott Wong, writing for the daily, exposes some of the shenanigans that went on during the recent city council meeting when Phoenix attorney Bill Gates, a Republican,  was selected to fill the vacancy created by the skedaddling of short-termer Maria Baier.

The supposedly non-partisan council and mayor were engaging in high-stakes partisan gamesmanship, intended to ensure a much different result to the composition of the left-leaning council. Mayor Phil Gordon, who has made an art-form of underhanded duplicity, is a liberal of longstanding and his hand-picked choice Tom Milton was flagging — causing Gordon to decide to deal from the bottom of the deck. Fortunately, Gordon was blocked in his ruse by an objection from Councilman Michael Johnson who pointed out the violation of rules and City Attorney Gary Verburg who ultimately put a stop to the maneuver.

Remember this exposé by Wong when the term-limited and shifty Phil Gordon decides to throw his hat in the ring for higher office.

Swine flu pandemic called “unstoppable by WHO

Dr. Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), addressing a symposium in Mexico on the swine flu said that the spread of the virus worldwide is now “unstoppable.”

Although she acknowledged that most cases are mild, the United Kingdom alone is projecting more that 100,000 new cases, of what is also being called H1N1 virus, a day by the end of the summer, according to a BBC report.

“As we see today, with well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable,” Dr Chan said in her opening remarks. As the peak of the flu season approaches in South America, some areas have declared public health emergencies.

Leaders and experts from 50 countries are in Cancun for the two-day meeting to discuss strategies for combating the virus. It has been more than two months since the initial alert over swine flu. Since then, the virus has entered more than 100 countries, infected more than 70,000 people and killed more than 300 worldwide.

And although the serious contagion originated in Mexico, the WHO chief was careful not to marginalize the country or harm their tourism industry, regardless of risk. “Mexico is a safe, as well as a beautiful and warmly gracious, place to visit,” enthused Dr. Chan.

This WHO chart gives the breakdown of the number of laboratory-confirmed cases in each nation as of today.

When does the United States of America start cutting off foreign aid?

An economic adviser to India’s Prime Minister is urging the Indian government to diversify its $264.6 billion foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars.

“The major part of Indian reserves is in dollars — that is something that’s a problem for us,” said Suresh Tendulkar, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, questioning U.S. dollar dominance.

India is preparing to join leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations — the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — at a summit in Italy next week which is due to tackle the global economy. China and Brazil will also send representatives to the summit.

China and Russia have already stepped up calls to rethink how global currency reserves are composed and managed. Yet these heavy polluting emerging markets along with India, are not constrained by the recently passed Cap-and-Trade legislation which imposes severe restrictions and heavy penalties on U.S. industry — while not requiring them to reduce their carbon emissions.

“There should be a system to maintain the stability of the major reserve currencies,” the former Chinese Vice Premier said in Beijing yesterday, highlighting China’s concerns about a global financial system dominated by the dollar, Bloomberg News reports.

The late Paul Weyrich noted on Townhall last November that former President George W. Bush’s Fiscal Year 2009 Foreign Operations Budget for the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other foreign affairs agencies totals $26.1 billion. The requested amount was an 8.9% increase over the total Fiscal Year 2008 amount, including emergency funding. In addition, the United States contributes well over $3 billion to the United Nations, an organization which in turn welcomes our enemies to speak against us.

Many of the nations topping the list are also top oil producing nations. Of the top 13 suppliers of oil, only one among them, Canada, can be counted as a friend.

Remembering our many blessings on this Independence Day

 

 ….and honoring those 56 brave men who had the vision and strength of character to challenge authority and affix their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

Before affixing their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, the Founders included this memorable line:

 And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor

Letter writer defines America’s frustration with national leadership

A disenfranchised Phoenix resident speaks for many of us in this heartfelt letter published nationally on the Glenn Beck show’s website.  

Read her letter, and if you feel as Janet Contreras does, then please sign the petition to our nation’s political leadership.

Participate in political grassroots at its finest.

Illegal Update

Just a few more good people coming to do the work Americans refuse to do

 Alfonso Valdez-Cota, 24, and Kaven Alfonso Chavez-Aguirre, 25, both “citizens of Mexico,” were sentenced on June 29, 2009, by U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake to five years in federal prison after both defendants pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess With the Intent to Distribute Heroin. A third co-defendant, Jesus Amaral-Samaniego, pleaded guilty to the same charge and is scheduled for sentencing on July 29, 2009.

Based on an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the three defendants were stopped by Glendale Police officers in November 2008. A search of the passenger compartment of their vehicle revealed a firearm concealed in the rear passenger seat area and two firearms in the trunk. Also found in the trunk were 10 small plastic wrapped ball shaped packages containing a total of 251.2 grams of a substance containing heroin.