I also wrote about the Cloward-Piven Strategy, the authors of which (Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven) state that their “goal is to overthrow capitalism by overwhelming the government bureaucracy with entitlement demands. The created crisis provides the impetus to bring about radical political change.”

Sound familiar?

ObamaKare, again as I’ve written before here and here, absolutely, positively has to happen NOW before the US electorate awakens and actually realizes: the economy isn’t getting better, none of these items will work, and each of these plans individually and collectively will bring down the nation.

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Unless revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt would cause substantial harm to the economy.

The newest Zogby poll indicates that by a 50–42 margin, Americans oppose the House of Representatives’ bill introduced July 14th.

Jon Kyl remarks:

I say: This bill, in concert with Cap & Tax, is the most naked and aggressive governmental power grab in the entire history of our nation. And these things in the midst of an economic recession!

Please GO HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION TO HELP STOP THIS DISASTROUS PLAN! You can also Call Congress — at (202) 224–3121!

BZ

Walter Cronkite passed away on Friday, his family at his bedside in New York City, at the age of 92.

With his passing comes the final closing of the book, including all chapters, of being able to trust your core American news media.

Walter Cronkite was not an entertainer. Clunky glasses, big nose, receding hairline. He did not come from wealth, power. He quit college to become a reporter. He was a reporter first and foremost. Yes, he leaned to the Left, but did his best to keep that bias, generally, out of his broadcasts — to a degree. Only in his later years, after retirement, did his Left bent completely take over. Up to that point, whilst actually on the air, he really was “the most trusted name in news.” And yes, CNN stole that line from him.

Which brings me to my questions posed to you all, with some background first:

I observe that there are few news leaders today. In my time, during my childhood, it consisted of Walter Cronkite on CBS and the Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC (HMOG, does that ever date me). The other lesser names — good readers but less-than-trustworthy — were Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings.

1. Whom, in any American media, anywhere, do you trust — if anyone?

2. Where do you go for your reliable news sources? Is there any news source or provider that you tend to trust more than others?

Please weigh in.

BZ

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?”

How young we were. How filled with enthusiasm and energy! We were on the cusp of a new frontier; a threshold never crossed until then. An actual full time driver training facility for our department, with four full time driver training instructors! Our first day? August 28th of 1998. There was huge work to be done. Clear the land: 40 acres. Build a classroom from a dilapidated mobile home. Beg surplus items from the military. Literally mill, with a huge engine and a diamond-stoned terrazo grinder, a glass-like surface for a water-flooded skid pan into concrete. And then design all the driver training courses necessary to meet POST standards and keep cops safe.

We had to literally clear the land with an ancient tractor and weed mowing attachment begged from a nearby golf course. That was my first job; mowing the 4-to-5 foot dry weeds, bouncing over rolling terrain abandoned by the US Air Force in 1996. I couldn’t see what I was driving into. Consequently, I rolled over chunks of concrete, electrical stanchions, huge rocks. I killed many blades. Eventually I killed the tractor.

This is where we were, on a former SAC Alert pad. All the brown area you see above, that’s what I had to mow. In 105-degree heat, with choking weed dust. We were cops, mowing weeds, stealing desks and chairs, begging local venues for equipment we didn’t have. We hammered nails, put up wallboard, built ceilings, painted wood, “appropriated” rows of classroom seats we “found.”

Our first classroom presentations were on a 1950s overhead projector with clear plastic overlays. We left plum assignments to be there; I left Homicide, for example. That’s how much we believed in training; that’s how much we believed in what we were doing. There was never something so exciting as getting into an entirely new program and having the freedom, the investment, the duty, the responsibility, of being able to design something entirely from scratch and then embracing it, making it your own.

The area, once worked, was beautiful. We kept the place as immaculate as possible.

Then the unthinkable happened: one of our deputies was killed in December of 1998, due to a small eye-placement driving error — an error that WE knew how to easily correct. After that, commissioning our EVOC (Emergency Vehicle Operations Course) site became a priority. Unfortunately, a deputy had to die on duty to make it so.

We had great crews. Work was a joy, not just a job. Deputies came and went for various reasons. The experience and knowledge was passed on, as would be expected.

We chalked down exercises. We bought cones. We had our courses officially certified. We had 2,000 deputies to teach. These were stirring times, filled with electricity and energy.

We initially started with one small trailer, above, for all the offices of our instructors. There were five instructors, for example, crammed into a miniscule room no room than about 10-feet long. We were so grateful; the air conditioner actually worked in the blazing-hot summers. Our bathrooms, as you can see, consisted (for years!) of Porta-Potties. Running water, ceramic toilets? Not so much. . .

I was lucky enough to be one of the founding instructors that year, in 1998. I designed and wrote all our courses, had them certified. I worked at EVOC from 1998 to 2001, when I was promoted and then worked in Communications. I next became the department’s Rangemaster. A few years later, I was able to tranfer back to my first love: EVOC. I’ve been there ever since.

This is my last day at work. And I’m the end of an era. I’m the last of the people who opened up this show for our customers back in 1998. And we’ve gone from one Lieutenant, one Sergeant and five deputies to, as of this Sunday, one Lieutenant and three deputies — perhaps soon to be only two deputies. Budget cuts and Draconian measures.

Overall, I had the time of my life here. And I’m making this post today as much or more for me than for you; I can come back here and relive these memories.

I still have a job, yet with 30 years on the department I didn’t have the juice to stay, nor could I save my “baby.” I fear it’s simply dying, given a little more time. But it is what it is, and so is life. Things change.

There is so much more I could say but, as I write this from my wife’s house in the absolute stillness of Thursday morning, at 2:30 am (haven’t been able to much sleep since Dad’s death earlier this year), I have to wrap up because, now, as I check the clock, it’s almost 4:30. And I want to be there, standing just outside my office for one more day, to see the sunrise.

BZ