Something special is supposed to be happening in Fillmore this week - but we've heard nothing about it (as usual) from our Chamber of Commerce. Maybe the Gazette will have something to print about it next week.

I was gone for a few days last week so I just learned of the incident at the School Farm.

Apparently two wild dogs attacked a goat being kept at the farm. The caretaker, attempting to get rid of the dogs, fired a shot but accidently killed the goat. He was punished with a 30-day suspension without pay.

I haven't had time to get all the details of this incident, but I hear the caretaker is a very responsible man who has been at the Farm for a long time. As far as I know, he is responsible for the safety of the structures and animals. There are many wild animals in the adjacent riverbed area, including feral dogs, which pose a danger to the animals. Though the caretaker caused the death of the goat, which is sad, he acted reasonably in accordance with his duty to protect the animals. This is especially true in the absence of established, written guidelines to the contrary.

I regret that he was suspended for 30 days without pay. Who is going to take his place for the next month?

***

Shortly after I finished this week's column I returned to my computer and learned an astonishing new fact: the Pope has just officially recognized the so-called Palestinian State.

I only have time for a quick reaction. This incredibly reckless, thoughtless, and stupid action greatly furthers the cause of war between Israel and Iran. It also clearly identifies the Pope as a far Left political man, which should not be surprising because he is also a member of the Jesuit order. Recognizing the Palestinian State facilitates and justifies its massive terrorist activities.

The Pope is also a defender of the disgraced and condemned (by the church itself) Liberation Theology movement.

As a Roman Catholic myself, I am simply astounded. Pope Francis is a man of the Left, and one I can no longer trust. Doesn't he know that the Palestinian cause is responsible for the Christian Holocaust in the Middle East, and seeks to destroy Israel?!

For the faithful readers of Mr. Farrell's Realities, or as he likes to put it 'his fan' (singular), there will be great disappointment this week. He is on vacation, and as for commentary you are stuck with me.

Although I would like to write about rainbows and unicorns, I am afraid the newest attack on Our freedom of speech rights in Garland, Texas trumps that.

I am surprised by the reaction of some in the news media, blaming the organizers of the Draw Mohammad event for the shooting by two Islamic terrorists. Please don't call them 'extremists'. The base for Islamic Insurgent Conflict, ie. massacre, has been well established in Africa and the Middle East, and famously in Europe with the Charlie Hebdo killings. The 2009 Fort Hood, Texas slaughter of 13 was called ‘an act of terrorism’ by several Senators and General Barry McCaffrey, while the U.S. Dept of defense classified it as 'workplace violence', despite Nodal Malik Hasan's government monitored connection to Yemen-based imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

According to some in the media, who make their living relying on the First Amendment, the cartoon contest invited violence and therefore should not have been held. I suppose the same thing could be said of the Freedom Marches, or on the other end of the scale, Skokie, Illinois (Freedom of Assembly).

But I digress--back to my surprise.

Even the Fox News equivalent of Captain America, Bill O'Reilly, criticized the event with, “It's always cause and effect. This is what happens when you light the fuse, you get violence.”

Martin Luther King lit the fuse. Mahatma Gandhi lit the fuse. Nelson Mandela lit the fuse. There have been a lot of necessary fuses lit in this country; Abraham Lincoln, Kent State, Boston Tea Party.

Garland, Texas already has the First Amendment right to free speech, assembly, and drawing cartoons. The threat is not a cartoon contest. The threat is Islamic terrorists and their determination to impose Sharia law in America, on Americans, violating Our First Amendment right, and our right to breath.

The winner of the Draw Mohammad cartoon contest was Bosch Fawstin, an Albanian, raised in a strict Islamic home in the Bronx. He broke free from Islam in his teens. Watch his gracious, brave and informative acceptance speech at www.jihadwatch.org/2015/05/video-muhammad-cartoon-contest-winner-bosch-f....

In Fawstin’s opinion, even the meekest of Islamic teachings promotes 'misogyny and Jew-hatred'.

Remember Molly Norris? The Islamic faithful do. A Fatwa was placed on her life five years ago after she produced a satirical cartoon depicting Mohammad as a teacup, a cherry, a domino, a spool of thread...you get the idea. She JOKINGLY called for 'Everybody Draw Mohammad Day' (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/05/04/just-what-h...). And for this she must die.

Americans have always fought for their freedoms. So if holding a cartoon contest is our new battleground, then everyone grab a crayon and raise it high over your head, and repeat the words of Molly Norris--”Fatwas suck."

In my nearly-27 years in Fillmore I've never seen better cooperation between our school district and our city council. Last night's joint meeting exemplified that fact as the two groups joined together to unify their mutual interests in community affairs. Fillmore will now enjoy shared facilities and responsibilities for our military banner program. We should all be proud of this new-found civility and productivity. Hello and Congratulations to our Fillmore City Council and School District Board. Goodbye to the bad old days of confrontation.

***

The recent riots in Baltimore are facilitated racism - but not white on black racism; it's the other way around. Baltimore's population is more than 50 percent African-American, with a black Mayor, a black police commissioner, and a more than 50 percent black police force. It's mayor is astonishingly clueless regarding even common sense preparations against a looming riot. Too little - too late. Ditto for the city police commissioner. Leftists, gang bangers, Soros anarchists, criminal opportunists set the stage for a perfect storm of chaos - sparked by massive incompetence. The mentality of the activists: like a homeowner yelling, "Do what I say or I'll burn my house down!"

I heard over the radio this morning that it's Earth Day. We should re-name the occasion Creation Day and thank the Father for his generosity - and reject liberals who ignore the Creator while worshiping His creation. They have it backwards.

***

"Just days after the United States announced it would send its own warships to Yemen in order to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there, a flotilla of Iranian destroyers docked in the same area."( By: Adam Kredo Follow @Kredo0).

Another military bluff by our Warrior in Chief, Barack Obama, who has humiliated American armed forces around the world in the face of the enemy. No wonder he celebrates deserters and traitors in the White House rose garden, kowtows to our enemies, Iran, and subverts the security of our friends and allies (Israel). Sending our navy to Yemen to "to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there" is just another strategic lie, another line in the sand, or red line to scare the enemy, another disgusting bluff from the boy who cries wolf.

The world has known for years that, because of Obama, our enemies don't fear us and our friends no longer respect or believe us. Mr. President, you are the only one left who doesn't understand that your bluff has been called and the world sees you as the wannabe emperor without his clothes. If you will indulge a deserving vulgarism, we know you as a slick-talking charlatan, a Little Lord Fauntleroy who farts in silk and plays golf all day.

But our enemies play hard ball, and the future existence of America is at stake. I agree with our former Vice President Dick Cheney: "If you had somebody as president who wanted to take America down, who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world and reduce our capacity to influence events, turn our back on our allies and encourage our adversaries, it would look exactly like what Barack Obama’s doing."

I'll go beyond identifying Obama as Cheney has done; I just think of him as a traitor.

Fillmore High School senior, Jorge Hurtado, received a special Edison scholarship for $40,000 this afternoon. Unfortunately the surprise presentation came a half-hour before press time and we don't have the information for the complete story. Therefore we will run the story next week in living color. Congratulations Mr. Hurtado!

***

A week or so ago I recommended that the Pope concentrate on spiritual matters and leave defense issues to military experts. The Pope, in his Easter address, praised the framework for the Iranian nuclear treaty which would "make the world safer."

This conclusion is not only wrong but holds out false hope for peace, like Chamberlin's naive hope for "peace in our time" by believing in Hitler's promises. Obama's astonishing naiveté will have the immediate effect of locking the world into certain nuclear conflagration in the near future. Iran is the world's leading fomenter of terrorism, the creator of virtually all terrorist groups like ISIS, which have murdered most Christians from the Middle East to North Africa.

Iran is building intercontinental ballistic missiles to which they intend to attach nuclear bombs. It's their express intention to destroy Israel and America. They practice their apocalyptic Islamic goals with bloody enthusiasm.

If this deadly foolish "treaty" is concluded every Middle East nation will seek atomic defensive measures and an atomic conflagration will be inevitable.

And so, Your Holiness, with respect, this is a framework for total atomic war, not peace in our time. To confirm this conclusion ask the bishops of Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Nigeria and other victim countries which have recently experienced the Christian Holocaust.

Our Fillmore School District office has had a sudden face lift.

The old deodar tree taken down on April Fools' Day because it was about as dead as a tree can be. A serious lack of irrigation over the years caused its demise. The sawyer, Luke Klinzing, did an expert job. He counted 50 rings on the stump. Fear of heavy falling limbs made the removal necessary. The impact of the falling stump brought people out of their offices nearly a block away. I suggest the remaining (struggling) tree also be taken down, and perhaps replace them with two matching redwoods.

***

I agree entirely with the comment that former Vice President Dick Cheney made on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" Tuesday night. Cheney said that President Obama's foreign policy actions around the world show a president who wants "to take America down."

Obama is a dangerous man determined to destroy our nation's preeminence as the most stabilizing force among competing nations. He has set the stage for World War III and left America deliberately unprepared by skeletonizing our military, abandoning our traditional allies, like Israel, and befriending our deadliest enemies, like Iran.

Aside from what the Pope may believe, Obama's latest effort at befriending Iran is a suicide mission. The Pope should stick to spiritual matters and leave defense matters to the military. Only a fool would fail to recognize the fact that America is due to be attacked - soon. See Drudge links today.

The whole world, free and otherwise, watches Sec. of State John Kerry plead with Iran to promise not to build a nuclear weapon. On just a handshake. The world is in a state of stunned disbelief at the spectacle of the United States of America begging Iran (the world's foremost terrorist state) to agree not to build the bomb. It all reminds me of a 1969 release by Fifth Dimension entitled Wedding Bell Blues, sung with some urgency "...Oh come on Bill...won't you marry me Bill?!" This deadly national degradation all to provide a "legacy" for Barack Obama.

Even the Arabs are aghast at the proceedings, and now seek their own bomb. FOX news commentator Charles Krauthammer nailed Kerry's character in his March 23 statement: Krauthammer: Kerry Claim is 'Rich' | Freedom's Back. Kerry has sold us out with that "...fake Brahmin accent of yours", Krauthammer said.

It was a pleasure to attend last night's council meeting. Several presentations were awarded. Most impressive to me were those made to the individual volunteers responsible for the creation of Fillmore's new "Pump Track Park". If, like me, you didn't know what such a park was, it's a truly great bicycle recreation area. Our park is unique in Ventura County, being the only one in existence to date.

It is a carefully designed earthen obstacle course for bicycles, including ramps, and numerous jumping areas and curves. What's really neat about the course is the fact that kids of all ages can use it. I've watched very young children run their bikes over the bumps while moms supervised the activities. It's a low-maintenance area designed to burn a lot of energy while negotiating the various-sized hills and valleys. Combined with our new state-of-the-art skateboard park, no kid in Fillmore can complain about not having exciting things to do!

Our new Pump Track Park is just one of the impressive list of Fillmore City Council accomplishments completed during the past couple of years. Please also note the names of individuals and companies who VOLUNTEERED their time and money to create these new facilities. Both the extensive (and expensive) Boys & Girls Club and Pump Track constructions involved extensive, difficult, and time-consuming effort by these extraordinary volunteers.

A plaque at both locations should thank these volunteers to let future beneficiaries of their labor know how the facilities came to be. See two stories on the front page for more details, and fillmoregazette.com.

List of city accomplishments during past couple of years:
Economic Development
Economic Development Strategic Plan – Adopted 2014
Surveyed Downtown Businesses
Fillmore Development Council
The Retail Coach - Retail Analysis
The Stop Project
Family Dollar
Revising Business Park – CAIF allocation formula
Revised Subordination/1st Time Homebuyers Program

Communication
Approved contract new web site
Mobile App
Communication Plan – Adopted 2014
Approved Upgrade of Server Hardware, Internet Services and Phone System

Fiscal
2.4 M carry over in 2013-14 Budget
California Society of Municipal Finance Officers – Operating Budgeting Excellence Award FY 2014-15.
Monthly financial report provided to Council
Investment Policy
Provide detailed analysts on warrant list expenses allocations
Upgraded Financial Software System and added Building/Planning and Human Resources Modules

Infrastructure
Central Avenue Repaved
Traffic Signal Mountain View and 126 on Schedule – Working with Cal Trans project warranted.
Valley Express Bus Service (Santa Paula, Fillmore and Ventura County)
Heritage Valley Regional Transit JPA approved

Litigation
El Dorado Case Settled
Sales tax issue settled

Public Safety
Replaced aging Fire Engine using CDBG Funding
Approved replacement of aging Fire Squad Truck – Using CDBG Funding for 80% of cost.
Obtained a $500,000 Cal-Grip Grant to help suppress and prevent further gang violence through a cooperative effort of police and the community.
Part 1 crimes continued to decrease due to the dedication of resources to problem areas.
Obtained a $215,000 grant from the Fillmore Fire Foundation for replacement hand-held radios and self-contained breathing devices.
Obtained bullet proof vests.
Fire house remodeled

Organizational
Revised Facility Use Policy
Adopted Volunteer Program
Hired - Finance Director, City Manager, Community Development Director, City Engineer and Building Official, Building Inspector, Planning and Building Technician, Assistant Finance Direct, Administrative Assistant, Reclassification of Admin Asst/ Deputy City Clerk to Human Resources Director/Deputy City Clerk. Hired and trained 3 academies of Paramedics and EMTs in the Volunteer Firefighter Program
Eliminated 5% of salary reduction from Employees’ Medical Cafeteria Allowance and Restored to full amount of $675.00
Provided 2% Salary Increase to Employees

Community Services

Competition of the new kitchen equipment at the Multi-Purpose Center for the Senior Nutrition Program. (Oven, hood exhaust system, freezer, refrigerator and kitchen ceiling tiles)
New Senior Nutrition Meal Site – North Fillmore Store Front.
Maintenance at Shiells Park and Delores Day bathrooms. (painted)
Re-model back three rooms and bathroom on the stage area at the Memorial Building.
Memorial Building back patio re-done and painted and the back west outside wall of the Memorial Building was also completely painted.
Three Friendship games for Youth Basketball were held with Santa Paula. Two games in Fillmore and one games in Santa Paula.
Competition of the Tot Lot Play Equipment at Two Rivers Park.
Pump Track Completed

Planning/Building
Completed an update of the City's General Plan Housing Element.
Completed and submitted to the State Department of Finance a Long-Range Property Management Plan for successor redevelopment agency properties as required by state law.
Ventura Street Guidelines adopted and reviewed.
Planning Commission received professional training for first time in 15 years

Other
Gold - Emerging Energy Leader Award – VCREA
Platinum Energy Level Award – April Anticipated
Equestrian Center
Approved adding Enhanced Active Adult Programs
Approved Active Adult Commission
Centennial celebration
Negotiation of an agreement with the school district to resolve the unpaid athletic field water bill matter. Plan in place to fix grass area.

Just a note on an aggravating city problem which doesn't seem to get better.

Central Avenue has one main, heavily used, pedestrian crossing in front of the Towne Theatre. For years now an increasing number of people tend to sit on and congregate around the brick planters on the east and west side.

Typically, six or seven men gather under the shade of the trees, sitting on the planters for most of the day. Usually bicycles, shopping carts or other personal property are tucked into the mix congesting both the sidewalk and crosswalk.

It's usually a congenial, low-key group, quick to tip containers in paper bags to travelers with a smile. But city council members have heard complaints as well about unwelcome comments addressed to female pedestrians walking by.

This is a nuisance problem for the city and a definite turn-off for tourists. The city has made efforts in the past to discourage groups from loitering in high-traffic public areas. If enforcement of a nuisance ordinance isn't working I think a little more brick to make the area uncomfortable for loungers may do the trick.

It's ironic that after spending millions on our beautiful city park, complete with fountain, and comfortable benches under shade trees, located one block away, that the Central Avenue Loungers don't use it.

This is more than a simple nuisance and the council should solve the problem as soon as possible.

***

Just a shout-out for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu! Thank God he has won a new term. He's a brilliant and courageous leader. He would make a great mentor for President Obama - but it's too late.

Conservative radio commentator Dennis Prager always has my attention in the morning, for as long as I can listen-in. He is among the plethora of brilliant conservative voices which own AM radio. Always thoughtful, insightful, and truthful, it's comforting to know they're there.

As I watch Hillary Clinton's opening act in her run for the presidency, a comment by Prager this morning dragged me back to the dark days of the Clinton presidency. He quoted a distinguished political commentator of the 1990s, saying, "Hillary Clinton is a pathological liar." Checking that statement online I find that numerous others have come to the same conclusion. Of course, lying is a family trait with Clintons.

Hillary should be criminally charged for her supreme public act of deceit, concealing the fact that she ran her office of Secretary of State out of her basement, on two private email servers. All national communications were handled this way for four years! She never used official (protected) government servers to transmit top secret information. Happy day for the Russians and Chinese intelligence services.

What worries me, as always, is the continuing popularity of another charlatan, like Obama. America can never recover its world prominence if it continues to elect slick talking fools and pathological liars like Barack Obama and Hillary. But liberals, leftists, and lunatics just love these types; perhaps because they resemble themselves?

Then I see a bold leading headline on DRUDGE, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of February 5, 1998, by Michael Kelly, regurgitating, ironically, the rich history of President Bill Clinton's lies, including the infamous "It all depends on what the definition of "is" is."

Have the American people become so stupid as to welcome the Clintonistas back to the White House? Or, have 50 percent of us always been that way?

I would be willing to bet Hillary Clinton does not run for president. If she does, I believe she will lose.
The thought of Clintons returning to the White House is alarming. Former President Bill succeeded in disgracing the office as no other predecessor in the country's history. It's not as alarming as watching Obama at work "fundamentally" changing the nation's social, financial, military, and medical stability, but alarming just the same.

The thought of having both of these love birds occupying the same house again seems comical at the domestic level. She could throw things at Bill with impunity, and sic the Secret Service on him when he's prowling around at night. This has always been the archetypical political marriage of convenience. They are two political peas in a money-power pod.

There is no important difference between Bill and Hillary's moral or ethical makeup. Both have always seen themselves above the law. That's the primary reason she took it upon herself to create and use her own email system during her stint as Secretary of State. She chose to avoid the official state email system altogether, which is protected. Using her own email system permitted her to control which of her emails would be archived, as demanded by law, and which would not. We can reasonably assume now that every official email Hillary sent or received during her years as Obama's Secretary of State has been hacked. I wonder if we can retrieve any messages on the Benghazi "Stand down"?

I don't believe Hillary will ever be president, but then, who knows what that 51 percent of our liberal electorate might do?

Thank you Lord for the rain!

***

Just a reminder that the public is invited to Appreciation Day set for March 1, at the Fillmore First Baptist Church, 1057 First Street in Fillmore. The church invites everyone to join in showing our support for all of our local Law Enforcement, Firefighters, and Emergency Medical Personnel. There will be an emergency vehicle display, and jolly jumpers.

***

I thought it would be interesting to comment on a few headlines from the DRUDGE REPORT. So brace yourself.
"Senate Republicans wave white flag on amnesty". They (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) should shut down the government before letting Osama get by with another unconstitutional move. If Republicans fail to keep their word on this issue, again, they deserve the contempt which will follow, and an end to conservative support.

***

"Osama military downsizing leaves U.S. too weak to counter global threats, panel finds”.

The world is more perilous today than in the pre-WWII period. Obama has pink-slipped thousands of our most experienced military personnel, cut back massively on procurement, and demoralized the troops with the blunt stupidity of his Leftist naïveté. China and Russia are boasting of military invincibility and North Korea is building long range missiles. Iran will have a bomb shortly, thanks to Obama's willful stupidity, which will precipitate a nuclear arms race throughout much of the world. Obama is sympathetic to bloody Islamic Jihadism (by an absence of meaningful response) and hostile to our faithful friend, Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East. Obama dreams of pacifying the Middle East with a "jobs program" for Islamic child rapists and sex slave entrepreneurs. Obama refuses to keep the promises made to the Ukraine for military protection against Russia (for which Ukraine, in reliance upon those promises, gave up its nuclear weapons) and refuses to provide defensive arms to the Kurds, also as promised.

How foolish, how positively stupid (and dangerous) are Obama's foreign "policies" which betray a complete lack of rational strategy. No rational person could believe his actions will result in anything but national and international catastrophe. The girls in the White House back room are dictating military strategy to our generals while our enemies laugh.

Barack Obama and his cabinet clowns, are killing America.

Last week I commented on the city's decision to end the lease with Fillmore Senior Center, Inc. (FSCI), who have been running our Senior Center. I received the information shortly before we went to press and promised more facts on the issue this week. Mayor Doug Tucker has provided those facts in his letter to the editor this week, so I will bow out of the discussion. If FSCI board members continue hectoring the city over the lease maybe the city should consider a suit to recover the $130,000 the city had to pay to settle harassment claims due to FSCI board members' conduct.

***

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen has saved the day with his decision to block Obama's unconstitutional immigration move to exempt nearly 5 million illegal aliens from deportation. The country is dissolving in an alien soup while the aliens themselves have become so embolden as to challenge and mock US laws. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) warns us of illegal alien ‘Militancy’ , and Mexican-American journalist Jorge Ramos warns of retribution in 2016. Both of these guys have abandoned their American loyalty as band majors for a foreign country. Remember the story of The Three Little Pigs? "Let me in or I'll huff and I'll puff till I blow the house in". It's past time to defend American sovereignty by securing our borders. Then, we also have the Islamic butchers of ISIS to think about - who just burned 45 innocent people to death.

When the history of America is written (by whomever is left to write it) say 50 years from now, Barack Obama will be recognized as the man who gave away the greatest nation in world history. It's clear to see that every major policy and decision he has made during the past 6 years has damaged our defense and domestic stability. He has gathered into his government some of the most ignorant, incompetent, and treacherous persons, people of the extreme Left.

While he has facilitated the moral dissolution of our domestic society, he has also given aid and comfort to the nation's enemies. It is his disastrous meddling in foreign affairs that will prove to be most directly responsible for America's demise. He will be the reason Iran will get atomic weapons, causing a world-wide arms race.

NATO is a toothless, paper tiger. None of America's old allies has the will or ability to form an effective defense against ISIS and its numerous affiliations. Russia’s Putin will continue his invasions of Europe. North Korea will continue making atomic weapons and ballistic missiles aimed at America. China, with its trillions in hand, will overwhelm Taiwan and other smaller Asian nations because the US is too weak to react, due to Obama defense cut-backs. We also have virtually all of the Middle East and North Africa turning on us.

Then there is Israel - the only democratic nation of the Middle East, and our ONLY friend, which Obama has singled out for abandonment.

Obama should be impeached, convicted for giving aid and comfort to the enemy, removed from office, and jailed. But, then we have Biden to deal with! Button-up your bomb shelter, because Franklin Graham is right in warning - "The storm is coming".

This Tuesday at approximately 12:00 p.m. the Gazette received copies of three letters relating to a lease-use agreement of city facilities (the Senior Center) by a non-profit group, Fillmore Senior Center, Inc. (FSCI). I have not had time to review the letters nor details of the long-brewing dispute between the city and FSCI. The City has taken action to cancel the lease with FSCU. As an Oversight Board member of the Successor Agency to the Fillmore Redevelopment Agency, Patti Walker opposes the action.

But, drawing from my year's experience covering some of the principal FSCI board members (when they occupied seats on the Fillmore City Council) it wouldn't surprise me learn that their complaints here are unfounded.
The city wishes to take over operations at the Center because, among other things, they believe they can expand and improve service. In an April 14, 2014 letter (addressed to the president of the FSCI board) reference is also made to recent problems at the Center where "...the City has settled claims from two now former employees for harassment suffered by Board members at the Center, at a cost of almost $130,000.00. As the Center is a City-funded facility that is intended to provide a benefit to residents of the City and the surrounding community, the City Council will not tolerate the mistreatment of anyone at the facility."

Apparently there have been ongoing issues under FSCI management at the Center.

Next week the Gazette will publish a more complete story. Essentially, the City has broken the lease with FSCI. Walker's departing comment at Tuesday's conclusion of the Council - "This is bullshit!"
Well, something really does smell bad here, Patti.

They say that crime sells newspapers. That may well be true but I do get sick of reporting it. That's why last night's school board meeting was such a refreshing change.

It was standing room only to recognize our Ventura County Sheriff's Department Fillmore Explorers and the students and staff participating in the River Restoration Project. What a great group of young men and women!
These are our future leaders.

Thanks and congratulations to each of you for the great work you are doing, and for the sterling example you are providing for the younger boys and girls who will follow you.

I really tried to pay attention to Obama's State of the Nation address last night, but failed in the effort. As I expected, it was just too unbelievable; the audience was given a peek into our president's make-believe world, that place where he is still the slick-talking, cool community organizer addressing his spellbound community. He is delusional.

Obama is someone incapable of accepting even glaring reality, and the glaring reality facing him today is failure, the catastrophic failure of his wildly liberal-leftist policies. In his head the hussahs of past election victories resound and the band plays on.

His speech enumerated what he sees as foreign and domestic achievements. His interpretations of his policy successes signify a psychological problem. Every presidential foreign policy directive has ended in serious defense damage to America. His domestic policy decisions damage us as well. Obama covers his incompetence and wrong-headed moves with blatant lies and obfuscation.

Who was responsible for the extraordinary screw-up concerning Fast and Furious? How incredibly stupid and tragic. Was it his crooked Attorney General? What about the IRS scandal? Whose policy was that? What about all of those bloody incidents of "Workplace Violence"? Our federal defense institutions are forbidden to call it Islamic Terrorism? Who told the Benghazi rescue team to "stand down"? Who ruined the effective sanctions against Iran, facilitating the construction of the bomb? Who backtracked on the "red line" in Libya, failed to help in Crimea and Ukraine, and sides with Islamic terrorists against Israel, our only Middle Eastern friend?

To watch Obama prattle on about his successes gave me a case of vertigo. And the crowd clapped enthusiastically. And, when I think of the folks he has appointed to run the show for him I'm surprised we haven't yet suffered another 9/11, or much worse. Al Sharpton, ex-dope dealer, Twana Brawley fraudster, tax cheat, and the country's biggest shakedown artist, a close personal friend of the president! Obama should go all the way and appoint the Reverend Al to the top drawer of his cabinet, Make him the Clown Czar in charge of race relations.

For these reasons I couldn't get through the entire speech.

Katzenjammer Redux.

First on last night's city council agenda was the issue of renewing the lease of our Senior Center to the nonprofit Fillmore Senior Center, Inc. (FSCI).

Among the officers and associates of the FSCI are former Fillmore City Council members Patti Walker and (volunteer) Gayle Washburn who addressed the Council. Neither is a resident of Fillmore. Walker and Washburn (both former tag team favorites for the now defunct "Katzenjammer" party) did not fail to entertain. They had been spoiling for another bout with the council which had replaced them; they wished to hold on to the Senior Center lease which they recently lost.

The FSCI group's complaints included the City's English language session taking place in their space. The City wished to enhance the Center's programs. Washburn and Walker threatened a lawsuit over alleged violations of the Brown Act for making the lease decision in closed session. The city attorney responded that real estate issues must be discussed in closed session.

It was shades of the old regime's tactics of confrontation and sour attitude; the last meeting headed by Washburn required the presence of three police officers. One person was ordered out of the meeting.

Well, this meeting turned out to be a tempest in a teacup; Washburn and Walker lost, again, and everyone went home peacefully. But I'm sure the team of W &W will find some other group to control soon.

I confess I miss (a little bit) the energy and entertainment provided by the old meetings. But, look how far the city has come (and overcome) in little more than a year under new management!

***

Once again our clueless President Obama has embarrassed America by deliberately snubbing France by failing to send a high-level representative to the memorial march in Paris for the 17 citizens murdered by Islamic Jihadists.

France has been our ally since the French and Indian War. Islam has been our enemy since the days of the Barbary pirates; and of course during WWI and WWII - and today, as well as the next several generations.

There are no more excuses for the president's actions - he is a friend to our enemies and the enemy to our friends. He has betrayed our Constitution which he has twice sworn to defend.

Congress should get to work on a few Constitutional amendments. One would give congress the power to remove from office any president whose words and actions clearly show, to the average reasonable person, that he or she is disloyal to the country by refusing to defend the Constitution, enforce the law, and/or is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Barack Obama is that disloyal President.

Islam has shown its murderous face again in Paris, killing 12 and wounding many others in an attack on a magazine publishing office.

This was a highly professional hit by Muslim terrorists who witnesses said were shouting "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" in Arabic ("Allahu Akbar").

French authorities, including President Francois Hollande, said it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity".

There is no doubt about this attack being barbaric. It was not, however, an attack of "exceptional" barbarity. This was just routine barbarity by a typical Islamic murder team. This is what they do, and have been doing since the year 632 a.d. This kind of sub-human activity is being carried out around the world by Muslims - not "radical" Muslims as usually described by the ignorant media, but by Muslims who believe in Sharia law as demanded by the Koran. These killers are not a minority in Islam, they are members of the vast majority, as has been clearly and conclusively proven.

Those millions who maintain that their peaceful practice of Islam is a mainstream, majority fact, and that the Jihadists are a small minority, are wrong. The vast majority of Muslim true believers throughout the world believe in Sharia law and the strict understanding of the Koran, that is kill or convert. As Brigitte Gabriel has stated in her important book "They Must Be Stopped" those who practice Islam peacefully are simply "irrelevant" in the scheme of things; they are a very small segment of Islam, and mostly too afraid of the "True Believers" to condemn the violence in any meaningful way.

Informed American authorities emphatically agree with Ms. Gabriel, including Steve Emerson, R. James Woolsey, Paul E. Vallely, Robert Spencer, and hundreds of others.

These Islamic Jihadists will continue their butchery until militarily destroyed.

Butchy
Enlarge Photo

Happy New Year to everyone!

Butchy the Cat
I’m encouraged by my six-year-old friend Heather Furness (who has her own office at the Gazette) to tell the story of the short, happy life of Butchy the cat. In the service of full disclosure, Heather is dictating and editing parts of the story.

Butchy was found one dark, cold night under the big oak tree in front of our school district office. He had been crying for something to eat. Butchy was at that time a very skinny, bright orange tabby.

He was given a can of cat food and quickly became a regular customer at the newspaper. He liked to follow along with the publisher and Pebbles the office mascot, on early morning walks down to A Street and back. Mostly, he lived in the rosemary hedge in front of the district office.

Butchy often liked to sleep on top of the Gazette’s front desk. He grew to be big and fat, and happy.

One day Butchy didn’t come out from the rosemary bush to join in the walk. His body was found half-way into the hedge as he had tried to escape an unfriendly dog which had ended his life. He died under mysterious circumstances just before the walk had ended. It is believed that a dog, which had been in an older, white pickup parked close to the hedge, had been released a few feet from Butchy’s front door.

Butchy is greatly missed.

The end.

All rights reserved to Ms. Heather Furness, 2014.

With the liberal Left on the attack against America's law enforcement officers across the country it's past time for all law-abiding citizens to join in the defense of our police forces. I'm sick of hearing the Al Sharpton race-baiting machine, the liberal media¸ our craven president and his crooked Attorney General heap lies and other abuse on the men and women in blue who keep us safe every day.

If law enforcement were to pull out of Sharpton's neighborhoods total anarchy would be the immediate result.

Each of the deceased black men Sharpton claims to champion were unlawfully resisting arrest, one attempting to take the officer's firearm. Every official inquiry found the police officers involved to be innocent of any wrongdoing. The mantra "Hands up, don't shoot" derives from a gross and proven lie. Crime statistics also prove that the black community suffers from a major cultural problem with deadly violence, mostly among members of that community. Chicago is a glaring example with its extraordinary black-on-black murder rate.

God bless our cops for the work they do, risking their lives every day to keep the rest of us safe! Let's stand together in their defense!