Written by Madeleine Morgenstern

Workers at a Detroit defense factory have been caught on video allegedly drinking and smoking marijuana during their lunch breaks — then presumably returning to their jobs where they make parts for armored military vehicles.

Tower Defense and Aerospace produces parts for military vehicles used by American troops in combat, including Humvees and Strykers. It’s a Department of Defense subcontractor, ultimately paid for on the taxpayer’s dime.

But a series of shocking footage from Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK shows workers appearing to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana during their breaks, all within sight of the factory.

In the footage, workers are shown... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/defense-factory-workers-allegedly-caught...

Thousand Oaks, CA - In conjunction with Foodshare of Ventura County, the California Water Service Company and the California American Water Company, the offices of Assembly Member Jeff Gorell and State Senator Tony Strickland got together to participate in Operation Gobble, an annual event to help feed local needy families.

A combination of 100 turkeys and an additional 100 gift checks good for the purchase of a turkey were donated by member companies of the California Water Association (CWA). The holiday entrees were delivered to Foodshare of Ventura County and Saint Pascal’s Church in Thousand Oaks where they will be distributed locally.

Operation Gobble is a 23-year-old program of the privately-owned water companies belonging to the CWA. Since its inception in 1922, Operation Gobble has enabled CWA water companies to feed hundreds of thousands of needy people. Legislators in the participating water companies’ service area participate in the program by recommending charities and helping to present the donations.

Written by Billy Hallowell

Mohammad Shafia, a 58-year-old Muslim man, has been charged with murdering his three teenage daughters in an apparent honor killing. Shafia is now on trial two years after the young girls were found dead — along with his first wife — in the family’s vehicle back in June 2009.

Police wiretaps show an unrepentant Shafia in the days before he was officially charged. Disturbingly, he can be heard saying that he would take the same actions again — even if his daughters came back to life 100 times.

The crime was committed in... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/honor-killing-muslim-father-charged-with...

This is the "Arab Spring" uprising that Barack Obama so enthusiastically endorsed. There will be no flowering of freedom and democracy; there will be an Islamic state.

I tried to tell you. More on this story. "Muslim Brotherhood, Islamist groups rally in Egypt's Tahrir Square," by Kristen Chick for The Christian Science Monitor, November 18:

Tens of thousands of Egyptians returned to Tahrir Square today to demand a quick transition to civilian rule. In a show of strength against the military junta's attempt to hold on to power, they challenged the military's ground rules for the new constitution and called for presidential elections by April 2012 – nearly a year earlier than the military's timeline.

The protest was called... http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/11/egypt-tens-of-thousands-throng-to-tahr...

Written by Becket Adams

Harvard University history professor Niall Ferguson says that Americans should be paying more attention to the eurozone crisis. He believes that the issues facing Europe are going to make their way to the U.S.

Writing in The Daily Beast, Ferguson explains why we should be paying close attention:

The first reason is that, with American consumers still in the doldrums of deleveraging, the United States badly needs buoyant exports if its economy is to grow at anything other than a miserably low rate. And despite all the hype about trade with the Chinese, U.S. exports to the European Union are nearly three times larger than to China.

Indeed, the EU and the U.S. economies account together for about “half the entire world GDP and for nearly a third of world trade flows,” writes the European Commission website.

Consider the $240 billion... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/harvard-prof-predicts-eu-crisis-will-con...

Written By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

BOWING TO BEIJING:

HOW BARACK OBAMA IS HASTENING AMERICA’S DECLINE AND USHERING A CENTURY OF CHINESE DOMINATION

By Brett M. Decker and William C. Triplett II

Regnery, $27.95, 231 pages

Reviewed by Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Illustration: Bowing to BeijingPresident Obama is creating a post-American world - one that is ushering in the dominance of China. Mr. Obama is fostering U.S. economic and military decline while simultaneously empowering Beijing’s rise to superpower status. China’s communists are on the march. Unless Americans wake up to the growing threat, both internal and external, our victory in the Cold War will have been useless.

This is the disturbing theme of “Bowing to Beijing: How Barack Obama Is Hastening America’s Decline and Ushering a Century of Chinese Domination,” by Brett M. Decker, editorial page editor of The Washington Times, and William C. Triplett II, a best-selling author and renowned China analyst. Lucid, concise and comprehensively researched, the book is a fire bell in the night. It is a dire warning that China has become what America once was to Great Britain: the ambitious upstart determined to eclipse the global colossus. The result will be not only the end of the American moment, but the triumph of a belligerent authoritarian communism hostile to democracy and the West.

“China’s leaders are... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/11/book-review-obamas-betra...

Written By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

Throughout the Obamacare debate, President Obama repeatedly promised, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” Now, Gallup reports that from the first quarter of 2010 (when Obama signed Obamacare into law) to the third quarter of this year, 2 percent of American adults lost their employer sponsored health insurance. In other words, about 4.5 million Americans lost their employer-sponsored insurance over a span of just 18 months.

This is not what the... http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-s-passage-millions-have-lo...

Written by Billy Hallowell

Should public school officials have the right to prevent students from wearing pro-American garb on Cinco de Mayo?

This question has been at the heart of a California court battle between the Morgan Hill Unified School District and students who were told by a principal and assistant principal that they could not wear American flag t-shirts on the Mexican holiday back in 2010.

Following the incident, a lawsuit against the district was launched by the students and their families. This week, the case came to a close, with a federal judge ruling against the students — a blow that is likely to infuriate some free speech advocates.

According to U. S. District Court Judge James Ware, the district... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/fed-judge-calif-school-was-right-to-forb...

Written by Daniel Greenfield

In this week’s issue of The Australian, Sheikh Hamza Abu Fas, Libya’s new Minister for Religious Affairs, gave Westerners a taste of the “free and democratic” that NATO had been fighting for.

The law that allowed a first wife to veto marriage to a second wife will be overturned. “The woman is not equal to the man in the body,” explained Sheikh Hamza. Thieves will have their hands chopped off: “If this happens it will only happen once because other people will not want it to happen again and will not commit theft,” said the good Sheikh.

Islamic banking will be the only kind of banking in Libya. “In the future, we hope all banks will be Islamic,” Sheikh Hamza said. “The Islamic bank is best for all people. All Europeans and Australian people will realize the best solution for banks is Islamic banks.”

While the Australian article is... http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/10/meet-libya%e2%80%99s-new-islamist-bos...

Written By Chris Ariens

Buchanan is doing the rounds promoting his new book Suicide of a Superpower. He’s been on CNN, with Erin Burnett, and on Fox News, with Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly and he was on FBN last night (anchor David Asman called it “a terrific new book”). But the MSNBC political analyst has not — and will not — be on MSNBC to talk about the book, which is #18 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

An MSNBC executive told HuffPo‘s Michael Calderone that there had been a conscious decision not to have Buchanan on air because of the views expressed in the book which is described this way on Amazon.com:

America was born a... http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/why-msnbc-analyst-pat-buchanan-wont-...

Written by Buck Sexton

The Navy’s newest unmanned stealth drone looks like a cross between the Silver Surfer and a UFO, but there are now plans in the works to add a super-extended operating range to its capabilities.
The X-47B drone is scheduled to have a pilotless, in-air refueling capacity by 2014 that will upgrade its in flight range well beyond 3,000 nautical miles, according to Wired.

That’s 10 times the mission capable range of a traditional manned fighter, which would mean that the stealth drone can operate well-beyond the reported range of China’s “carrier-killer” Dongfeng 21-D missile.

The Carrier-killer missile has... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/navys-new-x-47b-aerial-drone-could-upgra...

Written by Buck Sexton

Speed, agility, and a weapons system designed to destroy much larger ships define the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) triple-hull Type 022 missile boat.

Wired is reporting that China has already built a fleet of these missile ships, which are designed to dominate shallow water, shore-hugging maritime missions, and function as an inexpensive anti-ship platform compared to traditional frigates and destroyers.

But what is perhaps most distressing is the creation and deployment of this major Chinese weapons systems over the past few years has blown away U.S. efforts to build a similar vessel.

China plans to crank out a reported... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/chinas-deadly-missile-boats-outpacing-si...

WHO:

Sen. Tony Strickland, military service-members, and their families

WHAT:

The purpose of Military Family Appreciation Day is to provide service-members and their families an opportunity to enjoy good food, company, and entertainment and receive recognition for the sacrifice made by military families – a sacrifice which often gets overlooked.

This event is hosted by Military-Families.org, is open to the public, and will provide food for all attendees, live entertainment (bands and/or DJ), and group activities for families and children.

Sen. Strickland will give the welcoming address at approximately 1 PM.

WHEN:

Sunday, November 13, 2011 ~ 12 PM to 5 PM

WHERE:

Commemorative Air Force World War II Museum ~ 445 Aviation Drive, Camarillo, 93010

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today we will vote to authorize a subpoena against the Department of Homeland Security. We do not take this action lightly, but as the only remaining means to determine the impact on our communities of DHS’s refusal to take criminal immigrants into custody.

Secure Communities relies on the existing federal information-sharing partnership between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify removable criminal immigrants. Under Secure Communities, the FBI automatically sends the fingerprints of individuals arrested by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to ICE to check against its immigration databases. ICE determines whether an individual is unlawfully present in the United States or otherwise removable due to a criminal conviction.

ICE has stated that in determining whether to take custody of the immigrants and seek their removal, it prioritizes individuals who ICE believes present the most significant threats to public safety as determined by the severity of their crime, their criminal history and other factors.

DHS and ICE unequivocally state they do not remove all removable immigrants identified through Secure Communities or by other means. Specifically, data provided by ICE indicates that it has had 536,148 alien matches based on Secure Communities from October 2008 to April 2011. Of these matches, or hits, ICE indicates 226,694 aliens were taken into ICE custody. That means ICE booked 42 percent of such aliens into ICE custody.

According to ICE, more than half of aliens whom ICE allowed federal, state and local law enforcement to release committed “low level” crimes. Yet, when asked what low-level crimes these aliens committed, ICE stated they did not specifically track that data.

The Chairman has requested information on the arrested aliens ICE has declined to detain. This will help the Committee uncover how many of these aliens committed additional crimes after ICE declined to detain them. In fact what price do the American people pay for ICE’s current policy? That information is certainly under the purview of this Committee to request.

We have no choice but to vote to authorize a subpoena for this information.

Sacramento, CA – The California Chamber of Commerce has given Sen. Strickland a perfect score on their annual legislative vote record.

“I am honored to have once again received a perfect score from the California Chamber of Commerce, as the Chamber is a tireless advocate for all of California’s businesses,” Sen. Strickland said. “Businesses large and small are the backbone of our economy and making sure they are able to thrive is of the utmost importance to me.”

“One of my top priorities is putting hardworking Californians back to work,” Sen. Strickland added. “California continues to have the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation and the only way we change that is by creating jobs.”

The California Chamber of Commerce comprised their 2011 legislative vote record on 13 high priority bills that would most affect the state’s business community. The 13 bills fall into the following categories: economic development, environmental regulation, healthcare, labor & employment, litigation, and taxation.

A copy of the California Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 Legislative Vote Record can be found here.

Tony Strickland represents California Senate District 19, which includes portions of Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties.

Imagine you found the house of your dreams. The price is $450,000. You sign papers only to later learn the sellers made a mistake. The price for the house is actually $1 million. Fortunately, under California real estate law, you can back out of the deal. But if you were a California voter buying a train instead of a house, you might be out of luck.

In November 2008 California voters narrowly approved—by a vote of 52.7% to 47.3%— Proposition 1A. The measure authorizes nearly $20 billion in state spending to establish high-speed train service linking Southern California counties, the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.

At the time, the entire project was expected to cost about $45 billion. Proponents claimed funds from other public and private sources would cover the project’s remaining costs.

Tom McClintock, Jon Coupal and I co-authored the opposition ballot argument. We called the measure a “boondoggle” that “could cost $90 billion—the most expensive railroad in history.” We warned that no one really knew how much the project would ultimately cost.

After years of waste and mismanagement, California’s High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has finally admitted what critics like us warned all along: “Building the entire system will take longer and cost more than previously estimated.”

In fact, the price tag for this risky transit gamble is now nearly $100 billion—more than twice the original estimate. The new number is greater than California’s entire annual state budget. To fund the entire project today, every Californian, including men, women and children, would need to write a check for more than $2500.
Without those checks, existing funding will only be enough to cover the first phase of the project connecting Fresno and Bakersfield. Should additional funding materialize, Merced and San Jose will be the next stops.

Despite the uncertainty, the folks at CHSRA claim California voters still want to buy this train. At a recent press conference, CHSRA chair and former Democrat Assemblyman Tom Umberg said, “There are some things that do change—development changes, cost changes. But the will of the California voter, I believe, remains the same today...”

Mr. Umberg might believe California voters are still on board, but I’m not so sure. Much has changed since 2008. California’s unemployment rate has risen from single to double digits, the state’s budget has become much, much tighter, and our credit rating has been downgraded to the worst of any state in the nation.

Further, the deadly collision of two high speed trains in China earlier this year has prompted new worries about the safety of high speed rail and led to the recall of 54 trains, reduced speed limits and a moratorium on new projects in that country.

Finally, renewed concerns about our nation’s debt and overall government spending make the outlook for federal funding far less certain. Congressman Kevin McCarthy has introduced a measure that would freeze federal funding and require a thorough audit of the project. The measure, introduced last month, is being co-sponsored by nine other California congressmen.

Perhaps California voters support high speed rail regardless of the cost. If so, high speed rail proponents shouldn’t fear a new vote on their new plan. If not, it would be a breach of contract—or as liberal columnist Tom Elias puts it—“a bait and switch”—to move forward with a costly plan that is little like the one Californians voted for three years ago.

As even Mr. Umberg admits, there are other options for improving California’s crumbling transportation infrastructure. One hundred billion dollars—or even a smaller portion of that number—could do much to improve the roads, freeways, ports and airports Californians use every day. The taxpayers who will foot the bill should make this call.

To that end, Senator Doug LaMalfa plans to introduce legislation putting the project back on the ballot. California taxpayers should support his effort and urge Governor Jerry Brown, the Legislature and the CHSRA board to do the same.

Elected in November 2010, George Runner represents more than nine million Californians as a member of the State Board of Equalization. For more information, visit www.boe.ca.gov/Runner.

City of Fillmore

CITY OF FILLMORE REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2011
6:30 P.M.
FILLMORE CITY HALL
CENTRAL PARK PLAZA
250 CENTRAL AVENUE
FILLMORE, CALIFORNIA 93015-1907

AGENDA

Fillmore City Council Meeting Agenda - November 8, 2011
1. Call to Order: 6:30 P.M.
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Roll Call: Council Members Conaway, Sipes, Walker, Mayor Pro Tem Brooks and
Mayor Washburn
4. Approval of Agenda
5. Presentations and Announcements
A. Proclamation of November as Domestic Violence Prevention Month and Recognition of Soroptimist Efforts on Behalf of Breast Cancer Awareness
6. Public Comments
7. Consent Calendar - None
Recommendation for Items A. through C. is to Approve:
A. Approval of Warrant List for NOVEMBER 8, 2011.
B. Approval of Minutes of AUGUST 23, 2011, and OCTOBER 11, 2011 Regular Meetings
C. Approval of Designation of Fillmore and Western Railway/Lions Club Santa’s Village as a “Community Event”
8. Public Hearings - None
9. Department Reports City Clerk
9A. Discussion and Direction to Staff Concerning Towne Theater Sub-Committee Update (cont’d from October 11, 2011 meeting)
Recommendation: 1) Receive testimony from members of the public,
2) Council discussion of issues and sub-committee recommendations, and
3) Provide direction to staff. City Manager
9B. Authorize City Manager or Her Designee to Sign a One-Year Extension of the Franchise Agreement with Santa Clara Valley Disposal Services, Effective October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012, in Order to Allow Time to Merge Street-Sweeping Contract and Franchise Agreement Into One Document and to Incorporate the Revised Deal Term into the New Agreement.
Recommendation: Authorize the City Manager or Her Designee to Sign a One-Year Extension to the Franchise Agreement with Santa Clara Valley Refuse Collection/ Disposal Services and Street Sweeping, effective October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012, in order to provide additional time to merge the street sweeping contract with this new agreement and to revise the terms as outlined in the staff report. City Attorney
9C. Update to Common Area Infrastructure Fees for Fillmore Business Park
Recommendation: That the City Council adopt Resolution 11- 3325, entitled “Update to the Fillmore Business Park Common Area Infrastructure Fees.”
9D. Setting of Development Impact Fees for Williams Homes (Heritage Valley Parks Project Lots 36-69 of Tract Map 5474-2)
Recommendation: Provide direction with respect to the setting of development impact fees for development within the Heritage Valley Parks Project, Lots 36-69 of Tract Map 5474-2. City Manager
9E. Discussion and Adoption of Proposed 2012 City Council Meeting Schedule and Committees/Liaison/Outside Agency Appointments
Recommendation: Review and adopt the proposed 2012 City Council Meeting Schedule and assignments.
` Finance
9F. Consideration and Direction Regarding the Processing of Passport Applications
Recommendation: Due to the fact that there is another location approximately one block away and the time it takes to process an application which leads to service disruptions, it is recommended that the City cease processing passport applications effective December 1, 2011.
10. Council Member Reports, Recommendations, and Comments
A. City Councilmember Travel Requests/Brief Reports
B. Any Council Member May Propose Items for Placement on Future Agenda
C. Council Member Referrals/Brief Comments
11. City Manager
A. Announcements and Upcoming Issues
12. Mayor
A. Request to sign time-sensitive letters of support and notify City Council Members of same.
13. Closed Session
A. Conference with Legal Counsel - Existing Litigation (subdivision (a) of Section 54956.9). El Dorado Estates v. City of Fillmore, Case No. CV11-07562 SJO, United States District Court for the Central District; and El Dorado Estates v. City of Fillmore, Case No. 56-2009-00358555-CU-WM-VTA, Ventura Superior Court.
14. Adjournment: The City Council adjourns. The next Regular meeting will be held December 13, 2011, at 6:30 p.m., at City Hall, 250 Central Avenue, Fillmore, CA 93015.
Upcoming Meetings and Related Agenda Items (Info Only)

Written by NEAL B. FREEMAN

It was my good fortune to be the guy standing next to Bill Buckley when he became Bill Buckley. When I went to work for him in 1963, he was a fiery polemicist in the world of the little magazine. Less than three years later—after the Buckley newspaper column had spread to every city across the country, after the Buckley for Mayor campaign in New York City, and after the launch of the "Firing Line" television program—he had become a large and influential presence on the national stage.

What I remember most vividly from those transformative years are three things. The first is his extraordinary personal courage.

When Bill Buckley set out to... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020371620457701563125928857...

Written By Stephen Dinan

House Republicans are moving to subpoena a list of all immigrants whom the Obama administration has flagged under its secure communities program but failed to arrest for deportation, after the Homeland Security Department missed a congressionally imposed deadline to produce the information this week.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, said he wants the data so he can see who is among the 300,000 people the administration has deemed too low a priority to detain under new deportation guidelines. He has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday for the immigration subcommittee to vote to authorize the subpoena.

“Why would DHS want to keep this information from the committee?” Mr. Smith will say at the meeting, according to an advance copy of his statement. “If there is nothing to hide, why wouldn’t they provide Congress with these documents? Are administration officials concerned that the requested information will show that illegal and criminal immigrants intentionally released by ICE have gone on to commit more crimes?”

He first requested... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/1/house-gop-to-subpoena-imm...

Writen By Tony Blankley

Now is a particularly dangerous moment for American national security interests. It’s not just because threats are growing. It’s not just because the current administration is making a historic bungle from China to Iraq to Iran to Russia to Europe to Mexico to our historic allies in the Middle East - both Jewish and Muslim. All that would be bad enough.

But the greatest threat to our national security at the moment is the manifest indifference of the voting public to these foreign threats - and the silence on them from our alleged leaders. It’s understandable.

The devil has our economy by the throat, and Americans (when they think about politics) are focused on what Washington should do - or should stop doing - to defeat our domestic economic threat.

Obviously, the public is in no mood to go looking for foreign devils. Every 27-year-old junior Washington political operative knows this is a political season to advise candidates to talk about jobs , jobs, jobs. And they should.

But it is... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/31/chinese-dragon-flexes-ec...