I'm angry and this article shows it.
Los Angeles is currently under some very strict water rationing controls because of severe drought conditions resulting from low rain fall totals over the last several years. At least that is what City Hall is telling us.
Uh-huh…
In addition several months ago Los Angeles experienced a series of water main breaks at such an alarming rate that it raised enough concern to look into possible causes. At the time the question was raised on whether the current DWP water restrictions could have anything to do with so many serious breaks and subsequent water damage to the community. The head of the Department of Water and Power at the time David Nahai stated that such a notion was “absolute nonsense.” A report released today April 14, 2010, shows that is exactly what happened. Mercury.com http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14880218?nclick_check=1
reported “pressure fluctuated in the city's 7,200-mile water system, straining aging and corroded cast iron pipes until they burst,” commented “University of Southern California civil engineering professor Jean-Pierre Bardet, who led the team of scientists and private-sector analysts.” We’ve lost billions of gallons of water in the process and have spent millions of dollars fixing the problem.
Who’s fault is that? Did we even need water rationing?
Although rain fall totals were slightly under normal over the 2008-2009 season there was no reason to impose water restrictions. Charles Fisk, a meteorologist at Point Magu Naval airbase in Ventura County shows on his website http://home.att.net/~station_climo/ that most of our rainfall during the 2008-2009 season occurred by the middle of February and was by that time less than an inch under normal. Over the previous three rainy seasons we had one the previous season that was like this past year, one poor enough that it did warrant drought conditions, and one that recorded the second highest rainfall in the history of the city since they began recording those kinds of statistics back in 1877. http://www.laalmanac.com/weather/we13.htm
If we take the previous several years of rainfall and compare that with the last time we had real drought conditions during the 1990s it is clear that much higher rainfall totals currently than the last time have led to the same institutionalized rationing. In the 1980s Los Angeles experienced six out of seven years of drought. The one year that rainfall was above normal was only two inches above. Finally in May of 1990 Mayor Tom Bradley called for water rationing in an attempt to conserve what was by then precious water sources. This was after six years of lower rainfall totals. Water reservoir totals were way down. It was justified then, it isn’t justified now.
The fact that we are experiencing so many breaks has to make some people wonder. I am not an expert on these matters, but you don’t need to be to understand a possible correlation with a review of some of the standard data available on the Internet. Confirming that we really didn’t have rainfall totals over the previous several years to call for drought conditions and therefore install mandatory water rationing a year ago , is definitely suspicious. A desperate set of politicians from the Mayor in collusion with the Department of Water and Power and the City Council have secretly and nefariously imposed water restrictions on a major metropolitan community that did not need it.
As of November 2, 2009 44 serious pipe bursts had occurred in the Los Angeles water system. The result of the Mayor and the City Council decisions has cost the city billions in resources and dollars—dollars the city of Los Angles cannot afford to lose.
Why would they do this?
The level of deceit and dishonesty in this matter is beyond comprehension. In my opinion the city leaders instituted this program of rationing to be able to set up a revenue base from violations that would help in their current budget problems. That is inexcusable. And, if that is not the reason, then they should be made to tell us the reason. The Mayor, his council and all those connected with this sham should be investigated. Elected politicians should be recalled, appointed bureaucrats should be fired without their severance or pensions for their civil service.
By the way, David Nahai is no longer the head of the LADWP, probably seeing the writing on the wall he resigned last fall, to take some other international water running job. That should not save him. He should be penalized through his pension the same as every one else, no matter where he is now.
We don’t have to take this from these guys. They work for us. They answer to us. And, our answer to this incident should be, Your fired, get out!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Friday, April 09, 2010
Confessions of a Conservative Jew
Written in response to the onslaught of articles from the Left claiming that the Tea Party is anti-Semitic in nature and for that reason needs to be stopped
There it is, right in the middle of the picture, in pure bright colors, flanked by American flags and contrasted by a deep blue sky in the background. A protest, a democratic ritual, a grass roots staple, nothing more American than that, right? Wrong. The sign states a common canard that develops understandable stomach lumps in one small but very significant group of Americans. It would be absurd if it didn’t have such dangerous historical implications. But, there it is, right in the center of the picture and it reads as clear as day, “Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds (sic).”
Jews have to be a little uneasy with this kind of statement. As a conservative Jew I am ashamed that this and other photos of certain anti-Semitic slogans are taking any part in a movement that I am highly proud of as an American. Smacking of the 100 year old “protocols of the Elders of Zion” it has no place in American political discourse. Yet, the companion article to this photo makes T-Partiers appear everyone out there is anti-Semitic. But, that is not the case. Of course, liberals, like Glenn thrush of Politico.com who is responsible for the above, would have you believe that because of a handful bigoted slogans, anti-Semitism is running rampant through T-Party thinking. Why?
There is a rash of liberal journalists running interference for the administration because the T-party is beginning to have an impact on American thinking. Their numbers are huge. The demonstrations across the country are very impressive. With the hundreds of thousands of Americans taking part and the millions more supporting them from their homes, businesses and schools, represents the most frightening reality to liberals, that America is waking up from their dream state of November 2008 and they want their country back. So, liberal media, the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party is working hard to show that the T-party is not as American as apple pie, but rather something dark, sinister, and hateful, among other things—anti-Semitic.
According to Rob Eshman, the editor in chief of the largest Jewish newspaper in the second largest Jewish population in the world, Los Angeles, devoted his entire column the week of the health care vote trying to discredit the Tea Party influence by insisting that anti-Semitism is the pillar of the movement. He pointed out that Rahm Emanuel had received some hate mail signed with a swastika. He used Eric Hoffer’s “true believer” axiom to show that Americans are going along with this without question. He seemed a little disappointed that after the meteoric rise of the movement to such gargantuan proportions that no single charismatic leader has risen to take charge reminiscent of Hitler and the Nazis. He quoted James Bessor from another widely read Jewish periodical “almost all the political scientists I talked to said, the insurgent movement also includes elements that are likely to scare the heck out of Jewish voters. “
What elements? Where?
Conservative and Independent Jews are indeed worried about anti-Semitism but not at Eshman’s and Bessor’s assertions. Understanding that there are a few crazies in the movement which need to be exorcised and put down is not worrisome. Anti-Semitism in the tea party is an anomaly which is being dealt with the way anti-Semitism should be dealt with in a free human rights respected society. For Liberal Jewish voters, the kind that Eshman, Bessor, Thrush and others are speaking for in their hysteria need to be more worried than we conservatives. Anti-Semitism in the Democratic party which is broad and extensive unfortunately has never been checked and now in the beginning of the 21st century has an un-relinquishing grip on the party. It is the ugly little secret that liberal Jews never want to talk about much less do anything constructive to combat it.
This animus toward Jews is propelled mainly by three sources very much entrenched in party workings, the extreme Left wing, the African American community and certain Muslim and Arab groups.
Historically, the pull away from Jewish interests in the Democratic Party can be traced directly to the 1972 platform where they endorsed recognition of Palestinian rights at a time when terror was the Palestinians only negotiating tool. Unchallenged, that cancer has continued to grow over the last four decades turning the Democrats from a party of American inclusion to a prioritize cluster of elite groups underpinned with anti-Semitism.
Aside from its sheer dishonesty and a refusal to face facts and understand history, Jewish liberal hypocrisy on the matter is unforgivable. Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post describes an isolated disgusting poster at a T-Party rally which has nothing to do with T-party politics. The text reads “Uncle Sam Reminds You: KEEP PAYING TAXES. The ongoing extermination of Palestinian Children Can't be Done Without Your Help.” Insinuating through Holocaust imagery that American tax dollars going to the State of Israel are used to murder children is an outright lie that is never challenged by the liberal Jewish left, when leftist demonstrations use the same imagery. Leftists have forever tried to distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, claiming that political statements concerning Israel and its survival struggle with the Palestinians are legitimate and should be separated from the Nazi like real anti-Semitism of the right wing. Yet, here Linkins uses it to show anti-Semitism running rampant through T-party motivations.
Can Liberal Jews do anything to reverse this trend? Getting rid of this ugliness is highly unlikely at this point. The time for that is long since past. The only way to purge this viciousness would be to challenge these groups for party supremacy and then remove their constituents from any positions of power they hold. That is not possible at this time. That would destroy the foundations of what the party is, I don’t think even Liberal Jews want that.
What they have done instead with these articles is to draw a moral equivalency between the two major American ideologies thereby diffusing any complicity in the crime. After all, if anti-Semitism exists equally on the right and the left then the issue seems to cancel each other out as criteria for supporting Jewish causes.
Taking the low road and not standing up to this threat when it was possible to do so will cost the Jews as it has at other times in history. European Jewry followed somewhat the same course in Western Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. We all know how that ended up.
Well, there is one thing they could do, and I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it here. Here is my constant message to my Jewish brothers and sisters. Leave the Democratic Party now. It is the conservative thought in this country which now holds the key to our salvation and our freedom. You need to realize and embrace it. It is the only way to continue to flourish and take advantage of the freedoms we are given here.
For some reason I cannot see journalists like Eshman and Linkins or politicians like Barney Frank and Rahm Emanuel making those kinds of courageous changes. I just don’t think they have it in them.
It is right that these isolated placards that show an anti-Semitic bent in T-party demonstrations be exposed and put down as quickly as possible. There is no room for that in this country. We do not need to redefine freedom; we just need to extend it to all who are willing to fight for it. It appears that the T-party is just such a group, and this is definitely within Jewish interests. As Jews we need to stay on course, keep freedom alive, and keep America strong.
There it is, right in the middle of the picture, in pure bright colors, flanked by American flags and contrasted by a deep blue sky in the background. A protest, a democratic ritual, a grass roots staple, nothing more American than that, right? Wrong. The sign states a common canard that develops understandable stomach lumps in one small but very significant group of Americans. It would be absurd if it didn’t have such dangerous historical implications. But, there it is, right in the center of the picture and it reads as clear as day, “Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds (sic).”
Jews have to be a little uneasy with this kind of statement. As a conservative Jew I am ashamed that this and other photos of certain anti-Semitic slogans are taking any part in a movement that I am highly proud of as an American. Smacking of the 100 year old “protocols of the Elders of Zion” it has no place in American political discourse. Yet, the companion article to this photo makes T-Partiers appear everyone out there is anti-Semitic. But, that is not the case. Of course, liberals, like Glenn thrush of Politico.com who is responsible for the above, would have you believe that because of a handful bigoted slogans, anti-Semitism is running rampant through T-Party thinking. Why?
There is a rash of liberal journalists running interference for the administration because the T-party is beginning to have an impact on American thinking. Their numbers are huge. The demonstrations across the country are very impressive. With the hundreds of thousands of Americans taking part and the millions more supporting them from their homes, businesses and schools, represents the most frightening reality to liberals, that America is waking up from their dream state of November 2008 and they want their country back. So, liberal media, the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party is working hard to show that the T-party is not as American as apple pie, but rather something dark, sinister, and hateful, among other things—anti-Semitic.
According to Rob Eshman, the editor in chief of the largest Jewish newspaper in the second largest Jewish population in the world, Los Angeles, devoted his entire column the week of the health care vote trying to discredit the Tea Party influence by insisting that anti-Semitism is the pillar of the movement. He pointed out that Rahm Emanuel had received some hate mail signed with a swastika. He used Eric Hoffer’s “true believer” axiom to show that Americans are going along with this without question. He seemed a little disappointed that after the meteoric rise of the movement to such gargantuan proportions that no single charismatic leader has risen to take charge reminiscent of Hitler and the Nazis. He quoted James Bessor from another widely read Jewish periodical “almost all the political scientists I talked to said, the insurgent movement also includes elements that are likely to scare the heck out of Jewish voters. “
What elements? Where?
Conservative and Independent Jews are indeed worried about anti-Semitism but not at Eshman’s and Bessor’s assertions. Understanding that there are a few crazies in the movement which need to be exorcised and put down is not worrisome. Anti-Semitism in the tea party is an anomaly which is being dealt with the way anti-Semitism should be dealt with in a free human rights respected society. For Liberal Jewish voters, the kind that Eshman, Bessor, Thrush and others are speaking for in their hysteria need to be more worried than we conservatives. Anti-Semitism in the Democratic party which is broad and extensive unfortunately has never been checked and now in the beginning of the 21st century has an un-relinquishing grip on the party. It is the ugly little secret that liberal Jews never want to talk about much less do anything constructive to combat it.
This animus toward Jews is propelled mainly by three sources very much entrenched in party workings, the extreme Left wing, the African American community and certain Muslim and Arab groups.
Historically, the pull away from Jewish interests in the Democratic Party can be traced directly to the 1972 platform where they endorsed recognition of Palestinian rights at a time when terror was the Palestinians only negotiating tool. Unchallenged, that cancer has continued to grow over the last four decades turning the Democrats from a party of American inclusion to a prioritize cluster of elite groups underpinned with anti-Semitism.
Aside from its sheer dishonesty and a refusal to face facts and understand history, Jewish liberal hypocrisy on the matter is unforgivable. Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post describes an isolated disgusting poster at a T-Party rally which has nothing to do with T-party politics. The text reads “Uncle Sam Reminds You: KEEP PAYING TAXES. The ongoing extermination of Palestinian Children Can't be Done Without Your Help.” Insinuating through Holocaust imagery that American tax dollars going to the State of Israel are used to murder children is an outright lie that is never challenged by the liberal Jewish left, when leftist demonstrations use the same imagery. Leftists have forever tried to distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, claiming that political statements concerning Israel and its survival struggle with the Palestinians are legitimate and should be separated from the Nazi like real anti-Semitism of the right wing. Yet, here Linkins uses it to show anti-Semitism running rampant through T-party motivations.
Can Liberal Jews do anything to reverse this trend? Getting rid of this ugliness is highly unlikely at this point. The time for that is long since past. The only way to purge this viciousness would be to challenge these groups for party supremacy and then remove their constituents from any positions of power they hold. That is not possible at this time. That would destroy the foundations of what the party is, I don’t think even Liberal Jews want that.
What they have done instead with these articles is to draw a moral equivalency between the two major American ideologies thereby diffusing any complicity in the crime. After all, if anti-Semitism exists equally on the right and the left then the issue seems to cancel each other out as criteria for supporting Jewish causes.
Taking the low road and not standing up to this threat when it was possible to do so will cost the Jews as it has at other times in history. European Jewry followed somewhat the same course in Western Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. We all know how that ended up.
Well, there is one thing they could do, and I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it here. Here is my constant message to my Jewish brothers and sisters. Leave the Democratic Party now. It is the conservative thought in this country which now holds the key to our salvation and our freedom. You need to realize and embrace it. It is the only way to continue to flourish and take advantage of the freedoms we are given here.
For some reason I cannot see journalists like Eshman and Linkins or politicians like Barney Frank and Rahm Emanuel making those kinds of courageous changes. I just don’t think they have it in them.
It is right that these isolated placards that show an anti-Semitic bent in T-party demonstrations be exposed and put down as quickly as possible. There is no room for that in this country. We do not need to redefine freedom; we just need to extend it to all who are willing to fight for it. It appears that the T-party is just such a group, and this is definitely within Jewish interests. As Jews we need to stay on course, keep freedom alive, and keep America strong.
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