Last Saturday night Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) forced through a vote on her 2,032 page health care bill only a few days after releasing it to the public. Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is poised for another Saturday night cram down, forcing a Senate cloture vote mere days before his 2,074 page bill was given to Senators. Yet again, Congress will be forced to vote on a bill that none of them have actually read. More importantly, as we pour through the details, it becomes obvious that none of them even believe the plan will do what the bill says.

Kills Jobs: All told, the Reid Bill raises taxes by...

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/20/morning-bell-a-health-bill-nobody-be...

Assemblywoman Audra Strickland
Serving the Thirty Seventh District that includes Camarillo, Fillmore, Los Angeles, Moorpark, Ojai, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, and Thousand Oaks

Moorpark, CA. - Today, State Assemblywoman Audra Strickland announced her candidacy for Ventura County Treasurer-Tax Collector, a seat that is being vacated by current Treasurer-Tax Collector Larry Matheney, who is retiring.

"As the sitting County Treasurer-Tax Collector and having worked with Audra Strickland for the past five years, I know better than anyone that Audra is well-qualified in the most important parts of the job -- taking care of the public. In the areas that matter most, Audra Strickland is well qualified to be our next Treasurer-Tax Collector,” stated Larry Matheney.

Joining Matheney in endorsing Strickland, Supervisor Peter Foy made special note of Strickland’s ongoing efforts in the area of reform and accountability by highlighting her experience fighting waste, fraud and abuse within state bureaucracy. "Audra Strickland has served in the Assembly, served on the state's premier oversight agency -- the Little Hoover Commission, and serves as the Vice Chairwoman on the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, and as a member of the Joint Committee on Improving State Government. I can't think of anyone better to serve as our County Treasurer-Tax Collector to protect taxpayers."

Strickland responded, “I look forward to the opportunity CONTINUED »

Forget everything bad you’ve ever heard about President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus. Combing through the data on the $18 million Recovery.gov website, you’ll find tons of Obama stimulus success stories from across the country. In Minnesota’s 57th Congressional District, 35 jobs have been saved or created using $404,340 in stimulus funds. In New Mexico’s 22nd Congressional District, 25 jobs have been saved or created using $61,000 in stimulus cash. And in Arizona’s fighting 15th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending.

The it-would-be-funny-if-it-weren’t-our-tax-dollars-at-stake punch line...

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/17/morning-bell-the-fake-jobs-of-obamas...

And they add that both Muslims and non-Muslims can misunderstand Islam, usually by taking verses of the Koran that mandate violence against unbelievers "out of context." This excuse is very, very tired at this point, but the obvious rejoinder from reporter Baylie Evans should have been this: Then what are you doing in your mosque here to make sure that all the local Muslims understand the Koran in context and hence do not misunderstand it in the same way that Nidal Hasan (and so many others worldwide) did?

If Baylie Evans had asked that question...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/11/wyoming-muslims-say-fort-hood-jihadist...

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England CONTINUED »

Senator George Runner
Serving the 17th District which incorporates portions of the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

America’s truest heroes and bravest citizens are the veterans of war.

They embody all that is noble about the spirit and the commitment it takes to march off to face battles that are worlds away.

Hundreds of millions of men and women have served in the U.S. military since our country’s first war for freedom more than 220 years ago. Millions have died, and still more have been badly injured while in the line of duty.

The communities that I represent have seen thousands of men and women commit their lives to serving in our Armed Forces.

Veterans Day on Nov. 11 is a salute to our heroes. This remembrance is the very least we can give to those who have sacrificed so much.

To the many veterans of Antelope Valley, Fillmore, Santa Paula, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita, and the Victor Valley, I want to thank you for defending our great nation and for risking your life in the name of preserving liberty for all.

You are the patriots of this country. You are the gatekeepers of freedom.

America is known for defending the defenseless CONTINUED »

In a blog entry for Islamist Watch, David J. Rusin shows how the word "jihad" continues to be euphemized in the West. Despite Islamic law's unequivocal portrayal of it as a military endeavor to empower Islam, jihad is still being peddled as "nothing more than a student laboring to pass algebra, a mom driving her kids to soccer practice, or, in the words of the Cambridge study, a civic-minded person engaged in 'lobbying, activism, and writing' -- a community organizer of sorts." Rusin concludes by observing: "Why Islamists peddle such specious definitions should be clear. More baffling and disturbing is why they gain traction among so many Westerners."
Indeed, therein lies the irony: Islamist perfidy is only...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/11/raymond-ibrahim-islamist-perfidy-and-w...

Picking up on libels from a Leftist pro-jihad hate site, the Hamas-linked unindicted conspirator the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has claimed in its "American Muslim News Briefs" email that I own the domains f***allah.com and f***islam.com and have redirected them to Jihad Watch.

"In doing so," says the CAIR News Brief, "Robert Spencer may have been trying to actively market his hate material to like-minded audiences. It is a well known fact that keywords are a crucial factor in the popularity of a blog. This is damning evidence of the true gutter intent behind...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/11/f-cair.html

The increasingly left-leaning National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has eagerly embraced President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize as somehow validating the NAE’s own impending call for nuclear disarmament. Ironically, the NAE is moving almost in tandem with its former nemesis, the old Religious Left’s National Council of Churches (NCC), which is preparing its own ant-nuke statement for release later this month. Over 60 years ago the NAE was founded as a more conservative alternative to the NCC.

Apparently the NAE is now eager to echo the liberal Mainline Protestants at the...

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/05/evangelical-left-fawns-over-obama%e2%...

City of Fillmore

FILLMORE CITY COUNCIL
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2009
REGULAR MEETING
CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS
6:30 P.M.
FILLMORE CITY HALL
CENTRAL PARK PLAZA
250 CENTRAL AVENUE
FILLMORE, CALIFORNIA 93015-1907

AGENDA
ITEM
REFERENCE
1.
CALL TO ORDER & PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Oral
2.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Oral
3.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Oral
4.
CITY COUNCIL CONSENT CALENDAR CONTINUED »

A year ago this week, the American people elected a President who had promised during the campaign that he would: “cut taxes for 95% of workers and their families,” expand the Army by 65,000 and the Marines by 27,000, and enact “a net spending cut” for the federal government. Lower taxes, a strong defense and shrinking the size of government. Those are all core conservative beliefs. Accordingly, President Barack Obama entered the White House with sky high approval ratings.

But since being sworn into office, President Obama has raised taxes,...

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/02/morning-bell-we-still-hold-these-tru...

Senator George Runner
Serving the 17th District which incorporates portions of the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

California’s gas prices are the third highest in the nation, hovering around the $3.00 per gallon mark at the end of October. The average price of gas over the past three weeks for all 50 states was closer to $2.60 per gallon. So why are gas prices so much higher in California?

To begin with, California charges the highest gasoline taxes in the nation. California even collects a tax on a tax by charging sales taxes on the state and federal excise tax!

In California, taxes on fuel account for roughly 65 cents per gallon, which includes the state sales tax rate of 8.25%, plus 1.2 cents per gallon for Underground Storage Tank (UST) fees, plus additional local sales taxes where applicable. In Sacramento County, sales taxes are 8.75%.

We also pay more in California because of stringent environmental laws dictating that we use reformulated gasoline, which can only be supplied by a limited number of refineries. So when one of them shuts down, as the Tesoro refinery in Los Angeles did earlier this year due to a fire, the supply is reduced enough that prices inevitably rise.

With our state’s unemployment rate over 12% (and far beyond that in many counties), and the economy still a long way from being robust, these soaring gas prices put an undue burden on the people of California who are struggling to make ends meet.

Now more than ever we should be taking advantage of our own natural oil reserves, like the huge oil and gas deposits sitting 5 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara. The Tranquillon Ridge Project has bi-partisan support, and the support of the local government officials and environmental groups. It would bring in $100 million in royalties to the state immediately upon approval, and up to $4 billion in revenues to the state over the next 14 years, as well as help end our dependence on foreign oil.

With some of the highest gas prices in the nation, and the economy still struggling, California lawmakers need to stop raising our taxes, and start taking advantage of our own natural resources and potential revenue sources. Just food for thought, for the next time you’re filling up your tank.

Congressman Elton Gallegly
Serving the 24th Congressional District encompasses most of Ventura County and inland Santa Barbara County.

WASHINGTON, DC—“The unemployment numbers released today underscores what I have been saying for months – Congress should be focusing on real job-creation legislation. It should be Congress’s most important domestic priority right now,” said U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties).

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the national unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate since 1983.

“I voted against the trillion-dollar stimulus bill in February because it was unfocused and spent more on social programs than job creation. Unfortunately for the American people, I have been proven right. Unemployment was 7.9 percent nationally when President Obama signed the bill in February. It’s now 10.2 percent and growing. Very few jobs were created by the stimulus, as reflected in today’s unemployment numbers.

“Of those jobs that were created, more than half are government, not private sector, jobs. That means more deficit spending or higher taxes to cover government payrolls with no goods or services created to stimulate the economy. Likewise, the health care and cap and trade bills being pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will destroy millions of more jobs through burdensome and unnecessary regulations on small businesses and higher taxes on businesses and the American people.

“We can and must do better.

“I supported a stimulus package that actually would have created jobs by giving small businesses—which employ half of all Americans—the incentives to innovate and expand, thereby producing new jobs. Congress should repeal the stimulus package passed in February and pass this bill now.

“I supported an energy bill that would have created more jobs and enhanced our national security by expanding energy production in all areas—including wind, solar, nuclear and natural gas. I urge Speaker Pelosi to allow a vote on this bill.

“I support a healthcare plan that does no harm by opening up competition and reining in frivolous lawsuits and which helps the working poor and those with preexisting conditions to obtain coverage. Again, I urge the speaker to rescind her $1.3 trillion healthcare bill and push for real reform that creates, not destroys, jobs.”

Tom Pfeifer
Director of Communications
U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly
2309 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Congressman Elton Gallegly
Serving the 24th Congressional District encompasses most of Ventura County and inland Santa Barbara County.

WASHINGTON, DC — “Today I voted for healthcare reform that would have lowered healthcare costs without raising taxes, without cutting Medicare, without spending more than $1 trillion and without putting the federal government in charge of Americans’ health care decisions,” said U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties).

“The reform I voted for would have:

· “Lowered health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing Americans’ No. 1 priority for healthcare reform.

· “Established Universal Access Programs to guarantee access to affordable health care for those with pre-existing conditions while lowering costs for all Americans.

· “Ended junk lawsuits and curbed defensive medicine by enacting medical liability reforms modeled after successful state laws in California and Texas.

· “Prevented insurers from canceling a policy unless a person commits fraud or conceals material facts about a health condition.

· “Given small businesses the power to pool together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do.

· “Encouraged innovation by providing incentive payments to states that reduce premiums and the number of uninsured.

· “Allowed Americans to shop for coverage from coast to coast by allowing Americans living in one state to purchase insurance in another.

· “Cut the deficit by $68 billion over the next 10 years, according to CBO estimates.

“Instead, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the majority party in the House pushed through a $1.3 trillion healthcare plan that will result in higher premiums for all Americans, higher taxes on individuals and small businesses, increase the deficit and lead to more job losses when the national unemployment rate has reached 10.2 percent. This was the wrong prescription for America.”

Source: Tom Pfeifer
Director of Communications
U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly
2309 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, murdered twelve people and wounded twenty-one inside Fort Hood in Texas yesterday, while, according to eyewitnesses, “shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting.” Investigators are scratching their heads and expressing puzzlement about why he did it. According to NPR, “the motive behind the shootings was not immediately clear, officials said.” The Washington Post agreed: “The motive remains unclear, although some sources reported the suspect is opposed to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and upset about an imminent deployment.” The Huffington Post spun faster, asserting that “there is no concrete reporting as to whether Nidal Malik Hasan was in fact a Muslim or an Arab.”

Yet there was, and what’s more, Major Hasan’s motive was perfectly clear — but it was one that the forces of political correctness and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are...

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/06/jihad-at-fort-hood-by-robert-spencer/

Senate Democrats Thursday blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens....

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_COUNTING_IMMIGRANTS?S...

Long after purple shirt-wearing SEIU goons beat up conservative activist Kenneth Gladney outside a Missouri healthcare town hall meeting, not much has happened.

Almost three months after the incident the wheels of justice are spinning VERY...

http://newsrealblog.com/2009/11/04/still-no-prosecution-months-after-sei...

Big Hollywood has already posted a couple disturbing videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to President Obama, but when eleven more dropped in our email box it came as quite a shock. What seemed like an aberration now appears to be a troubling pattern.

Maybe “epidemic” is a better word.

Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last because the further down you go, the younger the children — brace yourself for kindergartners...

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/11/04/elementary-epidemi...

Last night, elections were held in several states across the nation, and by most independent observations, the results served as a warning to liberals. Whether it was Republican victories in Virginia, New Jersey or even in typical liberal bastions like Westchester County, New York, the post-analysis was framed on what does this mean on...

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/04/morning-bell-the-state-of-conservati...

Senator George Runner
Serving the 17th District which incorporates portions of the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

Your paycheck might be a little slimmer beginning on November 1. That’s because the California Legislature voted in July to take more of your hard-earned money by increasing the Personal Income Tax Withholding.

Assembly Bill x4 17 (Evans, D-Santa Rosa) allows the state to withhold 10 percent more of your money in an effort to raise $1.7 billion for the state coffers.

Essentially the government is borrowing money from taxpayers (without paying interest) because “nickel and diming” taxpayers wasn’t enough for this spendthrift Legislature.

I opposed this bill on the grounds that it was an irresponsible approach to balancing a woefully out of whack budget. I argued that the Legislature and the last two governors have relied on gimmicks and accounting tricks to balance the state budget. This is just one more scheme that delays solving California’s fiscal problems.

The good news is taxpayers are in the position to change the withholding number on *this form. I suspect many workers will choose this option – especially at a time when most Californians are stinging from economical hard times, that include job layoffs, devalued retirement accounts and lost homes; and at a time when the Legislature already raised taxes by an unprecedented $18 billion in February.

Or, taxpayers can do nothing and receive a bigger refund next year. But again, California’s Franchise Tax Board will not pay taxpayers interest on the borrowed money.

I believe people ought to hang on to as much of their money as possible for spending on their families and helping the economy grow – not bailing out the government.

* Always consult a tax advisor before making changes to your personal income tax withholding.