Post Scripts

by Jack Lee

When former Republican Lt. Governor, Abe Maldonado, contacted the local Butte County Republican Party and said he wanted to set up a visit to the Chico Air Museum, the response was, we have an air museum? Despite our best efforts as docents and members of the Board of Directors speaking to local civic organizations, Chico’s air museum still remains one our town’s best kept secrets. This was one of the topics at last night’s C.A.M. meeting and of course, what we can do about increasing our visibility. Your thoughts would be welcome here on PS and we’ll pass along to the C.A.M. board.

The museum is a great deal for Chico because it’s free, the kids love it and we’ve already had thousands of visitors.  But, the best part is, the history.  There are some valuable artifacts that can’t be seen anywhere else.   Many visitors were surprised to learn that Chico played a significant role in aviation history.  For example, did you know the first air hijacking occured here?  Or how about the Thadius Kerns story.  He’s known as Chico’s boy aviator who hand built and flew his own version of the famous Wright flier not long after the first flight at Kittyhawk?   Did you know Jimmy Doolittle’s office desk is on display here, along with other WWII items?   

In about 60 days the museum will be expanding to roughly three times it’s current size and many exhibits previously warehoused will be on display for the very first time. And this brings up the next big issue: The museum will need more volunteers, a lot more volunteers!   The move alone will be labor intensive and help is needed, but staffing the museum with docents (guides) for the public and to protect exhibits is also desperately needed on a long term basis. You need not know anything about aircraft, just a desire to learn. Docent training is provided by staff.

The new facilities will be at the Ryan hanger located at the northwest end of airport. The hanger is massive, but it won’t take long to fill up, especially with a modern F-15 fighter among the inside displays. Positioning aircraft to make maximum use of the space and to be best viewed is going to be a challenge too.  My thought is a CAD computer program might be a big help for creating a visualization of how it might look.   Know anyone who could help us with a CAD program?

If you are willing to give a little of your time, your Chico Air Museum needs you!

We need to get a list of able-bodied movers and docent prospects in the next 4 weeks. If you are interested or know someone who might be, give them this article.

VOLUNTEER’S PLEASE CONTACT US:    The number to call first is the Chico Air Museum 345-6468, 9am -4 pm, Friday, Saturday or Sunday or call either 896- 1004 or 345-0757 or 828-7298 from 9 am until 6 pm on any other day.

Have an artifac to donate?  Call us.  We are seeking military uniforms, old photos, weapons of any sort ( we deactivate), collectable aircraft parts, and most any item related to WWI, WWII, Korean, Viet Nam, Gulf and Afghanistan.  Almost all military items or any other collectables related to the Chico airport.

Posted by Tina

The President has been saying recently that (Because of him?) America is now more respected in the world.

Who is he trying to kid?

Europe is pretty ticked off about the NSA snooping…not to mention policies that are making our economy, and therefore our place in the world more vulnerable. China and Russia are taking turns poking our President in the eye. South of the border the folks don’t appreciate the violence that fast and furious helped to fuel. In short the lack of strong leadership in the U.S. has created a world of uncertainty, increased violence and lack of growth and opportunity.

But the situation is even more devastating than these troubling realities suggest. The enemy that has referred to America as the Great Satan has a message for America:

A representative of al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip sent a stark warning to Americans during a Sunday interview on WABC Radio in New York : Get ready for Islam.

“Islam is coming, and there is no other choice,” said Abu Sager, a leader of Jihadiya Salafiya in the Gaza Strip, on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio ” on Sunday. “Because we think Islam will come, and this is something that no one can prevent.”

He did not claim that Islam would spread in America through acts of violence, WND reported. But he did suggest that jihadists who are currently fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad could turn their anger next onto Israel and the United States , the “enemies of Islam,” WND reported.

“And we will raise the Islamic flag on every point on earth where Muslims live, and we will chase all the enemies of Islam wherever they are,” he said. “Even in the West, in Europe and in the United States.”

A President that fails to adequately protect its ambassadors, that undermines its special forces, that closes embassies after uncovering threats, and that goes on Jay Leno’s nighttime talk show to chat casually about his policies rather than facing the world behind a podium has signaled weakness and made America more vulnerable to the ambitions of dangerous forces.

A President that refuses to acknowledge his policies have failed to pull America out of economic doom and vowed to change policies is not acting in the capacity of President but following a personal and politically ideological agenda.

In short Obama has failed to lead.

Is America more respected in the world after five years under Barack Obama.

No.

Posted by Tina

A most inspirational OP/Ed column in Forbes contained the following regarding the future of the GOP:

There is much to collaborate on: preserving freedom of speech, and of the press, and of the free exercise of religion; honoring the right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances; not infringing the right to keep and bear arms; rehabilitation the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonably searches and seizures; the right not to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Even, casting the net a bit wider, the classical gold standard and the repeal of the Estate tax!

The editors were speaking of the opportunity open to the GOP to attract Social Conservatives, Libertarians, Independents,…heck I’d suggest even a few very disgruntled moderate Democrats and bring them all together to meet and defeat the purveyors of redistribution, dependency, and central authority that threaten our nation in the coming elections.

This entreaty is bold and worthy of respect. It is a call to honor original principles in a nation that holds in her arms people of many and various interests and beliefs. GOP leadership can grab the mantle of leadership if it remembers who we are and if it recalls that our free nation has a long tradition of tolerance and acceptance despite the struggles we have endured to overcome differences and bigotry. We thrived as a nation for a couple of centuries because of the principles inspired by our founders, by living by the golden rule, and by keeping fences mended. These values are the platform on which individual differences can abide especially if we also advocate to restore power closer to home.

At the heart of this platform is the family where values are first initiated and supported. People settle where opportunities present themselves and where they feel most at home. Americans were once very proud of the state in which they lived, nearly as proud as they were to be Americans, and for good reason…the states reflected their personal values. Differences were respected but the thing that brought us together is that we were all Americans.

In the decades of my lifetime radical Progressive’s have undermined our Americanism by introducing special group loyalties. At the same time they have insisted that we all think alike; that we believe the same things; that we conform in every way. They have bullied and demeaned those who refuse to conform. This correctness in teaching and thinking has been a poison in our nation; it is an assault on our individual freedoms that must be dealt a fatal blow. Never before in our recent history has the nation been so threatened at its very foundations.

The Republican Party does indeed have an opportunity. It can survive and grow strong to win if it designs a platform that calls us back to our principles, our Constitution, and our heritage. It can attract support and grab the mantle of strong leadership if the party leadership respects our differences while honoring our founding principles.

America needs a champion about now! Each and every candidate will be called, perhaps as candidates have never before been called, to speak for the lasting value of Americanism. It is the only path that can unite the people and win against the dark elements that have sought for decades to fundamentally transform our nation.

Can pro-life Americans stand shoulder to shoulder with gay marriage advocates? I think we can if we remember who we are, if we recognize the dire threat of the radical progressive agenda as the highest national priority, and if we seek common ground on which to stand.

A list inspired by the editors at Forbes:

1.Preserve freedom of speech and of the press
2.Renew and preserve the free exercise of religion
3.Honor the right of the people to freely assemble and petition for redress of grievances
4.Respect and deny infringement of the right of the people to keep and bear arms
5.Rehabilitate the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonably searches and seizures.
6.Restore the rights of the people to not robbed of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
7.Return our nation to the gold standard
8.Repeal the Estate Tax

There may be more…I’m certain there is more. Any ideas?

by Jack

Realignment is the new buzz word for releasing dangerous criminals back on to our streets. Prison overcrowding is of course the reason. Supporters of realignment cite that crime is way, way down, lower than it has been in over 40 years, so what are we thinking by locking all these people up for long sentences? Apparently it has not occured to these dimwits that crime is down

precisely

because we have been locking up these criminals for long sentences!

I can’t speak for every state, but on the whole we generally don’t lock up people for petty drug crimes, there’s much more to it. In California the idea that our overcrowding is due to a lot of low level drug crime being given prison time is absolutely not true. A crook here has to make a considerable career effort to get to prison. For one, they must have made themselves inelgible for probation by past criminal convictions and a failure to abide by the terms of probation or they have too many convictions for violent crimes. This stuff is a fast track to prison the next time they get busted, even for seemingly small stuff like dealing drugs. So, it’s their criminal history more than any other factor that determines whether or not they go off to the big house. It’s not their money or lack thereof, it’s not their skin color, it’s their criminal history. As the saying goes, it’s not the skin, it’s the sin. I know, we can all cite some case where there was an injustice done and a person whent to prison when county time was more appropriate, but I’m speaking in the most general of terms and the system actually works pretty well, it’s not perfect, but it does what we wanted it to do 98% of the time.

Trying to get this simple point across to liberals is a tough job, despite the facts to support it. Even our AG, Eric Holder, is spreading this disinformation about too many criminal are being locked up because of racisim and/or petty drug crimes. The first thing liberals like Holder will tell us is how over represented blacks are in the system, which is true, but then they are over represented as offenders too. You will have to look a lot deeper than the justice system to find fault here. Holder has been a big disappointment, but then consider who hired him.

Posted by Tina

Speaking through their attornies several whistleblowers have come forward to allege that 400 US Surface to Air Missiles were stolen from Libya on the night of the Benghazi attack and that the U.S. Intelligence community is fearful that they will be used to shoot down airliners:

DiGenova said his sources are ‘former intelligence officials who stay in constant contact with people in the Special Ops and intelligence community.’

‘And it’s pretty clear that the biggest concern right now are 400 missiles which have been diverted in Libya and have gotten in the hands of some very ugly people.’

diGenova said that while he was uncertain whether the stolen weapons were being kept at the U.S. Consulate’s CIA annex, ‘it is clear that the annex was somehow involved in the process of the distribution of those missiles.’

This would explain Hillary’s hasty exit.

This incident should be thoroughly investigated by an independent prosecutor.

Posted by Tina

The most important questions voters have in the coming elections have to do with the economy and jobs. We need information so that we can support and vote for people that are most likely to get behind policies that will get our economy going and inspire good job creation in the private sector. Peter Ferara of Forbes asks one of the key questions and supplies needed information. He asks, “How Does President Obama’s Economic Recovery Compare to Those of Other Presidents.”

President Obama’s jobs record compared to others:

Since the Great Depression, there have been 11 other recessions in America before this last one. In all those recessions, the economy recovered all jobs lost during the recession an average of 25 months after the recession began. So the job effects of prior post Depression recessions lasted an average of about 2 years. But here we are today, 5½ years, or 67 months, after the recession started, and we still have not recovered all of the jobs lost during the recession.

Reagan’s record on jobs:

President Reagan…recovered all of the jobs lost during that recession within 36 months. At this point in the Reagan recovery, jobs had grown nearly 10% higher than when the recession started, representing an increase of more than 10 million more jobs.

In terms of Gross Domestic Product and growth:

…in the 11 post depression recessions before President Obama, the economy recovered the lost GDP during the recession within an average of 4.5 quarters after the recession started. But it took Obama’s recovery 16 quarters, or 4 years, to reach that point. Today, 5½ years, or 22 quarters, after the recession started, the economy (real GDP) has grown only about 3% above where it was when the recession started. By sharp contrast, at this point in the Reagan recovery, the economy had boomed by about 20%, or one fifth.

The President has been making speeches proposing a “grand bargain” which represents more of the same policies that have created a disaster…it represents no bargain at all. It is instead simply more political posturing for the coming election.

As Peter Ferara points out:

…the lesson of the whole 20th century is that decentralized free markets with productive incentives and real competition is what creates robust economic growth and prosperity.

He suggests that Obama has failed to learn this lesson which worked and worked exceedingly well under Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton and Bush. I don’t think it’s a failure to learn from the past. In my opinion, Obama knows exactly what to do to make the economy robust. He decided, in my opinion, that sacrificing the livelihoods, causing suffering and hurt in middle class America, was worth it if he could move the country toward single payer healthcare and fundamentally change how America works. His support of amnesty, college loans, and union creation is part of that same motivation.

Americans have suffered because the elite radical progressives in the Democrat Party leadership had a specific agenda and that is all that mattered to them.

Posted by Tina

According to Aaron Blake at the Washington Post House Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.) announced Sunday that Democrats purposely structured implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) so that it could be used as an issue in the 2014 elections:

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Candy Crowley noted that many of the law’s more popular items (coverage for pre-existing conditions, for example) kick in in 2014, while the part requiring all employers to provide health insurance, for instance, was delayed until after the 2014 election.

“The fact of the matter is, we will be running on Obamacare in 2014. In fact, we set it up to run on it in 2014,” Clyburn said. “All that you’re talking about right now kicks in as of January 1, 2014. We will start doing the exchanges on October 1, 2013.”

Most people on the right have already taken note of the many devious and dishonest methods used to write, pass, and enact this law. Is it any wonder that a majority of Americans disapprove of the bill…the elections will tell us more about what the people think of political dirty trickery of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid and the politicians that aid and abet them.

by Jack

NEWS from last week: Congressional staffers get subsidized premium healthcare. Many were worried that the subsidies would stop if if they were forced to into Obamacare. New rule was introduced to allow a continued subsidy of 75% of their healthcare premium, thus maintaining their status quo. Few legislators opposed this new exemption rule for fear that it could result in a sort of brain drain, i.e., staffers leaving D.C. for better jobs elsewhere. I think this is not likely – it’s just more self-delusional aggrandizement that seems enemic to Washington.

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Why is it that the most principled and rational voices in Congress come from Freshmen? Could it be because they are still connected to the hearts and minds of their constituents and they have not yet knuckled under to the corrupt temptations rampant in Washington?   Case in point… Freshman Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) on Wednesday accused GOP leaders of “colluding” with Democrats on a plan to exempt congressional staffers from higher insurance costs under ObamaCare. DeSantis said the GOP should be fighting this exception, which he said makes Congress and their staff a sort of “ruling class.”

“[W]e… have leaders in the Republican Party, some of the establishment folks who have kind of agreed, ‘Hey, we’re not going to touch this issue. We’re just going to kind of let it go,'” DeSantis said on the Rusty Humphries radio show Wednesday.

“So they’re colluding with the Democrats on that. I think that’s a huge mistake.”

“As a member of Congress and the staffs, we’re supposed to be part of servant class,” he said. “We serve the American people. We represent them, instead of a ruling class with different sets of rules.” This is a view not shared by enough in Congress to make any significant reforms and instead we see too many times where our founding moral principles are sold out for the path of least resistance and self-serving opportunities.

“The Obama administration released a proposed rule Wednesday that said the federal government could continue subsidizing the health coverage of about 11,000 congressional staffers, even after those workers access health insurance from new health insurance exchanges.

ObamaCare requires congressional staffers to buy insurance from the exchanges starting next year. But as the exchanges are designed to offer coverage to individuals who do not receive it through their work, the law does not provide a clear way for employers like the federal government to make a traditional premium contribution to workers’ healthcare.

The possibility of ending subsidies led some to worry that many staffers would leave Capitol Hill for other jobs. Under the current system, the federal government contributes 75 percent of premiums for congressional staffers.”

For more on this story click here.

Posted by Tina

What would you say if you learned our government would fine and punish with mounds of additional paperwork charitable non-profit hospitals for simply treating the uninsured? I hope you would say it would tick you off. I hope you would say it would make you think that the evil thinking in the White House had just crossed over a red hot bright line…I hope your opinion of this administration, and especially the leader of the pack, just dropped several thousand notches.

Daily Caller serves up the rotten news:

Charitable hospitals that treat uninsured Americans will be subjected to new levels of scrutiny of their nonprofit status and could face sizable new fines under Obamacare.

A new provision in Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, which takes effect under Obamacare, sets new standards of review and installs new financial penalties for tax-exempt charitable hospitals, which devote a minimum amount of their expenses to treat uninsured poor people. Approximately 60 percent of American hospitals are currently nonprofit.

Charity for the uninsured is one of the factors that could discourage enrollment in Obamacare, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or else face new taxes themselves from the IRS….

Hospitals could face fines of up to $50,000.00 if they fail to meet new guidelines and/or, god forbid, fail to fill out the added stacks of paperwork without error!

Single payer, the ultimate goal of this bunch of bandits, including president-in-waiting Hillary, is a government run and administered monopoly, people. The purpose for such shenanigans in the ACA is a population tearing their hair and crying out for a monopoly run by a socialist mob and enforced by our very own underhanded IRS. Read the article and weep for the healthcare industry and for the American people should we fail to relegate this bunch of turkey burgers to the ash heap of history!

Calm down…deep breaths…the ACA is less popular by the day and Democrats continue to join with Republicans in efforts to rid our nation of this abomination. Things like this are feeding the frenzy to end Obamacare now. Republicans in the House have also crafted reforms to replace the ACA; reforms that will serve Americans, bring costs down, and not cause confusion, mounds of paperwork, more expense and higher premiums, loss of doctors, cuts or delays in services, or add to the national debt.

Please pray for our country, if you are so inclined, and do vote wisely the next time you get the chance!

by Tina Grazier

San Diego California school officials have decided to enact a special classroom forum at the start of the school year that encourages middle and high school students to “vent their frustration that the world lacks justice”. They have dubbed the forum the “Trayvon Martin Dialogues” and cite the students “feelings of fear, anger, and skepticism that they will live in a just society” as the reason to hold discussions. A survey that asked teachers how they would discuss the case with their students resulted in several replying they would use the case to discuss “vigilantism and racial injustice”. We can only hope that a few will also discuss the negative influence of popular culture and the primary right of every citizen to self defense.

The forum proposal and the opinion of the sponsor:

The full proposal calls for forum participants to explicitly condemn “stand your ground” laws, which permit citizens to use force to defend themselves in dangerous situations instead of retreating. Florida’s law was erroneously credited with prompting the conflict between Martin and Zimmerman, though the matter never became a significant factor at the trial, since Zimmerman had no option to retreat, according to his official testimony.

The dialogues will “allow students to talk about the world view that prompted George Zimmerman to confront Trayvon Martin,” and “allow students to speak honestly about the ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws that could give one person an unfair advantage over another and the pros and cons of their perceptions,” according to the proposal.

Marne Foster, a San Diego school board member and sponsor of the proposal, said that she had three black sons, and that any one of the could have suffered a fate similar to Martin’s.

“They are still living in a time reminiscent of Emmitt Till,” said Foster, referencing a black teenager who was beaten to death by a white mob in 1955.

I will address the Oprah inspired, erroneous statement made by Marne Foster regarding the times her children live in and Emmit Till in a moment. It’s important to note at this time that this woman, the sponsor of the forum, has already slanted the so-called discussions and announced her agenda by naming it after Trayvon Martin and by calling for condemnation of stand your ground laws which had nothing to do with the Zimmerman defense.

The stated hope for the forum is that the discussions will, “teach kids the truth about Martin and civil rights.” It is doubtful that what has been labeled a teachable moment will teach the kids much truth or be anything more than another propaganda opportunity for race baiting cultural divisivness. Why do I say this? The sponsor attempts to make equal the case of Emmitt Till and that of Trayvon Martin.

We have discussed the Martin killing and the Zimmerman trial fairly extensively at Post Scripts so I won’t go through it again. If there are questions or disagreement we can address it in comments.

Emmit Tills story is worth noting. The account of his beating and murder is mind numbing and should serve as a gruesome and tragic reminder of the terrible injustices that black Americans suffered in our nation’s history. Using Tills murder as a comparison to the events surrounding Trayvon Martin’s death, however, is a disgrace that minimizes the sheer animal brutality and heartlessness that marked the evil of racism in Till’s time.

Racism played no part in the Martin killing. In fact these two cases have literally nothing in common other than the fact that both Till and Martin were young men and both were black.

An accounting of the Till murder at pbs.org reveals that Till was “kidnapped” and “brutally beaten” after which he was taken to the edge of the Tallahatchie River where he was “shot in the head” and then tossed in the river having had a “large metal fan used for ginning cotton” tied to his neck using “barbed wire”. Tills terrible “error” was that he supposedly whistled at a white woman.

Two men were indicted for the murder and witnesses testified about hearing the brutal beating. One was brave enough to point to the accused in court. After only sixty seven minutes of deliberations the jury decided the two men were not guilty and the court set the men free. They stood on the steps of the courthouse and gloated like fools…adding insult to injury.

Again…there is no comparison…these cases are in no way equal.

If the Trayvon Martin Dialogues is fully enacted as described the school system in San Diego will be guilty of inculcating a false racial narrative, inciting division and racism, furthering unfounded white (and white Hispanic) guilt in American youth, and fomenting hatred of whites in black American youth. It will be guilty of participating in and furthering lies that create division. It will be guilty of sentencing youths to another generation of dishonesty regarding race relations.

Racism and bigotry exist everywhere in the world and probably will for many decades to come. But the racist has been shamed in our civilization; we do not tolerate racism in America and our kids deserve better from their teachers.