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| Barbs & Bouquets |
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| Written by Press Editorial Board / | |
| Monday, 18 February 2008 | |
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Aquatics
specialist is unnecessary when city is drowning in red ink.
BARB: To the city of Tracy Human Resources Department,
for recommending the creation of an aquatics specialist position to oversee the
daily operations of the Joe Wilson and new West High School pools this summer.
This is an example of wasteful government spending, especially when the city
faces a budget deficit. It’s unnecessary to establish a seasonal supervisory
job that pays the equivalent of a $35,000 annual salary when there are managers
at both pools who could assume similar responsibilities — assigning staff
duties and schedules, pool facility inspections and ensuring the safety of pool
patrons — and could report to the recreation coordinator.
BOUQUET: To organizers of the 10th annual Tracy
Women’s Forum, for arranging the daylong March 14 event of informative and
inspirational speakers, networking and vendors. This year’s forum will include
a human rights address by Nontombi Naomi Tutu, the daughter of South African
Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Registration at www.tracywomensforum.com ends
Friday.
BARB: To Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., for making good on his
threat to author a bill to strip Berkeley of more than $2.1 in federal money
because the Berkeley City Council originally asked the Marine recruitment
office there to close. The measure has the support of 10 other senators and 61
representatives. The money is earmarked for ferry service to Berkeley and
Albany, the Berkeley Unified School District’s Edible Schoolyard program, a
police and fire emergency communications system, the Robert T. Matsui
Foundation for Public Service at the University of California, Berkeley, and
the Ed Roberts Campus, which serves disabled adults and children.
BOUQUET: To the Port of Stockton, for getting more than $4.1
million in security money from Proposition 1B fund that voters approved in
2006. As one of the nation’s most vital agricultural ports and regarded as a
terrorist target, the port will use the money to build a secure cargo
inspection area for products entering the port and a backup power generator and
for a comprehensive assessment of the port’s security needs for the next five
years.
BOUQUET: To California’s Fair Political Practices Commission,
for requiring politicians to disclose shopping, dining and out-of-state travel
worth more than $99 from campaign funds. Giving public exposure to such
spending is designed to help potential voters decide whether such expenditures
serve a legitimate political, governmental or legislative interest.
BARB: To the state Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, for not having money or a plan to monitor paroled sex offenders
for life as required under Proposition 83, the initiative overwhelming approved
by California voters 15 months ago.
BOUQUETS: To the recipients of Tracy Unified
School District’s Outstanding Employees of the Winter Term award, Kelley
Elementary aide Lucy Villasenor, Williams Middle clerk Debi Brockett, Tracy
High bilingual aide Jessica Baca, Hirsch Elementary fourth-grade teacher Molly
Batrez, Monte Vista Middle eighth-grade core teacher Carol Wyant, Stein High
math teacher Juan Lopez and district administrative personnel clerk Gloria
Wells.
BARB: To Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar,
for threatening to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless
British investigators backed off from looking into Saudi arms deals.
BOUQUET: To filmmaker Steven Spielberg, for withdrawing as an
artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies at the Beijing Summer
Olympics because of China’s connection to the government of Sudan and the
controversy over Darfur. Hopefully, Spielberg’s protest will be one of many
against the Chinese.
The Tracy
Press encourages a free and open exchange of ideas and information. We reserve
the right but do not assume any obligation to delete comments that do not meet
our publishing standards.
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Comments
(31)
WRONG!!! I hope Berkeley falls into the ocean with the next earthquake. Is the Tracy Press anti-military too? I could always forward this article to Move America Forward. Do you want to be on their list too?
Jim DeMint is, without doubt, one of the most disturbing members of Congress. His recent book is a paean to intolerance. More to the point of the Barb, though, is that the programs damaged by the grants have nothing whatsoever to do with their position on recruiting facilities. "Collective punishment" is unacceptable in wartime and should be considered poison in politics.
TRACY PRESS...ARE YOU CRAZY OR SOMETHING??? ARE YOU COSIGNING THE OPERATION PINK AND GOING AGAINST OUR MARINES WHO PROTECT OUR FREEDOMS AND FREEDOM OF SPEACH? THE PEOPLE IN BERKELY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. ASHAMED WITH A CAPITOL "A". AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO ! SHAME ON YOU ! I dare you or double dare you to place this on ther front page where you back up Berkely. Shame!
"congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale, and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged! “ .....President Abraham Lincoln BARB: To Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., for making good on his threat to author a bill to strip Berkeley of more than $2.1 in federal money because the Berkeley City Council originally asked the Marine recruitment office there to close. The measure has the support of 10 other senators and 61 representatives. The money is earmarked for ferry service to Berkeley and Albany, the Berkeley Unified School District’s Edible Schoolyard program, a police and fire emergency communications system, the Robert T. Matsui Foundation for Public Service at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Ed Roberts Campus, which serves disabled adults and children.
SHAME ON YOU AND I WILL NEVER EVER FORGET YOUR ANTI-AMERICAN BARB. I WONT EVER STEP INSIDE OF YOUR BUILDING EVER AGAIN NOR WILL I BUY YOUR PAPER AGAIN. NEVER. SHAME ON YOU !
Sorry, Tracy Press, I can't agree with you on this one. And I can't agree with Marc Davis either. For one, Sen. Jim DeMint is not as disturbed as Nancey Pelosi or Harry Reid. Or even Ted Kennedy or John Kerry. I wouldn't call it collective punishment either. Well then maybe the FAA shouldn't punish Tracy making it maintain a runway that isn't used? Is that collective punishment? Now, is it smart for the Tracy Press to be siding against the military when one of its largest job providers is the US government? Think I am wrong? Drive along Chrisman Road. The Defense Depot employs alot of Tracy citizens. The US Army is also there. Given the rich military history that Tracy has, I wouldn't be defending Berkely too much right now. Tracy doesn't need that kind of reputation, not when a major US Government contractor is in town providing jobs. We need more politicians like Sen. DeMint who WILL hold liberal cities responsible for their military support. Frank, you should forward this on. Get ahold of Bill O'Reilly at FOX News also. At a time when our city council actually has to VOTE on banners to show its support for military members, there must be an underlying problem. Perhaps the sewage from Berkely is seeping towards Tracy in a as of yet to be found underground plume. Expose it now!
No problem on the spelling, but do you both really think that by punishing disabled children the Berkeley City Council is somehow improved?
Disabled children? I guess their parents can't take care of them. Socialism at its finest. No thank you.
I think it is the message in general. I do not think it was directed at the disabled children directly. There were other programs and services that were "collateral damage". In general it affected the city as a whole. Using the disabled childrens program was cheap shot that was used to promote the sensationalism of the act of cutting funds. Here is the thing that gets me the most, is the barb from the Tracy Press. A barb is a barb, big deal, 75% of the residents won't read it anyway. But the mere fact the the TP would do that and not expect some response from those of us in the military is what bothers me the most. Already, we are waiting to see what the decision will be on the banners. Why? Patriotism should'nt be that hard to drag out of a community, especially when that community is surrounded by military bases and depots. Berkely is Berkely, its always had a reputation for being a liberal hangout. Now is Tracy going to go down that path? Its off to a running start, I'll tell you that much.
Ubbo: You should definitely discuss this with some of the members of the Ed Roberts Campus and explain to them they are collateral damage:
http://www.edrobertscampus.org/about.html
Ubbo: BTW, you should contact the Ed Roberts Campus and ask them if they currently or in future will assist disabled American veterans:
http://www.edrobertscampus.org/contact.html
Well if they don't they might have a problem, right? Bottom line guys, the Berkely city council did a very dumb thing. By denying the Marines a place to recruit or the ability to recruit in Berkely, will only hurt Berkely in the long run. Oddly enough I served with a guy from there when I was at LSA Anaconda, Balad AB Iraq. The young marine was sharp but didn't let foolish politics get in his way. We still talk, met a few times at the VA Center in Livermore. All this is made up to be more big than it really is. The anti war crowd is not as influencial as it was in the '60s. The ones today just copy cat them just so they can identify with a movement. If the city council wasn't so anti-American, this might not have ever happened, right?
Interesting comments. It seems when one political structure decides to take action against a state or city, or even country, it can be legitimized by some. But when a different political structure decides to take similar actions against the same type of entities, the very same people call it foul.
What about our highway and transportations that get frequently held hostage for Federal and State funding to make sure they follow mandated rules of conduct with regards to things like pollution, speed limits and such? Then there are the mandates regarding the handling and policing of the illegal immigrant problem everyone seems to be so polarized on. So the TP barbed a Senator that barbed Berkley. So what? They are entitled to their opinion just as the rest of us are and in a position to paint a grim picture of the entire situation as they desire. Others don't do the same thing when championing their own pet cause? But for those of you who feel Berkley is the bastion of piece, enlightnment and civility our nation is baised on, let me ask what community entity has done more to support the development and testing of nuclear mass weapons of destruction than any other community in America? You might say Livermore and you would be wrong. The lab was run by UC Berkley for a long time. Lawrence's cyclatron used to create weapons grade plutonioum doesn't sit in Livermore does it? No, it's on display outside the Berkley Lawrence Hall of science. Some might say Los Alamos. You would still be wrong. Berkley ran that also. So it really seems the intelectual Berkleyites are more than willing to skim off the research dollars and pork barrel monies for running the place and thereby facilitate the development of this type of weaponry just as long as they are making a substancial amount of money off the rest of the tax paying public in America. Whew, talk about double standards, this really takes the cake. And honestly, it's really all about money isn't it?
But just as I would or might barb the TP or Berkley for certain things I would also congratulate TP on their barb against the Tracy Human Resources Department on their suggestion of hiring an aquatics specalist to supervise the Joe Wilson pool in addition to the new pool located at West High.
TP is correct that the management of these facilities already exists and the $35,000 is a waste. And since the lion's share of the entire aquatics program seems to be in the hands of TUSD if there is a need for such management then perhaps it could come out of TUSD's budget and not the City of Tracy. I wonder, has any mention of this need been made by the school board?
I agree too with the TP on the aquatics deal. Kinda of a waste of money when you already have the people who can do that. I'll bet that if researched carefully, that position couldbe filled by a high school volunteer striving for work experience or credits towards a HS diploma. Or even filled by a vocational slot. I guess that was all reaserched out and I am wrong again. So the TP gets both, a thumbs up and a double thumbs down from me!
Too many micromanagement, barb to that, at all business functions, all government functions, all city council functions, micromanagement slows things down and are costly. All voices talking, no one still hears the answer.
Dave, you say Berkely supports the nuclear research. maybe so but, we are talking about the city council here who is demoralizing our troops moral and attacking patriotisum and what our basis for stability. I think maybe some of that nuclear dust has gone up the noses of the Berkely council because they act like a third world country who hates America. Anyone or any org who co signs Berkely in any manner has a simular thought process. Shame shame shame on them all.
But for those of you who feel Berkley is the bastion of piece, enlightnment and civility our nation is baised on, let me ask what community entity has done more to support the development and testing of nuclear mass weapons of destruction than any other community in America?
I have said enough on this topic. Nothing I say will change anything anyway. We need to stay focused on Tracy and building our future and laying down some solid groundwork so that our future residents (inlcuding our children) can look back at us and say "I am glad they thought ahead". Tracy doesn't need a negative reputation, only a postive one.
Banlos
My comment wan't to show their support, it was an illustration of their double standards. More than willing to suck the government teat when it benefits them but more than willing to poke the government in the eye when it does something that doesn't align with their political thinking. But Ubbo is correct, we need to stay focused on what is good for Tracy and let places like Berkley take care of their own problems. We have enough of our own problems to deal with and I seriously doubt that anyone in Berkley cares.
I am embarrassed for TP. We need to support our troops, our police, our military..... and to suggest that ANY CITY should block the ability of the U.S. to defend itself is absurd! Jim DeMint, R-S.C is a TRUE AMERICAN HERO!
I too am pulling all advertising from TP
Another thing that Jim DeMint should do pronto: Have all of you veterans noticed that every Naval Air Station in America is located in a town full of queer-bates? Pensacola, San Diego, Seattle, Virginia Beach, Jacksonville, Key West, South Padre Island. Every single one of those Navy towns is gayer than San Francisco's Castro district. The only decent, law abiding town in America with an NAS is Lemoore, right down the 5 from us. So we need to teach a lesson to those sodomites (and the city governments that let them exist) and immediately close any military base in any city in America that openly tolerates homosexuality, atheism, or any other cancer that is plaguing us, including democratic party members. If the city council has a democrat member, we need to send a message that we don't tolerate that kind of left wing perversion and we need to close their military bases. And there is no way that the federal government should be subsidizing the widening of 580, because that is only going to help lessen the commutes of Mark Davis and a bunch of illegal aliens.
Oh, and that goes for Beaufort, S.C., too. I know that's a Marine Corps town, but a good looking guy like myself can't spend ten minutes in a bar in that town, or down on the beach, without some man in a speedo offering to perform some pretty unnatural acts. And don't even get me started in Charleston! The boys there don't wait for any "foot tapping" in the stalls, they stick their heads over the stalls and strike up a conversation, just as you please. DeMint needs to shut that all down and close MCAS Beaufort in his own home state, just to send a message. Close Cherry Point while he's at it; it's in North Carolina, but trust me, there ain't no "cherries" within a hundred miles.
And another place that needs to be shut down in New York City. That should be obvious to everyone, but in case you can't figure out why, Davis can spell it out for you. No more federal dollars for New York. No way, no how. I don't even know why anyone thinks New York is such a "terror" target. Just look at the bouquet above. Everyone knows that the port of stockton is probably one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure in this country. Shut it down and the economy of this homeland pretty much grinds to a halt. You can't say the same thing about New York City. I mean, just the other day I was in New York, and the TV in my hotel didn't work, and I needed to see Desparate Housewives, so I dropped by this place, the XES Lounge for three or four hours. I am a real "man's man," so I was enjoying the camaraderie, the back slapping and high fiving and the sports on TV and all, and I started thinking, why don't they have a place like this in Tracy? If they did, I wouldn't have to leave my wife and kids so often and jet back to New York "for work." Anyway, it was a great place, but I am telling you, if we cut off federal funds to that whole town, we would really send a message about patriotism and the warrior spirit and why a place like Berkeley just doesn't belong in this country.
Hey Davis, sorry, but it can't be helped. I want to screw you over with our tax dollars, and get all the illegals, and Prius owners too or whatever, and if I end up wiping out the commute for a bunch of real Americans, tough teats. That's the price of doing bizness
Shut down all ports owned by foreign country, war status
Shut down exported factories, war status Secure the border..... war status Stop bailouts....war status Suspend applications for citizenship... war status. We are at war, although we do not see the face of war everyday, how much of this would help the country if we followed the list above?
That is a great idea, Amy. And while we are at it, let's shut down Wal Mart and Costco, since they are full of imported goods. Stop selling gas, since it comes from terror central. And the Ford dealer and Chevy dealer (oops, already took care of that) since they have cars full of foreign parts. And then, heck, why not round up all the Japanese Americans in this country and put them in an internment camp up at Lone Pine? Heck, why not throw all the catholics up there too, since they all report to the pope who, I believe, lives in a foreign country (and correct my on that if I am wrong, but I think he is in France, right? And we all know how the French are undermining the war effort). And as long as we are shutting down exported factories, let's get Cose out of retirement and just start bombing the crap out of Europe again. It worked once before; no reason it won't work again.
OK, let me see, am I missing any other great ideas to "help the country?" Let me see, that name "Amy," is that really an American name? Let's look through your house and see if you have any imported stuff. This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.
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