Deny Parole to the Onion Field Killer Gregory Powell

In 1963, Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith kidnapped LAPD officers Ian James Campbell and Karl Hettinger. Officer Campbell was murdered in an onion field outside Bakersfield. The infamous crime was documented in former LAPD sergeant Joseph Wambaugh’s classic non-fiction book, “The Onion Field.”

Smith died in jail, but Powell is scheduled for a parole suitability hearing in Los Angeles on Wed., 1/27/10.

The California Board of Parole Commissioners includes:

Arthur Anderson
Troy Arbaugh
Lea Ann Chrones
Robert Doyle-Chairman
Jack Garner
Hollis Gillingham
Peter Labahn
John Peck
Michael Prizmich
Thomas Powers
Mary Ann Tardiff

This morning I sent an e-mail to Chairman Robert Doyle urging the Board of Parole Hearings to deny suitability for parole to Powell, CDC A57622. The e-mail address was confirmed when I received back an e-mail thanking me for my input. Mr. Doyle’s e-mail address is: Robert.Doyle@cdcr.ca.gov

I suspect that the e-mail addresses for the rest of the Commissioners has the same formula as did the e-mail address for Doyle: first name, period, last name @cdcr.ca.gov

Send an e-mail to Doyle and any of the Commissioners supporting the denial of parole for this cop killer.

Link in this Blog:

Board of Parole Hearings

Scott Brown’s Senatorial Victory in Massachusetts

Today is the first time that I’ve felt real optimism since the American public elected the most leftist U.S. president in history one year ago. The fact that the deep blue state of Massachusetts, blue at least nationally, handily rejected the Democratic party candidate and choose a Republican party member to hold the senate seat most recently dominated by Ted Kennedy speaks volumes about the American people.

The Massachusetts people did not just reject Martha Coakley, they rejected Pres. Obama and his leftists buddies Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and a host of other political cronies, who represent philosophies antithetical to the American dream.

Lock and load is still the order of the day, but there is once again a ray of sunshine shining through the darkness of leftist agenda.

Arabic Fanciful Thoughts-Almost as if They are Children

In the introduction to Frank J. Gaffney’s tome, War Footing, noted historian Victor Davis Hanson writes on the Arabic mind. Hanson’s description reminds me of the fantasy oriented mind of a young child.

Do not look for logic and consistency in the Middle East for they are not to be found.

It makes no sense to be frustrated that Arab intellectuals and reformers damn us for removing Saddam while they simultaneously now praise the democratic rumblings that followed his fall. We should accept that the only palatable scenario for the Arab Street was one equally fanciful: Brave demonstrators took to the barricades, forced Saddam’s departure, created a constitution, held elections, and then invited other Arab reformers into Baghdad to spread such indigenous reform-all resulting in a society as sophisticated, wealthy, free, and modern as the West, but felt to be morally superior because of its allegiance to Islam.

This is the dream that they found preferable to the reality: the Americans alone took out the monster of the Middle East; any peaceful protest against Saddam would have ended in another genocide; and adherence to Islamic fundamentalism is a prescription for economic stagnation.

Ever since the departure of the European colonials, the United States, due to its power and principled support for democratic Israel, has served as a Middle Eastern psychological need to account for its own self-created impotence and misery. This is a pathology abetted by our own past realpolitik and nurtured by the very autocrats that we sought to accommodate and who now, in their 11th hour, have turned on us for following principles rather than their own promises to maintain order and status quo.

After all these years, do not expect praise or gratitude for billions poured into Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, or Palestine-or thanks for the liberation of Kuwait, protection of Saudi Arabia in 1990, the remove of Saddam, more less for Americans concern for Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Somalia, the Sudan, or Afghanistan. Our past sins always must be magnified as much as our more recent benefactions are slighted.

The Western reader might well conclude that the “Arab Street” is delusional; an apt characterization while acknowledging that Arabic perception is the stuff of their self-serving cultural reality.

In confronting age old incendiary Middle East issues and the Islamist agenda, the error is ours if we insist on misunderstanding the Arabic mind and then predicating our actions solely from a Western perspective. That is true whether the Arabic mind is in the Middle East or in America. Concurrently, we must continue to offer the philosophy of Western style freedoms as a viable alternative and a helping hand up for a culture which last enjoyed greatness 1,000 years ago.

Source in this Blog:
Gaffney, Frank J, & Colleagues, "War Footing," Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2006, pgs xvii-xviii.

Colonel Robert L. Howard-Hero

American history is chock full of heroes. We used to know them. It is their spirit and blood that pays the price to secure freedom. Securing the freedoms that we enjoy is not pretty. But, today’s children know them not. These are the grandchildren of the Vietnam War generation. Why don’t they know? Simple; their parents know them not, as well.

Not long ago, I attended an elementary school tribute to the third grade student’s heroes. A Vietnam Vet in the crowd broke down in tears when he revealed that this was the first time that anyone ever thanked him for his military service.

I wish that today’s parents made American heroes a general topic of discussion at the dinner table. Here’s a good hero to begin the discussion, Col. Robert L. Howard, Congressional Medal of Honor.

View the video below; go to the Internet tribute site link; and see more information at the Wikipedia site.

Links in this Blog:
Robert Howard Tribute Site

Wikipedia-Col. Robert L. Howard

From Dumps to Euphoria-A Lesson in Political Correctness

I am down in the dumps about the abysmal way that the City of Simi Valley city fathers and administrators are treating the sergeants and officers of the city police department. The enlightened leaders are fast-tracking the destruction of police morale. Just when I thought it could not get worse, I am reminded that it is much worse elsewhere.

In Chicago, political correctness takes precedence over public safety. The Chicago Police Department is considering eliminating the police officer entrance exam to facilitate a greater hiring of minority applicants. What else could be expected from a city that gave us Pres. Obama? Here is the link to the story.

“Euphoria” overstates my emotional reaction that the Simi Valley Police Department has not sunk to the potential Chicago Police Department level. But, who knows? Given time, anything can happen.

Link in this blog:
Police May Scrap Entrance Exam: Report