The more I have thought about this the more perplexed I have become. I have worked in election campaigns many times before and know how carefully campaign election laws need to be followed. More to the point those election laws need to be understood and religiously followed by candidates, their staff, the news media and the voters.

Yes, I am talking about the ’08 Manross Re-Election Campaign web site, again.

The Mayor suggested, via telephone, that it was my fault going back to 2004, when I endorsed her.

Well, I have never, personally or as part of a group, endorsed any candidate for any office. As for the Scottsdale Coalition I know that we as a Steering Committee never endorsed candidates as a policy. Beside, in 2004 we had the mud-slinging battles going on and our organization was not going to get into the dirt.

That brings us back to technology. I have consulted with several IT specialists and they tell me the following:

Then we got into the discussion of that "I’m Feeling Lucky" button and what its function is:

So, if the Manross campaign follows all of the above steps using the singular word Scottsdale…….and you hit that "Feeling Lucky" button you go to her re-election campaign site first which we understand is illegal and against all election laws.

Then we have the use of "meta-tags":

They are directly encoded in the webpage design.  Only the designer themselves have control over what pops up when you hover over the words.  As far as turning that ability off from the website visitor perspective, it isn't a possibility based on the fact that it is hard-coded in to the page, and the web relies on them as a form of marketing.  Therefore the webmaster that created the site must be directed to remove them.

We know that this is not the same thing as "hanging chads" or campaign dirty tricks, but it still can be tricky, unethical, and illegal if improperly used to garner "hits".

It's this kind of thing that turns people off to voting. Most people do not appreciate the "mind manipulations" that have crept into politics over the last several years. It isn't what you say, believe or act on that is important, it is where you say it, when you say it, to whom you say it and what you are going to get to say it.

Nancy Ann Cantor
Co-Chair Scottsdale Coalition

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There is a non-profit organization named "Shane's Inspiration"  www.shanesinspiration.org  who have a very noble, wonderful, all-encompassing program helping cities make their parks "Challenged Children" friendly and the envy of other cities.

They have gone to great lengths and have received numerous awards nationwide for the innovative designs for parks that provide safe and well designed play areas for disabled and handicapped children.

I tried to get this program funded while serving on the Neighborhood Enhancement Commission without success. I mentioned it to some council people who stated that the current administration and management team wouldn't have any interest in such a plan and it would get voted down 4 to 3.

That was the end of that.

I now bring it to the public for consideration. Click on the link above or this link  www.shanesinspiration.org and see for yourself what can be done and accomplished for our children in need. these people will send you all the information you need, how to fund the project, and how to develop it all  within a reasonable time at a reasonable cost.

For anyone interested, I have or can get the information as well as the video tape which I will give to anyone who will actively pursue this project.

How any member of the Scottsdale City Government can turn down such a wonderful program only proves that they don't belong in office or in a position of power of any kind and frankly don't care about anyone but themselves.

When a city official would rather install unnecessary Traffic Calming Devices and Roundabouts than participate in this program and install these types of equipment  in our park system for our challenged children, it really tells what kind of people they really are doesn't it?

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To think that someone who has been incessantly pummeled and totally refused co-operation by the current planner, city manager, and administration is going to do something absolutely wonderful for the downtown area is a great Christmas present in itself.

In the Friday, 12-21-07 Scottsdale Tribune, there is a huge front page story on how Richard Funke wants to build what he calls the "Charles Miller Square".

Guess what? He doesn’t want height, density or anything of the sort. He wants to take the historic homes he has purchased, and move them (most are already moved) to his downtown property at First Street and Goldwater for the purpose of honoring Charles Miller as well as providing a pleasantly pleasing, home town oasis from the overbearing monstrosities surrounding his project.

All of this without any city subsidy!!

This project will include 6 historic homes that will provide a comfy restaurant, some quaint retail shops and some office space, all with the "feel" of what used to be but otherwise modern and up to date.

What a wonderful, unselfish idea; a very visionary plan incorporating Scottsdale history and the past into the future.

We would like to salute Richard Funke and thank him for his wonderfully unselfish plan to forgo ugly high rise and density (buckets of money) on his highly sought after property for a simple remembrance of Charles Miller (for whom Miller Road was named) and to display the homes of yesteryear in a setting which will be very productive as well as providing a look back into Scottsdale’s rich past. This project will undoubtedly become one of the major attractions to the downtown area for tourists and current residents alike!

How much do you think the city will muck up this plan as they have so many others? If they have even half a brain, they will appreciate, then approve his plan immediately with full cooperation and without hesitation.

After reading the "My Turn" column in the Wednesday (12-19-07) Republic by Steve Evans of the ASUF, we’re at a loss for words reading his superb but extremely misleading "word-smithed" article.

First, Steve Evans is correct in saying that the city will recoup the original ^$81 million we paid for the land and the infrastructure. But he doesn’t tell you that we won’t get back any of the interest built up by borrowing any of the money if any was borrowed, how much interest ASUF is paying the city for the use of taxpayer monies which is Zero, how many tens of millions we will pay for maintaining the infrastructure for almost 200 years, nor how long it will take for the recovery of the original ^$81 million to take place (up to 198 years).

Second, he says that the city receives 50% of the net, repeat, NET SkySong revenue until its (the city’s) investment is repaid which is the original ^$81 million without interest recovery or any interest paid on the outstanding balance owed by ASUF which again is zero. How does a non-profit organization, which we believe ASUF to be, will ever have any profit from which to give up 50%? Even then if there is any profit, it will only pay off the original ^$81 million, nothing more according to how we read the lease.

Third, he claims that the city projects that we will see ^$267 million in direct economic benefit from the SkySong project. ^$267 million? We would absolutely LOVE to see how that number was calculated. If even half true, that’s a little over ½ a million a year over the life of the lease (198 years) which is pure poppycock and nothing more than wild speculation and mass misrepresentation of fact.

Gee, that’s funny. Didn’t we just see a plum, pick of the litter, highly rated international research company locate to the ASU Tempe Research Facility instead of Scottsdale’s SkySong?

Most of the new businesses in South Scottsdale (Lowes, Big "O", etc) are NOT there because of SkySong, but instead because those businesses plainly see that they are needed and can do well serving the residents of the area IN SPITE of SkySong’s failure to be as advertised by Manross, the Council Majority, Kidder, Korte, and the Scottsdale Area Chamber.

It will have to be plainly proven to all of us in dollars directly received and a radical redesign that SkySong is anything but a SkyFizzle, SkyFlop, and a very bad business decision by the Manross Administration and the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce.

Is there any way at all to invalidate the lease or the terms before it become a totally disgusting eyesore and even bigger Albatross around the taxpayers necks?

The Transportation Report is nothing more than another "dodge" or slight of hand designed and carried out by the Manross/Dolan administration and the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce to allow time for them to get re-elected so they can send light rail wherever they want it without objections.

Remember that Mayor Manross is the Chair of MAG and City Manager Jan Dolan has been elected Chair of MAG Management Committee. MAG is the organization pushing light rail.

As the "Church Lady" on TV would say, "Isn’t that Conveeeeeenient". We think it smells of a conspiracy to defraud the citizens of Scottsdale by ramming rail of some sort down our throats, like it or not.

"Choo Choo Charlie" Hales was an "on board" conspirator from day one and if you don’t believe that, "Google" his name with Oregon as the state and Portland as the city. This guy was the "hired gun" (similar to Technical Solutions for WaterView, etc) hired to bring in a light rail decision for Scottsdale (his main job is selling street cars) but failed because he’d been found out. He’ll backpedal vigorously before giving any opinion now for the same reason.

The ^$1.2 million dollar contract with HDR says they WILL make a recommendation, "Choo Choo Charlie" says they won’t. Why then should the city taxpayer be required to pay for something which hasn’t been completed as per the contract?

Here are the questions we have:

We think these are all excellent questions to ask of the incumbents during the forth coming candidate forums, don’t you?

Due to the avowed secrecy plus the smoke and mirrors actions by the current administration on prior projects (SkyFumble, West World, Barrett-Jackson, Hualapai, Flood basins in N. Scottsdale, Covenants not to compete, Charter Officer evaluations, etc.), and condoned and supported by the Scottsdale Area Chamber, we know we will never get the real answers to ANY of the above questions from Manross, Dolan, Robberson, HDR, "Choo Choo Charlie", or any of those involved in the conspiracy to defraud the citizens out of ^$70+ million dollars a mile for the totally unnecessary light or any fixed rail or overhead wire transportation project proposed.

Do you think the incumbents might start squirming in their chairs if those questions are asked during upcoming candidate forums, or will they try to lie their way out of the questions??

 ~Letters to the Editor  

I was contacted today by Mr. Raun Keagy, following-up on 3 issues he was to investigate for me.  Some of his conclusions I find absurd; This note covers three of the topics, and I will be requesting a thorough investigation into these matters. 

Mr. Keagy and I also had a discussion concerning the use of pre-emergent and plant killing chemicals on certain private ESLO/NAOS lands within our subdivision but outside backyard containment walls where, if I understood him correctly, this was totally against the city ESLO/NAOS ordinances and would definitely end up in court.

Now it seems that he’s saying that they apparently have no authority or control over the situation because the company who sprayed the property refuses to name the chemicals used. What kind of nonsense is this? If it’s against city ordinances (laws), the company spraying the property has an obligation to cooperate with the city do they not?

We also had a discussion concerning the HOA board illegally taking it upon themselves to allow non-native plants (oleander and bougainvillea) to be planted out side backyard containment walls in areas strictly designated as NAOS/ESLO, and strictly controlled by city ordinance. During the first conversation, Mr. Keagy agreed that this was strictly against the ordinance and should be corrected. Now in seems, he has gone wishy-washy and won’t make a commitment one way or the other as I now understand him.

In conclusion, it would seem that someone higher than Mr. Keagy has demanded that the ESLO/NAOS ordinances not be enforced in any of the above cases. Doesn’t this sound just like what has been going on in the southern portion of the city to accommodate developers and builders? I think so.

Now, the only persons higher on the organizational ladder would be City Manager Jan Dolan and City Attorney Deborah Robberson. Are either one of them the one that stopped the investigation and the enforcement of the ESLO/NAOS ordinances?

If so, Why?

It seems that the city of Scottsdale has a multi-tiered level of what they will do for whom and what won’t they do for others.

Isn’t this total discrimination and a failure to perform, as well as unethical and possibly illegal actions on the part of the city?

We think so, Isn’t that rather obvious from what is stated above?

Maybe we should take this directly to the ADEQ, OSHA, and the EPA and let them sue the city into compliance?

Name withheld by request
North Scottsdale Resident

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I have been following the discussion concerning the city attorney, her perceived incompetence, council votes, whether public votes are binding or not, and from experience I offer the following observation: 

There is a much, much deeper problem touched on here.  It shows just how manipulative the staff, this council majority, and past councils have been.  Until the public rises up and prohibits this practice, we will forever be governed by special interest groups. 

I am referring to the practice of special elections which cost taxpayers up to ^$150,000 each.  They are deliberately scheduled to be held when the general public will not take the trouble to vote.  The lame excuse is that to combine these elections with a general election would put too many questions on the ballot for the public to understand. 

In other words the council offers the excuse that the voters are not capable of determining the kind of government they want. 

Assume that there was a question concerning something like taxing hotel owners.  If so, the council would schedule a special election on just that one question.  Who would come out to vote?  Answer: The hotel owners and those whom they influence would appear in droves to defeat the measure. 

When we lived in Pennsylvania the price of milk was controlled by the state.  Every year there would be a measure to raise the price of milk a penny a gallon.  Who would take time to vote on a penny?  Answer: The dairy farmers!  As a result milk was almost twice the price that it was in the neighboring state of Ohio. 

It is practices like this that result in thinking people having no confidence in their government. 

Yes, we get the kind of government that we deserve.  But my message is that we deserve better and we damn well better start working for it. 

This MUST begin by insisting that any vote on any fixed rail system be held in conjunction with a general election so we hear from ALL of the people and not simply those who have a special interest in the subject. 

Jack McVickers
Scottsdale

Former member of the Year 2000 Citizens Budget and Bond Review Committee
Past Treasurer of two PAC’s 

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 ~ Time to Retire "Queen" Mary

Mayor Manross has lost touch with Scottsdale and especially her residents.

When she began her political "career" in 1992 with her first run for election to the City Council, her platform was as a "neighborhood preservationist".  Anyone following Scottsdale politics for the last two decades can recognize what a hoot this campaign rhetoric has become. Seems like all political neophytes running for office for the first time in Scottsdale plead neighborhood preservation as their holy grail. How quickly they all forgot after they were elected.  Like Cynthia Lucas, Richard Thomas, Sam Campana, Kevin Osterman, and other raptors of this political ilk.

Now Mayor Manross pontificates on her website that she, and she alone, is "The Proven Leader". What leadership is she talking about here? Could it be the leadership she showed in voting to approve every density increasing re-zoning application that highlighted her first two terms as a Council member? Or was it the scores of times she voted for General Plan amendments that divided and desecrated the neighborhoods she vowed to preserve?

About the only leadership she has shown during her last fifteen years in office has been taking the lead on not taking the lead. Until, that is, taking the lead on taking the credit for issues she craftily hid in the background on while other council members did the yeoman’s work, took all the media flak and bore all citizen’s angst. When the smoke cleared on controversial issues Mary would emerge and claim credit. Like how she Crows about her Sky Song project which would never have happened if it were not for council members who had the political courage to skate Ellman’s  arena project and its attempted raid on the taxpayer’s treasury out of town.

Sixteen years in elected office is more than enough. Time to retire Mary for good.

Name withheld by request
Longtime Scottsdale Resident

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What ever happened to our Scottsdale Police Volunteer Handicap Parking Program???

It used to be strong with 20 volunteers who spent many hours of their own time and gas on this. Every other city in the Valley has active citizens in this program.

The chief complained about the budget but when he received more money, he eliminated the ENTIRE program that saved the department at least one half million dollars a year. I was a volunteer for 10 years and feel that the elimination of the program was an inappropriate action and a sad day for our City.

While I'm on the subject where the heck are our helicopters that the citizens voted for and councilman Ecton put into the budget? Did you know that there are parts of North Scottsdale that the police have no radio communication? The only way to patrol parts of our city is overhead.

Please, We would like to feel safer.

T.H.
Scottsdale

Subject: Volunteers target violators of handicap parking

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I walked two miles yesterday to my local branch of the Scottsdale Library.  Unexpectedly, I found a number of items to check out.  At the check-out, I asked the clerk for a bag because I was walking.  He rolled his eyes at the absurdity of his employer and said, "They've discontinued bags for environmental reasons."  I responded, "Well, I guess I'll drive next time."  He laughed.

I would guess that plastic bags represent .000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the resources used by the library.  But, hey, I understand that symbolic feel-good is important to Scottsdale residents who drive their Land Rovers to the library but are soooooo hysterical over global warming. 

Regards,
Craig J. Cantoni

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Well, Ozites it is coming closer to the end of another year and Christmas is upon us.

During these times I find it hard to pick at our elected officials and the "heads of state" in Oz. So, I think I will try to find a few nice things to say about them because in reality, sometimes the Three Ring Circus and the "heads of state" actually get it right.

I am not going to throw jabs at the mind numbingly countless attempts by some of editorial staff of the Oz Repugnant and the Whacko of the West and her band of the clueless.

This week’s edition is not the time to poke fun at developers and the economic problems they will face over the next year or so; or to take shots at the Area Chamber of Ignorance and their support of light rail down Scottsdale road.

Instead I will wish all of them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year the same I wish to all of my friends along with a safe Christmas Season.

Richard Funke, you know the guy the city screwed over on countless occasions in the past with his property, condemnation, and the same City that bought and then sold his condemned property?

Richard is coming up with a project that falls more in line with what residents and tourist like to see, a historical property to some degree, but also a low scaled, "kickback," different setting style for a project.

This is something a little more appealing to Oz style in the way of vision and respect for the area he will be developing in. Richard’s announced project at face value, with no research into the entire plan, appears to me to be something that we should have seen more of in the South.

The proposed Miller Square project, which sits across from none other than "High Rise Ecton" digs, the Main Street Plaza Condos, and also sits next to the Main Street's Arts District. I mean what better place to put 6 Historic Properties with one of them being the former home of Charles Miller (who we even named a road for in this city).

Funny how the project does not scream density increases by the hundreds, which then require height increases, but will instead have office and retail inside of the historic properties. Along with another actual daytime use, instead of a bar, and it is called a breakfast and lunch café with plenty of outside seating, and I would presume this to be all being done in a neighborhood type setting.

I really look forward to hearing and seeing more about this project because it is the type of project that draws interest. If promoted properly it will carry some historical significance that residents and tourists will want to see. It sounds to me like this is one of those one acre niches that makes Downtown what it was and what some could say is a better vision than what the city has been approving.

Good luck Richard, you know what a fight it will be because of who you are and who you have confronted in the ranks of Generals who run this city.

Well, hell! Who would have thought that this website would garner the respect it has since it started running articles. It is even funnier to note that as of the Night of the 20th of December 2007, the Scottsdale Activist in the first two weeks of the holiday season has racked up 40,000 hits to its website.

You have to wonder about how many people are reading the Activist and what impacts it could have during the election season, but then you wonder why not none of the candidates running for council has even bothered to post their bios and beliefs in the sections provided them by this web site, other than Nan Nesvig and Jim Derouin.

Soon I expect that if you Google the web site it will take you to the Manross homepage.

It is nice to see so many readers logging in on a weekly basis to learn what is really going on in this city and I hope the site continues to grow in hits over the New Year.

Last week someone thought I was making a run for the hills and wonders where I have been during City meetings and talking with developers. Well, to tell the truth I have gone running for the hills and the reason is that if you attend all of those meetings to find out what the City and the Generals are up to and what the developers are up to with them, then you hear the same old crappola every time you go to one of these meetings.

The City meetings are the scariest because they actually tell you what they want to do and then you look at them and say "your gonna do what," while developers tell you how great their 5 story buildings are going to be and how adding hundreds of people to a few acres of land with a little retail or office space is going to benefit your community in the densest sections of the city.

You can be outraged, inform your community of the plans, watch them get outraged and go to the City Council to exclaim your disdain with the City staff recommendations and the developers plans, just to be ignored by the 4 vote majority of boneheads.

I have better things to be doing with my time than going to Council meetings and talking to a wall and that is how most residents feel about it since it has been going on for longer than Manross has been in office, and I think she took lessons from the other moron who was running this city before her by the name of "911 Sam."

I still meet with developers and most recently met with my friend John Berry and the Owner of the Safari to talk about a new building they are planning for the front of Scottsdale Road. I have also met with the Yari’s, and even have met with Westcor about their plans for things around Fashion Square.

The only thing worth doing now, after the last 4 years of listening to drivel and watching promises get broken by our elected leaders, along with having to listen to the Mayor for the last 8 years, is to work as hard as possible to get every one of them booted in the next election.

Now that I have broken all my promises of not poking fun or being nice to those people who continue to run this City in such a mindless and half assed approach, I will call it a night and a week.

Again, have a safe and happy Christmas Holiday, and let us pray that next year we can vote to get this City back on track with what the resident’s desire, not the Mayor, the Area Chamber, their cronies, or the developers demand.

Michael Merrill
F8713@aol.com

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me. Sung it for years and was clueless, so as the story goes,

What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?   So hope you enjoy knowing or being re-reminded,

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember. 

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.'

Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone

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A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.  Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.  Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of Chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the chocolate.

When all the students had a cup of chocolate in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.  While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was chocolate, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups.....and then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the chocolate; the jobs, money and position in societies are the cups.  They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.  Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the chocolate provided us.  Life is the chocolate, not the cups..........

Enjoy your hot chocolate! 

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. 

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It’s difficult to find a better example of the sub-prime nature of public education than the sub-prime mortgage mess.

To wit: According to The Wall Street Journal, the average mortgage payment for the typical sub-prime borrower was a whopping 45 percent of the borrower’s pre-tax income. That staggering amount was the initial amount and not future reset amounts.

Apparently, Americans are graduating from high school without the math skills to calculate their pre-tax income, after-tax income, living expenses, and the financial cushion they need in the event of unanticipated expenses. Gee, my poor, uneducated grandparents emigrated from Italy and could perform such calculations.

It also appears that Americans are not learning economics and history in school. If they were learning such subjects, they’d know about real estate booms and busts, including the recent decade-long bust in Japan. They’d know that between 1900 and 2004, real estate appreciated in real terms only about .5 percent a year. And they’d know how government monetary policy can produce easy money, inflate asset prices, and eventually lead to deflation.

Call me a cynic, but I don’t believe that it is in the best interest of government schools to teach students about the foolishness of federal housing policies and the economic damage that can be done by government printing presses. Contrary to what the government has led us to believe, housing is a bad investment for many people. Of course, the public school establishment loves real estate inflation, because school taxes are based primarily on real estate values.

To be fair, other countries are also producing nitwits. To wit: Today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal has a front-page story about Brazilian immigrants who took out sub-prime mortgages. One couple secured one for $713,000. The husband is a taxi driver, and the wife, a house cleaner. They had told the loan officer that they could afford a monthly payment of $3,500. Another Brazilian, a baby sitter, took out a $495,000 mortgage.

By comparison, I sold the home of my working-class parents four years ago after the death of my dad. They bought the home 64 years ago for $5,000 and invested 60 years of sweat equity in renovating it. It sold for $156,000. Approximately $45,000 of that amount was monetary inflation.

Now, having created a financial tsunami, the government is preparing to create a moral hazard, which will only serve to delay and intensify the tsunami. Our compassionate politicians are going to pressure or force lenders to bailout borrowers, thus creating an expectation, or moral hazard, that the government will bailout dumbbells in the future, which, in turn, will create more dumbbells.

But that moral hazard pales in comparison to the moral hazard created by 70 years of entitlements and social welfare. Americans have been deceived to believe that the government will take care of them in old age, thus creating a mindset that they don’t have to save for old age. Our sorry savings rate reflects this mindset.

An educated person might respond that the savings rate is higher in France and other European countries, yet Europeans have even more social welfare than the United States. True, but Europeans, unlike Americans, have a more recent experience of how governments can destroy economies. In spite of their professed love of government, they have a bag of diamonds, gold and silverware under the mattress, literally and figuratively speaking.

Many Americans are so poorly educated that they are awestruck by the likes of Barack Obama, who recently said that if he were president he would restrict what credit-card companies could charge in interest. The lumpenproletariat didn’t notice that he said nothing about the government forcing Americans into debt. How much debt? Well, the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare alone come to about $260,000 for each adult American. To compare, the average credit-card debt is $8,000.

Gotta sign off now. I’m putting a bag of diamonds, gold and silverware under the mattress.

An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com

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~ Information You Can Use

Just click on the logos below to go to these websites.

Send our Brave Troops "Something from Home", Click on  Links below.

Gathering of  Eagles Website was launched 2/9/07. Click on the Logo above for more information on how they are protecting America's Memorials.

~ UPDATE!! A "Must See" for All Americans

Every American should check out all of these websites to learn more about what the American population is about to have to deal with.

This is NOT for Children.

I don't normally allow anything but Scottsdale information in the Scottsdale Activist but after receiving many emails about this and viewing it, I think that it's imperative that every adult at least look at what's offered here if for  nothing more than their own education and to have everyone stop and think about the future of our country. Click on the link below,

 www.obsessionthemovie.com

If you don't have Adobe Flash, install it from the bottom of the page that comes up after you click on the link above. You should be able to view all available links within the main page.

The website below is of great interest as seen from a Lebanese point of view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8fa9yKQeTY

The website below gives some history of Terrorist attacks:

http://patriotfiles.org/civilizationcalls.htm

This website tell you what REALLY happened:

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened

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~ Arizona Tax Revolt

~ Prop 13 Arizona

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~ View Past City Council Meetings

We can now access the city council meetings by clicking on the following link:

If you have any problems, check your firewall and other safety features which could block access to the city site.

~Continuing Light Rail Information

The Scottsdale Citizens Transportation Study Committee invites you to view their website for more questions and answers at  www.norailforscottsdale.com .

================================================================

Simply click on the links below to get all the information you'll ever need concerning Light Rail.

     Goldwater Institute Report

     American Dream Coalition

    The Public Purpose

If you have any questions about light rail, send them to editor@scottsdaleactivist.com and we'll get the answers to you as soon as we can.

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~ For Continuing Information on Photo Radar,
Click on the Logo below.

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 ~Are Red-Light Cameras Fair to Drivers?

These modern-day robocops make ticketing easier and can be huge moneymakers for local governments. But critics question their accuracy and fret over privacy issues.

Click on the link below , then scroll down to read the article:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/AreRedLightCamerasFairToDrivers.aspx

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The Scottsdale Activist is very pleased to announce an effort on the behalf of the residents and taxpayers of the city of Scottsdale to promote open, honest and accountable city government. The Scottsdale Legal Defense Fund (SLDF) has been created to take legal action to hold the City accountable when its actions are contrary to state law, the City Charter, City ordinances or the public interest.

The most necessary ingredient to make the SLDF work will be confidential contributions from concerned Scottsdale citizens who are willing to help their community.  By contributing, we can change the way City Hall does business and insure that our tax dollars will be spent wisely.

No funds from the SLDF will or can be used for any political purpose.

Contributions shall be kept confidential as permissible by law and can be made in any Washington Mutual Bank to account number 3114165786 for the Scottsdale Legal Defense Fund. Branch locations are listed below. Contributions are not tax deductible.

The SLDF has retained the law firm of Miller LaSota & Peters, PLC, in connection with the patently illegal action taken by the Mayor and Council appointing the most recent Scottsdale City Attorney, while ignoring the residency requirement of the Scottsdale City Charter even though the new City Attorney’s contract (according to Scottsdale Republic reporter Laurie Roberts) requires that she reside in Scottsdale.  The City Council action was based on a legal opinion which was reportedly rendered during a closed door Executive Session of the City Council by a subordinate to the then acting City Attorney, who was subsequently appointed to the City Attorney position by a vote during a public City Council meeting. The opinion has been requested as a public document under state law, but the City has not yet provided it. The SLDF will take other appropriate legal actions based on the conduct of the Mayor and Council.

Washington Mutual Bank Locations at which contributions to the SLDF can be made are:

72^nd & Shea                    7337 E. Shea Blvd #120                480-609-8524
Hayden & Chaparral     7908 E. Chaparral # C-113            480-949-0069
Horizon                            14854 N Frank Lloyd Wright         480-614-6660
Scottsdale Ranch          10155 E. Via Linda Blvd #131       480-767-2060
Kierland Village              6501 E. Greenway Pkwy #133     480-315-2905

There are many other branches throughout the Valley.