This Editor and an ever growing volunteer staff of the Scottsdale Activist from north, central and south Scottsdale would like to take this opportunity to sincerely Thank the scores of ever more concerned citizens who have made the Scottsdale Activist the unbelievably overwhelming success it is today.

From those who send columns and written contributions in from time to time, those who help edit some of the material, those who have a regular column, those who write letters and those that send us Shouts and Spouts, we offer our deepest appreciation.

Many have found out that we don’t refuse much material but do reserve the right to make editorial comments on the material.

As of very early Friday morning at 0012 hours (12-28-07) the Activist hit an all time high for monthly hits to the tune of over 50,870 with 1 more edition and 3 more days to go in the month. This year, our annual hits will exceed over a half a million. Our first December in publication we had a total of 3,300 hits for that month. What a growth rate with sincere thanks to all of our readers and their continued interest in the health and future of the City of Scottsdale.

We would especially like to thank the elected Manross City Council majority, "Queen Mary" Manross, and the likes of city manager "Hualapai Jan" Dolan, City Attorney "Opps, Wrong" Robberson, and those under them who continue kowtowing to their every wish and demand. Without those officials and their continuous screw-ups, secrecy, bad decisions, massive over spending, "street furniture", weird legal opinions, and a multitude of other negative actions many consider "public sins", we wouldn’t have a successful website and would have melted away long ago.

God Bless you all,

                          God Bless Scottsdale

                                               and God Bless the United States of America.

With your continued interest and help, a new, much brighter day will dawn for Scottsdale AFTER the ’08 city elections!!!

George Knowlton, Editor, Scottsdale Activist
480-326-2475

This is the time of year when newspapers print their "top stories/events/people of the past year" articles and our local papers are no exception.  But none of our local papers mentioned (or cared to recognize) the true top story of Scottsdale politics for 2007, which is the rise of The Scottsdale Activist as a viable and popular alternative source of information about what is really happening at Scottsdale City Hall.

True representative government requires an informed citizenry, which cannot exist without a free and vital media.  Unfortunately, for the last few years the only media outlets that covered Scottsdale issues have been mostly cheerleaders for the local special interests.  The Scottsdale Activist has broken that monopoly on information about city issues.  Every week thousands of concerned citizens read the Activist to get the news that the "mainstream" media outlets that supposedly cover Scottsdale issues either ignore or distort.

The rise of The Scottsdale Activist could not have come at a better time.  Next year’s city elections will decide whether Scottsdale remains a special place to live or becomes just another urban wasteland just so a few favored special interests can make big bucks by destroying our city’s special character.

That means that a source of information that reports what is really happening at Scottsdale City Hall, unfiltered by special interest spin and cheerleading, is more important to Scottsdale voters than ever before.

Most of the credit for the success of The Scottsdale Activist goes to George Knowlton, who has volunteered thousands of unpaid hours and, of course, his own money, to maintain and edit the web site.  Those who care about the future of Scottsdale owe George a debt of gratitude for working so hard to provide an alternative source of information about city issues.

I do have one wish for the New Year – that the citizens of Scottsdale will take this information and turn it into action.  The future of our city will be decided by those citizens who make the effort to actually show up and vote.

If you want Scottsdale to stay a special place in which to live you need to get actively involved in next year’s city elections. Otherwise, one day you will wake up to find that you are living in a Scottsdale that you did not ask for, do not want and will not even recognize.

Councilman Bob Littlefield
bob@boblittlefield.com

As we ring in the New Year, the combined Activist Staff would like to provide its readers with that it deems are Scottsdale’s Good, Bad and Ugly moments of 2007. Judging by the list, we trust you’ll agree that we have a lot of work to do in 2008 to reverse this pattern.

The Bad List:

The Ugly List: 

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No matter your personal political persuasion, we really hate to lose anyone who really cared about Scottsdale and worked hard to make the political process work.

One of those who truly cared about the political process in Scottsdale was Scottsdale resident and  former State Legislator Cal Holman who was broadsided and killed by Robert H. Van Brakel, 42, of Phoenix and Travis J. Aronica, 25, of Michigan. Both men were apparently drag racing down Scottsdale Road at 70+ miles per hour when their vehicles hit Cal's Cameo. They both have now been charged with 2^nd degree murder.

http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/email.php/7676564

It’s truly a shame that self-centered idiots such as those who were driving recklessly haven’t grown up and hopefully, if and when convicted, will spend many years in prison serving others.

Our prayers and heart felt sympathy go out to the scores of friends and the family of Cal who will be sorely missed.

We also feel sympathy for the friends and families of those who caused Cal’s death and will have to live with the ever reoccurring thought of the horrific death scene every time they look at their loved one’s who recklessly caused the senseless loss of Cal’s precious life.

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It is very rewarding for the Scottsdale Activist as well as loyal employees, but must be very humiliating for the city staff, Roger Klingler, "Hualapai Jan" Dolan and "Queen" Mary Manross to have public information that they should have rightfully made public but didn’t, then saw it reported by an upstart website that could end up being a solid contributor to their final demise as the "omnipotent rulers" of Scottsdale.

It has now been verified that what we have been hearing for about a month is basically true. There was an "incident" at the CAP water plant in north Scottsdale involving a chlorine leak which was never reported to the public or the press. According to Asst City Manager Roger Klingler’s note below, it wasn’t reported to anyone!

This leads any reasonable person to feel there is a good chance that there is a cover-up going on here based on the history of secrecy, half truths and deception perpetrated upon the citizens of Scottsdale by the Manross/Dolan administration.

In any case such as this, the Council should have been notified immediately because although this method of disinfection is widely used these days, a release is potentially lethal to both employees and neighbors.

For safety reasons, we will assume the chlorine is delivered in canisters; if delivered in quantity by truck, there are other serious issues. It is usually recommended against transporting liquid bulk chlorine by truck to facilities because of the potential risks (huge) involved to neighborhoods in the event of an motor vehicle accident or any accidental release (even though small). This is the stuff that can form a lethal cloud over an area and force the evacuation of neighborhoods; you've read about some of these involving rail transportation spills from accidents. We’re sure that the employees that rushed into the enclosure without adequate protection had the public at large in mind rather than their own personal safety, a noble action.

Our information stated that there was in fact a highly dangerous chlorine leak for which OSHA came on site, as were ambulances, a fire hazmat squad as well as sundry city officials. In addition, we are told that there was woefully inadequate employee training, protective gear and equipment for employees and for containment, poorly drafted emergency procedures, poorly trained management, and that the person responsible for the plant (on site) and more than one employee were summarily fired on the spot for the failure of the system and the spill.

We asked the city to respond to the request for information on this subject and received the following from Pat Dodds:

Our primary deep and continuing concern here is for the employees and secondly of course the honesty and the credibility of the Scottsdale city government and its management group starting with the most responsible (or irresponsible) person, "Hualapai Jan" Dolan, who of late must be in hiding because she always passes off the tough stuff off to someone else.

Why would any responsible management person withhold this type of critical information unless they are trying to cover up a situation which just might expose their inability and incompetence to effectively control or answer for such an incident?

Why would a supposedly competent city manager or mayor disallow this information to be publicly disseminated unless they feared it would undermine even further their public image of incompetence which is already very prevalent valley-wide for both?

Could it be that the Mayor gravely fears that any more negative news concerning her out-of-touch actions could harpoon her chances for re-election and bounce someone else into the mayor’s chair?

Hmmm, and we have the Hualapai court case coming up in June ’08 which will test the mayor’s honesty to the max.

Here again we have a situation where these top level individuals, including Roger Klingler, were far more interested in their personal images and possible retribution by the public and the press rather than what was in the best interest of the city, it’s citizens, and the employees affected.

Any prudent City management team should have called any and all agencies which could possibly be involved and asked for an immediate investigation to see what needed to be done, what the problem was from their perspective, and how to repair, and then how to keep the problem from reoccurring.

While the above was being coordinated, the city public information officer should have immediately been instructed to address the problem with the local press stating that the relevant authorities have been called to the site for an evaluation, that there were no serious injuries (thank God in this case), and everyone involved has been medically evaluated with no or only minor problems as reported by the medical authorities.

Gee, that sounds like something we should expect from an honest, above board government doesn’t it?

Any prudent and even half-bright public official would have erred on the side of honesty and openness by telling the entire story completely and unabridged before a publication like the Scottsdale Tribune or the Scottsdale Activist could break the story making city management look as incompetent and ineffective as the Scottsdale Activist has been indicating they are since our inception.

It should be noted here that the Scottsdale Republic still hasn’t addressed the problem meaning that they "have blown the incident off as a non-event" just as Dolan, Klingler, and Manross have done.

Gee, the Scottsdale Republic is a great "hometown paper" huh??.

Obviously, the city management and the mayors choice was to go secret yet again by keeping everything under wraps as they have a proclivity for doing hoping no one would find out.

A huge Opps on their part!!!

This again points out the incompetence and the proclivity for secrets by a couple of charter officers, many on the senior management staff, and of some elected individuals who need to be retired by the voters this coming September.

By retiring these elected individuals and replacing them with competent, honest, ethical, caring and citizen-friendly election winners, we can then sweep clean the management incompetence bogging down and intimidating our trusted and loyal employees who deserve so much better.

The Scottsdale Activist received the following information from a number of sources being almost the same from within the city and from a number of different departments.

We’ll preface the information with the article from the Scottsdale Tribune.

From the Scottsdale Tribune:

We have consolidated and combined what we have heard which was basically the same information from the sources who contacted us on the subject so we believe that it has much more validity than less and should be noted and investigated.

Remember that the City Auditor found the Code Enforcement had more than 2 dozen problems concerning record keeping, failure to collect fines, record inconsistencies, and a number of other serious violations caused, in our opinion, by total mismanagement of the department.

It would seem from the reported conversations that Keagy is ecstatic that he won’t have the work load he claims to have had which we hear is really far less real work but tons more paperwork due to Hankins penchant for paperwork which was negligible but fully understandable under the prior regime.

Many are asking privately to have Jeff Fisher back as the director of Code Enforcement, and to "just let them do their jobs without all the ridiculous, time consuming and redundant paperwork". Paperwork is a tool that many use to hide incompetence and to bury actual facts with tons and tons of nonsensical information which then becomes misinformation.

It seems as though Raun Keagy and other upper staff member or members were ecstatic over the city’s hiring of the new drainage inspectors approved for recruitment.  Word has it that Keagy was saying how he hoped everyone in the city realized that code just can't do everything and when they need specialized enforcement they should hire new positions. It was also been suggested that in the past, Code Enforcement covered everything in the zoning ordinance and all of the washes including the obstructions and objections that come with enforcement which was done satisfactorily under Fisher with far less employees. It should be noted here that Code Enforcement under Fisher was an entirely different organization which had far less authority and responsibility, but did a good job with what they had.

Reportedly, Keagy stated that because Fisher tried to have Code be a do-all, take care of everything department, it was Jeff Fisher’s problem and everyone knows what happened to him....he was just too stupid and thought he and his department could do it all.  So, if the City wants to spend another $350,000 dollars on two more inspectors, that makes just that much less work for Code and the new hires can take the heat for a "no win" situation. 

"Two-Step" Keagy, on a number of occasions, has reportedly been overheard inside and outside office and Kiva confines to say in the last couple of years, I only have a few more years left and I'm out of here and couldn’t care less what happens.....

How is it that the chameleon Code Enforcement GM Keagy could have such an attitude regarding the city we love so much in private but exudes faux love and respect for the city in public meetings? How do you think this makes good, dedicated employees feel when they overhear this negative, underhanded, self-serving message or something similar day in and day out from upper staff and directors of some city departments?

This is the exact reason that city management and Charter Officers MUST be verifiably, full time city residents. It promotes more accountability and a lot more loyalty and responsibility for one’s actions and decisions. If you’re going to work for Scottsdale in an executive position, you should live and pay taxes in Scottsdale.

The Activist has questioned the efforts of Keagy and Hankins on a number of issues since Hankins hiring. (Hankins was hired by Keagy from Phoenix and at the time, Hankins reportedly DID NOT meet the minimum requirements until Keagy apparently had Ed Gawf and Jan Dolan change the requirements to fit Hankins limited experience and abilities). Hankins has apparently gone into hiding because he’s never discussed or seen in public with or by his superiors as in the past. Where does Hankins go when he leaves the office at 3:30 PM??? Into the field??? Please……………….

One continuing problem that is still open, continuing to escalate and raise serious questions, and has many people city-wide upset is the Michelle Bruce incident concerning 44 bogus Notices of Violations in Carriage Hills (now all fully rescinded by Keagy) which we have been following and which has some serious questions concerning unethical procedures and the legality in the way things were handled which beg factual answers instead of the "Keagy Two-Step" which we are seeing and hearing far too often of late.

According to insiders, Bruce’s bogus, unwarranted and unprecedented actions in Carriage Hills are consistent with the reasons she was moved to the north from the southern portion of the city along with other negative work related issues to which the Scottsdale Activist had uncovered and is very familiar with from earlier investigations.

……….and Jeff Fisher was fired for what???

Keagy has made promise after promise to get back to certain citizens concerning the illegal vote by the HOA of that subdivision which now allows non-native plants outside contained yards (Oleander and Bougainville) which are strictly against all NAOS and ESLO rules and regulations. Keagy’s answer has reportedly been to the effect "nothing I can do, take it up with your HOA". Sounds like a typical and all too tiresome Dolan style dip-‘n-dodge to us combined with the "Keagy Two-Step".

In addition, one of the HOA officials has hired a named Pest Control company a number of years ago to illegally spray his private property annually (maybe semi annually) which is located within the strictly controlled NAOS/ESLO area (probably unknown to the pest control company), with pesticides, weed control agents, and pre-emergent agents which have been carried by storm water down stream denuding areas outside of this person’s property which is even more illegal from what we’ve been advised by federal and state EPA officials.

Keagy’s initial response to the citizens concerning the above situation was that the case would definitely end up in court. Now, he won’t say or discuss anything at all one way or the other. The last response from Keagy was that "He would get back to them when he had more information". That was 2 or more "I’ll get back to you’s ago".

Just one more "Keagy Two-Step" and "Dip ‘n Dodge" by the "Hualapai Jan" trained puppet.

We really wonder if the citizens actually know just how smug and self-centered many members of the city staff and management have become under the current leadership (???) from top to bottom. When you have a know-nothing mayor and Council majority who kow-tows to and refused to fire the city manager "Hualapai Jan" Dolan for incompetence, what more can you expect??

Maybe "Two-Step" Keagy should have left for Chandler while he had the chance taking his bosom buddies "Paperwork" Hankins and "Hualapai Jan" with him.

 ~ Rick Kidder & Area Chamber Out of Line & Touch

We read yet again where Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce president Rick Kidder representing the Area Chamber is bad-mouthing anyone, including council members, who do not see things exactly his way as well as sticking his and the Area Chambers nose in where it shouldn't be.

Why is it that SkyFlounder doesn't have the businesses necessary to fill the 1st floor?

Rick Kidder and the Area Chamber have not done their job.

Why is it that the proposed Los Arcos Crossing cannot find businesses to fill it's proposed retail section?

Rick Kidder and the Area Chamber have not done their job.

Why does the Scottsdale Area Chamber have almost half of their members doing business in Phoenix, not Scottsdale?

Rick Kidder and the Area Chamber cannot convince many Scottsdale business to join their dying organization because of their lack of direction and purpose, plus they desperately need the operating money provided by Chamber members.

Why did a number of Scottsdale businesses decide that they needed to start a new Chamber in North Scottsdale?

Rick Kidder and the Area Chamber cannot convince many Scottsdale business to join their dying organization because of their lack of direction, purpose, and a viable, achievable future vision for Scottsdale.

Why did the city allow businesses at Fashion Square to expand their Covenants of Non-Compete as far south as they have?

Rick Kidder and the Area Chamber were not paying enough attention to what could be instead of what they could pull off for their Manross cronies in the downtown area, south be damned.

Why does Kidder and the Area Chamber continually try to run the city by trying to politically push and shove important decisions without regard for the input of residents educated plans and wishes?

Rick Kidder and the Area Chamber have absolutely no idea or vision for the future except to push light rail, height, density and the demise of Scottsdale as we know it today with zero regard for our rich history and the failing city infrastructure.

 Solution:

Simple: DO NOT VOTE for any city election candidate who is a Scottsdale Area Chamber member and/or who is endorsed by Kidder, Korte, or the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce.

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 ~ Thank You Mark "Scottsdale Tribune" Scarp

We at the Activist would like to sincerely thank and congratulate Mark Scarp for an excellent remembrance for Herb "Mr. Scottsdale" Drinkwater on the 10th anniversary of his most untimely and sad death.

As Mark Scarp so rightly stated, there is no one in sight who could even come close to filling the boots of Herb Drinkwater. Some seem to think they can or have, but as I told Mayor Manross one evening at a public city council meeting on city TV, even though she thinks she can and has (which she has publicly stated), she doesn't even come close to qualifying to clean or polish his old manure covered stall cleaning boots, let alone fill them.

No one should ever suggest, or even think about suggesting that they can fill Herb Drinkwater's boots because they will never be filled. No one has ever or probably ever will love Scottsdale more than Herb did openly and enthusiastically by showing or telling anyone who would listen how great this city was and where every part was and why it was very special.

Was Herb perfect? Absolutely not and he would tell you that himself, face to face. Did he make mistakes? Absolutely and they really bothered him but they couldn't be reversed once started. The best part of his mistakes was that he would openly admit that he was wrong to anyone who would listen.

It will be a frozen solid day in Hell when Mary Manross or any of her cronies would ever consider such an honorable, honest and open admission.

For anyone who hasn't visited Herb's life sized statue, go to and face the front door of the City Hall Kiva, turn around 180 degrees and look across the mall to the large "LOVE" sculpture, then look just to the left a little closer and there is Herb with his Stetson in hand and favorite dog by his side just as I met him 27 years ago in almost the same location. Read the inscription on the plaque, you'll be moved.

God Bless Herb Drinkwater, his bride Jackie, and their children Jamie and Mark.

Rest well my friend, Your Scottsdale will be well and on track again soon.

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This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced.

The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado . This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Check it out here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

And here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

 ~Letters to the Editor  

The current flap over a vote on light rail and transportation is yet another example of how this Mayor operates in a smoke and mirror filled environment. She is advocating presenting this issue to voters for the purpose of obtaining advice. Good for her. But she is insisting that the ballot question be presented in a "special" election instead of presenting this question to voters during a General Election.

Bad for us! Why?

Special Elections generally do not bring the electorate to the polls. Historical evidence proves this point.

So Madam Mayor, what is it to be? Are you going to push for this issue being presented to voters in a Special Election (the cost of which is totally unnecessary and only adds to the millions of taxpayer dollars you have already wasted to date —more on this soon— or will you have some sense of decency and honesty (not like lying to the County Assessor that your income property is your primary residence so you can beat paying your fair share of taxes) and place this question before Scottsdale voters where it belongs.  On a General Election Ballot!

Or, are you just plain scared of having such a controversial issue before the voters in the same General Election in which you are running for your re-election? If you really are the "proven leader" your website claims, then you should have no problem defending your position on light rail during an election campaign.

But, of course, should you take the low road and force this issue into a Special Election, then this is just one more of the hundreds of reasons that after your sixteen years in elected office it is time to Retire Mary.

Anonymous by request
Educated Scottsdale Resident

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I met Cal Holman for the first time when running my referendum against Skysong in July 2004, a project so ridiculous that even Cal recognized that and volunteered to collect petition signatures. And that he did.  Of the 2300 signatures submitted, Cal was responsible for well over half of those, standing in the July heat at the Mustang Library day after day, despite his physical disabilities.

I was so impressed by Cal that we began having breakfast together, on a bi-monthly or so basis, at his favorite place - Good Egg at Lincoln & Scottsdale Roads.  We always met at 7am, his preferred time, very difficult for me as I never went to sleep before 2am - but so well worth it.  We were kindred spirits in our love of politics; he is the reason I switched my party registration from Democrat to Republican approx. 4 years ago.

We disagreed on many topics; agreed on others, but my respect for Cal was enormous.  He was a committed, hard-working District 8 Republican who truly felt that working within the political system could produce positive results.  He loved Scottsdale mightily, and worked hard for changes he believed in. He had overcome many personal obstacles including his disabilities sustained while in the military, and his prior alcoholism, which he freely talked about.  He was very active in restoring the voting rights of convicted felons.  He was a dapper guy, always extremely well-dressed, loved southwest jewelry, and his 1973 Camero.  And Cal adored his wife, who is an absolutely wonderful human being.  

Cal, I will miss you very, very much.  Scottsdale is worse off without you.

Michelle Aubert
Scottsdale 

I'll tell you what happened to Scottsdale volunteers.....Jan Dolan that’s what happened, with Mary Manross fully supporting her decision………

The city used to have an "I'LL DO IT" program for volunteers, many, many citizens would donate their time and expertise to the city, I had a dear friend, Pete Rickmers who volunteered for the Code Enforcement Department when they actually did enforcement under Mr. Jeff Fisher. Pete had the time of his life. The staff and management were so very supportive and honestly gave Pete a new lease on life.

Sadly Pete recently passed, but to hear him talk about volunteering for Jeff and his crew was so grand!  I later tried to volunteer and was also dismissed, brushed aside and finally told it was too big a liability for the city to have volunteers. 

Hmm, to big a liability? Wonder how the other cities have figured it out and enjoy the activities and help provided by a volunteer force????????

Vote Manross and her majority on the council out, and Dolan will be sure to quickly follow.

Name withheld by request
Scottsdale Resident   

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Okay let’s take a look at some of the adventures over the last year which was preformed down in the big top of the three ring circus.

We had a very interesting budget session this year as the Mayor decided that the entire council would be the budget sub committee and while that led to some other issues it was interesting to see the entire council discuss the city budget. It was even more fun to note all the talk about expenditures and maintaining a responsible budget and then came the votes.

We increased our water rates and sewerage rates again for I think the 7 year in a row now and it is funny how it becomes more expensive at build out, and we still have to pay for all the infrastructure upgrades in downtown and the south under the Wizards master plan. Lets also consider that we just replace water meters when they show a drop in usage and that runs to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and there is also that recent problem of losing billions of gallons of water that the taxpayers will have to cover, so heck why not raise the rates instead of getting a grip on other problems that may save the taxpayers money.

If you ever get time to investigate how you get billed for water usage under the Dolan/Manross tier system which is claimed to have given us so many awards you may find out how you are getting screwed over on your water bills, but that is a story for a later column.

We were charmed to give the city employees a huge freaking raise that will be with us the taxpayers for eternity and in the process we made positions for adding more employees to the payroll. I think that the number they came up with as an increase annually was around 10 million dollars and while I believe our employees deserve a raise I found it hard to swallow this large raise as the Wizards way to try to fight the low moral of the employee pool. I also think that the raise was used to cover some of the impacts of the issue everyone forgot about called the employee benefits that sat around for three years and finally came to a council decision.

As again the city Financial Guru said the council should use restraint and it was pointed out that again the city is not taking in as much as it is paying out, and since the city barely won the issue of raising our spending cap; what do you as a taxpayer think happened?

You got it; we increased the budget this year, again.

We had the Auto Auction and the wicked witch was now going to take the lead in negotiations with Craig Jackson and in record time brought the issue to a conclusion. The conclusion was she never even met with anyone and the next thing you know, Craig is off to Vegas to open the show and to scale back the Scottsdale show and maybe even move it to another part of the Valley.

We also had her Majesty the wicked witch help out with how we built the water treatment plant up North on land we did not even own, and she helped that one out by signing a contract without the council knowledge and costing you the taxpayer with a debt so far of 5 Million and bound to go up.

Somehow the transportation department got us sued for 2 million in taxpayer money because someone was throwing in street furniture to a pre approved plan with no change work orders and no re approval from the higher ups; or maybe the changes came from higher up? It was also very comical to see the hump on Camelback come to light as it was also installed in total disregard to city policy and procedure old or new. The funny part came in when the city could not produce any documentation that the process was ever followed and not one damn council member said "Boo" about this.

Lets also look at the issue of the 4333 building as the entrance to downtown and take note that our three ring circus fell all over themselves with excuses in round two of "doing the right thing". If anyone would have paid attention to the detail of the area and how it plans or is redeveloping they should have remembered that just two short doors down from the new space ship design we have the old fish company building with its rustic front bricks being refurbished for a new restaurant, but on the front of the building on the north corner, perched high on the building is a stagecoach, and on the southern end is a horse coming out of the building. The problem is we now have a clash between the space ship and our western downtown theme because some people running this city are to stupid to see how we suck at trying to mesh the new with the old, so my hat is off to Buckaroo Betty and her all so knowing title as Ms. Downtown Design expert, great job.

Yep I know there are other issues out there that just scream dysfunctional from our city generals and their tag along team of the supposed leaders of the Oz but I am just going to stop depressing myself at this point and hope for a more clued in new year and wonder how that could happen in an election year?

The other day I noted that the Oz Repugnant must have had a slow news day as they made yet another heralding report on another great accomplishment for SkyBarf. This time we are supposed to be happy about a company that is not even moving into the building and basically is a lending company from overseas and is remaining overseas but will be helping SkyBarf start up companies with capitol finance and a door way to the European market.

Last week we had to endure the drivel from both our tourist editor and none other than Steve Evans on how great the project is coming along with all of the people moving into the buildings and Legers crappola about giving it another five years to take root. We are not supposed to expect large corporations to be moving in yet we have Canon which really gets no larger and they were even given retail space on the bottom floor for everything other than retail use.

We have the great and powerful Ticket Master moving in and I have to wonder why they are not considered a large corporation since they basically control the market in ticket outlet sales.

We have US WEST moving in I think it was and it was never noted about how many people they are moving into their new fiber optics center in the basement.

We have a handful of companies that have moved in from Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mexico and a couple of other places and in employee numbers could not fill the first floor of office space so excuse the hell out of me for doubting these two peoples load of umpa lumpa droppings that we are going to use to line the path to the long awaited diapers to cover this load of crap with.

So people will be moving in soon to begin working on technological challenges and we are still wondering what retail has been signed up to move in on that first floor that is supposed to be all retail.

Where will these hundreds (that’s a joke) of people go to eat for lunch or have coffee in the morning and why are we already hearing about the hotel plans?

Of course we have all of those highly subsidized apartments that had to be built to make the project work, with another 3 or 4 hundred on the way if this council remains in power and we can foresee those mainly being defunct dorm housing in the not so distant future. Funny, but the lease that the residents and the city came up with excluded housing on the site and it is not funny how our league of misfits decided the lease should be changed upon the objections of their loyal subjects.

The fact is that SkyBarf has turned out to be the biggest swindle that has been played on the Southern section of the city from its piss poor design as the entry feature to the breaking of the lease to allow housing and everything in between and we do not need more time to see what we can expect from the development for the future, or at least the future of it after the first 99 years.

Recently we have been hearing a rumor going around that none other than the Wizard is stumping illegally and yet to be caught red handed for the re-election of non other than the Flaming PaToot Ron McCullagh. Now If this were to be true it would have to make you wonder for what reason would this be happening?

Could it be that the Wizard is a little worried about an upcoming election in which I see the ticket as being Jim Lane running against our Mother Mary in which it may very well be that Lane will win?

Could it be the fear that maybe we could see a Nesvig/Derouin ticket for council seats and still a yet to be heard from candidate?

Personally I could not give a rats bazooka about the Wizard stumping for the flaming PaToot because the main point is to make sure that Ronnie Boy never sees a council seat again and he be replaced with a competent un slithering style of publicly elected official, but you can be assured that if by any chance we find proof that this rumor is true, the Wizard will not have to wait for a fourth vote to be moving on down the light rail path by way of a few round-abouts.

We heard of another rumor that has yet to come to light but probably will before we catch the Wizard and that is the issue of a possible chemical spill that took place at the new north Scottsdale water plant Hualapaischist or something like that. It also appears that we now have a slew of outside agencies investigating this possible spill in which we hear that some people may have been fired, some may have been injured and someone may be trying to cover it up.

Another rumor going around is that the city attorney really is a "charter officer" and is even going to be part of the "charter officer" review process and even received "charter officer" review last year but the council has not caught on to this yet and are still in violation of the city charter which requires a "charter officer" to live in the city limits but was told by a legal opinion by one of her subordinates that she is not required to follow the charter. Sounds like the legal opinion that the council could not talk to anyone huh?

Wait, this is not a rumor, this is the truth about where we live and who is running this city; the inmates!

Well Ozites the time is upon us to embark into a new year and try to forget the last one, or two, or four. For me I will be bringing in the New Year by completing the remodeling of my kitchen that I promised my wife I would do two years ago and move onto the master bathroom that I promised last year to get done.

To all of you who have logged in to read the ramblings of the sane I wish you a Safe and Happy New Year.

Michael Merrill
F8713@aol.com

For those that don't know about history... here is a condensed version.

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter. The two most important events in all of history were:

These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals

2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture.

Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.
 
Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.
 
Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing.

This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men.
 
Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years Conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and s till provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history....... It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it.

A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tick them off....  

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I bet that you don’t know what this is:

DOO ANIINA' AGOT'EEHI BAA NOHWILL NAGOSHDI'

And I bet that your daily newspaper is too lazy and biased to look into it and tell you.

What is it? It’s the Arizona recipient of a federal grant of $8,155 in 2006. There were over 5,000 federal grants and loans to Arizona organizations and individuals that year, totaling nearly $10 billion. The story is similar in the other 49 states.

To put the $10 billion in perspective, it’s equal to the average annual income of about 200,000 Arizona households.

If a politician were to suggest that the income of 200,000 households should be taken by the government for a year and given to the likes of DOO ANIINA' AGOT'EEHI BAA NOHWILL NAGOSHDI', there would be rioting in the streets and his head would be put on a pike, like a corn dog on a stick.

Would you like mustard or ketchup on that politician?

Oh, wait a minute: Such theft is exactly what politicians advocate. The websites of Members of Congress have information on how to apply for federal grants and loans. After all, there is no better way of buying votes than to dole out other people’s money.

Strangely, instead of putting their heads on pikes and slathering them with mustard and ketchup, we lavish the thieves with attention, respect, fancy offices, rich pensions and a plethora of perquisites. Worse, if your local newspaper is like mine, it scolds politicians for not spending enough on the "common good," or whatever euphemism they use to disguise the criminal activity. This is akin to encouraging a burglar to sell stolen TVs out of the trunk of his car for the common good.

A newspaper that cared about common folk would telephone the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery and ask why it received $2,326 in federal funds. It would ask the Arizona Cotton Research and Protection Council what it does to deserve over $200,000 in federal funds. And it would ask the Clarity Group to clarify what it did with its grant of $100,500.

Heck, I would be willing to do the research gratis for the local newspaper and write an expose that would surpass all imaginary journalism standards of the newspaper industry. But the newspaper would never do that. Being suicidal, it would rather bleed circulation by remaining stuck in a journalism model that writes an expose on a supermarket overcharging customers a penny on a can of green beans instead of exposing the $130,211 of taxpayer money that went to the Australian Outback Plantation, whatever that is.

It’s not that the grants and loans are hard to find. A complete list can be found at:

http://www.census.gov/govs/www/faads064.html

The list shows that the preponderance of loot went to universities, trade schools, and Indian tribes. Not having attended journalism school, and thus not being enamored with statism, two story lines immediately pop into my head:

1. How federal money to higher education has made university administrators insensitive to cost, raised college tuition, and corrupted the independence of university researchers, who know who is buttering their bread and thus slant their research accordingly.

2. How Indian tribes claim sovereignty when it suits them, such as operating casinos; but then, when it suits them, they forget sovereignty and readily accept federal largess.

You wouldn’t know it by the presidential debates and by your local newspaper, but the nation is going bankrupt. You can thank DOO ANIINA' AGOT'EEHI BAA NOHWILL NAGOSHDI' for doing its share.

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

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I recently attended a conference of conservatives who believe in tax cuts and limited government. Eleven luminaries spoke at the conference, each of whom has done more to advance liberty than I have. Curiously, not one of them raised what I believe to be the three most important philosophical questions about taxes and domestic policy. Even stranger, the questions have not been raised in the presidential debates or ever heard in the mainstream media. The three questions are as follows.

If the answer to the above is yes, then the political philosophy of true conservatives and libertarians is wrong, or immoral. After all, according to their philosophy, the proper role of government is to limit government to the protection of life, liberty and property---to those services that benefit all people equally, such as national defense and public safety. To them, the proper role of government does not include using force to provide welfare, subsidies, tax breaks, education, healthcare, babysitters, protective tariffs or anything else that benefits some people at the expense of others.

If the answer to the above is yes, then the political philosophy of liberals, progressives and socialists is wrong, or immoral. After all, according to their philosophy, there should be no limits to taking as long as there are people in need of other people’s money.

Judging by their politics, the vast majority of Americans would answer no to Question 3, irrespective of whether they are Democrat or Republican. They would also say that Questions 1 and 2 are too black and white---that the questions are not mutually exclusive and that the truth is somewhere in between.

There are five possible reasons for this prevailing view:

Whatever the explanation, the plain fact is that there is not a fundamental difference in domestic policies between the two parties. They both believe in progressive taxation and other forms of redistribution, they both believe in protective tariffs and subsidies, and they both believe in Social Security, Medicare, public education and other collectivist programs. Their disagreements are not about the morality of redistribution and collectivism. Rather, their disagreements are about the amount and form of redistribution and collectivism, and who should be on the paying and receiving ends. (For sure, neither party wants to restrict the receiving end to the poor.)

Two thoughts about the prevailing view: First, generally speaking, when a nation is at the apex of its power and facing a long, slow descent, the prevailing view, whatever it might be, won’t stop the descent. Therefore, if the United States is at the apex of its power, then Americans might want to question their prevailing view.

Second, more specifically, the prevailing view has led to unsustainable spending that if not checked soon, will consign future generations to confiscatory tax rates of more than 70 percent.

Maybe it’s time to begin asking the three questions.

An author, columnist and founder of Honest Americans Against Legal Theft (HAALT), 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.