Starting tomorrow, the California Highway Patrol will begin a 48 hour mandatory "Stand-Down". Over the last five months, the CHP has experienced the painful death of six officers.

From FOX 40 News:

SACRAMENTO — Shaken by the deaths of six patrolmen since last fall, the California Highway Patrol on Monday required its field commanders to review safety procedures with their officers.

The statewide "stand-down" will be in effect for two days for the CHP's 108 field offices but will not affect deployments or service, CHP Commissioner Mike Brown said during a news conference.

Brown said the rarely used action also will give officers the chance to vent their feelings. He said there was "a lot of anger" within the department over the rash of deaths, the latest of which came over the weekend when a Southern California motorcycle officer was struck by a suspected drunken driver during a traffic stop.

"We have been struggling with this internally," Brown said.

The stand-down applies to the department's 7,287 uniformed officers and its 3,112 non-uniformed personnel. Over the 48-hour period, field commanders will set aside several hours to discuss the events with their officers, reviewing the department's safety procedures and identifying any potential problems in policies or training.

While the CHP claims that even though there will be many officers in meetings, it will be "Business as usual" for them. I think tomorrow's "Stand-Down" will be a great tool. Officers and other personnel will have an opportunity to voice concerns and make recommendations to their supervisors.

It will be interesting to see if the CHP takes the information gathered over the next 48 hours and does something constructive with it.

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Now you can receive email notifications each time The Sacramento Republicrat has a new post. I had been using Yahoo Groups, and I will continue until everyone gets moved over.

I have had a few complaints that people do not like to use Yahoo Groups as they require you to register before you can sign up for email notifications.

If you would like to move over or would like to sign up, just enter your email address in the box under Site Syndication.

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I certainly did not see this one coming:

A Texas cowboy was tending to his herd in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and a YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy... "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?" The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on
the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another
NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image
has been processed and the data stored.

He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, ''You have exactly 1586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the
cowboy. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a consultant for the National Democratic Party," says the cowboy.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required," answered the cowboy, "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you don't know anything about my business... Now give me back my dog."

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A local Sacramento school is recommending that children walk to school.  Regency Park Elementary which is part of the Rio Linda Union School District, is asking parents NOT to drive their kids to school.  In an effort to keep children away from moving cars, the school is redesigning it's drop off and pick up policy.

In a letter sent home to parents, it starts off with the following paragraph:

  We are encouraging all families living in the Regency Park Community to allow their students to walk to and from school each day.  Kids today don't have as many opportunities to be as physically active as they once did.  At school, physical education time is just 200 minutes every two weeks and is not conducted by a specialist.  Today's children have a wider variety of television programs and video games to entertain them.  These realities are keeping kids from getting regular phyisical activity and may be contributing to a growing number of overweight children, which has increased by 63% over the past 30 years.

We received a seven page handout outlining the schools plan.  You can view it here in .PDF format.

Ok, so it sounds like I am complaining about something good the school is attempting to do.  Wrong!  That's not it at all.  I am all for the fact that the school wants to implement an enviroment that is more safe for our children. 

What I am against is the fact that the school is pushing us to have our children walk to school.  This program needs to be thought out further before they implement it.  Children who are in the First, Second, or even Third grade should not be left alone to walk to school unless it is absolutely necessary.  It is a parents choice and NOT the schools.  Are they going to provide security or protection for my children as they walk to school?  No. 

There are dangerous and vile people out there who prey on kids walking alone.  I went to Megan's Law website and put in the two zip codes that cover my general area and the area my children would have to pass through to get to school.  The database located three individuals that my kids would have to go right by twice a day.  Uh, I don't think so! 

This blog called both Regency Park Elementary School as well as Rio Linda Union School District for comment.  Both declined.  One cited that they were looking in to the matter due to the influx of telephone calls. 

In closing, I am in no way against our children getting additional excercise.  Nor am I against a safer enviroment around vehicles.  I am against the school trying to persuade parents to have their children walk to school so they have less vehicles to deal with. 

On the "Driving Around the School" map on the PDF, they make a statement,  Driving around the school, "IF YOU MUST", follow this path.  "IF I MUST", you're damn skippy I must...

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According to Scott McClellan, President Bush was not aware of it until it was a done deal.  Well, if that is infact the case, then Bush needs to fire some people.  A deal of this magnitude and potential impact, should have been being monitored very closely by the Bush Administration. 

Allowing a  foreign company or government the opportunity to control port operations is ludacris.  This is a matter of national security.  Let's leave the job of securing our Mexico borders up to them.  I am sure they will prevent any of their citizens to enter the U.S....

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Michael Morales, 46, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal
injection at San Quentin State Prison for murdering 17-year-old Terri Winchell of Lodi in 1981 by trying to strangle her, beating her with a hammer and stabbing her. Morales was also convicted of raping her.

In one appeal, Morales claims his death penalty was based on allegedly false testimony by a jailhouse informant.

That appeal and an emergency motion for a stay of execution were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court this morning by attorney David Senior of Los Angeles. Morales has admitted he murdered Winchell, but claims he should not have been given a death penalty.

In the second high court appeal, Morales claims the state's procedure for lethal injection executions is unconstitutional because there is a risk that he could suffer extreme pain. Attorney Richard Steinken of Chicago said defense
attorneys plan to file that appeal in the high court in early afternoon.

As a result of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose last week, the state for the first time will have an anesthesiologist present in the execution chamber to make sure Morales is unconscious and unable to feel pain.

From FOXnews:

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — The state on Tuesday postponed indefinitely the execution of a condemned killer amid a court battle over the state's method of lethal injection and the role doctors may play in the death chamber.

State officials notified the federal courts they would be unable to comply with a judge's order to have a medical profesional administer a lethal dose of barbiturate to Michael Morales in the execution chamber, a court spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

Morales, 46, was supposed to die by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. But the execution was put off until at least Tuesday night after the anesthesiologists objected that they might have to advise the executioner if the inmate woke up or appeared to suffer pain.

"Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical," the doctors, whose identities were not released, said in a statement. "As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process."

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel gave prison officials a choice last week: bring in doctors to ensure Morales was properly anesthetized, or skip the usual paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs and execute him with an overdose of a sedative.

It's amazing to me that a US District Judge could have ZERO common sense. To issue this type of order, must have the family and friends of Terri Winchell up in arms. I would be willing bet that Morales did not give Terri Winchell anesthesia...

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I got this in an email this evening. I was rolling...

A mother and her 5 yr. old son were flying Southwest Airlines from Kansas City to Chicago. The son(who had been looking out the window)turned to his mother and asked,"If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes have baby planes?" The mother, who couldn't think of an answer, told her son to "ask the flight attendant."

So the boy walks to the galley and asks the stewardess, "If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes
have baby planes?"

The stewardess responded, "Did your mother tell you to
ask me?" The boy said, " Yes, she did...."

"Well, then, tell your mother that there are no baby planes because Southwest always pulls out on time. Have your mother explain that to you."

Technorati Tags: Joke

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I think that Vice President Dick Cheney should resign immediately.

In an interview with FOXNews, Cheney stated the following:

"Ultimately I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry," Cheney said in his first interview since the incident. "I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend, and that's something I'll never forget."

"The image of him falling is something I will never be able to get out my mind," Cheney said, somberly. "It was one of the worst days of my life."

The NY Times has a great timeline of what happened.

From the beginning, The White House covered up this story.

Democrats have nailed it:

Democrats have pilloried the White House's handling of the situation, calling it symbolic of an administration obsessed with secrecy.

"The refusal of this administration to level with the American people on matters large and small is very disturbing," said Sen. Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat.

And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said: "The vice president has not held a press conference since 2002."

BEEP-BEEP
BEEP-BEEP
BEEP-BEEP
BEEP-BEEP

That beeping sound you hear is your alarm clock...WAKE UP. The situation with Cheney was an accident. Period, dot, the end.

The media and extremist left wingers are making a story where there is not one.

It was an accident and nothing more...

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Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a true President or common terrorist?

I am thinking he is the latter.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday over fears it wants to produce nuclear arms, raising the stakes in the diplomatic confrontation and prompting Tehran to threaten immediate retaliation.

"The path chosen by Iran's new leaders — threats, concealment, and breaking international agreements and IAEA seals — will not succeed and will not be tolerated by the international community," President Bush said in a statement.

Iran remained defiant, threatening to do precisely what referral was meant to prevent. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the resumption of uranium enrichment and an end to snap IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities, according to state television.

"As of Sunday, the voluntary implementation of the additional protocol and other cooperation beyond the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has to be suspended under the law," Ahmadinejad said in a letter to Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also is the head of the nation's nuclear agency.

Javed Vaeidi, deputy head of Iran's powerful National Security Council, also said his country "now has to implement fuller scale of enrichment."

The following are comments he made that come right of Aljazeera.Net:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled The World without Zionism.

"The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land," he said.

"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini.

His comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel's eradication, even though such slogans are still regularly used at government
rallies.

If we are not careful, we are soon going to be dealing with a terrorist in posession of a nuclear bomb.

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Ok, I have an issue with our US based companies farming out or having their technical support departments in other countries. Simply for one reason. The majority of the individuals cannot speak English.

For the most part, I rarely need to call tech. support as I can handle most situations myself. However, the other night I had an issue with a wireless pc card/router conflict. So I called Linksys tech support. After waiting on hold for about ten minutes, I get a guy who answers the phone that clearly speaks VERY broken English and with a hard East Indian (?) accent. He says "Thank you for calling Linksys Technical Support, this is Bob, how can I help you?"

Ok, first issue:
Use your real name. It was almost amusing to hear this guy try and tel me he was a "Bob". This guy ended every sentence with "Ok, tell me". It was very annoying. After being on the phone with him for almost an hour, he was not able to resolve anything. I finally had to play trial and error and I finally resolved the issue myself.

My second issue:
If you are going to deal with English speaking individuals, then they need to be able to carry on a conversation. My point is that if he could have spoken better English, we probably would have been able to communicate better and possibly been able to resolve my issue.

I realize that companies can save big dollars by moving their Tech. Support to other countries, but not at the expense of their customers.

I have always been a HUGE fan of Linksys but unfortunately will be questioning whether or not I will choose Linksys when making my next network purchase.

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I saw this lastnight and thought it was funny:

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and was very much in favor of the redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on! the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs.

The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is you friend Audrey doing?"

She replied, "Audrey ! is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."

Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I have worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!" The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the Republican party."

H/T Read My Lips Blog

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