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January 12, 2011 – Daily Brief

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

  • Dozens protest immigration letter at City Council meeting and Bob Kellar criticizes Laurene Weste. But Ken Pulskamp said the letter represented the majority opinion on the City Council. SIGNAL
  • Meanwhile, the City Council approved loosening the on-time performance standards for its bus contractor and agreed to purchase a library database system for $90,000+ KHTS
  • Hart Board member Joe Messina gets his wish: a Hart District lawyer will review Gloria Mercado-Fortine’s dealings with a charter school system she is employed with, what Messina alleges amounts to a conflict of interest. Mercado-Fortine denies any wrongdoing SIGNAL
  • County officials worried Governor Brown will offload prisoners and inmates onto the Counties without adequate funding SIGNAL
  • Supervisor Antonovich, highly critical of Brown’s budget and defensive of Prop 13, submits his own state budget blueprint KHTS
  • Whoa cool: Chinese Acrobats coming to the PAC on January 23. KHTS, PAC
  • Sarah Palin speaks out on Tuscon tragedy in recorded video statement NY TIMES

Comments (49)

  1. BrianJanuary 12, 2011 at 6:20 am
    Why is Palin hiding? Why doesn’t she go to the memorial in Tucson and meet her reloaders?
  2. PetzJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:36 am
    If Obama really wants to “heal ” this nation, he will invite Sarah Palin and John McCain to sit next to him in Tucson tonight.
  3. CCJanuary 12, 2011 at 8:36 am
    …and yet Obama went down there without having to be prompted. While inflammatory Comments abound on both sides, I don’t think we can say that this is the reason for an unhinged person to go on a shooting rampage. But it is a great time to re-assess the tone of the rhetoric being flung back and forth. It seems that Sarah didn’t get the message. Obviously she wants to stay in the news to sell books.
  4. Your Web GuruJanuary 12, 2011 at 8:15 pm
    OOO yes! The reality TV star and the curmudgeon homophobe hangin’ with the Prez. Sounds like a sitcom plot!!
  5. scvtruthsquadJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:01 am
    Sarah Palin has blood on her hands… hey Ms. Palin why don’t you put another marksman target in your next ad campaign… She wanted to defeat the congreswoman and replace her with a Republican, I guess now her wish will come true…. Shame on anyone that supports Palin…
  6. Bill ReynoldsJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:21 am
    Mark Penn has blood on his hands… wonder if he will attend the Tucson Memorial? Ha!
  7. nateJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:31 am
    Ha? Why do you always have some kind of insensitive remark when another human being is hurt? Why does a big tough guy like you kick people when they are down?
  8. scvtruthsquadJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:24 am
    because Billy is weak, bullies are always weak.
  9. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:49 am
    Palin? This whacko was going after giffords 2 years before that map ever came out? Maybe you can tie palin into the Lincoln and Mckinleyassasinations too? (Makes about as much sense) Can you offer any proof at all the this whacko has ever seen that map? Heard Palin, Limbaugh or Hannity utter a single word? Do you realize how Freaking stupid you sound? Shame on ANY fucking idiot that tries to score political points after this tragedy! (Even jon Stewart had enough class not to try and do it! http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction )
  10. Fred ButlerJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:56 am
    Ah yes. Sarah Palin. She has mind control powers now according to the progressive left looking for something to blame other than that little punk narcissist. The abilities of Dr. Xavier. She can enter dreams to plant an idea like Leo DiCaprio. I suggest tin-foil as a means to shield her mental powers.
  11. MikeJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:15 am
    stop the press! I agree with President Adams.
  12. PoliticoJanuary 12, 2011 at 4:12 pm
    The utter lack of introspection and reflective thought this woman has is unbelievable. How one can take a tragedy like this and turn it into “it’s all about me and how mean they’re being to me”. This woman is so out of her element.
  13. IHeartSCVJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:57 am
    Why is it that people have such reluctance for holding people accountable for their own actions–namely, blaming the shooting on the guy who did it? Saying Sarah Palin has blood on her hands because of a heretofore obscure, dumb stunt of a webpage is a disgusting diversion from the real tragedy.
  14. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 8:08 am
    This sherrif in tucson is the dirty bastard. Fact #1 He knew this shooter and his family before the shooting. Fact#2 He himself verified the shooter had made death threats against others in the past. Fact #3 He NEVER did anything to protect the citizens from the bat shit crazy psycho. Fact #4 The mom worked for the county in the Parks and recreation dept. I cant wait till the complete truth about this comes out. Mom was a mid-level county bureaucrat, with enough power that whenever sonny boy was in trouble the authorities did not pursue it, to avoid “making trouble” (their words) She gets favors in return for hiring some ‘cousin jeffrey’ to mow the lawns in the parks department… in return her son gets to slide on what is looking more and more like very obvious WARNING SIGNS. Cousin Jeffrey’s father is local town superintenant, he calls the sherrif, the sherriff calls the deputies and says drive the kid home and give him a talking to. YES I KNOW I AM SPECULATING and this is opinon… but wanna put some money on it?
  15. NateJanuary 12, 2011 at 8:42 am
    So now it is the Sheriff’s fault? Everyone is blame shifting. This kid was a sociopath, and doesn’t have the mental filters that most rational people do. I doubt seriously he was influenced by Sarah Palin. I would imagine he harbored an extremist mentality and clung to anything that supported his view. The overall rhetoric may have had an influence, Sarah Palin is an easy target because she used gun metaphors and imagery all the time. Does “don’t retreat, reload” sound familiar? If Sarah Palin’s map didn’t add to the extremist rhetoric that influenced this sociopath why did she pull it immediately? I don’t see her as a person who stands down especially when she believes she is right. Sarah Palin and her supporters are rightly upset they are taking so much heat for the actions of one extremist. Now she may know what an artist like Marylyn Manson felt like when parents like her began blaming him for the columbine shooting or the majority of Muslims who are blamed for the actions of a small group of extremists. Doesn’t feel so good I suppose. Maybe everyone should stand back and reflect if they did anything to help fuel the us verses them mentality that would make a young sociopath feel killing is an option.
  16. MikeJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:17 am
    …but not his counter-conspiracy theory
  17. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:43 am
    I am not blaming the sheriff (although I can see where it would be easy to assume that is my intention) There are many things that happened that were wrong! But, the only person responsible was the psycho killler. I don’t blame the sheriff or the gun. Just the guy that pulled the trigger. What I am trying to answer (maybe just to myself) is how did this crazy ass kid get through the legal system without ever being detained/arrested/convicted? Now comes word the the shooter was pulled over for running a red light 3 hrs prior to shooting and given a verbal warning??? I don’t know anyone that has been given a verbal warning for running a red light? (Rolling through a stop sign maybe but not running a red light). Is there anyone in the world that believes this guys connections were not helping him avoid legal problems? Anyone? Just a sad state of affairs! And a 9 year old girl is dead because of it.
  18. NateJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:03 am
    It is my understanding He got through because he didn’t break any laws aside from drugs apparently. He made a threat but law enforcement looks if the person is capable of carrying it out. With no criminal record and ownership of guns at the time of the threat it would appear to be the ramblings of some drug addict who reads to many conspiracy theories. Verbal warning or ticket what’s the difference? It wouldn’t have been a jail able offense. It is sad. The system isn’t perfect.
  19. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:17 am
    I always thought threatining to kill someone was against the law? At what point do you and I get away with multiple death threats (As confirmed by sheriff) Lets just assume they thought he was just “A crazy kid” At what point do they refer him to a mental health facility? Was there any point at all where someone thought he may be a bit more dangerous than just a little crazy? I am sure the families of the dead will get all the answers in court. Because millions of taxpayer dollars are going to be distributed to these families throught lawsuits. The only thing I am confident about? Sarah Palins name will never be seen on any court documents pertaining to this case.
  20. NateJanuary 12, 2011 at 11:32 am
    Lot of things are against the law. It they pursue it and give him a slap on the wrist and probation. Then what? He still shows up and lights up this crowd. This dude was a sociopath our country is full of them, most are not dangerous and they are very hard to spot, this is the reason most serial killers are sociopaths rather then psychopaths. Sociopath don’t typically call much attention to themselves and they are typically loners because they lack the ability to connect with other humans. They are disconnected hallow shells of people. So I am not at all surprised that this guy rarely sent up any red flags. Plus you have the drugs which would have been an excuse for just about anything he did. Guys is high and says he wants to off a congresswoman… ok? Is he serious? Is he crazy? Is he high? or all of the above? Who can make this call flawlessly every time?
  21. MikeJanuary 12, 2011 at 11:38 am
    Remember the time when the cops knew that Omar was gonna make a run at some guy and they just shrugged?
  22. MikeJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:29 am
    without knowing anything further, I think there is a commonsense explaination that applies in many situations like this. Lots of people are crazy, many to the point where they concern those that know them. But things like this, an assassination coupled with an indiscriminate shooting spree, hardly ever happen. Sure we could pull a few examples, but in terms of the ratio of crazy people to mass murderers, you have many to nearly zero. So those that knew him, aren’t necessarily surprised, but they probably wouldn’t have predicted it, or anything like it, the day before. Also, stuff like schizophrenia pops up around this time, so we don’t know if there were eight years of erratic behavior or just a couple. Not making a political point, but just observing that these things are less preventable than they seem in hindsight.
  23. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:45 am
    Excellent points! But it would seem to me that prevention of this happening again should be a goal. So we have to ask many questions about how did this happen. I think we can both agree that his friends- schoolmates and the local police thought the kid was crazy. (can we stipulate that?) How can a known crazy person purchase a gun? (I am sure the NRA would agree with that point) What sort a institute should a known crazy person be sent to for evaluation? He was kicked out of school and told not to come back until he had a mental clearance. Did his parents know that? ( I know he is an adult and they may have never been told but were they? Did he tell them?) I will get all the answers in the future and we will all find out how this happened. The only thing we know for sure is this guy was not political never watched TV or listened to talk radio. Anyone that tried to insert Palin into this tragedy should apologize or show their evidence and not their stupid ass opinion.
  24. MikeJanuary 12, 2011 at 11:01 am
    If I recall correctly, the NRA isn’t necessarily against known crazy people buying guns, but they are opposed to the sort of measures that would make one’s craziness known to the seller and opposed to closing some of the loopholes that make it easy from crazy people to skirt the restrictions.
  25. DubiousJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:27 am
    Why do you only mention Sarah Palin’s map — why not the Democratic Leadership Committee’s and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Get the Republicans” maps that use bulls eyes to mark their “targets” along with phrases like “Behind Enemy Lines?”
  26. PetzJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:34 am
    Kudos to Marsha McLean for her proposal to cut the library tax in Santa Clarita. Surprising that this was not mention in the brief.
  27. IHeartSCVJanuary 12, 2011 at 8:06 am
    It’s not a cut, at least not in the conventional sense. Despite what former City Attorney Carl Newton promised, it appears that Santa Clarita won’t be able to collect the special tax that helped fund local libraries when it leaves the COLA system. In order to assure that it still gets some extra money for libraries, the City wants to collect what will be a new tax of about $19/parcel. It will go to the same cause (namely, libraries), but it’s a new tax–it’s being framed as a reduction only because it’s less than what the County collected.
  28. mikecJanuary 12, 2011 at 8:23 am
    The city is looking to do what the city of LA did with their city telephone tax….
  29. EricJanuary 12, 2011 at 12:24 pm
    During the Aug 24 meeting in which the council voted to leave the County library system, Marsha specifically asked Darren Hernandez if the city would be OK financially without the special tax. Darren confirmed that to be the case. Was this bad information provided to the council? If not, this tax, (even if less than the county tax) should be considered unnecessary. If it was bad info, it would be nice if Darren corrected himself before the council.
  30. EricJanuary 12, 2011 at 12:46 pm
    Additional thoughts…maybe we need to scrap the plans for the “cultural quiet room”…gotta be some savings there. Seriously, any thought given to living with two branches instead of three? The Canyon Country branch has been closed, so we have been managing with two branches, Valencia and the small outdated Newhall branch. Seems like we would do fine with the newly renovated and expanded branch in Canyon Country and the new library in Newhall. Close the Valencia branch and maybe we could have our cultural quiet room too. Don’t ask me to vote yes on taxes.
  31. nateJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:38 am
    The state already offloaded prisoners into the county last year with non revokable parole. http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/parole/Non_Revocable_Parole/Non-Revocable_Parole_FAQs.html This let out and dumped about 400 ex-convicts into Santa Clarita and several thousand into surround areas.
  32. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 8:31 am
    Nice catch Nate! Thanks! I am sure California can just raise taxes a couple percentage points to help pay for this problem. Anyway everyone knows how higher taxes promotes new business formations and job creation. It also intices people to move to/ stay in the once great state of California. Higher taxes are always the answer to the very simple questions like “How do we fix the economy?” or “How we will pay for that?” And you cant argue with the obvious success.
  33. NateJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:10 am
    This costs ue more in the long run because they offered nothing in the way of probation or accountability too keep these individuals out of jail again. So we spend more sending them back. BTW. Most of the state felonies they moved down to a county offense where property crimes. In October my street got hit with a string of break ins one of which included my car. I believe all of Santa Clarita’s representation voted against it.
  34. scvtruthsquadJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:22 am
    Political rhetoric, anger and hate is the Tea Party platform and will undoubtedly lead to more acts of “insanity”. Thanks Sarah ! You don’t have to be an Einstein to understand that violent rhetoric affects the mentally unbalanced. Words are powerful. The reason we must be prudent in our rhetoric is because there are unstable people that might act on those perceptions.
  35. IHeartSCVJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:47 am
    Since you profess a belief that words are responsible for the tragedy in Arizona, you may want to watch your own. You said of Palin “now her wish will come true” (inflammatory insult!), that she has “blood on her hands” (quite inflammatory!), and “anger and hate is the Tea Party platform and will undoubtedly lead to more acts of ‘insanity’. Thanks Sarah !” (even more inflammatory!). Calling her responsible for murders committed and yet to be committed might incite hate against Palin, so you might want to use milder words to express your feelings–to be consistent with your own argument and all.
  36. scvtruthsquadJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:37 am
    FYI… I am not a political person and do not make speeeches so HA
  37. Dan QJanuary 12, 2011 at 1:20 pm
    Come on, I Heart. You graduated from a no-name college and now “write” in junk mail magazines. Don’t try to sound all edumacated now.
  38. IHeartSCVJanuary 12, 2011 at 7:16 pm
    I’m not sure who you are (you’ve posted this same stuff as “Money” in the past), but way to talk about what’s important and topical. Anyhow, let’s resolve this: you clearly don’t know the Tier 1 university I attended (if it was a crappy school, as you claim, you’d name names), but feel free to email me (iheartscv@gmail.com) and I can fill you in. Or you can taunt me about the little 800-word column I write–excuse me, “write”–and that offends you so. Can’t wait to hear from you!
  39. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:49 am
    You do understand that it has already been confirmed that he did not listen to or watch political programing? Yes you read that right! IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED! So everything you just wrote is laughable. We have had psychos in this country shooting at political figures for 200+ years. Now you want to blame it on talk radio? LOL!!!! BAT SHIT CRAZY!
  40. scvtruthsquadJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:38 am
    never mentioned talk radio…..
  41. john adamsJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:57 am
    Is there any evidence that you can show us that helped form your opinion other than msnbc? Please show us the facts that helped you form your opinion. Show us where the killer watched foxnews daily. How about he was addicted to listening to hannity or limbaugh? Please grace us all with the flow chart for your thought process. Please show us all how that mind of yours forms an opinion. We all want to know!
  42. ReaderMamaJanuary 12, 2011 at 3:58 pm
    Playing devil’s advocate: Loughner couldn’t have been completely divorced from the political situation because they found a letter addressed to him from Giffords in his room. He had some reason for being angry with her and trying to kill her. He didn’t show up at that event randomly. Words are powerful. Whether words from politicians encouraged this guy’s craziness and played a part in this shooting, I have no idea. I have been avoiding the non-stop coverage and dialog. But had I been inclined to participate in inflammatory rhetoric (as Palin, Limbaugh and others have done) I hope I would have the good grace to try to tone it down and examine honestly what I hoped to achieve with it.
  43. john adamsJanuary 13, 2011 at 6:21 am
    Funny how nobody on the left ever mentions this guys hate speech? I am sure Chrissy Matthews will be all over this guy. ED SCHULTZ AUGUST 13, 2009 – CONSERVATIVE BROADCASTERS WOULD LOVE TO SEE OBAMA SHOT “And sometimes I think they want Obama to get shot. I do! I really think there are conservative broadcasters in this country who would love to see Obama taken out. They fear socialism! They fear Marxism! They fear the United States of America won’t be the United States of America anymore. ” ED SCHULTZ SEPTEMBER 2009 – GOP WANTS TO SEE YOU DEAD “The Republicans lie. They want to see you dead. They‘d rather make money off your dead corpse. They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her. That‘s how the insurance companies make money, by denying the coverage” ED SCHULTZ MARCH 2010 – WE SHOULD RIP OUT CHENEY’S HEART “You’re damn right, Dick Cheney’s heart’s a political football. We ought to rip it out and kick it around and stuff it back in him. ” ED SCHULTZ JANUARY 5, 2011 – GOP ARE BASTARDS I will fight these bastards every night at 6 o’clock because I know what they’re up against. I know what they want to do. They want to take down American workers. They want to outsource jobs. They want to destroy the American dream
  44. MikeJanuary 13, 2011 at 7:38 am
    Man, you watch MSNBC like Indy watches Hannity. Thanks for taking notes.
  45. John AdamsJanuary 13, 2011 at 7:43 am
    Yeah well, I just figured neither you, Nate or Jeff was going to cover both sides of the issue. Looking over the posts I guess I was right. (Oh and I do watch msnbc everyday. Matthews is the funniest person on TV)
  46. john adamsJanuary 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm
    And I do try and visit this msnscv site a few times a week
  47. Daddy Joe GJanuary 12, 2011 at 11:31 am
    At last night’s council meeting, Marsha McLean said “words can be interpreted however you wish”. This explains a lot. When she says that hiring a private company is not privatization or that a new tax is a tax cut, I thought she was lying. Turns out she just wishes to interpret words different from the rest of us.
  48. David GaunyJanuary 12, 2011 at 5:38 pm
    Great point Daddy Joe… Unfortunately, as most of us here know, the tax “reduction” McLean spoke of is a lie by most definitions. In truth, if our residents vote NO on the tax “break” McLean suggests, this tax will be $0 instead of $19. Hard to interpret “new taxes” as “discount” but whatever it takes to cover the ongoing fumbles resulting from hasty decisions and bad process. It’s shameful that our city would take to such sales tactics rather than admit that they were wrong (again) about not being able to collect the current assessment as originally promised. And now inter-library transfers are with the cities of Riverside and San Bernardino… how is this the “exact same service” we had with County? And was the $93,000 cost of this included in the original budget? So much to interpret.
  49. John AdamsJanuary 13, 2011 at 7:01 am
    CHRIS MATTHEWS ON MSNBC YESTERDAY – MARK LEVIN CAUSED THE AZ SHOOTING “E. Steven I have to tell you, I’ll mention a couple of names without getting into too many fights. People like Mark Levin, Michael Savage, for example who every time you listen to them are furious, furious at the left with anger that’s just builds and builds in their voice and by the time they go to commercial, they’re just in some rage, every night, with ugly talk. Ugly sounding talk. And it never changes. It never modulates. They must have an audience. I looked at the numbers today. They have big audiences! And I guess that’s the question. Why and is it ever going to stop if it keeps working?” CHRIS MATTHEWS SEPTEMBER 2008 – PALIN IS A PITCHFORK SECESSIONIST “This question of her politics, back in the 90’s she was aligned with Buchannan. She was one of the Buchanan brigades, the pitchfork people she was part of the independence movement that party…you have a guy up there who runs the Alaska Independence party and by the way the word independence is not used the way we normally use independence party, its Alaska wants independence form the US, she was part of a secessionist movement. ” CHRIS MATTHEWS ON HARDBALL FEBRUARY – 100,000 PEOPLE ARE DEAD B/C OF CHENEY “Well 100,000 people are dead now because he got it wrong about nuclear weapons before…back in 2001. We have to remember that Dick Cheney was wrong in a way that was lethal. 100,000 people dead including 4,000 Americans are dead, something like 15,000 wounded because he was wrong. There was no nuclear weapons in the hands of Saddam Hussein and he said there was.” CHRIS MATTHEWS ON MSNBC OCTOBER 2009 – I WANT TO WATCH RUSH’S HEAD EXPLODE “You guys see Live and Let Die, the great Bond film with Yaphet Kotto as the bad guy, Mr. Big? In the end they jam a big CO2 pellet in his face and he blew up. I have to tell you, Rush Limbaugh is looking more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come.” CHRIS MATTHEWS ON MSNBC OCTOBER 2009 – RELIGIOUS RIGHT RESEMBLES THE TALIBAN CHRIS MATTHEWS: Gentlemen, one of the great ironies of American politics is the group in this country FRANK GAFFNEY, CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY: Your father would be ashamed of you. RON REAGAN JR: Oh, Frank, you better watch your mouth about that Frank. MATTHEWS: That’s not fair. The group in this country that most resembles the Taliban, ironically, is the religious rightThank you GAFFNEY: Rubbish CHRIS MATTHEWS JANUARY 2010 – A VOTE FOR SCOTT BROWN IS ‘PREMEDITATED MURDER FOR HEALTH CARE “It’s that rare election where voters know exactly what they’re voting on. If they’re with Democrat Martha Coakley they get health care reform. If they go for Republican Scott Brown it’s deliberate, premeditated murder for health care”

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