Welcome to the Socialist Republic of California, Part Deux

From AZStarnet

Poor L.A. area gets moratorium on fast food
By Christina Hoag
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.30.2008

LOS ANGELES — City officials are putting South Los Angeles on a diet.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to place a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in an impoverished swath of the city with a proliferation of such eateries and above-average rates of obesity.

The yearlong moratorium is intended to give the city time to attract restaurants that serve healthier food. The action, which the mayor must still sign into law, is believed to be the first of its kind by a major city to protect public health.

"Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods," City Councilman Bernard Parks said.

Representatives of fast-food chains said they support the goal of better diets but believe they are being unfairly targeted. They say they already offer healthier food items on their menus.

"It's not where you eat, it's what you eat," said Andrew Pudzer, president and chief executive of CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl's Jr. "We were willing to work with the city on that, but they obviously weren't interested."

The California Restaurant Association and its members will consider a legal challenge to the ordinance, spokesman Andrew Casana said.

Thirty percent of adults in South Los Angeles are obese, compared with 19.1 percent for the metropolitan area and 14.1 percent for the affluent Westside, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Research has shown that people will change eating habits when different foods are offered, but cost is a key factor in poor communities, said Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

"Cheap, unhealthy food and lack of access to healthy food is a recipe for obesity," Brownell said. "Diets improve when healthy-food establishments enter these neighborhoods."

A report by the Community Health Councils found 73 percent of South Los Angeles restaurants were fast food, compared to 42 percent in West Los Angeles.

South Los Angeles resident Curtis English acknowledged that fast food is loaded with calories and cholesterol. But since he's unemployed and does not have a car, it serves as a cheap, convenient staple for him.

On Monday, he ate breakfast and lunch — a sausage burrito and a double cheeseburger, respectively — at a McDonald's a few blocks from home for just $2.39.
"I don't think there's too many fast food places," he said. "People like it."
Others welcomed an opportunity to get different kinds of food into their neighborhood.

"They should open more healthy places," Dorothy Meighan said outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. "There's too much fried stuff."

Councilwoman Jan Perry said that view repeatedly surfaced at the five community meetings she held during the past two years. Residents are tired of fast food, and many don't have cars to drive to places with other choices, she said.

Los Angeles' ban comes at a time when governments of all levels are increasingly viewing menus as a matter of public health. On Friday, California became the first state in the nation to bar trans fats, which lower levels of good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol.

The moratorium, which can be extended up to a year, affects only stand-alone restaurants, not eateries in malls or strip shopping centers. It defines fast-food restaurants as those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping.

The definition exempts "fast-food casual" restaurants such as El Pollo Loco, Subway and Pastagina, which do not have heat lamps and prepare fresh food to order.
The ordinance also makes it harder for existing fast-food restaurants to expand or remodel.

Rebeca Torres, a South Los Angeles mother of four, said she would welcome more dining choices, even if she had to pay a little more.

____________________________________

OH THANK YOU NANNY STATE! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Has anyone ever seen the demolition man? Sylvester Stallone has a line in the movie that says, "I want to eat a fat burger with a glass of beer while smoking a cigarette if I want"

Of course we all remember that the nanny state had put into place a ban on anything not healthy for you, the result was a black market that served rats.

Anyway, I digress

I will tell you the truth. I have 5 kids...those kids are healthy and in good shape.

Why? I make sure they excercise by playing outside.

I make sure they eat right by buying the right things from the store.

I LIMIT their fast food intake to once every 2 weeks.

I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF MY KIDS.

I DON'T want the state or city telling me that I can or can not eat fast food...ITS MY DAMN CHOICE ... and last time I checked ... This is the United States of America, where individual choice is guaranteed to me in the constitution.

Of course, what the city isnt thinking of is that in this impoverished section of Los Angeles, there are those who rely on fast food for work, and often times is the only choice they have if they cant afford the high cost of owning a car to be able to commute to a job that actually pays.

So what is the city doing?

Keeping the poor reliant on the government.

Oy

A soldiers email regarding the Obama visit to Afghanistan

This is an excerpt from an email I got from a lady who is well connected to troops and supporting them. I am outraged but not surprised at what he has to say about Obama:

_____________________

Hello everyone,
As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to 'The War Zone'. I wanted to share with you what happened. He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram.

As the Soldiers were lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service.

So really he was just here to make a showing for the American's back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you.

I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheer leaders than from a Senator, who wants to be the President of the United States . I just don't understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country.

If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is. What you see in the news is all fake.

In service,
CPT Jeffrey S. Porter


________________________

yep, not surprising at all

Does anyone remember this SAME rhetoric from another Mid East President?

50 Points to the first person that can name names

From AZSTARNET

World
Iran to U.N. nuclear inspectors: We're done cooperating
The Associated Press

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.25.2008

VIENNA, Austria — Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear-weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.

The announcement from Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh compounded skepticism about denting Tehran's nuclear defiance, just five days after Tehran stonewalled demands from six world powers that it halt activities capable of producing the fissile core of warheads.

Besides demanding a suspension of uranium enrichment — a process that can create fuel for nuclear reactors and payloads for atomic bombs — the six powers have been pressing Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation.

Iran, which is obligated as a signer of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty not to develop nuclear arms, raised suspicions about its intentions when it admitted in 2002 that it had run a secret nuclear program for nearly two decades in violation of its commitment.

The Tehran regime insists it halted such work and is now trying only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. It agreed on a "work plan" with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations Iran is still doing weapons work.

At the time, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei hailed it as "a significant step forward" that would fill in the missing pieces of Tehran's nuclear jigsaw puzzle — if honored by Iran. He brushed aside suggestions Iran was using the deal as a smoke screen to deflect attention from its defiance of a Security Council demand for a halt to uranium enrichment.

The investigation ran into trouble just months after being launched. Deadline after deadline was extended because of Iranian foot-dragging.

Iran remains defiant. It dismisses as fabricated the evidence supplied by the U.S. and other members of the IAEA's governing board purportedly backing allegations that Iranians continue to work on nuclear weapons.

Officials say that among the evidence given to the IAEA are what seem to be Iranian draft plans to refit missiles with nuclear warheads; explosives tests that could be used to develop a nuclear detonator; and a drawing showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads.

_________________________________________________

LOOK FOLKS

ITS THE MIDEAST CHICKENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Coming home to roost

LOL

Welcome to the socialist republic of California

From Yahoo News:

California bans restaurants from using trans fats

Fri Jul 25, 4:26 PM ET


SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California is joining the health crusade against artery-clogging trans fats.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Friday that will prohibit restaurants and other "food facilities" from using oil, margarine and shortening containing trans fats.

Violations could result in fines of $25 to $1,000. Food sold in their manufacturers' sealed packaging would be exempt.

New York City and Philadelphia have ordinances banning trans fats, but Schwarzenegger's office says California is the first state to adopt such a law.

__________________________________________

Yep....nasty ole restaurants ... actually giving you choices....SHAME ON THEM

Enter the Nanny State

Now you see what socialism looks like.

Will Obama's Visits to Afghanistan and Iraq Yield Anything?

As in anything at all? He wants more troops there (to Afghanistan), but doesn't specify anything else about his 'plan' for the country. He is still set on pulling out of Iraq, although he seems a little more cautious about that. At least he has admitted the Surge is working. If I'm sounding vague, it's because he is. I agree the man is a great public speaker, but he lacks the details to be an effective leader in a military situation. At this point, I would like to see details about Obama's meeting with Afghan President Karzai. Is that too much to ask?

UPDATE: Well, just from watching the news, the answer to my question above is a big, resounding, NO!
As for his trip to Iraq, PM Maliki was misquoted/misunderstood/mistranslated, even! Isn't Obama the one who told a crowd recently that every American should learn a foreign language? Well then, let's start with him. Learn Arabic, you dumb ass!

APB for a MIA

Calling all cars

Calling all cars

Be on the lookout for a liberal named Nick who hasnt posted on this blog in a while

That is all

NICK WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU???

If I dont hear from him in a week, this blog will go back to its old format

Have a nice day

Ok, so I am tooting my own horn here

Happy Birthday to me :D

Guess who has NO sense of humor?

From Yahoo entertainment:



Bernie Mac makes off-color joke at Obama event
By Associated PressJuly 12, 2008, 5:01 am PDT

- CHICAGO (AP) — Comedian Bernie Mac endured some heckling and a campaign rebuke during a surprise appearance Friday night at a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago, the 50-year-old star of "The Bernie Mac Show" joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.

"My little nephew came to me and he said, 'Uncle, what's the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?'" Mac said. "I said, I don't know, but I said, 'Go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000.'"

As the joke continued, the punchline evoked an angry response from at least one person in the audience, who said it was offensive to women.

"It's not funny. Let's get Barack on," a man shouted from the crowd, which paid $2,300 each to support the Illinois senator.

About 15 minutes later, Obama tried to smooth things over with a joke of his own.

"We can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by region or by class and we can't afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time," Obama said. "This is a family affair. By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."

The incident drew response from Obama's campaign, which criticized Mac for his choice of material.

"Sen. Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement after the event.

Mac, a Chicago native, said he's a longtime Obama supporter and called the presumptive Democratic nominee a "man's man" while offering him advice for the duration of the campaign trail.

"People like rumors. They're going to say things like you was at the club with Lil' Kim, and you and Kanye West got into a fist fight," he said. "You can't get upset. You've got to keep hope alive."

Mac's appearance was Obama's first celebrity event of the evening. Later at a Lincoln Park nightclub, Obama spoke to a raucous crowd of music fans, who paid up to $500 per person to see a performance by Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy, and two other band members.

"Before these guys go, I want them to know that I had heard a rumor that they had suggested that I had nothing by them on my iPod," Obama said. "That is not true. I love Wilco."

___________________________

Dhimmicraps, no freaking sense of humor

Losers

Thank a soldier

HT to PeaceThugs

Happy Independance day

Mackers world has a link to the the Declaration of Independance, our founding document.

Lets remember that this document doesn't mean squat without the men and woman of our armed forces who WILLINGLY put themselves in harms way to defend this beautiful document and ideal and way of life.

Lets not forget, today and all days that we need to thank them and appreciate their sacrifices, both active and veterans.

Happy Birthday America