The Valley's Not So Civil War [FReepers Mentioned]

Los Angeles Times Magazine ^ | February 5, 2006 | Mark Arax

[Saundra Duffy]

In Central California, Mark Arax sees what fear--over terrorism, over our commitment in Iraq--can do to a community. Hatred between Right and Left. Hawk and Dove. Too bad they aren't listening to one grieving parent, who found some peace.

Ever since the twin towers came crashing down and the cloud of jihad fogged the land, the crop dusters swooping low over the San Joaquin Valley had taken on a new menace. Even here, tucked away in the farm fields of middle California, fear had settled into the ground. Harvest to harvest, one year to the next, we watched tens of thousands of illegal migrants stream into our vineyards. Not a single suicide bomber was among them. Still, we could never be certain whether it was our vigilance or just dumb luck that kept us safe.

[Saundra Duffy]

I did a google search tonight and found this article. FreeRepublic's "support the troops" activities at Shaw & Blackstone are mentioned - as well as Scott Hawkins (FReeper lager) and myself (FReeper Saundra Duffy) are mentioned by name. Bill Manders (KMJ radio talk show host who subsequently went to Reno) is mentioned as well as FReeper Stuart Weil.

[Saundra Duffy]

FYI

[Saundra Duffy]

Have you seen this?

[Enterprise]

The article is quite lengthy. What do you infer that this “uncivil war” is about?

[rockinqsranch]

I guess it’s later than I thought. My eyes glazed over and mind wandered while attempting to focus on the article. I skipped to the bottom for the punchline, but found nothing there. Skipped up from the bottom to the top, but found only confused bits and pieces of rhetorical Woody Allen type mumbo jumbo.

Hoping somebody found something in all those words. G’nite.

[Syncro]

A million frogs?

I want a recount...LOL

[Judges Gone Wild]

The writer is of the “Bush Lied, People Died” crowd. He is disdainful of the San Joaquin Valley and so smug in his self-righteousness. Young and ignorant, or old and pathetically stupid.

[metesky]

"Ask anything you want about Jared, but please don't turn him into a political pawn. I know this war is controversial, and we just came through a nasty election. But I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't. We supported his decision to join the fight."

"Don't worry, my article won't be political... until I write it."

[Madame Dufarge]

What a masterpiece of lefty snotbaggism.

drove a mile or two down the road to an apartment where the second father, Bert Baro, had hung a plasma TV high in the living room, a day and night flicker of Fox News. He was a small pit bull of a man who grew up fighting on the streets of Manila. As he watched the tube, he popped another beer and shook his head at the spectacle of the anti-war protesters. The fight against terror was a matter of will, he said, and Communist doubters were breaking our will.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Mark Arax is an Armenian who got a job as a reporter for the LA Times. His animosity toward the Central Valley in general and Fresno in particular runs deep.

His father ran a night club in Fresno, and during a drug deal in the club's parking lot, his father was killed. Arax (not his real name) looked for some meaning in the killing. Mark Araz became very angry at the Fresno PD and other officials, believing they looked the other way while gangsters ran amok (this may have been true in the '70s; Dems ran the city for quite some time during the Johnson administration, and their failed ideas helped ruin our once vibrant downtown area).

However, Arax's anger never subsided. He ended up in Southern California and proceeded to write slanted copy for the Times, frequently slandering his former home and blaming conservatives for everything wrong in the US. His book, The King of California, blames cotton farmer James Boswell for ruining the environment, by making cotton a viable crop and for building an empire in California and Arizona.

Take what you read here with a huge grain of salt. Mark loves to pepper his work with colorful details like the million frogs to impress the reader, but often can't come to the point. I read about a fourth of the stuff he wrote before I gave up.

[wita]

If ever there was a living example of what a certain pundit calls bloviating. Mark is it. Add a huge dose of confusion large enough to be deadly to a division of normal humans, a classic case of life derangement syndrome, the equally deadly disease of historytwisterexageritis, and this nut case ought to be put away for the remainder of his days subjected to a lobotomy and shock therapy. I had to use a whole bottle of air freshener after subjecting myself to the screed.

[OPS4]

To see the shocking Scandal Index of the Clinton years, as compiled by the liberal Progressive Review (http://prorev.com) is to appreciate the Clinton's 24/7/365 belief that any progress in their leftist domestic and foreign affairs agenda could only be realized through the most nefarious activity – much of which fit neatly into the criminal category. Under the listing of "Records Set'" by the Clinton administration (read: co-presidency), Progressive Review cites the following, of which I will only list a sampling: ▪ Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates. ▪ Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation. ▪ Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify. ▪ Most number of witnesses to die suddenly. ▪ First president sued for sexual harassment. ▪ First president accused of rape. ▪ First president to be held in contempt of court. ▪ First president to be impeached for personal malfeasance. ▪ First first lady to come under criminal investigation. ▪ Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign-contribution case. ▪ Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions. ▪ Number of Starr-Ray investigation convictions or guilty pleas to date: one governor, one associate attorney general and two Clinton business partners: 14. ▪ Number of Cabinet members who came under criminal investigation: 5. ▪ Number of individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine that were convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes: 47. ▪ Number of these convictions during Clinton's presidency: 33. ▪ Number of indictments/misdemeanor charges: 61. ▪ Number of congressional witnesses who pleaded the Fifth Amendment, fled the country to avoid testifying, or (in the case of foreign witnesses) refused to be interviewed: 122. ▪ Guilty pleas and convictions obtained by Donald Smaltz in cases involving charges of bribery and fraud against former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy and associated individuals and businesses: 15; acquitted or overturned cases (including Espy): 6. ▪ Clinton machine crimes for which convictions were obtained: drug trafficking, 3; racketeering, extortion, bribery, 4; tax evasion, kickbacks, embezzlement, 2; fraud, 12; conspiracy, 5; fraudulent loans, illegal gifts, 1; illegal campaign contributions, 5; money laundering, 6; perjury, et al. ▪ Number of times that Clinton figures who testified in court or before Congress said that they didn't remember, didn't know, or something similar: Bill Kennedy, 116; Harold Ickes, 148; Ricki Seidman, 160; Bruce Lindsey, 161; Bill Burton, 191; Mark Gearan, 221; Mack McLarty, 233; Neil Egglseston, 250; John Podesta, 264; Jennifer O'Connor, 343; Dwight Holton 348; Patsy Thomasson, 420; Jeff Eller, 697; and Hillary Clinton, 250. Believe it or not, this exhaustive list omits even lengthier lists – on public record – of crimes investigated, public officials and reporters intimidated, threatened and muzzled, and the raft of dead people associated with the Clintons who died by guns, knives, alleged suicides, etc. See http://members.tripod.com/~rcjustice/pres.html and http://prorev.com/legacy.htm.

[csmusaret]

The farm labor union movement has always been a communist movement. From the Pixley Riots to Cesar Chavez and today.

[oneamericanvoice]

Actually Cesar didn’t like illegals, and marched against them. Although certain family members and Lefties have rewritten the history.

[csmusaret]

Fine, whatever. Just don’t tell me he was not in league with communists.

[sauropod]

read

[patriciaruth]

I saw this article and remember remarking on it almost two years ago.

You have to go in a bit deep to find the “reporter” has a communist grandfather, but earlier he tried to seem sooo much like a homeboy just chatting down at the feedstore sitting on a cracker barrel. It’s all a pose. Commies LOVE poor regular folk who have lost a son in an American war.

[lentulusgracchus]

Thanks for the rundown, and for saving a lot of us the tedium of wading into the article.

Short form of his argument: It's Bush voters' fault.

[mcenedo]

long, long, article to be published in any newspaper.

I understand this is the LASlimes "magazine" but still, a lotta words.

Typical Slime bias.

[Saundra Duffy]

My husband spoke with this guy over the phone. I said “no thanks” because I don’t trust any reporter! Scott (my hubby) knew this guy’s grandmother and he liked her a lot. She was a kind, gentle lady.

Scott confronted the anti Jew brigade at Woodward Park that day exactly as Mark described it. A line of pro Israel folks - of which Scott was one - physically prevented the anti’s from disrupting a pro Israel peaceful event.

The article is long and rambling. I don’t think it made much of an impact anywhere, at least I hope not.