It is tragic to see the failure of a once successful and useful newspaper; The Sacramento Bee.

I am not alone in my criticism of The Bee. For years, I have been critical of the biased, elitist slant of the stories, the Editorializing done under the guise of reporting and the obvious liberal politics.  

Readers have been watching as the Bee hacks off limbs, leaving it a mere shadow of what it once was. Today's paper is smaller than The Monterey Herald, and the quality is that of a high school newspaper - unprofessional, unsophisticated, underhanded and sophomoric.

"Hunter Biden was made president with an annual salary of $1.2 million, despite his inexperience in the hedge fund industry, the lawsuit said. Before that, he had been part of the Washington law firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair, which earned $1.76 million in lobbying revenue in the first half of 2006, according to Congressional Quarterly's CQ MoneyLine. One of its biggest clients is the National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys, a District-based group representing law firms specializing in investment and corporate law.

Hunter Biden is one of many children and relatives of prominent members of Congress who have made their careers as lobbyists. He returned to lobbying after less than a year with Paradigm.

Today we pay homage to Conservative Babes.

Sarah Pain, Governor of Alaska, has been chosen by Presidential Candidate John McCain to be his running mate.

Palin is a true conservative, an economic reformer, a sportswoman, and she doesn’t have to cover her ankles with a pantsuit.

This is going to be a very exciting election, thanks to McCain’s brilliant choice.

 I always knew that it would be the convservatives who put a woman in the White House.

Politicians are so predictable. 

Last evening my husband and I had a date… a lovely dinner and bottle of wine at a cool downtown restaurant. When we first arrived at the restaurant, the hostess tried to seat us in a booth exactly in the middle of the noisy bar. The crowd around our table was three deep with singles celebrating Friday eve.

We asked to be moved. While we were waiting for another table, I leaned against the booth. From the corner of my eye I saw… no, it couldn’t be… there, in the flesh was Papa Don Perata. I nudged my husband and discretely pointed at Godfather Don. As Don and his overall-wearing guest walked by, never one to pass up a great confrontation, my husband said, “Hey! It’s my favorite politician.” Perata looked at both of us, checked out my legs, and then said “Really?” He appeared excited to think he may have had a couple of fans in the bar. But then my husband deflated him. “No, not really,” he said. Don mumbled something about Arnold and turned to leave.  

You gotta love ‘em… Politicians cannot afford to snub anyone. We could have been big donors, or trial attorneys. You never know.

In the 1990’s when Willie Brown was still in power, we were at a downtown restaurant with my husband’s three older boys for a fancy night out. Willie Brown was at the restaurant with a couple of babes. Ny husband spotted him and said to the boys, “Hey, there’s Willie. One of the boys asked if he knew Willie. “OF course. Watch,” he said. As WIllie walked by flanked by blondes, my husband thrust his hand out and said “Willie! How are you?” As Willie gave a hearty handshake and hug, he then turned to our family and chatted up us for a minute. As he walked away all of the boys had looks of shock on their faces. My husband and I couldn’t keep straight faces. We finally explained to the boys that there isn’t a politician alive who would snub someone saying hi out in public - could be a big donor or some lofty Judge. 

You gotta love ‘em.

The Sacramento Community Racial Profiling Commission, at the behest of Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo and the City Council, initiated a “comprehensive study” to analyze traffic stops made by Sacramento police. The “chosen” consultant, Lamberth Consulting, was hired by the city at a cost of $230,000 to do the “study” on Sacramento’s police department.

Unfortunately, the outcome was predictable.  

According to the Web site of the Racial Profiling Commission, “following a renewed commitment to unbiased policing in March 2006, the commission members meticulously chose the Study Consultant, Dr. John Lamberth…” to conduct the study. However, so does every other city in America looking to politically label their police departments as racists.

The Man and the Method
Dr. John Lamberth of Lamberth Consulting, founded in year 2000, has a vested interest in almost always finding the police departments he is hired to “study” as racially biased. He is paid enormously for these specific “findings,” and works with groups such as the ACLU, the NAACP and Amnesty International.

Lamberth has found many cities that have police departments whose police officers stop drivers because of race, including his almost identical reports for the cities of San Antonio, Texas and Grand Rapids, Mich.

Since Sacramento police officers were found by Lamberth to racially profile when making traffic stops, guess who is providing racial sensitivity training to our police department? Lamberth Consulting. The city of Sacramento paid Lamberth $230,000 up front. And now we are paying them for the sensitivity training to fix the problem they found? Can you say conflict of interest? Lamberth Consulting is reminiscent of a Jesse Jackson-style racial shakedown.

Unfortunately, the inevitable fallout will be Sacramento police reducing the number of traffic stops made in largely minority neighborhoods, which would be hit hardest by police backing off traffic stops. It will be Oak Park, Meadowview and Del Paso Heights that suffer. And Dr. Lamberth already knows this. It’s happened before. It is called “depolicing.”

Another View
Dr. Heather MacDonald, a Manhattan Institute scholar and fellow who has studied the fallacy of racial profiling extensively, writes, “Cincinnati is a perfect example of the ‘depolicing’ effect. In 2001, a Cincinnati police officer fatally shot an unarmed teenager, triggering three days of vicious race riots and a tsunami of unjustified media and political charges of racism. In response, the Cincinnati police department pulled way back. Arrests dropped 50 percent in the first three months after the riots; traffic stops fell nearly 55 percent. In the summer of 2001, Cincinnati resembled the Wild West—the city had never seen such violent crime. Drug dealers operated with near impunity on the streets.”

Is this what Sacramento leaders are really looking for?

MacDonald is highly critical of Lamberth for good reason: Two studies, both by Temple University social psychologist John Lamberth, have attempted to create a “violator” benchmark, a “violator” being that individual whom initiated actions warranting police intervention. The ACLU used one study to sue the Maryland state police; a criminal defense attorney in New Jersey used the other study to free 17 accused black drug traffickers.

Lamberth alleged that blacks in Maryland and southern New Jersey were stopped at higher rates than their representation in the violator population would seemingly warrant. But he defined “violator” so broadly – in Maryland, traveling at least one mile over the speed limit, and in New Jersey, traveling at least six miles over the speed limit – that he included virtually the entire driving population.

Lamberth must not have spent much time talking to real cops, for his definition of violator ignores how police actually decide whom to stop. Someone gliding sedately at 56 mph in a 55 mph zone has a radically different chance of being pulled over than someone barreling along at 80 mph down the same street. An adequate benchmark must capture the kind of driving likely to draw police attention.

Lamberth is the latest fad as a racial profiling guru and the new go-to-guy for misguided cities looking to throw money away. 

Obama God! Democrats build a temple for Barack

Finally nominated as the first black candidate for the US presidency, he moved the Democratic Party Convention from the conference hall to an 80,000-seater football stadium for his landmark address.

His challenge was to turn his trademark soaring rhetoric into simple ideas to improve the lives of hard-pressed American families - but the Greek pillars of his backdrop prompted ridicule before he stood up to speak.

Lights, camera, action: The stage is set for Obama's speech tonight

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