Californication: Vaccinations Without Parental Consent

Is living off the Grid now a crime?

The Antelope Valley is a vast patch of desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles County, and a segment of the few rugged individualists who live out there increasingly are finding themselves the targets of armed raids from local code enforcement agents, who’ve assembled into task forces called Nuisance Abatement Teams (NATs).

The plight of the Valley’s desert dwellers made regional headlines when county officials ordered the destruction of Phonehenge: a towering, colorful castle constructed out of telephone poles by retired phone technician Kim Fahey. Fahey was imprisoned and charged with several misdemeanors.

But Fahey is just one of many who’ve been targeted by the NATs, which were assembled at the request of County Supervisor Mike Antonovich in 2006. LA Weekly reporter Mars Melnicoff wrote an in-depth article in which she exposed the county’s tactic of badgering residents with minor, but costly, code violations until they face little choice but to vacate the land altogether.

“They’re picking on the the people who are the most defenseless and have the least resources,” says Melnicoff.

Reason.tv collaborated with Melnicoff to talk with some of the NAT’s targets, such as retired veteran Joey Gallo, who might face homelessness if he’s forced to leave his house, and local pastor Oscar Castaneda, who says he’s already given up the fight and is in the process of moving off the land he and his wife have lived on for 22 years. And, while Antonovich declined an interview, we did catch up with him at a public meeting in order to ask the big question at the center of all this: Why the sudden enforcement of these codes against people living in the middle of the desert, who seemingly are affecting no one?

Writer-Producers: Zach Weissmueller and Tim Cavanaugh. Associate Producer: Mars Melnicoff. Camera: Alex Manning and Weissmueller; edited by Weissmueller.

Approximately 9:48.

Music by Audionautix.com.

Apparently living off the grid, off the land and without government assistance is now a crime that can land you in jail and cause you to lose your home.

Government officials across the country are forming so called “nuisance abatement teams” to intimidate people into giving up their land or conforming to the governments demands and hooking back into the grid. Counties across the country are actually jailing people for living the way they want to live.

I was alerted to this video by a reader and was troubled and sickened by what the poor people in the California Desert are being forced to deal with. From being threatened with jail time if they don’t hook back into the grid to being thrown in jail because the county didn’t like the look of their homes, the people in the deserts of Los Angeles County are being terrorized by their government.

@ColonelSixx “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”! Barry Goldwater

THE COYOTE and TEXAS

California: The  Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor. 1.  The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural. 2.  He calls  animal control .  Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it. 3.  He calls a veterinarian.  The vet collects the  dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases. 4.  The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged. 5.  The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals. 6.  The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area. 7.  The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world. 8.  The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack.  The State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training re:  the nature of coyotes. 9. PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit against the State. TEXAS: The Governor of  Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.  A Coyote jumps out and attacks his dog. 1. The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps  jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP  hollow point cartridge. 2. The Buzzards eat the dead coyote. And that is why California is broke and Texas is not.

Facebook to close U.S. prison inmate accounts

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES | Wed Aug 10, 2011

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Facebook has begun closing the accounts of California prison inmates after a convicted child molester viewed the pages of his victim from behind bars, authorities and the social networking site said.

Facebook has shut down the accounts of at least two prisoners and officials are working on identifying other accounts that had been accessed from behind bars, said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Though most prisoners in California do not have access to the Internet, they often log onto the Internet with contraband cell phones, despite an effort to crack down on the devices, corrections officials said.

California corrections officials, who formally announced the partnership with Facebook Monday, said they have received hundreds of complaints from victims who were contacted by prison inmates behind bars.

They include the convicted child molester, who prison officials said viewed the Facebook and MySpace pages of his victim, then mailed her family some drawings of the girl, officials said.

The victim was 10 years-old when she was molested and 17 when she was contacted by the offender, who had used the Web to learn how she wore her hair and her brand of clothes.

“Really, they’re just limited by their imagination, you’ve got high ranking gang members shot-calling, ordering crimes to be committed on their behalf,” California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Dana Toyama told Reuters.

Palo Alto, California-based Facebook lets inmates use the website if they are located in a state that allows them to access the Internet.

But since California prohibits inmates from using the Web, the company confirmed that it is working with state officials to remove them from Facebook.

The policy will not apply to inmates who created an account before they were sentenced and have not used it while incarcerated.

Facebook’s policies prohibit an individual other than the registered user from updating a Facebook account, which happens occasionally when an inmate asks a friend or family member to access their page.

“We will disable accounts reported to us that are violating relevant U.S. laws or regulations, or inmate accounts that are updated by someone on the outside,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement.

California has seen the number of contraband cell phones taken from inmates jump from 261 in 2006 to 10,760 last year, which shows the problem is increasing. “We’re on track to way surpass last year’s numbers,” Toyama said.

Earlier this year, mass murderer Charles Manson was caught for the second time with a phone at a California prison.

Cop Who Executed Oscar Grant Set Free

RT
June 13, 2011

Less than a year after going behind bars, the San Francisco, California police officer convicted of killing an unarmed man from point-blank range has been released from prison.

Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Officer Johannes Mehserle was sentenced in July 2010 for involuntary manslaughter after fatally shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant on an Oakland train platform on New Year’s Day 2009. At 12:01 Monday morning, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said he was freed.

Mehserle claims he mistook his gun for his Taser when he fired a shot at Grant, who lay facedown at the train station. Hundreds of protesters rallied against Mehserle’s sentencing of only two years back in July. Around 200 marchers gathered peacefully on Sunday night to show their dismay over the officer’s release. Mehserle served only 11 months of his two year sentence.

According to the Associated Press, Daryl Johnson, Grant’s uncle, said at Sunday’s protest, “A crime was committed, but it wasn’t paid for. This needs to stop and the only way it’s going to stop is if we stand together.”

Marching from the Fruitvale BART station where Grant was gunned down, protesters on Sunday demonstrated with signs displaying messages ranging from “Justice for Oscar Grant” to “Jail killer cops.” Grant’s relatives were notified of Mehserle’s release late last week, which family member Cephus Johnson said was a reflection of “the total injustice that we received,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Grant’s execution gained national attention after a cell-phone video of the incident was posted to the Internet. Following his sentencing last year, 152 protestors were arrested for what Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts described as “tearing up the city.” Mehserle was originally placed on paid leave before resigning from the force.

The Essence and Future of Texas vs. California

COLONEL SIXX: THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION FOR YOU TO MOVE HERE.

IF YOU CAN’T GET HERE BY MIDNIGHT, STAY WHERE YOU ARE.  WE CLOSE THE GATES AT 2359. SHARP.

by Tory Gattis

I know there have been a lot of articles and references to Texas vs. California recently in this blog, but, well, there’s a new one with some genuinely new contributions to the argument (“America’s Future: California vs. Texas”, Trends magazine, hat tip to Jeff). And it says some nice things about Houston too, so how can I pass on it? The beginning of the article is here – including an overview of both states’ situations – but here are some key additional excerpts:

…Both the Brookings Institution and Forbes Magazine studied America’s cities and rated them for how well they create new jobs. All of America’s top five job-creating cities were in Texas. It’s more than purely economics and regulation can explain, though. Texas – and Houston in particular – has a broad mix of Hispanics, whites, Asians, and blacks with virtually no racial problems. Texas welcomes new people and exemplifies genuine tolerance. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Houston took in 100,000 people. Not surprisingly, Houston has more foreign consulates than any American city other than New York and Los Angeles.
…
But, how did this happen? What’s wrong with California, and what’s right with Texas? It really comes down to four fundamental differences in the value systems embodied in these states:

First, Texans on average believe in laissez-faire markets with an emphasis on individual responsibility. Since the ’80s, California’s policy-makers have favored central planning solutions and a reliance on a government social safety net. This unrelenting commitment to big government has led to a huge tax burden and triggered a mass exodus of jobs. The Trends Editors examined the resulting migration in “Voting with Our Feet,” in the April 2008 issue of Trends.

Second, Californians have largely treated environmentalism as a “religious sacrament” rather than as one component among many in maximizing people’s quality of life. As we explained in “The Road Ahead for Housing,” in the June 2009 issue of Trends, environmentally-based land-use restriction centered in California played a huge role in inflating the recent housing bubble. Similarly, an unwillingness to manage ecology proactively for man’s benefit has been behind the recent epidemic of wildfires.

Third, California has placed “ethnic diversity” above “assimilation,” while Texas has done the opposite. “Identity politics” has created psychological ghettos that have prevented many of California’s diverse ethnic groups and subcultures from integrating fully into the mainstream. Texas, on the other hand, has proactively encouraged all the state’s residents to join the mainstream.

Fourth, beyond taxes, diversity, and the environment, Texas has focused on streamlining the regulatory and litigation burden on its residents. Meanwhile, California’s government has attempted to use regulation and litigation to transfer wealth from its creators to various special-interest constituencies.

They go on to make six forecasts:

1. …expect to see California’s loss of jobs to Nevada accelerate…
2. …expect to see a backlash in California and across the country against regulations, especially green initiatives that can’t clearly demonstrate a positive ROI…
3. Watch for the smart money, including venture capital, to begin migrating to Texas for start-ups in many areas, including energy, info-tech, manufacturing, and biotech. Just as Delaware’s tax laws once encouraged numerous businesses to incorporate there, even when they had no connection to the state, Texas will become a magnet for new businesses by offering cheap land, a favorable regulatory environment, a business-friendly culture, and a large supply of skilled labor. Unless California revamps dramatically, expect to see its economy languish, even as the recovery takes off.
4. To make its business climate even more business-friendly, Texas will invest heavily in secondary education and work hard to attract the best talent to its research universities (note the recent Tier 1 proposition and funding). Keep an eye especially on the University of Texas, which already has a first-rate campus and faculty. Within 10 years, UT, as the locals call it, may well rival Stanford or Berkeley.
5. Other states will adopt tort reform measures pioneered in Texas. Unlike California and most other states, Texas has been aggressive in minimizing the enormous burden of frivolous lawsuits…
6. Look to Texas to become a cutting-edge cultural mecca. Houston has always offered a vibrant cultural scene, ever since the Alley theater company was founded there in 1947 by Nina Eloise Whittington Vance. In the 1950s, John and Dominique de Menil moved to Houston with one of the most significant private collections of art in the world and began donating art and money to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Both institutions have grown to world-class status since then. In the coming years, this trend will spread to the major cities of Texas (take that, Dallas!), attracting the best talent and money and shifting the cultural balance of the nation away from New York and San Francisco.

I can personally vouch for #5. I was just visiting my brother out in CA, and a friend of his with a small store was being hit with a large disability discrimination lawsuit for a minor oversight (handicapped parking was marked on the ground and had the requisite walkways and ramps, but lacked a pole sign). Evidently this has become a cottage industry in California, where lawyers guide the disabled through stores looking for very minor violations of a vague law (things like high shelves or tables), then sue (expecting a quick settlement, of course). Under CA law, discrimination guilt is assumed if there’s anything in the store the disabled can’t do that a normal customer can do, regardless of the availability of employees to provide assistance. His friend was clearly exasperated with the unwinnable situation. Just plain nuts.

As Jim Goode says, “You might give some serious thought to thanking your lucky stars you’re in Texas.”

40 feet of Highway 1 near Big Sur falls into the sea; road closed indefinitely

By DONALD MURPHY

BIG SUR –” Highway 1 was closed to traffic about 12 miles south of Carmel on Wednesday after a stretch of the scenic roadway tumbled toward the Pacific Ocean far below.

About 40-feet of the two-lane highway washed out just after 5 p.m. on a curve south of the Rocky Creek Bridge where the highway hugs the Santa Lucia Mountains. All of the southbound lane was gone as was a chunk of the northbound lane. Soil under the northbound lane was reported sliding as late as 6:30 p.m.

The California Highway Patrol closed the southbound lane of the highway at Palo Colorado Road and drivers going north were stopped at the Bixby Creek Bridge.

No one was injured, a CHP dispatcher said. “Nobody went down. No people got hurt,” she said.

It was not immediately known how long the coast road would be closed.

“It could be cleaned up in a couple of days, who knows,” the dispatcher said.

Caltrans workers posted signs near Rio Road to the north and near Ragged Point and Cambria to the south warning drivers that the highway was closed.

The road was not completely impassible.

Emergency vehicles would be allowed through “at their own risk,” the CHP dispatcher said.

For a while after the closure, people were allowed cross the area on foot, but authorities stopped that as soil continued to erode under the roadway.

The Rocky Point Restaurant north of the closure reported business was down

Wednesday night.

“We’ve had two no-shows. It’s totally affecting our business,” said bartender Rose Russo. “Two people are stuck in the bar,” she said.

One was unable to go south and the other was waiting for his girlfriend coming north from Big Sur.

The Ventana Inn and Spa and the Post Ranch Inn reported that all their expected guests had checked in for the night. At Ventana, a few other people who had been traveling north decided to stay the night after learning of the wash out.

A long closure of Highway 1 would undoubtedly be bad for the tourist-dependent businesses in Big Sur and in the tiny communities along the highway between Big Sur and Ragged Point.

The cause of the slide was not immediately clear. The asphalt nearby looked new and no seeping water was seen. Fresh looking rip-rap was spotted mixed with the earth that fell from beneath the roadway.

“It’s basically just nature,” the CHP dispatcher said.

Caltrans crews were expected at the slide area early today.

It was not clear late Wednesday if people who wish to cross the slide area on foot would be allowed to do so.

Drivers who wish to get to Big Sur from the north can take Highway

101 to south of King City and the steep and winding Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to the coast.

The slide was reported about 5:10 p.m. by a passer-by who saw the road crumble.

The popular Big Sur International Marathon, in which the runners start 13.1 miles south of the Bixby Creek Bridge and run north along Highway 1, is scheduled for May 1.–©

Former USGS Geologist Jim Berkland predicts major California quake

(TheWeatherSpace.com) — Former USGS Geologist Jim Berkland predicts a major earthquake in California this month.

Berkland has been known to predict quakes, his best being the ‘World Series’ quake in the 80s in the San Francisco Bay area. Berkland even had a bet with a news publication that it would actually happen.

Berkland is now back with his strongest prediction since the 80s on what he is calling a major earthquake to strike California with a window between March 19th and 26th.

The geologist says that ‘moon proximity’ and ‘fish deaths and beachings are signs of massive earthquakes.

Jim has been on Fox News, KFI, and many other networks voicing this warning to everyone that is listening to it. While USGS states quakes are not predictable, Berkland disagrees

L.A School Child Forced Into Psych Ward

SAN PEDRO (KTLA) — A mother of two children is speaking out about LAUSD officials placing her 6-year old son in a 72-hour psychiatric hold because he drew what school officials considered to be a “disturbing picture.”

In an interview with KNBC, Syndi Dorman said she has had a tough time while her husband was stationed in the Army overseas.

However, she says what the LAUSD did to her son was just as bad.

Dorman said her 6-year-old son, Jack, was committed to a psychiatric ward against her wishes after he drew a violent drawing at school and wrote that he wanted to die.

Domran said the picture was something from a video game her son plays.

She said her son suffers from separation anxiety and has seen a therapist in the past.

On the day he drew the disturbing picture, he was upset that he couldn’t stay home with his family.

School officials at Taper Avenue Elementary in San Pedro were so concerned, they called a Los Angeles County psychiatric mobile response team.

They determined Jack needed to be committed to a 72-hour psychiatric hold at a local hospital.

Dorman told school officials that she would immediately take her son to see his own therapist.

However, school officials reportedly told Dorman that it was their call, that an ambulance was already there to take her son to the hospital.

Dorman said the ambulance ride was traumatizing for her son.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines released a statement, saying in part, “When any student indicates a desire to take his or her own life, the LAUSD is required to follow strict protocols to ensure the safety of the student … The safety of LAUSD students is paramount. We did the right thing here.”

Jack was released after 48 hours, but his mother says she worries the experience will have lasting effects.

Suspects Raped ‘Defenseless’ Disabled Women on Tape

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office Given 100 Hours of Video of Assaults

Two of the four suspects who are visible in more than 100 hours of videotape as they sexually assaulted severely disabled women, many of whom just “lay there” as they were attacked, have been identified, authorities announced.

Authorities announced today that the Los Angeles Police Department recognized two of the suspects on the tapes, evidence that detectives have described as some of the most “disturbing” images they’ve ever seen.

The suspects have not been identified to the public, but according to police, the individuals were investigated in 2007 and 2009, which resulted in one sexual assault conviction. Other cases involving these two suspects involved neglect, fiduciary crimes and sexual assault, but no videos.

“Detectives from the Special Victims Bureau are meeting with LAPD detectives today to collaborate on these cases in an effort to identify the remaining suspects and victims,” said a statement issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff‘s Department Special Victims Bureau is looking for at least two more men in the brutal attacks on as many as ten disabled women, many of whom appear to be patients at residential care facilities.

According to Sgt. Daniel Scott, a package of 11 DVDs with more than 100 hours of video on them was left anonymously at the sheriff’s office in March. Det. Ron Anderson, charged with viewing the material, quickly found that the material was like nothing he’d ever seen before.

“What he found was one of the most disturbing sets of images he’s ever encountered in his long career,” said Scott at a press conference late Thursday. “We have multiple suspects assaulting multiple adult female victims between the ages of 20 and 40.”

“These victims are severely disabled and many of them appear unable to move and most of them are wearing diapers,” said Scott.

“After one horrendous sexual assault, one of the victims was picked up and thrown back into the wheelchair,” said Scott.

Det. Anderson described a video in which an individual who appears to be a paraplegic himself assaults another disabled patient.

“He used his arms to hoist himself up on the bed, removed his diaper and the diaper of his victim, and engaged her in sexual assault,” said Anderson. “Then he hoisted himself on the floor, scooted on the floor, out the doorway and disappeared before returning to the room and reestablishing himself in the wheelchair.”

“These suspects and their activity is so heinous it shocked the conscious,” said Anderson. “In my career I regularly view adult pornography…child pornography…but when this came to me this was really shocking.”

“Because we’re supposed to defend the defenseless, and these people are truly defenseless they can’t fight off their attackers,” he said.

Scott says authorities are hoping that the individual who dropped the DVDs at the sheriff’s department will also come forward.

A note left with the package said the person had been asked by a “black male in Los Angeles” to clean the hard drive of a computer. While doing the job, the individual found the disturbing images and made copies of them on DVDs, which he then left with authorities, Scott said.

Asked why it took authorities nearly a year to come forward with the case, Scott said that the tapes, which were delivered in March 2010, needed to be enhanced because of their poor quality.

“We wanted to put together the best package we could and it takes a lot of time to do enhancing and go through all of these images,” he said. “It’s over 100 hours of very poor-quality video.”

It is not clear where the assaults took place, but Scott said authorities have determined from the decor and the clothing worn in the videos that at least some of them were at a residential care facility or in hospital settings over the past three years. One of the suspects had “2008” printed on his t-shirt, he added.

“The video appears to come from different sources, some is security camera footage from a still camera mounted in the room and some is video footage that is handheld and appears that an accomplice, one of the suspects, is holding it for another [suspect],” said Scott.

Detectives believe the suspects were employees at the places where the videos were shot, according to Scott, due to their “behavior” and the way they interacted with one another.

Anyone with information regarding the suspects or the victims is asked to call (866) 247-5877.