Sunday Comics

Anthony Weiner Announces Bid For Whatever's Left

 

Obama's rebels behead four in front of children

As a cheering crowd of fighters look on, an executioner - believed to belong to the Al Qaeda-linked faction
ISIS - lines up his sword in a practice run before delivering the final blow.

Islamic Terror

Rebels backed by the CIA, Saudi Arabia and the

Gulf States behead Assad loyalists.

(UK Daily Mail)  The sword rests briefly on his neck as a blindfolded man kneels under a clear blue sky.
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Moments later, the executioner raises his right arm, slashes downwards and the prisoner is dead.
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The whole barbaric episode is watched by a crowd of jeering men, many of them armed.
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And sitting on a low wall only a few feet from where the wretched captive died so violently is a line of young boys.
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They were still there as the dead man’s head was dumped on his body. Another child, even younger, was led by the hand past the corpse.

The public execution was the last of four that took place on August 31 in the town of Keferghan in the north of the country.

The picture forms part of a set taken by a photojournalist - whose identity has not been revealed in order to protect him - who was given unprecedented access to the gruesome proceedings.

Among the other photos are an executioner lining up his sword before delivering the final blow as his victim kneels in the village square - and a victim's head being held aloft by a jubilant fighter.

 

An eyewitness told Time that the executioners belonged to ISIS - an Al-Qaeda faction opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime.

The captives, meanwhile, are understood to belong to the fearsome Shabiha ('ghosts') - thugs loyal to Assad who are said to roam the country massacring women and children.


Mass Beheadings Message from Abu Hafsوعد من ابو حفص من سوريا بقطع الرؤوس  

Above, a captive prepares to meet his fate. Describing the scene, the photographer said: 'That scene in Syria, that moment, was like a scene from the Middle Ages, the kind of thing you read about in history books'.

Below is an edited account of the photographer's harrowing experience:
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'The man was brought in to the square. His eyes were blindfolded. I began shooting pictures, one after the other. It was to be the fourth execution that day I would photograph. I was feeling awful; several times I had been on the verge of throwing up.
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But I kept it under control because as a journalist I knew I had to document this, as I had the three previous beheadings I had photographed that day, in three other locations outside Aleppo.

The crowd began cheering. Everyone was happy. I knew that if I tried to intervene I would be taken away, and that the executions would go ahead. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to change what was happening and I might put myself in danger.
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I saw a scene of utter cruelty: a human being treated in a way that no human being should ever be treated. But it seems to me that in two and a half years, the war has degraded people’s humanity. On this day the people at the execution had no control over their feelings, their desires, their anger. It was impossible to stop them.

The pictures emerged as the organization Human Rights Watch released a video and report into brutal summary executions carried out by Syrian rebels.

I don’t know how old the victim was but he was young. He was forced to his knees. The rebels around him read out his crimes from a sheet of paper. They stood around him. The young man was on his knees on the ground, his hands tied. He seemed frozen.
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Two rebels whispered something into his ear and the young man replied in an innocent and sad manner, but I couldn’t understand what he said because I don’t speak Arabic.
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At the moment of execution the rebels grasped his throat. The young man put up a struggle. Three or four rebels pinned him down. The man tried to protect his throat with his hands, which were still tied together.
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He tried to resist but they were stronger than he was and they cut his throat. They raised his head into the air. People waved their guns and cheered. Everyone was happy that the execution had gone ahead.
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That scene in Syria, that moment, was like a scene from the Middle Ages, the kind of thing you read about in history books. The war in Syria has reached the point where a person can be mercilessly killed in front of hundreds of people who enjoy the spectacle.
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As a human being I would never have wished to see what I saw. But as a journalist I have a camera and a responsibility. I have a responsibility to share what I saw that day. That’s why I am making this statement and that’s why I took the photographs. I will close this chapter soon and try never to remember it.'

A group of young children sit on a wall as they stare at the dead body.

A Syrian boy is held by the hand as he walks past the body of a beheaded Islamic militant loyal to Assad. An unnamed photojournalist was given rare access to the public execution in the town of Keferghan in the north of the country.

The severed head of a Assad supporter is held aloft. The photographer
witnessed four public executions.

Putin opponent wins race for Mayor

'I’m ready to work with any regime as long
as those in power aren’t cannibals.'

Mayor-elect Yevgeny Roizman

Russia's opposition movement recorded its most telling electoral result in 13 years of Vladimir Putin's rule.

 

The candidate of the Civic Platform Party, Yevgeny Roizman, won the mayor's race for the city of Yekaterinburg, which is the 4th largest city in Russia with 1.5 million people.

The regional election committee reported that Roizman had 33.2% of the vote.

His nearest rival, Yakov Silin from United Russia party, has gained 29.87 percent. Third comes the representative of A Just Russia party Alexander Burkov with 20.16 percent of votes.

 

Head of City Without Drugs Foundation has been proposed by Civic Platform to run the mayoral election in Yekaterinburg.

 

All in all, there were 14 candidates participating in the election. Three of them had the same surname, reports the Voice of Russia.

Roizman is many things: off-road racing champion, published poet, icon collector, jewellery maker, community leader and former state Duma deputy. But "opposition" is one thing he's not, he has repeatedly said in interviews.

Opposition is "those who strive for power, those who want to overthrow the regime. I just want to live in a normal country," Roizman told the Guardian. "If there is some sort of regime, let others participate in it. I'm ready to work with any regime as long as those in power aren't cannibals," reports the Guardian.

"I'm just a different person ... I have [my] own opinion and know how to express it, I know how to stick to it," he added. "Namely for this reason I never joined United Russia."

 

Although he is now the highest-placed opposition figure in Russia, Roizman is a center of controversy -- a reputed Russian nationalist with a penchant for plain talk, direct action, and possible connections with the murky world of Yekaterinburg organized crime.

Speaking to RFE/RL's Russian Service shortly before the election, Roizman explained the reasoning behind his decision to run for mayor as a reaction to President Vladimir Putin's appointment of people from other regions to senior posts in the Urals city.

"It turned out that this city of 1.5 million people -- a strong, good city -- was governed entirely by outsiders," he said. "Simply all of them. We could let ourselves get pushed a little further aside and further, but they'll have all the posts. And in our own city, we'll become outsiders. So I made the decision to run."

According to Nikolai Petrov, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center, Roizman as a candidate appealed to deeply offended "regional patriotism."

"In this regard, Roizman could be the candidate who united the electorate that did not like [the domination of outsiders] and who were ready to vote for one of their own, for a strong, clear leader who has proven his effectiveness in actual practice," Petrov said.

Also see Radio Free Europe.

Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Yekaterinburg elected an opposition candidate as their mayor.  Russia is stumbling its way to a democratic nation.  A good description of Russia might be an "authoritarian republic".
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Russia should not be criticized too harshly for not having totally free elections. 
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It took Britain over 2,000 years to become a more democratic nation in the mid 19th century.  The same could be said for Japan, Mexico or Germany.  Meanwhile the people of Chicago are still waiting for free elections. 

Obama's unconstitutional national police force

The Jack Boots are Marching

Obama and Congress are turning ICE into an unconstitutional Federal police force.

Think of the Children!  -  The rallying cry of every political scumbag from the right or the left to grow a 1984 Police State.

Using "the children" as cover, Comrade Obama's new Federal cops unveiled a new “predator app” that is designed to enlist Americans to spy on other Americans in urgent hunts for potential sex predators by pushing photos and descriptions of suspects onto their mobile phones.

The app, released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), allows tips to be reported anonymously 24 hours a day, builds on a recent program where the agency has released photos of people it believes are involved in child pornography or sex abuse reports the Washington Times.

Stop right here.

The FBI is being cut out of their legal role in law enforcement and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is being funded, equipped and directed to become an unconstitutional Federal police force to (at first) investigate local sex crimes.  Soon to expand into other "necessary" areas.

The Times reports the app allows people to easily share the latest alerts on their own social media profiles or to email them around to friends, tapping their own networks to help authorities.

The project grew out of the success ICE has had harnessing social media to catch predators over the past year.

The growing Federal Police State can be seen in just a few of our recent articles:

DEA has been spying on your phones since 1987

DHS installs spy scanners at shopping malls

TSA morphs into Obama's National Police Force

Secret Service to spy on Facebook, Twitter

Police State Too Much? Send in a Marine!  

Peter Martino is a citizen of the State of New Hampshire. Martino is a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve who has been mobilized three times. During his military career, he commanded an infantry platoon, company, and battalion. He was also the senior U.S. adviser to an Iraqi Army brigade.

Oliver Stone: Obama is a Snake

A Bi-Partisan Police State.
The "Liberal" Democrat Senate eagerly joins with the "Conservative" GOP House to grow, fund and protect an ever growing unconstitutional Police State.

DHS to scan every face at local hockey game

“There will come a time when it isn't 'They're spying on me through my phone' anymore. Eventually, it will be 'My phone is spying on me'.”
― Philip K. Dick

The 1984 Police State  -  Using "terrorism" for cover, the bipartisan funded Department of Homeland Security goosesteps on and on in its drive to watch and control every American citizen.

 

The DHS is set to test new facial recognition technology at the the Tri-Cities Americans home opener at Toyota Center in Kennewick next weekend as part of its long term mission “to identify terrorists and criminals in public areas.”

 

The DHS will work with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to run the test during a portion of a game on September 21.

 

Hockey fans who don’t want to become an unwitting part of the test will have to follow signs routing them away from the cameras.

 

 

PNNL staff members will participate in the test, which will attempt to match their identities with photographs as they move around the stadium reports Infowars News

 

The staffers will wear ankle bracelets which will send a signal to the cameras when they are close enough to be photographed and matched with the still shots.

 

Researchers admit that “a hockey fan’s face could be incorrectly identified as the person for whom the video is searching,” but Patty Wolfhope, program manager at the Department of Homeland Security, claims that no names will be collected….at least not for now.

 

“I think it’s in our best interest to help facilitate the development of the technology,” said Cory Pearson, executive director of VenuWorks, which operates the center. “It’s in everybody’s best interest.”

 

Critics of how surveillance powers are increasingly being abused in light of the plethora of recent NSA scandals probably won’t see facial recognition technology being in the best interests of those who still value privacy.

 

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) recently highlighted the fact that the DHS’s ‘Biometric Optical Surveillance System (BOSS)’ has no in-built privacy safeguards and that databases of facial profiles may not be limited to just criminals and terrorists.

 

“Based on the documents that we received, that’s an educated guess or a speculation and not a certainty that’s what DHS intends to do,” said EPIC’s Julia Horowitz.

 

Face scanning cameras are already being used in a number of different commercial applications, stoking fears that we could be sleepwalking into a Minority Report-style world of high-tech invasive advertising.

 

The 2002 movie starring Tom Cruise depicted Cruise’s character walking through a subway station while sensors that scan his eyes address him by name and bombard him with personalized ads. Another clip shows people boarding a train also having their irises scanned for approval. The movie was based on a dystopian short story by Philip K. Dick which warned of how such technology would be used in the future to crush privacy and civil liberties.

It is strongly suspected that facial recognition cameras are already being used to track people around major cities as part of the Trapwire surveillance program, details of which were leaked last year.


Minority Report - You are watched and scanned wherever you go.  

Loving Little Face Scanning Cameras with Alex Jones

 

“April the 4th, 1984.
To the past, or to the future. To an age when thought is free. From the Age of Big Brother, from the Age of the Thought Police, from a dead man - greetings!”
― George Orwell, 1984

Obama to scan 42 Billion credit card transactions

"I'm shocked, shocked to find that data-mining is going on in here."

The Rape of the Bill of Rights

• Without a search warrant our neo-Fascist government wants to scan, catalog and store your most private financial data for future use.  The Constitution has absolutely no meaning to the thugs running the government. 

Comrade Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials are seeking to monitor four out of every five U.S. consumer credit card transactions this year — up to 42 billion transactions – through a controversial data-mining program, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.

A CFPB strategic planning document for fiscal years 2013-17 describes the “markets monitoring” program through which officials aim to monitor 80 percent of all credit card transactions in 2013.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 1.16 billion consumer credit cards were in use in 2012 for an estimated 52.6 billion transactions. If CFPB officials reach their stated "performance goal," they would collect data on 42 billion transactions made with 933 million credit cards used by American consumers reports the Washington Examiner.

In addition, CFPB officials hope to monitor up to 95 percent of all mortgage transactions, according to the planning document.

“This is one step closer to a Big Brother form of government where they know everything about us,” said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis.

At a Wednesday hearing before the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, CFPB Director Richard Cordray defended the data-mining practice and said his agency is monitoring credit card usage at 110 banks, including Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, Discover and American Express.

NSA Whistleblower

Everyone in US under virtual surveillance, all info stored

 

We are watching you in Utah.

1984 is Here  -  Democrats & GOP are building a 1,000,000 sq. foot data-mining facility in Utah to spy on everyone.
Labels such as "Liberal" or "Conservative" have no meaning.  Both parties in Congress eagerly work together to build, grow and fund the unconstitutional Big Brother Police State.
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See more at the UK Daily Mail.

SHOCK - Treason Charges if Facebook uses free speech

Speak your mind & go to jail

Führer Obama has placed prior restraint on

Yahoo and Facebook's freedom of speech

The American Police State  -  The rape of the Bill of Rights is happening on live TV almost daily and 80% of Democrats and Republicans are silent about the growing Fascism.  Keep in mind that the Police State is eagerly and fully funded by both parties.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, struck back on Wednesday at critics who have charged tech companies with doing too little to fight off unconstitutional NSA surveillance. Mayer said executives faced jail if they revealed government secrets.

Yahoo and Facebook, along with other tech firms, are pushing for the right to be allowed to publish the number of requests they receive from the spy agency. Companies are forbidden by law to disclose how much data they provide reports the UK Guardian.

During an interview at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Mayer was asked why tech companies had not simply decided to tell the public more about what the US surveillance industry was up to. "Releasing classified information is treason and you are incarcerated," she said.

Mayer said she was "proud to be part of an organisation that from the beginning, in 2007, has been sceptical of – and has been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA]."


Judge Napolitano
FISA Extension Shows a Blatant Disregard for the Fourth Amendment

The threat of jail.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg could be imprisoned for daring to use free speech under the 1st Amendment and telling the public about unconstitutional Police State spying.

Yahoo has previously unsuccessfully sued the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which provides the legal framework for NSA surveillance. In 2007 it asked to be allowed to publish details of requests it receives from the spy agency. "When you lose and you don't comply, it's treason," said Mayer. "We think it make more sense to work within the system," she said.

Zuckerberg said the government had done a "bad job" of balancing people's privacy and its duty to protect. "Frankly I think the government blew it," he said.

He said after the news broke in the Guardian and the Washington Post about Prism, the government surveillance programme that targets major internet companies: "The government response was, 'Oh don't worry, we're not spying on any Americans.' Oh, wonderful: that's really helpful to companies trying to serve people around the world, and that's really going to inspire confidence in American internet companies."

"I thought that was really bad," he said. Zuckerberg said Facebook and others were pushing successfully for more transparency. "We are not at the end of this. I wish that the government would be more proactive about communicating. We are not psyched that we had to sue in order to get this and we take it very seriously," he said.

On Monday, executives from Yahoo, Facebook, Google and other tech leaders met the president's group on intelligence and communications, tasked with reviewing the US's intelligence and communications technologies in the wake of the NSA revelations.

The meeting came as Yahoo and Facebook filed suits once more to force the Fisa court to allow them to disclose more information.

In its motion, Yahoo said: "Yahoo has been unable to engage fully in the debate about whether the government has properly used its powers, because the government has placed a prior restraint on Yahoo's speech."

It went on: "Yahoo's inability to respond to news reports has harmed its reputation and has undermined its business not only in the United States but worldwide. Yahoo cannot respond to such reports with mere generalities," the company said.

Microsoft and Google also filed their latest legal briefs on Monday to force the Fisa court to disclose more information.

In a blogpost, Google said it was asking for permission to publish "detailed statistics about the types (if any) of national security requests" it receives under Fisa.

"Given the important public policy issues at stake, we have also asked the court to hold its hearing in open rather than behind closed doors. It's time for more transparency," said Google.

 

Welcome to the Police State

 

Raise your hand if you support the Police State.

Obama's unconstitutional Syrian War - We are ruled by mad men

 

"Thank You CIA"

CIA is delivering weapons to rebels in Syria.

The bi-partisan war began without a vote of Congress.

By Gary;

I for one am sickened by the insanity of the yellow journalism media and corrupt political Elites of both parties that are beating the drums of Syrian war.

DEATH - KILL - DEATH - KILL in an endless 24-7 loop.

Please note that none of the "Elites" are quitting their day jobs to volunteer to be in the front lines, nor are they marching their kids off to the nearest Marine Corps recruiting office.  But they are very brave with the lives of those who did sign up.

An Unconstitutional war

An unconstitutional U.S. directed war against Syria has been going on for months.  Now the Washington Post has grasped the fact and reports that the CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks.

Wrong.  THE FEDERALIST blog has been documenting over and over stories from mostly overseas media about the American CIA directed war using Islamist Turkey and Islamist Saudi Arabia as cover.

The bullshit is both the GOP and Democrats know full well they are making an unconstitutional war and have tried hard to hide it from the American people.

Burning the Constitution in order
to become Al-Qaeda's air force.

One example, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has pressed the Obama administration to do more to help the rebels, said he felt embarrassed when he met with Syrians along the Turkish border three weeks ago.

“It was humiliating,” he said in an interview Wednesday night. “The president had announced that we would be providing lethal aid, and not a drop of it had begun. They were very short on ammunition, and the weapons had not begun to flow.”

Yes, both parties are God Damn fucking liars.
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They know the CIA war has been going on all along and refuse to talk about it.

Russia

The lurid and vicious attacks on Russia by both the Left and the Right are disturbing to say the least.

Suddenly I understand August,1914 and how the world bumbled its way into the mass slaughter and revolutions of the World War I era.

Russia has done nothing but try to defend Syria which as been their ally since 1971.  Russia has neither fired at the U.S. or attacked any Middle Eastern nation.  But the chattering political hacks and their ratings driven media lackeys have built up the "threat" from Russia as something close to the source of all evil.

Sure Putin is an authoritarian.  But so what?  Russia has been ruled by authoritarian Czars for centuries.  Nothing has changed.

I have seen a number of moron talking heads trash Russia as some "weak" nation that can be pushed aside so the U.S. can have its way in the world.  This is nonsensical baby talk.  Russia has a very strong military and enough atomic weapons to end life on earth.  But facts just get in the way of generating TV ratings.

But the idiots who pass as "leaders" could care less.  After all, another war is good for business.


See some of our other articles:

THE FEDERALIST - CIA trained Syrian rebels 'on way to battlefield'

THE FEDERALIST - WAR - Democrats & GOP push for a new war in Syria

THE FEDERALIST - Kuwait is running guns to Al Qaeda in Syria

THE FEDERALIST - U.S. - Britain are arming the Islamist Syrian Rebels

Russian ships head to Mediterranean
The Russians have had a naval base in Tartus, Syria since 1971.  But the warmonger fire-breathers ignore this and want to play their war games in Syria as if the Russians did not exist and have no right to have allies in the world. 

37,000,000 Casualties Later.
One shooting helped set off World War I.  The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria took place in the ethnic and religious powder keg of the Balkans.  Like Syria, the Balkans is an area of many groups who all hate each other.  A single killing of an Austrian set off a chain of events slaughtering entire nations.
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The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million.

See more at World War I Casualties.

California Republicans thrive at the local level

Oakley City Councilman Randy Pope says he has no aspirations beyond City Council but figures
he'd have a tough time winning higher office as a Republican.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)

The GOP Label is the Kiss of Death

• At the local level California elections are non-partisan with the GOP winning close to half of the 2,500 mayoral and city council seats in the state.
• But at the State and Federal level Republican candidates have been crushed.

The People's Republic of California  -  The so-called "Conservative" Republican Party has been in a near free fall for years.  The party's support for more taxes and bigger government made them nearly identical to the Leftist Democrats while social issues often worked against the party image in the Golden State.

Many of us feel a winning formula is a more libertarian stance - strong support for private enterprise, private property, less government, less taxes and a live and let live attitude on social issues.

The L.A. Times reports about the strength on the GOP at the local level.  Randy Pope is a conservative-tinged libertarian with a strong aversion to big government and the nanny state he sees "growing, growing, growing."

"I can't choose which toilet I want to put in my house. I can't choose which light bulb I want to illuminate my living room," he says, ticking off the outrages on his meaty fingers. "I can't choose which shower head I'm going to use when I'm bathing."

Pope is a city councilman in this Democratic-leaning suburb on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and if that seems unusual given his rightward bent, he is not alone. Four of the five Oakley council members are registered Republicans, like Pope, elected the same day that voters overwhelmingly backed Democrats Jerry Brown and Barack Obama and approved Proposition 30, the state tax hike initiative.

Over the last two decades, California has become a Democratic fortress, beyond the GOP's reach in presidential campaigns and all but hopeless in statewide contests. Republicans are largely irrelevant in Sacramento, where the most important fights are between liberal and more moderate Democrats.

At the local level, however, the picture is quite different reports the Los Angeles Times.

Despite the Democrats' sizable statewide registration advantage, Republicans hold close to half the 2,500 mayoral and city council seats in California, according to figures compiled by GrassrootsLab, a Sacramento research and political data firm.

In the last two statewide election cycles, when Californians voted true to partisan form — bucking the national GOP wave in 2010, siding strongly with Obama in 2012 — Republicans won more local contests than did Democrats, and not just in rural or such traditionally conservative-leaning areas as the Central Valley.

More than 75 cities in California have a majority of Democratic voters but Republican-run city councils; the GOP has toeholds in such otherwise blue bastions as Alameda, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz counties.

For a party desperate to rebuild, that's the good news. "It's important because most members of the Legislature come out of local government," said state Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte. "Most members of Congress come out of the Legislature."

Still, most municipal elections in California are nonpartisan affairs and there is good reason to question whether Republicans successful locally can advance once party label becomes more important and issues such as municipal finances and public safety, which typically help Republicans, recede.

GOP donors and the party's activists also tend to reward candidates who embrace traditional party positions on social issues, which can undermine competitiveness in state and federal elections.

"The second they move on, they're viewed through a much different lens," said Robb Korinke, the Democratic principal at GrassrootsLab, which does nonpartisan research focused on local governments statewide. "Then [they] get tied up with everything else Republicans are about at the national level" — including conservative positions on abortion and same-sex marriage — "which is fairly toxic here in California."

Oakley, a young city of about 40,000 residents on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area, illustrates both the promise and difficulty Republicans face as they try to claw their way back to power.

Pope, 41, is an Oakland police sergeant who very much looks the part, with his brawny build, close-cropped hair and mirrored sunglasses. He and his wife moved to Oakley about a decade ago, not long after it became a city, drawn by its affordable housing and countrified lifestyle.

After a few years, Pope became active in local government, partly from the sense of duty instilled at a young age. "Don't come to me with problems," he remembers his father saying. "Come to me with solutions."

Running for City Council in 2010, Pope emphasized quality-of-life issues: public safety, traffic, schools. (He has three children, ages 2 to 7.) His party registration rarely came up, although, truth be told, he has little use for either major party.


GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
The GOP "brand" was trashed by a governor
and his GOP legislators supporting new taxes,
massive spending increases and debt. The
GOP simply became Democrats.

The issues he now faces are not partisan so much as those of a city transitioning from farm town to bedroom community. Century-old grapevines line one of Oakley's main drags, directly across the street from earth-toned subdivisions, rising where almond orchards once stood. Horses graze nearby. The political "push-pull" here is between preservationists and those who want, as Pope put it, "a big house, a big yard and a nice restaurant to go to."

He shuns matters that reach beyond the city's 16 square miles, declining, for instance, when activists asked him to introduce a resolution opposing drone strikes against U.S. targets abroad. "I agree, you can't just execute people," Pope said. But as for staking a formal position, "that's not what the City Council does."

Pope said he has no aspirations beyond City Council and is not even certain he'll run again in 2014. He is fairly certain, though, that he'd have a tough time winning higher office as a Republican. Oakley is represented by Democrats in both Washington and Sacramento.

"I think the people who know me would vote based on my performance, for or against," Pope said as he polished off a burrito in a bustling taquería across from City Hall. "The people who don't know me" — and there are many more of them — "are going to vote the party line."

To Mike Madrid, co-founder of GrassrootsLab and a former political director for the state GOP, the Republican success in Oakley and dozens of other cities offers a clear path to success — moving away from social issues.

The party's candidates have to "join where a majority of Californians are in order to quit being viewed as a Republican who can run and win in Alabama or Mississippi," Madrid said. "The only way you get away from the brand is to run away from it."

That represents one pole in the internal party debate. Celeste Greig, a longtime GOP activist, presents the other.

"Yes, there are very important issues people care about in local communities. They care about crime and potholes and fixing sidewalks," Greig said.

But social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage also matter and are a crucial part of what separates Democrats from Republicans, Greig said. "We shouldn't walk away from those."

 

Back when California was Republican
In the not so olden days California elected GOP Presidents, Governors and Senators.  Now it has become a People's Commune and testing ground for every leftist loon program ever conceived.
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Not that long ago you could drive from Santa Barbara on the California coast to Los Angeles to Palm Springs and to the Arizona border and never leave a Republican Congressional District.  Now every single seat is held by Leftist Democrats.
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Republicans are losing solid middle class seats.  If the GOP cannot win over the middle class then it will become extinct.

California voters gather around to see
a rare site  -  the nearly extinct Republican elephant.