“Someone I’d Like You To Meet”

There’s someone I’d like you to meet.

The timing is perfect.

We all just received our “Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet” from Rebecca Martinez, County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters for Madera County, and this year it’s none too soon.

Did you know Roseanne Barr is running for President?

Are you aware your polling place may have moved?

Have you had time to review all eleven Propositions being placed before us – several somewhat ambiguous and curiously named?

Since retiring from a “regular job” after five decades in broadcasting and moving to Oakhurst from Michigan on Election Day ‘06, I have enjoyed an opportunity to become more involved in the political process, something I wish I had done sooner in life.

As I was discussing with area Tea Party Coordinator John Pero just a few days ago, although we certainly hold divergent views in a number of areas, we completely agree that patriotic vigilance calls for much more than simply voting once a year.

Regardless of party affiliation, political philosophy or competing priorities, every one of us should pay much more attention to governmental activity at all levels and, particularly, to our own roles in determining the nature and extent of such governance.

Individual review and reflection are critical to positive collective progress and the actual realization of a government so eloquently defined by our 16th President as being “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Politicians and Parties are not “all the same” and any such observation is no more than a lazy excuse for irresponsible citizenship. It is critical that we review every side of an issue, analyze all options presented and critically evaluate competing candidates for public office.

Jack Uppal will be driving over 400 miles roundtrip from his home in Lincoln, California, to visit with you next Wednesday, October 10th, with a “Meet and Greet” from 5:30 till 7:30 at the Queen’s Inn on Highway 41.

It will be a casual, informal event. There is no admission fee. Come as you are. Jack will share a few thoughts, then be on the firing line for any questions anybody has about — anything at all. He wants to represent you in Congress from California’s newly defined Fourth District and won’t be holding back.

Jack is running against Tom McClintock, currently completing his second term representing the old Fourth District. Since neither Tom nor Jack are from “around here”, they’re both as new to us as an iPhone 5, just not as shiny and slick. At least not Jack. Since we’re losing Jeff Denham anyway, we’re really starting from scratch in choosing either Tom or Jack. A fair comparison between the two is not only recommended, but also essential in formulating honest judgment, let alone proper representation.

I’m hoping that Tom McClintock will join us next Wednesday at the Queen’s Inn and engage in a debate with Jack Uppal over the future of our lives and liberties. Mr. McClintock’s campaign office has received a formal invitation to do so — extended through the non-partisan auspices of the Oakhurst Chamber of Commerce — and he has been assured of impartial moderation, convivial questioning and courteous civility extended at every turn during his stay in Oakhurst.

Jack Uppal has already enthusiastically agreed to such an arrangement.

By way of a “sneak preview”, you are herein encouraged to turn to Page 20-1
of that Madera County Voter Information Pamphlet you received in the mail. You will find a formal “Statement of a Candidate For US Representative in Congress Fourth District.” Both Jack Uppal and Tom McClintock offer a brief summary of their respective positions.

Jack writes, “I will cut unnecessary spending, bring jobs back to our district, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and invest in science and technology programs for our future.”

Tom states, “I stand with America’s Founders.”

Hopefully, Representative McClintock will temporarily adjust his vantage point and stand with us here in the Twenty-First Century next Wednesday night for a “Meet and Greet Jack Uppal” at the Queen’s Inn from 5:30 until 7:30.

Wine not?

“We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” — Thomas Jefferson (1816)

“Debate Goes On?”

McClintock had them in stitches.

It was his blowing up a church story.

As painstakingly chronicled by Carmen George in last week’s issue of The Sierra Star, Fourth California District Congressman Tom McClintock visited us on September 6th and told a group gathered at the Coarsegold Community Center about how awful it’s been having our nation involved in “sort-of-wars”. For example, McClintock cited recent rules of engagement that prohibited chasing insurgents seeking sanctuary into a mosque. He then spoke of a grizzled old World War Two vet who was asked if he would have followed Germans into a church during combat. “Good heavens, no,” the veteran said. “We would have blown up the church” – “an answer met by a roar of laughter from the crowd.”

If we re-elect Tom McClintock, the joke’s on us.

In reading Ms. George’s extensive McClintock quotes from Coarsegold and an earlier session before several dozen folks at Erna’s –”Heaven Sent for the One Percent” — it almost seemed as though our Sierra Star had become “The Troglodyte Times.”

Rather than drag readers through an endless litany of sad misjudgments, multiple contradictions, paranoid reflections, utter fabrications and agonizingly turgid rhetoric, suffice it to say Tom McClintock won’t have my vote — or that of anyone honestly paying attention and making a fair evaluation. Such consideration would come from balancing Tom McClintock’s history and hysterics against —???????????????

Do you know anything about –??????????????????

Most folks around here haven’t clue– and it’s not their fault.

Democrats usually don’t stand a chance in this new “Fourth District” and some years haven’t even put up a candidate in the old “Nineteenth District” in which we used to reside. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by double digits and can outspend them a million zillion trillion to one, this observation only slightly hyperbolic.

So here comes this guy from way up in Lincoln, over 200 miles north of Oakhurst, who arrived here from India in 1961 at the age of 10 without knowing any language other than that of his birth. His immigrant family was poor and struggled on a minimal income, his mother babysitting and his brother delivering newspapers to bring home more money. By the age of 18, he became a naturalized citizen speaking perfect English. Then he worked hard and studied harder.

He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from the State University of New York and his Ph.D in Chemistry from M.I. T. in 1980. Not a slouch. This led to a brilliant career in the semiconductor industry as an engineer, rising in management to oversee new products and businesses and implement annual budgets of over a billion dollars.

Jack Uppal has retired and is ready to work for you.

May he have an interview?

An opportunity for such may be shortly forthcoming through the Oakhurst Chamber of Commerce – a “Meet and Greet” in October similar to that afforded Representative McClintock with plenty of time to ask questions, take notes and enter into conscientious reflection and open discussion with Mr. Uppal and others in attendance.

What would really be perfect and put us all on the map would be an Oakhurst debate between Tom McClintock and Jack Uppal. Jack has already indicated his enthusiastic acceptance of such a challenge and herein encourages Tom to follow his lead and do likewise.

Representative McClintock is certainly used to sharing the stage with others, having spoken at this year’s Central Valley Tea Party Freedom Rally on the Fourth of July just before Jesse Peterson’s bitter commentary on Barack Obama, referring to our President as a “far-left,” “liberal”, “white-hating”, “black liberation theology believing”, “wealth redistributing”, ”lying”, “weak”, “poor excuse of a man” — and other hints of displeasure.

Jack Uppal is supportive of the Transportation & Jobs Act, Returning Tax Dollars to the District, Lowering Student Loan Costs, Rural Development Funding, Children’s Health Care, Equal Pay for Women, The Violence Against Women Act, the Food Safety Act, Homeland Security, Funding for our Military, the Campaign Disclosure Act, Opposition to Employment Discrimination, Payroll Tax Cuts and Science and Technology Funding, while Tom McClintock has voted against all these things.

Jack is strongly opposed to Privatizing Social Security and Ending Medicare, while Tom has voted for and/or indicated his firm endorsement numerous times of both. Hey, seniors! He’ll even open up that “Donut Hole” bigger than before. Want to fall back in?

Do I have anything wrong there, Congressman McClintock? Candidate Uppal?

We’re waiting in Oakhurst — hoping to close the door on vacuum inflicted ignorance with a public hearing and open minds.

We can’t become more with anything less.