All calls are edited for length and content. Due to content some calls may not be published. Please limit your calls to two minutes or less.

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A woman “wanted to let you know that my granddaughter and I were driving by and saw a police officer let his dog get out and do his services in somebody’s yard. Pretending he was going to pick it up when we passed him, once we passed him he got in his car and left it there. I don’t feel they should be above the law and everyone should be treated the same.”

A caller who “went to the Madera High Coyotes versus Madera South Stallions football game” said, “it was to my understanding in the newspaper whoever won the game got bragging rights to the stadium and they (the winners) were going to put something down Stadium Road, either blue (Coyotes) or purple (Stallions). The caller went by Saturday (after the game) “and didn’t see anything.” (Note: this call was received just after last week’s Red Line went to press.)

“I read Mo’s Meanderings (Saturday),” began a woman, “and I see your writer (Leon) Emo is sucking up to the big wigs again. I bet he didn’t charge the council member and supervisor his regular tour fee. Probably nothing. And another thing, I saw him back in town this week and even early in the morning he’s still wearing shorts. That may be okay when he’s kissing butt with supervisors and councilmen out in the desert, but your writer should dress decent around here.”

Several callers responded to last week’s caller concerned with the “sanitation at the Madera Community Food Bank.” One lady who has been “a regular volunteer for more than three years,” said. “I have personal knowledge that the Food Bank is inspected by the Health Department on a regular basis with the last inspection only two weeks ago. The person complaining should be aware that we are a warehouse facility and conditions are not as they would be in a supermarket. We do not distribute outdated food items. Our items are stamped on the packaging; it does not mean they are outdated. The caller (last week) should be sensitive to the fact that the Madera Community Food Bank depends solely on donations and a staff of volunteers.”

Another woman said, “when they first took over from the Action Committee he said he was going to be giving food from the commodities and from the food bank. My actual box (of food) didn’t look any different than the box for a family of six or a family of four. It looked like all the boxes seemed to be the same items. It doesn’t seem to be any different.” The lady, “was just wondering who was in charge of the food being given out properly.”

A woman added, “I’ve been a regular volunteer (for the food bank) for the past three years. The items are free. The food goes by sale date and is handled the same way as a supermarket.”

Still another said about “employees not wearing gloves when handling produce. This is a warehouse, not a supermarket. I don’t see employees in the produce in supermarkets wearing gloves. Only in the fish and meat departments.” She suggested, “get a life, lady.”

A man understood, “electing school board members by areas. But what doesn’t make sense to me is the individuals who filed the lawsuit, who now are going to take money away from the schools and are costing the school district money now. These people want both. They want representation on the school board, and take money away from the kids. These individuals are about as low as they come, yet they think they are doing great.”

A lady “wanted the people of Madera to know I just received a violation for having yard sale notice up for less than 18 hours. If you are thinking of having a yard sale, I would advise against it. Because this stupid, stupid city won’t let you do anything anymore. However,” she continued, “it is fine for people three streets over to have a yard sale every single weekend which I thought was a code violation.” She added, “You cannot have a (yard sale) sign on the back of your car and park your car on the street because that is public property even though your car is your private property.”

A man called “about the editor’s corner on October 23, regarding how the world would end. For the people who don’t know how,” the caller had an answer. “Read the Bible.”

A woman responded to last week’s caller who asked why the “Madera South band was not allowed to play at halftime during the game between Madera High and Madera South.” This week the lady clarified that “Madera High this year was the home team and Madera South was the visiting team.” She did agree, “the Madera Tribune should write up more about the bands and the band competition.”

A woman “would sure like to see the motorcycle police officers on North Pine Street again. The speeders are starting to speed again. Especially when the kids are going to and coming from school.”

A near record number of messages were received “after the football game Friday night” to voice many similar comments such as: “What a horrible coach. Here we are late in the fourth quarter. We have the ball on the Clovis 15-yard line and he chooses to go for it instead of kicking a field goal to maybe win the game. The kids and the community deserve more. He (the coach) needs to go.”

Other callers added these comments: “blunder after blunder by the coach.” Another said, “Nobody wants the coach here. The legend, nobody wants him.” Others commented how “these kids are out there working hard and he’s costing them pride and maybe even a win after last week.” Still another man said, “Now Blankenship is blaming (the loss) on the homecoming parade and how it takes a lot out of the kids. You (coach) are not fooling anybody. You don’t kick a field goal from inside the 10-yard line because you say the kicker was not striking the ball. Quit blaming everyone else.”

A woman also commented when “she went into the Olive gate entrance and I was told we had to go all the way around to the field house entrance. They need to keep putting that in the newspaper because people don’t go to the games all the time. They need to let people know in advance what entrance to use.”

“Win or lose,” began a woman, “I enjoy going to the football games. But, if something is not done about the concession I’m going to quit. It is awful; bring back the Lions Club or another club. Any of them could do a better job, be accountable, and certainly give friendlier service.”

“Here we go again,” began a female caller, “bad economy, blame the illegals. Some people really need to be educated about real facts, do your research. Most illegals that come here do not come here to steal your wonderful jobs. They take the jobs that you won’t usually take. If they can’t or don’t want to speak English, that is their prerogative.”

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Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24-hours a day by calling 674-4478.

I am sending you a short note to bring you up to date on what is happening in the real estate market because the newspapers and television only give us the bad news.

Did you know that less than 4 percent of homeowners are in foreclosure? Yet, that is all we hear? Why don’t they say 96 percent are doing well? Why don’t they also tell us that out of 100,000 families, 60,000 can buy a house, where as a year ago only 40,000 could buy a house? That’s 20,000 more families that can buy. Why, because prices are low and the interest rate was in the 5 percents as of Oct. 8.

The government has money to help first-time home buyers purchase a house. A first-time home buyer is someone who has not owned a house in the last three years. A first-time home buyer can receive a $7,500 tax credit from the government, which means money in the pocket.

For example, a person earning $2,500 a month can buy a $140,000 home with as little as $4,200 down plus closing costs, even if you have some collections, you don’t have to have perfect credit.

Louie Fimbrez,
Madera

Election time is closing in and many sides and feeling will be shared, pushed and discussed. This is not just good, but real good. It’s part of our civic heritage and we should hope to be more informed through the process.

Mike Martinez asks (in his letter of Oct. 17), “can you imagine being called a ‘deviant?’.” I can. When I was an atheist, God called me a deviant. I had deviated from his acceptable norm. The word means deviating from the accepted norm (Webster’s NCD). I’m sorry if someone has sarcastically slandered you or a friend. Shame on them. But the fact remains — just because 3-6 percent of the population practices a certain, not normal lifestyle, does not make it normal. And society certainly does not have to approve of it and allow it to be codified into our community, state, or country. Our God-given free will allows us all to do anything we want, with anyone who is of like mind and spirit. But God and society certainly don’t have to say it’s good or even okay. And we certainly don’t have to codify it.

Mike goes on to say, “Make no mistake, this is not about your normal or religious beliefs, gentlemen, it is about equality.” How dare you! Your movement disallows our “moral and religious beliefs” because they stand in the way of accomplishing your agenda. And, if your “equality” comes to pass I will go to jail or at least pay a fine for just saying the things herein, let alone putting them in written form. I will be deviant because I am not part of your norm. And as the fullness of your movement evolves, pastors and churches will be asked to perform marriages that their, “moral and religious beliefs” don’t allow. In Massachusetts your movement demands that parents not have the right to opt-out, even in the lowest grades, when the gay marriage is being indoctrinated into the little ones’ brains.

So as you gain equality, we gain inequality, and anyone who would say, “No!” becomes the deviant. That may sound real good to you, but to most of us it sounds real bad.

Your movement hopes to be accepted and more complete through gay marriage. Sorry, its a sham. Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher said, there is a God-shaped hole in the middle of each of us, that only God can fill. Gay marriage will not fill that hole. God has a plan for each of us, and try as me might to find happiness in other ways, it will not happen.

So, when we are filling out our absentee ballots or in the voting booth on election day, we need to consider whom we will be standing with. Will you stand with God or man? Don’t be fooled! We all have to answer for every action that is not of God. His love is merciful, but also just.

I, my family, and my Christian friends will be voting yes on Proposition 4, yes on Proposition 8, and for the only pro-life candidate for president of the United States of America.

Christians, get on your knees and pray to God that the Christians of this state will turn out in large enough numbers because of Proposition 4 and 8, that California would end up being a red state on election evening.

Jon Barsotti,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Today, you can buy regular unleaded gasoline in Madera for $2.69 or so a gallon, which ought to make your socks roll up and down, seeing as how we were paying at least $2 a gallon more than that three months ago at the height of the summer driving season.

Back then, people were dumping their SUVs and other gas guzzlers and buying gas misers instead because they didn’t think gasoline prices ever would go down again.

Democrats were going around blaming the high gas prices on President Bush, and carrying torches and pitchforks into the streets demanding windfall taxes on oil company profits.

Using that same logic, let’s hold a ticker tape parade and congratulatory dinner for President Bush now that he obviously has brought oil prices down, and let’s organize bailouts for oil companies and commodities speculators who will start to go broke because the price of oil is suddenly in the tank. Let’s set up charities for Pemex, the Mexican oil monopoly, and other producers of crude who can barely afford to pump oil out of the ground at today’s prices.

Sure. Who do they think they are? Wall Street banks?

I remember congressional hearings during the summer in which Democrat members of Congress shook their fists at oil company executives and threatened to nationalize their firms. How wrong they were. Nevertheless, they were ready to nationalize something. It’s probably a good thing Wall Street showed up when it did so they could get it out of their systems. And of course, many Republicans went right along.

Which might turn out to be all right. Who knows? In a few months, Wall Street will be more or less back to normal, and the people in Manhattan who make livings selling $250 ties and scarves will be breathing sighs of relief.

Will we learn anything from all this? Probably not.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The world is a poorer place today because one the great American writers is no longer with us. Tony Hillerman, author of the Navajo Tribal Police novels, died Sunday at 83.

To mystery fans, and I count myself among them, he wrote books that not only are great mysteries but also great literature in the sense that one came to know the characters he wrote about as if they were real people living just down the road.

He especially captures the nature of the Navajo people in his books, which are set in the high country of Arizona and New Mexico. He paints the Navajo as a people of contrast — living as modern Americans, and also as keepers of social, economic and religious traditions which stretch back before the first white people ever set foot in the Americas.

I started reading Tony Hillerman books before I moved to Arizona, and when I finally did move there, I felt I already knew the place, so true are Tony’s books to the land and the people. When I began to meet Navajos, mostly among the arts community of Prescott, I found them to be as Tony depicts them — people of great depth and humor.

He doesn’t coddle the Navajo characters in his books. Some of them turn out to be alcoholics and crooks. Some of them are practitioners of the complex Navajo religion. Some of them are scientists, lawyers doctors.

One of his principal characters, Jim Chee, constantly wrestles with his Navajo identity. A sergeant in the Navajo police, he also is a medicine man who falls in love with two women who want him move away from Navajo land. It is a tribute to Tony’s skill that the reader knows Chee will make the right choices.

Almost everybody speeds at some time. Driving at more than double the speed limit in a residential area, however, is insane and despicable.

Since Lincoln school has opened up, a straight stretch of Riverview Drive — between Granada Drive and Summerset Lane — has been a speedway that is apparently impossible to resist, for many of my neighbors (some whom I recognize as community leaders), and to most of the folks who transport their Lincoln students. Oddly enough, on Sundays, there are not as many speeders, proportionately, during church commute hours. That is a statement.

But for the black-haired lady with the 1960s ’do who was eastbound at 60+ mph in her gray Mercedes-clone four-door late model car at 1:40 p.m. on Oct. 22 while several youngsters were in a front yard — double shame on you. No matter who you are, your time is just not that important. It takes a minimum of 175 feet to stop a car traveling at 50 mph, foolish and selfish lady. See http://www.driveandstayalive.com.

John C. Clark,
Madera

On Oct. 24, Frank Bradford wrote a letter to the editor questioning Barrack Hussein Obama’s U.S. citizenship. Mr. Bradford was on target. A lawsuit was filed in the Philadelphia Federal District Court by attorney Philip Berg. The major news media blacked it out.

Last Saturday I received a copy of the article on the lawsuit from the American Free Press.

The following are just a few quotes from the lawsuit:

Attorney Berg says, “Obama was born in Kenya and isn’t even a naturalized American Citizen.” Berg’s suit claims that, “not only is Obama not a natural born American, he is not even a citizen of the US.” Berg suggests, “Obama was actually born in Kenya and that the so called birth certificate made public is a forgery and lacks an ID number.” Attorney Berg also states that, “Obama’s use of a birth certificate from the state of Hawaii is seen as a forgery by three different independent document forensic experts.” There is much more to the lawsuit, these are just some of the highlights.

Why were we never made aware of this lawsuit by the people who supposedly just report the news?
Can you imagine what would have happened if a lawsuit like this had been filed against a conservative presidential candidate? Well, the socialist “Libs” and their willing accomplices, the mainstream media, would be dancing in the streets right now.

If you have followed this presidential campaign carefully I’m sure you have found many lies and inconsistencies in some of Barrack Hussein Obama’s statements. On Nov. 4, vote McCain-Palin.

Sam Pistoresi,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

In this presidential race, which some media commentators are painting as the most important in a generation or two, there seem to be few issues being examined very closely, perhaps because both candidates are a bit fuzzy on them and keep shifting positions. At least, that was the case until last week when it was learned that the Republican Party had spent $150,000 on clothes for vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin at upscale clothing stores.

Suddenly, the press was galvanized into action, describing the clothes, criticizing them, wondering how the grand old party could be so desperate as to blow that much money trying to dress up its candidate.

Yet, there seemed to be no stories about the clothing worn by Sen. Barack Obama — whom I envy for his ability to wear fine suits. Does he spend $1,000 on his suits, $2,000, $5,000? And how about Michelle Obama, who also dresses well? What does she spend. Did some couturier charge her $1,000 each for her skirts, for her dresses, for her jackets? If that is the case, it wouldn’t be surprising. If Obama wants to spread the wealth, why not start with spreading it around to the folks who sell his wife and him clothes? Or did the Democratic Party do that? If so, so what?

And how about Cindy McCain? Her clothes are beautiful, as you would expect the dresses, skirts, blouses and jackets worn by a wealthy and stylish woman to be. Does the GOP buy her clothes? If so, it’s money well spent.

And Sen. John McCain’s suits — well, they look good on him, but I hope the GOP didn’t spend $150,000 on them. If so, they were robbed.

One thing for sure: Neither Obama nor McCain will need a $400 haircut.

Gloria Brown correctly cited the qualifications required to be a candidate for president of the United States and says Barack Obama is qualified. But is he? A lawsuit was filed Aug. 21 in Federal Court, Philadelphia, by an attorney named Philip J. Berg, a lifelong Democrat, and he calls Obama a fraud.

The suit requires Obama to produce birth documents which Obama refuses to do. Obama has put a certificate on his website with no seal, another copy reviewed by factcheck.org does have a seal and says it is valid. Berg wants Obama to produce his birth documents in court but Obama is waiting for the judge to rule on his motion to dismiss so has not complied. He has also refused to release his medical records or college records. Why?

Obama was supposedly born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and if he was may have given up his citizenship. How? Barack’s mother and father divorced and his mother remarried a citizen of Indonesia, Lolo Soatoro. His stepfather got him into school in Indonesia as Barry Soatoro and to attend school in Indonesia at that time you had to be a citizen of Indonesia. So if he was a citizen of Indonesia he would have had to become a naturalized citizen of the U.S. and not qualified to be a candidate for president. I have heard none of this on the news and I would think the FBI would have investigated. Mr. Berg says if he loses in Federal Court he will take it to either the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court. We deserve to have a true answer prior to the election.

On another topic, Mike Martinez, a self professed homosexual, lamented in his article that he did not like being called abnormal or a deviant. Well, two men trying to have some kind of sex together is not normal and is nauseating. Marriage has always been and should always be between a man and a woman. Yes on Proposition 8.

Frank Bradford,
Madera

I came in recently and reported the water running with the sprinklers right out on Paula and Avenue 16 1/2. The matter has gotten much worse, this being one of our most precious resources. It’s an absolute disgrace and needs immediate attention.

Moya Vlahos,
Madera