(Burn Fresno) Yesterday it was announced that as part of Ashley Swearengins new budget, she will be cutting out the only AIDS clinic and recovery center in the Fresno area. The Living Room is a place where people with AIDS can get together for support and treatment, and more importantly keep them off the street and from further spreading this terrible immune system disease.

The facility is used by 1,700 patients and only costs the city $69,000 per year – that’s $40 per person, not exactly major money when it comes to the massive amounts of debt the City of Fresno currently carries. Westcare (a local drug rehabilitation organization) also works with The Living Room in helping them to get their supplies and at times to cover other monetary needs.

Let’s face it, drugs are pretty much the worst thing happening to the youth of our city right now – and this isn’t the 60′s where everyone is smoking pot and tripping on LSD – this is 2010 Fresno, where unfortunately the drugs of choice are often Methamphetamine, Oxycontin/Heroin, or Cocaine/Crack. Throw this into the mix with the total absence of quality drug education (which should begin as soon as a child is old enough to understand the concept) and you have the recipe for breeding an entire generation of drug addicts and criminals.

By closing down The Living Room they are only furthering these problems, and I’m sure Ashley Swearengin and the rest of the Fresno City Council know this. They also know they won’t be in office when the effects are finally felt.

Ashley Swearengin is the queen of trading short-term gains for long-term consequences that will be felt LONG after she has ended her reign.

Hey Ashley, here’s an idea for you: How about instead of turning off our streetlights (I bet the ones in your neighborhood are on!) and closing facilities that are bettering Fresno you instead cut out some of our bloated and overpaid police force?

I mean do you really need to send two undercover officers and a sheriff to deliver a BUSINESS CARD? I witnessed this happen in the past week, and after talking to my neighbor found out that they were simply looking for tips. This is what the tip line is for.

Or you could just fire Jerry Dyer and use his salary to keep The Living Room open, since everyone knows he’s a useless PR drone thats simply likes parading in front of the media. That is, when he’s not hiding from the press due to his nephew Damon Dyer selling large quantities of drugs out of Jerry’s sisters house (who is also a Police officer).

(Burn Fresno) – Days after the horrible slaughter of unarmed civilians attempting to bring aid to impoverished Palestinians on the Gaza strip, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has said that:

“That was not a love boat. That was a boat of hatred. It was not a peaceful flotilla. The soldiers who boarded the ships were attacked by clubs, batons and knives.”

What he fails to mention, and which has now been proven in multiple videos from the live satellite up-links on the flotilla, is that the Israeli IDF forces fired heavily on the flotilla before even attempting to board it, killing 9 people merely because of their disdain towards Palestinians.

Even a member of Israel’s own parliament was on board the ship! And now she is speaking out against her religious zealot government.

Israel then posted pictures on their Flickr account claiming to show the weapons they had collected from the barbarous siege. You would think the billions of dollars we’ve given them would allow to become educated enough them not to overlook something as simple as digital camera EXIF data, but fortunately for the rest of the world that is not the case.

The pictures of weapons they claimed came off of the Mavi Marmara are more than four years old!

Here’s a link to the EXIF information from the photograph, that Israeli photographer Itamar Moatty took in 2006.

The Israeli government lies about almost every single event involving them, and the world is getting sick of it. All of the IDF soldiers involved in that raid should be facing homicide charges and rotting in a dungeon in the Hague for the rest of their natural lives.

Since Israel has done this, Turkey – who used to be one of their closest Muslim allies, has said it will escort the next aid package with Turkish warships and Air Force jets.

If Israel is trying to turn the world against them by acting as stupidly and ignorantly as possible – they certainly are doing a good job.

UPDATE:  He now says he will not let the last ship of the flotilla through the blockade, the MV Rachel Corrie, which was named after an American peace activist killed in Gaza while trying to stop a bulldozer from demolishing Palestinian homes. On board are a UN Ambassador and a Nobel Prize Laureate. We can only hope they won’t be violently slaughtered for no reason.

Godspeed MV Rachel Corrie.

(Burn Fresno) – Ashley Swearengin recently announced an initiative to help the homeless where people can donate $1 per month to the Fresno First Steps Home. While this is a great idea (not sarcasm – we should have implemented a similar program a while back)  that allows people who may not have a ton of resources to donate to do so, I can’t help but think it’s just another public relations ploy by Swearengin and her absolutely horrible accomplices on the Fresno City Council.

As a matter of fact, I think this may be the first positive thing I’ve ever heard of Mayor Ashley Swearengin doing. With her weekend announcement that the city is about to shut off 10,000 street lights, which can do nothing but increase the already dire(Dyer?) crime rate. Our murder rate is at 25 right now compared to 12 for last years. There are also people who walk home after work along paths lit by streetlights, and now these people are at a substantially greater risk.

The homeless plan is a good idea, but don’t let it distract you from the things Ashley Swearengin and the rest of the Fresno City Council are trying to slip by (Westerlunds horrible median law anyone?), because she’s nothing more than a Barbie with a good PR team.

If people are expected to stop complaining about the situation in Fresno, then maybe the Fresno City Council should get off their butts and do something that isn’t a gigantic waste of time for a change.

Want to talk to your Fresno City Council representative? Here’s a list of contact information.