“Gays and lesbians in this country have been treated like second-class citizens for too long,” said the eleven-term Republican congressman. “Every American should be treated equal under the law, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, and I congratulate the President for taking this courageous step.”

McKeon said he hopes the day will come when gays and lesbians can enjoy the benefits of a committed, married relationship in all fifty states.

“A man should be able to marry another man and a woman should be able to marry another woman,” stated McKeon. “To say otherwise is discrimination, clear and simple.”

If elected for a twelfth term, McKeon said he will make civil rights for the GLBT community a top priority.

“I fully support equality for everyone,” said McKeon. “Gays, lesbians, blacks, Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, women — it makes no difference.”

According to McKeon, those who would deny gays and lesbians the right to marry are guilty of allowing their personal prejudices to influence policy.

“Marriage equality is inherent in our fundamental constitutional rights,” added McKeon. “The government has no business telling anyone who they can and cannot love.”

(Editor’s note: Yes, we know this story is completely ridiculous and unbelievable — and that’s the point. In reality, Buck is anti-everyone, and has the record to prove it. Do not allow this embarassment to continue representing us. Twenty years of his poison is enough. When you go into your polling place, please vote for someone else.)

The Buck Stops Now. Defeat Buck McKeon.

“…it’s time for policies that empower small businesses, restore consumer confidence, and create private-sector jobs.”

– Buck McKeon, website

The irony is that McKeon, himself, has never earned a private sector paycheck in his entire life.

As a young man, McKeon inherited a 20 percent share of a multi-million dollar business from his parents. Many of you may remember Howard & Phil’s Western Wear as THEE place to go for cowboy boots, ten-gallon hats and fancy, long-sleeve shirts with pearly buttons. I remember my parents were into square dancing for a brief period of time, and they would buy all their gear at Howard & Phil’s. The company was founded by McKeon’s parents in 1962, and grew into an empire by the 1980s thanks to films like “Urban Cowboy.”

At its height, Howard & Phil’s Western Wear had 52 stores throughout the western United States, annual sales of $38 million and and employed 500 people.

“As someone who has run a small business, I know the challenges businesses face, especially in a tough economy. Just as a business must balance its books and watch the bottom line, our government must return to policies of fiscal discipline.”

– Buck McKeon, website

Yes, he ran a business -– he ran it into the ground. After years of mismanagement, Buck put hundreds of employees out of work and left creditors in the dust. The company went belly-up, as they say, but not before McKeon made off with millions for himself.

In 1992, as the family business continued to falter and he was no longer able to take his draw, Buck was elected to the House of Representatives. His personal wealth continued to dwindle, however, along with the business. In 1998, as Howard & Phil’s was going through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, McKeon apparently struck paydirt — his finances were kept afloat by a special low-rate mortgage he received from Countrywide Financial to refinance his home – a rate unavailable to the rest of the public.

This seems to be the first taste Buck had of using his elected office for personal gain.

For the last twenty years, McKeon has been employed as a U.S. congressman, deriving his earnings from his government salary of $174,000 plus the corporate donor money he funnels to his wife, Patricia McKeon, about $150,000 per year.

Perhaps one can consider the cash the McKeons receive from Boeing, Lockheed, et al, as “private sector” paychecks, but they are technically made out to his wife, so the premise remains intact:

Buck McKeon has never received a private sector paycheck in his life.

We think it’s time he start experiencing work in the private sector for a change, and we know a way to help him along.

Vote Buck McKeon out of office, give him a chance to get a real job somewhere and the opportunity to see what real employment looks like.

The Buck Stops Now

Defeat Buck McKeon

The issue of the Cemex mine looming over Soledad Canyon residents is something that frustrates Senator Barbara Boxer – and what’s one of the most irritating elements of the issue is the lack of support she’s received from local Congressman Buck McKeon.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE.

Ender began her short-lived career as an elected official in 2008 as McKeon’s seemingly  hand-picked candidate for the city council. “After taking a good look at all the candidates,” stated McKeon at that time, “I strongly endorse Laurie Ender for city council. She is the one candidate most qualified to stand with me in our battle to stop CEMEX.”

Really? CEMEX? Given McKeon’s unwillingness to subsequently step up to the plate in Congress to resolve the CEMEX mining issue, the endorsement seems, in retrospect, almost laughable. Of course, when McKeon endorsed her again for 2012, he conveniently left out any mention of CEMEX.

“When Laurie Ender ran for council in 2008, I endorsed her because she strongly advocated expanding Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital,” reads a quote by McKeon on Ender’s still-active 2012 campaign website, “even though it was very controversial at the time… Mayor Ender listens to the residents and puts their needs first.”

It should come as no surprise that McKeon’s statement contained no reference to “battling” CEMEX or that his endorsement ultimately carried no weight for Ender. Citizens on both sides of the political spectrum have grown weary of his ineffectiveness and empty rhetoric.

Ender’s loss made her the only sitting mayor in the history of Santa Clarita to ever be defeated.

A once highly sought-after endorsement by Buck McKeon is today tantamount to political poison, and anyone running for office is wise to distance themselves from his tarnished reputation, rather than sip from his rancid chalice.

The Buck Stops Now

Defeat Buck McKeon

“The money goes to the College [of the Canyons] Foundation, which is a good cause,” said Rogers. “I would like to sit with the Congressman and have a cordial discussion about the challenges that face the communities in the 25th district and the United States.”

The donation offers lunch in Santa Clarita or Washington, DC for the winner and up to three guests. Rogers intends on inviting three members of the local press to observe the lunchtime conversation. Invitations will be extended to The Antelope Valley Press, The Signal, and The Simi Valley Acorn. “There are many serious problems facing the district and it will be good to compare and contrast our views on policy,” said Rogers, who intends to reach out to Congressman McKeon this week to set up a date for the “lunch summit.”

Dr. Lee Rogers is a nationally known podiatrist from Simi Valley who is a published author and speaker on health policy. He is the co-director of the Amputation Prevention Center at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, a center designed to prevent limb losses in patients with diabetes. Rogers is endorsed by the California Democratic Party and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, among other groups.

The Honorable
Howard P. “Buck” McKeon
Member of Congress
U.S. House of Representatives
2184 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. McKeon:

We the constituents of California’s 25th Congressional District, in order to restore integrity and honesty to the elected office you have tarnished with corruption and discrimination, do call upon your immediate and unconditional resignation from the United States House of Representatives.

By your repeated refusal to vote for legislation that would ensure equality for women and minorities, and your unyielding opposition to marriage equality for all citizens, you have revealed a lack of respect for the great diversity in our country;

By opposing the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the American Jobs Act and voting to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, you have chosen partisan loyalties and the interests of your wealthy donors above the needs of the hard working men and women in our district;

By accepting a loan on your personal home from Countrywide Mortgage at a preferential rate, a discount that was unavailable to the public, you have shown yourself to be less than honorable;

By signing an ironclad “pledge” indicating a pre-determination of how you will vote in office on a particular issue, you have violated your congressional oath to “take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”

By using your wife to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from the proceeds of your campaign contributors into your personal bank account, you have demonstrated a lack of ethical behavior;

By failing to resolve the Cemex issue, you have clearly shown yourself incapable of providing the kind of leadership the constituents of the 25th District deserve;

By repeatedly spewing out your partisan campaign rhetoric (usually at taxpayers’ expense), you have alienated your constituents and have proven that you do not serve in the best interests of all of us.

You have failed us as a leader, both at the national and local levels.

For these reasons and others, we demand your immediate and unconditional resignation from the United States House of Representatives.  We cannot afford to wait until November.

Sincerely,

The undersigned Constituents of California’s 25th Congressional District

The poll not only documented constituents’ dissatisfaction with McKeon and his corruption, but its removal serves as a sad commentary of the sorry state of journalism at The Signal.

Talk about having the press in your pocket! While we have no proof that McKeon or his staff ordered the poll taken down, there is no refuting that it no longer exists on the website. A shadow of doubt now looms large over everything The Signal publishes. How can readers ever depend upon its independence and reliability as a source of honest reporting?

Fortunately, we have a screen capture of the poll and are reproducing it here for your review:

If you go to The Signal’s page of ”Latest Polls” http://www.the-signal.com/polls/ and move your cursor over the questions, you will see that each one has a unique number. For some reason the paper uses even numbers only — 2,4,6,8, etc.  You’ll notice there is no number 324 — it’s gone. Vanished.

If Buck McKeon thinks he can keep information from getting to his constituents, he is mistaken.

TheBuckStopsNow.org will continue to bring you the truth about Buck McKeon.

There is no doubt Buck has to go.  And he can take The Signal with him.

The Buck Stops Now

Defeat Buck McKeon

If you’re going to rip off the taxpayer for tens of thousands of dollars, however, the least you could do is utilize proper spelling.

McKeon received this discount loan while Countrywide was charging higher fees and rates to more than 200,000 minority borrowers across the country. Bank of America, who acquired Countrywide in 2008, agreed to pay a settlement of $335 million in a statement released by the Justice Department.

Dr. Lee Rogers announced, “We’re calling on Representative McKeon to release his mortgage documents so that the public can see the terms and determine for themselves if they believe McKeon when he says he ‘had no inkling’ he was receiving preferential treatment.”

Additionally, Rogers sent a letter to the House Ethics committee asking for an investigation. The letter points out that McKeon also received over $12,000 in campaign contributions from Countrywide and Bank of America PACs since his 1998 loan.

“How can we trust our legislators who are supposed to be watching out for their constituents when they’re taking financial favors and turning a blind eye to egregious predatory lending by some in the financial services industry,” Rogers said.

Dr. Lee Rogers is a candidate for US Congress in California’s 25th district. He lives in Simi Valley with his wife Susan and daughter Emma.

He paints in broad sweeping stokes about the stark contrasts between what he calls “these two different youth movements,” as though both the Occupy Movement and the United States Defense structure were comprised entirely of young people. After setting up these two “straw men” he proceeds to disparage the motives and intentions of each and every protestor while romantically glorifying the motives and intentions of anyone who has committed to military service.

He supports this ridiculous contention with a series of comparisons; depicting the protestors as spoiled brats, who after graduating from private universities with their elitist “expensive degrees in academic fields” are now whining about their student loan debt and poor job prospects using $300 smart phones. He contrasts this with our nation’s military service men and women, selflessly placing their lives on the line “in the name of our flag and our freedom.”

He concocts this cynical calculation to whitewash an entire generation of our own sons and daughters; grossly oversimplifying and misrepresenting what is, in reality, an extremely broad and complex range of personal motivations and economic circumstances that dictate the direction of each of our lives.

Then he uses this despicable charade as his continued justification for pouring vast amounts of our nation’s blood and treasury into the most enormous war machine the world has ever known. He laments the fact that Congress’s own “Super Committee,” having failed to raise taxes on the top 1% or enact draconian cuts to vital social programs, is now compelled to turn its attention to the massively inflated defense budget. What Mr. McKeon refuses to acknowledge is the unalterable fact that military spending has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, is higher than at any point since World War II, and the cuts he and Mr. Panetta claim will result in a “hollowed-out military” will actually just bring DOD back to 2007 spending levels.

Last month, Buck defended the war machine’s bloated budget and broke into tears during a hearing about soldiers in Afghanistan. Almost on the same day, a Stimson Center study demonstrated how the U.S. military had used money, pegged for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, on $1 trillion for tanks, ships and jets since Sept. 11, 2001.

Twenty-two percent of that $1 trillion came from “supplemental” war spending bills. In other words, $232.8 billion of taxpayer money that would’ve provided our young fighting men and women with better body armor, for example, was spent on Abrams tanks and jet fighters, both projects enrich war contractors while doing nothing to bolster the safety of our troops or our nation’s safety at home.

It’s should come as no surprise then that Lockheed Martin’s biggest political benefactor is Rep. Howard McKeon, who made this all possible. He is looking out for the safety and well being of his real 1% alright, they are not our young men and women however, but his fabulously wealthy defense contractor CEO sponsors.

If Mr. McKeon were truly interested in the safety of our fighting forces as well as the long-term prospects for the nation they will some day be returning home to he would do well to dispense with all of this divisive nonsense and start doing his job as the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Cut the defense budget where the real bloat is. End massively expensive weapons systems that don’t work and stop these now decade long wars we should never have been fighting to begin with.

Doing this would save over $300 billion a year and do more to provide for the long-term safety of our young men and women in uniform than hundreds more F-35 jet fighters and Abrams tanks ever could.

Jeff Courtney
Proud and Hopeful Citizen of the 25th District