I Wont Be Back

I Wont Be Back

For seven years Arnold has been California Governor. Has it been a good run? Well, let's be honest.. Not a shit lot got better. In fact, Arnold is leaving Sacramento with a 28 billion dollar budget shortfall. How the fuck did he get elected in the first place? Well, we need to go back to the 2003 re-call elections. Davis was doing a shitty job (just as shitty as Arnold is leaving with) and we decided to recall him. To be perfectly honest, I voted for him.

And for those of you who claim that people like me were stupid for voting for Arnold, I have one thing to say to you... What the fuck were the options? There was 135 bad candidates to choose from and Arnold was probably the only decent one. Oh, who did you want me to vote for? That fucking porn star? The weed attorney? Gary fuckin' Coleman? He's dead you know. You wanted a dead midget to run our state into the ground? I think not.



Even though Arnold leaves office today with only a 22% approval rating, the same rating that Gary Davis had that kicked off the whole process to get him recalled, Arnold has at least tried... and failing.

He went into this whole thing with the Meg Whitman stance that he wasn't in the pocket of anyone large business and he was going to handle the office like a business. Welp, look at how that turned out. His main goal was to target those bureaucratic "boxes" and much like in the Terminator film, you can't really change history. They still remain.

Though Schwarzenegger did successfully collaborate with the mainly democratic legislature to pass a landmark greenhouse-gas emissions law, which will probably be his crowning achievement. He did fail terribly at solving the state's fiscal crisis. Leaving Jerry Brown $28 billion in the red.



The biggest downfall that Arnold faced was trying to have the people love him by not laying down the honest truth that our state can not function without higher taxes. Look at how our school systems are in such a mess because he didn't want to do the hard choice and raise taxes. The UC system is at least triple the cost with far less of a budget to hire proper professors. The Cal State system is a complete mess right now. You know, there's people in other countries rioting over far less.

It's sort of sad but I do see a lot of similarities with Obama that I do with Arnold. He's charismatic, knows how to get the people voting, but when it came down to the tough choices, they're just pandering to the public instead of actually, you know, enacting the change they campaigned upon.



At least with Jerry Brown gets sworn into office today, he's more than willing to pull us off the tit and make those tough choices be faced. The scary truth is that we need more taxes. Especially if we want to keep the social services and schools properly funded. But then again, Californians hate paying taxes. We even set up new laws so that it's even harder to get taxes approved. Which I'm not sure how much of a help it is to Jerry Brown.

Isn't that the damn truth. We finally get someone who isn't afraid to raise the taxes to meet the high cost of living in California and yet we have to deal with a slew of new hurdles to get those taxes approved by the people. Which of course they'll never want to face the music on and have to deal with them.

Might I add, it's not like most of you did much to stop him during his re-election. Shit, he easily won that one in 2006. At one point his approval rating was around 60%. The truth of the matter is that once California hit the housing bubble, it didn't matter who was in the drivers seat - there was shit all that could be done about it. We were going to ride that crazy train into the ground regardless of who was at the controls.



The state faced a massive budget shortfall and its those lack of taxes and the ability to get them passed that was going to be harming us far more than a former actor governor. Yeah, sure. He borrowed heavily from the budget gaps during his first tenure, but if he didn't then he would have faced a budget shortfall much earlier in his term as governor.

If there's anyone you want to blame for California's shitty position, just blame the economy. That's the real problem.

Arnold does leave office doing one good thing. He granted clemency to a woman who killed her pimp when she was 16. So she will no longer be serving life and is now faced with only 25 years to life with chance of parole.

A woman who was 16 when she ambushed and killed her former pimp in a Southern California motel room has been granted clemency by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his last full day in office.

Sara Kruzan, now 32, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the 1994 shooting death of George Gilbert Howard.

Prosecutors said Kruzan was no longer working for Howard when she killed him.

Calling her life sentence "excessive", Mr Schwarzenegger commuted Kruzan's sentence to 25 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Her clemency petition cited years of abuse and psychiatric reports saying she suffered from battered women's syndrome.

So what's next for former Governor Schwarzenegger? Well, he may go back to acting if the right script comes his way. But at 63 years old, I'm not sure how much action he can handle.

"Will I still have the patience to sit on the set and to do a movie for three months or for six months, all of those things? I don't know,"

So it's really a toss up on what he may do. He really doesn't have much in the way of plans. I guess one plan is to drive his eco-friendly hummer out of Sacramento and not go back for a very long time.

The Wallstreet Journal Hates California

The Wallstreet Journal Hates California

Have I mentioned how much I hate the Wall Street Journal lately? I mean, it's down right the most awful shit that can ever be printed. I say that with as much pride given how stupid my blog is. But that should show you that even my level of poor grammar and spelling errors is far better than the Wall Street Journal's dribble.

California: The Lindsay Lohan of States
Sacramento is headed for trouble again, and it shouldn't expect a bailout.

By ALLYSIA FINLEY

Listen up, California. The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You're the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it.

After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We'd feel sorry for you if you didn't constantly flip us the bird.

Instead, we're making bets on how long it will be before your next meltdown. Oh, wait—you're already melting down.

Opinion Journal's Allysia Finley argues that California is suffering from spending addiction like starlet Lindsay Lohan.

You've racked up nearly $70 billion in general obligation debt, and that doesn't include your $500 billion unfunded pension liability. Your own analysts predict you'll face a hole of at least $80 billion over the next four years.

Your government's run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums. When they're not taxing or spending, they're creating regulations and commissions like the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology and the California Blueberry Commission. Many businesses would leave if it weren't for your sunny climate.

Which may explain why you're so obsessed with climate change. If your climate changes, no one, including your Hollywood friends, would tolerate you anymore. So you've created a law to tax carbon emissions—no matter that it will kill jobs.

It's not as if you don't recognize that you've got problems. Roughly three-quarters of you say you're headed in the wrong direction, according to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. You're even more depressed than Illinois and New York, and you've got sunshine 10 months of the year!

You appropriately give your government low marks—28% approval for outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 16% for the legislature—yet you continue to re-elect the politicians who got you into this mess. Not a single incumbent state legislator lost re-election this year, including one Democrat who died a month ago (no joke). What's scarier is that you've just given almost all of the keys to statewide offices to Democrats.

Jerry Brown will be your new (old) governor. This is the man who acted as a gateway drug to your spending addiction three decades ago when he gave public-sector employees collective bargaining rights. Helping enforce your wacky laws will be Lt. Gov-elect Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor who flouted state law by allowing same-sex marriage. On the plus side, he has nice hair and loves you just the way you are. This is what he had to say after winning his race:

"We're nothing but a mirror of our consistent thoughts. You tend to manifest what you focus on. If you look around for what's wrong, you'll find it. But as all we know up here in San Francisco, when you focus on what's right, you see it all around you. . . . There is absolutely nothing wrong with California that can't be fixed by what's right with California. . . . If you're from another state, you'd love to have the problems of California."

You've also just re-elected Barbara Boxer (that's Senator Barbara Boxer) to a fourth term. She boasted on election night that it's her "eleventh straight election victory, and what a sweet one it is . . . [since] everything was thrown at us, including the kitchen sink, and the stove and the oven and everything, millions of dollars of negative ads from known and unknown opponents, millions and millions of dollars."

We've tried to help you, California. Some spent millions on campaigns to entice you to change your reckless behavior. And you told them to kick rocks.

So here's our final warning: When you inevitably crash and burn, don't count on us to bail you out.

Ms. Finley, a lapsed Californian who still wears Birkenstocks, is an assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com.

Yup. That settles the year end debate. This is the worst article I've read all year. I swear officer, she was asking for it. She shouldn't have been wearing that short electoral process.

It's crazy that even though he has a pretty vast Network studio located in Los Angeles, Murdoch sure loves to hate California. Once he bought the paper they just gave up on anything resembling journalism and focused on the whole class struggle journalism for capitalist.

This article instills strange and totally unjustified California Pride. Yeah, we may have a tax system that will never lead to a balanced budget and forget even paying for the shit we're proposing every election, but still, this is my state and I'm damn proud of it. Even if California did it to itself through shitty proposition system.

Who do we have to blame for all this? Well, for starters, how about everyone who voted in 1978. Prop 13 was and still is total shit. The idea that we put so many barriers between us and collecting state revenue while allowing more ways to create corporate tax loopholes is beyond reasoning. We're just really stupid for buying into it. It's not even politicians who are doing anything. It's proof enough that democracy doesn't work.

How else do you justify voting for limit on taxes and wonder why we can't fix our potholes and why your kid's tuition is so high? We can't really blame California government. They got little to do with their choices. But at the same time, don't call us Lindsey Lohan!

It really doesn't help that the federal government neglects urban development and focuses on rural policy on corporate handouts. Though I'm sure California voters would still find a way to fuck things up if we had some sort of helpful federal support in place.

No matter how beautiful the landscape that California has in its national parks and forests, it's not going to last. Especially given the fact that the proposition that would have secured non-discretionary funds for the state park system failed. Which will probably just lead to more loss in park access.

Prop 24 would have closed corporate tax loopholes, but California voted against it. I would call California voters retarded, but I am a Californian and I also have volunteered time working with disabled people and retarded people actually have better judgment than the state's prevailing opinion on most political issues.

In short, if Prop 19 was the main reason why you were sad this election process, you're pretty much not worthy of voting.

But hey at least we didn't elect a criminal for governor like Florida. To no one's surprise, criminal Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott may have already broken both tax and labor laws before ever stepping foot in office. It turns out that his campaign is trying to pay its workers in American Express Gift Cards, rather than through actual paychecks.

If you weren't familiar with it, Florida elected a Governor who's medical firm blatantly broke the law by overcharging the government by billions of dollars for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. So is it really much of a surprise when he's breaking the law again?

Mark Don Givens told Florida's WTSP News that he was expecting a paycheck after he made phone calls and knocked on doors for the Scott campaign, which made jobs a top issue in the election. Givens said he and other workers were upset after they were told by the campaign that they could not offer them a paycheck and given American Express gift cards instead.

"This would violate both tax laws and labor laws," Melanie Sloan, the Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) told TPMmuckraker in an email. "It looks like the newly elected AG will be investigating the newly elected governor.

I'm not sure, but I doubt that anyone in Florida realizes how horribly screwed they are right now. Let's just say they're more screwed than we are in California. Especially since Scott will also be able to pass anything he wants thanks to the massive GOP majorities in both the State Legislature and State Senate.

Though the only thing separating failing states like Florida and California from working ones like all the other 48 states is simply a couple of years.

Rock The Vote

Rock The Vote

You know what today is? It's WE-DON'T-CARE-TUESDAY! Yup. That's right, we have the ability to kick out the old bums and put in the new bums! It's really important to make sure to get folks out to the polls to vote... but first, the people need to know where they can vote.

If you're a registered voter, you can find your spot to vote with this handy link showing you where to vote. So while I got the helpful information out to you, let's get down to my good ol' fashion cynicism.

On to the big one - Who replaces Arnold? Meg Whitman vs Jerry Brown. You have Meg, who hasn't voted a single time in the last 20+ years. She's mainly there for a stepping stone to attempt to be President for some odd reason.



Jerry Brown was governor and did a fairly decent job running a surplus and living on the cheap as he was in office. He has a fairly bad track record in his other runs as mayor of Oakland and getting stuff done, but that could have been other factors.

Just remember that whatever you vote for, it's probably just going to be more of the same. Brown or Whitman - It seems like a lose/lose situation to me, though I guess I'm voting for Brown because I hate Meg Whitman more and she ruined ebay.

So what else is there on the books?

Proposition 26
Requires that certain state fees be approved by two-thirds vote of Legislature and certain local fees be approved by two-thirds of voters. Increases legislative vote requirement to two-thirds for certain tax measures, including those that do not result in a net increase in revenue, currently subject to majority vote.

Why what do you know, someone brings up a perfectly good solution to all of California's problems... No taxes. No taxes at all!

WHAT?! Yes, that's right. Why didn't anyone think of this earlier? California will now be solvent thanks to the traditional book keeping compromise tactic of "making up money that doesn't even exist". It's really straight from the play book of not giving a shit about what you leave for the next guy in office.



"Here you go, have fun with that, Mr next Governor" seems to be the best tactic any leaving governor has ever learned. And don't think it's just a California thing. Every state is defeered to the next official, who spends his entire time in office trying to figure out how he's going to pass the buck along to the next guy who comes in.

The only difference is California has taken it to the next level and made an art form out of the mess. But that's because California is really like three or four states in itself. It's got massive cities and massive crowds in them. L.A. has more of a populous than all but 8 states in the union. Just think about that and you'll stop wondering why traffic is so bad.

The next big question.. which I'm guessing is the only real question that most of you actually cares about is... How is that weed vote going to do?

Going into this election it was trailing on some polls and leading in others. Over all it's been one of those that gets hated on or extreme support for.. and in ways you would be surprised about. NPR did a thing on how hippies hate it because it will ruin weed diversity and the corporatization of it will just kill their buzz.



Pot farmer oppose it because... well, let's be honest, it would bring down the profit margins of it to such low levels that it would be like slaughter your cow when everyone can get the milk for free from somewhere else.

Will it help in bringing in new tax revenue to the system? Yeah. But then again, that's after a long battle in the courts as the feds will more than likely fight it and file a lawsuit against California over it.

I do wonder if it is legalized, would a lot of tobacco companies attempt to get in on the market? I don't think they would want to be associated with it because it could harm their brand images.. You know, the image of cancer sticks.

Leading up to this election had one interesting tv moment though. It was when Zach Galifianakis smoked a joint on television.



And in case you're wondering, Bill Mahr did not take a puff, just goes to show you that he's exactly the pussy failure you come to expect him to be.

There was two huge neocons from Fox News and a guy from msnbc on there.. I was hoping they would take a hit, but sure enough they didn't. It's funny to see how awkward the conservative dudes get.

I guess it was ballsy and cool, but it was really awkward looking and he seemed afraid and nobody else partook. Like you could see it in his eyes that he was hoping for a good ol' fashion smoke out.

It wasn't too dangerous for him. If you're white then getting caught smoking a joint isn't that dangerous really. Imagine if he was black though... He's also probably got a medical card anyway, so if he even broke a law it would be against smoking in a non smoking area or something.

There was a study done in England which ranked the most harmful drugs around which resulted in the champion being alcohol over heroin, weed and ecstasy.

"Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body," according to the Associated Press, "in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison."

The study did seem pretty flawed in that alcohol is the one that is more commonly used and legal, so no shit that it's going to be the most damaging... it's easier to get! It's like that study that showed you would most likely get into an accident near your home. Well of course, that's where you statistically spend more of your time and so the chances of you getting hurt near it increase.

Both weed and alcohol are worthless. The greatest feeling is holding a loved one in your arms, and mushrooms. Okay, mainly just the mushrooms. They can make you trip some crazy balls. I dated this one girl who spent a lot of time in Colorado and man, that must be the shroom capital of the world as there is a lot of crazy people there who drop mushrooms like AT&T drops calls.

So yeah. what was I talking about? Dave's not here, man. You should get out and vote today. It may be a worthless effort, but it's your civic duty to make your voice heard to the masses... one hole punch at a time.

I guess you can look at the other props here..

America Is Going To Burn

America Is Going To Burn

And to be perfectly honest, let the mother fucker burn. Burn mother fucker, Burn!

So by now your fingers have probably melted onto the computer keyboard. Yes, it's fucking hot as hell right now. As one friend of mine put it, it feels like this. I know the first thing most people say is "Summer is over! Why is it so hot in September?!" I mean, really? Did you forget where you were? Did you forget that we don't have seasons here? Okay, we do. Southern California has two season - Inferno and Flood.

You folks who believe otherwise and act surprised when we don't follow the seasons everyone else does, I want to slap you. You act as if it's a surprise that the trees go from green to brown, and from brown to fire. Is it your first time in So Cal? Of course it's hot in September! It always is.



Every year it's the same thing. You have a summer that isn't too hot and people say "my, it's not that hot this summer" and then September and October roll around and are extremely hot and you act surprised.

Don't worry, you'll survive. If anything, you probably should be more concerned with the potential of brush fires. We seem to light up pretty fast with this heat. I know the mountains have a EXTREMELY HIGH risk for fires with this weather. But hey, who cares about that, right?

Everyone knows that life is going so well and that in this modern day and age, fire is not much of a threat. It's one of those medieval concerns like the black plague. So little concern for fire that cities across the US are shutting down firehouses and companies. I just know that there's no way this will end up badly, no sir. Not one bit.

Deep cuts to emergency services? Boy, I hope the private sector will provide! We are in a free market after all - I hear it provides everything!

Struggling Cities Shut Firehouses in Budget Crisis

Fire departments around the nation are cutting jobs, closing firehouses and increasingly resorting to “rolling brownouts” in which they shut different fire companies on different days as the economic downturn forces many cities and towns to make deep cuts that are slowing their responses to fires and other emergencies.

Philadelphia began rolling brownouts this month, joining cities from Baltimore to Sacramento that now shut some units every day. San Jose, Calif., laid off 49 firefighters last month. And Lawrence, Mass., north of Boston, has laid off firefighters and shut down half of its six firehouses, forcing the city to rely on help from neighboring departments each time a fire goes to a second alarm.

Fire chiefs and union officials alike say it is the first time they have seen such deep cuts in so many parts of the country. “I’ve never seen it so widespread,” said Harold A. Schaitberger, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

The risks of cutting fire service were driven home here last month when Bentley Do, a 2-year-old boy who was visiting relatives, somehow got his hands on a gum ball, put it in his mouth, started laughing and then began choking.

“It blocked the air hole,” said his uncle, Brian Do, who called 911 while other relatives frantically tried to dislodge the gum ball. “No air could flow in and out.”

It is only 600 steps from the front door of the neatly kept stucco home where the boy was staying to the nearest fire station, just down the block. But the station was empty that evening: its engine was in another part of town, on a call in an area usually covered by an engine that had been taken out of service as part of a brownout plan.

The police came to the home within five minutes and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, officials said. But it took nine and a half minutes — almost twice the national goal of arriving within five minutes — for the fire engine, with a paramedic and more medical equipment, to get there. An ambulance came moments later and took Bentley to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The San Diego Fire-Rescue chief, Javier Mainar, said it was impossible to say whether the delay contributed to Bentley’s death on July 20. But he said there was no doubt that the city’s brownouts, which take 13 percent of firefighters off the streets each day to save $11.5 million annually, led to the delay.

“You can just lock everything down and look at it sequentially, chronologically, as to what occurred,” Chief Mainar said in an interview. “There is no question that the brownout of Engine 44 resulted in Engine 38 having to take a response in that community, and because of that, Engine 38 was now out of position to respond to something that happened just down the street from their fire station.”

Fire service was once a sacred cow at budget time. But the downturn has lingered so long that many cities, which have already made deep cuts in other agencies, are now turning to their fire departments.

Some are trying to wrest concessions from unions, which over the years have won generous pension plans that allow many firefighters to retire in their 40s and 50s — plans that many cities say are unaffordable. Others want to reduce minimum-staffing requirements, which often force them to resort to costly overtime to fill shifts. Others are simply cutting service.

Analysts worry that some of the cuts could be putting people and property in danger. As the downturn has worn on, ISO, an organization that evaluates cities’ fire protection capabilities for the insurance industry, has downgraded more cities, said Michael R. Waters, ISO’s vice president of risk-detection services.

“This is generally due to a reduction in firefighting personnel available for responding to calls, a reduction in the number of responding fire apparatus, and gaps in the optimal deployment of apparatus or deficiencies in firefighter training programs,” Mr. Waters said in a statement.

Several fire chiefs said in interviews that the cuts were making them nervous.

“It’s roulette,” said Chief James S. Clack of the Baltimore City Fire Department, which recently reduced the number of fire units closed each day to three from six. Officials saw that the closings in the 55-unit department were in some cases leading to longer response times. “I’m always worried that something’s going to happen where one of these companies is closed.”

Early in his mayoralty, Michael R. Bloomberg of New York closed six fire companies to save money. This year, a threat to close 20 more — a 6 percent reduction in New York’s fire companies — was averted when the city found savings elsewhere.

Several cities — including Lawrence — have said that they were forced to cut service because the unions failed to make concessions. Mr. Schaitberger, the union president, who was here for a union convention, said that protecting the pensions his members have won over the years was a top priority this year.

The pension issue has an added resonance in San Diego. The city was forced to consider a bankruptcy filing even before the Great Recession, and was barred from raising money by selling bonds to the public after officials disclosed that they had shortchanged the pension fund for city workers for years, even as they improved pension benefits. San Diego’s pension fund has only two-thirds of the money it needs to pay the benefits promised to retirees, according to an updated calculation made by the city in the spring, and faces a shortfall of $2.1 billion.

So even before the recession and the brownouts, fire service in San Diego was stretched thin. A previous San Diego fire chief, Jeff Bowman, was hired in 2002 with a mandate to build up the department, but he resigned in 2006, after the pension-fueled fiscal crisis surfaced and it became clear that he would not get the money to build and staff the extra fire stations he believed were needed. “The question is whether fire protection is adequate, and in my opinion it’s not,” he said in an interview.

After Bentley Do died, the City Council agreed to put a question on the ballot in November asking voters to approve a sales tax increase, which could be put in place only if the city adopts certain budget and pension reforms. The money could restore the fire service and help close a deep budget gap projected for next year.

But it would come too late for the Do family. Bentley, whose father, Nam Do, an American, was working in Vietnam as an architect, was just visiting San Diego with his mother, Mien Nguyen. Ms. Nguyen, who was six months pregnant, was here to take the oath of United States citizenship. She was sworn in the day after Bentley died, Brian Do, the uncle, said, but she fainted when she got her certificate and was taken to the hospital. Nam Do left his job in Vietnam to come here to grieve for his son, and goes to a temple every day, Brian Do said.

He said that the family had no plans to sue the city. “We’re not blaming the city or blaming the Fire Department,” he said, “but the reason I speak out is because I want them to do a better job for other people.”

I have to laugh at the San Diego ballot initiative. It's going to do terribly because of the simple fact that they're suggesting to collect taxes?! How dare they! It seems like we'll finally be getting back to the good old days of the NYC fire gangs battling each other out for that sweet sweet insurance money.

On a side note, the very unsubtle "It's all the goddamn union's fault!" laid across that article is also pretty comical. I don't know who's brilliant idea is it to cut fire services in an area of California, where half the land is canyons and is on fire for a large part of the year. Then again, Fuck San Diego. I typically only go once a year for comic con, so I'm on the fence on caring if it gets lit up.



I do find it funny that they're cutting the fire departments budget at the specific moment in economic downturns that many property owners resort to arson. The 2010's are looking more and more like the 1970's except with 30 years of economic malaise behind it rather than 30 years of economic prosperity.

I suppose the answer to that situation is that you shouldn't allow nobody to own a home. If nobody can own, no one can have their house burn down, the problem is then solved.

The inevitable collapse of America will be pretty hilarious when you think about it. That is if it doesn't all burn up in a raging ball of a natural gas explosion. Ha! Just kidding. I'm pretty sure it will be terrible and millions will suffer horribly.



Just look at the whole way city/state cuts in funding to public hospital emergency rooms have effected us. If you so happen to get a taxi ride in an ambulance to the hospital, because of all the cuts, the hospitals have leased it out to private emergency transport contractors at the lowest bidder. So get into a car wreck and get slammed with a $600 ambulance ride bill.

Then again, if you pay any medical bill that you get then, congratulations, you're retarded. I guess the solution is to have your credit rating ruined by failure to pay your bills.

So maybe in the case of California on fire, it's just a matter of the free market providing when the government fails to step up. Maybe we could just have all fired departments get funded through donations.

Work For The State? Might As Well Flip Burgers

Work For The State? Might As Well Flip Burgers

Cause hell, even In-n-Out workers make more than you do now. Then again, seven an a quarter - man I wish I was pullin down that kinda dough, you know. This is worth a good laugh, check out how Arnold just slashed salaries

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday ordered about 200,000 state workers to be paid the federal minimum wage this month because the state Legislature has not passed a budget.

Department of Personnel Administration Director Debbie Endsley sent the order in a letter to the state controller, who refused a similar order two years ago and may try to do the same thing this time. Most state employees will be paid the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour for the July pay period.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the change should be reflected in state employees' next paycheck. Workers will be paid in full retroactively once a budget is passed.

The Legislature has failed to take steps to close California's $19 billion budget deficit, even as the new fiscal year began Thursday.

Schwarzenegger's order does not affect a little more than 30,000 workers, including California Highway Patrol officers, who are in unions that recently negotiated new contracts with the administration. Those contracts included pay cuts and pension reforms that will save the state money.

Asked whether the Republican governor was sending a message to the unions that have not yet signed new contracts, McLear said no.

"We're sending a message to the controller to follow the law," he said.

Schwarzenegger made a similar order two years ago, but it never took affect because state Controller John Chiang refused to comply. The courts later sided with Schwarzenegger, but the matter is on appeal.

Jacob Roper, deputy press secretary for the controller, said Thursday that Chiang does not intend to follow the order, in part because the state's computerized payroll system cannot handle the change.

"This is uncharted waters here," Roper said. "No city, county or state has ever taken this action before."

Roper said the action could cost the state billions of dollars because the action would violate employment law.

Salaried managers who are not paid on an hourly basis would see their pay cut to $455 per week.

Oh boy, how that sweet retro pay will really help people after they have their utilities shut off or get evicted. One has to wonder what exactly happened to California. Then everyone will point out to that one that California has been fucked for a long time and even if we didn't elect our current Austrian body builder/action movie star to drive behind the wheel, we'd still be crashing into a brick wall because this state fucked itself a long time ago with the gipper.



Then again, by financially crippling state employees Arnold is circuitously smashing the state. Congrats Arnold, I support this decision in the most ironic of ways. I mean, let's get real (Cause the shit just got real, am I rite?) what was he suppose to do? Given that our state is in horrible debt and legally it's impossible to raise taxes.

This has really been something nearly 30 years in the making and it's good to see it finally starting to happen so people realize how fucking stupid Regan was. Let's flash back to Prop 13

Section 3. From and after the effective date of this article, any
changes in state taxes enacted for the purpose of increasing revenues
collected pursuant thereto whether by increased rates or changes in
methods of computation must be imposed by an Act passed by not less
than two-thirds of all members elected to each of the two houses of
the Legislature, except that no new ad valorem taxes on real
property, or sales or transaction taxes on the sales of real property
may be imposed.

Then 32 years pass by and people are surprised and left asking "WHY IS OUR STATE RUNNIG OUT OF MONEY?!? Stop spending! Stop fucking spending!!! America is awesome in the way that it refuses to do the one thing to save society, that thing being taxing the citizens who have it all. It really is honestly not Arnold's fault. The state doomed itself to this in a fit of fiscal conservatism 30 years ago and now we're finally realizing how stupid that was.

I mean, there's nothing Arnold can do about it. I mean, except for scaling back the prison system or revoking the executive order he signed that cut the car tax fee by 67% or actually working with the state assembly to get a fucking two-thirds majority approval on raising taxes. But here's the thing..

It's illegal for him to raise taxes by executive order
it's illegal for him to cut programs by executive order
it's illegal for him to sign an unbalanced budget
the legislature will never agree with him because it's gerrymandered as fuck

He tried fixing the last one with a ballot proposition when he first got into office but it got voted down because congressional democrats wanted to protect their gerrymandered as fuck seats and campaigned like hell against it -- so later Arnold struck a deal with Nancy Pelosi to let congressional districts be gerrymandered while fixing the state ones and that ballot proposition passed.



Unfortunately that took enough time that now we won't get new districts until next election after Arnold is termed out, so having a decent legislature will have to wait. So in the meantime it's either this or literally shut down programs. Since it's also illegal to borrow without authorization.

I mean, isn't it a legal requirement for this to happen when the state doesn't have any sort of budget? It's not like Arnold is trying to be a dick or anything. Hell, if anything, it's comical because by pushing this, he's also showing off that our shit is so old, we couldn't even try to fix it if we wanted to. There's essentially no way to actually implement this retroactive budget cause the paycheck system is run on donated macintosh computers from 1985

But just think of how worthless that job now feels. Salaried managers who are not paid on an hourly basis would see their pay cut to $455 per week. Think about it. California unemployment pays $450 a week max, tack on the $25 federal bonus and you come out ahead for NOT working and just getting fired. I think the option here is pretty obvious as to what to do.

Hell, you don't even have to get fired or anything. Because it's a wage reduction, you can still file for benefits. All the extra numbers of people filing would pretty much fuck everything over in our precious glass house economy.

Though, maybe it wont work after all. Unemployment benefits require state workers to process the paperwork and oh hey, what's this.. there's no more start workers because they all got their salaries slashed to $7.25. My plan just failed, oh well.



But anyhow, Controller Chiang is still stalling as much as possible and if the court order doesn't come down by the 21st, he won't comply and the workers will be good for august at least. The last time this almost happened banks said they'd give loans for state workers with accounts to keep them a float. Though if that failed, there's always suicide.

There's a record of California not doing the things necessary to keep us from sinking deeply into debt. Hell, they still won't comply with that federal order to release some number of nonviolent prisoners to relieve overcrowding. Arnold's actually taking it to the Supreme Court and unfortunately Clarence Thomas is still on the bench, the guy who thinks the 8th Amendment doesn't apply to prison conditions or inmate abuse and that 7-year-olds can be executed for stealing $50.

Just a little heads up here, this should come to no surprise but this is going to be entirely blamed on democrats and out-of-control spending, Chicago style politics, etc. pick your buzzword. If California had only listened to sensible conservative ideas, this wouldn't have ever happened.. What will Jerry Brown do to fix it all? Save us Meg! Save us from ourselves since you're clearly not in the pocket of anyone....

I think the long term outlook on all this can be summed up with one phrase; "Death is certain", because we can't raise taxes! Those multi-millionaires already pay too much!! We see now that Arnold was an awful choice for governor. Don't blame me, I voted for the Porno star!

No wait. I actually did vote for Arnold and am very proud of it. Did you see the other choices on the ballot? Porn star, shitty drug lawyer and Gary Coleman? Shit. Arnold was the best choice. Besides, let's face it - California's been fucked since Reagan anyway.

Even the 3rd District Court of Appeal doesn't give a fuck. They've upheld a 17-month old ruling allowing Governor Schwarzenegger to reduce state workers to minimum wage in the absence of a budget. The court, agreeing with a Sacramento Superior Court ruling, said State Controller John Chiang overstepped his authority by refusing to issue minimum-wage paychecks to state workers during the 2008 budget impasse.

And before you guys start asking if Arnold lowered his and the legislatures own compensation to min. wage, realize that Arnold doesn't take a paycheck. Though nice try, liberals. Let's just get on with it Arnold. Legalize it already. GET TO THE CHOOMA! We should just legalize weed, raise taxes. How hard is this? Well, I guess I don't know too well about how easy it is to get the weed legalized (Prop 19, yo!), but the taxes part is pretty hard, actually. Not helpful that Arnold said he had no intention of striking down Prop 13 as someone really has to.

I guess the reason California's woes are big news is only because it's a big ass state. Plenty of other states have similar or worse issues and many of those are far more systemic, such as the south for example. California's debt to GDP is actually quite good. Better than the national average. The problem is that in California it is illegal/impossible to fix it in any way.

In general, Red states tend to have better debt to GDP ratios than blue states. It's due to red states having fewer social services and their lower overall tax overhead attracts mega corporations.

I guess we're just going to ride this whole thing out. One really does hope that banks allow for loans. A lot of employees, if this does go through, will be seeing their next paycheck hit in the negatives since it's cumulative. But hey, Golden State, right? Wish they call could be Californian..

Golden State's Welfare At Risk

Golden State's Welfare At Risk

Ha ha ha, it's no wonder nature tries to burn our great state down every October. It knows that our government is complete shit and that we're in a hole so big that we can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore. But hey, we can try to put small bandaids on this massive gushing wound.. so hey, why not take away Welfare. Bootstraps, bitches!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked lawmakers Friday to eliminate the state's welfare program starting in October and dramatically scale back in-home care for the elderly and disabled as part of his May budget revision to close a $19.1 billion deficit.

The Republican governor also proposed cuts to state worker compensation. Besides asking for a 5 percent pay cut, 5 percent payroll cap and 5 percent increased pension contribution, Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting one day per month of pay in exchange for leave credit.

The proposal would affect all state workers under the governor's authority, regardless of whether they are general fund or special fund employees. Employees would not be able to cash out any of this unused leave credit when they leave state service. The plan would replace the three-day-a-month furloughs, which are due to end June 30.

Schwarzenegger said the sour economy, the failure of the Legislature to make cuts he proposed in January and the federal government's failure to come up with about $7 billion leaves policymakers with no choice but to make deep cuts.

Schwarzenegger also proposed eliminating state-subsidized child care for all but preschoolers as a way to reduce the state's education funding guarantee.

"We literally have to take the ladder away from the tree and shake the whole tree," he said. "We're left with nothing but tough choices. ... I know how many people are suffering out there and how tough this is going to be."

He did not respond directly when asked if his proposal to eliminate welfare was merely a negotiating position with the Democrat-dominated Legislature.

Schwarzenegger also said he would not sign a budget plan unless lawmakers agree to overhaul the budget process, including creation of a "rainy-day fund" and downsizing public employee pensions for new hires.

The governor did not propose any new tax hikes.

I have to say, that's one way to end the Welfare state. It's sort of a rock and a hard place situation. This is happening because Arnold turned down the oil industry money when he changed stances on offshore drilling. Considering what is happening in the Gulf Coast, I would say it's a good thing he changed that outlook of potentially allowing off shore drilling here. It's pretty fucked up that he's not raising taxes, but at least he did the right thing in the events preceding this.

But come on, he's ending a $1.4 billion program that would also mean losing $4 billion in federal matching funds while at the same time preserving $2 billion in corporate handouts? I'll go ahead and say it, Arnold is 100% of what the republican party claims to want to be but he is the only one with the balls to do anything and for that I applaud him. The fact that he's only doing this at the end of his term, I guess I could call him a pussy for that. Just look at what he's saying in that press conference.

"We literally have to take the ladder away from the tree and shake the whole tree," -Arnold

He wants people to literally starve to death. For those of you who feel that the population is too high, this should be happy news to you. And who's next? Meg Whitman?Ha! She's going to lose to Steve Poizner of all people and it's going to be comical. She's got a very hate-able face and in the TV age, that's a big liability in big-time elections. She has a political career only in the East Coast or The UK where that kind of ugly is the norm.

Or maybe we're going to elect that guy who was governor before I was alive. But we sure as hell wont elect a CEO who has done nothing but destroy companies and I wont be voting for whoever the fuck the other Republican guy with a chance is, I think his name is really Mumbly Joe. Just think of how fucked California would really be if we elect someone more conservative than Arnold.

I know someone in Oakland who gets food stamps and it was around $200 a month for a single person. He's got like $600 just relaxing on his EBT card, why a card? Because they think food stamps may make a person feel like they're poor... But because the benefits carry forward and there's no way to spend that much money on food each month unless you're buying everything at Whole Foods without coupons and letting stuff spoil... Let's just say that maybe the State hasn't been the best in managing this welfare.

But to remove it altogether? That's just silly and stupid. People, especially in this economy need some help and you can't tell them to bootstrap their way because then you'll have people starving to death. Even if you can buy Doritos with food stamps but not Vitamin pills, the system needs to be in place so if you need help, it's there for you.



It's like Prop 13 is Ronald Reagan's middle finger to our face forever. Just look at all those old people who love Prop 13 as they're paying $300 dollars in property tax on their 3 million dollar homes. We just can't raise taxes! California already has the highest taxes of any state!!! Why do you all want our businesses to flee and evacuate our totalitarian nightmare socialist state bleeding us dry with taxes taxes death and taxes. No no no! Gotta trickle down the wealth..

But again, California is the most progress state...

Ha! I love it when people say that. California is far from the most progressive socialistic state and it never has been even when Jerry Brown was governor. San Fransisco MAYBE progressive, I'd just say they're liberal leaning, LA is a toss up, San Diego is a total shit city filled with old rich republicans, bigoted mormons, teabagger types, and military assholes and is burdened by massive sprawl, no public transportation or even any sort of decent bike lane.

LA is less right leaning, but for every 1 person who is all for giving gays the right of being unhappily married, there's at least 2 fuckers who voted for Bush. Some parts of Inland California have a serious case of The Hills Have Eyes/Deliverance-vibes going on.

Let's face it. We're fucked up. This is almost good news compared to what we dilute ourselves with. This also means that people in the state have nothing let to lose and no reason at all not to literally swarm Beverly Hills and Orange County and loot absolutely everything they can carry.

9-1-1 Operator - Will That Be Credit or Debit?

9-1-1 Operator - Will That Be Credit or Debit?

As you may already be aware, California is pretty fucked right now. We have no money.. I mean, literally no money at all. It's struggling to find a new way to gather money for the social services required from sending us into the stone age. What will we do? Hmm, I guess some new ideas are needed. Like this one; Soon 9-1-1 services will be equal to American Idol call in votes and charge you per call.

TRACY, Calif. (CBS13) - Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.

But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.

Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.

Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.

Hmmm, let me think here. Should I pay $48 as a flat fee or should I wait and see if I plan on calling this year or not and take the risk.. I just don't know. Oh, why the fuck not, let's go for the "Wait and see!" approach and I'm sure we wont HAVE to call 911 for anything this year.



Social services in America are all going to be like cell phone text messaging plans soon. Flat fee annually or pay per use. I sort of have to hate the phone companies for such a move, but let's be fair, it's not their fault that America is in the mess that we are in. People not wanting to pay for the care of others is essentially the entire reason for health care reform opposition.

California is home to a large percentage of the most wealthy people in the world and yet no one can come up with a reasonable way to increase state revenue. Which is a tragedy. Thanks a lot Reagan. More reason for me to want to go piss on his grave. California can't raise taxes because of his actions. Holy shit, California. Can we just raise the goddamn taxes already? We clearly need it and if I'm willing to pay more taxes, given I'm already paying property tax come April, then perhaps it's a sign that we're in deep shit.



I imagine the future of emergency calls now.

"Someone broke into our home and is beating up my husband downstairs!"

"Please enter your credit card number on the dial pad, finish with #"

I mean, it does specifically say medical emergency. It's bad enough that people are hesitant already to call 911 because of ambulance bills. It took me a while but I found a credit card commercial where they stop emergency service to wait for the guy's credit card to clear. I can't believe that it exists.



I am pretty sure that the moral of the commercial is "Good thing you had a high credit limit or you would have died!"

I'm sure that in twenty years they'll try to pin point it that before the high fees, 9-1-1 operators were always dealing with crank calls and how 30% more lives are saved now because the lines aren't tied up or some bullshit like that.



I can't wait till someone dies because another person didn't want to pony up 300 bucks to call 911. Which is the major issue here. Are you going to drop 3 bills on someone bleeding out on the pavement?

"Here, dying stranger, you can use my phone if you sign this release stating that I, the owner of the phone, did not dial 911"

I can't wait for this to come into conflict with the Good Samaritan laws. I never understood how you reconcile the existence of good Samaritan laws when our country's MO for all society is pretty much FUCK YOU/GOT MINE. Good Samaritan laws only exist because people think it fucks over ambulance-chasing lawyers, not because it does good.

"Why would I call 911? He's not my relative and I'm not going to drop $300 on a phone call for some stranger!"

Just think about the stuff that is going to go through the minds of the elderly mind when pressed into a situation where medical attention is needed.

Hmm, I think I might be having a storke but if I call 911 it will take me 60 hours working at Target to make up that $300. Let alone the 3k for the taxi to the hospital.

Ha! Just messing. That situation already exists because Target doesn't give their workers health insurance and if an employee rode an ambulance for any reason they would be bankrupt. Whooops!

With an ambulance ride costing around $3k. There was a Youtube video of a woman screaming at paramedics to not put her dad or husband or whatever into the ambulance because "Who's going to pay for this?". I know people who have had to get ambulance rides and it was roughly around $50 per mile.

After all, 911 is a joke;


The real question is what happens if you try calling 911 from a payphone? I'll tell you what. You get sucked into a paradox and sent back in time to when pay phones still existed. Those suckers are going the way of our Ozone.

I'm pretty certain that 50% of the future 911 calls placed in California will start off with "Yeah, my emergency is that I'M ABOUT TO MURDER THE MOTHERFUCKER WHO CHARGED ME $300 FOR THIS CALL. PUT YOUR GOD DAMN MANAGER ON THE FUCKING PHONE."



For those of you wonder, yes. America is getting one step closer to Rome every day. Need I remind you of Marcus Licinus Crassus?

Crassus filled this void by creating his own brigade--500 men strong--which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the fire fighters did nothing while their employer bargained over the price of their services with the distressed property owner. If Crassus could not negotiate a satisfactory price, his men simply let the structure burn to the ground.

Oh hey.. look at how it worked out for Rome in the end. Whoops. I guess the difference is that Crassus owned. Though his death after a stupid ignorant military isadventure in the middle east was pretty America-esque.

California Is Still Fucked

California Is Still Fucked

Well, we finally did it. We finally got a budget worked out. Yup, that's right. A budget plan has been agreed for California.

Legislators in California have agreed a plan which will close the state's $26bn budget deficit - while making severe cuts in public programmes.

Public services hit

"There isn't a whole lot of good news in this budget," said Darrell Steinberg, the president of the state senate and a Democrat.

Public schools, colleges and universities will lose $9bn in funding under the plan, while the state’s prisons department would have $1bn removed from its budget.

Cities and counties will lose about $4bn in funding, while Medi-Cal, the state's health programme for the poor, will be cut by $1.3bn.

Under the plan, state employees would have to take three days off work each month up to, and including, June 2010 – amounting to a pay cut of about 14 per cent.

[...]

When I think about good ideas, taking money away from schools isn't one of them. As if the 25% high school drop out rate wasn't high enough. Why they would cut more money for education than prisons? Besides it being the prison guarts' union thinking ahead. I mean, it sure as hell takes a lot of money to keep non-whites locked up, right?

It's also a rock and a hard place with the prison system. I hear they're going to reduce sentences and release inmates. More than likely it'll be the murderers and rapists. Gotta have room for black people caught with an ounce of weed in those jails, right? And if they don't reduce sentences then our already third-world-level prisons are going to get a whole lot worse.

Its weird really. If you took all the money spent on killing and prisons or even 50% and put it into social programs and sustainable job creation you'd probably have a more stable economy. The rich people would be slightly less rich though.

But hey, we probably don't need roads either, right? Why don't we just take some of the money away from that. Potholes and screwed up roads keep you awake when you're drunk driving at night.

Maybe if we can convince voters to raise taxes in order to shore up the budget we can get ourselves corrected..... ha, yeah. Sorry about that wishful thinking. The California Republican Party has one position and one position only: NO NEW TAXES! This whole budget is a Republican budget. They passed it because the republican minority obstructed all the democratic majority's proposals, and since the Democrats don't want to incinerate the government they had to fold. You have to love that stupid 2/3rd majority vote shit. Republicans got everything they wanted in this "budget deal".

Zero new taxes. Zero taxes raised.
Cuts to the state employees (fuck union workers)
Cuts to education (fuck teachers unions)
Cuts to the state parks system (fuck the environment)
Lift on oil drilling ban off the socal coast (fuck the environment)

CA Dems are weaker than their DC cousins and it's fucking laughable at how bad California is getting. Then again, don't think this is only us. Since our governor is an actor, consider this a teaser of what the federal government will be facing in a few years. The US governments are finally getting drowned in bathtubs and really, all you can do is sit there and watch the destruction.

The again, we can always take the alternative suggestion in correcting this:
legalize it
tax it
smoke it

What's So Wrong With California? I'll Tell You!

What's So Wrong With California? Justice Sucks Part II

It's a simple enough question, what's wrong with California lately. It seems that this cool state has totally become uncool quickly. A lot of shit has and is going down and well, I think you need to be brought up to speed on exactly what is messing up this once great place turning it from a the west where everyone belonged to somewhere that is nice to visit, but they wouldn't want to live here.

We can't go to far without addressing the flamboyant 900 pound gorilla dressed in drag in the room. Gay marriage. Yesterday the supreme court, like I stated the other day, came out and stated that Prop 8 will be upheld. Which brought out all the wackos out of the woodwork.

Jorge Riley, 31, of Sacramento had to get up earlier to make the drive to San Francisco to hoist his sign reading, " 'Gay' = Pervert."

"I don't know how many times it's going to take for the judges to listen to the will of the people," Riley said.

Jorge Riley sounds like a huge faggot. What Jackass Riley and other Pro-Prop 8 douche bags want to preserve is the word "Marriage" and keep it as a protected term.



Except the problems come from the fact that civil unions don't grant the same rights. Apparently, there are well over a thousand rights that heterosexual couples get that homosexual couples don't, such as adoption, joint parental rights, next-of-kin status at hospitals, joint filing of taxes, leave to care for your sick partner, certain types of life insurance, many of the tax credits associated with families, and a bunch of other things.

If you feel that there's no difference between being married in the eyes of the law and just having your common law This (21 page PDF)should be required reading for anyone who believes that it is possible to give someone all the rights and privileges of marriage without calling it marriage. Most of the states that made the leap to marriage equality did so because it was impossible to pull off even after years of trying. Federal recognition would make civil unions less shitty but they will never be equal to marriage.



Mormons first lied about how much they donated to the support of the prop 8 and then yesterday they released this smug comment.

Today’s decision by the California Supreme Court is welcome. The issue the court decided was whether California citizens validly exercised their right to amend their own constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. The court has overwhelmingly affirmed their action.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognizes the deeply held feelings on both sides, but strongly affirms its belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. The bedrock institution of marriage between a man and a woman has profound implications for our society. These implications range from what our children are taught in schools to individual and collective freedom of religious expression and practice.

Accordingly, the Church stands firmly for what it believes is right for the health and well-being of society as a whole. In doing so, it once again affirms that all of us are children of God, and all deserve to be treated with respect. The Church believes that serious discussion of these issues is not helped when extreme elements on both sides of the debate demonize the other.

What a bunch of bastards. It's a slap to the face since Prop 8 was polling consistently for No until the Yes on 8 campaign was launched. It not only told outright lies about the issue (claiming that churches would be forces to recognize gay marriage) but it also had millions more dollars and an infinitely better outreach program. The reason it passed with that slight win was because the religious communities went full tilt in campaigning for it and what do you have now? The Supreme court stripping away the rights of people all for a majority win.



The problem here is that churches want to operate as private groups, yet want the protections and funding of public institutions. I'm sure it warrants a blog all to itself, but I think that the tax breaks and extra rights for married couples need to just get cut off completely regardless of your orientation. Tax breaks and extra rights for married couples of any orientation should seriously be gone for an equal society.

But that isn't the only thing wrong with California. Not by a long shot. Perhaps a lot of the bigger issues (not saying equality isn't a big issue, by the way) is being overshadowed by these protest. If we actually looked at all the problems that California had and protested, rioted and screamed out to the streets to take down our elected officials, then we'd actually be out just about every day of the week.



It would take a lot to really explain everything that is wrong with this state.

First off we have Prop 13 which requires 2/3 majority to raise taxes in any form, preventing property taxes on property that doesn't change ownership from rising by more than 1% per year. This means that young people buying homes get fucked hard and the rich/old get an amazing deal and don't have to support their portion of the county/city governments. So the state has to bail out local governments repeatedly. All because young people didn't turn out to vote on this shit.

Next up you have the prison system with its incredibly strong guard union and idiotically long 3 strikes sentencing means we're paying soe ridiculously obscene amounts to house a huge number of prisoners and simultaneously triple bunking them in terrible conditions.



It's simple. You take all the money and give it to the cops for "anti-gang" domestic terrorism. Which get a lot of people in jail. Oh wait, now with all those people in jail you have to spend a lot to keep them fed, with power and guarded which adds up. So then you cut money from education and health care to pay for those prisons. Oh wait, shitty school systems and no jobs causes people to commit crime and end up in jail. Now what do we do? We blame welfare and then we privatize prisons.

Then you get into the Republicans. For as much as we claim we're the beacon and progressive trend setter of the nation, we have a lot of fuckin' republicans. We gave the world Reagan and Nixon. The first was responsible for the stupid 2/3 vote shit that has fucked us up. As long as republicans don't allow the democrats to have super majority, they have equal power in crafting the budget. Which is hilarious and means we can never raise taxes. Democrats still have congress so they'll keep rolling out programs expecting the money to come from somwhere that never shows. And of course republicans get just as many new programs and spending because otherwise it wouldn't be FAIR. Apparently bipartisanship means each side gets 50% of the power despite how anyone votes.



Speaking of what Reagan gave us. He sure fucked us with the shitty proposition system which means anyone who is rich enough can pay signature gatherers to put anything on the ballet. Cost for a measure is $1 million and all you need after that is 50%+ of the popular vote to pass anything including CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS THAT CAN ONLY BE OVERTURNED BY 2/3 OF CONGRESS! So we get a bunch more spending on shit we don't need and as abonus our liberal courts get overturned by the writhing masses every time.

The short of it is that there's too many programs to pay for because it's so easy to tack on a program on the ballots and get it passed. Look at Prop 8. While I love high speed trains, who do you think is going to pay for that program? Especially when republicans don't want to raise taxes, democrats don't want to cut programs. So you're stuck with us always going into the red to pay for a lifestyle that is well beyond our means.



So when you're asked who's fault is it that California is shit, you should answer with "Your Mom!" Cause that's who votes for every proposition that sounds like it would benefit someone and honestly believes we can just print more money to pay for it.

As for Arnold. While you can't balance a budget with one-liners, he is doing the best that he can. He's trying his hardest to fix the problems which is kind of cool but his methods apparently involve the state simply not paying public employees or paying them less than minimum wage so soon in addition to not having money we won't have any competent public workers either.

The problem is that California made a shit tons of money in the 90's during the tech boom, squandered it all on tax cuts, tied their entire state's livelihood into real estate and you know how that turned out. Then on ballot initiatives, flawed state politics and had too many people living unsustainable lifestyles.



The worse part is that we can never raise enough money through taxes unless the voters say yes in 2/3rds. Which never happens. So really the fault is the budget is controlled by the voters through various propositions and over time they have guaranteed that California should spend 150% of their tax income. Oh and taxes can never increase.

Oh, and a follow up to last yesterdays blog about the day in court. I got a rather loud pounding on my door today from the DA serving me up a subpoena to be a witness. I was also told that the other douche who held the guy back would be a witness today. So yeah, I follow up his buddy as a witness. Grraaaaaand. Hey, at least it may finally get resolved, right?

California Is Fucked Again

California Is Fucked Again

If you need a reason to drink today, here's a big one. You may have remember when we went to hell and back to pass a budget to plug a ~$40 billion hole, the one that was signed on feb 20th? Welp here we are again:

Budget analyst sees new $8 billion deficit
The Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, declared today that the immense package of spending cuts, new taxes and loans aimed at closing the state's $40 billion budget deficit will fall short by $8 billion because the state's economy is continuing to falter.

"Unfortunately, the state's economic and revenue outlook continues to deteriorate," the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) said in a review of the package, which covered the remainder of this fiscal year and all of the next.

"Even in the few weeks since the budget was signed, there have been a series of negative developments. Our updated revenue forecast projects that revenues will fall short of the assumptions in the budget package by $8 billion. Consequently, the Legislature and governor will need to adopt billions of dollars in additional solutions in the coming months to bring the 2009-10 budget back into balance."

Taylor had some more bad news for the state's political leaders. Because so many of the "solutions" adopted last month are temporary, "without corrective actions, the state's huge operating deficits will reappear in future years - growing from $12.6 billion in 2010-11 to $26 billion in 2013-14."

Taylor said that to close the newly discovered $8 billion gap, the state should maximize its use of federal "stimulus" funds and "continue developing programmatic solutions, especially those his office has been recommending in recent months but the Legislature and the governor shunned in adopting their package last month.

The LAO report will renew the Capitol's partisan and ideological squabbling over spending cuts and new taxes and fuel calls on the left for even more tax increases and those on the right for deeper spending cuts. The full LAO report may be found here.

It took 21 days by my count to find $8 billion more debt. Looks like we're pretty much fucked, right? What the hell are they doing up in Sacramento, throwing money into the pacific? I guess I could blame Arnold. It's certainly not the first time an Austrian ran a state into the ground.



But the general feeling from those I talk to is that Arnold is trying but completely ham stringed by the house. When the guy who goes in on a platform of "I didn't need to take special interest money for my campaign! " Meets an entire judiciary who does, there's not a whole lot one man can do no matter how well-intentioned. And every concession he makes just further gridlocks the whole process.

Arnold would have made a good benevolent dictator, but with the seeping wall of scum on both sides of the aisle nothing's ever going to improve. If we're going to toss a scape goat to the mix we might as well pin it to Pete Wilson. He fucked things up so badly it would take an entire convoy of eunuchs to get them unfucked. Grey Davis just continued the pioneering fucking by Pete Wilson. Where else can we lay blame? Let's do the numbers.



1) republicans hard lining on any sort of tax increase with an extreme willingness to cannibalize any republican who votes for one
2) prop 13 prevents us from raising property taxes
3) we got fucked hard hard hard when the dot com bubble burst
4) then we got fucked again when the housing bubble burst
5) requires 2/3 super majority to pass budget so a few republicans (see 1) can stall process indefinitely
6) but voters can vote for any spending they damned well please with a 50% vote in an election but raising taxes again takes 2/3
7) not smart enough to have made a rainy day fund when things were good
8) people who live in California are Californians and thus retarded

A little more alarming is that Friday was Pink Slip Friday. A lot of teachers got their pink slip. So while we're finding more debt, we're also slashing public education by millions. Oddly enough we're also increasing funds to prisons by 9%. I think something is wrong with this picture. Can you tell me what it is?

Based on current spending trends, California's prison budget will overtake spending on the state's universities in five years. No other big state in the country spends close to as much on its prisons compared with universities.

But California has all but guaranteed that prisons will eat up an increasingly large share of taxpayer money because of chronic failures in a system that the state is now planning to expand.

Under a new state law, California will spend $7.4 billion to build 40,000 new prison beds, and that is over and above the current annual operating budget of more than $10 billion. Interest payments alone on the billions of dollars of bonds that will be sold to finance the new construction will amount to $330 million a year by 2011 -- all money that will not be available for higher education or other state priorities.

....

According to the May revisions of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget, the state will spend $10 billion on prisons in fiscal 2007-08, a 9 percent increase from last year.

Civil servants make more than rookie professional school grads. Oh, and half the state is employed as prison guards. the other half is in prison which really makes for an interesting revenue / spending problem. Nobody in social services gets paid well. Supported Living attendants get $9.50/hr.



Fuck the department of corrections and everyone involved with their budget. I can't think of a bigger waste of money other than if the prisons were run by AIG. On second thought, since they're getting so much fuckin' money they should be put to work running the prisons. I'm sure they'll burn to the ground within a month of their take over.

I'm just going to throw it out there but abolishing the death penalty in California would save the state 63.3 million. Just saying.

It's not like we're helping our own case here. Especially when California cities are buying and selling stimulus funds at a discount.



So basically, the federal government gives a city money for roads, and they sell that road money for 60% of face to another city for unrestricted cash. Imagine how bad that would be if they were trading stuff like medical or education funds.

I can sympathize. I was playing sim city and balancing the budget is really hard. in sim city putting prisons all over your shit makes you money.

As for the random pictures in this post? Well, I just want to highlight some of the better things of the state. Some of the reasons why we need to save ourselves from... ourselves.