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.

Weeds Be Gone

Weeds Be Gone

Hey stoner, if you're just waking up... well then why don't you have a bong in your hand? Wake and bake, brah! Second - I bet you're wondering if pot is now legal and you can light a fat one up in front of a cop without any problem.

Let's ask the internet - Is Weed Legal Yet DOT COM? The results are in, continue killing yourselves with alcohol and pills!



How did this not pass? You're probably asking yourself. Young people are fine with weed because, shit, everyone smokes weed at least once. Old people should also be fine with weed because they were hippies growing up. Right?

The problem with that theory is that young people don't vote. Not any. They don't give a fuck. Then old people are long past those days and have a fuck you, got mine attitude. So of course they're not going to want to share that shit with you. You're the people they told to get off their lawn!

A lot of folks see this defeat of Prop 19 as proof that the war on drugs isn't as wasteful as many think it is. Hell, this whole election is full of this shit. The few republicans I socialize on a daily basis were celebrating like crazy because they felt this victory for the republicans showed that the republican party was popular again.



Even if you were shouting 420 - Vote weed every day, you weren't enough to get a majority to pass the vaguely written bill. So sad. Then again, if you supported California's weed law and not Arizona's anti-mexican law, you were kind of a hypocrite since both were all about usurping federal authority.

One is interstate/intrastate commerce and shouldn't necessarily be subject to federal regulation, and the other is immigration which is inherently part of the federal government's purview.

Though I support American small business owners and American farmers, so I suppose I support prop 19.... Then again American farmers were against it. I guess it's pretty clear why - It would be like Al Capone campaigning to get rid of prohibition. Then where does he make his money?


Such a silly image. Why would a weed smoke weed? That makes no sense at all!

The more atrocious crime that happened on election night was that Californians passed prop 26 and the whole way we find ways to balance our budget. Besides, what was the real hidden thing behind Prop 19 that no one really picked up on.

What were you actually voting for in Prop 19? A yes vote would create legal weed and it's not like we need more money in the hands of North American capitalist in a new industry of corporation fueled with marijuana.



Then again, corporate control of weed is probably a whole lot better than 200k people going to jail each year. Let alone the ecological impact that importing drugs from Mexican seems to be having on the environment.

Just check out how a suburb of Sacramento is going to tax the shit out of medical marijuana.

City voters Tuesday night passed the measure to impose taxes of up to $600 to $900 per square foot on personal marijuana cultivation. The tax means that a medical marijuana user who grows weed in a five-foot by five-foot indoor space could be required to pay an annual local levy of $15,000.

Ha ha ha ha. Just imagine if this was legalized. Sure they would get tax revenue from weed but holy fuck, would they have ran everyone out of business due to how much they would have to pay in taxes.

Did you know that each year our southern border is overrun by HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of Monarch Butterflies? And yet we hear NOT A WORD about this attack on our sovereignty from the mainstream media. What is it that Obama doesn't want us to know?



Though it will be comical when we do legalize and tax the shit out of it and revenue still doesn't go towards anything meaningful and social services continue to be slashed.. then we'll be looking towards legalization of other things. Prop 69 - Legalize prostitution.

Or at the very least legalize the ability to get your Growler filled at any brewery without having to have the brewery logo on the bottom. What a stupid law. California sure does have some stupid ass laws. Maybe they should make it legal so that if you live in California, the government should just give out free ounces of weed to compensate for the shitty governing they provide.

In the end, legalizing weed really isn't the thing that we should be focused on. It's as short sighted as the war on drugs itself. What we should be reaching for is a way to create societal changes that would destroy socioeconomic oppression in all forms so that fewer people are compelled to self-medicate as a means to escape the vast depressing nature that is reality.

But then I guess your childish desire to get high as fuck trumps the needs of the poor and working class to escape the levels of torture in sweat shops and burning fields picking grapes so that your daily life can have all the high class needs you desire.

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..

California - Putting It Bluntly

California - Putting It Bluntly

In about a month you're going to be facing a choice at the polls....



Yes. That's right. Prop 19. It's time to vote for the legalization of weed. But it doesn't just make smoking it legal, it also permits cultivation for personal use in plain English. That alone should be reason enough for you to vote for it. Even more so because there's actually a fighting chance this will actually pass.

Gee, I can't wait for California voters to make another good referendum vote. I sure am looking forward to this outcome. Though, as soon as this passes, Obama will probably bring a lawsuit against California to balance out the whole Arizona lawsuit.

This is really the one issue that will actually get the youth to the polls, at the very least. Which is a good thing considering more younger people relate and vote with democrats on average and it's looking like the republicans are mounting to change the balance. With Obama's staff changing the way it is, I really do wonder how his next two years will actually be like.



I have to say that it's about time and I'm perfectly okay with this choice. Think of the tax income that can be achieved by legalization? Who isn't looking forward to the world's first one trillion percent taxation on a product. But then there's part of me that I'd honestly rather they just get rid of the three strikes law first. Need a reason why?

# On November 4, 1995, Leandro Andrade stole five videotapes from a K-Mart store in Ontario, California. Two weeks later, he stole four videotapes from a different K-Mart store in Montclair, California. Andrade had been in and out of state and federal prisons since 1982, and at the time of these two crimes in 1995, had been convicted of petty theft, residential burglary, transportation of marijuana, and escaping from prison. As a result of these prior convictions, the prosecution charged Andrade with two counts of petty theft with a prior conviction, which under California law can either be a felony or a misdemeanor. Under California's three strikes law, any felony can serve as the third "strike" and thereby expose the defendant to a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

I'm sure you're thinking "Oh no, a criminal for life was taken off the streets. Truly a tragedy worth whining about." Just think of it this way, if he hadn't gone to life in prison, he could be on the streets right now stealing 'The Hangover' DVDs and abusing the free refills at burger king.



This whole case is reason enough to display that 3 strikes is the dumbest most arbitrary thing in the entire world and serves only to hurt people who make good targets for police. You know, like minorities.

I'll probably never get the American obsession with weed and in trying to control it or ban it. I mean, really? Being high, for many people, is far better than being drunk. But speaking of drinking, do you know what's really comical? Miller and Bud aren't having none of this bullshit and the California beer distributors are backing the oppositions by throwing them money.

Last week a trade association for California beer distributors donated $10,000 to oppose Prop 19, the November ballot initiative that would legalize and tax marijuana. The move certainly has a lot of people talking.

“Unless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances, the motivation behind this contribution is clear,” said Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project. "Plain and simple, the alcohol industry is trying to kill the competition."

Another marijuana advocate at Stop the Drug War questioned why the official opposition is aligning itself with alcohol. "We understand why Big Alcohol wants to protect its turf and keep Californians drinking; but why does the No on Prop. 19 campaign -- which is calling itself "Public Safety First" -- share this goal?"

But the California Beer & Beverage Distributors says it's not about any of that. "It's not a competitve issue for us," explained the spokesperson Rhonda Stevenson, who noted that they have no opinion on the issue either way, to LAist over the phone. "That's up to Californians to decide."

At issue for the organization is safety of their workforce and the langauge of the proposition, which Stevenson called "poorly written." She said that the state's regulation of alcohol has been working successfully for 75 years and if Prop 19 passes, there would be no regulatory structure for the drug, instead creating a patchwork of laws throughout cities and counties. "There's not a way not to implement this in a succint matter," she said.

The organization is also worried about industry safety -- fork lift and truck drivers working high, for example -- because you would no longer be able to test for the drug.

Clearly this Bud's not for you. I guess they really just don't want any competition in the vices of society. It's strange because my seething hatred for humanity comes bubbling out when I drink. Hell, half of these blogs where I rant on are while I'm drunk.. Okay - MOST. Most of my blogs are a product of a drunken stupor. Considering I blog every day, that's a scary statistic.

But on the flip side, when I smoke I can barely grasp the hate. I know a lot of people that are the flip side in that alcohol is a much nicer feeling for them. It makes them feel really happy and relaxed. I know people who are the exact opposite though, so I guess your mileage will vary depending on your genetics or something.



Then I love that bullshit line about how it risk the safety of the workers. Who goes to work on drugs that actually has a job that is risky? And it's not like you can't fire someone just because it's a legal substance if it impairs with their working ability. What the fuck?

I'm sure some of you are wondering if the federal government is going to let this happen. I'm was pretty sure that Holder said he wasn't going to prosecute this shit when he came into office, but who really knows?

California's proposal to legalize marijuana has provoked every former director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to join in urging the White House to block the proposition if it is approved on the November ballot.

Proposition 19 is billed as a measure to raise revenue and cut the costs of enforcement. An analysis by the California attorney general's office cites "additional revenues from taxes, assessments, and fees from marijuana-related activities allowed under this measure."

But former DEA Administrator Peter Bensinger disputed the premise, telling reporters Monday it will not increase revenue since "anybody that sells marijuana and then pays tax is going to declare themselves a violator of federal law" and subject to prosecution.

Bensinger and the eight other people who have led the DEA since its founding in 1973 wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to use the federal "supremacy clause" to pre-empt such lawmaking by state and local jurisdictions.

The Justice Department recently used such a pre-emption to persuade a court to strike down Arizona's immigration law. Bensinger acknowledged that his group had not heard a response from Justice Department officials to the letter dated August 24.

"All of us are very gravely concerned with Proposition 19," he said, "which if passed would legalize the distribution, sale and cultivation of marijuana in direct conflict with the Controlled Substances Act, federal law, and treaty obligations approved by the U.S. Congress."

I'm a bit surprised that the feds aren't blocking this by tying marijuana laws to something like transportation funding, the way they enforce the national drinking age. But I guess that California is fucking huge, so it's not as easy to push around as states that don't have 1/8th of the US population.

Then again, maybe it's cause of the Choom gang, yo.



You see, Obama loosened up on DEA marijuana enforcement. Or at least the claim was that he did...

Earlier this month, nine former administrators of the Drug Enforcement Administration sent a letter calling on Obama and Holder to sue if Prop. 19 passes, blocking the statewide legalization of possession and personal growth and the allowance of individual counties to license commercial sale and production of marijuana.

But it does seem like the drug czar is standing firm on that Just Say No stance..

At this point, it seems the Obama administration will sue California, but that's just an educated guess: the Justice Department has declined to comment. Obama's drug czar, former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, has weighed in firmly against legalization on a national scale, and he submitted an op-ed to the L.A. Times co-authored with several former drug czars (some of whom have taken a very hard line against medical marijuana) warning that Prop. 19 would increase social costs by leading to more marijuana use.

So it's basically boiling down to the fact that all the college students will hate Obama if the feds do take action against this, and if he doesn't then he'll be viewed as The President That Let Weed Be Legal. Which I guess is a tough place to stand. Elected officials need to just bite the bullet and go with the truths that they already know..

I mean, we already have a Governor who just doesn't give a fuck anymore. Over the weekend Arnold made carrying less than an ounce of weed on your persons an infraction instead of a misdemeanor.

To the Members of the California State Senate:

I am signing Senate Bill 1449.

This bill changes the crime of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor punishable only by a $100 fine to an infraction punishable by a $100 fine. Under existing law, jail time cannot be imposed, probation cannot be ordered, nor can the base fine exceed $100 for someone convicted of this crime.

I am opposed to decriminalizing the possession and recreational use of marijuana and oppose Proposition 19, which is on the November ballot.

Unfortunately, Proposition 19 is a deeply flawed measure that, if passed, will adversely impact California’s businesses without bringing in the tax revenues to the state promised by its proponents.

Notwithstanding my opposition to Proposition 19, however, I am signing this measure because possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is an infraction in everything but name. The only difference is that because it is a misdemeanor, a criminal defendant is entitled to a jury trial and a defense attorney.

In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket.

As noted by the Judicial Council in its support of this measure, the appointment of counsel and the availability of a jury trial should be reserved for defendants who are facing loss of life, liberty, or property greater than $100.

For these reasons, I am signing this bill.

Sincerely, Arnold Schwarzenegger

And you people wondered why I voted for Arnold? Well.. because I didn't want to vote for the dead midget, porn star.. Though I think the weed attorney dude would have done this but it would have been more expected. Ahead of your time, my friend. Ahead of your time.

I would applaud your actions, but fuck it man, Archer is on.

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.

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?

They're Going To Riot, Whether You Like It or Not

They're Going To Riot, Whether You Like It or Not

Gavin Gavin Gavin. You remember that phrase? If you don't know what I'm talking about, click away....


I have to say, Gavin. You were bold and I liked your Moxie but you know what they did? They took your words and they ran with them. When Prop 8 came around to voting they used your words and they made the morons vote Yes on Prop 8...



Well, we all know how that went. I wrote a shit ton of blogs about how you're a fucking moron if you vote Yes on this stupid prop and that you should vote no or I'll track you down and cut off your balls. I was called a fag lover by some random e-mailer. Which confused me because I didn't know someone stupid enough to have that mindset could use a computer. Then again, have I seen what is being posted on the internet lately?

The prop passed and there was protest, marches and El Coyote lost a lot of business, even though they are pretty good and cheap on the wallet. Promises that they were going to take it up with the court systems and well... we have some news on that.. or do we?

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom Asked Court to Delay Prop 8 Ruling

Confidential sources close to San Francisco City Hall told Towleroad's Corey Johnson that the California Supreme Court was prepared to release its opinion on Proposition 8 tomorrow, but decided to delay the ruling after a call from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom"Newsom reached out to the Supreme Court and asked them to hold off releasing their decision so it did not coincide with the White Night riots," said our source.

As mentioned earlier, a ruling Thursday would have fallen on the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco riots, which were set off when the court handed down the most lenient decision possible (voluntary manslaughter) against Dan White for the murders of supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. The ensuing riots in San Francisco on May 21, 1979 caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

UPDATE: Towleroad received this tip from a highly credible source who did the interview on the condition that they remain anonymous. We have been working to get additional sources.

Gavin Newsom's office has issued a release denying the story.

San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty spoke with Towleroad late this afternoon, saying he doubted the claims. Said Dufty: "It is implausible if not impossible to imagine that the Mayor could reach out to the California Supreme Court. Any thinking person would know that he would be radioactive to the justices given his leadership on the issue. His father is a retired federal judge. The Mayor's courage on this issue is unimpeachable. He would not intrude in what we've been waiting for."

Burn Orange County to the motherfucking ground. Clearly this isn't a good sign. How could it be? Gavin asked for it NOT to be announced on the anniversary of the white riots. The california supreme court's decision has to be released within 2 weeks, and if they didn't want it to coincide with the anniversary of huge gay riots it's pretty certain this decision is the one that will get the gays out on the streets.

It was always only a small posibility that the courts would overturn prop 8. However, it is not likely to survive on referendum past 2010 or 2012 at the latest. With the small margin it lost by in 2008, California would have to be resisting the national trends toward support for gay marriage to maintain the "no" majority for that long.

The CA legislature should pass a band-aid law to recognize marriages performed in other states, like NY and DC have. Then CA gays can take some vacations into Iowa, see some corn, and come back married. Oh yeah, Prop 8 made even that illegal...


Chuck Lorre is 100%, Everyone should have the right to be miserable.

With Gavin looking to run for Governor after Arnold's run on ruining the state is over, this is going to be a hot issue. Hopefully he can make good on having the doors busted wide open on this whole matter.. So failing on the promise of telling people to like it or not... it may not be the best.

But I hope they do riot. Just because it falls on a different day doesn't mean the outcome will change. Bad news is bad news no matter how you shake it. I hear they're putting barricades in the castro to prepare for the riots. Even if they decided to take this to the supreme court, it'll be a stupid decision.


This is what Google image gave me when I asked for Gay Marriage Riots.. I can't wait!

Not to mention it's a state issue.. But, you know.. if SCOTUS took it up i think it'd be more likely that they'd decide that DOMA prohibited states from recognizing gay marriages and invalidate gay marriages everywhere in all states. It'll be far less painful for everyone to put a measure on the 2010/2012 ballot to repeal it, which is what will happen.

Will it pass again then? Well, that's where I suggest we burn Orange County to the fucking ground. Toss in the Inland Empire in that napalm blast. But just make sure you don't make the same mistake that the 90's riots did. That is mess up your own back yard. West Hollywood is already gearing up for it..

Don’t Trash WeHo When Protesting Prop 8

Thursday, May 21, 2009 – Op-Ed By Sam Borelli, West Hollywood

West Hollywood, California (Thursday, May 21, 2009) - West Hollywood’s intersection of Santa Monica and San Vicente Boulevards has a long tradition of being the gay community’s gathering place, be it in celebration or protest.

Most recently we gathered more than a few times to protest the passage of Proposition 8, which added discrimination to the California Constitution by denying same-sex couples their previously afforded legal right to marry.

Observers believe that the court will uphold the passage of Proposition 8, and we will again take to the streets of West Hollywood.

Unfortunately, there have been rumblings that otherwise responsible, level-headed folk are gearing up to throw bricks.

Equality California (EQCA) sent an E mail yesterday that began, “The decision we have been waiting for is coming any day now. While we hope for the best, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to win marriage back (emphasis added),”

WeHo News contacted EQCA for a clarification, but did not receive a response before deadline.

Anything but non-violent demonstrations would be very bad turns on very many fronts. We have seen time after time a community in outrage destroy their own.

It’s happened here before.

Turning on West Hollywood is not a solution. Harming our businesses, putting our residents and visitors in harm’s way is not going to help. Forcing our Sheriff’s personnel to take drastic action against us only harms a relationship with a very good ally.

In November, 2008 our very own WeHo Sheriff’s personnel did an amazing job working with city staffers and community leaders to keep us safe and protected.

It was not our Sheriff’s that we saw the next day on the news swinging bats. In fact, over those following few weeks we really tapped out their resources with many protests starting elsewhere else and ending up here in West Hollywood.

Yes, if the CA Supreme Court upholds Prop 8 we will be angry. There is still anger in the community four months later.

I hear it, others do too, and yes, we need an outlet for that anger. But let’s not allow the outlet to be violent and self-destructive.

Let’s gather, yell, scream, march, stomp our feet, and other forms of getting the anger out.

Then let us come together as a community and do what we need to do together to turn this tide around.

There have been groups that have sprung into action since Prop 8 passed.

The Courage Campaign and Equal Roots are just two that offer positive, action oriented activities and objectives to help our cause and move us forward.

Equality Central, formerly Equality Network, has been amazing at letting us know about the many events and activities in which to participate. Remember the press coverage?

We have the opportunity to show the world that we can take what comes next.

All struggles like this have had setbacks, Women’s Suffrage and the African American Civil Rights Movement to name just a few.

It does not make it okay, but it should make us stronger, and more determined.

I do hope that we are able to celebrate but if not, let’s be together, be angry together, grieve together, and then move forward together without harming those that help us or are part of our struggle.

Together, we can make it happen wisely and, hopefully, peacefully.

Sam Borelli serves on the West Hollywood Public Safety Commission and writes a blog called Walking WeHo, from which this op-ed is republished with Mr. Borelli’s express permission.

gay rights or gay riots is a damn good slogan

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.