Subject: FW: CALIFORNIA IS OBAMA'S DREAM....
Subject: FW: CALIFORNIA IS OBAMA'S DREAM....
RADIO STATION 600 AM, SAN DIEGO
CALIFORNIA IS OBAMA’S DREAM
Written by Roger Hedgecock, former Mayor of San Diego
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
I live in California . If you were wondering what living in Obama's second term would be like, wonder no longer. We in California are living there now.
California is a one-party state dominated by a virulent Democrat Left enabled by a complicit media where every agency of local, county, and state government is run by and for the public employee unions. The unemployment rate is 12%.
California has more folks on food stamps than any other state, has added so many benefits and higher rates to Medicaid that we call it "Medi-Cal." Our K-12 schools have more administrators than teachers, with smaller classes but lower test scores and higher dropout rates with twice the per-student budget of 15 years ago. Good job, Brownie.
This week, the once and current Gov. Jerry "Moon-beam" Brown had to confess that the "balanced" state budget adopted five months ago was billions in the red because actual tax revenues were billions lower than the airy-fairy revenue estimates on which the balance was predicated.
After trimming legislators' perks and reducing the number of cell phones provided to state civil servants, the governor intoned that drastic budget reductions had already hollowed out state programs for the
needy, law enforcement and our schoolchildren.California government needed more money.
Echoing the Occupy movement, the governor proclaimed the rich must pay their fair share. Fair share? The top 1% of California income earners currently pays 50% of the state's income tax.
California has seven income tax brackets. The top income tax rate is 9.3%, which is slapped on the greedy rich earning at least $47,056 a year. Income of more than $1 million pays the "millionaires' and
billionaires'" surcharge tax rate of 10.3%.
Brown's proposal would add 2% for income over $250,000. A million-dollar income would then be taxed at 12.3%. And that's just for the state.
Brown also proposed a one-half-cent sales tax increase, which would bring sales taxes (which vary by county) up to 7.75% to as much as 10%. Both tax increases would be on the ballot in 2012.
The sales tax increase proposal immediately brought howls of protest from the Left (of Brown!). Charlie Eaton, a sociology grad student at UC Berkeley and leader of the UC Student-Workers Union, said,
"We've paid enough. It's time for millionaires to pay."
At least five other ballot measures to raise taxes are circulating for signatures to get on the 2012 ballot in California . The governor's proposals are the most conservative.
The Obama way doesn't end with taxes.
The governor and the state legislature continue to applaud the efforts of the California High Speed Rail Authority to build a train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco . Even though the budget is three times the voter-approved amount, and the first segment will only connect two small towns in the agricultural Central Valley . But hey, if we build it, they will ride.
And we don't want to turn down the Obama bullet-train bucks Florida and other states rejected because the operating costs would bankrupt them. Can't happen here because we're already insolvent.
If we get into real trouble with the train, we'll just bring in the Chinese. It worked with the Bay Bridgereconstruction. After the 1989 earthquake, the bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco was rebuilt with steel made in China . Workers fromChina too. Paid for with money borrowed fromChina . Makes perfect sense.
In California , we hate the evil, greedy rich (except the rich in Hollywood, in sports, and in drug dealing). But we love people who have broken intoCalifornia to eat the bounty created by the productive rich.
Illegals get benefits from various generous welfare programs, free medical care, free schools for their kids, including meals, and of course, instate tuition rates and scholarships too. Nothing's too good for our guests.
To erase even a hint of criticism of illegal immigration, the California Legislature is considering a unilateral state amnesty. DemocratState Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes has proposed an initiative that would bar deportation of illegals from California .
Interesting dilemma for Obama there. If immigration is exclusively a federal matter, and Obama has sued four states for trying to enforce federal immigration laws he won't enforce, what will the President do to a California law that exempts California from federal immigration law?
California is also near fulfilling the environmentalist dream of deindustrialization.
After driving out the old industrial base (auto and airplane assembly, for example), air and water regulators and tax policies are now driving out the high-tech, biotech and even Internet-based companies that were supposed to be California's future.
The California cap-and-trade tax on business in the name of reducing CO2 makes our state the leader in wacky environmentalism and guarantees a further job exodus from the state.
Even green energy companies can't do business inCalifornia . Solyndra went under, taking its taxpayer loan guarantee with it.
No job is too small to escape the regulators. The state has even banned weekend amateur gold miners from the historic gold mining streams in theSierra Nevada Mountains .
In fact, more and more of California's public land is off-limits to recreation by the people who paid for that land. Unless you're illegal.
Then you can clear the land, set up marijuana plantations at will, bring in fertilizers that legal farmers can no longer use, exploit illegal farm workers who live in hovels with no running water or sanitation, and protect your investment with armed illegals carrying guns no California citizen is allowed to own.
The rest of us only found out about these plantations when the workers' open campfire started one of those devastating fires that have killed hundreds of people and burned out thousands of homes in California over the last decade.
It's often said that whatever happens in Californiawill soon happen in your state.
You'd better hope that's wrong.
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11 comments:
California has more folks on food stamps than any other state,
Its the most populous state, so naturally its going to have the "most" of a lot of things just based on sheer numbers. It likely has the most cancer deaths too, that doesn't mean that the ocean breezes cause cancer.
California does have problems, and many of them can be traced to Republican meddling and obstructionism. It was Republicans who pushed and passed Prop 13, capping property taxes at 1978 levels for many state businesses and depriving the state of badly needed revenues. It was Republicans who put in place a stupid law saying that all budgets had to pass with a 2/3 majority, and then stubbornly clung to that law so that no tax increases were ever possible. Combine that with the fact that the State is required, by law, to have a balanced budget ever year, and we've basically been cutting government service deeper and deeper to make up for lost revenues.
But thankfully the Roger Hedgecock's of the world finally came to their senses and agreed to allow a change in the rules: now budgets can pass with a normal majority vote, but any tax increases require either a 2/3 vote in the legislature or a 2/3 vote at the polls.
And about those lost revenues, why on earth would money be so tight? Could it be that California pays the biggest share of Federal income tax but only gets back about $.80 on the dollar in expenditures? Add this to the aforementioned prop 13 and Republican obstructionism, and its amazing that we have any tax revenues at all.
And lets not even start about W's friends at Enron, with their slimy profiteering and intentionally created rolling blackouts.
To sum up for Mr. Hedgecock: if you want to see what's ailing California, take a look in the fucking mirror.
After the 1989 earthquake, the bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco was rebuilt with steel made in China . Workers fromChina too. Paid for with money borrowed fromChina . Makes perfect sense.
I wonder why that had to happen? Why couldn't we make our own steel here in the US? Could it be the willful destruction of the American manufacturing industry by the plutocrats you worship?
In California , we hate the evil, greedy rich (except the rich in Hollywood, in sports, and in drug dealing). But we love people who have broken intoCalifornia to eat the bounty created by the productive rich.
Yes, because those illegals aren't here because big business wants them. The agribusinesses who run the very Republican Central Valley have never even thought about using illegal labor to run their operations.
In fact, more and more of California's public land is off-limits to recreation by the people who paid for that land. Unless you're illegal.
This is because of budget cuts, asshole. We had to close the state parks because your Republican friends in the legislature prevented any new revenues from being raised!
Then you can clear the land, set up marijuana plantations at will, bring in fertilizers that legal farmers can no longer use, exploit illegal farm workers who live in hovels with no running water or sanitation, and protect your investment with armed illegals carrying guns no California citizen is allowed to own.
Yes, because highly dangerous illegal activity is now permitted under state law. You know, we could probably clear out this little problem if we had the funds to keep the parks open and employ enough police officers to effectively patrol the area. Oh right, funds=taxes=bad! So never mind.
It's hilarious seeing a right-wing forward trying to evoke, "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie."
They whine so much about the proposed propositions to raise taxes, yet they didn't notice the one proposing shutting down the high-speed rail project and its bonds?
Not surprising that they are attacking Jerry Brown, who's calling for deeper cuts and higher taxes to attempt to balance the state budget, since the e-mail shows a total lack of awareness of the downward spiral in other states' regulations and social services as they poach jobs from the states trying to maintain order.
California has some serious governance problems, and it's amazing to watch this e-mail miss the mark on all of them.
All of the above comments were spot-on.
My first reaction was 'Proposition 13 strikes again.'
I lived in California for 10 years, and aside from the right wing doing their level best to destroy the state government, it was pretty darned awesome.
Roger Hedgecock? Why aren't you still mayor of San Diego? That's right, you were convicted of conspiracy and perjury.
1985: San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock resigned after he was convicted of one count of conspiracy and 12 counts of perjury. The charges stemmed from allegations that he financed his 1983 mayoral campaign with more than $300,000 funneled through a political consulting firm. Hedgecock was sentenced to a year in county custody, a fine and three years' probation. After the state Supreme Court reversed the perjury convictions, Hedgecock made a deal with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to the felony conspiracy count that was reduced to a misdemeanor and then dismissed in 1991. He served no time in jail.
Thank god for wingnut welfare, eh Roger?
How convenient of a guy like Hedgecock to turn into an anti-tax crusader only after being educated at taxpayer expense for both undergrad and law school.
In other words: I got mine, fuck the rest of you.
Then you can clear the land, set up marijuana plantations at will,
Sure, yeah. And there's others who buy foreclosed houses & grow pot in them, too. What's the point here?? It's still *illegal,* and if you're caught, there's consequences.
But oh yes, CA tried to pass Prop 8 to legalize marijuana & to try to, you know, better manage these out of the way pot farms & pot houses, but it was *rightwingers* who resoundingly voted against that, all by being funded by BigPharma who doesn't want the competition.
bring in fertilizers that legal farmers can no longer use,
Maybe. But it's NOT like any CA citizen, or Jerry Brown, or Obama are *agreeing* with such a practice. Again, IF Prop 8 had passed, then it would be easier to *regulate* such practices, but oh I forgot: conservatives don't want ANY regulations. So: here's an outcome. Don't like it? Maybe you should think about why.
exploit illegal farm workers who live in hovels with no running water or sanitation,
Well this one's a two-fer. I mean, it's NOT like this isn't happening with "legal" farm practices already. So what's your point, Hedgecock? IOKIYAR??? But if some dirty effen hippie does it, then it's an "outrage"??? Spare me the ersatz "upset" over this one; you don't give one g*ddamned shit about any farm worker, whether legal or not, who lives in a hovel & has lousy sanitation. Hypocrit.
and protect your investment with armed illegals carrying guns no California citizen is allowed to own.
See above. Don't like it? Then legalize marijauna, and a lot of this will go away. OOOPS, forgot: bought off CROOKS like Hedgecock are probably also bought off by BigPharma, as well as the DEA & the ATF, who love to run drugs and guns all across the US-Mexican Border.
Rodger Hedgecock, as pointed out by gruaud, is a rightwing CROOK, much like his buddy in San Diego, Daryll Issa. Nonetheless, reliable at ginning up the rubes with a bunch of phoney-baloney "concern" and fake racist nonsense.
CA has loads of problems. Jerry Brown's doing pretty much what Arnold Schwartzenegger did before him. Not much difference between the two bc there's not a whole lot more that can be done in a post-Prop 13 CA.
The only other improvement that could happen for CA for lying CROOKS like Roger Hedgecock to move to some other state and STFU.
Our K-12 schools have more administrators than teachers, with smaller classes but lower test scores and higher dropout rates with twice the per-student budget of 15 years ago. Good job, Brownie.
First: Where are these "facts" coming from? I don't think they're accurate at all.
Second: Why is this "Brownie's" fault?
Lessee, over the past 15 years since 1997, who's been CA Gov:
Pete Wilson (R) 1991 - 1999
Grey Davis (D) 1999 - 2003
Arnold Schwartzenegger (R) 2003 - 2011
Jerry Brown (D) - Jan 2011 to present
Guess Hedgecock's suffering from a "poor education" as well or at least "poor computational skills" brought on by having his lying head up his rightwing butt. In the past 15 years in CA, Republican Govs were in charge for approx 11 of those years.
Nice how Hedgecock wants to blame it all on Brown, who's only been office for a little over one year.
The state has even banned weekend amateur gold miners from the historic gold mining streams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
WTF? Is there no lie too big or too small for this rightwing crook to tell? Rhetorical question.
Don't know if Hedgecock just pulls such, uh, nuggets out of his ass or some idiot makes them up for him.
http://www.sierraoutdoorrecreation.com/Activities/Recreational_Gold_Prospecting.cfm
Most gold panning or other types of gold mining is restricted in the Sierra Nevada's due to previously staked prior claims.
Unless Hedgecock is now in favor of the rabble just infringing on private claims - which I believe could be called "socialism" by some - he's just a flat-out liar.
Of course, conservatives can't be bothered with elitist pussy facts, so guess that's why Hedgecock is so brazen in the lies he makes. No one'll bother to check up on him, other than pussy libruls... and who wants to believe us?
The rest of us only found out about these plantations when the workers' open campfire started one of those devastating fires that have killed hundreds of people and burned out thousands of homes in California over the last decade.
Can't help myself. WTF is Hedgecock jerking off about here?
There may have been some CA wildfires begun by fires on MJ "plantations," but if so, this is the first I've heard about it. Where's the facts to back up this allegation? Also, the vast majority of CA citizens are well aware of the pot farms around this state, esp in more remote areas.
Most recent CA wildfires have been started either by arsonists or dumb bunny stupidity (one fire in San Diego county about 8 years ago was started when a guy got lost on a hike to attract attention to get "found"). Some get started by natural means, such as lightening strikes.
This is just sheer stupidity demonizing something by lying about it. If Hedgecock is so "concerned" about MJ plantations, then why doesn't he come up with alternative "solutions" to this alleged problem?
Typical rightwing lying obfuscation + victimizing + demonizing "the other."
Not helpful. Just lying bullshit.
What a tool. It's a bit late trying to use the "China's got all our jobs now" card when these are the same crowd that were cheerfully chirping about "creative destruction" and how de-industrialization of the US was a good thing since we can all be service or "knowlege workers". Anytime the trade deficit with China was brought up for discussion these mooks Tsk Tsk-ed us and told us we're getting our stuff cheaper and getting loads of borrowed money as well....like it was a good thing.
Do these clowns think we've got THAT short of a memory? Then again, maybe so. It might fly with the mouth breather teabaggers if you can pry their attention from their favorite sports programming.
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