California’s Education System is being held hostage. Where’s our government!?!

California’s Education System is being held hostage.  Where’s our government!?!

So California as I’m sure you know is in horrible budget shape, over the last couple of years we’ve found ourselves billions of dollars in the red.  The state legislature for a couple of years has been kicking this problem down the road.  Last year when Jerry Brown became the Governor the state gutted the budget and they knocked it down to a measly 9 billion dollar problem.  Brown wanted to try to eliminate the problem last year by also putting a measure on the June ballot asking the good citizens of California to tax themselves to the tune of the remaining 9 billion or so over the next several years.  The Republicans refused to allow the measure to happen, holding up all of the budget processes until the Governor caved and didn’t do the tax initiative but instead cut education and services more deeply.

So now the Governor has taken a new tack, his initial budget comes up 9 billion short and already includes brutal cuts to services for seniors, children, the poor and disabled.  It also includes basically a flat budget for K-12 and Community Colleges.  However, this budget only works if the public agrees through a public ballot measure in November, to tax ourselves to the tune of 9 billion dollars.  If not, the Governor will further slaughter the disadvantaged and then cut the K-12 and Community Colleges to the bone.

Personally, I don’t object to a 1 cent sales tax to fix our budget woes.  However, I have a huge objection to having a metaphorical gun pointed at the head of our education system.  Now what the governor is banking on is that all of the folks working in the education system, to avoid the cuts, will strong-arm their friends, families and most importantly unions into backing and supporting this ballot initiative.

So if the measure doesn’t pass, somehow it is the people’s fault that our budget is screwed up, not the legislature’s issue.   Now maybe I was confused in my civics’ classes, but I thought we had a representative government in America.  You know a system where we elect representatives to REPRESENT us in government, and make the hard decisions on our behalf, taking the accolades when they are successful and receiving the brunt of the blame when it goes wrong.  If our representatives aren’t going to bother to do this, I say we don’t bother to pay them.

So Governor Brown, put the damn gun away, I and I’m betting a majority of the people in this state will not accept being threatened.  California State Legislators, DO YOUR FRACKIN JOB, or give up your damn paychecks, your perks and your damn pensions and GO HOME!  Have a little respect for the people of California and just a tiny bit of personal honor.

Election Breakdown, Good News, Bad News – Palin’s Loss of Muscle

 

Well my fellow Californians the good news is that Meg Whitman is not our next governor, the bad news, Jerry Brown is, the worse news, Proposition 19 didn’t pass so we can’t get stoned and make ourselves feel better.  This election season was certainly a wild ride, the most money ever spent, crazy and attacking ads on both sides, the tea party and the nuttiness of Angle, O’Donnell and Aqua Buddha.

So a little recap on this cast of characters:

Brown and Whitman:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/california-we%e2%80%99re-screwed-meg-whitman-or-jerry-brown-are-you-kidding/

Sharron Angle:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/fun-friday-my-new-favorite-idiot-might-be-going-to-congress-sharron-angle-is-neck-and-neck-with-harry-reid/

Christine O’Donnell:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/chrstine-o%e2%80%99donnell-no-tax-hikes-no-abortion-no-masturbation-ban/

Rand Paul (Aqua Buddha)

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/10/19/bad-news-for-rand-paul-aqua-buddha-prank-victim-is-back/

So Angle and O’Donnell both went down, both are Sarah Palin backed Tea Party darlins and their losses actually restore some small amount of my faith in the American public.  When it comes down to it folks, we get the government we deserve, the government we vote into office.  The good news to me is that with Sarah Palin’s backing, both Angle and O’Donnell lose, as well as the candidate she backed in Alaska, who it now looks like has lost to a write-in campaign by Lisa Murkowski, the first time since Strom Thurmond won by a write-in campaign in 1954:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/11/03/1702795/hard-work-unusual-coalition-has.html

Given this lack of political muscle I think Palin’s 2012 presidential aspirations may now be dead.  The good news she won’t be president, the bad news, I’ll have a lot less to write about.

However at the end of the day we have to have one really interesting win and that win is Rand Paul, the new US Senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  Yes folks, the infamous worshiper of Aqua Buddha is now a US Senator.  Below is a piece that shows some of Senator Paul’s positions:

http://trueslant.com/davidknowles/2010/05/19/3-controversial-positions-held-by-rand-paul/

California We’re Screwed, Meg Whitman or Jerry Brown are you kidding?

California We’re Screwed, Meg Whitman or Jerry Brown are you kidding?

So, when Arnold Schwarzenegger came into power as the Governor of California in 2003 I thought dear god what has happened to our state!  Now seven years later I am equally shocked to be thinking, please Arnold, don’t go!  That’s right, I’ve actually come to respect Governor Schwarzenegger, he’s a Republican who has pissed off both sides of the political aisle.  He’s been a rare Republican in that he’s actually tried to enforce fiscal responsibility while defending education, and more specifically defending the California Community College system.  He’s tweaked off the politically correct crowd by putting up a smoking tent at the capital where he puffs away at cigars and spends a good deal of his time in Southern California.  He’s been outspoken about our budget woes and has tried to enact measures that would attack the budget issues we have but has been unsuccessful.  Hell he’s even been an advocate for green technology and renewable energy.  However, he actually tried and I give him credit for that, I worried that he would be like Ross Perot and not understand the political system but Arnold seemed to learn pretty quickly.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not ready to jump on the change the constitution so Arnold can run for president band wagon, but compared to what coming Arnold is going to seem like heaven.   Below is a link about Arnold’s time in office.

http://gov.ca.gov/about/arnold

So our two major party candidates for governor this Fall in California are Meg Whitman of Ebay fame or Jerry Brown of Linda Ronstadt fame.  Now I don’t have a whole lot of respect for either of them so I’m going to be horrible to them and base this post simply upon their commercials in which they essentially just keep calling the other person a liar and a fraud and typically do it by lying about each other.  Both are claiming they will balance California’s budget yet neither of them seems to be addressing the impact our direct democracy system in California has upon our budget.  For those of you who don’t live here, our voter initiated propositions often commit our budget to spending for which no revenue stream has been identified.  That is something you can’t fix and with education budgets slashed already how do you balance a $19 billion dollar deficit with half of the budget basically off the table?  Well no one knows because neither of our candidates has bothered to tell us.

Here are some links so you can see the fun and judge for yourself.

Meg Whitman’s most effective commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3vYfrpym38

And here is an LA Times piece showing how the ad is flawed, ironically with a Meg Whitman ad right at the top of the page, god I love America:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/09/whitman-refuses-to-take-down-ad-partly-based-on-inaccurate-report.html

And here’s how Jerry Brown responded:

http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/2010/09/video-meg-whitmans-lies/

See what we’re living under friends, take pity on us, one of these fools is going to be our governor, we are so screwed.