But really, this time, it IS that simple. It's even simpler than that. Too many of us have been had. Too many of us, without realizing it, voted in the most Soviet leaning and frankly un-American government in American History. The old school "Boll Weevils" and "Blue Dogs" in the Democrat Party, who used to prudently curb the excesses of the leftist Democrats, are just about extinct. More sectors of the American economy, from auto manufacturing to banking to insurance to medicine, have been nationalized, expropriated, or otherwise commandeered in peacetime than ever before, in just two short years. By contrast, the governmental excesses of the "New Deal" took 12 years and the necessity of a World War to get that severe, and the excesses of that were rolled back.
When I was a student at Berkeley, I used to shudder at the thought of a large enough number of the pseudo-academic "professors" ever getting into positions to make public policy. Well, over the last few years, a large enough number have--and the results are not pleasing. I am reminded of why I chose NOT to go into academia, as one dissenting professor who did sadly but humorously relates.
Domestically, those who decried the deficits spent by the previous administration in eight years, decided to spend several times that amount in eight months. And for what? For a "fiscal stimulus" given the Orwellian name of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (ARRA), that spends nearly a trillion dollars, as of now just a bit more than the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts put together, a "Stimulus" that was for the most part nothing more than welfare payments. Here and there we do get another freeway lane.
But I can tell you what happened to much of California's ARRA money: it has kept the state running for the last four months. Until recently, California had no budget agreed upon, meaning that for July, August, September and October, no state monies could be appropriated. Yet the Department of Health Care Services kept on paying out the state's "Medi-CAL" programs, and how much of that went to illegal aliens and their children I wonder, with ARRA federal money. And there are many more California State agencies, bureaus, and departments.
So we have an unsustainable federal program, paying for unsustainable state programs. In decades past, Federal "Fiscal Stimulus" at least built real things, and gave us awesome Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams, Interstate Highways and rockets to the Moon. Today? It gives us environmental impact reports for projects that enviro-weenies will only block, that will realistically serve no one, and will never get built. The proposed "high speed rail" boondoggle is a case in point.
Moreover, this unprecedented spending binge has not worked because it cannot work: government cannot inject dollars into the economy until it has first taken those dollars out of the economy, either by taxation, by currency devaluation/inflation, or by borrowing from the very pool of capital that would otherwise been available to investors in real productive enterprise.
This is NOT stimulus, it is redistribution of wealth from producers to parasites, and it clearly does not create real jobs. It creates a further dependence upon government that cannot be sustained.
Meanwhile, the investors and entrepreneurs, who could get the economy going again, are sitting it out and biding their time. And why shouldn't they? The more the Obama Administration castigates insurers, businesses and doctors, the more it raises taxes on whatever profits they manage to earn, the more those who create wealth are sitting out, neither hiring nor lending. The result is that traditional self-interested profit-makers are locking up trillions of dollars in unspent talent, rather than using it to take risks and either lose money due to new red tape or see much of their profit largely confiscated through higher taxes.
And while the economy rots, the Obamunists want to condone the entry of more illegal aliens, even as entry level job wages plummet and teens find it harder to work than in the past. I was shocked when my teenage nieces told me that entry level jobs, which were there for the asking when I was their age, were not so easy to come by.
Then again, perhaps there is another theme to all of this: "We Need The Spirit of 1994--Only Greater!" After all, the Clinton administration initially went quite Leftist in 1993 and 1994.
But after the Great Political Upchuck of 1994, Bill Clinton realized this wasn't going to work. He sacked the most leftist of his advisers (does anybody remember the radical Ms. Achtenberg, Mr. Cisneros, Ms. Elders, Mr. Reich, Ms. Shalala? All of whom had to leave under clouds of scandal and disgust) and Billy Jeff put in pragmatic types as replacements. In the end, although loathsome to many Conservatives on a personal level, Billy Jeff did a couple of downright Conservative acts: (1) welfare curtailment and reform, and (2) cutting the capital gains tax rates in half, from 28/20% short/long to 15/10%, fueling the investment boom of the mid to late 1990s. The Obamunists have undone the former under ARRA, which extends unemployment and other benefits indefinitely, and the Obamunists are poised to undo the latter next year.
But Bill Clinton wasn't all about Leftist Marxism. Bill Clinton was all about--Bill Clinton.
Unfortunately, in President Obama, I see a much more leftist ideologue. This was best evidenced last summer in Cairo, when President Obama prostrated himself and America before Islam--in light of all that is going on in *that* religion--and falsely claimed certain historical achievements on the part of Islam — all the while outlining Western Civilization's shortcomings.
And he did this sort of thing at home too. Remember the condescending Pennsylvania "bitter clingers" speech, and the psychoanalysis of his own grandmother--who lovingly raised him while his father abandoned him and his bimbo mother went from academic fad to academic fad--accusing Grandma of alleged “typical white person” sort of racism? Remember his mentors such as the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright, and Weather Underground veteran Bill Ayers?
When I heard the put-America-down rhetoric of Obama and his minions, I thought "Where had I heard that before? Oh my God, it can't be that he really absorbed and believed the Commie leftover pap from cretins like Frantz Fanon or Herbert Marcuse or the still living Communist scumbag Noam Chumpsky???
Evidently, yes. This is the "progressive" (sic) thought of unrealistic political ideals. The failure of the West to achieve the super ideal, despite the otherwise astonishing progress that has been made in the human condition, becomes the warrant for a hatred of Western culture that oozes from "progressive" politics, and that is eager to make the West the arch-villain responsible for global failure and suffering. As Obama and other Leftist cultural elites wallow in this masochistic guilt, the enemies of the West — first communism, and now jihadism — understand that this self-loathing is the sign of cultural decay, the dying spasms of a civilization that no longer has faith in the goodness of its foundational beliefs, and so no longer will fight for itself.
And all this crap, at home and abroad, led to the Tea Party Movement. This movement has taken up with the Republican Party, and in fact has in more than a few primaries purged the "Grand Old Party" of those Republicans who won't fight back hard enough, purged those Republicans who will "go along to get along", purged those who are RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).
We aren't going quietly into a future of decline, appeasement, surrender, and a diminished future.
And we're tired of being called (blank)ist and (blank)ophobic or otherwise smeared for refusing to accept the decay.
I won't say *all* Democrat candidates are treasonous commie leftovers at this time, but to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, "I believe nine out of every ten are, and I will inquire closely in the case of the tenth. The nuttiest Bible-Thumper Republican is much better than the average Democrat."
Perhaps one day the "Boll Weevils" and "Blue Dogs" will make a comeback, but for now, they are nearly extinct.
OK, on to the candidates and propositions.
GOVERNOR: Meg Whitman
There is a theme song for Jerry Brown. Or, on a more sinister note, there is another one...
Meg wasn't my primary choice, but the dishonest smears against her, by that political whore Gloria Allred (how aptly named), have made me a fan.
Moreover, do we really want to return to Jerry Brown's "era-of-limits" - "small-is-beautiful" - "don't build things and people won't come", new-age nonsense? Do we really want criminal coddling judges like Rose Bird and Cruz Reynoso appointed again? Have we forgotten what that was like?
And I laugh at claims like "Meg is trying to buy the election." Boo hoo hoo. The only worse thing than buying an election is acting like it's an entitled birthright for a formerly young punk but now elderly member of an elite political family.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Abel Maldonado
I have to laugh at Gavin Newsom's sleazy attacks against Abel Maldonado on the Tax Increasing issue. Yes, RINO Abel did sign onto a tax increase as part of a budget deal. However, for Gavin Newsom to make an issue out of that--is the cast iron pot calling the copper tea kettle a little burnt at the bottom.
And Gavin Newsom? Mr. Sanctuary City for the murderers? This smarmy clown? For real?
SECRETARY OF STATE: Damon Dunn
Four words: Photo Identification for voting. Damon Dunn supports, Debra Bowen opposes. Voter fraud anyone?
As for the boo-hoo-hoo nonsense about "minority voters being disenfranchised", Damon Dunn, who is African American and grew up modestly, might have something to say about that.
CONTROLLER: Tony Strickland
His opponent, John Chiang, tried to pretend he was above the Governor during the budget battle. Sorry, but the office of Controller isn't.
TREASURER: Mimi Walters
Good lord, is that corrupt fossil Bill Lockyer still shambling through the Capitol halls? Is he still pushing his shakedown lawsuits of automakers and gun manufacturing businesses? Since he is no longer Attorney General, no, thank goodness. But he is still as anti-self defense, and hence anti-freedom, as ever. And he has played "Musical Chairs" with state executive offices for too long.
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Steve Cooley
From a "Sanctuary City" for those who go on to murder, to an unwillingness to push the death penalty on the scum who deserve it, his opponent, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, is a Bolshevik Bimbo in a city infamous for Bolshevik Bimbos like Boxer and Pelosi.
INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: Mike Villines
And again, the Democrat Iron Pot calls the Republican copper tea kettle a little burnt at the bottom! Assemblyman Mike Villines, like Abel Maldonado, did go wobbly and sign off on a tax increase as part of a budget deal. For this, sleazy Democrat Assemblyman Dave Jones, who never met a tax increase he didn't like, is trying to make hay. Please California don't fall for this.
US SENATOR: Carly Fiorina
I don't care if her tenure at Hewlett Packard was not so hot, *anyone* would be better than the (bleep bleep) Barbara Boxer. I will refrain from cursing, but she really makes the blood boil. And who can forget this clip?
What is really nauseating is listening to Boxer harp about how at HP Fiorina "exported" jobs. And Ma'am Boxer really doesn't get that her taxation and her mandates and her lawsuits and her business bashing drove the jobs out, does she? Wow.
India progressed only when it adopted free markets. People do not outsource 1-800 numbers to socialist "paradises", like Hugo Chavez's bandito Venezuela. The sad truth is, thanks to Barbara Boxer and her ilk, it is now better to do business in India than it is here.
Cheap labor, you say? Which begs the question of who drove up the cost of labor? Who did that? Boxer did. Taxation is a big part of the cost of labor.
When Boxer and her ilk have made business into something to be excessively taxed for their welfare state, they should not expect the businessmen and women to remain here. They should not expect them to stay in America and lose their money for the purpose of becoming the fodder of National Health Care. They should not expect them to produce, when production of goods and services is punished with ever higher statist demands. Do not ask, "Who is exporting the jobs?", Ma'am--You are.
JUDGES: CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT:
My criteria here is how they voted to uphold or overturn Proposition 22 of 2000, which defined marriage by statute as only between a man and a woman, and how they voted on Proposition 8, which had to Amend the California Constitution after Judicial Piracy overturned Proposition 22.
I DON'T CARE if you think "Gay Marriage" is a good idea; there is NOTHING in the Constitution about it. The ultimate legal status of homosexual relationships (and yes, such relationships do merit some legal status) should be decided by the people, or by their elected representatives in the Legislature. I want The Rule Of Law, not The Rule Of The Anus. I want a representative republic, not judicial tyranny.
Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye: YES
She wasn't there during the Gay Marriage brouhaha, but she would have voted to stop judicial tyranny. She was appointed to the Municipal Court by Deukmejian, the Superior Court by Pete Wilson and the Appellate Court by Schwarzenegger. She is opposed by the "Green" (Watermelon) Party, which means she must be good.
Ming W. Chin: YES
In the 4-3 decision on Proposition 22, he was one of the three trying to stop judicial tyranny. Likewise for Proposition 8, where fortunately he was in the majority.
Carlos R. Moreno: NO!!!
He is one of the judges who struck down Prop 22 and voted to do the same to Prop 8. He voted against the right to self defense, and against Prop 21 of 2000, which had tougher penalties on gang related crime.
JUDGES: LOCAL AND REGIONAL:
This is a helpful site you can use, and this is another one. I do not always agree with them, they make the perfect the enemy of the good (see their votes on Ming Chin and Tani Cantil-Sakauye), but they are helpful.
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: Larry Aceves
Two words: Charter Schools. Groups of concerned parents form a public school for their children's particular needs. My ex-wife taught at one that focused on English immersion for Slavic immigrants. They work well and bring about better results. Larry Aceves supports them, Tom Torlakson, a teachers union stooge, blocks them.
STATE PROPOSITIONS: This post is getting really long, and those will come next time.
1 comment:
I like your blog. I agree with you on many points. I used to be a liberal.
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