Lamorinda GOP ladies meet Jan 15
January 6, 2009
Lamorinda Republican Women, Federated invites members and the public to its monthly luncheon meeting, Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 11:30 am. The featured speaker is Dave Stirling of the Pacific Legal Foundation, who will discuss: “Green Gone Wild: Elevating Nature Above Human Rights”
The luncheon takes place at the Orinda Country Club, 315 Camino Sobrante, Orinda, CA 94563. Price and Reservations: $25 luncheon; $15 program only (no lunch) For reservations call 925-254-8617 on or before January 12.
Bring Blago to California
January 5, 2009
As California sinks deeper and deeper into financial morass I am starting to look for new types of leadership to head the tarnished Golden State. Governor Arnold is not even putting in a full week in Sacramento any more. He was AOL at the New Years eve announcement of his plan to close the state’s yawning $40 billion dollar budget deficit. Better to have finance Director Mike Genest deliver the hard news. Does anyone remember why we elected him to a second term?
In 2010 there will be an election to elect a new governor and Arnold will be Termed out. On the Democratic side there are loads of characters vying for the job. Gavin Newsome(San Francisco mayor) and Jerry Brown (Ex-Governor from the 70’s) are raising money. The Republicans are rallying around their own cash cow, Steve Poizner, to give us that moderate Republican candidate who will appeal to moderate Republicans (if there are any left in the state) and independent voters who are repulsed by the California State GOP’s brand of conservatism.
The time has come to think outside the box. To that extent it is time to find a leader who will fit into the values of Sacramento. Californians need to look to the land of Lincoln. That’s right, Illinois. Take a deep breath and visualize Governor Blago in Sacramento. By 2010, if he’s not in a federal penitentiary he will be looking for a job.
Say it again Governor Rod Blagojevichas, California Governor. Slips right off the tongue, doesn’t it! Even better he could run as a Republican. Who better to take up the GOP banner. Who better to cut a deals in Sacramento. A place where deals are sorely lacking.
We would have to mandate that Governor Blago tape record all budget negotiations to be broadcast over the internet so that, for once, Californians can get some entertainment value from their politicians. Anyone who watched Governor Blagojevich appoint Barrack Obama’s replacement understands his ability to create political drama and lead while the castle is burning. Compare that to the hapless action figure portrayed by Governor Arnold.
So I say give them hell while you are in Springfield Governor Blago. Then pack up the wife and come to California and run for Governor as a Republican!!
Democrats react to budget plan
January 1, 2009
Craig Cheslog, local blogger and a representative of Assemblyman Tom Torlakson’s office, makes some interesting observations on the he-says-she-says status California budget negotiations.
In reponse (I believe) to Speaker Karen Bass’s explanation that “legislative leaders have compromised,” Cheslog writes, “The Democrats have been compromising with themselves on the state budget crisis. The Democrats have agreed to horrible spending cuts and other measures that go against their interest groups…The myth of bipartisan intransigence may be a more interesting story for state pundits to tell, but this fiction does nothing to move the state towards a solution to this problem.”
Here is the Bloomberg report on the plan Governor “blow the box up” Schwarzenegger proposed on December 31.
Here is the transcript of Speaker Bass’s reactions to the Governor’s proposed budget plan
Will the last sane adult leaving California please remember to turn out the lights?
Throw a shoe at Bush
January 1, 2009
Sock and Awe! For those of us who remember Jimmy Carter being attacked by a rabbit at the end of his presidency the sight of the Iraqi Journalist throwing a shoe at President George W. Bush was a metaphor of another presidency gone wrong.
That said, I was struck by the shoe throwing incident. Where was the secret service? I was inspired by the courage of the Iraqi journalist to do what many of us would like to do or have done to our TVs at the sight of President George W. Bush or other stupid politicians in general.
So if you burn to throw a shoe at W. but you don’t want to break your plamsa, click to the new Sock and Awe online game and have at it :
Let us know your high score!
Section 8 housing in Antioch
January 1, 2009
It’s official. Antioch really does have a problem with Section 8 renters causing trouble despite County attempts to explain away bad behaviour.
AP ran a story that details the problems Antioch home owners face as Section 8 renters trash their middle class suburban neighborhoods with loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.
Antioch tried to help beleaguered homeowners but got sued. The AP writer, Paul Elias, says, “City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland denied any discrimination on the part of police and said officers were responding to crime reports in troubled neighborhoods when they discovered that a large number of the troublemakers were receiving federal subsidies.”
Richard Soderholm, notes this breathtaking quote from Joseph Villareal, Contra Costa County’s Housing Chief, “One of the goals of the programs is to de-concentrate poverty,” Villarreal said. “There are just some people who don’t want to spend public money that way.”
Here’s how the NY Times covered the same Section 8 housing problem in August 2008.
One observer responded to the AP story this way:
Jane Byrne, Dailey-I’s secretary and later mayor herself, moved into Cabrini Green to show it (subsidized housing) worked. Even though she had police protection 24- 7, she moved back out 90 days or so later. It doesn’t work.
Even (especially) the people who live there know it doesn’t work and suffer most. Look up Cabrini Green (Chicago Housing Development) on Wickipedia. Enjoy the picture of one of their high rises wrapped in chain link fabric in response to the tenants throwing each other off the balconies. Ho Ho Ho - what fun! What social justice!
The long term solution is cultural change. Tom Sowell, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, etc. should lead the way with lots of authority to get stuff done, change law and kick activists out of the process. Ultimately, such persons should be called on to account for their chronic opposition - reconsile it to the results they achieve.
Short term solution is to recognize chronic assailants, criminals, gangs, etc. as seditious to our government and treat them as treasoners attempting to ovrthrow it.Change the rules to match the problem. Tell them the freight train is coming - that second offenses will get them free room and board on labor gangs for long enough that they’ll be too old to make trouble by the time they get out - then keep the promise.
But therein is our problem. We can’t discuss it and take effective action because of the large foundation of activists and obstructionists that confound our society at every turn - just to make themselves felt.
If you want to read up on this problem that is poking the eyes of middle class neighborhoods around the country, read Howard Husock’s “America’s Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of American Housing Policy.”
Husock argues that what we are really talking about is the impact of broken single-parent families, illegitamcy addiction, and generations of welfare culture dependent on government handouts instead of a culture of work and abstinence. Plainly, the values of Section 8 renters do do match up with the values of middle class homeowners with a culture of work, family, and responsibility. Hence the friction.
But government over regulation leads to constraints on better housing that only creates further subsidies that exacerbate the problems. Best to wean poor communities out of false escape from the ghetto that Section 8 provides.
City and County officials along with Congressman Miller, and state representatives Hancock, DeSaulnier and Torlakson ought to put time limits on Section 8 rental vouchers to stem this epidemic. Instead they ought to encourage and help cities by providing safe streets, effective schools, attractive recreation, and work-oriented, value-laden social programs. Cities and the County can further help by controlling their own costs, lowering taxes, minimizing regulation, and encouraging private housing and commercial development in blown out areas. Government ought to encourage area Congregations to get out of the pews and help the neediest with literacy, job training, and family support.
We’ve proven Section 8 does not work in Contra Costa. Let’s try something better.
Barack the Magic Negro flap
December 30, 2008
The late great ex-Republican congressman Henry Hyde once said “ignorance is correctable but stupid is forever.” As the Republican Party continues to sink to new depths, the question in this new political era is are the Republicans ignorant or just stupid?
Lately it is looking more and more like the latter; especially when you have a potential Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair sending out racist parodies of the president elect as Christmas gifts. Chip Saltsman, distributed a CD containing “Barack the Magic Negro” as part of his campaign to be elected chairman of the Republican National Committee.
There were the usual repudiations from the usual suspects. RNC chair Mike Duncan issued a statement Saturday distancing the party’s leadership from Saltsman and Newt Gingrich wrote an article in the Washington Times. The larger question is how long is this sort of self inflicted damage going to continue? I don’t know, but one thing I do know it will many wilderness years until the Republican Party recovers!
Oregon to tax autos by mile
December 30, 2008
Crosscut reports that The Oregon Governor plans to introduce legislation to tax cars by the mile driven to replace the state’s gasoline tax.
Governor Ted Kulongoski said, “As Oregonians drive less and demand more fuel-efficient vehicles, it is increasingly important that the state find a new way, other than the gas tax, to finance our transportation system.”
More background
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2008/12/28/news/local/1aaa02_road.txt
Kelly v. “Gerald” Canciamilla
December 26, 2008
TechCrunch reports that Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, Chris Kelly, is talking smack about running for California Attorney General in 2010. The story says that other possible challengers for the top lawyer seat include Kamal Harris of San Francisco, and some Assemblyman named Gerald Canciamilla (sic).
We’re not really sure Kelly’s campaign spam will end up in your mailbox or not, but being mentioned as having anything to do with “Internet Security” is akin to being appointed Fairy Dust Dispenser General. So this supposedly hot Internet background isn’t necessarily all that reassuring. This is especially true if your PR people yakking to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch can’t get your opponents’ names straight. Wait till Kelly gets in the ring with Hardworking Joe.
Hire more cops not consultants
December 23, 2008
On December 8, 2008, the City of Concord held its annual restructuring of public offices. The out going Mayor gave a brief summary of the last term’s accomplishments, including the hiring of new police officers, to prepare the Department for the transition replacement of anticipated retirees over the next two years. Within 9 days, citizens learned that 5 of the 8 police were not being picked up. Their training would continue at the City’s cost, but that they would not join the force for budget reasons.
A week earlier on December 1, 2008, the City of Concord had the second and final reading of its controversial RV/Camper Shell/Motorcycle and ‘Park on the Left in your driveway’ ordinance; within was the hiring of a processing clerk of the ‘grandfathering in permit’ to allow people who have such equipment to continue parking in their own driveways (a right they had but was being taken away). The cost was $100,000 for the position and allocated was another $75,000 for temporaries. The plans called for an additional $175,000 for the subsequent 2 years of enforcement. Despite a public comment advising that this was ill timed, ill advised, and ill financed, the City Council passed the motion unanimously.
At the same meeting, the public comment opened with a renewed request that the City advise the people of the City plans and actions to meet what was apparent all through the nation, namely the current economic crisis, and what its impact would be on the City. The commentator was informed that the City had an excellent staff and was using 10 year planning, thank you. Further we would be well advised to let the exxperts handle our personal finances, and please go away. Additionally we were told that there would be another meeting in January and that, as usual, that would be the proper time to review such matters.
At that same meeting, the City Council unanimously agreed to a new contract for the Pavilion management with Live Nation, a corporation that had announced just a few weeks before that it had $100 million plus in QUARTERLY profits, yet as part of the agreement, the City not only cut their contribution to the rent of the Pavilion by $300,000, it also forgave PAST DUE amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars.
During this same December 1 meeting, the City approved $15,000 bonus and a $11,000+ raise to the City Attorney.
Two weeks later, we learned that in order to save $300,000 to $500,000, the City would mandate the closure of City offices and force employees to apply earned vacation/time off for this layoff period.
This peculiar sequence of events leaves one asking the question of “Is this a coherent City policy?” How are we to understand that the breaking of the commitment to the police and the financial grab at the City Staff was happening while at the same time as everything else?
Do we have a condition on our streets where we can reduce the number of committed Real Police and at the same time hire Aesthetic Police to process permits recording the rights lost?
This brings up the questions of our entire concept of 10 year planning and our faith in the financial steps that we are told to rely upon. Apparently, when actions were taken earlier this year to hire eight officers, the 10-year plan was all OK and Green Light for the next ten years. Then, somehow, months later, that light goes Red, and the same approach says it is OK now to take on a desk job and give a bonus to our friendly staff lawyer.
But wait…There’s more!
In the interim from the decision to fill new police positions to its very celebration of that decision on December 8th, the City Consent calendar has—shock and awe, or should I say shock and awful—a number of consulting awards for everything from telling us what pretty architecture pictures could look like on Monument Blvd., to consulting on Real Estate and Financial Advisory thereof to the Redevelopment Agency ((Free hint: it stinks)).
So we are led to believe that in order to save money we have to shut down the City offices and put hardships on our own employees, but we go along as usual with consultants? What are the odds that there is a clause in the consulting contracts that allows us to shut them down for a week or two and take a savings? I wonder what the odds on this are in Vegas?.
One of the hoped for basic rules in business is “we come first.” The reasons you have consultants is to be able to be free from them on a moment’s notice so as to protect the jobs of the people you have a social commitment to. That is what it originally meant when we used to say in business “my people.” The City needs to realign itself with its people. We need to:
1. eliminate every consultant deal except for extreme emergencies for the next year,
2. review every consultant we have for early termination,
3. review all the types of consulting that was done to see if their advice and action was of any value
4. under no circumstance should we be removing police while approving desk hires for aesthetic monitoring,
5. no position is added, or rewarded while others are losing their jobs to cost savings, a hard blow to some I understand, but we must stand together in tough times and not create further divisions within staff and the community.
6. we cannot afford to appear chaotic in our response to challenges nor should we remain silent while things are seriously changing and the public is seeing government as usual on display while behind things have already changed dramatically to make the public display appear uninformed.
The City Council and the City Manager need to get on the same page. We cannot praise an action on one hand and take it away a week later. The people have to have faith in the creditability of the financial side of the City to respond to things in a cohesive, transparent manner, and not to appear as if they suddenly woke up to a financial crisis that was at the heart of a national campaign for months before the middle of December.
The Chaos Theory is something that I like to envision in my science fiction reading, not live it in my hometown.
Edi Birsan/Easy Does It (sometimes), in Concord
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