Jerry Brown far ahead in polls - As if it matters

Jerry Brown
(AP File Photo)

If it's Brown Flush it Down


Another "phony" and corrupt California election is to be held this November. 

The Sacramento power brokers from both parties have made sure that the voters will only have a Democrat or a Republican to choose from.  The corrupt "bi-partisan" top two primary will keep off the November ballot virtually all smaller opposition parties, independent candidates and your write-in votes have been declared illegal and the Elites will not count them.

The Democrat and Republican Elites have basically said "Fuck you" to the voters.  Our elections are about as free as those held in Russia.

On March 27, the Public Policy Institute of California released a gubernatorial poll. Pollsters mentioned four candidates to respondents.

The results:

• Jerry Brown 47%
• Tim Donnelly 10%
• Andrew Blount 2%
• Neel Kashkari 2%

Three percent of the respondents named someone whom the pollster had not mentioned, and 36% of respondents say they are undecided. Brown is a Democrat and the other three are Republicans.

 There are 15 candidates on the June primary ballot.

The primary is June 3, and only the two candidates who poll the largest vote can appear on the November ballot. Write-ins are banned in November for state office and congressional elections.

Here is the complete poll, which includes many other questions. Scroll down to page 14 for the gubernatorial results.

The pollsters should have included Cindy Sheehan, who is on the ballot as a Peace & Freedom Party member. She probably has more name recognition than either Andrew Blount or Neel Kashkari, and chances are she would have placed third if she had been included.

Via Ballot Access News

Democrats honor "Dragon Head" Crime Boss Arrested with Demo Senator

Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow

• Chow is a notorious gangster who was arrested this week with Democrat Senator Leland Yee.  Chow was given awards by US Senator Diane Feinstein and other San Francisco Democrat hacks.

Raymond “Shrimp Boy”, notorious gangster, was arrested yesterday, along with Democratic State Senator Leland Yee, in a five year long massive FBI investigation including arms deals with Islamic rebels. 

Read more here for all the charges and intrigue.

The video report above was from May 2012. Since that report in May 2012, despite his known history and the cautions about him from police that that report reveals, “Shrimp Boy” was given awards from many Democratic politicians, including U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein reports Weasel Zippers News Service.

Democrat Senator Yeland Yee
"Corruptus in Extremis"

Top role as 'dragon head'

Chow holds a "supreme authority" position in the Triad, an international Chinese organized crime group; heads the Hop Sing Boys, a San Francisco street gang; and serves as the "dragon head," or leader, of the Ghee Kung Tong, a Chinese brotherhood that allegedly provided cover for criminal operations after Chow took over in 2006, according to the affidavit says the San Francisco Chronicle.

He has previously claimed to have joined an organized crime group at age 9 in his native Hong Kong. He has said he joined Hop Sing soon after arriving in the United States in 1976 at age 16 and would later boast that he controlled all Asian gangs in San Francisco.

In 1992, authorities indicted Chow and 26 others for racketeering, saying Hop Sing was involved in everything from underage prostitution to the international heroin trade.

Chow pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in 2000 and was sentenced to 160 months in prison but was released in 2003 after he testified against fellow Hop Sing leader Peter Chong.

Chow became the leader of Ghee Kung Tong, or Chinese free masons, in August 2006, six months after its "dragon head," Allen Leung, was shot to death in his Chinatown import-export business. Leung's murder remains unsolved. Chow cut a striking figure at Leung's funeral, wearing a white suit in a sea of black.

Award From Democratic Mayor Ed Lee:

From LGBT advocate, Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano:

Ghee Kong Tong Freemasons Building was raided by the FBI

Arrested Democrat Senator Leland Yee, left, talks
with Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow.

Democrat Sen. Leland Yee arrested on bribery, corruption charges

Leftist Loon Senator Leland Yee

Another one bites the dust

Yet another Democrat State Senator is arrested by the FBI. 

Let's clean out the entire nest of filth.

"Corruptus in Extremis"  -  A California State Senator who was lauded for his efforts to make government more transparent was arrested Wednesday along with a onetime gang leader known as "Shrimp Boy" during a series of raids by the FBI in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, authorities said.

FBI spokesman Peter Lee confirmed the arrests of State Sen. Leland Yee and Raymond Chow, but declined to discuss the charges, citing an ongoing investigation. Yee was scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in San Francisco later Wednesday.

The agency was executing numerous arrests and search warrants in the Bay Area, FBI Special Agent Michael Gimbel said outside the offices of Ghee Kung Tong, a fraternal organization in San Francisco's Chinatown that Chow reportedly headed. It was among the sites searched. Firefighters were seen going inside with a circular saw and later said they had cracked a safe reports the San Francisco Examiner.

Yee is the third Democratic senator to face charges this year. Sen. Rod Wright was convicted of perjury and voter fraud for lying about his legal residence in Los Angeles County, and Sen. Ron Calderon has been indicted on federal corruption charges. Wright and Calderon are taking a voluntary leave of absence, with pay, although Republicans have called for them to be suspended or expelled from the Legislature

Mark Hedlund, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, confirmed that the FBI searched Yee's office in the state capitol on Wednesday, but he said he had no information about the arrest.

"We're hoping for more as we go through the day," he said.

Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he had no comment and did not know anything about the investigation.

Officers from the California Highway Patrol and Senate sergeant-at-arms details were standing guard outside Yee's office, where a morning newspaper remained untouched.

Yee, 65, represents western San Francisco and much of San Mateo County. A spokesman for the senator, Dan Lieberman, said he had no comment, but the senator's office would release a statement in the afternoon.

Another one bites the dust

A California highway patrol officer stands outside the office of Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, at the state Capitol, Wednesday, March 26, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif. FBI spokesman Peter Lee said Yee was arrested Wednesday, he declined to discuss the charges, citing an ongoing investigation.

AP PHOTO/RICH PEDRONCELLI

Police officers enter a business connected to California State Sen. Leland Yee in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 26, 2014. The FBI said Yee was arrested during a series of raids in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday.

AP PHOTO/JASON DEAREN

Assembly hikes pay for their staffers

Free Money For All

Staff for both Democrats and Republicans in the

Assembly get pay increases.

As the California economy continued its recovery and state revenue grew last year, the Assembly awarded about $1.2 million in raises to a quarter of its full-time employees, including some of its highest-paid staffers, salary records show.

Senate raises were few and far between in 2013. But the payroll for both houses is up about 3 percent from mid-2011, when California was still early in its climb out of the Great Recession reports the Sacramento Bee.

As of Jan. 31, the Assembly had 1,181 non-hourly employees and a payroll of $71.4 million annually, an increase of about 2.5 percent over May 2011, according to legislative records. The Senate’s Jan. 31 payroll was $67.5 million for 992 employees, a 5 percent increase from its July 2011 payroll.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/24/6261518/assembly-hikes-pay-for-many-employees.html#storylink=cpy

Assembly officials said the 2013 raises, most of which range from 4 to 6 percent, were given to employees who had not received raises in recent years. They reflected efforts to prevent the loss of talented employees for better-paying jobs in other branches of government or the private sector, officials said.

“You have to, at some point, look at a staff-retention issue,” said Jon Waldie, the Assembly’s chief administrative officer. “We’re trying to be competitive without being fiscally irresponsible.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/24/6261518/assembly-hikes-pay-for-many-employees.html#storylink=cpy

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said he was not particularly sympathetic to such concerns.

“Welcome to the private sector. In the private sector people are just happy to hang on to their jobs,” Coupal said, adding of legislative jobs: “It’s a good gig if you can get it.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/24/6261518/assembly-hikes-pay-for-many-employees.html#storylink=cpy

Click to enlarge

Everyone loves sucking on the Government Teat.

California GOP Targets Central Valley

California Republicans

Seeking a way back to relevance in the Legislature

 

 

(Los Angeles Times)  -  A cherry farmer from the San Joaquin Valley holds the key to California Republicans' hopes of loosening Democrats' grip on the state Legislature.

Andy Vidak, a Republican who owns an orchard in Kings County, stunned both parties last year with an upset victory in a Senate district where Democrats have a 22-point advantage in voter registration. He ran largely on the basics, promising to cure a shortage of both jobs and water in the agricultural district and oppose the costly bullet train proposed to split the Central Valley.

He sidestepped gay marriage and some other divisive issues — while taking a moderate approach to immigration.

With 100 legislative seats on the ballot this year, Republican leaders took notice. They have developed a $13.6-million plan to deprive Democrats of a supermajority in this year's election, and the confidential document, obtained by The Times, singles out Vidak's success as an example of what needs to be done.

"Our message was that common sense has no party lines," Vidak, 48, said in an interview.

He won by breaking from the party platform where it was an ill fit for his predominantly Latino district and focusing on ways in which residents felt let down by the Democratic majority.

"Mostly we listened," Vidak said. "We are all in the same boat. It's all about water and jobs."

His victory in a special election in the 16th Senate District eight months ago offered a ray of hope for a party that has been in a slump for years.

The Republican share of voter registration in California, at 35% a decade ago, has fallen to less than 29%, and no member of the party has held statewide office since 2006. In 2012, Democrats won supermajorities in both legislative houses, the first time one party had done so since 1933, and Republicans found themselves ignored as major policy decisions were made.

"The California Republican Party has been in decline in California for two decades," said Jim Brulte, the state party chairman. "Some Republicans don't want to believe that, but most objective observers know it to be the case."

Republican Senator Anthony Cannella and Vidak were the 
only two Republican Senators to vote last year for a bill granting
wide access to driver's licenses for undocumented workers. 
Both represent Central Valley districts where Democrats have
a double-digit edge in voter registration.

Brulte took over a year ago and says he is rebuilding the party "from the ground up," asking candidates to craft the message that best fits their constituents rather than adopt positions handed down from on high.

"The candidate that most looks like and sounds like and has the most shared values and shared experience of the majority of voters wins," Brulte said.

The state Republican Party platform calls for enforcement of immigration laws and says that "allowing illegal immigrants to remain in California undermines respect for the law." It also calls for termination of all state benefits, except emergency medical care, to people in California illegally.

Vidak supports a path to citizenship for such immigrants. And he was one of only two Republican senators to vote last year for a bill granting wide access to driver's licenses for people living here without permission.

"I've worked beside folks who are in that situation," Vidak said. Lack of a license can be "a real hardship on people."

The only other Republican senator to vote for that bill was Anthony Cannella of Ceres, who employed a message similar to Vidak's to win election in a Central Valley district where Democrats also have a double-digit edge in voter registration.

Their positions resonated with agricultural workers who have had trouble getting to work and farm owners struggling to find enough field hands to harvest their crops. A majority of the voting-age population in Vidak's newly drawn district is Latino.

Vidak and Cannella also split from most Republican senators in voting for a new law allowing those who reside in California illegally to practice law if they pass the bar exam.

Read more at Los Angeles Times.



Republican Senator Andy Vidak's 16th State Senate District
Voter registration is 45.5% Democrat to 29% GOP.

Republican Senator Anthony Cannella's 12th district.
Voter registration is 46% Democrat and 32% GOP.



Democrats block oil drilling in California city

Democrat run city bans oil drilling

Mouth-breathing Leftist residents say the evil oil

companies "get all the profits."

The Los Angeles area Carson City Council has slapped a ban on any new oil and gas development in the city for the next 45 days, effectively stalling a proposed Occidental Petroleum Corp. drilling project that is unpopular with residents.

The unanimous vote came late Tuesday night, after residents and environmental advocates spent two hours arguing in favor of the temporary ban. The city is in the midst of a comment period for a draft environmental impact report on the project, which seeks to install 200 new oil and gas drilling wells inside a 30-foot-high walled compound on a 6.5-acre site near Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The moratorium blocks the city from accepting any permit applications for drilling, redrilling or deepening of any oil or gas well reports the Daily Breeze.

“There are too many questions, too many concerns and possible bad consequences,” said Councilman Al Robles, who introduced the ordinance. “The questions and possible risks significantly outweigh the possible benefits. I like to go to Las Vegas and gamble but it’s always with my own money and at my own risk. I refuse to gamble with the health and well-being of the residents of Carson.”

Robles advanced the moratorium idea earlier this month in response to ongoing complaints from a vocal group of residents who believe their health and quality of life will be damaged if Occidental is allowed to develop the site over the Dominguez Oil Field.

Occidental has had two test wells there since 2011 and, using modern directional drilling methods, pulled enough oil from deep underground that the company believes it can generate 6,000 barrels of oil and 3 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day when peak production is reached. Though Occidental officials have repeatedly promised not to use aggressive extraction methods like fracking, residents continue to express distrust with the company.

“The oil companies have drilled there for 100 years, and now all the easy-to-get-out oil is gone and ‘Big Oil’ has to resort to riskier methods,” resident Glen White told the council Tuesday. “They get all the profits. We get all the risks. Their profits, our resources.”

Members of Washington D.C.-based Food & Water Watch, Communities for a Better Environment of Huntington Park, and the Palos Verdes-South Bay Sierra Club also asked the council to pass the ban. Last month, the Los Angeles City Council banned any use of controversial well-enhancement methods such as hydraulic fracturing, gravel packing and acidizing. Those aggressive oil-extraction tactics have been banned by several states already because of concerns about environmental risks such as earthquakes and chemical contamination of groundwater supplies.

Carson City Attorney Bill Wynder said he and other staff members will study the dangers of oil and gas extraction during the moratorium and return to the council with a recommendation on how to move forward.

The council could potentially extend the moratorium for another two years.

Killing California Jobs
Socialist Democrats are frightened to death that people might get real jobs in the oil industry that pay real money.  Real jobs make workers independent of the Leftist Cradle to Grave Welfare State.  The happy workers might buy a car, buy a home or maybe even vote Republican.  That cannot be allowed to happen.

California city adpots the highest minimum wage in the nation

"Free" Money for Voters

• Richmond Democrats vote to take money from business owners and to give away the "free cash" to voters in the form of an $12.30 an hour minimum wage.
• As usual the Marxists give no thought to job creation.  What new business would deliberately locate in Richmond? and how many existing businesses will move to Nevada, Texas or Mexico?

The People's Republic of California  -  When you rob Peter to pay Paul you will always get Paul's vote.

The Democrat run Richmond City Council gave initial approval to the ordinance in a 6-1 vote this week; it is scheduled to formally adopt it next month. If adopted, it's believed Richmond would become only the third city in the state to establish its own minimum wage, after San Francisco and San Jose, raising fears among some local business leaders that businesses may leave or avoid the city and quell hiring.

The ordinance would gradually raise the minimum wage in the city to $12.30 an hour by 2017. Any business with 10 or fewer employees would be exempt from the minimum wage requirements, though that was not enough to quell the objections of business leaders who warn the city could lose local jobs.

Tuesday's vote came after Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, the foremost proponent of the plan, opted to rescind a previous directive to put a proposed increase on the November ballot reports the Contra Costa Times.

"It's clear we want a minimum-wage increase, so why not sooner rather than later?" McLaughlin said. "Why wait until November? It's a phased-in approach."

Richmond's attempt to pass a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages was trounced by voters in 2012, in large part because of concerns about the impact on local businesses and millions in anti-tax campaign spending funneled by beverage industry heavyweights.

The council considered three proposals Tuesday, for $11, $12.30 or $15 per hour.

The ordinance includes a provision that would peg the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area each Jan. 1, beginning in 2018.

The ordinance sets a transition period beginning with the effective date of the ordinance, usually 30 days after passage, and ending Dec. 31, during which the minimum wage would be $9. The wage would rise to $9.60 in 2015, and to $11.52 in 2016.

With its new minimum wage, a significant increase over the current state rate of $8 per hour, Richmond is taking a firm stand in a national debate over whether higher minimums help low-wage workers by giving them more money, or hurt them because businesses can't afford to hire as many workers.

Other Bay Area cities are doing the same: San Francisco's $10.74 minimum wage is the region's highest; San Jose's rate is $10.15. Berkeley and Oakland are also mulling possible minimum wage increases, and President Obama has urged raising the minimum wage nationally -- it is currently $7.25 -- but Republicans in Congress are opposed.

Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley Labor Center and co-editor of the book "When mandates work: Raising labor standards at the local level," said Richmond is set to become the 10th city or county in the nation to pass a higher minimum wage.



"At this point, $12.30 would put Richmond at the highest in the nation, but it is quite likely that by 2017 other cities will have set higher rates," Jacobs said.

Paul Levitan, CEO of Galaxy Desserts, said the increase would make it difficult for his 100-plus employee business to add jobs, and cautioned that the $15 option would force him to look to move his company elsewhere.

"If there is too great a difference between wages here and those of our competitors, we won't be able to compete and add jobs," Levitan said.

Asked whether the $12.30 level would affect his business, Levitan said the company may look to automate certain functions and be dissuaded from expanding its work force.

Sergio Rios, vice president of the 23rd Street Merchants Association and a small-business owner, said small businesses in Richmond will have a strong incentive to stay under 10 employees to avoid triggering the wage hike.

"I'm not necessarily against the increase, but the consequences will be real," Rios said. "A business may look to contract to under 10 employees or not expand to more than 10 in order to save money."

Eighteen percent of the city's 105,000 residents live below the poverty line, according to a staff report.

Democrat Racial Quota Bill Blocked

Democrats: "There are too many Asians."

• A racist Socialistic Democrat bill to reduce the number of Asian-American college students is pulled after a wave of protests from Asian American parents.
• As always Leftist Democrats are frightened to death of an individual succeeding on his merits.  To Socialists only Big Brother Government should decide how many members of each racial group will be allowed to become educated.

A bill that would have let California voters reconsider the state's 16-year-old ban on race-conscious college admissions is off the table, its author announced on Monday.

 

Constitutional Amendment 5 passed the state Senate in late January on a party-line vote but ran into an unexpected wave of resistance -- mostly, from Asian-Americans concerned that affirmative action policies would unfairly disadvantage Asian applicants to the intensely competitive University of California system.

A Change.org petition to stop the referendum had more than 112,000 signatures on Monday reports the San Jose Mercury News.

After an about-face by three Asian-American senators who voted for the bill in January, Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, is putting the bill on hold -- and making no promises about its revival.

"I'd like to bring it back," Hernandez said. "I believe in it. I believe we need to make sure there's equal opportunity for everyone in the state of California."

TRANSLATION:  Democrats want to reduce the number of Asian Americans going to college in order to make room for more other groups.

Last week, saying they had received thousands of calls and emails from constituents, Senators Leland Yee, D-San Francisco; Ted Lieu, D-Torrance; and Carol Liu, D-La Cañada/Flintridge asked Assembly Speaker John Perez to stop the bill from advancing any further.

"As lifelong advocates for the Asian-American and other communities, we would never support a policy that we believed would negatively impact our children," they wrote in a letter to Perez.

Yes on Racist Quotas
Leftist Loon Democrat Senator Ed Hernandez (left) wants less opportunity
for Asian Americans and to give college positions held by them to
other groups out of "fairness".

In 1996, California became the first state to outlaw affirmative action in public university admissions and state hiring, a policy that took effect in 1998. The amendment would have allowed voters to lift that ban, either this fall or in 2016.

Hernandez and others have said that misinformation about what affirmative action would mean -- such as racial quotas for new freshmen -- spread quickly, stoking parents' fears about their children's chances getting into UC, the state's public research university system.

Asian-Americans make up about 38 percent of UC undergraduates and have a high rate of freshman admission to its nine undergraduate campuses.

Republicans have tried to seize on the divide. The top GOP leaders of both chambers spoke at "Stop SCA 5" forum Sunday in Cupertino, sponsored by the San Francisco-based Chinese-American Institute for Empowerment.

Now that the Democrats have backed away from the bill, "I don't know that it's going to change the way that Asian-Americans feel about the two political parties," said Melissa Michelson, who teaches California politics and political science at Menlo College in Atherton.

But, Michelson said, the rise and fall of Constitutional Amendment 5 revealed the growing political power of the state's Asian-American voters -- and she doesn't expect state lawmakers to bring the bill back.

"I don't think they're going to," she said, "because what they found is trying to undo the ban on affirmative action makes bad things happen."

"Racism" forces Santa Clarita to use cumulative voting for city council elections

Santa Clarita is the home of Six Flags Magic Mountain

Evil "Racism" is Everywhere

• Leftist professional "racism" attorneys attacked yet another California city for daring to allow candidates for the city council to be elected by majority vote.  Majority rule.  Oh the horror!
• Voters will now get three votes, and voters have the opportunity to vote for one candidate up to three times.

The Los Angeles County city of Santa Clarita (population 205,000) has settled a lawsuit over an alleged California Voting Rights Act violation Tuesday with a closed session vote.

The city is set to move City Council elections to even-numbered years and employ cumulative voting.

 

The decision was made in closed session before Tuesday’s City Council meeting, but it’s not going to affect the ballots that voters will have for the April 8 election, officials said to KHTS News.

“The settlement represents an opportunity for all Santa Clarita citizens to have an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice -- no longer will a bare majority be able to dominate 100 percent of the City Council,” said Kevin Shenkman, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Jim Soliz and Rosemarie Sanchez-Fraser. “(Soliz and Sanchez-Fraser) should be commended for their efforts to make that a reality.”

 

 

The end result will be that the two incumbents who would have been up for election in April 2016 -- Councilmen TimBen Boydston and Bob Kellar -- will be up for election November 2016.

 

Marsha McLean was the lone vote against the closed session vote.

 

"Sometimes you have to look at what's right and wrong, and you have to fight what's wrong," McLean said, adding she was not opposed to moving the elections, one of the terms of the settlement.

 

Voters will still get three votes, however, the move to cumulative voting, or weighted voting, gives voters the opportunity to vote for one candidate up to three times.

 

Both changes are expected to increase voter turnout, part of how alleged violations of the California Voting Rights Act have been remedied in the past. 

 

Cumulative voting is the predominate means of balloting used to select a board of directors in corporate America.

In dozens of communities where cumulative voting is used, it’s the result of lawsuits stemming from the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Fighting the lawsuit "would be very costly to the city," costing more than $1.5 million, according to city attorney Joe Montes in a statement read before Tuesday's City Council meeting.

The attorney's fees for the plaintiffs will be paid by Santa Clarita, which is expected to range between $400-600,000.

The settlement followed a six-hour negotiation, according to court documents.

Warning of 'liberal takeover' McClintock raising cash against GOP opponent

Silencing Conservatives

• McClintock asserts that a well-funded liberal coalition, in coordination with Democrats, is testing a new strategy to silence conservatives in California.
• Three Democrats take out papers to run and then mysteriously all decide to drop out of race at the same time clearing the field for a "moderate" Republican to bring down the Conservative McClintock.
• Corruption - Party primaries were deliberately abolished in a corrupt deal with GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, GOP moderate legislators and Democrats in order to weaken anti-tax, anti-big government Conservative Republicans.

Three days after learning he would face an intraparty challenger, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock has come out swinging against what he’s calling an attempted “total liberal takeover.”

“It’s obvious,” McClintock wrote in an email to his large network of donors, “the liberals want to entice enough Republicans to break off and join Democrats to elect a liberal Republican in a district that won’t elect a liberal Democrat.”

The fundraising appeal follows Republican Art Moore’s entry into the 4th District contest. Under the state’s new primary rules, the top two vote-getters, regardless of political party, advance to the general election in November reports the Sacramento Bee.

Jeffrey Gerlach, who is not affiliated with a political party, is also running.

McClintock’s campaign noted that at least three prospective Democratic candidates pulled papers to run, but ultimately stayed out of the race.

Most of the voters live in Placer and El Dorado counties, but the district stretches south to Fresno County and is heavily Republican.

With no Democrats on the ballot, the district’s 117,765 registered Democrats may be inclined to choose the more moderate Republican candidate.

In his fundraising email, McClintock asserts that a well-funded liberal coalition, in coordination with Democrats, is testing a new strategy to silence conservatives in California. That contention, at this point, is more of a suspicion than anything else.

None of the Democrats has admitted to any coordination. Kris Johnson abandoned her campaign saying a recent injury would require a long rehabilitation period. Donald Colbourn suspended his campaign after a brief flirtation. El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago, who expressed interest in the race, did not return a call seeking comment about her decision not to run.

Moore, a military officer who lives in Roseville, touts himself as a conservative Republican who believes in individual liberty and limited government.

“Art hopes to elevate the dialogue of this race above petty fear mongering,” said Rob Stutzman, Moore’s campaign strategist. “He thinks voters aspire to better campaigns than that. And I assure you, this decorated infantryman is no liberal.”

Meantime, McClintock is telling supporters it will require a full-blown and expensive campaign right through to November.

“There’s good news,” he wrote. The people in the 4th District know me and know where I stand, and I believe we will keep this seat as a conservative one.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/11/6228982/warning-of-liberal-takeover-mcclintock.html#storylink=cpy

 The 4th district encompasses the Sierra from Truckee to the Sequoia National Forest. It consists of Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mariposa, and Tuolumne counties plus portions of Fresno, Madera, Nevada, and Placer counties.
4th Congressional District

'Put SeaWorld out of business' - Assemblyman Richard Bloom

Putting SeaWorld out of Business

• A Nutcase Leftist Democrat Assemblyman wants to end the "evil" exploitation of animals at SeaWorld in San Diego.
• If SeaWorld cannot put on shows for the public it is just a matter of time until they are forced to close their doors.
• Democrats continue on their rampage against California jobs.

A Leftist loon Democrat California state legislator is proposing to ban the captivity of killer whales for entertainment at SeaWorld in the wake of CNN's controversial documentary "Blackfish."

"It is time that we embrace that the long-accepted practice of keeping orcas captive for human amusement must end," state Assemblyman Richard Bloom, a Democrat from Santa Monica, said at a press conference Friday at the city's oceanfront pier.

 

Bloom was joined by "Blackfish" director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, two former SeaWorld orca trainers and an animal welfare activist reports CNN.

 

 

Socialist Bullshit Department

 

"This is about greed and this is about corporate exploitation, both of the whales and the trainers, but most importantly the whales," said John Hargrove, a former SeaWorld orca trainer who resigned in August 2012.

A Bloom statement described the proposal as "landmark legislation calling for comprehensive improvement to orca protection laws in California."

 

Currently, there are no laws prohibiting the captive display of orcas, but there are federal laws governing the care, capture and research use of the killer whales, Bloom said.

 

The documentary, produced by Magnolia Pictures and acquired by CNN Films, recounts the 2010 death of longtime SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau by a killer whale named Tilikum, a 12,000-pound bull, in Orlando, Florida.

 

SeaWorld also offers orca shows at a third site, in San Antonio, Texas, but the California legislation would apply only to SeaWorld's San Diego facility.

 

Assemblyman Richard Bloom
(Socialist Loon - San Monica)

 

SeaWorld strongly disputes the allegations that "Blackfish" makes and called the film grossly one-sided and the product of animal activists.

 

On Friday, SeaWorld spokeswoman Becca Bides criticized the bill.

 

"The premise behind this proposed legislation is severely flawed on multiple levels, and its validity is highly questionable under the United States and California Constitutions," Bides said in a statement. "We trust that our leaders who are responsible for voting on this proposal will recognize the clear bias of those behind the bill."

 

Bides added the participants joining Bloom were well-known "extreme animal rights activists, many of whom regularly campaign against SeaWorld and other accredited marine mammal parks and institutions."

 

"Included in the group are some of the same activists that partnered with PETA in bringing the meritless claim that animals in human care should be considered slaves under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution -- a clear publicity stunt. This legislation appears to reflect the same sort of out-of-the-mainstream thinking," Bides said in a statement. "We engage in business practices that are responsible, sustainable and reflective of the balanced values all Americans share."

 

The proposed law would end performance-based entertainment for all killer whales in California, captive breeding programs and the export and import of genetic material, and the import and export of orcas within the state.

 

Also, the proposal would retire all captive killer whales to sea pens if available and would allow retired orcas to be on display, but not perform. The bill would limit the amount of human interaction for trainer safety, according to Bloom's fact sheet.

 

"Like the elephant -- the largest land mammal in captivity -- we have realized that orcas are more complex than most other marine mammals and require more space, have a more complex social structure and most importantly need their family network (pod) for a happy and healthy life," said a fact sheet by Bloom.

 

Currently, California has 10 captive killer whales, and seven of them were captive-born, according to Bloom.

 

GOP Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin runs for State Controller

(Fresno Bee)  -  Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, considered by some to be an up-and-coming Republican Party star, is testing that theory by running for state controller.

Swearengin -- who still has almost three years left in her second and final mayoral term -- filed paperwork and paid $2,783.78 in fees Tuesday afternoon at the Fresno County Elections Office, said Tim Clark, her campaign consultant.

"I am very serious about getting into this race," Swearengin said Wednesday. "I love the role of public service, and frankly I'm ready for the next challenge."

Swearengin, 41, was first elected mayor in 2008, and easily won re-election in 2012. She was CEO of the Regional Jobs Initiative prior to being elected mayor.

She said running for state controller was the next logical step. It is a position, she said, that has the biggest influence over California's business climate and economic development. Those areas were her focus, she said, both as mayor and at the Regional Jobs Initiative.

Controller, Swearengin said, "is sometimes an overlooked function of state government, but one that has a tremendous impact on the business climate in the state."

There are still additional steps Swearengin must take to finalize her candidacy for the statewide run. These technical steps must be done by Friday to get on the ballot, and she said any run won't be set in stone until then.

But Clark, her consultant, said that's a formality.

"This is official," he said.

Winning the post, however, will be a much greater challenge because this is a blue state in which Democrats enjoy a 15-percentage-point voter-registration advantage over Republicans.

"I think she'd have a really tough time winning statewide office," said Melissa Michelson, a political science professor at Menlo College, located in the Bay Area city of Atherton. "The (voter) registration numbers are against her."

Swearengin will likely face Assembly Speaker John Pérez and Board of Equalization member Betty Yee in the June primary, and possibly others. Under state primary election rules, only the top two will move on to the November general election.

But Clark predicted that Swearengin will be the only Republican on the ballot, which should move her through to the November general election. Both Perez and Yee are Democrats.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/03/05/3804892/fresno-mayor-ashley-swearengin.html#storylink=cpy

California Democrats attack plastic bags instead of unemployment

The Insanity of Liberalism

• Liberals once screamed "save the trees" and plastic shopping bags were introduced to replace paper bags. 
• Now liberals scream "bring back the paper bag" and charge customers 10 cents per paper bag for what was once free of charge. 
• And the mouth-breathing voters keep electing these clowns to office.

Since 2007, plastic shopping bags have been banned in nearly 100 municipalities in California, including Los Angeles, which at the start of this year became the largest city in the country to enforce such a ban.

Lawmakers in Sacramento are trying to make California the first state to approve a blanket ban on this most ubiquitous of consumer products.

“It has become increasingly clear to the public the environmental damage that single-use plastic bags have reaped,” said leftist fruitcake Alex Padilla, a state senator who is sponsoring legislation for a statewide ban. “This is the beginning of the phaseout of single-use plastic bags — period,” reports the New York Times.

 

Padilla’s measure would ban the bags at supermarkets, liquor stores and other locations where they have long been standbys. Paper bags and more robust, reusable plastic bags will be available for 10 cents, with the goal of forcing shoppers to remember their canvas bags.

Many consumers bristle at having to pay for a necessity that has always been free. “We’re already struggling,” Ms. Moya said as she waited in the rain for a taxi with her disintegrating paper bags, bought for 10 cents each. “Groceries cost enough money. Then I have to pay for bags?”

 

The plastics industry has worked furiously to tap into that frustration. So far, the industry — behind millions of dollars spent lobbying lawmakers — has managed to beat back efforts to pass statewide bans in California and a handful of other states.

 

Hilex Poly, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of plastic bags, single-handedly spent more than $1 million lobbying against a bill to ban plastic in California in 2010. That bill failed, as did another attempt in 2013. Hilex Poly, based in Hartsville, S.C., has made political donations to every Democrat in the California Senate who joined Republicans in voting against last year’s bill.

Coming soon from Liberals.