Legislators are bribed with Hawaii vacations

Big business, labor unions and oil companies have joined together to BRIBE California state legislators with "free" vacations to Hawaii.

Bi-Partisan Corruption  -  Special interests are bribing legislators of both parties with free vacations to Hawaii


California legislators of both parties are whores.  This is a well known fact.  What we did not know is they are cheap whores who will sell their souls for a Hawaii vacation.

More than a dozen California lawmakers are packing their bags for a weeklong trip to Hawaii to hobnob and discuss key issues with some of the Capitol's most powerful interests.

The legislators will spend five nights at Maui's luxurious Fairmont Kea Lani resort, which bills itself as "a luxurious haven in one of the most scenic places on Earth," reports the Sacramento Bee.

Participants can enjoy a breathtaking combination of sun, sea and turf. The Kea Lani touts a sandy beach, three swimming pools, fine dining, and activities ranging from sailing to kayaking to golf.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, is among those expected to attend, as are Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Oakdale; Sen. Curren Price, D-Inglewood; and Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, officials said.

The conference is the creation of the California Independent Voter Project, or CAIVP, a nonprofit public policy group backed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Chevron, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and other Capitol interests.  CAIVP offers lawmakers free airfare and five nights at the Kea Lani. 

In between golf games and expensive bottles of wine, we are told the legislators will be hard at work talking we each other about the many problems of California.

Bull Shit.

(Sacramento Bee)

"Let them eat cake"



Senators to the People  -  Go Screw Yourselves.
California State Senators have charged the taxpayers $111,316 for meals including gourmet offerings from Tex Wasabi, owned by Food Network star Guy Fieri.


State Senate uses $111,316 in taxpayer money to buy gourmet food for their members

ar·ro·gant/ˈarəgənt/

Adjective:

Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.

California legislators are some of the most arrogant bastards in the United States.

At $95,291 a year these worthless Socialist morons have bankrupted the People's Republic of California.  Now they are eating high on the public dime charging taxpayers for $111,316 in "free" meals. 

This corruption and arrogance to totally bi-partisan.  Republican Senators were happy to stick their snouts deep in the trough of free food charged to the taxpayers.  No Republican held a press conference to bring the issue to the attention of the public.  It took newspapers to do that.

The Los Angeles Times reported that some of the catering even came from such culinary standouts as Tex Wasabi, owned by Food Network star Guy Fieri.

• $2,900 a month was paid for granola, yogurt and snacks of fresh fruit (pears, white nectarines, Clementines) and sweets (Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Klondike bars and snickerdoodle cookies), the receipts show.
• Senators lunched on teriyaki chicken breast, rice pilaf, salad and fresh-baked cookies for $1,659.
• The public picked up the $935 tab for an assortment of meats, cheeses and breads from a local Italian deli.
• In one day taxpayers bought 90 meals for 36 senators — who also receive a tax-free $143 per diem for Sacramento expenses.

The Senate has spent at least $111,316 in taxpayer funds on food, an increase of more than 10% over the previous 12 months, while working to cut 6% from the budget for state services.

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Democracy is Dead in California

The legislators of both parties in California could not give a God Damn what the voters think about them.

After all, if you don't like what your Senator is going just what the Hell are you going to do about it?  Run against him?  What a joke!

There is no democracy in California.  Pretend elections are held to make the people think election day has any meaning, but California long ago became an oligarchy dictatorship of special interest Billionaire Cartels who purchase their own Senators.

With only 40 members, each Senator represents about 925,000 people.  While in neighboring Oregon each Senator represents about 126,000 people.

It costs millions and millions of dollars to campaign in these ultra, mega-sized districts, and Billionaire Cartels of Corporations and Labor Unions provide the money.  The election winners know full well that the voters back home had nothing to do with their victories.  The Special Interests own the legislators.

REFORM IS NEEDED  -   First, make the legislature part-time.  Slash their pay to $1,000 a year, meet for 90 days and then they need to go back home and work for a living.  Second, get with the population of the 21st century and vastly increase the number of Senators. 

Get the district size down to a level where ordinary people like the local CPA, teacher or gas station owner can easily run for and win public office.  Return power to the voters.  Not the Cartels.


Democracy is Dead in California
District size makes for corruption.  With only 40 State Senators for over 37,000,000 people each district has a population of about 925,000 people.  Because of district size Senators no longer represent the people.  They represent the special interests who provide the millions and millions of dollars needed to campaign in these monster, mega-sized districts. 

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Unions force massive increases in California college tuition

Under Liberal Government college costs are out of control.
Because of a corrupt alliance between labor unions and Liberal political hacks there are no cost controls in the system of public education.  No politician has the balls to defy the unions. 

21% increase in fees
California's public universities enacted the highest average tuition increase of any state in the nation

• A one-party Liberal dictatorship in California results in massive fee increases to "The People" that Leftists claim they love so very much.
• A 37% increase in California community college tuition.

California's public universities enacted the highest average tuition increase, 21%, of any state, the annual study on college costs found. The state enrolls a tenth of the nation's public four-year college students.

But even excluding California, tuition prices at such colleges rose significantly nationwide this year, an average of 7%, the College Board found.

Connecticut and South Carolina were lowest, at 2.5% each, reports the Los Angeles Times.  Because of the Labor Union-Liberal Politician alliance college costs are out of control in California..

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At California's community colleges, this year's 37% tuition jump was the steepest percentage increase in the nation.

The nation's private nonprofit four-year colleges raised tuition and fees 4.5% this year.

LABOR UNIONS  -  The facts are most of the costs in running a school are labor costs.  Wages and benefits.  Neither the Socialist Democrats nor their Fellow Traveler Republican helpers will address the price of labor because of the power of public employee unions. 

The Democrats eagerly want to be bought and paid for by union money while the Republicans want to fly under the radar, not rock the boat and hope no one notices them.

There is a vast oversupply of people with advanced degrees who are qualified to teach at colleges.  Universities often get hundreds of applications for a job opening.  But instead of labor costs going down because of oversupply, costs are increasing due to the public employee labor unions buying their own personal members of the legislature with campaign money.

And the tax dollars keep flowing into a corrupt system.  Grants and federal tax benefits averaged $5,750 for students at public four-year colleges and $15,530 for those at private nonprofit schools, according to a financial aid study also released by the College Board.

The study showed increased reliance on loans, especially those backed by the federal government.  About 56% of students who earned bachelor's degrees at public colleges in 2009-10 graduated with debt, with an average burden of $22,000. At private nonprofit schools, 65% of graduates had loans, with an average debt load of $28,100.

To keep ex-students in poverty, the Federal government does not allow you to include student loans in a bankruptcy.

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GOP puts $400,000 into Gerrymandering fight

The newly drawn districts are still corrupt, and as long as humans draw them they always will be corrupt.

Bolstered by a new $400,000 donation from the California Republican Party, officials of a referendum campaign to overturn the state's newly drawn Senate districts say 400,000 voter signatures have been collected and a full-court-press has been launched for more.

"I'm confident that we're going to do it," political strategist David Gilliard, who is running the campaign, said of prospects for gathering the required 504,760 valid voter signatures by Nov. 14 to place the issue before voters next year, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Gilliard said that signature-gathering had slowed temporarily because campaign coffers were draining, but the California Republican Party's six-figure contribution last week cured the problem and "we were able to unleash our people back again."

The Republican-backed referendum drive targets maps that critics say are likely to give Democrats the two additional Senate seats needed for the party to gain a two-thirds majority, the margin needed to raise taxes or fees.

The campaign has a goal of collecting 700,000 voter signatures - roughly 100,000 for each of the next three weeks, Gilliard said.

Gilliard's group also is pushing a lawsuit challenging the new Senate districts as unconstitutional. Boundaries dilute Latino voting in parts of California and violate criteria established by voters in a 2008 ballot measure that created the state's redistricting commission, the suit contends.

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Former U.S. Senate candidate moves to Texas

One of the few good guys leaves this once Golden State for Texas

California Republicans often point to the Lone Star state's economy as a model their home state should seek to emulate.

Now, one well-known GOP official got tired of pointing and has decided to pack up his bags and leave the Golden State, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Former GOP Assemblyman and U.S. Senate hopeful Chuck DeVore has given up his Orange County supervisor bid to move his family to Texas. While caring for aging parents was one factor in the move, the Irvine Republican also blamed California's economic climate, writing in a statement on his website that he's "found it hard to earn enough to support my family" since leaving office last year.

"My old aerospace clientele has fled to greener, less-expensive pastures Combined with the drain on our savings caused by six years of public service in the Assembly, we have come to the reluctant conclusion that it is time to move," DeVore wrote.

DeVore has accepted a new job as a visiting scholar at the nonprofit Texas Public Policy Foundation, where he will write a book on "the Texas Model of how low taxes and low government spending, a light and predictable regulatory environment, respect for property rights, and a business-friendly legal climate has turned Texas into America's jobs generating dynamo."

He won't be the only California transplant working for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Joshua Treviño, a former legislative and campaign aide to DeVore, serves as the institute's director of communications.

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Teachers - Do your job or you are fired



Pansy California Democrats pass a law to stop bullying by requiring more teacher "training." 



Moronic Democrats answer to everything  -  'Hold a committee meeting and do training' . . . how about doing your job!


Two California laws passed into law by the one-party Socialist Democratic Dictatorship late Sunday expand the definition of bullying to include sex orientation, require additional training for school staff and allow students who have been bullied to transfer districts.

AB 1156, sponsored by the California State PTA and introduced by Assemblyman Mike Eng, (Socialist Democrat - Monterey Park), links bullying to poor academic performance, reports the Orange County Register.

"Every child is entitled to a safe and peaceful school environment that is orderly and empowering," Eng said in a statement Monday.
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The law also requires school-site personnel to be trained to handle bullying as part of a larger definition of school safety.




What a bunch of pansy, limp-wristed pussies!

We need more "training" to deal with bullying. 

Bull shit.

How about asking teachers and administrators to do their God Damn fucking job or get fired?

The Liberal crap is flowing deep and heavy.  But let's get to the core issue here.  No child should be bullied in school.  So you have a meeting with administrators and teachers and tell them to get their classrooms and schools under control or they are fired.  Period.

The adults need to act like adults . . . not like pansy cowards who are afraid of their own shadows.  You don't need a new law.  You don't need training.  You only need to fire people until the staff does the job they are paid to do.

Teachers.  Grow a set, do your job or get out.

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California legalizes voter fraud

Jerry Brown makes voter fraud legal

Jerry Brown is signing into law a number of bills.

Residents of the People's Republic of California will be able to register to vote online for 2012 elections under legislation signed into law today by Socialist Governor Jerry Brown.

The Democratic Party basically legalized voter fraud in the state.  Combine on-line registration with absentee ballots and no human being will ever see this "voter" in person.  The state will be filled with Ghost Voters who will vote 100% Democrat.

Senate Bill 397, by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, allows to state to begin registering voters online ahead of the completion of a new statewide voter registration database.

Read more: Sacramento Bee

Brown signs law eliminating fringerprinting for food stamps

Socialist Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation eliminating the state's requirement that food stamp applicants be fingerprinted, a bid to increase participation in the federally-funded CalFresh program.

With no checks on food stamps let's just give away cash all day long . . . . . which is exactly what Socialist want.  Then they can complain there is not enough tax money.

Welfare is a scam.

State Assembly lied about staff costs

The California Assembly under reports spending on personal staff in a way that clouds how the lower house spends its $146.7 million budget, a computer analysis by a Stanford-based nonprofit group announced today.

The findings by California Common Sense mirror a similar analysis by The Bee, which concluded that more than 170 personal staff salaries are being paid by committee funds and an additional 70 by leadership stipends. The augmentations exceeded $10 million for the first eight months of the legislative year.

Read more: Sacramento Bee

Brown signs bill fucking older people

Socialist Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring health insurance plans in California to cover childbirth and other maternity services, eliminating an exception that allowed some smaller plans to exclude those services.

Older people who no longer want or can have children will be forced to pay for insurance they have no need for.

This is called fucking the voters and lining the pockets of insurance companies.

Two bills Brown announced signing this afternoon, Senate Bill 222 and Assembly Bill 210, require individual and small group plans to provide coverage for maternity services starting in July 2012.

Democrats will medicate children without parental consent

Socialist Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation allowing children who are 12 and older to seek medical care to prevent sexually transmitted infections without parental consent, including vaccinations against human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer.

Assembly Bill 499, by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was sponsored by public health officials and opposed by parental rights advocates, vaccination opponents and religious and conservative groups.

Randy Thomasson, president of the conservative SaveCalifornia.com, said in a prepared statement that Brown "obviously doesn't care about informed consent for patients or parental consent for dads and moms."

California doubles state debt



California spending has been out of control of years, but just now do
the Child-like Socialists in government realize they are running out of play money.



California will devote nearly 8 percent of its general fund budget to paying off debt . . . up from 3.4% 

• The People's Republic owes $2,542 per person (compared with the national median of $1,066)
• Democrats demand tax increases out of "fairness"

 

The bi-partisan Big Government Socialist spending binge in the People's Republic of California has come to an end.  Like all children playing with mom and dad's credit card that credit line has run out.  Now comes the time to pay the interest on that debt you rang up.

Can anyone spell G-R-E-E-C-E?

California will devote nearly 8 percent of its general fund budget to paying off debt this fiscal year, more than twice the share of eight years ago, according to a new report from Socialist Democrat Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

The state has long borrowed for massive public works projects intended to last across generations. But state leaders and voters went on a notable binge during flush economic times in the past decade reports the Sacramento Bee.

The People's Republic approved bonds for parks, flood protection, classrooms, children's hospitals, stem cell research and high-speed rail. They also borrowed in 2004 to bridge a budget deficit from the last recession.

The combination of higher bond payments and declining tax revenues has driven the debt burden to 7.8 percent of the general fund budget.

 

The rate is more than double the 3.4 percent California devoted to debt in 2003-04.

California also faces a higher debt burden compared with other states. It owes $2,542 per person, compared with the national median of $1,066.

Lockyer's report warns that if borrowing continues to rise, "That growth will come at the expense of other vital public services. Those services already are under severe strain."

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Monster wave of new home foreclosures to hit



A monster wave of new home foreclosures to hit Northern California.
Socialist Big Government Democrats are clueless on how to create jobs.  Their
answer to everything is more taxes and anti-business regulations.



Democrats are Clueless:  A tidel wave of new foreclosures . . . but don't you dare ask for new private sector jobs to be created in the People's Republic 

A monster wave of new foreclosures threatens to engulf Sacramento's already battered real estate market as major banks move to slash their backlog of delinquent loans.

Socialist Democrats cannot seem to grasp that if you encourage new business or the expansion of current businesses that might create jobs.  With jobs people could afford to make their house payments.

To the Socialists of this People's Republic the only answer to everything is more taxes.

Nearly one out of every seven mortgages in the Sacramento region is somewhere in the foreclosure pipeline, a grim reality that could hold back any near-term recovery in the local housing market, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of local foreclosure data.

Based on the average monthly sales in the capital region, it would take a year and a half to exhaust this "shadow inventory" of distressed properties. In the past two years, such distress sales have dominated the local real estate market, pressing prices ever-downward and making it hard for other sellers to compete.

"This problem is going to be with us for a while," said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group.

A Bee analysis of foreclosure records compiled by Irvine-based RealtyTrac and Foreclosure-Response.org places the Sacramento region's shadow inventory at 53,256 homes in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties.

This figure includes three categories of distressed properties:

• 12,285 houses already owned by lenders but not sold.
• 19,367 units whose owners have received an initial foreclosure notice, or notice of default, but have not yet been foreclosed upon.
• Another 21,604 borrowers who are 90 days or more behind on their payments but have not yet been served with a foreclosure notice.

Lenders won't foreclose on all these homes. A sizable number of homeowners will win lender approval for short sales, which allow them to sell for less than they owe and get out of their mortgage. Others will obtain loan modifications.

But a big chunk of the distressed properties will be taken over by the banks because the amounts owed are so large and the loans have been delinquent for so long.

"This problem has been lingering for a long time," said Doug Covill, president of the 5,500-member Sacramento Association of Realtors. "The sooner we get through this inventory, the sooner the economy improves."

The region's mountain of distressed loans grew over the past year, in part because major lenders suspended or slowed down completion of foreclosures in response the "robo-signing" scandal. Banks and mortgage servicers were accused of rubber-stamping foreclosures without actually reviewing homeowners' loan documents.

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California ranks #50 out of 50 on business climate

California continues to decline.  Socialist Democrats are clueless on how the economy works in the real world.


The Socialist leaders of the People's Republic continue to live in their fantasy world of an equal, "fair" and perfect Worker's Paradise while the state slides into poverty.

California ranks last among the states for best business climate on yet another survey of corporate executives. This newest one was conducted by the New York-based Development Counsellors International.

California has been the worst-ranked state on this survey, conducted every three years, for the past four surveys dating back to 2002. New York was worst before that, says the Orange County Register.

It’s not the first survey to label California unfriendly to business. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranks California 48th. CNBC ranked the Golden State 49th for cost of living. Council on State Taxation gave California a D —.

“With the battle for business more intense than ever, states and their economic development organizations need to pay close attention to the results of this survey,” said DCI President Andrew T. Levine. “Whether accurate or misguided, perceptions about a location’s business climate often play a crucial role in site selection decisions and where companies invest money and create jobs.”

More than 7 out of 10 (71%) of respondents said California is bad for business citing (more than one answer was allowed):

• High taxes, 40%
• Too much regulation, 36%
• High cost, 23%
• Anti-business climate, 17%

While California was the worst by a wide margin, the other states joining California at the bottom of the heap are:

• New York, 47%
• Illinois, 24%
• New Jersey, 24%
• Michigan, 16%

The major negatives for New York were taxes, 61%; costs, 38%; and regulations, 19%.
The states with the most favorable business climates are:

1. Texas, 49% (top ranked on every survey back to 1999)
2. North Carolina, 27%
3. South Carolina, 14%
4. Tennessee, 14%
5. Florida, 14%

If these business executives vote with their feet, many businesses will be on the move because 46% told this survey that their company will make a decision about moving, expanding or consolidation within the next two years. An additional 31% were not sure about possible movement.

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