Comments on: Departed Californians Swing Election

By: WASP

WASP — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:53:10 +0000

Packing as we speak.

By: Ron Kilmartin

Ron Kilmartin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 02:54:31 +0000

The high-speed train is another boondoggle that we do not need now of all times. We do need the water and ag-production. Where is the engineering economic analysis that would decommission 60,000 acres of high-value crops and substitute a bullet train? Brown Senior was not a boondoggle man. His projects went a long way towards building the state infrastructure. So now we have Moonbeam (age of limits) Brown coming in to the worst state financial crisis since the 1930s, committed come hell or high water to implementing the AB 32 job loss and business flight bill, and of course committed to support of the state employee unions which he authorized decades earlier. Multiple forces point towards a major reduction in state GDP and state and local tax revenue. Only the AB 32 fleecers will make out in this environment.

By: daryl

daryl — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:00:15 +0000

What’s the big deal about saving farmland? Can’t irrigate it anyway, since the human rights of the Delta Smelt trumps anything Americans need or want. Besides we can buy all our food from Red China with food stamps. They’ll loan us the money on easy terms. Too bad we still can’t buy pot with food stamps, but maybe that will be the next issue for bright Progressive people to unite behind.

By: CalGirl2

CalGirl2 — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:35:44 +0000

The story of the Red part of the State; Fresno County (population 967,000). Fresno has always been a conservative, Chrisitian, farming area. Hispanics/Latinos make up the majority of the population (that’s a fact). There are 469 precincts in Fresno County.
About 2 wks before the elections, we receive postcards saying our polling place may have changed. Out of the 405 polling places, 200 are closed. There is a public outcry, so the Registrar announces a Saturday vote (9AM-5PM). The Registrar says, if your polling place has moved, you have to vote on Saturday. If you can’t make it on Sat., your only other choice is to go to the Fresno Elections Office (that includes voters in the outlying towns). There is another public outcry, so the Registrar announces by radio and TV (it’s too late to mail anything) that you can vote on Saturday or Tuesday. Four days before elections, we receive a Measure Q in the mail; seems they forgot to put it on the ballot. We read it, vote on it, and mail it back. I found out later, many of my neighbors did not receive one or thought it was junk mail and threw it out. We receive another postcard in the mail, stating the Propositions 22 and 23 were incorrectly worded. There had been a court-ordered change on the wording of both propositions (by this time, 144,000 absentee ballots had already been received-too late for them to read the proper wording). The postcard announced the corrected wording would be posted at the polling places because it was too late to change the ballots. Three days before elections, “The Daily Beast” reports that the City of Fresno is the dumbest city in CA. and that San Francisco is the third smartest city in the Nation. You gotta wonder about the timing of that report. Today is Nov. 5th, and Fresno is still counting ballots. There are races that have not been determined. As of yesterday, there were still 90,000 absentee ballots to be counted. Our illustrious Secretary of State, Debra Bowen (Democrat) and our Registrar blame the “inefficiency” on a shortage of staff due to budget cuts. Does a shortage of staff also mean a shortage of intellect? Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina were very popular here. Our unemployment rate is at 17%, but hey!, our Mayor got a phone call yesterday, from the Feds. Seems we are going to get a high speed train and it will tear up about 60,000 acres of prime farmland. It will create thousands of jobs, starting at the end of 2012. In the meantime, 2 of my neighbors moved to Oregon last month, another is moving to Indiana and another is waiting to sell their home and move to Oregon. Yup, if you want to stay sane, “Move East young man, move East”.

By: DavidfromLosGatos

DavidfromLosGatos — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:44:30 +0000

“Now why would the smart, ambitious people from Taiwan, China, and India keep coming here instead of going to Texas and Tennessee?”

Daryl, you may be right. I may be wrong. But, living in Silicon Valley, I am surrounded by smart, ambitious people from Taiwan, China, and India, and their numbers seem to grow as a percentage of the population of the wealthy communities along the west side of the Valley.

By: section9

section9 — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:52:46 +0000

I’m from Florida. I hadn’t thought of the implications of a couple of million Republicans being forced to pull up stakes and leave the Golden State since 1992, when Clinton won the state in a landslide.

The environment out there literally reads like the middle chapters of “Atlas Shrugged”. Only the Men of the Mind aren’t on strike and going to Galt’s Gulch, they’re moving to Texas.

How long can this go on?

By: daryl

daryl — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:50:14 +0000

Now why would the smart, ambitious people from Taiwan, China, and India keep coming here instead of going to Texas and Tennessee?
Why worry about businesses and jobs when we can all have food stamps? Legalized pot would have made easing the pain even easier.

By: DavidfromLosGatos

DavidfromLosGatos — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:24:52 +0000

There may be an off-setting benefit for the current public employees (union or otherwise) to having retirees leave, since this may result in an increased taxable valuation of the houses (many of) the retirees have been living in under prop 13 protection for all of these years.

And, if it is true that a large portion of the six figure pensions given to public safety employees are not subject to state income tax anyway because of a disability claim, then the state is not losing out as much.

In my opinion, CA will see more affluent immigrants from places like Taiwan, Mainland China and India offset much of the affluent white flight. Again, property taxes under prop 13 tend to go up with turnover (notwithstanding the RE bubble bust).

By: Ron Kilmartin

Ron Kilmartin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:42:04 +0000

The failure of 23 can be attributed to the overbearing anti-23 propaganda financed by the green gadget fleecers and the cap and trade fleecers, aided by a compliant press unwilling to dig into the substance of the issue, and depart from following the Democratic party line. However, even some Republicans were clueless on Prop 23, most of all Whitman, but also including the “Citizens for Good Government” out of Covina, which sent out a mailer to Republican voters recommending a no on 23.

Actually Schwarzenegger has been far worse than Whitman, having propelled AB 32 from the very start. I carried on a 4 year correspondence with him on the falsity of the AGW hoax, even sent him a book on the subject. He never got his head out of the sand. He was under a trance induced by the late Stephen Schneider of Stanford University, one of the priests of the anti-carbon church The governor considers AB 32 his personal legacy and gift to California! It will not take long for everyone to realize that AB 32 is a scandal without precedent and will far outrank the Teapot Dome and Watergate scandals of the past.

By: F. Stephen Masek

F. Stephen Masek — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:20:40 +0000

I wonder how many people voted against Prop 23, thinking they were voting against global warming laws and regulations?