Go John and Ken!
John Seiler:
Especially when there’s a hot California politics topic in the air, I try to listen to KFI AM 640’s broadcast of John and Ken weekday afternoons. If you’re not in the Los Angeles area, you can listen to them here.
They were in rare form Feb. 28, ridiculing five California politics columnists for attacking John and Ken themselves. The topic, of course, was Gov. Brown’s $60 billion tax increase proposal ($12 billion a year for five years). Over five years, that’s about $5,000 for every family in the state.
Except for the Chron’s John Diaz, I didn’t catch the names of the other columnists because I was bobbing in and out of traffic. But it doesn’t matter.
As John and Ken pointed out, it was pretty strange that all five of these columnists came out swinging at them at the same time. John and Ken have led the fight against the tax increases voters defeated in 2009 and 2010. And they also have a “Heads on the Stick” campaign against any Republican sellouts who back tax increases, such as Unable Able “Can’t Believe I’m Lieutenant Governor” Maldonado, who last November was wiped out in his re-election bid.
Their current “Heads on a Stick” campaign includes 10 GOP legislators who haven’t taken the “No New Taxes” pledge against putting Gov. Brown’s tax-increase scam on a special June ballot, complete with phone numbers to call the legislators. Let’s name them, as of Feb. 28, 2011: Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, Sen. Tom Harmon (always a “moderate,” in my experience here in Orange County), Assemblyman Paul Cook, Sen. Bob Huff, Sen. Sam Blakeslee, Sen. Anthony Cannella, Sen. Tom Berryhill, Sen. Bill Emmerson, Assemblyman Bill Berryhill and Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen.
The columnists are saying that all they want is “democracy,” so let’s let people “vote” in Jerry’s Special Election. As we’ve commented on here at CalWatchDog.com, that always has been a joke. For one thing, if they really believed in “democracy,” how about putting a new Gann Limit on the ballot? Not just this time, but last year and next year and the year after?
The Gann Limit, if restored (voters passed it 30 years ago, but it was effectively repealed later), would limit increases in state spending to increases in population plus inflation.
I guess, for these columnists — and Gov. Brown and the Democratic Legislature and all those tax obsessives — some democracy is OK, and some isn’t. It’s like in Orwell’s “Animal Farm“: Four legs good, two legs bad. Until the pigs start walking on two legs. (See the full video, for free, below.)
And speaking of pigs, what’s democratic about governments as wasteful as ours? It’s worth pointing again to Sunday’s L.A. Times story on the massive waste in L.A. Community Colleges’ $5.7 billion bond.
And if we’re going to have “democracy,” how about if the public-employee unions pledge that, if there’s a vote on taxes, they won’t use their vast warchests to support it?
As things stand, here’s how “democracy” works: Taxpayers are taxed to death. The money goes to the government employees. The union siphons off tens of millions in dues form the employees. The tens of millions in dues then go to run ad campaigns backing tax increases on the ballot, or bought-and-paid-for politicians who vote for tax increases.
Rinse and repeat.
Year after year.
After year after year after year after year after year.
It’s not democracy. It’s racket.
March 1, 2011
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John, you have got to be kidding. While we usually differ greatly on politics, I never suspected you were a closet Neanderthal who supports rabid dogs like John and Ken.
This piece by conservative talk show host Eric Hogue is a much better response than anything I could write:
Republican beheadings are killing the party
By Eric Hogue
While Republican heads continue to fall, Los Angeles radio station KFI’s afternoon shock jocks John and Ken laugh all the way to the bank. Warning to all Republicans; these boys are not Republicans, and they don’t give a damn about the future of the GOP. All these boys care about is producing shocking talk radio and boosting their ratings while choking a party to death.
It was their very own “heads on sticks” campaign that helped produce the Democratic majority in Sacramento to begin with, especially when you consider that these same boys effectively supported Jerry Brown for governor.
Question: Considering that it’s Gov. Brown’s budget proposal for a tax increase proposition, will they put their own “heads on sticks” for their November gubernatorial performance?
Fourteen days ahead of Brown’s self-imposed budget deadline, Republicans create a “Taxpayers Caucus” in order to out fellow Republicans who “may negotiate a deal” to place Brown’s tax extension proposal on a June special election ballot.
If I am wrong, then someone needs to explain to me the great urgency to be booked on John and Ken’s afternoon headless charade just a few short hours after the initial press conference. It all seemed orchestrated; the logical conclusion, to allow these shock talk hosts to take out their sharp tongues and decapitate their very own caucus members. Don’t we understand that these myopic boys are pushing GOP politicians into positions that will doom the party?
What Republicans need are leaders able in negotiations for good, prudent governance. What we don’t need is two wild-eyed independent shock jocks earning high ratings at the expense of Republican branding, chemistry and leadership.
All these boys care about are their ratings and contracted bonus checks – cashing these stipends while sucking the last evidence of life from a party they couldn’t care less about. The Republican minority needs serious dialogue involving solutions if we’re ever going to work toward being a majority party in the near future.
The voters of California handed Republicans a silver budget bullet in November. Republicans have an opportunity to secure government, union and regulatory reforms never before imagined. But we seem more concerned about who is, and who is not, in good membership with a new Taxpayers Caucus whose bylaws forbid any support of placing a tax proposition before the people of California.
Republicans have been given a sincere opportunity to negotiate reforms with the governor that would drastically change public employee unions and their pensions, reducing numerous regulatory barriers killing the business and private sector, and ultimately implementing a real spending cap limiting government while greatly mitigating the effects of AB 32. And at the same time, we can still fight for the defeat of taxes placed by Brown at the ballot.
Hear me out: nobody wants new, continuing or additional taxes – and nobody is saying Republicans must support any tax proposition that hits the ballot. But know this, when you are given a moment in time you stand up for the future of your party and California, and you earn the right to govern in a majority. You don’t run to two independent radio entertainers – who effectively endorsed Jerry Brown for governor – to out fellow party members, while great Republican leadership is being exampled in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.
True conservatives would be using this opportunity for the future of the state. In fact, Gov. Ronald Reagan would consider it a sin against conservatism to let this moment pass. Even more egregious: allowing two self-concerned shock jocks to spend this rich Republican opportunity on themselves.
John and Ken get some of the details wrong, such as world war two ending the depression, but they swing a big club and are often right and often funny.
I download their podcasts commercial free from ITunes.
PS Never heard of Eric Hogue before but he writes like a party hack.
Steveo, you already posted that garbage houge “story” on here. It was garbage the first time, and now it just looks like a pathetic attempt to take the opinion of one person that claims to have an R behind their name, and preach it as if that should be the stance for everyone.
I dont know if houge is you brother in law, business partner, or just the first article you could find that pushed for your agenda, but your resting way too much on an opinion piece by some guy no one has even heard of. This guy is full of himself and figured he would get more notariety for going against the grain than he has in the last few decades of his career. His arguements show that he is more concerned about receiving symbolic concessions from the Dems instead of demanding that our elected officials do what is right for the people of CA.
The fact that you are touting houge as an ideal example of “bi-partisanship” & how CA should be run is a dispicable example of what is wrong with Sacramento and why our state is on the brink of bankruptcy despite having some of the highest taxes in the nation. You should probably stop spreading that garbage as gospel so houge can fade back in to obscurity.
StevefromSacto: I don’t care about the Republican Party, which committed suicide when it backed Arnold, then Meg. What I care about is not increasing taxes $60 billion over 5 years, or $5,000 per family.
As to Neanderthals, as you may have read, the latest science shows they interbred with humans, so I’m proud of my Neanderthal heritage:
http://news.discovery.com/human/neanderthal-human-interbreed-dna.html
Here is to interbreeding with humans. The humans I have been with say its not all that bad.
John, I posted this before but its worth noting that according to the LAO, its 8 billion in cuts and 70 billion in taxes over 5 years, not 60 billion. Heard that from Assemblyman Don Wagner (r) on the Chris Reeds show.
Although Chris is dangerously close to a Reagan idolater thankfully he renounces any Republican affiliation. Chris’s show is also podcast on ITunes commercial free and is far superior to John and Ken.
David: Thank you. $60 billion or $70 billion — it’s all imaginary numbers. But do you have a link to the $70 billion number?
John,
I heard the interview on the podcast. No link. I bet if you call Don Wagner’s office they can give you the link.
Eric Hogue got one thing right, John and Ken are not Republicans, nor are they Democrats. They are on the side of the taxpayer, which apparently NONE of the California legislators are. If the Republicans keep promising they won’t allow taxes to be raised in order to get elected, then vote to get these taxes on the ballot…THAT will signal the end of the Republican party in California for sure. There is no point to them. Their only use is to control the Dems on taxes and they won’t even do that. To Hell with All Politicians.
I’ll check Wagner’s office. That higher number might be assuming the economy would get better. Which it might not.
Good article highlighting the John and Ken’s Show bombastic drivetime political opinion radio blast that has more than 1.3 million daily listeners.
While I have always enjoyed the J and K show and thier “Heads on a Stick” canpaign has had some effectiveness in the push back against higher taxes, thier recent campaign against legislatures who have shunned joining the new TaxPayer Caucus formed by Tony Strickland and Don Wagner has purposely left out the two republican “leaders” of both the Senate and the Assembly-Sen. Bob Dutton and Assemblywoman Connie Conway.
Sen. Bob Dutton has long been John and Ken’s pet legislator and now they are giving him a pass from putting his head on the proverbial stick- pickinhg solely on the legislators who are not the two leaders.
I called Bob Dutton’s office last week to encourage him to join the Tax Payer caucus and I was told he did not think it was important or meaningful. I replied that it was certainly meaningful to me and therefore it should be meaningful to Sen. Dutton.
Having your head on John and Ken’s stick has put an end to several legislators quest and desire for higher office, so I am surprised by Dutton’s and Conway’s refusal to join the Tax Payer caucus, just as much as I am surprised in John and Ken’s hypocrisy in not including them in thier bombastic radio campaign.
Voting to put tax increases on the ballot is a clear violation of the Tax Payer Protection PLedge (ATR pledge) that most of the Republican legislators have signed. This is the position of Americans for Tax Reform itself.
Once the tax increases are put ion the ballot, Gov. Brown knows he will have more than $60 Million dollars at his disposal to dump on non stop television and radio ads- spinning higher taxes as the only solution. I can hardly wait to see the ads featurinhg down trodden teachers, cops and fire fighters who would be theoretically punished and harmed by the voter’s rejection of the Tax increases.
What would be more effective would be intead to show some of the 30,000 bureaucrats who should be terminated instead of raising our taxes.
Reducing tax rates will both stimulate the economy and increase revenue to government over time. This is the New Conservative Paradigm message in a nutshell.
Raising taxes today in California will not bring in the estimated revenue, but rather will only encourage businesses to continue downsizing and refrain from hiring any new employees or bringing their previous employees back on line. Several of my friends who have small to medium sized businesses are doing just that…cutting back their overhead and number of employees so that their business makes only enough to support themselves and no one else.
They are committed to keeping their taxable income down as low as possible to reduce their exposure from the barage of higher taxes here in California.
Some of them have just cloed up shop or have moved out of state completely.
The normal up and down business cycles of the past have now been replaced with our current economy which has become the new “normal”. The European private sector has been experiencing the same thing now for many years.
Nationally, this has been caused by the election and policies of our current President. On top of that, California has the additional sufferage of being held hostage by two bus loads of liberal democrat legislators and a mixed up left wing Governor who himself is responsible for today’s mess when he introduced the unionization of public employees in the early seventies.
Welcome to bankruptcy.
There’s a glaring error in this article. The current Heads on a Stick charade isn’t about those who haven’t signed the No New Taxes Pledge. Rather, it is concerned with outing the legislators who haven’t joined the newly formed Taxpayers Caucus. Many of the legislators impaled by John and Ken have signed the No New Taxes Pledge. And so it goes…