california

For those of you who are fortunate enough to live in a state wherein sanity yet abides, count your blessings. The downward spiral of California predates this and several other recessionary periods. It goes all the way back to our present Governor Moonbeam’s father, the late Governor Edmund G.’Pat’ Brown… liberal Democrat, of course.

The state’s sob sisters managed to virtually empty the state’s mental hospitals, utilizing Assembly Bill 691. This bill was signed into effect by Governor Brown, though Governor Ronald Reagan was to take the rap for it. The bill’s original purpose was, as all liberally conceived schemes are, written and signed with all of the greatest of good intentions.

Initially, AB 691 was to remove the some 13,500 patients suffering from ‘mental retardation’ and place them in group home settings. Unfortunately, some people who probably would have best functioned in an institutional setting were also released. As time went on, many other patients suffering from various mental disorders were released as well. It proved impossible to control these folks in the communities and many can be found in homeless encampments… or on the streets.

The liberal march to the sixties and the communist-inspired revolutions in our colleges turned the society on its ear, as Vietnam played out to its tragic conclusion, with cowardly US politicians literally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It was that dizzy psychedelic atmosphere that brought Jerry Brown to the people of California in 1975. He proceeded to cultivate the public employees’ unions to consolidate his power base, and one of the state’s great political sell-outs was begun. The story since then has been one of virtually complete DeMarxist control over the state. Republican Conservatives were isolated and powerless to stop the radical agenda.

Fast forward to 2010… The public service unions, including the CTA, see Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown as their best bet to continue the death-grip of unfunded liability and oppressive contracts. In spite of having everything his way, Governor Brown has had to admit he couldn’t turn one Republican to his tax increases. I’ve been as harsh about California’s lackluster Republican Party and our Republican State Representatives as anyone could be. After all, they had sold us out for petty political advantage time after time.

I really hope that this is a harbinger of the future. They stood up and stood on principle. That’s what we’re looking for. Stand tall.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

Since we received some queries last week… I’m back! Last week was one of 15 hour days for me. It’s just the nature of the business I’m in. I liked the way Dee answered one comment from an affiliate: “It’s just too hard to put on his writing head after all those hours”. Pretty apt description.

It’s proven really difficult to impress upon the establishment types the dire necessity of tackling the Mexican issue as a matter of party policy. You cannot separate the border issues from the economy… nor can the 20 million plus illegals, feeding like leeches from the veins of American taxpayers, be ignored any longer. The asinine assertion that we can’t remove these law breakers… felons by any American legal definition… is just so much bull bleep.

As has been shown in the past during any period of stringent enforcement, they repatriate themselves. Don’t try to sell us the sob stories either. How would a citizen of the US (or any other country) fare if caught sneaking into Mexico, or anywhere else in Central or South America? They don’t exactly roll out the welcome mat down there.

Witness what’s occurring in Arizona as we speak. Thousands of illegals are leaving under the impetus of the implementation of Arizona’s immigration enforcement initiatives. Unfortunately, they’re heading for States where the goodies are still being ladled out, like California, whose really simple-minded state legislature has just voted to allow in-state tuition for illegals and the children of illegal aliens in the California university system.

The State of California has an unfunded debt liability of over 40 billion dollars. We see the Governor of California lying outright, in order to gain support for his union welfare tax increases.

Illegal aliens cost the state over 10.5 billion dollars annually, and they pay an additional one point four billion dollars every year to incarcerate 20,000 more illegals. The state is broke. It’s a disaster looking for a place to occur. California state lawmakers should be removed for malfeasance in office. It makes one wonder if California voters will ever break the shackles of union/state imperialism. Other states tell a similar story.

It’s imperative, then, that whoever we put forward to carry the Conservative banner has a firm grip on the subject of illegal immigration and the intestinal fortitude to recapture America for Americans.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

The leftists have worked long and diligently to bring themselves, and us, to where we stand today in this country with regard to our national energy picture. I’ve been out of the news cycle for three days now, and in the new media that’s several lifetimes.

That includes Scott Walker’s stunning victory in Wisconsin, which has the public sector unions and the Democrats in the State Senate changing their depends frequently. It’s a template for states all over the country. The public sector unions and their bought-and-paid-for Democrat party are losing it all over the country. Because they are essentially Marxist ideologues first and foremost, they’re blind and deaf to the rising anger in this country towards people who live at the expense of us all, then make unremitting demands for ever more.

Even in California, that great outdoor lunatic experiment headed up by Mr Moonbeam himself, Jerry (union made) Brown, is beginning to get the message that Californians, at long last, are getting the picture. At least, the Republicans in the State Senate are… they’ve refused to sign on to Brown’s tax grab planned for California’s special election this coming June.

Among other things, Brown was hoping to continue a ‘temporary’ sales tax that’s due to sunset. Jerry Brown will have to face his union bosses alone. The people of California have had it with taxes, fees and regulations which are destroying the state.

By the way… California has oil… California has lots of oil. Did you know that? Combine that with all the other vast sources of petroleum and natural gas in the continental United States… We are rich in resources.

Obama has a war on our oil, our own resources. We are world-class rich in coal, which technology has advanced to the point where coal-burning power plants, as with the production of coal itself, is virtually pollution free. Obama has a war against coal, as any coal miner or producer can tell you. He wants to cut us off from our own resources.

The same with oil shale, of which we have one of the world’s greatest known reserves. Obama and the DeMarxists don’t like this one either, no more than they like nuclear or hydro-electric energy sources. They’ve worked hard and diligently for many years to bring this to fruition.

There’s only one reason the left, in all of its many manifestations, would so desire this country’s complete dependence on energy from foreign, hostile sources. That purpose would be to damage the country’s economy and energy sectors, creating the required chaos for them to breed more treason.

The Democrats and their penultimate weapon, Barack Obama, are waging war against America on every front. It’s up to us to stop them.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

Many’s the time I asked that of myself during his first two terms. We’re still living under the aftermath of goofy policies set in place by our boy Jerry. Aside from an early alliance with the public service unions and their constant demands for more for less, our then-Governor Brown cozied up to the environmentalists and curtailed water storage and dam building, guaranteeing the almost perpetual water shortages faced by parts of the state.

Jerry Brown also curtailed freeway construction, which has greatly contributed to the various traffic gridlocks here. But most of all, I remember him for his opposition to the death penalty and his soft ball approach to law enforcement and the penal system.

It may be argued that many of the infrastructure problems that we are faced with now had their birthing under Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown. I remember that unemployment was high in the state and construction was slow. Our Mr Brown did nothing to alleviate the job situation in the state, but did preside over the beginning of the exodus of business form the state by his insatiable appetite for regulation and taxation.

It is a trend which has continued to this very day and the economic debris-field you see before you, in this once most prosperous state in the union, is mute testimony to what awaits other states who are unwilling to face the new economic reality.

California is on the verge of, if not in fact, bankruptcy in all but name. Traditionally, as California goes, so goes the nation. I really hope not. For all you non-Californians out there, I wouldn’t wish this collection of nuts and fruitcakes on anyone else. It’s sad enough as it is, to watch the idiot shenanigans that pass for a legislative assembly here. Out of touch? Well, yeah. Just ask people all over this state who still can’t find jobs, or the ones whose companies are closing or moving away to friendlier states.

The exodus of jobs from the state that was presided over by Brown is still there, only now it’s a torrent. I don’t believe for one minute that Jerry Brown has any sort of an idea how to pull this state out of the depression it’s in. Now, Jerry has to pay the piper from the one group whose money got him elected in the face of a huge money challenge by Meg Whitman. Jerry long ago sold his political soul to the service unions. He’s their guy.

It’s the same unions that are going to be the objects of Jerry’s chopping block, because the citizens of California will rise up against his proposed tax increases in a special election to be held in June. Then, he may be forced to go to genuine deep cuts in agencies and departments, and cut the plethora of regulatory agencies that are choking the life out of business and product development in the state. Don’t look for him to to tackle the entitlement issue… I don’t think he has the courage for it. Not if he wants the unions to keep him in power, that is.

But don’t count on it. California will continue to be a foreign land for Conservative Republicans and business a while yet.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

…exists in America today, and I don’t think either side of the political spectrum has really registered it yet. Oh, they’re giving plenty of lip service… until they think we’re no longer paying attention, as in the past.

The exception would, of course, be those who started the startling march of events that just culminated in the largest paradigm shift in modern American political history. That would be us folks… you and I… and about fifty or sixty million or so of our closest friends.

With the exception of the west coast waste land that is California, which is a subject for another time, the American people spoke in no uncertain terms. As many as sixty five House seats have been turned over to not the GOP… though they are certainly scrambling to co-opt as many of the new Representatives as possible. The establishment GOP is aiming to twist the impressionable minds of the incoming lawmakers through the supposed right wing ‘Claremont Institute’. There’s only one problem with that. With rare exception, all of these new Representatives know just exactly how and why they got there.

The Tea Party Patriots have given them their marching orders and we are watching very carefully. They know we sent them to Washington for one reason and one reason only… to bring Constitutional sanity to America and defeat the enemies of this country, which have infested the White House and the halls of Congress for far, far too long.

The rebellion extends far beyond the mere excising of the suppurating disease that is liberalism. America spoke. If you want to see the wave of the future… there are more Republican Governors than any time since 1996… there are 800 new Conservative Republican (read Tea-Party) State legislators.

We’re positioning ourselves for the next battles which are just down the road. Everywhere in the nation, Conservatives are running in local races, making themselves heard in city councils as well as local school districts. Even here, in benighted California, Conservatism is beginning to make inroads, uphill battle though it may be. If the California elections showed us anything, it was that running as a moderate will virtually guarantee defeat… Hear that, California Republican Committee?

Maybe it’s time for a leadership change there too. Wasn’t that the bunch that brought us Arnold? Carly and Meg were both fine people. Just the wrong people in the wrong races in the wrong state. Conservatism works. It works every time a clear, articulate Conservative message is presented, which was just exactly what we did not get here in California.

It’s a brave new world out there, though not one to the Marxists’ liking. Which makes it just fine by me. Up the rebellion!

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

The reports continue to come in from around the country. From California to Connecticut, ballots are being ‘found’. On the left coast, two million votes have yet to be counted.

Small wonder with strong rumors (as yet unconfirmed) of SEIU goons working the election count, along with at least one report of electronic machine tampering and another story of a precinct in Danville Ca., where the one electronic vote machine was not working. Voters were told to vote on provisional ballots ‘which would be counted at some time later’.

Provisional balloting has always been a pet peeve of mine. More so since the very scenario described above happened to me about three years ago. There had been a lot of registration shenanigans going on, and when I went to vote at the precinct where I had been registered for nine years I found that my name had been removed from the voter rolls. I was informed that I could vote using a provisional ballot… just like any illegal alien. Well, I’m here to tell you that it was a hot time in the old precinct that day!

Eventually, I got a communication from the County Registrar of Voters apologizing and saying that they couldn’t understand what happened, but assuring me that it would not occur again.

We have allowed the left to command the election place for far too long. They’ve been digging up dead bodies, registering dogs and goldfish, using their union thugs to intimidate voters… The public unions have far too much sway over policy and the electoral process.

I’ve avoided writing about the whole California debacle and I’m not going to try and do it here, but California needs to understand that Jerry Brown is owned lock, stock and Birkenstocks by the public unions. Jerry Brown will steer this state into bankruptcy.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Methinks the lady may be listening to her ‘political advisers’ and not the little voice within… the same skills she used in building eBay to the internet star that it is.

Californians understood and agreed when she told us how important small business and creative start-ups are to the growth of the state and the nation, and how runaway taxation and regulation is forcing businesses away from California. We agreed when she said that the state had to be brought to fiscal sanity.

Then, about a week ago, we started to see ads in which Meg appears to be saying that the state can’t be run like a business. C’mon, Meg! What the heck…?! You’d better fire those clowns and go with your gut feelings, your instincts… use the ‘force’, Meg.

This state’s economy went south starting with that prodigy of leftist goofball politics, Jerry Brown. Grey Davis then came to haunt us, and finally Arnold SchwartzenKennedy-Shriver to deliver the coup de grace to an already crippled state economy.

BB (before Brown) California was the largest business in the world, with a state government that was in partnership with business in world trade and a business model that was the envy of the world.

Under successive far left liberal governments in Sacramento we’ve experienced wave after wave of business and personal taxation, under the thin guise of fees paid to state and municipal governments. Fees, that were they examined in the light of the Constitution, would be found to be illegal. Much of what has transpired in our state houses and in our Federal government has had little enough to do with regard to the Constitution.

This state is a business… it’s a failing business… a badly failing business, and what’s needed is what would be asked of any executive coming in and being asked to rescue a distressed firm. Analyze strengths and weaknesses, cut unnecessary expenses, cut back on non-critical personnel, re-negotiate new labor contracts and re-establish the brand of the company… in our case, that’s the state.

You have to prove to the nation and the world that California once again fosters business and welcomes investment with business-friendly environments. Meg, stick to fundamentals and forget the phony side-show guys.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

This is the big one, boiling along just under the surface, aside from having to deal with a failed economy that is further bedeviled by a bunch of academic Keynesian dilettantes, whose Marxist zeal for redistributive policies are the reason for the problems we’re slogging through as a nation now.

Harry Reid addresses Hispanic voters in Las Vegas

You think this is a dismal place, this economy? If they (the left) had their way, it would rapidly become a dark place devoid of joy or hope. Our Republic is being assaulted on so many fronts, it’s practically a full time job just keeping track of it all. Second only to the economy is the illegal immigration issue. There’s scarcely a state in the union that hasn’t been affected by the influx of illegal aliens, primarily from across our southern border which is some 2,000 miles of shared border with Mexico and, for all practical purposes, undefended.

While Barack Hussein Obama is making great noise about a ‘border appropriation’ of some 800 million dollars, he has done nothing about restoring some 500 border patrol agents he stripped from service and reassigned in the last two years. Our international border stands virtually undefended and indefensible, at least while Obama holds sway.

America is really peed about this one too, Harry. Despite the alternate universe you reside in, Mr Reid, most Americans of Mexican descent are strongly against illegal immigration. Another thing Harry… these Mexican Americans whom you treated so flippantly and whom you dismissed so lightly will make their weight felt in the upcoming election. You see, Harry, these are family people. They are hardworking and successful Americans who, until recently, had been reluctant to come forward in the face of criticism from the left. Many of these folks have been at town hall meetings and tea parties all over the country. They are your neighbors and friends. They are my neighbors and friends. They are Americans.

California is flat broke and can’t copy big brother in the beltway by printing new bucks and distributing riches at the discretion of a few partisan power brokers. The insane practice of harboring illegal aliens in sanctuary cities, while tying the hands of our law enforcement to prevent them enforcing laws regarding illegal entrance into this country that already exist, is nuts to the max, especially in the face of the growing gang threat out there.

California has an annual budget shortfall of some 26.3 billion dollars. Ten point five billion went to services, from education to incarceration for illegals in this state. Uh, gee, I could show the California legislature how to close the better part of half that gap.

The other big showdown of this election is about to commence… Eighty one days and counting….

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Meg Whitman was on America’s Morning News today. After listening to her talk, I had the distinct impression that what we’re getting is another big government liberal. When queried about the illegal alien subject she danced all over the issue, saying that “Arizona’s anti-illegal alien law was not for California”. It made me wonder if she had ever read California’s statutes, like 634-b of the criminal code. Maybe someone should tell her that we have had the same laws on our books for decades.

Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown

Successive liberal state governments (like Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown’s) have tied law enforcements’ hands, preventing them from arresting illegals for anything except violent crime, and turning them over to ICE agents and deporting them. These laws have been in existence for thirty years or more.

Whitman then moved on to say that she would ‘seal’ the border. Um, has anybody bothered to tell Megs that the Feds control the border? Sounds just like an Arizona problem doesn’t it? Maybe Whitman should talk to some of the ranchers in the Jacumba, Davies Station or Campo Station areas of the state she wishes to govern, who have to go around armed and in fear for their families.

She further said she would ensure that employers were severely punished for hiring illegal aliens and see to it that so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ would be punished and prevented from sheltering illegal aliens, such as the convicted felon who slaughtered Tony Bologna and two of his sons in that great outdoor sewer and illegal alien paradise, San Francisco.

Sounds pretty good in a general way, doesn’t it? Until you find out that she is broadcasting the diametric opposite message in Spanish on Latino language radio stations and on at least one billboard, which had been spotted and reported by a Tea Party patriot, saying “No on 187 and No on the Arizona immigration law“. In Spanish that would be called “hablar dando una de cal y otra de arena”. Speaking from both sides of your mouth.

Not that I think ‘Moonbeam’ is any bargain either. He made a hash of state government as Governor once before and then for an encore, as Mayor, turned Oakland into a veritable shooting gallery. Abel Maldinado is out of the question as well… he’s not even a good crook… just a stupid ego-maniacal one. That leaves us with Meg, who thought that Van Jones (Oakland communist agitator) was the greatest thing since cream cheese. Not a great selection for Californians.

But, we cannot afford to stay home. If anything, we have to support Whitman as the best of several bad choices and then try and pressure her to do the right thing. Sounds like a familiar scenario for Californians, doesn’t it? We booted Gray Davis to get Arnold, and we’re getting rid of him for…?

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Arkansas:

I must say I am very dissappointed that Blanche Lincloln survived her primary challenge by Bill Halter in Arkansas.  Labor unions and national progressives like myself wanted to send a message to corporatist Democrats that we are not going to support Republican-lite candidates like Lincoln.  That being said, neither candidate had much of a chance to beat the Republican challenger John Boozman because of the slow economic recovery and right wing leaning trend of the state of Arkansas.

Frankly, I'm not sure yet where I come down on the Arkansas general election.  I definitely won't be sending any money to Lincoln the way I did for Halter.  And I'm not even sure I would bother showing up to vote for her in November if I were a resident?  Is it better for progressives and labor supporters to just stay home and let the Republican have the seat for six years or do we hold our noses and vote for someone who will stab us in the back every time one of her corporate donors says jump?

Also, I'd like to know if Halter is going to challenge the sleazy election rigging that happened at the last minute.  Apparently, in one of Halter's strongholds, Garland county, only 2 of 40 polling places were opened for this runoff.  Keeping most of the polling places closed forced Halter supporters to have to drive much much further and wait for hours in 90+ degree heat.  Basically Halter got "Bubba'd".  It'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Nevada:

I'm kind of sorry that the Sue the-chicken-lady Lowden lost.  That "chickens for checkups" healthcare plan of hers was absolutely hilarious!  The wingnuts in the Nevada state legislature even had to pass a law that people in chicken costumes where not allowed near the polling areas.  Anyway, the teabagger candidate - Sharron Angle, seems to be even nuttier and probably easier to beat for Harry Reid.

Supposedly Angle is either a Scientologist or at least guilty of helping to pass legislation that introduced Scientology programs into Nevada prisons at the taxpayers expense.  Personally I think all religion is absurd, but Scientology is especially bizarre.  Although Mormonism isn't too far behind.

If Angle's Scientology kookiness isn't enough for you Angle has also spoken out strongly against fluoride, the substance known alternately for improving dental health and as a Communist plot to undermine Western democracy.  Seriously, where do the teabaggers get these people?  Some of the other bizarre positions Angle holds are that she supports bringing back prohibition and that doctors need to inform patients that abortion causes breast cancer.  Anyway, it should be fun to watch the Reid campaign eviscerate this wackaloon.

Lastly, the incumbent governor Jim Gibbons lost his primary bid.  This is too bad for the Dems because he would've been fairly easy to defeat.   He had a tabloid personal life, an endless stream of gaffes and questionable appointments, and a lack of engagement even as the economic crisis worsened.

California:

Overall, I think progressives did the best in California.  Meg Whitman had to spend $80 million of her own money to win her primary and says she is willing to spend another $125 million for the priveledge of losing to Jerry Brown in the general for governor.  And the disastrous former CEO of HP, Carly "Carlyfornia" Fiorina, also dipped into her personal fortune (i.e. golden parachute) for the right to square off against Barbara Boxer in the Senate race.  Apparently, Republicans think whoever has the most money, is also the most qualified.