Ein Norsk humoristisk sang som omhandlar John Deere
John Deere song by Gunslingers
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Saturday Norwegian Redneck Music Blogging
A boy and his tractor. Sigh. Some things are universal...
Saturday Singing Pickup Truck Blogging
Dedicated to President Obama perhaps?
Ben E. King ~ Stand By Me
Thanks to Mogipbob, Canada. He's got a lot of these. Canadian cars, funny grilles and stuff.
Saturday Emmylou Blogging
This video looks to me like the video and sound were captured on a pretty good quality telephone. I was watching it, and thinking it wasn't quite the quality I like to put up on the Brain, when it dawned on me:
It's perfect. You can barely understand the words of a sort of nondescript Canadian cowboy song, but you don't have to. Emmylou could sing the Beijing phone book and people would be moved by it. This captures her essence.
It's perfect. You can barely understand the words of a sort of nondescript Canadian cowboy song, but you don't have to. Emmylou could sing the Beijing phone book and people would be moved by it. This captures her essence.
Emmylou Harris: Blackhawk: 3 Girls and Their Buddy: Toronto, June 5, 2009
Emmylou Harris ~ Blackhawk
Thanks to acoustic1, Canuckistan.
The Big Hate
A 'recommended read' by Paul Krugman on domestic terrorists and the right-wing pols and media who are using them to do the things they cannot.
I have known for forty years that the far right was the biggest danger to our country. While they were in power they almost destroyed it and were finally stopped when it got so egregious that people other than us political junkies woke up to it and stopped them, damn near too late. What is becoming increasingly clear is the depths they will sink to, sore losers that they are, when out of power.
For years they used their 'base' as a weapon, but the base is no longer enough. Now they are stirring up the crazies way beyond the base who make the base seem almost sane, almost Librul by comparison.
Now that the nation seems to be swinging slightly center left and the fearmongering of made-up outside threats has been seen for the scam it is, unleash the unhinged guntards. There certainly are plenty of them, and they have to be dealt with one by one as they pop up doing heinous, murderous acts. After the fact in almost every case and no telling who or where the next one will be.
You want fear, you godless commie scumbags, you Americans who have seen us for what we are at last? Oh, we got fear you ain't even seen yet.
It's the Repug equivalent of dying kicking and screaming and many will suffer for it. Pray for their quick and painful death.
There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn’t say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.
And at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.
What will the consequences be? Nobody knows, of course, although the analysts at Homeland Security fretted that things may turn out even worse than in the 1990s — that thanks, in part, to the election of an African-American president, “the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years.”
And that’s a threat to take seriously. Yes, the worst terrorist attack in our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst, the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic. Politicians and media organizations wind up such people at their, and our, peril.
I have known for forty years that the far right was the biggest danger to our country. While they were in power they almost destroyed it and were finally stopped when it got so egregious that people other than us political junkies woke up to it and stopped them, damn near too late. What is becoming increasingly clear is the depths they will sink to, sore losers that they are, when out of power.
For years they used their 'base' as a weapon, but the base is no longer enough. Now they are stirring up the crazies way beyond the base who make the base seem almost sane, almost Librul by comparison.
Now that the nation seems to be swinging slightly center left and the fearmongering of made-up outside threats has been seen for the scam it is, unleash the unhinged guntards. There certainly are plenty of them, and they have to be dealt with one by one as they pop up doing heinous, murderous acts. After the fact in almost every case and no telling who or where the next one will be.
You want fear, you godless commie scumbags, you Americans who have seen us for what we are at last? Oh, we got fear you ain't even seen yet.
It's the Repug equivalent of dying kicking and screaming and many will suffer for it. Pray for their quick and painful death.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Might as well ...
Quit smoking now. Won't be long before you can't get a good cigarette anyway:
Can't ya let me kill myself in peace? Instead, I'm gonna go to the grave with the DTs and a shitty personality. Heh ...
By a 3 to 1 margin, the House of Representatives today approved a bill passed by the Senate yesterday that gives the federal government sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco.
...
For smokers, the law will mean confronting graphic warnings of the risks of their habit every time they pick up a pack, and possible changes to the formulations of cigarettes and cigars. The law bans most cigarette flavorings and orders the FDA to study the issue of whether menthol should also be banned, on the theory that the flavorings mask the harsh taste of tobacco and make it easier for first-time smokers to get hooked. [my em]
...
Can't ya let me kill myself in peace? Instead, I'm gonna go to the grave with the DTs and a shitty personality. Heh ...
Blah...
I'm tired. I've been playing catch-up after two weeks of can't-play-outside weather trying to assemble a coupla truckloads of yard waste for the one annual town-sponsored 'get rid of the shit for FREE!' day, which is tomorrow. I've got the Dakota loaded to the gunwales and I have the whole rest of the day to get another load bagged up. The weather's kinda gray and I might make it and I might not. Mox nix. I don't have a lawn or rose bushes or anything normally associated with suburban yards. I hate that shit. My yard is pine trees and forest/mountain meadow flora and clearing it is less like mowing grass and more like what jailbird fire crews do. I'm talkin' chain saws, (plural, I've got 1 gas, 2 electric, and a cordless one), a sharpened spade, loppers, rakes, and the fantastic Garden Grabber. I've cut brush and 5 little 4-6" diameter volunteer pine trees and cut it all up to fit in lawn & leaf bags. The slash, not the trunks, cut them in 4' lengths. Two to five hours a day since Monday and it ain't a patch on the ass of what needs to be done on my .47 acre Ponderosa. I don't care. There'll be plenty left for next year. There always is.
I'm tired of the goddammed 'news' too. All it is is right wingers whining about Obama and how their trailer trash goddess had a joke told about her kid, and sticking up for murderous loonies and trying to back away from their part in shoving said loonies off the edge. Total bullshit.
I'm taking the rest of the day off and going back out in the yard and cut shit up and throw tennis balls. That slows the work down considerable but it's joyous to play with the dogs.
Go see our local independent radio station, KTKE. Click around. Have fun. They claim you can listen to them live, but I haven't been able to make it work yet. The website is pretty new and the alleged streaming feature is newer than that. I usually listen to them in my truck. They don't always play what I like but my truck radio has buttons so no problem.
The only person I've met there is Shaggy. Nice guy. I went over to get a sticker for my truck and the door was locked. He heard me rattle the door and got up from playing records on the air and went out to his Jeep and got me a coupla stickers. Smokey's Kitchen, prominent on their site, is fifty feet across the parking lot from the station and has really good food if you're in town. I wouldn't doubt they get a lot of advertising for feeding starving DJs. Heh.
See yas later.
Republicans Whine About Every Way Obama's Trying To Clean Up Their Massive Mess
Tony Peyser
Excellent analogy.
They still don't seem to have any shame
In addition to possessing no guilt
Like arsonists who complain about how
The house they torched is being rebuilt.
Excellent analogy.
DTV* ...
Thankfully, the switch will happen today. I am so fucking tired of the constant reminders on my local broadcast stations; almost as bad as campaign commercials. Look, you've had over a year (even got a few months' reprieve from the government and a subsidy for about 80% of the price). If you ain't got it by now, tough shit, you have no excuse.
*Digital Television
Feline wisdom ...
Fred the Cat comes out with some good stuff. Today, he looks at how Republicans formulate a "plan":
And people think animals don't get it. Heh ...
...
The Republican Energy plan
Put hamsters on steroids and put them in larger wheels
The Republican Health plan
Don’t get sick
The Republican Global Warming plan
No, it’s not
...
And people think animals don't get it. Heh ...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Californians ain't alone ...
Gail Collins via Montag:
...
As the sun sank in Albany, the senators were fighting about which side had the key to the door. Lawsuits were threatened. Nobody was happy except the reporters, who had not seen anything this interesting since Gov. Eliot Spitzer was driven out of office in that sex scandal and Paterson marked his succession by calling a press conference to confess that he had cheated on his wife.
This is why New Yorkers believe they have the worst state government in the nation.
...
This is why ...
The Rethugs and Blue Dogs don't want a "public option" included in health care reform:
Update:
And D-cap dispells some myths about single-payer:
... The study say that 120 million Americans will choose to leave their private insurance coverage and take the public plan instead, because it's cheaper.
In other words, a GOP-style study admits that, if given the choice, Americans would flock to a public plan.
...
Update:
And D-cap dispells some myths about single-payer:
...
Socialized health care is not the right path for this country - Every other major Western country (and even non-major ones) has a single payer universal care system. And many of them have healthier populations who live longer lives. The real reason politicians (Republican that is) are against socialized medicine has nothing to do with principal - and everything to do with the huge drop in profits by the insurance companies. Folks in the general population who are against socialized medicine would be for socialized medicine in a New York minute if it meant affordable care for their kids. It is hard to believe most people (even the gun loving, anti abortion, hate the gays crowd) are against reform and change because of a word. It is also hard to believe people actually feel good about the current system. Well they feel good about it until they get sick. Idiots.
...
Gun Control
I don't know why I picked this topic today. Must be something subliminal in the air. There might be some value in knowing the subject matter, but since it deals with knowing how to kill people, aka 'reach out and touch someone', I sure hope nobody ever needs it.
I do not believe in violence to solve problems, although it does feel good sometimes, but I absolutely do believe in self defense and in getting them before they get you.
This video is a little long at almost 17 minutes, probably longer than it took the Primary Marksmanship Instructors to teach us the same thing, but the PMIs had a slightly less gentle technique. So 'less gentle' in fact that I still remember it, and can still do it, after 45 years. The acronym is BRASS:
B - Breathe. Take a breath, let half of it out and hold it.
R - Relax. If you're tensed up the rifle will not be steady.
A - Aim. Sight picture and sight alignment
S - Slack. Take the slack out of the trigger.
S - Squeeze. Squeeze, do not jerk, the trigger or anticipate the shot. Jerking will cause the round to go high and to the right. Anticipating the shot, or 'bucking the round', will cause the round to go low and to the left. It should actually sort of surprise you when it fires.
If you do all this correctly, the person who is trying to kill you won't any more.
We practiced this and the various firing positions (standing (offhand), sitting, kneeling, and prone), sometimes with the instructor literally sitting on various parts of our bodies if we had trouble assuming the positions. We used a sling around the arm for further steadiness, and some guys got 'sling palsy' from the tight sling cutting off blood flow to the left arm. We 'snapped-in' in this manner for two weeks and then we fired every day, probably hundreds of rounds total, for a week. And not with that pansy little M-16, either. Back in the day, men were men and rifles had wood in 'em and weighed ten pounds. We used the Big Iron, the M-14. If you weren't a little careful, that sumbitch'd hurt ya, and it left your shoulder and cheek sore in any case.
I can not over-emphasize the importance the Marine Corps places on marksmanship. The phrase "Every Marine A Rifleman" is not just a motto. Artillery and tanks and air strikes are nice things, but their purpose is to get the infantryman into position to close with the enemy and kill him. That's called 'offense'.
There's an element of 'defense' as well. If the enemy assaults the chow hall to try and steal some food, the cooks and bakers need to know how to shoot too, for the infantrymen might be out doing something else. And the chaplain's assistant must always be ready to defend the chaplain's organ from attack as well.
You can always run out of ammunition. We will save bayonet training for another time.
I do not believe in violence to solve problems, although it does feel good sometimes, but I absolutely do believe in self defense and in getting them before they get you.
This video is a little long at almost 17 minutes, probably longer than it took the Primary Marksmanship Instructors to teach us the same thing, but the PMIs had a slightly less gentle technique. So 'less gentle' in fact that I still remember it, and can still do it, after 45 years. The acronym is BRASS:
B - Breathe. Take a breath, let half of it out and hold it.
R - Relax. If you're tensed up the rifle will not be steady.
A - Aim. Sight picture and sight alignment
S - Slack. Take the slack out of the trigger.
S - Squeeze. Squeeze, do not jerk, the trigger or anticipate the shot. Jerking will cause the round to go high and to the right. Anticipating the shot, or 'bucking the round', will cause the round to go low and to the left. It should actually sort of surprise you when it fires.
If you do all this correctly, the person who is trying to kill you won't any more.
We practiced this and the various firing positions (standing (offhand), sitting, kneeling, and prone), sometimes with the instructor literally sitting on various parts of our bodies if we had trouble assuming the positions. We used a sling around the arm for further steadiness, and some guys got 'sling palsy' from the tight sling cutting off blood flow to the left arm. We 'snapped-in' in this manner for two weeks and then we fired every day, probably hundreds of rounds total, for a week. And not with that pansy little M-16, either. Back in the day, men were men and rifles had wood in 'em and weighed ten pounds. We used the Big Iron, the M-14. If you weren't a little careful, that sumbitch'd hurt ya, and it left your shoulder and cheek sore in any case.
I can not over-emphasize the importance the Marine Corps places on marksmanship. The phrase "Every Marine A Rifleman" is not just a motto. Artillery and tanks and air strikes are nice things, but their purpose is to get the infantryman into position to close with the enemy and kill him. That's called 'offense'.
There's an element of 'defense' as well. If the enemy assaults the chow hall to try and steal some food, the cooks and bakers need to know how to shoot too, for the infantrymen might be out doing something else. And the chaplain's assistant must always be ready to defend the chaplain's organ from attack as well.
Thanks to PublicResourceOrg. Posted 6 June 09.
You can always run out of ammunition. We will save bayonet training for another time.
A Few Random Observations on the Killing at the Holocaust Museum
The Rude One
Wouldn't doubt it.
1. Damn, James W. von Brunn hit the nutzoid racist trifecta: he killed a black security guard at a museum about the slaughter of Jews run by the federal government. Somewhere in southern Idaho, they're already building a statue to that motherfucker.
Wouldn't doubt it.
Beck Claims Leftist Nazis are Behind Right Wing Shootings.
I won't dirty the Brain with this video, but it's at Teablogging and you should see it. Go puke now so you won't have to clean your keyboard and screen.
Do these wingnut bastards think their spew is helping anything? Oh yeah, they think it's helping them to defeat Obama. News flash: It's not.
If this shit keeps up, and keep up it will, both the fringe right extremism/terrorism and the anti-Obama gasbags' spew about it, there's going to be a backlash against the never-right like they've never seen. Of course, they'll blame it on 'leftist Nazis' which may be the very definition of 'oxymoron'. It never dawned on me just how fitting is the syllable 'moron' in that word.
Let the insanity flow from this amazing video. Feel the insanity. Feel it deep within your bowels.
This is an interpretation of the shooting that occurred in D.C. at the Holocaust museum. It is the most important piece of video ever to come from Fox News.
The end.
Do these wingnut bastards think their spew is helping anything? Oh yeah, they think it's helping them to defeat Obama. News flash: It's not.
If this shit keeps up, and keep up it will, both the fringe right extremism/terrorism and the anti-Obama gasbags' spew about it, there's going to be a backlash against the never-right like they've never seen. Of course, they'll blame it on 'leftist Nazis' which may be the very definition of 'oxymoron'. It never dawned on me just how fitting is the syllable 'moron' in that word.
I've moved ...
Under my bed and left no forwarding address.
You know, years ago I used to post about the cock-of-the-walk posturing by Republicans when it came to "Keeping America Safe" and "Fightin' them over there ...". All the tough guys talking about "killing ragheads because that's all they understand". All of 'em arming themselves to the teeth so they can "be safe and protect my family" in their living rooms.
Ah, well, that all changes now that we're releasing innocent people we've imprisoned without cause for years:
Dudes, you guys should be so "protected" by now, what with a black, Muslim, Socialist President who's gonna take your guns away and give 'em to the U.N., that should any of these people "get loose", you should be able to take care of the situation single-handedly.
Every one of these wimpy, quivering sacks of bullshit were cheering loudly when our troops crossed the line from Kuwait into Iraq but, I guess, it's easier when you have the full might of the U.S. armed forces doing your talking. Didn't matter what we did to "those people", innocent or not. Kill 'em all ...
Now we're scared? Now big tough guys like "Cap'n* Ed" are scared to take a vacation because 17 little Chinese guys without a country are living there?
That's what they are - play actors. It's all good when someone else is dodging bullets or having to look over their shoulder, but when it could possibly show up at their doorstep, well that's another story. Shit, my wife has been in tighter spots than these basement-dwelling cretins have ever experienced and handled herself far better than these cowards do when merely a hint of danger is on the breeze.
I laugh at them. I ridicule them. I do not respect them as men. They should have no place in our political discourse.
Update:
Has Penrose been reading the Brain?
You know, years ago I used to post about the cock-of-the-walk posturing by Republicans when it came to "Keeping America Safe" and "Fightin' them over there ...". All the tough guys talking about "killing ragheads because that's all they understand". All of 'em arming themselves to the teeth so they can "be safe and protect my family" in their living rooms.
Ah, well, that all changes now that we're releasing innocent people we've imprisoned without cause for years:
...
Writing on Michelle Malkin's blog Hot Air today, war-supporting tough guy Ed Morrissey is petrified about this development and, as a result, he has announced that he is now too fearful to consider visiting that island [Palau]:
...
It's hard to put into words how inebriated with irrational fear someone has to be in order to be so scared of 17 Uighurs -- who were never guilty of anything -- that they would avoid traveling to whatever place this handful of persecuted individuals is located. But this is the right-wing movement at its core: its leaders cynically ratchet up fear levels as high as possible to justify whatever they want to do (invade Iraq, torture people, spy on Americans with no warrants) and their adherents (along with plenty of others) become more and more paralyzed by their fears of anything Muslim. This, after all, is the same faction that continues to shake with terror at the very idea that accused Terrorists will be brought to the U.S. -- in handcuffs, imprisoned, and disappeared into super-max facilities. And it is the same faction that made accepting the Uighurs into the U.S. politically unpalatable by threatening legislation -- The Keep Terrorists Out of America Act -- that would bar their entrance.
...
Dudes, you guys should be so "protected" by now, what with a black, Muslim, Socialist President who's gonna take your guns away and give 'em to the U.N., that should any of these people "get loose", you should be able to take care of the situation single-handedly.
Every one of these wimpy, quivering sacks of bullshit were cheering loudly when our troops crossed the line from Kuwait into Iraq but, I guess, it's easier when you have the full might of the U.S. armed forces doing your talking. Didn't matter what we did to "those people", innocent or not. Kill 'em all ...
Now we're scared? Now big tough guys like "Cap'n* Ed" are scared to take a vacation because 17 little Chinese guys without a country are living there?
...
Our stalwart, tough right-wing play-acting warriors should probably also avoid vacationing in Paris, the locale of recently released (and completely innocent) Guantanamo detainee Lakdhar Boumediene; Australia, where released Guantanamo detainee David Hicks is to be found roaming free; London, where released and tortured Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed currently resides; and, most of all, places like Washington D.C. and Kansas, where our own home-grown, decidedly non-Muslim Terrorists are thriving.
...
That's what they are - play actors. It's all good when someone else is dodging bullets or having to look over their shoulder, but when it could possibly show up at their doorstep, well that's another story. Shit, my wife has been in tighter spots than these basement-dwelling cretins have ever experienced and handled herself far better than these cowards do when merely a hint of danger is on the breeze.
I laugh at them. I ridicule them. I do not respect them as men. They should have no place in our political discourse.
Update:
Has Penrose been reading the Brain?
*It's to laugh.
Quote of the Day
I think this is the first time in 5 years I've quoted any of the idiots over at Little Green Snotballs (still won't link to 'em though):
I'll give 'em credit for finally getting it ...
With the Tiller shooting and now this — the DHS report that caused such an uproar has been vindicated.
...
I'll give 'em credit for finally getting it ...
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
I guess ...
This isn't terrorism either?
Just another guy exercising his First and Second Amendment rights, eh?
A month before a suspected white supremacist walked into the Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington and opened fire, the Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic right-wing extremism was the most pressing domestic terrorist threat that the country faced.
Conservatives were outraged that the DHS analysts had singled out antiabortion and antitax radicals for scrutiny. But the report was part of a series that DHS compiles on domestic dangers from all sides of the political spectrum, an area that's taken a back seat to overseas threats.
...
Just another guy exercising his First and Second Amendment rights, eh?
"All the pain in California..."
Steve Lopez (LATimes) on some possible painful remedies for California's fiscal meltdown:
Reference is to the last coupla weeks of clouds, rain, and thunderstorms. It's been hell, I tell you. My motorcycling has suffered. The Sun has finally returned, but us folks with outdoor activities to tend to are still keeping one eye on the western sky.
The last B actor(?) to be governor here was Reagan in the '60s. We're not over the fallout from that one yet, and God only knows how long Ah-nold's 'legacy' will be with us. No more carpetbagger bad actors, please.
Gee, that sounds swell!
You can go see, but I'll give ya a tease: if yer house catches fire, you better have cash money on hand when the fire department shows up. Among other things. Let's just say that Daly isn't going to be 'King of California'.
I guess I'm gainin'. My vehicles cost significantly more to register this year than they did last year. It's supposed to decline over time.
What we need to do is get rid of the 2/3 requirement to pass anything in our state legislature. The 'ballot initiative' deal has taken a hit lately because the only way for anything to get done here is to put it to a vote, and a lot of times things get voted in or out that should go the other way. Public opinion is not always, in fact seldom is, right. Occasionally something comes along that the voters need to go over the heads of the legislators for, and that is what the ballot initiative is for. It gets misused due to the legislative lack of inertia.
The last two special elections here were all Ah-nold's initiatives, mostly to try and get people to raise the taxes on themselves. All. They all failed miserably. Except for 'no raises for legislators'. Heh. So much for 'taking zee issues to zee people'.
Much of our state spending has been enshrined into law and cannot be cut without a change in the law. Since the laws were passed by legislators for special interests, and the 2/3 logjam exists, the laws are not about to be changed though many need to be.
Social services spending is not covered by law and thus is easy to cut. The poor folks take it in the shorts because they have no political power. The definition of 'political power', of course, is lobbyists who shower the pols with money.
Another problem with the legislature is turning out to be term limits, strange as that may seem. When these clowns get in office they know they have a limited time to be there so they go hell for breakfast for their own agendas and fuck everybody else.
The flip side is that we have some very good legislators who try to do good work, and they are required to leave after they term out. Not good.
I do not know the answers to California's fiscal problems. Neither does anybody else, really. The ideas and spending cuts so far are hurting all the wrong people and won't make much of a difference, I don't think. The items that will save big money are not on the table.
I'm not getting any cuts in my state services because I don't get any. Don't give me any guff about roads and other infrastructure, either. 99% of that money goes to the cities to facilitate the daily commute. Around here, we just trust heavy-duty suspension and try to dodge the really bad patches.
One thing I do know is that, whatever 'remedies' these clowns come up with, I will be paying for other people's mistakes. So what's new?
Here's a word of advice to any of you 'hometown heroes' who want to come to California and dazzle us: Don't. Whatever you've got, we've seen it before and we're not easily impressed. If you're smart and work hard, you are welcome, but if you think Californians are lazy and you're gonna clean up by out-work-ethicing us, I guess you're welcome to try, but you ain't seen nothin' yet. If everybody who has moved here and failed would just go the fuck back where they came from, we wouldn't have the problems we do. Shit, if you came out here and made a pile, you can live a lot cheaper elsewhere. Please split. If that sounds harsh, tough shit.
Sorry. I'm goin' off the rails a little bit, but I was born here and have watched California turn to shit. It pisses me off, has for years, and there's not a goddam thing I can do about it until I'm Emperor.
This gent goes by 'HomePicking' and this Gatlin Brothers tune tells it like it is.
We're in a bind here in California, mates, in case you hadn't noticed. The till is tapped, the budget deficit is bigger than the great outdoors, and lately even the sun has disappeared.
Reference is to the last coupla weeks of clouds, rain, and thunderstorms. It's been hell, I tell you. My motorcycling has suffered. The Sun has finally returned, but us folks with outdoor activities to tend to are still keeping one eye on the western sky.
What's crystal clear is that the governor can't fix this mess. His mouth still runs, but his muscle has turned to flab.
The last B actor(?) to be governor here was Reagan in the '60s. We're not over the fallout from that one yet, and God only knows how long Ah-nold's 'legacy' will be with us. No more carpetbagger bad actors, please.
The answer, Michael Daly told me, is not less suffering, but more. That's the only way out.
Gee, that sounds swell!
"I'm talking about real pain," he said, grimacing as though a dagger was at his throat. "Catastrophic pain."
The problem up to now, we agreed, is that middle- and upper-class people haven't had to feel any pain because budget cuts are always aimed at the poor, elderly and disabled. If Daly were king of California, he would swing such a mean blade that Republican legislators would start calling for higher taxes to pay for the services their constituents demand, and Democrats would have to make hard choices instead of throwing money at every social service imaginable while the state goes broke.
So how would Daly take aim at the middle class?
"If we shut down half the DMV offices in the state, that would cause real pain," he said with an evil grin.
He has got a point.
Take away state support for canes, seeing-eye dogs and wheelchairs and you might spark a small protest rally in Sacramento. But force people to drive past a shuttered DMV office to have a license renewed, only to find that the lines are twice as long as normal, and we'll have a revolution on our hands.
What other ideas does Daly have for wreaking havoc from Shasta to Sherman Oaks?
You can go see, but I'll give ya a tease: if yer house catches fire, you better have cash money on hand when the fire department shows up. Among other things. Let's just say that Daly isn't going to be 'King of California'.
It was in Orange County that candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger set things on the wrong track when he dropped a wrecking ball to symbolically crush the car tax.
I was there to see it, and now I'm looking at a budget gap which, at more than $20 billion, is roughly what Schwarzenegger's stunt cost the state in revenue.
Here's his last chance to leave a legacy he can be proud of.
Don't be such a girlie man with the budget cuts, Arnold.
Make them hurt in Brentwood and beyond, and bring the partisan hacks to their knees.
Like you used to say when you worked with those other dumbbells:
"No pain, no gain."
I guess I'm gainin'. My vehicles cost significantly more to register this year than they did last year. It's supposed to decline over time.
What we need to do is get rid of the 2/3 requirement to pass anything in our state legislature. The 'ballot initiative' deal has taken a hit lately because the only way for anything to get done here is to put it to a vote, and a lot of times things get voted in or out that should go the other way. Public opinion is not always, in fact seldom is, right. Occasionally something comes along that the voters need to go over the heads of the legislators for, and that is what the ballot initiative is for. It gets misused due to the legislative lack of inertia.
The last two special elections here were all Ah-nold's initiatives, mostly to try and get people to raise the taxes on themselves. All. They all failed miserably. Except for 'no raises for legislators'. Heh. So much for 'taking zee issues to zee people'.
Much of our state spending has been enshrined into law and cannot be cut without a change in the law. Since the laws were passed by legislators for special interests, and the 2/3 logjam exists, the laws are not about to be changed though many need to be.
Social services spending is not covered by law and thus is easy to cut. The poor folks take it in the shorts because they have no political power. The definition of 'political power', of course, is lobbyists who shower the pols with money.
Another problem with the legislature is turning out to be term limits, strange as that may seem. When these clowns get in office they know they have a limited time to be there so they go hell for breakfast for their own agendas and fuck everybody else.
The flip side is that we have some very good legislators who try to do good work, and they are required to leave after they term out. Not good.
I do not know the answers to California's fiscal problems. Neither does anybody else, really. The ideas and spending cuts so far are hurting all the wrong people and won't make much of a difference, I don't think. The items that will save big money are not on the table.
I'm not getting any cuts in my state services because I don't get any. Don't give me any guff about roads and other infrastructure, either. 99% of that money goes to the cities to facilitate the daily commute. Around here, we just trust heavy-duty suspension and try to dodge the really bad patches.
One thing I do know is that, whatever 'remedies' these clowns come up with, I will be paying for other people's mistakes. So what's new?
Here's a word of advice to any of you 'hometown heroes' who want to come to California and dazzle us: Don't. Whatever you've got, we've seen it before and we're not easily impressed. If you're smart and work hard, you are welcome, but if you think Californians are lazy and you're gonna clean up by out-work-ethicing us, I guess you're welcome to try, but you ain't seen nothin' yet. If everybody who has moved here and failed would just go the fuck back where they came from, we wouldn't have the problems we do. Shit, if you came out here and made a pile, you can live a lot cheaper elsewhere. Please split. If that sounds harsh, tough shit.
Sorry. I'm goin' off the rails a little bit, but I was born here and have watched California turn to shit. It pisses me off, has for years, and there's not a goddam thing I can do about it until I'm Emperor.
This gent goes by 'HomePicking' and this Gatlin Brothers tune tells it like it is.
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