Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs

The story of California has always been a great American tale of triumph over long odds. Since its entry into the Union, in the aftermath of war and the midst of gold fever, the state has seemed an improbable colossus. But again and again, California has made its way through hours of challenge  not only surviving intact, but emerging as a model for the rest of the nation.

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This is an excellent albeit lengthy read.

California is being offered as a "model for the rest of the nation"?????????
Never mind. I'll skip this article. If your idea of a model is socialist bankruptcy, go live in California and leave the rest of us alone.

California is being offered as a "model for the rest of the nation"?????????

That's not at all what the author is saying.

Not even close.

In fact, he's saying quite the contrary.

Read the article, it's very informative.

In the past year, California has a net increase of public employees, and remains the #1 employer in the state. In the meantime, it has one of the highest overall tax burdens, Prop. 13 notwithstanding (can't wait for the Prop. 13 blamers to start).

Liberal management, budget hocus-pocus, and government malaise has fucked this once-great state. Now, the politicians and lawyers are killing the Central Coast over the Delta Smelt, killing off thousands of acres of farming (which feeds the world), and leaving areas with 40% unemployment.

A disgrace, to be sure.

Two words. Nanci Pelosi.

California is a great example of what happens when you govern with emotion and not rational.

"Beyond confounding the budget, the referendum system also often falls prey to exactly the oligarchic interests its Progressive creators were trying to counter. Rather than vehicles for grassroots rage, many of the initiatives that make it to the ballot are the pet projects of a handful of wealthy donors or interest groups. In 2006, for example, Los Angeles real-estate heir and environmentalist Steve Bing single-handedly dumped nearly $50 million into Proposition 87, an initiative to levy $4 billion in taxes on California oil producers. That same year, actor / director Rob Reiner plowed nearly $3 million of his own money into a measure that would have raised state income taxes to fund universal pre-school. And in 2008, Orange County tech billionaire Henry Nicholas spent nearly $5 million bankrolling Proposition 9, a measure that expanded victims' rights under California criminal law. In the end, both Bing's and Reiner's initiatives went down to defeat, while Nicholas's passed with nearly 54% of the vote. But regardless of their outcomes, these endeavors bear witness to the fact that the referendum system is just as often a means for the powerful to circumvent the system as it is for the people to have their voices heard."

For shits sake! Taxing Big Oil who are BILKING EVERYONE even while the BushCo cuts every green incentive is wrong?! But, because these tax measures were defeated and no energy standards are enforced it's the consumers fault! What a fuckload of malarkey. This piece doesn't even cover the purposefully rolled blackouts which took out thousands of businesses. Every other day a rolling brownout would take down server power, gas generators backup would kick in, but the equipment invariably was damaged time and again costing us millions. Enron weren't fully investigated even with the taped EVIDENCE, the grid is the SAME TODAY and blackouts WILL PURPOSEFULLY HAPPEN AGAIN.

Stupid, stupid, stupid programmable Republicans!

My dad, a politically savvy liberal, has for over 25 years been predicting that California would go bankrupt one day. He'll enjoy thit article

This headline puts two songs in my head:


Who Killed Marylin? by the Misfits

California Uber Alles by the Dead Kennedy's

People and businesses are moving out in droves.

California *tear*

What happened to you?



"California Blue" - by Roy Orbison


Stupid, stupid, stupid programmable Republicans!

#7 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2009-10-02 03:31 PM | Reply | Flag:

says the clown who is proud to be a robot

Liberal management, budget hocus-pocus, and government malaise has fucked this once-great state. Now, the politicians and lawyers are killing the Central Coast over the Delta Smelt, killing off thousands of acres of farming (which feeds the world), and leaving areas with 40% unemployment.


A disgrace, to be sure.

#4 | Posted by somoco at 2009-10-02 01:33 PM | Reply


Quoting Hannity again, I see.
Now, lets see why the delta smelt are important. Maybe because the salmon population depends on them for food? And, maybe, because the salmon population on the West Coast has crashed, causing a complete ban on commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts for the last two years and leaving all those guys unemployed or forced off their boats?
The drought that California has endured for the last couple of years probably hasn't caught your attention, either, eh? Seeing several fields around where that Hannity pep rally being watered in the middle of a 95 degree afternoon suggests that many of these farmers in the Central Valley haven't been the smartest stewards of their resources. C'mon. Growing melons in a desert?

C'mon. Growing melons in a desert?
......#12 | Posted by morris

.....sure.....you get sand-melons.......

.....great for colonic dermabrasion........

Arnold (R) bankrupted California with his elimination of the car tax (that lost revenue equals the exact amount of money we are over budget) and California voters are responsible for electing a candidate with no experience under a cult of personality...


How ya feeling these days, proli?

I dont think they mine for gold out there any more and that was the reason people started going out there 150 years ago.

The right is scared shitless of California.

**** Who Killed California? ****

.........Californians.......

#12 | Posted by morris

You actually provided a reasoned defense for putting the interests of a minnow over that of a huge group of farmers.

While the overall logic is still somewhat FUBAR, I seriously credit you for making a linear argument.

I'd personally like to see this issue come to the forefront. I think it's a travesty to exacerbate a drought-zone when simple irrigation would solve the problem and largely improve the lot of a region that is now experiencing roughly 40% unemployment due to the fact that their land has become a dust-bowl unneccessarily.

If this little bait-fish is THAT important to the food-chain, then the enviros would be doing themselves a tremendous service by articulating WHY in a coherent manner.

You scratched the surface, (Jack) Morris.

I'd like to see more depth...from both sides of the argument.

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