California Dreamin'

Reposted from an email I received....

California's Not Dreamin': 
This Is the Nightmare of an Obama Second Term
By Roger Hedgecock

I live in California . If you were wondering what living in Obama's second term would be like, wonder no longer. We in California are living there now.

California is a one-party state dominated by a virulent Democratic Left enabled by a complicit media where every agency of local, county, and state government is run by and for the public employee unions. The unemployment rate is 12%.

California has more folks on food stamps than any other state, has added so many benefits and higher rates to Medicaid that we call it "Medi-Cal." Our K-12 schools have more administrators than teachers, and smaller classes but lower test scores and higher dropout rates with twice the per-student budget of 15 years ago. Good job, Brownie.

This week, the once-and-current Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown had to confess that the "balanced" state budget adopted five months ago was billions in the red because actual tax revenues were billions lower than the airy-fairy revenue estimates on which the balance was predicated.

After trimming legislators' perks and reducing the number of cell phones provided to state civil servants, the governor intoned that drastic budget reductions had already hollowed out state programs for the needy, law enforcement and our schoolchildren. California government needed more money.

Echoing the Occupy movement, the governor proclaimed the rich must pay their fair share. Fair share? The top 1% of California income earners currently pays 50% of the state's income tax.

California has seven income tax brackets. The top income tax rate is 9.3%, which is slapped on the greedy rich earning at least $47,056 a year. Income of more than $1 million pays the "millionaires' and billionaires'" surcharge tax rate of 10.3%. 

Brown's proposal would add 2% for income over $250,000. A million-dollar income would then be taxed at 12.3%. And that's just for the state.

Brown also proposed a one-half-cent sales tax increase, which would bring sales taxes (which vary by county) to 7.75% to 10%. Both tax increases would be on the ballot in 2012.

The sales tax increase proposal immediately brought howls of protest from the Left (of Brown!). Charlie Eaton, a sociology grad student at UC Berkeley and leader of the UC Student-Workers Union, said, "We've paid enough. It's time for millionaires to pay."

At least five other ballot measures to raise taxes are circulating for signatures to get on the 2012 ballot in California . The governor's proposals are the most conservative.

The Obama way doesn't end with taxes.

The governor and the state legislature continue to applaud the efforts of the California High-Speed Rail Authority to build a train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco . Even though the budget is three times the voter-approved amount, and the first segment will only connect two small towns in the agricultural Central Valley . But hey, if we build it, they will ride.

And we don't want to turn down the Obama bullet-train bucks Florida and other states rejected because the operating costs would bankrupt them. Can't happen here—we're already insolvent.

If we get into real trouble with the train, we'll just bring in the Chinese. It worked with the Bay Bridge reconstruction. After the 1989 earthquake, the bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco was rebuilt with steel made in China . Workers from China too. Paid for with money borrowed from China . Makes perfect sense.

In California , we hate the evil, greedy rich (except the rich in Hollywood and in sports, and in drug dealing). But we love people who have broken into California to eat the bounty created by the productive rich.

Illegals get benefits from various generous welfare programs, free medical care, free schools for their kids, including meals, and of course, instate tuition rates and scholarships too. Governor Perry , California has a heart. Nothing's too good for our guests.

To erase even a hint of criticism of illegal immigration, the California Legislature is considering a unilateral state amnesty.  Democrat State Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes has proposed an initiative that would bar deportation of illegals from California .

Interesting dilemma for Obama there. If immigration is exclusively a federal matter, and Obama has sued four states for trying to enforce federal immigration laws he won't enforce, what will the President do to a California law that exempts California from federal immigration law?

California is also near fulfilling the environmentalist dream of deindustrialization.

After driving out the old industrial base (auto and airplane assembly, for example), air and water regulators and tax policies are now driving out the high-tech, biotech and even internet-based companies that were supposed to be California's future.

The California cap-and-trade tax on business in the name of reducing CO2 makes our state the leader in wacky environmentalism and guarantees a further job exodus from the state.

Even green energy companies can't do business in California . Solyndra went under, taking its taxpayer loan guarantee with it.

No job is too small to escape the regulators. The state has even banned weekend amateur gold miners from the historic gold mining streams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains .

In fact, more and more of California 's public land is off-limits to recreation by the people who paid for that land. Unless you're illegal. Then you can clear the land, set up marijuana plantations at will, bring in fertilizers that legal farmers can no longer use, exploit illegal farm workers who live in hovels with no running water or sanitation, and protect your investment with armed illegals carrying guns no California citizen is allowed to own.

The rest of us only found out about these plantations when the workers' open campfire started one of those devastating fires that have killed hundreds of people and burned out thousands of homes in California over the last decade.

It was said after California 's Proposition 13 in 1978 cut property tax rates and was copied in other states, that whatever happened in California would soon happen in your state.

You'd better hope that's wrong.

Roger Hedgecock

BAM!!  Liberals and unions are DESTROYING our country and we aren't going to take it any more.  We will not sit down.  We will not shut up.

~kate

Drive a Liberal crazy.....Vote!

Want to drive a Liberal crazy?  I know... it's not hard to do. Yes, there is the usual steps of laying the facts on them.  That alone is usually enough to raise their blood pressure to a dangerous level.  But if you really, really want to drive them nuts then do this:

Simply remind them that YOUR vote has just much weight as their vote.  Regardless of income, education level, what blogs you follow, who your friends are, the intials after your name, the lack of initials after your name, the degrees on your wall, the lack of degrees on your wall, the size of your house, the numbers on your paycheck, the balance in your bank account, what party you belong to, what groups you belong to, the color of your skin, what your sexual preference is, what religion you belong to, the town you live in, the car you drive, and yes, even your carbon footprint. 

NONE of it matters.

one person = one vote.

So let them act smug and elitist.  Let them talk down to you and treat you as if you're just an ignorant redneck.  It doesn't matter.  Because even if you fit right into that Ignorant Redneck sterotype, their vote does not count more than your vote.

Just be sure to vote!

And after the election, Oregon voters can use the link below to check that their ballot was received and processed:

ORESTAR

 ~kate

Excellent Piece from the WSJ

I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh's show. I agree with his content but don't particularly like his delivery. He's too bit much of a blowhard for me. But the opt-ed piece he wrote for the WSJ is spot-on!

Liberals and the Violence Card

I can personally relate to Rush's words as recently many of my peaceful, freedom-loving friends have been accused by the Left of being violent simply because we do not agree with how our government is destroying our country. And there has been NO violence. I know. I was there.

~kate

Two Sides of the Fence

I received the following in an email... so much truth in this list!

If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test!

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative is a homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is a homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced (Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!)

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A liberal will delete it because he's "offended."

Well I forwarded it to you so where does that put me?

~kate

Difference between Conservatives and Liberals

got this in an email today and just had to post it as it is so true!!


If a Conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a Liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.
If a Liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat banned for everyone.

If a Conservative is a homosexual, he quietly lives his life.
If a Liberal is a homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a Conservative is down and out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Liberal wonders who will take care of him.

If a Conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he changes the station.
If a Liberal doesn't like a talk show host, he demands the host to be fired.

If a Conservative does not believe in God, he doesn't go to church.
If a Liberal is a non-believer, he wants all mention of God and religion to be silenced.

If a conservative needs health care, he shops around for it or chooses a job that provides it.
A liberal demands the rest of us pay for his health care.

Conservatives will read this and have a good laugh.
Liberals will be offended.