After various special sessions of the Legislature, assorted cries from the heart of our Governor, and the usual media sensationalism about an amorphous “they” who did this to us, California is once again broke.
Very broke, it seems, this time around. The only mystery is whether the annual shortfall is to the tune of $20, $25, or $30 billion. (Remember, we cannot print money, though I suppose we could sell bonds to the Chinese in hopes of undercutting the Fed; or we could ask everyone of us 30 million-plus residents to donate $1,000 to Sacramento this year—and in fact every year.)
There are no longer many people here of character and civic-mindedness stepping forward to inform us that we have spent like crazy; and to suggest a modest return to per capita spending levels, adjusted for inflation, of about 5-6 years ago; and to create a more attractive climate for businesses to operate and relocate here. Instead, there will be a common narrative that ensues, one that I would call the five-step, since in my fifty-five years in the state it is becoming all too predictable.
1. The Reality. No one will discuss the mass exodus of a particular type of taxpayer. Thousands of highly-educated, highly-paid Californians the last decades have cashed out their ample housing equities, and left the state due to high income and sales taxes, poor schools, high crime, and an unworkable bureaucracy. We don’t seem to regret why they leave, and whether it says as much about us as them. Many move to nearby low or no income-tax Nevada, Utah, and Oregon where they can commute, work over the Internet, and take advantage of far cheaper costs, but still enjoy a Western-state informal lifestyle. Anyone who flies out of the state gets a good aerial view of these expatriate border cities, these post-California communities—strange phenomena that seem to be referenda on relative state government.
There is no longer the nucleus for any organized tax-payer revolt as in the 1970s; so when the mob-like chorus chants ‘Soak the rich!’ and the “they should pay” rhetoric heats up, the targeted now flee rather than fight.
The number of those with bachelor’s degrees who flee is made up by those without high school diplomas who arrive. The state is tailor-made to destroy the 200-acre farmer or independent small businessperson who deals with new myriads of state regulations, fees, income and sales taxes, mandates and environmental, as well as social, and cultural disdain.
And California is tailor-made to enhance his law-suit-minded employee who slips on his shop floor; the official in the state-owned car who shows up to fine him for the inorganic two-by-four spotted in the farm brush pile; and the drunk driver without registration, license or insurance who plows through his orchard, fleeing his wrecked car carcass and thousands in damages behind—without punishment but with a possible legal grievance for the farmer’s pipeline standpipe being in his way, some thirty yards in from the road. I kid you not.
I say all this sine ira et furore, because it is a done-deal, and I accept that I used to know dozens of such entrepreneurs and now know very few in agriculture. And in the place of the occasional mosquito abatement officer, I encounter a plethora of ubiquitous mobile clerks. A call to an EPA officer might get through much more quickly than in extremis to a constable. We need a pause and philosophical reexamination of what creates and what monitors and regulates wealth.
2. The Taboo. No one is to mention the presence of several million illegal aliens in the state that might make California’s meltdown a little bit more severe than say Montana’s or Utah’s. To do so is to be labeled racist, nativist, and indulging in illiberal scapegoating, even though it is a question of funds not culture, much less race. We dare not explore the reality that very hard-working young Oaxacans come illegally across the border at 18, work terribly hard for 20 years and contribute mightily to the economy, but by their late thirties and forties—still often without legality, without a high-school diploma, and without English—either become mired in low-income, perennial entry-level jobs, or are finally worn out by sending half their hourly wages back to Mexico, or have been cited, arrested, or jailed for various activities, or have become injured in jobs on ladders and on their knees that take a terrible yearly toll on one’s body, or due to smoking, dietary changes, psychological stresses, or alcohol have premature serious illnesses, or have several children in need of special bilingual prep or anti-poverty program attention. Any illegal alien is one tragedy, or chance mistake away from financial oblivion.
There are thousands of exceptions to that narrative (and they are now the hope of the state), but it is an accurate enough politically-incorrect generalization to explain at least some of the state’s structured deficits. Far better it would be to let in a finite number of Mexican nationals, do it legally, try to insist on high school diplomas, and ensure there are citizen sponsors on this side of the border.
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81 Comments
1. Phineas:And there are even more problems:
#The safe-seat system that’s turned our legislature into a self-renewing oligarchy that’s barely responsible to the fans. Thankfully, that ends with the new redistricting plan in 2010.
#A broken public-initiative system that makes it too easy to place stupid, wasteful measures on the ballot, which then pass because the voters are too lazy to really think about them, or don’t have the time to do the needed work.
Dec 3, 2008 - 11:48 am 2. Kevin:And people are trying to do the same garbage on a national scale. Ignorance.
Dec 3, 2008 - 12:06 pm 3. Frank:Dear Mr. VHD
Another brilliant piece. You succinctly capture the surreal situation of California. I fear the same may sooner than later be the reality on a national scale. Ayn Rand must be spinning in her grave.
Very Respectfully,
Dec 3, 2008 - 12:11 pm 4. ApplePie:Truth is California is importing poverty by allowing sanctuary cities and unmitigated illegal immigration.
CA (lack of) immigration enforcement has turned the once bright and shining state - that Americans flocked to - into a Third World mess.
So please don’t whine to me or expect my legally earned tax dollars to go to fund CA provided services to illegal aliens.
Dec 3, 2008 - 12:23 pm 5. Paul M Hupf:Let’s start with a unicameral legislature, effective with the redistricting in 2010. There is no longer any need for two legislative houses (the federal system). The “one man, one vote” decision of the U S Supreme Court in the 1960s resulted in both houses of the state legislature elected on the basis of population. The urban areas dominate in both houses. One house is more than enough.
Dec 3, 2008 - 12:38 pm 6. Conservative:And how many of you who are complaining about the current situation voted for those in office? I may have voted for the Republican (RINO) for governor, but that’s as far as it went. You may have only yourselves to blame.
Dec 3, 2008 - 12:39 pm 7. Dave D:It’s a catch 22 though-to lower spending will mean not cutting just the excess salaries, but important programs as well, because the tax revenue won’t be there. CT is nowhere near as bad as CA, but on a local level we still run over budget, and our rural towns keep closing schools.
You also can’t expect an economy rapidly shifting to low paying service and health jobs to bring in revenue. You also can’t rely on consumption, or vice taxes either.
There may not be any solution.
Dec 3, 2008 - 12:47 pm 8. ginsocal:I left California in ‘96. Moved back (for famioly reasons) in ‘06, and suffice it to say that it has not improved in any aspect. I live not far from Dr. Hanson, and everything he says is true, and then some. Fortunately, we have the resources to have our son in a private school. As soon as we are able, though, we are leaving again. Permanently.
Dec 3, 2008 - 1:05 pm 9. RJ:I didn’t really get serious about my weight problem until I realized that my favorite pair of pants just wouldn’t fit no matter how hard I tried. Damn pissed me off so much that I changed my eating lifestyle and added a serious and healthful exercise program.
Soon I will be able to look good again, in those favorite pants!
Are we there yet, mommy?
Dec 3, 2008 - 1:06 pm 10. David Thomson:I live in Texas—and I don’t want California’s problems to become mine! Nobody told the majority of the citizens of that state to behave like immature children. They have no one to blame for their current economic troubles but themselves. And I am damn good and fed up with the MSM talking about the economic crisis of the entire nation when it usually is a major problem in states like California dominated by Democrats and liberal Republicans. Did I tell these folks to vote for left-wing politicians? No, I did not.
California has also damaged the rest of the United States with its radical environmentalism. The other 49 states are forced to follow the leader. I suspect that the state of California has personally cost me thousands of dollars. Please note that the legacy media rarely, if ever, publishes articles concerning the true cost resulting from California’s extremist environmental policies.
Dec 3, 2008 - 1:14 pm 11. Marino:When an elderly person dies in a nursing home in my county in Florida (and in Florida that is a lot of people), an ambulance AND a fire truck is sent to the nursing home to take the body out. A total of 5 emergency workers and 2 expensive vehicles.
Then the county tells you they need to raise property and sales taxes to pay for schools.
Dec 3, 2008 - 1:15 pm 12. Jen:I’m in Texas too, like David T. What he forgot to mention is that those leaving California and other states in the NW are coming here to Texas. That wouldn’t be so bad if they would come to Texas and leave it as-is. Instead they have come here and are trying to turn us into California-especially in Austin.
Those folks who are unhappy with California the way it is need to change it, not go to other states and change the way those states do business. We obviously have it right or you wouldn’t be coming here. Why not stay where you are and fixed it?
Dec 3, 2008 - 2:10 pm 13. jhr:Patience Folks..
With home values plummeting the lender of last resort - the next buyer - is all but gone. Maybe Californians will realize without real growth poliicies and spending curbs, the golden state will beocme more and more like the place Tom Joad knew. If only Stienbeck was alive today. What stories could he weave!
Dec 3, 2008 - 2:28 pm 14. PM:I’d comment but I’m too busy packing for a move to Reno. My kids need a school where English is spoken, and taught.
Dec 3, 2008 - 2:57 pm 15. Victor Erimita:There are no more eloquent testaments to the ravages of decades of liberal politics than California and New York. Entrenched politicans, unions, corrupt educational establishments, government grown far beyond sustainability, pathological multiculturalism, insane overregualtion, and on and on. This is what faces the entire nation if we continue our media- and pop-culture-led journey into the fantasy world of “progressivism.”
Dec 3, 2008 - 2:58 pm 16. lee:I’m a California lifer, A few trips to Nevada (Las Vegas) and New York accounts for my out of state experience.
My family immigrated here in 91, and we have reasons to love the place, notably the well rooted Asian community that rivals their Latino neighbors. Most of my cousins who lived in the packed human sardine can that is Korea confess they actually enjoy the sense of privacy in LA. We’re actually very conservative in large parts of the state.
Having said that, the place irks me sometimes. Things were getting so bad that we recalled a governor (oh, the media’s love for “historic election”) and since then nothing’s changed. I can’t even imagaine living in a place like SF, which was one of the most expensive places to live in the country few years ago.
The democrats have done NOTHING for Latinos other than a few token gestures, but they vote for that party since the dems coddle their “raza” sentiments and stay relatively lenient on illegal immigration. Remember the “under the outstanding leadership of Barney Frank……” Maxine waters? Yep, from CA.
Dec 3, 2008 - 3:41 pm 17. newguy40:Folks-
I live in Santa Cruz, Ca. And, the main problem with California residents is the “spend, spend, spend voters”. The last election and the numerous Props with mandated spending or spending estimated in the billions is a key factor in this crisis. CA voters just do not seem to understand the concept and necessity of “living within one’s means”. I told my wife it’s like I “vote” to buy a new truck, BluRay, Fishing Boat, furniture, Las Vegas Vacation but cannot then afford to buy food. And, not to mention saving for our kids college education.
It’s the same principle of not spending what you ain’t got or gonna’ have in the future.
I moved to CA from the mid west in ‘84. This spending habit has always been present here. I sure wish someone would explain this phenomenon to me…
Dec 3, 2008 - 3:59 pm 18. Salty Alaskan:Dave D re: #7, what “important programs” are you referring to?
It seems to me you have captured perfectly, whether intentionally or not, the mentality that stands in the way of correcting the spending side of the equation.
Dec 3, 2008 - 4:09 pm 19. Jeff Perren:“It’s a catch 22 though-to lower spending will mean not cutting just the excess salaries, but important programs”
Can you name a few? Unless you view the police and courts as “programs,” I can’t think of any. That is, after all, the sum total of what the state government is supposed to do.
Dec 3, 2008 - 5:21 pm 20. Joshua:As someone has suggested, make education compulsory to 8th grade only, cut number of public high schools in half. Those 8th grade graduates who don’t have the grades to get into high school can learn a trade.
Dec 3, 2008 - 5:45 pm 21. thegr8_1:VDH Great article and I recently heard you on Hugh Hewitt.
How about CA allows drilling off it’s coast and get over what happened 40 years ago. That would bring more revenue, good paying jobs, and help the economy. Or sell the Golden Gate Bridge to a private entity?
If the three stooges Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein are the best CA can send to Congress, no wonder the state is a disaster.
Time to get Ahnold out and put Duncan Hunter in as Governor.
Why should the other 49 states pay for your stupidity balance your own budget.
It is time to stop rewarding failure and penalizing success in this country.
Dec 3, 2008 - 5:47 pm 22. DEK:I teach in a Central Valley town an hour north of VDH. My school’s Hispanic neighborhood is an impact zone for money from public education programs, special police programs, community and private outreach programs of every sort, not to mention the usual CPS, AFDC, etc. etc. More of my students end up in jail or public assisted poverty than go on to higher education. Our city council/school board acquiesce in being straight jacketed by belligerent and vocal ethnic activists and general do-gooders. Industry won’t come to our community because the population’s education base is too limited and gangs too active. And so on and on.
We are California in a nutshell. Hiking in the Sierra is my soma. Except, of course, for the increasing commercial and home development there as middle class types with enough money flee to higher elevations to escape the bubbling mess below.
I fantasize that VDH’s beleaguered farm is an island of sanity and consolation. Except, that is, for the intruding bureaucrats, illegals, uninsured motorists, etc.
Dec 3, 2008 - 5:53 pm 23. octavian:CA is as it is because the people want it this way. Of course, I don’t mean everyone or even a majority, but a significant minority - educated, vocal, and affluent - is determined to remake CA into their image of what a state should be. This image may be impossible to create and destory the commonwealth in the process, but they don’t care. If you doubt this, read the comments by citizens in response to stories about CA’s financil condition. Most of them have one theme: continue to spend and regualate and if needed raise taxes as high as necessary.
Dec 3, 2008 - 5:58 pm 24. Paul:Ca to rest of country: Shut up and give us our bail out(as they continue to spend like drunken fools). CA is controlled by special interests, unions and corrupt politicians and as they run out of taxpayers to soak in CA, they will turn to washington to soak the federal taxpayers on their behalf. The corrupt politicians in washington will be happy to abide as they bail out banks, unions and other states with the hand out. The only question is how much the citizens of this country are willing to take. The pols know the sky is the limit. We are noe into the trillions and no one flinches. Every one is only concerned with getting there cut. What has happened to my country? It’s sickening. Too few patriots left and too many leaches replacing them.
Dec 3, 2008 - 6:00 pm 25. Paul_Unalaska:My wife and I lived in California for 2 years in her completing Grad School. It’s one of the states which accept past college credits indefinitely. Many states allow a 5-7 year gap, in which you have to take those same courses again.
UCSB has over 60, yes 60, Latino and Hispanic history and cultural classes. HOw many U.S. History courses you ask? 1.
All the while, HIspanic City Councilman/Councilwoman and other PC politicians speak of the benefits of ‘Multiculturalism’ and ‘Celebrating diversity’. Funny, for ot’s the legal residents are the only demographic being force fed others mylticulturalism. All the while our nation’s culture is given the backseat.
Suffice to say, we’d left California after her finishing school and now live in Alaska. Were Colorado transplants so we feel right at home.
VDH’s “Mexifornia: ‘A State of Becoming’ is an incredible book. The professionalism exuded in this article is similiar to his approach in the pages of ‘Mexifornia’. I picked it up at the library and have since read his other books as well. I highly recommend you visit your library if you need’t want to buy it or other titles.
Dec 3, 2008 - 6:12 pm 26. Saltherring:ApplePie @ 4 wins my Kewpie Doll. Just as much as liberal elitism, environmental regulation and government tax and spend policies, illegal immigration has destroyed California. Hordes of Hispanic gangbangers, endless lines in hospital emergency rooms, overburdened welfare agencies/private charities and dumbed-down bilingual public schools can all trace their collective dispair to the illegal immigrant. I, for one, would be willing to pay extra federal taxes to round each and every one up and ship them home. And no, I am not a racist. I love Mexican people. But they need to either work to eliminate the injustice and corruption in their own country or apply to enter the U.S. legally.
Dec 3, 2008 - 6:34 pm 27. Scott:Dr Hanson: I am a native Californian, born in Fresno in 1951 of parents who came from New Mexico after WW2. I grew up in the Valley, in both Fresno and Merced.
I have given up. I can’t fight this tide of incompetence, corruption and leftism that has ruined my home state. I am going to have to leave.
You can not believe how much this pains me; to have to leave my home of 57 years. I retire in a couple of years and we are relocating to northern New Mexico near where my father’s family has lived since the 19th century.
This is unbelieveably sad for me. I always dreamed of retiring to the Sierras. Sadly, I simply can’t do it. The incompetence and avarice of this state’s “government” has made it impossible for me to even consider this option any longer.
What a damn shame! My native state is ruined, perhaps forever.
I will never forgive the politicians, unions, “activists” and others who have destroyed what was the most idylic place in America. They have destroyed it, and they can have it.
I feel like an exiled Russian in 1920.
Dec 3, 2008 - 6:39 pm 28. GBS:What you are seeing in California and other progressive areas is played out in the suburbs of major cities constantly. Progressives create an economic and social hell in the inner cities with their short sighted policies. As conditions deteriorate, those that can afford it (or those that can secure government subsidies), move to the suburbs. They then resume to vote those suburban politicians that will execute the same policies that are responsible for driving the cities to the brink. Over time (namely 15 to 20 years), you can see the changes in the schools, in the justice system, in the social welfare system. The reason you are seeing many of the suburbs of major cities turn blue is the flight of progressives from the cities. I can’t blame anyone for wanting a better life for themselves and their children; but, hopefully they can stop and see that it is their mindset of relying on government to educate their children, provide employment, manufacture social justice, etc… that will follow them wherever they go and eventually create the very conditions they were trying to escape.
Dec 3, 2008 - 7:06 pm 29. johne:My grandparents and great grandparents came to California to escape facism, poverty, government opression, coruption, punitive taxes, and lack of opportunity. Nearly all of their offspring have left the state for the same reasons.
Dec 3, 2008 - 7:23 pm 30. Mark L:When we retire we are moving out of state. Too old to start over careerwise. I am a 5th gen bay area native but I do not feel at home here anymore. We are spending more time every year in the Sierras. Thankfully i can telecommute a few months each year, and we can afford private schools for our son.
Dec 3, 2008 - 7:39 pm 31. Dr. Shalit:Dr. Hanson -
I Know Exactly how you feel. I am a NJ Native and Resident, one who has toured the country and seen the “Old California.” My state, like California, fronts an Ocean - in this case the Atlantic. I also remember the “Old NJ” - a civilized low tax, low rent place to live. Our Car and Surf cultures seemed to be never more than one year apart. BOTH states are now BROKE and BROKEN. Seems to me that we are in a race to see which will declare Bankruptcy first.
-S-
Dec 3, 2008 - 7:50 pm 32. Dee:Mr. Hanson,
A wonderful article that I am sending to my children and friends. I am third generation Californian. My grandchildren are fifth.
This home and the sadness I feel as the quality of life and freedom of movement becomes curtailed as our culture has changed from freedom to a government that controls our food, health care and regulates our businesses out of the State.
We have discussed moving. However, there is no place where we have visited that gives us the same natural beauty without the snow, tornadoes, etc. Our homes are mortage free and our income still meets our needs. We still think we live in God’s Country, the California foothills.
Dec 3, 2008 - 8:25 pm 33. George Fancher:Dear Doc:
As much as I enjoy reading all your writings, Works and Days is your best take on life in what has become the Fool’s Gold State and beyond. I wish you had time to post here everyday. You are the Real West Notes.
Dec 3, 2008 - 9:03 pm 34. fred:I don’t think even Duncan Hunter could save California. That state is perhaps permanently ruined by the NEA Socialists, the illegal immigrants, the various Cultural Marxists who run everything from the unions to the municipal governments. I don’t live in California (I live in New Hampshire) and I am trying to tell the people in my state - neighbors, friends, and co-workers - that the NEA could do our state what they did to California and may be just getting started.
The teachers’ and public employees’ unions killed California. My contacts out there all say it cannot be salvaged unless there is a drastic change in the culture of the state, which they doubt will happen because the urban areas are socialist shitholes.
If we are not careful and pull back from the abyss, what you see happening to California could be the future for the entire country.
Dec 3, 2008 - 10:26 pm 35. Darren:I lived in San Jose for a year back in 2006 and hated it. Very expensive, heavy traffic, lots of congestion, bad roads and bad neighborhoods and this was in Silicon Valley.
You can call me whatever name you want but this “immigration” situation with Mexico is extremely bad and is huge factor in California’s decline. During the summer I would see dozens of cars every week flying the Mexican flag and there are Mexican men at every corner near a Home Depot or 7-Eleven just standing around.
Not a place to raise a family.
Dec 3, 2008 - 11:13 pm 36. Master of Obvious:California declares CO2 as pollution. When they speak and breathe they are therefore gross polluters. Cap and trade to follow.
Dec 3, 2008 - 11:14 pm 37. cthulhu:I was born in California 46 years ago. I remember a land of promise, with untold resources and opportunities. I remember “the cowards never started and the weak died on the way” and cities of the future.
And today, living in Silicon Valley, I see taxes, crybabies, layabouts, dirt, an emphasis on problems rather than solutions, and a dole-queue mentality of entitlement.
Some of the people I work with, originally from India or England or Vietnam or China or Guatemala, tell me that there is still some appeal to the place — but I’m having increasing difficulty in seeing that.
I suppose that when I can’t squint just right and look into the sunset and see a little touch of gold….I will have to leave. The prospect makes me sad, and holds a bit of dread. But each day I get a bit closer.
Dec 3, 2008 - 11:22 pm 38. Ken H:I suppose that
Kudos on another excellent and insightful article, Prof. Hanson. I spent almost my entire life in the southern LA basin: born and raised in Long Beach (”Des-Moines-by-the-Sea”), and then lived in Orange County. For years I heard people trash California and I would respond that the state is not the wacky liberal nuthouse that much of the rest of America believes. Sure, there’s the Hollywood types and the Bay area, but most of the state is fairly conservative, either in a traditional or libertarian way. Then, a few years ago, I moved to the midwest to finish a BA and MA. Having returned in July of this year, I cannot believe what has happened to my beloved home in less than 6 years– it’s like they are trying to run the place into the ground. And now I feel like a buffoon for having defended California’s honor against all those nay-sayers. What can I say? The caricature has become reality. I’m looking to get out as soon as possible, and my two sisters here in SoCal expect to move out of state before too long. The Golden State is driving off the people she needs the most. I love California, it is my home, but I hate what has happened to my home. VDH is right, the fight has been knocked out of me, for I see the gerrymandered districts and the judicial fiats make any such battles futile– they’ll just declare a “do-over” until they win, then it’s etched in stone. If one tries to correct abuses or bad laws, you’ll be labelled a reactionary, right-wing extremist who “trying to turn back the clock!” Sometimes the clock needs to be turned back– I just don’t know how. One final thought: to those of you who are complaining that everyone who is moving from CA to your state are trying to undermine your values and lifestyles, I would admit that those people do exist, but realize that most of the California expatriates have moved to your area because they experienced firsthand the travails of life here– don’t assume that they are there to trash your home; further, don’t give them an earful about how much you hate California because you visited Dsneyland once and found traffic on the 405 to be unbearable, and besides, “everyone there is into organic poodle grooming, feng shui burritos and other such idiocy, so you must be an idiot, too.” I think they’d like to be good neighbors, but if you act as though they had some sort of progressive plague and treat them like something you stepped in, you’re likely to meet some pushback– wouldn’t you if the roles were reversed?
Dec 4, 2008 - 12:28 am 39. Ken H:Regards to all from a native Californian who is likely to be back in the midwest soon (northern Indiana was very nice).
Addendum to my comment #34: Lest anyone say that my being in the midwest for 6 years simply cleared my head and now I’m seeing what was always a reality, I would dispute that– things ARE different (i.e., worse); traffic is far worse, taxes keep going up, businesses are leaving, etc. Soon there will be two types of people in California: the very wealthy who spend their days in narcissistic excess and the poor laborers (usually illegal) who make such lives possible. California is returning to a feudal system, with lords and serfs… and I don’t think this is an accident. Has anyone noticed that our socialist “betters” (wherever they are, not just in CA) demand that we live in little hovels and take the bus while they live in vitual palaces and have private jets? Sort of like when Ted Turner says at heart he is a socialist– he’s really saying that he thinks it’s a good idea that –you– live as a socialist; he got his millions and he doesn’t want his view cluttered up by a bunch of middle-class yokels.
Dec 4, 2008 - 12:40 am 40. Roger Godby:About 25 years ago, my father was offered a hi-tech job in CA. His colleagues in flyover country warned him not to go, that housing was insanely expensive and salaries deceptively high; those in CA warned him not to come mainly for the same reasons plus bad schools. He chose wisely: we stayed put and he endured his children’s whining for a few weeks.
The worst thing about escaping Californians is they keep trying to recreate the hell they left, whether in CO, ID, TX, wherever. Thank God they don’t come to the Rust and Corn Belts.
Dec 4, 2008 - 3:06 am 41. vivo:This article reflects well some of the realities. It seems that one of the biggest problems is the inefficient Californian government. On top of that, many fiscal and legislative decision are made by really uninformed voters.
What to do?
The Governor and legislators should use their brains and earn their pay by re-engineering their government. Not an easy task. California is a country in itself with wide demographics and factional interests.
Dec 4, 2008 - 5:13 am 42. Tonto (USA):Seems like some poetic justice to me. Let California bankrupt itself. It’s their stupid policies and tree hugger attitude which got them in the situation in the first place. At least the auto companies in Michigan contributed something, and made tactile goods that actually worked. Congress pondering a bailout for them, and the hearings and humiliation of car company CEOs and Managers, is amusing next to the absolute carte blanc and dumping of BILLIONS for insanely rich bankers and insurance companies, that were only doing what the liberals demanded, is a lesson to us all. After all, had they questioned the banks and insurers, the truth about the banks being FORCED to make totally stupid and unsound loans to insolvent and nonviable home buyers might have been revealed and exposed the libs for the idiots they are. Bless their dumbass California libtard hearts.
Dec 4, 2008 - 7:50 am 43. uburoisc:VDH is right about CA; I live in LA and am only here for the money. We are ready to leave the minute the economy dries up. How could anyone feel any loyalty or want to make a long-tern commitment to a place as poorly run as CA? Considering how many natural advantages CA has, it is inconceivable how it could have gone this far off track, but it has. I’ll let the gangs of illegals fight it out with the west-side socialists for the crumbs.
BTW, my employer makes business decisions by calling her $500 hour Feng Shui “expert” (an otherwise unemployable divorcee who took her husband for millions in the settlement) to divine what we should do next. Every morning we do “Yoga” which consists of long meetings listening to my vain and crazy employer muddle together dumbed-down esotericism, pop-culture cliches, bad management theories, and whatever mystic bromides happened to be in vogue that day on the Whole Foods bulletin board. I’m serious. And her clients are just as nuts. Almost every person I meet with in a professional capacity here in LA makes me wonder if there is a hidden cabal of real adults somewhere who actually run things, because I cannot believe the children I encounter could accomplish anything.
Dec 4, 2008 - 8:25 am 44. Ride Fast:[...] $135M for California - quick and easy [...]
Excellent analysis, Mr. Hanson. Excellent.
Dec 4, 2008 - 8:52 am 45. Croisan:I live in Oregon. It’s true. I have seen many intelligent, energetic, and relative to the locals, wealthy ex-Californians move to Oregon. It drives our property prices up, but they also bring a wealth of knowledge and a can do spirit. I’ve often thought this was sad for what was the very great State of California.
In many ways, we all hope Californians can correct their own behaviour (and we do our own as well). California was a place of opportunity. But they are running the innovators to other states. This is very fortunate for Oregonians as we see new an innovative businesses springing up like never before (I was born here - I’ve watched it).
California’s bad habits are coming here too. It will be more than a California problem.
The author of this story is just the messenger that many don’t want to hear. But all of the states are having massive revenue shortfalls. There is no one to bail anyone out. It seems pathetic that Californians haven’t reared their heads and changed things. But I believe the sleeping giant is about to be wakened. If the slumber continues, we will sadly see a once great state become the arm-pit of the western states. California still has some of the most innovative can-do people in the US. No one wants to see that happen. They need to rally together with committment and love for their state and show us that unique form of Californian leadership we saw decades ago. The committment of those sons and daughters of that generation are part of the answer. But how will they join together?
Dec 4, 2008 - 9:13 am 46. Robert Winkler Burke:Dr. Hanson,
Well said.
In 2001 I moved from Southern California to Reno, Nevada. As a professor of history, Dr. Hanson, observe this history lesson:
http://www.handgunlaw.us/right-to-carry-history.gif.
It is a time-sequenced picture of the US in regards to shall-issue concealed carry permits. Note the aberation: California.
California allows the US military to defend its populace, allows the police to defend its populace, but insists that there is a gap in the defence of citizens: Namely, citizens cannot defend themselves in public.
With reciprocal laws amongst shall-issue carry states, many US citizens avoid even traveling to California, because it is so strongly opposed to traditional American liberty. The band of brother states who honor each other’s shall-issue carry permits are basically freedom-loving, life-loving states which still honor our founding fathers.
And what is liberty? Dedication to life and the protection thereof. Any visit to California involves giving up rights that we non-Californians have become attached to: namely that we shall not die but live to declare to the world what the spirit of 1776 was and is today.
Considering the receent terrorist tragedy in India, would terrorists prefer disarmed Santa Barbara, the Bay Area, Los Angeles… or the armed by shall-issue concealed permit citizens of Houston or Miami? No, they would prefer the disarmed citizens of New York or California. These are dangerous places, as proven by history and murder rates. Look at Obama’s beloved murder-zone Chicago. More die there than our military in Iraq, for crying out loud!
Bottom line: To live or even visit a liberal land is personally dangerous. It is dangerous because of potential for potential violence done to one’s person through state actions, criminal actions or civil actions by legally empowered predators.
Dec 4, 2008 - 9:35 am 47. Bruce:Our government, cultural and educational institutions are so infested from the top down with a dogmatic “leftist” ideology that to break their hegemony of those institutions would require nothing less than a political and cultural tsunami to roll over this once great state. Even if for some miraculous reason we had a right of center government in California, the left’s domination of our cultural and educational institutions would continue past my lifetime.
Dec 4, 2008 - 9:47 am 48. cfbleachers:California’s present state of affairs and its current financial condition is a by-product of its geography and its politics.
Its geography it cannot change. Tens of thousands have crossed the border, settled down, had children and scattered throughout the landscape, living a sub rosa existence in whole or in part while the state (and the country) wrestle with the appropriate response to that fact on the ground.
It has created a Beggar’s Dilemma in California. It has come to a tipping point in state financing that those who wished to simply ignore the cost of subsidizing the beggars’ banquet are now staring down the prospect of joining it.
I have been thinking lately of crazy old Charlie Manson and his rather insane notion of Helter Skelter, a theory that rattled around in his pinball game brain and came out as a megalomaniacal mess in which Crazy Old Charlie would create a race and class war between one side and pit it against the other. One side would be too timid to fight and the other would be too intellectually deprived to seal the deal. Then Crazy Old Charlie would step in and rule the world. Helter Skelter it was called.
As I watch events unfold here in California, across the country and across the world, it has struck me very recently that we may be in the middle of a swirl of Helter Skelter pitting millions of Mansons against against their “enemies”…meaning, the rest of us.
The ideology has morphed into a rather bizarre mixture of bedfellows, with those “joiners” not drifting to Spahn Ranch, but rather, just grabbing a seat at the Beggars’ Banquet. Anyone can now simply declare that they are the “victim” of oppression and wish to stand linked arm in arm with those who set the table for the coming clash.
Fauxpression, the creation of “victim status” out of whole cloth, allows the chorus of jeers to reach a crescendo. As yet another group of “victims” takes a seat at the Beggars’ Banquet. You need only to rote memorize the chants, the slogans, the soundbites.
Kill the pigs, down with piggie, ….is easily translated into Bushhitler or Rethuglicans, Zionazis, …it all works the same. America, Israel, non-leftists, Christians, corporate executives…are simply today’s “pigs” who need a damn good whacking.
The strangest alliance of the fauxpressed, comes from leftist demagogues and Islamic fundamentalists. Their language is nearly a mirrored overlay. The fauxpression has bent the far left and the far right back onto itself where it touches neatly in the tectonic plate shift of Helter Skelter.
Crazy old Charlie Manson is seeing his “vision” come to life. The battle lines have been drawn. The seats at the Beggars Banquet are filled. And California is simply the bellwether for the price we stand to pay for ignoring the Beggar’s Dilemma, and worse…for nurturing it. California is the place where a bad idea goes to grow worse.
Crazy Old Charlie Manson never saw the militant Muslim community coming, but he did see the combination of leftist demagoguery and fauxpression militancy as a marriage of convenience. He deserves a seat at the head of the Beggars’ Banquet table.
And California is very likely to give it to him.
Dec 4, 2008 - 10:06 am 49. Neil:The Americal Legislative Exchange Council has a research paper on their website that shows how states with high taxes are losing their best and brightest. They move to where they can be competitive.
it’s an outstand report.
http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Rich_States_Poor_States
Dec 4, 2008 - 11:03 am 50. Tina Trent:Those who have no shame about relying on public services to raise their families count on the ignorance of the middle and working classes to keep their scams going. If the average middle-class or working-class voter could see the lifestyles led by those in government housing or on Section 8 — the benefits that accrue to them, the free and generous healthcare, the cadres of government workers at their beck and call, the special protections that keep them fed, clothed and housed despite their own behavior — then things might change at the state legislature’s social services cabals. And with federal funding for poverty programs. And with federal block-grants. The three sources of Barack Obama’s rise to power, I might add.
But the problem is this: most people can’t see it. And the reason they can’t see it is because of another class — the class of college professors and journalists and professional activists who labor hard to prevent such recognition.
I recently met a woman who teaches at a public college in California. She was taken aback when her dean actually spoke a truth out loud that nobody likes to admit — that the tenured elites’ cushy salaries and “research” leaves comes courtesy of the vast numbers of underpaid, temp “adjuncts” who do most of the real teaching for pennies on the tenured dollar — a peonage that makes any Wal-mart labor policy look progressive. Not that she, nor her peers, were planning on doing anything about it.
Well, I am a taxpayer and I was recently an underpaid state adjunct (and pushing carts at Wal-mart does pay far better than teaching Western Civ.). And my neighbors who didn’t pay their own way at all lived better than I did, had better access to doctors, and could afford to have both cable tv and lots of children (and had them).
None of this will change until enough people understand the all-or-nothing truth about the welfare state. Some of us will kill ourselves working for pennies and pay our taxes and put off visits to the doctor. Others will take everything with outstretched hands — from Section 8 housing vouchers in wealthy suburbs to tenured leave from classroom duties that some poor slob from the permanent temp pool will fill. Eyes averted. When enough people understand this, we’ll change it.
CFBleachers is right — about class war, about Charles Manson’s foresight. How embarrassing that he turned out to be right.
Dec 4, 2008 - 12:22 pm 51. Ron Kean:I live in a medium sized mid-western city. On cold snowy windy days like this I remember what a former mayor once said:
‘If the weather here was like San Diego, none of us could afford to live here.’
Dec 4, 2008 - 12:53 pm 52. ET:I’ve always wondered why supposedly sane citizens and bureacrats alike accept ever-rising spending as an inevitability.
I’m not old enough to have seen it, but I have heard of the days when the schools, infrastructure, and everything operated well, and within budget parameters.
It cannot be true that higher populations always require higher taxes and higher tax rates; if it were, there would come a time of 100% taxation, and we would then be told that it was *stillI* not enough - and yet people constantly act as though this were not only a given, but logical!
Thanks for addressing this highly annoying attribute of our fair state!
Dec 4, 2008 - 3:24 pm 53. Roderick Reilly:Hey, everybody, remember the California “brownouts” and blackouts of a few years ago?
The electrical crisis was blamed on “deregulation.” Deja Vu all over again, right?
The supposedly “deregulated” utilities were anything but. There were so many caveats and restrictions placed in the “deregulation” legislation that the notion was a sham.
California is a trend-setter, and sure enough, the current national financial meltdown is blamed on a “deregulated” financial industry. The same mentality that infests California gave us the unfettered, reckless disregard for sound credit and business practices in the mortgage industry — in the name of “fairness and economic justice,” and whenever lenders wanted to apply the brakes, along come the activists with their bevy of tort lawyers.
Dec 4, 2008 - 5:21 pm 54. blogengeezer:Robert Winkler Burke; observation of the CCW issue is spot on. During seasonal travels across our great nation, we notice the very obvious difference in restrictive states vs full right to ‘carry’ CCW states. We park our motorhome in many places overnight during travel. Texas being one of the most accepting of CCW. New Mexico and of course Utah are added. Utah’s CCW certification, due to Reciprocity, is accepted in 30 States. NM is accepted in 20. I recently wrote a post on http://daflikkers.blogspot.com/ about the entire procedure over the 16 hours required by Law. Following a described trip to Oregon. I strongly recommend that all Law Abiding Patriots of the USA get Certification as soon as possible. The future possibly will make it one of the most prudent decisions of your life. Well over 2 million law abiding citizens of the USA are now certified CCW. The disparity between the haves and have nots is growing due to many factors, government mandates, not the least of them. If a comprehensive CCW program was in place in Mumbai, the international nuclear option would not have even been theorised. The minor conflict would have been nothing more than that, and passed over in the news, with the attackers being the only real victims. ‘Cali’ will continue to fester, at some point the infected ‘boil’ will eventually erupt to cleanse itself, returning the flesh to a somewhat healthy state. Welcome news for those that prefer Natural healing. Thank you VDH for such insight .. as always.
Dec 4, 2008 - 6:35 pm 55. Ron Kean:I had a falling out with my family in LA. I don’t think I’ll ever go on a Universal City Studio tour again.
I may want to take a stroll up and down Venice beach and buy a tee shirt one more time but I may just be suffering an attack of arrested development.
Probably the best thing about California these days is VDH.
Dec 4, 2008 - 7:07 pm 56. Django:California voters repeatedly and overwhelmingly elect only one party’s candidates to 95% of the political offices - the Democratic Party. They do this over and over and over again and then don’t understand why things don’t improve. For all the talk of “cutting edge” or “radical” California, the truth is California voters are terrified of trying anything even slightly different from the politically correct Democratic Party policies the media tells them they would be monsters to oppose.
What’s really laughable is that the non-existent Republican Party is still held up as a bugaboo of all that is e-e-e-evil and wrong in the state even though it has absolutely no power or influence here.
I was born here in California and have lived here all my 46 years. What passes for thinking amongst the majority of people here is a mish-mash of old hippy/elderly baby boomer pop culture cliches and half-baked multicultural outrage swallowed straight off the TV or from bad pop band lyrics. Largely because of an incredibly corrupt media and a similarly twisted education system, the majority of voters here are dumb as a box of rocks. And I don’t see that changing for at least another 20 or 30 years.
As the saying goes, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, and most Californians don’t have even the slightest hint of a clue as to how and why California wound up in its present state.
Dec 4, 2008 - 7:08 pm 57. Janis:My family left California in 1970,my parents could see it coming back then. We have lived in Oregon since then, and this state is teetering on the verge of going bad. Luckily the subprime crisis put the cabosh on thecrazy rape of the land. I unfortunately used to say that we need a depression to make people see the danger of this way of life. (welfare , handouts, etc.) But, the real shame is that good people leave. And give up.
Dec 4, 2008 - 10:10 pm 58. BRussell:Ha! My wife and I sold our house in 2006, at the top, and fled to New Mexico. I still have our business in Los Angeles so I do commute, earnh good money, and flee with it back to my home-state.
The thing that finally pushed us over the edge was the lunacy of the state and it’s total tolerance of the illegals and down-right hatered of us, the hard-working tax-payers.
California is finished. There is no way out.
I predicted this downfall back when Prop. 187 was blocked by the Feds.
Glad to see I was right.
I gave this state 44 of my 47 years. They won’t get my last 30 or so.
Dec 4, 2008 - 10:54 pm 59. HatlessHessian:Five years ago, I was a part owner of a retired AT&T data center and tower located in rural Iowa which we purchased for less than $30K in an arms-length transaction for fair market value. Within a year, the rural county it was located within reassessed it at $300K. We challenged the valuation and had it lowered to $90K, 300% the market value. At that valuation, it wasn’t worth a legal fight and the county knew it. But when we accepted that compromise, I warned the county that we wouldn’t pay a nickle more in valuation.
The following year, they valued it at $500K, using an approach with an outside assessor who claimed estimated revenue (we had bought it as an investment to try to bring economic development into the hard-hit rural county and instead were seen as a goose with golden eggs to tax). We litigated and won in court, lowering the assessed valuation to $25K. Soured by the experience, the partners and I just sold it to an electronic salvage processor who will process toxic metals and employ a handful of minimum wage workers, instead of the high-paying disaster recovery data center business we had intended to develop. We’re moving that to Nebraska where a county there is doing the opposite, giving us tax incentives to develop a similar facility.
Iowa gets the toxic waste, lost opportunity and worse yet, real tax inflow impact since we burned them as promised on the valuation fight. Increasingly, I’m wondering if professionals who can work anywhere shouldn’t consider the same. I’m warning my Congresspersons that I’m not contributing one more percentage in tax, period. There’s something quite fulfilling in bringing the black swan of the laffer curve to these parasites.
Dec 4, 2008 - 11:04 pm 60. shocked:I moved to Colorado a couple of years ago from Texas. In just a short time the state has been over run with left coasters and have turned what was once a good conservative state into a new liberal stronghold. I am amazed at the number of people that walk around wanting a hand out.
I have decided the time has come to retire and move back and find a small Texas town where people still believe in God and actually working for a living.
Dec 4, 2008 - 11:17 pm 61. Inland Empire:Note to Roger, about 25 years ago, MY father was offered a hi-tech job in southern CA. But in my case, my Dad took the gig and we escaped the snow. It was initially a brutal existence, housing was very expensive. But eventually, my family attained affordable state college educations and I became successful in the film industry.
California is a badly run state, and can be very tough to adjust to. But if you survive the initial encounter, it’s still the land of opportunity.
Dec 5, 2008 - 4:56 am 62. George:I saw this coming back in 92. I left CA a little over 3 years ago having been born and raised in San Mateo. Having lived in CA 56 years I have seen things take the “bobsled ride to hell”. Besides the excessive traffic, over crowding, cost of living, taxes, out of control progressives, cost of illegal aliens destroying CA, we have the state pension funds for state employees killing the state as well. I go back every two months on business and see it getting worse and worse. We live in a great big country with many desirable place to live. CA is not the promised land. “LIVE FREE OR DIE” Know where I live now? My blood pressure has dropped 20 points with no medication!
Dec 5, 2008 - 7:17 am 63. urbanleftbehind:B Russell,
Have you noticed if illegals are converging on NM since Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma have passed some degree of anti-illegal immigration legislation in the past 2 years. I think that California and Texas’ problems are exacerbated by these other state’s forward thinking.
Dec 5, 2008 - 9:49 am 64. Charles:Here is Gov (commerce secretary elect)Bill Richardson saying in Spanish that Obama is an “immigrant.” (So he understands understands “immigrant” issues.)
You’ve heard people say “do not listen to what Israelis or Palestinians say in English. Listen to what they say in Hebrew and Arabic.
I wonder if the same rule applies here.
Here is the Kenyan Ambassador saying that Obama is born in Kenya.
Dec 5, 2008 - 1:10 pm 65. fred:George @62 “Live Free Or Die”
Welcome to New Hampshire. But this state has changed and is changing dramatically. It’s now a very Blue State. I am worried that it will begin to imitate California.
Dec 5, 2008 - 1:19 pm 66. gk1:I live in California and I was agog on how many people voted for a 10 billion dollar bond to fund a “bullet train” from San Fran to La. Hello, where have people been the last 5 years? Arnold and the state govt. have been barely passing budgets an propehsiszing sizable defecits and the people here still thought that p*ssing away 10 billion on a very poorly thought out, redundant train line was money well spent. Scary indeed
Dec 5, 2008 - 7:51 pm 67. A.B. Prosper:A very good article by Prof. Hansen. a bit lyrical perhaps but still very good.
I live here in California and I’d say Phineas has it spot on. The idiot redistricting system (which was kinda sorta fixed at the last election) and the even worse ballot system conspire to make California an Idiocracy instead of a functioning Republic.
I’d also suggest that the states hunger for cheap labor is huge contributer to some of the problems as well.
Kicking the 3-5 million illegals and their kids and making sure no more of them get here would ease up a lot of problems in California schools and public services.It would do wonders for housing costs which are the real killer for most families.
As I was out today I noticed our local Home Depot has at least of dozen of the poor illegals there, just like every day. I feel compassion for them as Mexico is basically 10x California in badness.It sucks.
Now I also have to say it takes a certain amount of nerve to do what they do and I respect that. But still they don’t belong here and more importantly it doesn’t excuse the people who hire them.
As I see it if a decent rental costs $1000 a month then wages need to meet real living costs. If they can’t afford it then prices need to come down. Whats poisonous is allowing illegal alien wage suppression as a work around. It makes everyone, especially the young and poor a bit worse off.
Dec 5, 2008 - 9:49 pm 68. Mike R:The Republicans need to take some responsibility for California’s mess. There is inadequate opposition to obvious junk.
The stem cell Prop 71 has an absolutely outrageous price tag of $6 billion ( with interest ). This was California saying it wants to do the world’s embryonic stem cell research. (Why?!) Obama is likely to start this research at the federal level in January anyway, but California will still have this ongoing program.
Then a month ago we passed the high-speed train Prop 1A ( $19.4 billion including interest ). It’s unbelievable that people would vote for this stuff if they were paying attention. It was sold as a complete pack of lies - 2 hours from SF to SD, stops everywhere you’d want to go, 200 mph average on a route going through earthquake country and the Tehachapi and Pacheco passes, and 100 million rides a year.
Dec 5, 2008 - 10:28 pm 69. Jack Marcotte:Essential vdh.
Eventually all will recognize the road we are on. Not the “yellow brick road” but the “road to serfdom”
Even the people looking for handouts and “affirmative action”– having been taught to think they need and deserve them for their votes will recognize they have sold out the American dream.
America was always a matter of individual character and responsibility. An idea. True Freedom demands no more but can accept to less to live on.
The living handed to the sell outs will be worth nothing–which now becomes fair–because they do nothing for it—and know how to only do nothing. They and we who have allowed it are no longer free but Serfs.
To think that something could be had for nothing. A slow slide into the muck of chaos and internal conflict.
Lead by political idiots-All of us not paying attention. Not knowing. Corruption being allowed to go on in voting booths without recognizing that the “suicide” of America was taking place–being justified by what?!
.
We will simply start over from the “bones” left. We have a blueprint.
Where do you think our fore fathers and the original founders of America came from. A world of chaos and serfdom.
Within a relatively short period of history—about 250 years. Less than 10 generations. To backslide into serfdom. Slipping into the lowest common denominator. The Loss of the idea and ideals of America. The loss of America for serfdom.
We will simple need to dust off the original writings and begin to now understand what they mean–once again. Understanding “Yes”, Teachers Union “NO”.
It may be easier. It must be so because we will not have a George Washington or the like of the others of their kind among us. We must begin to “remember” what we have so obviously forgotten.
We will be reminded by our now brutal life even if now so many of us cannot even read, write or think past our nose.
Dec 5, 2008 - 11:46 pm 70. Garbage sorter:Great article! We even have to sort our trash, in our own homes, because of the liberals here. My son took a trip with his dad to dig for fossils in Montana. When he came home, he said, “Mom, it’s different in Montana. The people are so free there!” He’s 11 years old; even a child can see how little freedom we really have here. I wish I could move, but I’m stuck here due to family reasons.
Dec 6, 2008 - 1:01 am 71. James:Prof. Hansen—
You need to get on the radio or hit the road or something, and blast your message to the masses. You could lead a movement with your sensible, easily explained logic. Complacency cannot be the answer. If you want to see the California you once loved, you must try to save it, or abandon ship.
Dec 6, 2008 - 3:15 am 72. RJ:I returned to this article and those comments to see how the lines of response were forming.
I didn’t see many positions that one could state were toward a political “revolution” as I am thinking.
Yep, I’m for revolution!
Who says we can only dig up old practitioners of this political sport such as Ayers, Rudd, Cleaver, et al.?
Why wait till you don’t have funds for the long cold trip to the mountains for resistance? Now’s the time to begin those meetings in your neighborhoods, either in garages or the cellar. Bring back the “loco focos” if need be.
Time to get even, then get on the side of winning back the values of individual efforts and a government that seeks efficiency in its operations and duties!
Time to defend what being an American is all about! Free Will is just the first step
Dec 6, 2008 - 7:22 am 73. adam:I moved from Northern California to the Reno area in order to cut my rather large tax bill and provide a better environment for my young children. I absolutely love it here. Things are so easy here. When I went to change my license and plates, I was out in half an hour. The personnel were extremely courteous and organized. Everyone here is so friendly. The hispanic and anglo populations get on very well. The only rude people I encounter are ex-Californians! They tend to be rushed and abrasive.
Dec 6, 2008 - 10:56 am 74. Andrew:As a lifelong northern California resident waiting to get out, I say another home run for VDH. Additionally, if a little bit off point, it has always stuck in my craw that both of our US Senators and the Speaker of the house are all from SF proper…out of our whole sprawling, diverse state….
Dec 6, 2008 - 11:12 am 75. Ron Kean:Someday I may want to visit the Hearst castle.
Dec 6, 2008 - 6:34 pm 76. tim stevens:Democrats…
Dec 6, 2008 - 11:06 pm 77. Sullihan:protecting the illegal, the lazy and the stupid for over 60 years
People get the government they deserve. And power abhors a vacuum. Small minds never maintain or sustain a great republic.
Dec 7, 2008 - 2:18 am 78. MikeinFXBG:And, to top all of this off, your, yes YOUR governor wants the US Government to bail out CA. Many pundits argue that CA needs to be bailed out. BS! You assclowns got yourself into this problem, now get yourself out.
Dec 8, 2008 - 7:25 am 79. thegr8 1:You ever hear of drilling for oil offshore you nimcompoops? Get rid of that tongue tied steroid overdosed governor and put someone like Duncan Hunter in charge. You sent the Three Stooges to DC Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein, and they have done such a great job NOT!!!!! solve your own damn problems and don’t go crying for a bailout.
Dec 8, 2008 - 6:46 pm 80. urbanleftbehind:#79,
Yes, better to lose the state to Chevron instead of Chavez!
Dec 9, 2008 - 8:41 am 81. BRussell:urbanleftbehind:
No, I live outside of Santa Fe and while we do have illegals, they are not tolerated by the locals as they are in Los Angeles.
The illegals stand out like a sore thumb instead of blending in.
Dec 10, 2008 - 1:47 pm