$42 bn. Petty money these days. Not even a Madoff.
$42 bn. The deficit of the World's 8th economy. The Golden State. The Land of Milk and Honey.
California.
From 49ers to 42ers. From Gold Rush to Bank Rush. From Californication to Califoreclosure. From No Problemo Gubernator to Hasta La Vista Berniemador.
To add insult to injury, they're going to pry tax raises out of Schwarzenegger's hands, over his dead Hummer.
It keeps getting better.
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
20090217
Vice Senators, Vicious Governors, Virtuous Circles
Time to hatchet the Burris ?
So Roland Burris lied. He did have a chat with Rod Blagojevich's brother regarding Obama's seat in the US Senate.
Big deal.
As if anyone doubted there was anything fishy. Democrats badly needed someone ASAP to vote for the bailout-recovery-stimulus-hail-mary Obama plan, and they couldn't wait for impeachment. So be it.
This plan by no means perfect. Bullet trains make sense in California, but the LA-LV axis doesn't seem an environmental priority... unless you go all the way to Denver, Saint Louis and Chicago, that is (not to say hello to Burris, but to pave the way for a major nationwide network).
But even if it only manages to succeed halfway, this plan will have been worth it. Provided the political will to change remains strong ; I do hope the lack of details was only a trick to pass the bill quickly, and that the Obama Administration will seize the opportunity to set the pace for a new global framework, a more balanced order (see "This is not a financial crisis").
The Burris incident proves that change has not totally come to DC (not to mention Chicago). But when Politico's Arena raises the question : "Should the Constitution require elections to fill Senate vacancies?", I'm not sure that's the kind of changes needed.
French politics are president-driven. "Dissolving" the national assembly is a national pastime, and reducing the Presidential mandate from 7 to 5 years (same as a MP) undermined the balance between the executive and legislative powers. Chirac should have either picked 6 years or reducing national assembly cycles to 4 years.
American politics are calendar-driven. You do elect Vice-Presidents but not Vice Senators, and that's OK, untill you get a Governor with one Vice too many.
US politics have their flaws, but the priority seems to make sure federal elections are fair. One nation, one president, one process. And not one of the 305,833,705 members of the US population (05:16 GMT (EST+5) Feb 17, 2009) left behind*.
* BTW : I don't like the idea of Rahm Emanuel's Executive Office of the President controlling the US Census Bureau, but it didn't certainly belong to the Commerce Department in the first place. I would put it in the OMB (Office of Management and Budget).
So Roland Burris lied. He did have a chat with Rod Blagojevich's brother regarding Obama's seat in the US Senate.
Big deal.
As if anyone doubted there was anything fishy. Democrats badly needed someone ASAP to vote for the bailout-recovery-stimulus-hail-mary Obama plan, and they couldn't wait for impeachment. So be it.
This plan by no means perfect. Bullet trains make sense in California, but the LA-LV axis doesn't seem an environmental priority... unless you go all the way to Denver, Saint Louis and Chicago, that is (not to say hello to Burris, but to pave the way for a major nationwide network).
But even if it only manages to succeed halfway, this plan will have been worth it. Provided the political will to change remains strong ; I do hope the lack of details was only a trick to pass the bill quickly, and that the Obama Administration will seize the opportunity to set the pace for a new global framework, a more balanced order (see "This is not a financial crisis").
The Burris incident proves that change has not totally come to DC (not to mention Chicago). But when Politico's Arena raises the question : "Should the Constitution require elections to fill Senate vacancies?", I'm not sure that's the kind of changes needed.
French politics are president-driven. "Dissolving" the national assembly is a national pastime, and reducing the Presidential mandate from 7 to 5 years (same as a MP) undermined the balance between the executive and legislative powers. Chirac should have either picked 6 years or reducing national assembly cycles to 4 years.
American politics are calendar-driven. You do elect Vice-Presidents but not Vice Senators, and that's OK, untill you get a Governor with one Vice too many.
US politics have their flaws, but the priority seems to make sure federal elections are fair. One nation, one president, one process. And not one of the 305,833,705 members of the US population (05:16 GMT (EST+5) Feb 17, 2009) left behind*.
* BTW : I don't like the idea of Rahm Emanuel's Executive Office of the President controlling the US Census Bureau, but it didn't certainly belong to the Commerce Department in the first place. I would put it in the OMB (Office of Management and Budget).
20071029
Laura 44, Prescott 45, Propaganda 101
Senator Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner became President in Argentina and Senator Hillary Clinton must have paid some attention*. Laura Bush too. The incumbent First Lady has been campaining the last few weeks in the Middle East and across the US. As if she intended to run for Top Job #44 instead of Jeb or even George Bush The Third (Prescott, son of Jeb - a Latino Pete Sampras lookalike).
Is the "Desperate Housewife" that desperate ? We generally see her when her husband needs some PR rescue. Dubya was recently outspinned by Gubernator in the California bonfires of vanities... but this kind of unfortunate events (the outspinning, not the environmental tragedy no politician cares about) shouldn't trigger Laura's mediatic Pop-up, the ultimate Weapon of Mass Distraction.
Laura is about values. Family. Morality. The war in Iran will be about the negation of values. Infamy. Mortality.
Laura Bush is not running for Presidency. She isn't even running for the President. The President is running away from sanity and he just needs a nicer face for the display.
Is the "Desperate Housewife" that desperate ? We generally see her when her husband needs some PR rescue. Dubya was recently outspinned by Gubernator in the California bonfires of vanities... but this kind of unfortunate events (the outspinning, not the environmental tragedy no politician cares about) shouldn't trigger Laura's mediatic Pop-up, the ultimate Weapon of Mass Distraction.
Laura is about values. Family. Morality. The war in Iran will be about the negation of values. Infamy. Mortality.
Laura Bush is not running for Presidency. She isn't even running for the President. The President is running away from sanity and he just needs a nicer face for the display.
The President of The United States may be the husband of Laura Bush, that doesn't make him suitable for the job.
* Nevermind the pink joker parading next to the hero of the day : Segolene Royal, still desperately trying to catch the capacities of stateswomen like Kirchner or Bachelet, as if it were flu... but France's former "socialist" Presidential candidate only managed to grow her flamboyant Foot in Mouth disease.
20051013
Red blogule to Dubya's Believe It or Not! museum in Bakersfield, CA
After Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Dubya's visit it or bust.
A new Bush museum will open in 2007 in the house 41 & 43 inhabited for 3 months back in 1949. The owner, a Republican, intends to add a reading center for kids in the backyard. No doubt the cornerstone of 43's Prez Library... that is, unless the College Station, TX based Bush The Elder's Presidential Library decides to keep "My Pet Goat".
The royal family enjoyed sunny California as well as Yankee New England : Bakersfield, CA hosts California State University and a few country clubs. Back then, Coast-to-Coast Dubya wasn't a newborn Texan yet but the Official Propaganda already unhearthed a couple of pictures of the young John Wayne lookalike dressed in a cow boy suit.
They're supposed to refurbish the place the way it was in the late forties. I suggest to spray some petrol around to make it even more realistic.
A new Bush museum will open in 2007 in the house 41 & 43 inhabited for 3 months back in 1949. The owner, a Republican, intends to add a reading center for kids in the backyard. No doubt the cornerstone of 43's Prez Library... that is, unless the College Station, TX based Bush The Elder's Presidential Library decides to keep "My Pet Goat".
The royal family enjoyed sunny California as well as Yankee New England : Bakersfield, CA hosts California State University and a few country clubs. Back then, Coast-to-Coast Dubya wasn't a newborn Texan yet but the Official Propaganda already unhearthed a couple of pictures of the young John Wayne lookalike dressed in a cow boy suit.
They're supposed to refurbish the place the way it was in the late forties. I suggest to spray some petrol around to make it even more realistic.
20050305
Red blogule to private accounts - SoCal Security
Funny how the Americans can sound French when they talk about reforming their Social Security system. The Dems seem reluctant to contribute to a potential Bush victory and say there's no hurry to do what they pointed out as a priority during the campaign while the Reps are having one of these gallic fights where the conservative, the neo-conservative, the ultra-conservative, the not-so-conservative and the don't-tell-ma-i'm-rather-liberal-conservative discuss the consistency of the reform with the Adam Smith dogma. Even Dubya manages talking about being a good civil servant and boosting private accounts. I say if I needed some private security I'd hire Governor Arnold to get rid ov'em bugs. That would be the so-called social SoCal sekurity.
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