Will government employees do themselves in by being GREEDY?
February 18, 2011
What is going on in Wisconsin will come soon to a neighborhood near you. All governments, city, state and federal, are running out of money. Every night on the news stories of budget deficits abound. This could be a good thing. Bloated salaries and outrageous benefits for public sector workers was easier to overlook when the economy was rosy and the impending disaster “can” was being kicked down the road. But now that everyone is out of money and the economy is in trouble, it is difficult to ignore the elephant in the room. It is time to confront the issues that are sending almost all governments (especially those in blue states) into bankruptcy.
The silver lining? There are more of us in the private sector than there are in the public sector. Believe me, that is not for lack of trying by liberals who continue to expand government programs and bureaus within the bureaus. But what politicians seem to overlook is that no government jobs can exist without some people in the private sector paying taxes to support them. Now is the perfect time to get people who have not been paying attention to start taking notice.
Those of us who make a certain salary are supporting our counter-parts in the government who make more than we do. Government salaries have been shown to be higher than those doing the same job in the private sector. Not only that, but we are responsible for their retirement and healthcare for life. They may participate toward those benefits, but it has been minimal. It is time to join the rest of us and make the sacrifice, government employees.
Back when money was plentiful and the agreements were made, many of us chose to look the other way, even when conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation told us this day would come. The tipping point. Now it’s here and none too soon.
To see the images on television you would think there were a majority of people against the budget cuts than there are for them. But polls show these people, however plentiful they may look in every news story I’ve seen this week, are still in the minority. The Governor was hired to balance the budget and cut waste, and that’s what he’s trying to do.
You know the most appalling thing about this whole protest? Government workers in Wisconsin who are on strike are being PAID even though they are not at work! If I don’t show up, I don’t make a dime, but not so with these people. And there are stories saying many of these protesters are not even from the area and have been bussed in! They even have their students participating! Interviews show that most of the youngsters don’t really know why they are there. It’s probably just another day out of school for them. I predict as more states tackle these same issues, the numbers of protesters will dwindle as “immigrants” go back to their home states to carry on with the protests. After all, this is not an altruistic movement. It is purely selfish.
I was unable to find the numbers, but from what I hear, the Governor is asking for state workers to take a small pay cut plus pay more toward their pensions and health insurance. Even so, it is far less than those of us in the private sector have to pay for such benefits. What I think conservatives should point out is that the Governor’s alternative is to lay off as many as 5,000 state workers who would then get NO salary. I bet that would thin the herd in the Wisconsin Capitol and possibly get them to start fighting amongst themselves. After all, those hired last will be the first to go. Wouldn’t you think that all of them taking just a little less to keep 100% of the work force would be the fair thing to do? After all, that is what they always ask from people in the private sector.
Bay Area Patriots sent out an e-mail with a couple of action items that are worthwhile. One of them was to post a “Like” on a Facebook web page called “Stand With Wisconsin” which can be found here. The other was to send an encouraging e-mail to Governor Walker. I did both of these things in just a couple of minutes.
Regardless of the negative spin the news outlets are trying to put on this, this is a continuation of the Tea Party effect. If elected officials don’t step up and do the right thing for voters who are paying the tab, it will be another blood bath in the 2012 elections for those who oppose REAL CHANGE.
Mick Orton
OPINION – Why “Decline to State” is cowardly
November 6, 2010
After Tuesday night’s election, someone came up to me and told me how corrupt the California Republican Party has become. There is no doubt about that.
With representatives like Morgan Kelley from Marin being sent to guide our politics in Sacramento and RINO Abel Moldonado being the GOP’s choice to run against Gavin Newsome (I call him Gavin Nuisance) there is no question why Republicans are in the minority in this state and Decline to States and Independents are becoming more common. Having Governor Arnold representing the GOP was another reason Republicans didn’t fare well. However, what I heard this person say next gave me the shivers.
“…That is why I re-registered as Decline to State,” they proudly announced.
It’s true I went on a rant to my wife about leaving California when I got home Tuesday night. Though heartened by the “red” wave across the country, I was discouraged that there were no major changes made for California. Then I realized the brave thing to do is stay and fight to change it. So that is what I am going to do… or die trying. Now is the time to double down.
I feel it is this frustration that causes people to leave the GOP and choose Decline to State. But is it not cowardly to say, “The Republican Party in California is corrupt and full of Democrat plants so I am leaving the party.”? How does the GOP get changed if everyone leaves it? Form a third party? Hell no! That makes sure the Democrat party remains the ONLY party in California.
So while I understand the frustration many people feel about the GOP choosing squishy RINOS, now is not the time to leave the party. Even more, now is the time to stand and fight back.
The MCRCC (Marin County Republican Central Committee) has already begun to clean house by removing the former “moderate” chair and replacing her with a more conservative member; a far better choice, in my opinion. And that is how it must be done all over the state, from the bottom up.
This year Decline to State voters were allowed to participate in either party’s primary election. But that may not always be so. It is important to be a part of the selection process if we are to get good solid conservative candidates to run. The only way to ensure that is to register Republican.
As many of you have pointed out in your responses to my Marin IJ letter, now that California is completely run by Democrats, perhaps we will have our New Jersey moment too. Let’s hope so for the sake of our state and our country.
FedUpEditor
California – Stuck on Stupid
November 6, 2010
The state is deeply in debt. Strict regulations and high taxes are chasing businesses out of state. People are following them in order to keep their jobs. What voters don’t seem to realize is the only place government can fund the government is with tax revenue they get from the tax base. Yet it’s shrinking while spending is going up. So what is California’s solution?
Vote to return the same group of people back into office… the ones who got us here in the first place. Jerry Brown should be saying, “Fooled you once, shame on me. Fooled you twice shame on you. Fooled you three times… what are you, stupid?”
After all, the man has failed as Governor, as Mayor of Oakland and now as Attorney General. In his latest role, responsible for enforcing immigration laws, he slams Meg Whitman for having an illegal alien work for her. Huh? Whose fault is that? Now he’s Governor again? Stupid is as stupid does.
Don’t be surprised if we see unemployment skyrocket as our state sinks deeper into debt. But we deserve it for re-electing the same fools who brought us to this place. The rest of the country got the message. It’s a shame California no longer leads the way.
FedUpEditor
Reaction to Mehserle sentencing mixed in Vallejo
November 6, 2010
Mixed reactions in Vallejo greeted a Los Angeles judge’s controversial decision to sentence a former BART officer to two years for the shooting death of an Oakland man.
For some members of Vallejo’s African-American community, the sentence was just the latest example of another white man, Johannes Mehserle, getting away with killing a black man, Oscar Grant III.
Yet for others, while voicing regret over the tragedy, justice was served for a man who made a fatal mistake in a case that has polarized the Oakland community and the Bay Area.
Former BART police officer Mehserle was sentenced Friday to two years in prison with credit for 292 days of time served for the shooting death of Grant.
“If you reverse the roles, without question, it’s almost automatic for African-American men — especially if he had killed a cop — his life would automatically be taken,” said Anthony Summers, pastor of Impact Bible Ministries in Vallejo’s Country Club Crest neighborhood.
But for others, like former Vallejo police officer Burky Worel, justice was fairly meted out.
“It went through the process, and the judicial system worked, like it always does,” said Worel, former head of the Vallejo Police Officers Association.
Race was not an issue in the case, argued Matthe Abinante, a student at Touro University whose father was killed in the line of duty while working as a deputy for the Colusa County Sheriff’s Department.
“We’re trying to move
past (race). … The juries are made to be representative of the public, and I don’t think race had anything to do with this,” said Abinante, who is white.
Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter with a gun enhancement in July, making him eligible for up to 14 years in prison.The Los Angeles trial judge dismissed the gun enhancement on Friday, lowering the maximum prison sentence to four years. The judge ultimately gave him two years with time served.”I’m disturbed about that,” said Lydia Pitchford, an African-American.
Pitchford, a former Vallejo Police Department chaplain, said it was disconcerting to know Mehserle would get off relatively lightly for killing someone.Pitchford said her son served five years in prison for a domestic violence charge in which no one died.Abinante expressed regret that Grant died, but defended law enforcement officers as men and women willing to put their lives on the line on a daily basis for public safety.
No one could know what Mehserle was thinking and whether he thought Grant was reaching for a gun during the 2009 New Years Day incident.”I’m really upset thatMr. Grant lost his life — for me, that’s a tragedy. But it’s even more tragic for (Mehserle’s) family that he has to go to jail for two years. … I think he was trying to do his job, and we don’t know what exactly went down.” Abinante said.
Both Pitchford and Summers expressed hope that the sentence would not lead to a repeat of the violent disturbances that tore through downtown Oakland in July after the involuntary manslaughter verdict was announced.
The Oakland Police Department has summoned mutual aid from other agencies, though none from Solano County were contacted to be among the primary responders Friday night, said Lt. Gary Faulkner of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office.
Frank Jackson, president of the Vallejo chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said police officers get out of line in the Bay Area all the time.Summers agreed.”It’s frustrating, seeing the repetition of how law enforcement has a tendency to be able to get away with major mistakes like that,” said Summers, who added there was no equity between taking a man’s life and the two-year sentence.
Read the entire article and opinions here.
Woolsey vs. Judd and Ruyle – Part 3
September 28, 2010
Woolsey vs. Judd and Ruyle – Part 2
September 28, 2010
Woolsey vs. Judd and Ruyle – Part 1
September 28, 2010
What is Woolsey Afraid of?
September 24, 2010
Letter to the Editor
Marin Independent Journal
Editor,
I was at the Congressional District 6 question and answer that was held in Santa Rosa on Monday, September 20. Lynn Woolsey could not have looked any more uncomfortable. For someone who has been in Congress as long as she has you would think public speaking would be a fine art. However, the incumbent stuttered and stammered through almost every question as if she was not prepared for what was going to be asked.
Now the Marin League of Women Voters have scheduled a debate in Novato for October where the public will not be invited. It’s obvious that the “non-partisan” league has been approached by the Woolsey camp to keep the doors closed. If this election isn’t about the voters, then who does Woolsey represent?
In a press release dated today, GOP challenger, Jim Judd, has stated his disappointment that the debate will not be open to the public and encourages the League to reconsider. Regardless, he has nothing to hide and will show up anywhere Woolsey is and talk about the issues. This is the type of character we need in a representative in Washington!
Sincerely,
Mick Orton
Vice President
Marin Conservative Forum
Congressional District 6 – California
Do the Math – and Vote for Jim Judd!
September 21, 2010
At the 6th CD Candidates’ Forum last night in Santa Rosa, Lynn Woolsey invited the audience to view her service from the perspective of a family with a child born when she took office 18 years ago. One of Congresswoman Woolsey’s first acts was to provide the deciding vote to impose Bill Clinton’s 4.3 cents a gallon tax on gasoline, to be used for non-transportation purposes. It took only two years after this tax increase for the voters to turn control of Congress over to Republicans, but President Clinton used the threat of a veto to keep this diversion of transportation funds in effect for two years after that. A typical commuter who drove a high-mileage car spent about 1 hour per day at 30 miles per hour, for the four years that this 4.3 cents per gallon was not available for transportation uses. This diversion amounts to about five gallons per week, for 200 weeks, 2/3 of the $30,000 annual salary for the median hourly worker).
After Democrats regained control of Congress (and Lynn Woolsey helped to elect Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House
Lynn Woolsey is enamored with the idea of putting everyone on Medicare.
Try to remember what you hoped eighteen years ago the world would be like now for your newborn child, grandchild or relative. Imagine what two more years in the same direction would be like, and join me in voting for Jim Judd, to provide a fresh approach in Washington.
Mike Halliwell
Cotati (2008 6th CD GOP nominee)
Lisa Murkowski is What is Wrong With the Republican Establishment – OPINION
September 20, 2010
If you ask me, Lisa Murkowski [clueless] is the perfect example of what is wrong with what the Republican Party has become. It also shows why many people think there is no difference between the two parties. I mean, how many times have we seen Democrats clinging to their seats amid scandals and illnesses instead of doing what’s best for the country and stepping down?
Joe Miller won the primary; the mechanism for choosing someone to represent the party… and it wasn’t the incumbent. Yet Murkowski, seemingly a spoiled child who was originally APPOINTED by her father to the position, will not go quietly into that good night.
Her excuse for mounting a write-in campaign is that most of Miller’s money came from out of the state. So what? His VOTES didn’t! Miller was elected by Alaskan Republicans overwhelmingly. Why? Because he was the only conservative on the ticket!
There are other Tea Party candidates who won their races, and the Republican establishment seems truly afraid… Which makes you wonder whose side they are on.
Well, they should be scared. For years they have represented nothing but a lighter version of Democrat; but pro big government all the same. Now when the grass roots rise up, they don’t like it. We don’t understand, they say.
Nonsense. We understand perfectly. We KNOW what’s in the Constitution and what is happening in government is NOT even close!
FedUpEditor
