Bill Whittle Afterburner video: California is going out of business

Another excellent Afterburner with PJMedia’s Bill Whittle. California is “tumbling into a sea of red ink.”

Progressivism kills.

Aug 2, 2012 by Pajamasmedia – That which cannot continue, will not continue. Does this adage apply to California? Could California simply go out of business? Bill Whittle tells you a cautionary tale about the California government and how it is driving high tech businesses to Texas at the same time that it is building trains to nowhere. Is the California government going to bring the rest of the United States down a path to fiscal ruin? Find out.

California passes “anti-Arizona” bill shielding illegal aliens from deportation

Adios California. You have been living “la vida loca” far too long.

Reuters via Gateway Pundit - California Democrats passed a pro-illegal alien immigration bill yesterday. The law, proud liberals called it their “anti-Arizona” immigration bill, will protect illegal immigrants from deportation.

The California Senate passed a bill on Thursday that seeks to shield illegal immigrants from status checks by local police and challenges Republican-backed immigration crackdowns in Arizona and other U.S. states.

The Democrat-led state Senate voted 21 to 13 to approve the California Trust Act, dubbed by supporters as the “anti-Arizona” bill. It blocks local police from referring a detainee to immigration officials for deportation unless that person has been convicted of a violent or serious felony.

“Today’s vote signals to the nation that California cannot afford to be another Arizona,” Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a Democrat who sponsored the measure, said in a statement.

“The bill also limits unjust and onerous detentions for deportation in local jails of community members who do not pose a threat to public safety,” he added.

The bill has the backing of about 100 immigrant rights groups, police chiefs and mayors. It has already passed the Democrat-controlled state Assembly in a 47-26 vote and will go back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote following the summer recess before heading to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

Video: LA bans the cheap, multi-purpose plastic bag

Because bankrupt Marxifornia can never have enough laws on the books.

Marxifornia’s deficit balloons to $16 billion, almost $7 billion more than estimated in January

The country’s most business unfriendly state is shocked that its ‘progressive’ policies dig them ever deeper into a hole.

LA Times – Gov. Jerry Brown announced on Saturday that the state’s deficit has ballooned to $16 billion, a huge increase over his $9.2-billion estimate in January.

The bigger deficit is a significant setback for California, which has struggled to turn the page on a devastating budget crisis. Brown, who announced the deficit on YouTube, is expected to outline his full budget proposal on Monday in Sacramento.

“This means we will have to go much further, and make cuts far greater, than I asked for at the beginning of the year,” Brown said in the video.

Lawmakers and others were hoping that a rebounding economy would help the state avoid steep cuts to social services. But revenue in April, the most important month of the year for income taxes, fell far short of expectations, leading to a shortfall of at least $3 billion in the current fiscal year.

The state has also spent $2.1 billion more than expected, according to the controller, further worsening California’s financial health.

Advocates involved in budget discussions say they expect deeper cuts to social services than Brown originally proposed in January. Union officials are also in negotiations with administration officials about ways to reduce state payroll costs, an issue that wasn’t on the table earlier this year.

Brown has said there will be even deeper cuts, mostly to public education, if voters do not improve tax hikes in November. He is seeking a quarter-cent increase in the state sales tax for four years and a seven-year hike on incomes of $250,000 or more that will range from 1 to 3 percentage points. He says the measure would raise $9 billion in the upcoming budget year.

Executives rank Marxifornia as the worst place to do business for 8th straight year

If it weren’t for the weather and Silicon Valley the Liberal ‘utopia’ would collapse into a 3rd world basket case. Just a matter of time, though.

California narrowly edged out New York in what the survey called “the ninth circle of business hell,” sharing the bottom five spots with Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan.

Gee, what do all those states have in common? Hint. Starts with ‘D’ which rhymes with ‘B’ which stands for Barack.

LA Times – So much for the idea of West is best. In an annual survey, executives ranked California as the worst place to do business for the eighth year in a row.

Chief Executive magazine has only been conducting its survey for eight years. Texas has been top-ranked every year.

The survey considered responses from 650 business leaders, who graded states on factors such as taxes, regulations, living environment and more.

Texas and second-ranked Florida have the highest migration rates in the nation for 2001 through 2009. California has lost 1.5 million people over the same period.

Also in the top 10: North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Utah.

California narrowly edged out New York in what the survey called “the ninth circle of business hell,” sharing the bottom five spots with Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan.

Once one of the strongest economic performers in the country, the Golden State has lost some of its gleam, by some measures, though it remains by far the strongest magnet for venture capital investment.

Its 10.9% unemployment rate is only lower than Nevada’s and Rhode Island’s. A third of U.S. welfare recipients live in California, the report noted. High state taxes and bundles of red tape make operating a business in the state unaffordable to many companies, critics say.

Last year, 254 California companies moved some or all of their work and jobs elsewhere — 26% more than 2010. Most chief executives in Silicon Valley said they won’t expand in the state, according to the survey.

Other studies, including one from the Tax Foundation think tank earlier this year, concur that California has a bad business reputation. However, some economists, along with former Gov. Gray Davis this week, beg to differ.

But the state’s saving grace, according to most? The weather.

Los Angeles bans footballs, frisbees, and beach digging with $1000 fines

Marxifornia’s nannies strike again.

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — When you head down to the beach for a little fun this summer, county officials want you to leave the pigskin at home.

The Board of Supervisors this week agreed to raise fines to up to $1,000 for anyone who throws a football or a Frisbee on any beach in Los Angeles County.

In passing the 37-page ordinance on Tuesday, officials sought to outline responsibilities for law enforcement and other public agencies while also providing clarification on beach-goer activities that could potentially disrupt or even injure the public.

The updated rules now prohibit “any person to cast, toss, throw, kick or roll” any object other than a beach ball or volleyball “upon or over any beach” between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Exceptions allow for ball-throwing in predesignated areas, when a person obtains a permit, or playing water polo “in or over the Pacific Ocean”.

However, during the winter off-season, the new rules will be relaxed.

Officials warned that any activities that could potentially harm “any person or property on or near the beach” should not be allowed during the peak summer season.

Your kids could also end up costing you big bucks: the ordinance also prohibits digging any hole deeper than 18 inches into the sand except where permission is granted for film and TV production services only.

Occupy LA cost Los Angeles taxpayers $2.3 million

Marxifornia deserves them.

Occupy LA

ABC – A preliminary report released Friday by the city administrative officer estimates the nearly two-month Occupy LA encampment at City Hall cost the budget-strapped city at least $2.3 million, but officials said the sum is expected to grow by the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana told The Associated Press his office requested the cost estimates from various city departments two weeks ago.

The city attorney’s office has already said it expects its previously submitted $188,000 estimate to climb significantly.

“This is based on a moment in time,” Santana said. “Obviously the numbers are going to grow.”

The latest tab adds to costs tallied by cities nationwide that have been dealing with the anti-Wall Street movement. An AP survey of 18 nationwide cities through mid-November found that the protests had cost local taxpayers a total of at least $13 million.

LA Occupiers to attempt to shut down Port of Los Angeles

Because they are smarter, better, and more righteous than you.

 

KTLA – Two weeks after their central command post at City Hall was dismantled by police, Occupy L.A. protesters are setting their sights on a new mission — shutting down the Port of Los Angeles.

Protesters will be gathering at Harry Bridges Park in San Pedro starting at 5 a.m. Monday, according to an announcement posted on Occupy L.A.’s website Sunday.

Activists will then march to the gate of the SSA terminal, all in the early, and most heavily trafficked, hours of the port’s morning.

Occupy L.A. organizers say Monday’s event will specifically target Goldman Sachs, partial owner of shipping agent SSA Marine, which has 5 terminals and a warehouse in the Harbor area.

“SSA/Goldman Sachs symbolize the ruin that corporate greed has brought into our lives,” the statement said.

“The 1% are depriving port truck drivers and other workers of decent pay, working conditions and the right to organize, even while the port of LA/LB is the largest in the US and a huge engine of profits for the 1%.”

They called on members from the International Longshoreman Worker’s Union to join in what they hope is a full shutdown of ports along the West Coast. Occupy movements in San Diego, Oakland and Seattle are also expected to take on their local ports.

Video: 17 Miles in Just 78 Minutes! Light Rail vs. Reality in LA

The Federal government is stupid, but Marxifornia’s government is really, really stupid.

ReasonTV on Dec 9, 2011

Everyone loves light rail – especially if they don’t actually have to rely on it for actual transportation or pay the full cost of what it takes to schlep a rider from Point A to Point B.

To get a better handle on what folks love about commuter rail, Reason.tv sent comedian Watt Smith for a train ride from Los Angeles International Airport to Burbank. During the 17-mile, 78-minute (!) journey, Watt chatted with fellow riders to find out if commuter rail is indeed better than driving or taking the bus.

And to help separate transportation myths from road realities, we’ve provided facts via pop-up windows that explain just how appearances can be deceiving when it comes to questions about the true costs and efficiency of rail transit versus other modes of transportation.

All of our information is taken from official sources provided by Los Angeles’s Metro here and here.

California to require the teaching of gay history in public schools

Because, you know, America would never have become the greatest country the world has ever known without all those great homosexuals of 1776 making history.

It’s not enough that kids are being indoctrinated to believe that America is nothing but a racist, sexist, homophobic country, and the curse of mankind.

No, kids who graduate school unable to read or write or do basic math, must at least know that whatever good might have accidentally occurred in the country, must have been do to the heroic struggles of America’s noble yet unsung multitudes of gay men, women, and  transgenders.

Shortest textbook ever?

Reuters (h/t Weasel Zippers) - A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation.

Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has not said publicly whether he supports the bill, which he has 12 days to sign or veto once it reaches his desk later this month. If he takes no action, the measure would become law automatically.

The bill gained final passage from the state Assembly on a vote of 49-25, without a single Republican supporting it. The measure cleared the state Senate in April.

California already requires public schools to teach the contributions made to society by women and by racial and ethnic groups that were historically discriminated against, such as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.

Supporters of the latest bill said it would simply include gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals in that existing requirement, making it part of the curriculum in history and other social studies classes.

“It’s unfair to leave out or exclude an entire portion of our population from history,” said Carolyn Laub, executive director of San Francisco-based Gay-Straight Alliance Network.

Marxifornia to tax online retailers beginning Friday

Now the business exodus from California will only increase.

Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.

Many of about 25,000 affiliates in California, especially larger ones with dozens of employees, are likely to leave the state, said Rebecca Madigan, executive director of trade group Performance Marketing Assn. The affiliates combined paid $152 million in state income taxes last year, so when they bail California will lose both jobs and their income taxes.

Big box retailers complain they are at a disadvantage. “You can’t give one segment of retail a 10% discount every day. It’s just not fair,” said Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Assn., a major player in a coalition of large and small stores supporting the legislation.

Apparently, significantly lowering state taxes for all businesses can’t even be considered. Texas, on the other hand has no state income tax and they are booming, creating almost half the jobs in America.

Liberals have had the same answer for everything for seventy years – tax, spend, grow government. Repeat.

LA Times - Shopping at Amazon.com Inc. and other major Internet stores is poised to get more expensive.

Beginning Friday, a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet — a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time.

Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don’t pay to the state if online merchants don’t charge them, is “a common-sense idea,” said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law Wednesday.

The new tax collection requirement — part of budget-related legislation — is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue.

But those taxes may come with a price. Amazon and online retailerOverstock.com Inc. told thousands of California Internet marketing affiliates that they will stop paying commissions for referrals of so-called click-through customers.

That’s because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices here.

Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.

“We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive,” Amazon wrote its California business partners Wednesday. Amazon has not indicated what further actions it might take to challenge the California law.

Many of about 25,000 affiliates in California, especially larger ones with dozens of employees, are likely to leave the state, said Rebecca Madigan, executive director of trade group Performance Marketing Assn. The affiliates combined paid $152 million in state income taxes last year, she pointed out.

“We have to consider it,” said Loren Bendele, chief executive of Savings.com, a West Los Angeles website that links viewers to hundreds of money-saving deals. “It does not look good for our business.”

The larger bite from buyers’ pocketbooks will be eased only a bit because California’s basic sales tax rate also will drop to 7.75% on Friday when a 2-year-old temporary increase expires. The basic rate in the city of Los Angeles falls back to 8.75%.

Brown’s signature on the budget bills is aimed at closing a loophole that freed Amazon and other out-of-state retailers from collecting sales taxes for California. (more >>>)

San Francisco circumcision banners are a bunch of anti-Semitic Nazi sympathizers

As the country obsesses over Anthony Weiner’s hotdog, the bigger Weiner Gate is in the land of the Golden Gate.

Come November, San Francisco will inform the world just how freakish the Liberal bastion really is when the city goes to vote on the banning of an ancient Biblical commandment.

The November ballot would outlaw circumcision, penalizing those who perform the “genital cutting of male minors” $1,000 and/or up to a year in jail.

The PJ Tatler has the story of Foreskin Man, the hero behind this anti-Semitic boner. It’s probably just one of those funny coincidences that the person pushing this project is named Herr Hess. No relation to Rudolph Hess, I’m sure.

(Foreskin Man promo video at bottom.)

PJ Tatler - As you may have heard by now, San Francisco will be voting this November on whether or not to ban circumcision in the city.

Defenders of the measure say it’s all about “human rights” and “protecting babies” from unnecessary procedures.

But critics suspected there was something vaguely anti-Semitic about the whole proposal, since among Jews (and Muslims, as well) circumcising male babies is a religious duty, not just a mistaken medical procedure.

Ban proponents insisted their proposal had nothing to do with Jews — really, it’s all about the rights of children.

Well, any doubt that they were lying have now been dispelled, with the publication of new campaign literature for the upcoming circumcision ban. The campaign comic book, called “Foreskin Man,” after its baby-saving superhero, features a litany of evil Jews doing battle with blond Nordic saviors.

Yes, really.

(Oh, and did I mention the artist’s last name is Hess? A relative of Rudolph, perhaps?)

You tell me: anti-Semitic or not?

 

______________________________

Here’s the promo video for Foreskin Man.

And how about some Foreskin Man trading cards!

CA lifeguards receive millions in retirement

Lifeguards in Newport, CA get to ogle bikini-clad babes until they retire at age 50, whence they sit back the rest of their bronzed lives collecting generous benefits.

Some lifeguards can retire at age 50 with full medical benefits and receive a government retirement of over $108,000 per year—for the rest of his life.

Not a bad job if you can get it!

Biggovernment.com – Public outrage over lavish government employee compensation and pensions is becoming more heated as new revelations about excesses seem to crop up every week.  The latest: Newport Beach, California, where some lifeguards have compensation packages that exceed $200,000 and where these “civil servants” can retire with lucrative government pensions at age 50.

Newport Beach has two groups of lifeguards. Seasonal tower lifeguards cover Newport’s seven miles of beach during the busy summer months. Part-time seasonal guards make $16 to $22 per hour with no benefits.  They are the young people who man the towers and do the lion’s share of the rescues.

Another group of highly compensated full-time staff work year-round and seldom, if ever, climb into a tower. According to the City Manager, the typical Daily Deployment Model in the winter for these lifeguards is 10 hours per day for four days each week, mainly spent driving trucks around, painting towers, ordering uniforms and doing basic office work—none are actually manning lifeguard towers.

Like many communities across California, the city of Newport Beach is facing the harsh realities of budgeting with less revenue after housing values and the stock market plummeted.  Now the city’s full-time lifeguard force has finally come under scrutiny.  Next week the city council will decide if cuts are needed to the full-time lifeguard force where last year the top earner received $211,000 in pay and benefits, including a $400 sun protection allowance. In 2010 all but one of the city’s full-time lifeguard staff had annual compensation packages worth over $120,000.

Not bad pay for a lifeguard – but what makes these jobs most attractive is the generous retirements.

These lifeguards can retire at age 50 with full medical benefits for life.  One recently retired lifeguard, age 51, receives a government retirement of over $108,000 per year—for the rest of his life.

He will make well over $3 million in retirement if he lives to age 80. According to the City Manager, a new full-time guard costs less to hire than what is spent on this one retiree.  The city now spends more taxpayer dollars on retired lifeguards than it does on those who are working.  (more >>>)

Marxifornia mandates gay history in schools

California is going bust and is up to its red eyeballs in troubles, but it always has time to push another Leftist idiocy.

Kids leave school without even knowing the names of the Founding Fathers, but darn if they’ll leave without having learned all the wonderful, history-making contributions of homosexuals to America’s greatness. How could America have ever got along without them.

AP (h/t Weasel Zippers) — The state Senate has approved legislation that would require California’s public schools to include gay history in social studies lessons.

Supporters say the move is needed to counter anti-gay stereotypes and beliefs that make gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender children vulnerable to bullying and suicide.

Opponents said it would burden an already crowded curriculum and expose students to a subject that some parents find objectionable.

Most illegal immigrant families collect welfare

Collecting the welfare Americans won’t collect?

We are sooo doomed.

Judicial Watch – Surprise, surprise; Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs on behalf of their American-born anchor babies.

Even before the recession, immigrant households with children used welfare programs at consistently higher rates than natives, according to the extensive census data collected and analyzed by a nonpartisan Washington D.C. group dedicated to researching legal and illegal immigration in the U.S. The results, published this month in a lengthy report, are hardly surprising.

Basically, the majority of households across the country benefitting from publicly-funded welfare programs are headed by immigrants, both legal and illegal. States where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62%), Texas, California and New York with 61% each and Pennsylvania (59%).

The study focused on eight major welfare programs that cost the government $517 billion the year they were examined. They include Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for the disabled, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), a nutritional program known as Women, Infants and Children (WIC), food stamps, free/reduced school lunch, public housing and health insurance for the poor (Medicaid).

Food assistance and Medicaid are the programs most commonly used by illegal immigrants, mainly on behalf of their American-born children who get automatic citizenship. On the other hand, legal immigrant households take advantage of every available welfare program, according to the study, which attributes it to low education level and resulting low income.

The highest rate of welfare recipients come from the Dominican Republic (82 %), Mexico and Guatemala (75%) andEcuador (70%), according to the report, which says welfare use tends to be high for both new arrivals and established residents.

Liberals to pay $35,800 a head to see Obama pick his teeth

Gawd they're dumb.

Who with half a brain would pay $35,800 to watch Barack Obama eat and spout gibberish? Really, you’d have to be one of the biggest suckers ever born.

But, this is California, and these are Liberals, and their idiocy is fathomless.

Who is the party of the rich, again? Democrats, the stupid rich.

SF Gate (h/t Weasel Zippers) –  Even loyal Obama supporters are raising their eyebrows at the very pricey fundraising — like that exclusive $35,800-per-person dinner in San Francisco — planned as part of the President’s April 20 visit to the Bay Area.

The April Western U.S. swing by the President, which includes a stop in Reno and Los Angeles as well as San Francisco, is part of Obama’s 2012 re-election kickoff campaign. But also scheduled is what the White House promises will be a jobs and economy event in the Bay Area on April 20.

On April 21, Obama heads to Los Angeles.

Obama supporters acknowledge that the $35,800 per person San Francisco Obama Victory Fund dinner may represent a new pricetag high for political fundraising. After all, loyal Dems thought the ceiling was reached last Oct. 21, when tickets to that Obama dinner in the Palo Alto home of Google executive Marissa Mayer hit an astonishing $30,800 per person.

Welcome to San Franstinko

Liberalism stinks.

Welcome to San Franstinko, where parts of the city smell like a combination of rotten eggs and hippies.

Liberals’ insistence on  low-flow toilets has resulted in a multimillion-dollar plumbing nightmare. Apparently, low-flow flushing creates a sludge backup inside the sewer pipes.

And so we have yet another example of Leftist, environmentalcase unintended consequences. We all knew that there was something rotten in the state of California. We also knew that the source was to be found in Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco.

To combat the Liberal stench, the city has already had to spend $100 million over the past five years. Now they plan on pouring  $14 million worth of bleach down the drain to act as an odor eater and disinfect the city’s treated water before it’s dumped into the bay.

Naturally, some environmentalists have a problem with that.

(SF Gate via Weasel Zippers) — San Francisco’s big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.

Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite – better known as bleach – to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city’s treated water before it’s dumped into the bay. It will also be used to sanitize drinking water.

That translates into 8.5 million pounds of bleach either being poured down city drains or into the drinking water supply every year.

Not everybody thinks it’s a good idea.

A Don’t Bleach Our Bay alert has just gone out from eco-blogger Adam Lowry who argues the city would be much better off using a disinfectant like hydrogen peroxide – or better yet, a solution that would naturally break down the bacteria.

As for whether the supposedly environmentally friendly, low-flow toilets are worth the trouble? Well, according to Jue, they have helped trim San Francisco’s annual water consumption by about 20 million gallons.

Palin cuts bait

Sarah Palin spoke at the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center last night in celebration of the 100 year anniversary of his birth.

During her speech she touched on the devastation being wrecked upon California farmers in the Central Valley by minnow-brained environmentalcases and their obscene obsession over a two-inch smelt that they say is endangered. She calls the little fishy, “bait”.

Because of the cutting off of water to the farmers, some of the most fertile land in the country is forced to lay fallow. An estimated 37,000 jobs have been lost due to the smelty issue. In one town in California, unemployment is up to an astonishing 40 percent. Yet, Democrats could care less.

(via Gateway Pundit)

Jerkonator leaves, won’t be back

Sorry, I'm all out of Band-Aids.

Phony baloney umber-RINO, Arnold  Schwarzenegger is leaving office with an approval rating of just 22 per cent and a tripled $28 billion budget deficit.

‘Course, nothing new about that. All California governors since Reagan leave office with similar stats. That, however, doesn’t keep Marxifornians from voting in another loser, like Jerry Brown.

“There are a lot of important things that I want to say,” he said on Twitter. “My struggle for reform will continue, my belief in environmental issues and in protecting the environment will continue.”

Arnold, you had seven years to say your “important things”.  Your English isn’t that bad.

And, of course, it was his moronic environmental causes that played a significant part in California’s now inevitable demise. Yet, he is unrepentant and promises to continue the fight to make sure California stays entangled in the weeds of strangulating environmental regulation.

There is now not a single prominent Republican face in California. This is a good thing. Democrats own the entire mess. However, I expect that when the new Governor, Jerry Brownnose, comes begging to Obama for a bailout, the Jerkonator will help plead the case.

______________________________

The Telegraph

Arnold Schwarzenegger will depart public office on Monday, ending a seven-year stint as the “Governator” of California that has sharply divided opinion.

His replacement, Jerry Brown, a Democrat who was also governor from 1975 to 1983, will be sworn in amid uncertainty over what the former Hollywood actor and bodybuilder will do next.

Having taken the helm of the troubled state declaring “failure is not an option”, Mr Schwarzenegger, 63, leaves with an approval rating of just 22 per cent and a tripled $28 billion budget deficit.

His decision to focus on tackling climate change was criticised by opponents and commentators who said he should have prioritised fixing the state’s economy, the eighth largest in the world.

His departure, which comes amid fears California could become insolvent, has prompted headlines in the US media such as “Hasta La Vista, Failure”.

Yet it is thought Mr Schwarzenegger is keen to press on with efforts to reduce global warming, possibly taking on a role as an independent statesman akin to that of Al Gore, the former US vice-president.

“There are a lot of important things that I want to say,” he has said on Twitter. “My struggle for reform will continue, my belief in environmental issues and in protecting the environment will continue.”

It is also presumed that he will seek to cash in on the publishing and public speaking industries, having spent $25 million (£16 million) of his own money on his two election campaigns.

Marxifornia leads the way (again) into the dark ages

 

I see the future, and it's really dark!

It’s only fitting that by banning 100-watt lightbulbs Marxifornia is preparing its citizens for the long, dark night that awaits the once great state. The environmentalcases that have destroyed half of California’s economy are intent on keeping the citizens from seeing what they are doing by keeping them in the dark.

Of course, this lightbulb fetish that is doing its job of turning the lights out across America began, as most dim-witted ideas do, in Europe. Save money? Watt are they talking about? As Britain’s Mail Online reports today, Eco-bulb cost to treble: Makers cash in as the ban on old-style bulbs kicks in.

Thomas Edison was granted his patent of the incandescent lightbulb in 1880. It changed the world for the better and spread light around the globe. Now we are swapping this safe, clean light for low-wattage, poisonous curly fry bulbs that requires every citizen to become a HAZMAT specialist. Indeed, no idiotic European idea goes unloved by America’s dim-bulbed Left.

______________________________

Kiss your 100-watt lightbulb goodbye

mercurynews.com - 01/01/2011

Californians can start saying goodbye to traditional 100-watt incandescent light bulbs now that the state has become the first in the country to require a new standard for the screw-base bulbs.

Experts say the new rules, which took effect New Year’s Day, will save residents money and energy. California is already the nation’s leader in energy-efficiency standards.

As of Saturday, what used to be a 100-watt light bulb manufactured and sold in California will have to use 72 watts or less. The 72-watt replacement bulb, also called an energy-saving halogen light, will provide the same amount of light, called lumens, for lower energy cost.

Similar new standards for traditional 75-watt, 60-watt and 40-watt incandescent bulbs will go into effect in California over the next few years, with wattages reduced to 53, 43 and 29 respectively.

whole story here

Fresno, Zimbabwe

Radical environmentalists have been called ‘watermelons’ because they are green on the outside, red on the inside. In California’s most fertile land,  farmers can’t even grow watermelons, thanks to the State’s Marxist government policies and environmentalcases. One would think that the justice department or at least top U.S. legislators would demand an investigation to the crimes being committed in California against its farmers. But, in the new normal, thinking so would mean you have a beef with Stalin, and that’s just not politically correct.

______________________________

Posted 12/28/2010 06:43 PM ET

Investors Business Daily

Environmentalism: Fresno, Calif., stands as the de facto capital of California’s mighty Central Valley, the breadbasket of America. So why is that city preoccupied with winning a $1 million prize to stave off hunger?

Local newspapers and Fresno County officials are trying to rally Facebook users to vote for Fresno in a corporate contest sponsored by Wal-Mart for $1 million in charity food donations for the hungry. Fresno, a city of 505,000, has taken the national lead because 24.1% of Fresno’s families are going hungry.

Civic spirit is good, but something big is wrong here. Fresno is the agricultural capital of America. More food per acre in more variety can be grown in the fertile Central Valley surrounding this community than on any other land in America — perhaps in the world.

Yet far from being a paradise, Fresno is starting to resemble Zimbabwe or 1930s Ukraine, a victim of a famine machine that is entirely man-made, not by red communists this time, but by greens.

State and federal officials, driven by the agenda of environmental extremists, have made it extremely difficult for the valley’s farms, introducing costly environmental regulations and cutting off critical water supplies to save the Delta smelt, a bait fish. It’s all driving the economy to collapse.

In the southwest part of the Central Valley, water allotments as low as 10% of normal have created a visible dust bowl. The knock-on effect can be seen in cities like Fresno, where November’s unemployment among the packers, cannery workers and professional fields that make agriculture productive stands at 16.9%.

Other Central Valley cities such as Hanford-Corcoran, Merced, Modesto, Stockton and Visalia-Porterville have similar jobless numbers, the highest in the country. The Wal-Mart Foundation notes that “24.1% of families in this community (Fresno) cannot afford regular meals compared to a national average of 9.2%.”

That’s right — a community that supplies a quarter of America’s fruit and vegetables is begging for food. City officials and the media seem oblivious to this irony. “Even if Fresno doesn’t finish first (in WalMart’s Facebook contest) the fight against hunger will still come out a winner,” the Fresno Bee crowed, citing publicity.

Fresno was ranked dead last at 102 as the worst city in America to do business, according to a 2010 MarketWatch survey. Four other Central Valley cities made the national bottom 10 — Bakersfield, Sacramento, Modesto and Stockton.

If that’s not a sign of a distressed region, what is? Fresno shouldn’t know the meaning of hunger or poverty, given its natural bounty.

It’s high time the greens who did this to the richest farmland in the country be held accountable. Far from bringing greenery, their disruptive agendas have left central California a wasteland.