From earlier thread: Now, this is UGLY.

What? Not a terminator fan? I mean, personally, I think being a succesful action film star is a great way to train for running a State.

OT, here in NYC, doing some kinda strange post-millenial life/work meld … from my pov, this should really be late nite

anyway, swarzie is a weird kinda counterbalance to obama … both impossible to classify pols

Dang, Ian, you’re busy tonite…!

Digg it HERE!

Wonder how they’ll work out the salaries of part time teachers and University Instructors (y’know…the folks who teach about 50% of the actual courses and labs in the UC, CSU and Community College systems). Will they pay them by the hours that they actually are assigned to class? No pay for prep, grading, office hours, etc.

Lemme see. That’s work out to about 9 hours weekly for those teaching three sections per semester. At $6.50/hr (the US, not the State minimum wage) that’d work out to a whopping $59 bucks a week for those folks.

Yeah, I’d see a general strike coming up. In addition, I’d see a bunch of invasions of local Republican legislators offices from hoards of very angry State workers.

Oh wait! Just forgot...Bush Arnold is going to furlough all those part-time State workers (likely including part-time instructors)…so we can forget about offering them that puny $60/week.

I predict chaos…just in time for the new school year!

Has anybody calculated the economic impact of Ahnuld’s move on Sacramento and the cities that house colleges and universities? I don’t think it would be small.

Back when I was toiling in the trenches of the academic contingent labor market in Chicago, I made the mistake of figuring out my hourly rate of pay including all of that. It really was depressing and did not even come close to the minimum wage.

I think the plan is to lay off all part-time employees who aren’t in the public safety biz.

I propose that Arnold and Maria should live on $6.55 an hour — for one week — in solidarity with his fellow state employees.

This is going to blow up bigtime. It stinks of Gingrich, actually.

having done my time in the trenches of the post-grad academic world, it certainly was not a particularly good wage per hour, as DrDick sez, less than min wage. But, did offer the chance to support oneself while pursuing one’s passion … compared to trying to support oneself w/ art, it was pretty sweet. of course, this was during one of our periodic times of plenty (early 80s). times are harder now.

Now we’ll find out who the girly men really ah…

John Chiang, the (Democratic) state Controller and the guy who actually signs the checks, sez “Not so fast, Kindergarten Cop.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bombshell plan to slash the pay of state workers and lay off thousands of other employees to ease a looming cash shortage brought on by the state’s budget impasse faces the same obstacle that arose five years ago during a state fiscal crisis: a state controller unwilling to cooperate.

While the governor is poised to order the cuts on Monday, state Controller John Chiang, who is responsible for disbursing state workers’ paychecks, said today that he will refuse to go along with the governor, setting up a political standoff and a possible legal fight.

“The authority to issue people’s paychecks is mine. I have both constitutional and statutory authority,” said Chiang, a Democrat. “Frankly, (the governor) is just trying to make me do something that’s improper and illegal.”

I’m in favor of a strike. I don’t think there have been nearly enough strikes in the past 40 years. It’s time we revived the power of the strike. They work in Europe, and they used to work here. It’s time they did again.

sorry OT
OMG!

http://www.reuters.com/article…..38;sp=true

From the Courage Campaign:

The Governor’s plan, rather than fixing California’s massive $15 billion budget deficit, will instead make our budget crisis worse while delivering a serious blow to our struggling economy. As the recession deepens, gas prices skyrocket, stores close, and home foreclosures surge, the governor’s wage cuts will force many working families over the financial edge.
To add insult to injury, the Governor is slashing workers’ wages instead of taking leadership to close the “Yacht Tax” loophole that Arianna Huffington and the Courage Campaign told you about a few months ago.
That’s right. While his rich friends get off tax-free on yacht and private jet purchases, Arnold is making devastating cuts that endanger the livelihoods of state workers and all of us who depend on them.

you can sign here: http://www.couragecampaign.org…..7UFI/VEsC/

arnold – then and now

scroll down to the very last picture

Strike Party. Sat. night!
My house.
Open bar, BYOS&P (bring your own signs and posters).
:))

A general strike of all state worker would be cool. Might even spur a movement to take back our country from the greedy bastards who have hijacked it.

hi and welcome to the lake – i’m not recognizing your name so if i’m in error, i apologize in advance

if ya need anything or have any questions, just ask :)

Is anybody here? Is this thing working….?

Many in the employ of California state government are now brainstorming methods of introducing glitches into or slowing down delivery of services without leaving personally identifying traces.

i’m here dr no pause dick

Weird – just. plain. weird.

All parts of the country do weird, but Cal does it with flair..

Doesn’t sound to me as if Arnold has the authority to do this. Unless he was made emperor for life when I wasn’t looking.

as long as no public safety services are impacted, i’m all in favor of it. we californian’s go though this high drama shit every year and i’m forking sick and tired of it

seems to be working … certainly been our share of gremlins in the toobz ove last weeks, but working tonight …

hi all – been a while since i was around much — nice to see the lake again

i figure since he is an r, he assumes that he already is – i do despise his lying stick it to the worker beess self.

I would love to see that as well. It just keeps getting better. Californians have been screwed ten ways from Sunday and they still elected the gropinator. I guess he’s using his broom to sweep those state workers the hell out of dodge. Unfrikinbelievable.

Ahnmald has no idea what to do when somebody (John Chiang) body-blocks him:

“The authority to issue people’s paychecks is mine. I have both constitutional and statutory authority,” said Chiang, a Democrat. “Frankly, (the governor) is just trying to make me do something that’s improper and illegal.”

A bureaucrat stands up! Alert the medi…
nevermind

The very least he should do is lay off some of his own staff – maybe like his driver or his pilot who flies him from LA every single day.

One of the main things that would permanently help fix the Calif economy (it’ll never happen though) is to remove the Prop 13 property tax exemption from business property.

The Prop 13 residential part works well because it is premised on the fact that the average person moves every seven years. For people who don’t, the elderly, and people on fixed incomes who bought a house years ago and are still in it for whatever reason – the exemption is a godsend. When the house is sold, the assessed tax rate jumps to current and the next owner gets to pay the vastly higher tax.

Businesses (think PG&E, AT&T, Bank of America, etc) almost NEVER sell their property and move. So businesses are paying taxes at the 1972 tax rate – an absolutely humungous give-away to some of the wealthiest corporations in the country. If they just reverted the business exemption – California’s budget problems would disappear.

By the way – dozens of accountants, budget professionals, the state comptroller at the time, economists, etc. predicted this would happen when the thing was proposed. It was packaged for the residential homeowner – and all the advertising never mentioned the business thing at all.

Oh well, the businesses built in that 67% requirement to ever raise taxes there ever again too. Boy – stupid!

Let’s state this clearly:
Are |California Democratic leaders the ones to Gooeprs what it is like when Democrats have a pair?

i’m sure he doesn’t pay for that fuel bill either

This is gonna get real ugly, real fast.

I’ve always believed in being able to take care of myself but this is insanity and THIS IS WHAT ALL REPUBLICANS WANT. They want ALL OF US at minimum wage.

If there’s a general strike in California, I those of use here who live in the state, will be prepared to take care of themselves.

…when Democrats have a pair?

Facts not in evidence.

This is a joke right a diversionary tactic what does Arnold really want?
This is a first offer that must always be refused but how will he comunicate his real offer the press, moderate GOPers? Center Dems?
Who is his go between?
What does he really want to cut?
Or is he Really this stupid? I mean this is George Bush level stupid.

A lotta shit has started richeer in our Golden State.

This is one of the STUPIDEST things anyone’s ever done, even IF Gov Ahnold was trying to leverage some shit on a frozen legislature that’s wrapped up in itself, year after year after year.

If I was Teh Gov, I woulda cut the LEGISLATURE mofo’s income down to $6.50.
THAT would get some phreakin results!!!

This is one serious push, and a STUPID FUCK ONE, at that, at teh masses.

And frankly, we masses can’t really take much more of this crap.

Bless us all if the streets are where we end up . . . and thanks Ahnold for pushin ALL of us, over the edge against the 1% bastids who continue to foist this upon us . . .

What, blood from turnips? Killin me, just killin me . . and I LIVE in Sacto.

Like McCain, Ahnold has fallen OFF that turnip truck, and no one wants him.
Pieces of shit, both of them. GOP too. ARghhhhh.

Harumph.

hey larue

A strike would be better than a slow down because I can just see someone punching a worker at the DMV – which most people want to anyway.

like larue said, cut the pay of the legislators – not the worker bees

Definitely not. Because they don’t. They are just as spineless as their counterparts in DC. Corporate America owns this country. We are fucked beyond recognition.

Ahnold is many things, but stupid has never been one of them. Nor has he been a really doctrinaire conservative for the most part. This really seems a bit out of character (of course I do not follow his antics as gropinator closely from here in Montana).

i think he is stupid and filled with hubris. until he went after ca teachers and nurses – they knocked him down a peg or two and he changed his tune.

It’s either stupid or utter desperation.
The state will hang when he leaves, might as well involve some other folks to keep the heat off.
I vote fuckery.

Is this some kind of anti minimum wage GOP backlash? Are there more events like this planned in other states to happen as *cough* spontaneously random acts by GOP Governors?

Suz, yeah, he boasted that he was gonna kick the nurses’ asses and they kicked his ass but good!

If you’re going to punk somebody, it kinda helps if you don’t tell them, and tell them HOW, first.

Maybe Arnold wants to cause riots so he can crack down with the police, maybe cancel November elections. Remember Rudy wanted to be CoGovernor with Bloomberg after 9/11.

All the major unions in the state (Teachers, cops, fire, service) banded together to form the Alliance they put a stop to the gropinators ballot measures a few years back. Thought he had learned his lesson, but then again perhaps not.

Yep. This would take one day to stop. But it would be one very tough day.

The issue is the usual the Dems say we need to raise taxes on the rich and the Rethugs say and because of a constitutional proposition the budget needs two thirds vote and the Rethugs never agree to what the majority wants and always holds up the buget. Ever since the bar was raised to two thirds they have driven the state in all kinds of money problems… just saying…

Suz, he’s spot on, and Ahnold had given the spark for it.

I’m just not sure why . . . there’s NO WAY Ahnold is stupid (although it SEEMS so) enuff to have played ‘we the people’ against a legislature fraught with partisan and personal pieces of all the pies.

To do so is FOLLY!

But he did it!

This could be akin to the bullet to Archduke Ferdinand pre WW1. The igniter.

Is this what Ahnold, and the GOP, WANT?

Riots in the streets? Bleed the state workers, send them into poverty as they can’t make payments on their debts, or make rent, or handle what EVER their lives need?

Geebuz, in Sacto, the government folks are the ONLYYST folks left with money to spend.

Knock them out? The whole state from San Diego to the Oragon Border loses if STATE WORKERS don’t earn their wages . . .

This is huge. Be interesting to see where it all goes . . . . will it be a FEDERAL MODEL?

What is Ahnald UP to? Stupid, or deliberate for the 1%?

Just what I was thinking, and I’m in Calif.
He’s not stupid and after having his head handed to him in the midterms (yr?), when all the initiatives he backed were defeated, unserer Gübernator retooled his image (from triumphal usurper to a subdued gravitas) and never put a foot wrong.
“Confounding” would describe it.

bastard thought he had one of the boosh momentum thingies going after the election and went after worker in ca. i don’t think he learned since he is doing the same forking thing again.

of course, he could be one of them any press is good press forkers who does not have a conscious and no sense of what is right and wrong.

That is one area where the Goopers seem incapable of learning. They are always looking for ways to bust the unions. I suppose all the success they have had over the years does encourage that.

Right. They would let the state go into default. Followed by the mother of all tax hikes.

What? Not a terminator fan? I mean, personally, I think being a succesful action film star is a great way to train for running a State.

and borax and forty mules and team gets you a Country?

According to Sister Wisconsin won’t raise taxes so every few years Wisconsin declares a statewide hiring freeze the longest hiring freeze she can remember was three weeks.
The goal is to get people talking, my sister can’t remember if they ever did raise taxes.

The Repubs have only one plan – do not let the Democrats accomplish ANYTHING. That’s it – simple, but it surely works well.

That is 100% correct. We have small cities all over the San Joaquin Valley that are litterally turning into ghost towns because of the water crisis and farmers not being able to farm meanwhile these stupid fuckers can’t get their heads out long enough to find a solution. So many things here are coming to critical mass. The repukes do this shit ever damn year. In ‘92 it took 2 months I believe. They wrote IOU’s and stopped paying folks alltogether.

Hey, Suz. Ranting, as usual.

I’ts MY state, and dammit, these folks are all folked up . . .

This one, is TOO wierd to figger out . . . but it’s down the path of the Bush/Cheney cult.

I don’t like it . . . other than, folks WILL begin to hit the streets . . .

Gonna be interesting to see who blinks first . . . we live in interesting times.

And I thought the NATIONAL ELECTIONS were a tawdry and essential thang!!! :D

What is Ahnald UP to? Stupid, or deliberate for the 1%?

I think he’s cursed by circumstances of his own making. No way out but this.
Howdy, Larue!

interesting times indeed larue

and i do think ah-nold is taking his cues from the boosh/cheney method of governing.

How long can a strike go before the state’s credit rating on bonds gets affected?

It doesn’t matter.
The bonds go to Hell before the strike happens, but the strike lasts 48-72 hours tops.

Newton, the whole fuckin nation is hangin.

This, in the irony of all time, puts CA once again out front.

I guess, when we splinter and break up, and go broke, it WILL be the lead for the nation.

No matter WHO is erected for Prez . . .

Someone gimme some reason for hope for changes and a way for the masses to have jobs, income, housing and healthcare . . . Anyone? Buehller?

I just saw three Canadian geese fly by…! Something’s not right with that…! They’re just a tad off course…

Badda Bing! It’s ERECTION TIME!

New chef at the Hilton…

i’m sure climate change had nothing to do with canadian geese migrating to hawaii

Damn foreigners.

-G

Must have taken a wrong turn a Whitefish. We have lots of them around right now, which is a bit unusual. They are usually up in Canada in their summer breeding grounds.

While this is one of the biggest of governmental budgetary messes, it’s certainly not the only one. Across all spectrums – federal, state, municipal – everybody’s constituencies have to be placated, everybody’s contributors protected, everybody’s friends taken care of. But we’re sinking, and sinking fast. What we need is some hard core credit counselling, the type bankruptcy courts mandate. Arnie’s got no real say – he’s just an executive without the keys to the vault. All he’s trying to do with the minimum wage threat is trying to push along the process. If California goes broke, who gets the blame? He’s fighting for his political life, just like everyone else. All he can do is make broad threats. Our legislature is the one responsible for making the difficult decisions, and they’ve shown a distinct reluctance to do so. It’s a stupid gesture on Arnie’s part, and has backfired on him. Any suggestions for the state of California, and for that matter, ANY governmental entity run by elected officials, on how to actually cut a budget? The best they seem to come up with is the across the board cuts that somehow never seem to happen. It’s a problem we’re all going to have to face.

Wow, CT! Can you see in the dark, or is the moon helping? I’m a bit afraid of all the talk here tonight.

It ain’t natural, tho…!

Cashing in their frequent flyer miles while they still can. ;-)

Sun hasn’t set yet, tho it’s close… A gorgeous magenta sky out there…! ;-)

Wish I was there…

late late nite upstairs

Hey Chris, and hi everyone:)

There are a lot of brash campaign commercials out there with Arnold’s name on them, about fiscal discipline.
Check comes due.

Prop 13 may or may not be working well for residential property…
Cindy McCain’s property (taxes overlooked for four or so years) was residential and showed no increases… because it was in a family TRUST… and could see no increase for generations…

Prop 13 needs to be revamped.

Hiya Margot!
Heading upstairs…

I am in the middle of reading The Shock Doctrine (I read in between comments when they are slow) so I cannot help but wonder if A.S.’s proposed state employee wage cuts are intended as some kind of shock therapy event. Don’t know if it has ever been done on a state level rather than national. Could it be that he intends for the pay cuts to cause chaos throughout state government, so that he can seize the moment to implement some nefarious changes that the bureaucracy or the legislature would otherwise be able to resist? Don’t know what that could be but I do wonder.

Here is a line I just read in the book, talking about Paul Bremer’s firing 500,000 public employees in Iraq:

“Only someone deeply inclined to see government purely as a burden and public sector workers as deadwood could have made the choices Bremer made.”
(p. 352, First Edition 2007)

Don’t know whether that describes A.S., but again, I do wonder.

oh, I don’t know, what, like 5 minutes?

being able to take care of myself but this is insanity and THIS IS WHAT ALL REPUBLICANS WANT. They want ALL OF US at minimum wage.
umm, the Repubs I know hate minimum wage… they want me serving them at below such.

Why would Arnold propose such a thing? Where is the benefit when you consider the election?

Time for me to hit the bed. The early bird catches the fishies (or so I hope). Take care all.

Fuck don’t GET me started with what Ronnie Raygun did to this state as an example (hmmm, Ahnold) and what he did to the country . . .

Even NIXON (god DAMN his soul to hell) . . . um, ok, Nixon was as bad.

But still . . . . they suck!!!!!!

And not in any meaningful gratifying way . . . .

Yep, howdy tis!!!

*G*

Badda bing!!! *G*

Not that I’d advocate a populous action of the masses to demonstrate their anger at the losses they’ve incurred in 30 years of futile leadership of this country and it’s FUCKIN PEOPLE!

Not me, nope.

OK, so Ian, you might want to stick to Canadian politics.

Perata is a corrupt bastard. There won’t be any war. In fact, it’s quite likely that this is all kabuki theater and the fix is in. Perata has scheduled a budget vote for Tuesday. There’s been no negotiation, no committee report, nothing. In Cali, there’s way too much power invested in the leadership, making them far more cozy with each other than loyal to their party. Perata just got bought off by the state Dem party to the tune of $250,000 that went right into his legal defense fund for an ongoing FBI investigation. He shouldn’t even BE in power anymore; the new leader, Darrell Steinberg, who’s a good public servant, is waiting in the wings, and he’ll be installed August 11. Perata wants a budget done well before then so he can leave Sacramento and leave it up to the Assembly to sort things out. He is not a friend. He is not reliable. He is likely about to sell us out and push through a budget with very deep cuts. Arnold made a huge mistake but notice that the CDP hasn’t even sent out ANYTHING criticizing the decision.

Something’s up, and talk is extremely cheap.

…the new leader, Darrell Steinberg, who’s a good public servant, is waiting in the wings, and he’ll be installed August 11

I went to High School with Steinberg. Good guy then, good guy now.
I fear for him in that viper pit.

*shrug* So, he’s a corrupt bastard. He said the right thing, at the right time. Reward good behaviour and all that. I agree he’ll probably cave, but eh, the CDP overall is completely worthless. Still, when I see signs of fight for a change, I like to reward them and by so doing encourage people to do more right things. Dog training, iow.

I’ll remember your suggestion, as well, and allow it to inform my future judgement. Pity you weren’t around in 2004 to tell me to never take up US blogging. Would have saved me tens of thousands of dollars.

Chicago Boys (Milton Friedman) freemarket economy policy. Cut state workers and contract out the work. And takeaway Suzanne’s pension

Privatize the gains; socialize the losses.

Just another move in the whole Norquist Nonsense about shrinking government so it can be drowned in a bathtub. This is a straight-up attack on the public sector in hopes of finagling privatization up the wazoo.

Increase taxes on the wealthy! Re-progressive-ise the tax system. It is the only fair and just way to play this.

New rule: socialize the loss, socialize the gains. We’re all in this together (or get the hell out of the country if you don’t want to be in the “together”).

And Demokcrat Jerry Brown was no better. Brown destroyed California education and the premier health care system in the U.S. Brown copied what he saw as the success of Raygun.

The last time Arnold declared war on teachers, nurses, firefighters, etc., he got his butt kicked.

He introduced four initiatives (or was it five?) that were on the November ballot, and all went down to crashing defeat.

The day after the election, SF Chronicle’s headline was “NO, NO, NO and NO!” in the largest font ever used.

It did my heart good.

Now, Arnie seems to want to repeat this show.

Teachers are running commercials, wall to wall, and it’s shaping up to be a good, one-sided fight.

Maria will have to bail out Arnie again as she did before. Arnie hired some conservative democrats to help him manage his administration and Big Mouth. But, obviously, he doesn’t listen to them, or they must have quit.