A $1 billion solar electricity farm that is needed in California has been put on hold because 7 foxes were found in the area with distemper. Apparently this is evidence that this project is doing too much harm to the environment. How much harm will be done if we generate that power with coal or oil instead?
If California cannot build a $1 billion solar project that we need because of environmental issues, how much harm will we do to the environment if we build a $100 billion high speed rail system we don’t need?
This country has not had a budget for over 3 years. 2 of those years Democrats controlled the entire government with super majorities in both houses of congress, yet they could not get this done. I believe that is because they did not want to take responsibility for their own actions, aka: political cowardice.
Oh gee, politicians being cowards and hiding from responsibility, how unusual. After the 2010 election it didn’t get any better. The Super Committee turned out to be the stupid committee, and the American people get dumped on again because the extremists in both parties are still in control.
The next round of budget negotiations the Republicans have stated that they will not make any demands that prevent the Bush tax cuts form being renewed. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will make one bit of difference in our legislators passing a budget. With the deficit this country is running it’s going to take a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to balance the budget. How about cutting $3 in spending for every $1 we raise taxes, and all cuts and taxes take effect immediately. No more putting off the responsibility.
Also on the budget talks, apparently President Obama’s new budget is so absurd that Harry Reed refuses to even bring it ot the floor in the Senate. The last budget he submitted was voted down 97-0 in the Democrat controlled Senate. That tells me that our President doesn’t even want a budget. Just think, no budget means no spending limits.
Speaking of raising taxes, Jerry Brown wants Californians to pass ballot measures that raises their taxes. I would vote for this if I actually thought that the money would be spent wisely, but our legislature has show us that no matter how much money we give them they will waste it, and California will still have the same problems.
As we approach the 2 year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill American oil companies are still banned from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama refuses to lift this ban despite the fact that at least 10 other countries are drilling for oil in the Gulf including Cuba, China, Brazil, Russia, Spain, Britian, Norway, Mexico, Denmark and Malasia. America needs the jobs, the revenue and the oil that this would produce, but the president will not allow it. The company that was responsible for the disaster, British Petroleum, is not even based in America.
Republicans in the House recently managed to stifle a bill that would bar members of congress from using inside information gathered as part of their official duties to profit from investments (aka: insider trading). The removed provisions from the bill, forcing it back to congress for another vote.
The 2 provisions they stripped out of the bill are –
– Treating anyone who sells information to Congress like a lobbyist forcing them to disclose information on how much they spent and who they spoke with
– Restoring the tools to prosecutors to bring public corruption cases against state and federal officials.
This makes me doubt their sincerity about government transparency and makes me wonder what reason they have for not wanting insider trading by legislators to be a criminal act.
President Obama has vetoed, for now, the Keystone pipeline. This increases our dependence on foreign oil and forces us to send billions of dollars to an area of the world where many people want to kill us. It prevents the creation of many jobs and it helps to cripple our economic recovery. This appears to be the worst kind of political pandering. Obama is pleasing the extremists in his party at the expense of working class America.
Watching
the riots in Greece I realize that yes, that could happen here. The Greek national debt is approximately 1.5 times their GDP. The American National debt is about 1.1 times our GDP. In a few years it
will be at 1.5. I wonder if we haven’t already passed the tipping point. The worst part of this is that the Greeks spent their money wiser than Americans have. At least Greece spent the money on its
citizens, while the US spend its money all over the world fighting unnecessary wars, failed nation building, and giving money to people that hate us.
Mark Berndt, a third grade teacher in LAUSD, is accused of 23 counts of lewd acts upon children ages 6 to 10. LAUSD removed him from the classroom in June 2011. Berndt was paid $40,000 to drop his appeal of his firing last year by the school district.
$40,000 buys a lot of school supplies that LAUSD badly needs. Since he is under arrest, wouldn’t it have been smarter to put off the settlement until after the trial.
With all the problems Los Angeles has, the city’s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, will chair the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Meanwhile the biggest headlines the L.A. City Council gets is passing laws banning footballs and frisbees from L.A. beaches. It seems that both the mayor and the city council have better things to do than serving their own interests in the Democrat Party or passing stupid laws that discourage tourism.