Solving California's Fiscal Crisis

I don't pretend to know how to completely solve California's fiscal crisis, but we know one step that could be taken to help the process. Examine every lifer in tyhe California prison system for possible parole, and give the deserving ones their freedom. A lot of them deserve it.

This isn't an idle, uninformed comment. I spent full-time for six months reading parole hearing transcripts and other official documents relating to the Board's activities and what I found made me think of Alice in Wonderland. In the end, I wropte a 12-page friend of the court brief proving beyond any doubt that the members of the Board were not doing their legislatively-mandated task, actually considering whether or not inmates deserved parole. It became clear that the Board had been instructed by Governor Gray not to grant parole except in certain cases -- when the applicant was a friend of a well-connected Republican, or was an ex-lawman.

At the time, the victims of crime were a strong lobby with the Prison Guard's Union.  The San Francisco Chronicle once called the union "The Invisible Government."  Their greed has costs the taxpayers of the State of California billions of dollars, and if their wings could be trimmed, this would help bring the California budget under control.

Has you read the article in the latest issue of Harper's Magazine called, "Why Vote ?"  It is subtitled. "When Your Vote Counts for Nothing"  and is by Kevin Baker.  I quote the opening paragraph here:

"The heroic narrative of modern society has always been that democracy would prevail in the end.  We believe that democracy somehow has an infinite resilience, that it is a bottomless reserve capable of being tapped whenever necessary, that in times of crisis not only will great men be recognized, called forth, and elected to office but that we,the people will rise to the occasion when required to do so. We have long counted on democracy to be the safety brake on our worst impulses, to be the countervailing force against fanatical ideologies, to serve as a check on the routine excesses of capitalism.  But we can no longer count on democracy as some sort of natural force or secret weapon, for today it has been turned against us, its very institutions now reinforcing the triumph of money and fueling the growth of nihilistic and antidemocratic movements."

I urge you to read it.    Whether you support Obama or (God forbid) Romney, you will agree with much that Baker has written.     See Harper's Magazine, October 2012

Sarah has been around long enough to have established record of behavior.

My take on Palin comes from what I have seen and also from facts that I believe are true.

First, she is a shrewd person. I think she has considerable intelligence, particularly in how to manipulate and maneuver. If the saying is correct that what a man believes can be determined not by what he says but by what he does, we can determine certain of her values. Note that after she emerged from obscurity thanks to McCain, halfway through her term as governor she quit, and then went on the lecture circuit where she cleaned up in speaker's and appearance fees. This is a woman who knows how the financial cookie crumbles, and who values her own personal financial gain over commitment and public service. Her behavior shows that.

That she can be quixotic in her behavior can be seen by her educational record, where she shifted around from college to college for a number of petty reasons (she said she left the University of Hawaii because she didn't like the weather). This kind of erratic behavior reveals something important about her.

I was in Ivory Coast, West Africa, leading up to and including the night of Obama's election. For weeks up to McCain's loss, she always appeared holding her retarded baby, trying to demonstrate what a devoted mother she is. However, the kid practically disappeared after McCain's loss when his appearance could no longer garner her sympathy votes. Have you seen him lately ? I haven't. The devotion was evidently short-lived, lasting less than the span of an election

Sarah's defining moment, however, and one we should all remember despite her cagey and manipulative winks, came when Katie C was interviewing her as they walked along. Katie asked her what she read, thinking this would give us a better grasp of her interests. Remember the minute of stunned silence in which she could not give an answer ? This told me everything I needed to know about whether she was qualified to be vice president or president.

Regrettably I am reminded by her actions and by her family of a term I think accurately describes the bunch of them: "White trash."