Dear blog posters, due to the high volume of blog comments, we will no longer be able to post all comments.
We didn’t want to do this, but our time is limited, and so is our patience. Your comments must now contain a miniscule hint that human intelligence was behind its creation. For example, comments that say: “You suck” or “You’re an (Expletive deleted)” or “You all Lie”, etc. will not make the cut. The comment must actually contribute something of interest to us and the readers.
However, rest assured if you have something remotely intelligent to say, like 99.9% of you do, and even if you disagree with us, … we will find the time to put it up on this blog and we may even respond to it.
Regards, PS Editor
Ah, censorship.
You know, you can take the blog down. There’s been a fair bit of evidence lately that your not having fun:
“Let’s all feel free to support our candidate/party, as American’s respecting each others choice. Here’s a great idea to show your support, if you like the Republican party, please drive with your headlights on during the day. If you support Obama and the democrats, please drive with your headlights off… at night.”
I mean, come on, this don’t merit a response, intelligent or otherwise, but I’ll bet it got some.
Hi Jack,
I am so mad about this morning’s editorial, I had to come over and talk to you about it.
I’m just sitting here, staring at the box, I’m so mad I can’t even blog it!
Why should we pay more sales tax? They want a half cent for the state and another three quarters for the city? and then this added utility tax on our land lines and cell phones? I’m just fed up. I’m so fed up, when my family made a trip to Stockton yesterday, I made my husband pull over at a gas station on the way through Lodi and fill the tank. We didn’t compare price – we just wanted to shut Chico out of the transaction.
I sure appreciate your input Jack and I hope you’ll come over to the library on Feb 5th (11:30).
I do not have a horse, or I’d ride through the streets screaming, “wake up Chico, you are about to be had!”
Well, I feel better, and hope you are having a marvelous day!
LIBBY: Wow, that was harsh…you noticed that it was labeled as a joke, a spoof, like happens every day on Jon Stuart or Colbert, etc., we’ll drive with our lights on in the day, you can drive with your lights off at night…hey, that was funny. When we can’t laugh at ourselves we’re doomed.
Juanita, which editorial are you referring to?
Humor? Like I said, maybe you need a rest.
If Romney don’t have to pay … you do. It’s just that simple.
Have you been down to the City Council to inquire just what exactly they need the $.075 for? Possibly it’s for something you actually want to pay for. The ER, quite notoriously, does not feel that the details are required … so you go find out.
Jack, what’s with the scramble for Herger’s successor? Is there going to be one? Or has his heir already been annointed?
There’s something for you to get productively riled about.
I was thinking, maybe there is a reason why Herger, in thirty years, never manaaged to bring anything like “economic development” to your little county. Perhaps he was under strict instructions not to … by interests who’d just as soon the attention of our federal government was not drawn to their little fiefdoms?
Such consistent failure begs all manner of speculation.
Libby, you know the drill as well as I do. The outgoing guy does a hand off and then the election part is just a formality. The Editor of the ER did a really great op ed on this…lemme see if I can find and put it up here. It was really excellent work.
Okay Libby, I found it… I’ve never seen such a blunt public disclosure before:
“It was like a scene from a Mafia movie this week in Northern California politics. The boss stepped down, somebody kissed the ring, a successor was anointed, who then chose his replacement, and so on down the line.
It was all a very orderly shift of power, without even an exchange of gunfire. Arab countries could learn from us.
I kept getting this nagging feeling, though, that something got left out of the process.
Let’s see. Wally Herger said he’s retiring from Congress. He endorsed state Sen. Doug LaMalfa to take his place. LaMalfa endorsed Assemblyman Jim Nielsen to take his place in the Senate.
Something seemed incomplete, and Josh Cook of Chico, the blogger and political consultant who first wrote about Herger’s retirement, filled in the missing pieces for me.
“Why do we even need to waste money on these elections?” he said, laughing. “Is it really worth all the cost when you know what’s going to happen? Why even bother with things like democracy and elections? Don’t they just get in the way?”
Cook was joking, but he was right.
Granted, LaMalfa and Nielsen still have to win their respective elections for Congress and the state Senate, but they will barely break a sweat. They have a tremendous leg up in a Republican-leaning district when they have the endorsement of their predecessor.
LaMalfa will get a couple of token challenges for the U.S. House of Representatives seat there will be an election but it won’t be close. Money wins elections. You need at least a half-million dollars, probably a million, to match his bankroll. With Herger’s endorsement, LaMalfa can get it. I don’t know of anybody else who can.
Nielsen stepped in line behind LaMalfa to move up from the Assembly to the Senate. Boy, was he in a hurry. He emailed a statement to the media praising Herger’s retirement and years of service 27 minutes before Herger had even made his announcement.
Nielsen then announced he wouldn’t even bother running for his Assembly seat this June so he could instead focus on what would be a special election for LaMalfa’s vacated seat in the spring of 2013.
His spokesman, David Reade of Chico, tried to scare off anyone who would dare challenge Nielsen in a special election.
“Rather than forcing the taxpayers to spend millions on another special election to fill his (Assembly) seat if he is elected to the Senate,” Reade told the Sacramento Bee, “he has chosen to forgo his election this year.”
Aw, how benevolent. Saving the taxpayers from having to pay for democracy.
Despite that outlandish comment, somebody will challenge Nielsen for that Senate seat. It might even be Dan Logue, another Assemblyman who now says he’ll move back down to the valley from his home in Lake Wildwood to try to get Nielsen’s soon-to-be-vacated seat.
If Logue won that, there would be another special election to fill his Assembly seat. Butte County Supervisor Steve Lambert might run for that, then there would be another special election to fill Lambert’s seat.
Three elections in a non-election year? Yes, it’s possible. County elections chief Candy Grubbs may opt for early retirement.
What’s almost as dizzying is LaMalfa’s meteoric rise. For the past dozen years or so, I’ve been trying to figure out who would be the anointed one by the Republicans when Herger eventually retired.
Not long ago, LaMalfa wasn’t even on that list.
Few people had heard of him until 10 years ago, when he kick-started his own campaign with $175,000 and, with the help of Reade, won an Assembly seat. He has since grown into a thoughtful, formidable politician. His best trait a rarity is politics is that he’s a good listener.
Now the former unknown will grow old in Congress, until one day a couple of decades from now when the dominoes will fall once again.”
David Little is editor of the Enterprise-Record and Oroville Mercury-Register. Follow him on Twitter, @ER_DavidLittle.
I was referring to the editorial that says we can meet Jerry Brown halfway – if he tightens his purse strings a little, we could pay a state sales tax increase. That, my friends, is LOSER TALK!
Little said roughly the same thing about Tom Lando’s proposal to raise the local sales tax. Does he realize, he’s talking about two separate increase proposals that would raise our local tax over a cent?
Libby, Lando has made all kinds of claims what he wants to do with the money – several things in fact, that he would not legally be able to do with it – but here’s what both he and the state really want to do with it:
http://www.fixpensionsfirst.com/calpers-database/?first_name=&last_name=&employer=CHICO
No, I don’t want to pay for that.