Post Scripts

Prop 13 – YES. Limits on Property Tax Assessment. Seismic Retrofitting of Existing Buildings. Legislative Constitutional Amendment.

Prop 14 – NO. If it passes the state will switch to a “top two” candidate open primary system. All voters, regardless of party registration, would have the option of voting for any candidate. The primary’s top two candidates for each office, again regardless of political party, would advance to a runoff election in November. If two Democratic candidates each receive more votes than any Republican candidate for the office, the November election would feature a run-off between the two Democrats, or vice versa.

Congressman Tom McClintock made a great statement on Proposition 14, which he called the “distorted primary”: “This was the result of the corrupt deal for the tax increase engineered by [Dis]Abel Maldonado that included this measure to by-pass party primaries in a manner Maldonado believed would enhance his future election prospects. Instead of voters of each party putting their best candidate forward, this jerry-rigged system is designed to disguise the difference between the parties and force those pesky third parties off the general election ballot entirely.”

Proposition 15 – NO. If enacted, will assess fees on registered lobbyists in California and use the additional revenue to provide some funding for political campaigns for those running for the Office of the Secretary of State of California. Proposition 15 was initially sponsored by Loni Hancock, a Democratic state senator from Berkeley. The proposal Californians will vote on in June 2010 is for a pilot project that will only apply to political campaigns for the Office of Secretary of State in 2014 and 2018. In those election seasons, under Proposition 15, candidates for California Secretary of State would qualify for political campaign funds if they agree to spending prohibitions and if they are able to raise $5 contributions from at least 7,500 registered voters. Proposition 15 also repeals California’s voter-approved ban on the public financing of campaigns.

Prop 16 – YES. The Taxpayers Right to Vote Act, would simply require that voters have the final say if a local government chooses to spend public money or to incur public debt to create a government-run electricity business. And like other local special tax and bond decisions in California, a 2/3 vote would be required. In a time of economic challenges, supporters of Prop 16 believe that before local governments use public funds or debt to get into the risky and costly retail electricity business, the public deserves a vigorous discussion and a final vote on the matter. Your choice is basically do you want to have government control the rates or a private business. If you say private business then vote
yes.

Prop 17 – YES, Allows auto insurance companies to base their prices in part on a driver’s history of insurance coverage. An easy no brainer an obvious yes vote on this one. Kiknda suprised we needed an initiative to get this done.

Posted by Tina

Charles Krauthammer, looking at the giant mess that has accompanied the Gulf oil spill has asked a few very important questions:

“Oil spill culprits run deep,” by Charles Krauthammer – OC Register

“Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place? ** There will always be catastrophic oil spills. You make them as rare as humanly possible, but where would you rather have one: in the Gulf of Mexico, upon which thousands depend for their livelihood, or in the Arctic, where there are practically no people? ** All spills seriously damage wildlife. That’s a given. But why have we pushed the drilling from the barren to the populated, from the remote wilderness to a center of fishing, shipping, tourism and recreation?”

In other words why are we drilling there when we could be drilling here:

An Alaskan whose familiar with the oil business puts it like this:

“ANWR Oil? One Alaskan’s Opinion,” by Craig Bieber – Just One Opinion

I know we have to develop alternative sources of energy, and the quicker we do that the better. I also know that we will need oil for the foreseeable future, and we need to use it responsibly during the considerable length of time it will take to fully develop viable new sources of energy. I can’t visualize jet airplanes flying on something other than jet fuel for many years to come. It should concern everyone that we are doing tremendous damage to our economy by sending hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign countries for oil. Many of those countries are actively using our money to try to undermine our success and our way of life. We are also forcing U.S. oil companies to drill ultra-expensive deepwater wells while we neglect easily available onshore prospects like ANWR.

These men are on to something. Pressure by activists to block certain areas have forced deep water drilling. Until a better source of energy is readily available common sense, rather than pressure from special interest activists, should play a greater roll in deciding where we drill.

Posted by Tina

We can all agree that U.S. debt is a big problem but we don’t always agree about what should be done to fix it. Here’s your chance to see how well you would perform if you had the power to do something about it!

The following webpage allows the participant to choose between certain budget items. Unfortunately, it leaves out many options that conservatives would choose but it was fun and I still managed to come pretty close to meeting the goal without too much regret…can you meet, or beat, the challenge? After you click on the link just choose “Stabilize the Debt” and then click on “Begin the Simulator”.

Here’s the challenge followed by the link:

YOUR CHALLENGE: Stabilize the U.S. Debt at 60% of GDP by 2018

“Stabilize the U.S. Debt – An Online Exercise in Hard Choices – crfb.org

I have some strong reservations about the assumptions made by those who put this challenge together. They assume that a cut in tax rates for wealth builders would lower revenues to government. AHHHNNNNT! That outcome was discredited during the Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton and Bush presidencies. The reverse notion, that raising tax rates on wealth builders increases revenues has also been discredited…under Carter, Bush I, and Clinton (at the beginning of his first term). You may recall him saying, “Probably there are people in this room still mad at me at that budget because you think I raised your taxes too much. It might surprise you to know that I think I raised them too much, too.” Ah well, yes, we keep trying to tell them about the power behing the Laffer Curve but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I double dog dare ya to take the debt challenge now! Once you’ve completed that task come on back and watch the following videos on the Laffer Curve, brought to you by the
CATO INSTITUTE…then we’ll chat.
Continue reading “Can You Lower the U.S. Debt?” »

“On March 23, 2005, a fire and explosion occurred at BP’s Texas City Refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring more than 170 others. BP was charged with violating federal environment crime laws and has been subject to law suits from the victim’s families. Later an $87 million fine was imposed by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which claimed that BP had failed to implement safety improvements following the disaster.”

Lets keep this in mind when taking stock of how BP caused the Gulf’s largest oil spill.

by Jack Lee

(UPDATED 6-1-2010) As I predicated stocks opened lower this week and eventually closed down -112.61 -1.11% on the DOW. OIL remains the bargain basement play. PVX coming in range, yield is a solid 9.5%. Consider a buy under $6.70. Stop loss set at $6.10.

This is the DOW chart for the last 3 months and as you can see the NASDAQ almost mirrors it (see below). Friday, shows the S&P 500 down 1.01% and it’s crossing below its 10-day moving average. (Not good) Participation in the sell-off on Friday is broad with declining issues outpacing advancing issues by 2,023 to 935 (New York Stock Exchange) and this does not bode well for next week.

Note, on the first chart that long bull market where the chart takes a nice run up to around April 26 and it does so with minimal volatility. Now compare that steady run to the sudden drop through May 9th and more recent events. The chart is jirrating in wiuld swings not unlike our entry into the housing bubble. That’s pretty spectacular, but what does it mean for the rest of 2010? I’ll try to explain. The 1000 point drop looks like the market fell off a cliff and market analysts will tell you this was in large part due to a technical correction, where the stock market got a little too far out in front of actual earnings. 10% is a huge retracement and “corrections” will always happens when optimism exceeds reality, but a 1000 point drop? No, that isn’t just a technical correction folks; there’s more going on here. The charts are telling us the news in Europe is rattling confidcence here. Global fears have the big guys, those market makers and their billions, running for the sidelines.

Volatility (wild swings) accompanied the precipitous drop in the market and the volatility in the last few days suggests this market is not finished with its shake out. DOW 10,000 was the psychological bottom, but we’ve tested that bottom twice now and if we pierce it with conviction in the next week I would say we better be looking for a lower low to call the bottom and thats not good for a market heading into a slow season.

Consider that we are well into the summer trading session in the US and with summer comes the traditional “summer slump”. Markets here generally just drag along, but international events, namely a weak Euro, the Greece situation and other economic uncertainties that accompany the European common market could make summer more
Continue reading “STOCK THOUGHTS” »

By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party

The environmental crazies were on the loose in Chico yesterday, and they prevailed over good common sense. It was at the Butte County Air Quality Management District (BCAQMD) meeting, held at Chico City Hall yesterday morning that hard lefties showed up to assail the truth. I witnessed the whole thing and I’ll share it here, but first let me give you some back story.

The BCAQMD is a county board made up of ten local elected officials: All five county supervisors, plus one city councilor each from Chico, Biggs, Gridley, Oroville, and Paradise. Boards like this are usually set up to carry out unpopular air quality mandates without voters having much ability to retaliate (a voter in Biggs has no control over a councilor from Chico), meaning less accountability to the people. However, this year the board has what I would call a conservative majority, even if it’s a shaky one, and they’ve been doing a better job of representing the people versus the government.

At last month’s meeting, my favorite city council member, Angela Thompson of Biggs, suggested that the BCAQMD write a letter in support of the CA Jobs Initiative which would suspend AB32. AB32 is the Global Warming Solutions Act signed by the Governor is 2006 when he was trying to be the “Green” Governor. AB32 is also a draconian environmental bill that will impose numerous controls on the people and kill about a million jobs statewide. It’s actually not a long bill, but if you read it you’ll see it gives the California Air Resources Board a lot of open-ended power over our daily lives in the name of global warming. Should global warming ever be proven false by say, a Climate gate scandal or something crazy like snow in the Sierras in May (like it is now), there is NO provision to overturn this outrageous attack on our liberties.

Continue reading “Republican Corner: AB32, Environmental Whackos and the Butte County Air Quality Board!” »

Corporatist governments of the past include the following, according to a San Jose State paper:

Corporatism -sjsu.edu

National Corporatism. Italy, 1922-1945, Benito Mussolini
Country, Religion, Monarchy, Spain, 1923-1930, Miguel Primo de Rivera
National Socialism, Germany, 1933-1945, Adolph Hitler
National Syndicalism, Spain, 1936-1973, Francisco Franco
New State Portugal, 1932-1968, Antonio Salazar
New State Brazil, 1933-1945, Getulio Vargas
New Deal United States, 1933-1945, Franklin Roosevelt
Third, Hellenic, Civilization, Greece, 1936-1941, Ioannis Metaxas
Justice Party, Argentina, 1943-1955, Juan Peron

In the last half of the 19th century people of the working class in Europe were beginning to show interest in the ideas of socialism and syndicalism. Some members of the intelligentsia, particularly the Catholic intelligentsia, decided to formulate an alternative to socialism which would emphasize social justice without the radical solution of the abolition of private property. The result was called Corporatism. The name had nothing to do with the notion of a business corporation except that both words are derived from the Latin word for body, corpus.

Find another good article about corporatism in America from Frontpage Magazine here.

by Jack Lee

Memorial Day planned events Sunday and Monday:

There will be no high school bands playing the national anthem or patriotic songs in any parks.

There will be no parades of any kind in the downtown.

There will be no fund-raisers for disabled vets or the widows and orphans of vets.

Our Mayor will offer no speeches or proclamations by the Chico City Council and no wreaths will be placed by any officials. (We have an unwritten order that calls for seperation of patriotism and government.)

Continue reading “Memorial Day in Chico” »

The “Memorial” in Memorial Day has been ignored by too many of us who are beneficiaries of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Often we do not observe the day as it should be, a day where we actively remember our ancestors, our family members, our loved ones, our neighbors, and our friends who have given the ultimate sacrifice:

• by visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.
• by visiting memorials.
• by flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.
• by flying the ‘POW/MIA Flag’ as well (Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act).
• by participating in a “National Moment of Remembrance”: at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.
• by renewing a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our falled dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.