Tag Archives: california

Regulate and Legalize Marijuana in California

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There is a new effort in California to end the prohibition of marijuana in our state. And you are all encouraged to visit the official website or their official Facebook page.

If you liked Proposition 19 and you are disappointed that it did not pass in 2010, find out about this new ballot measure that is coming our way. This ballot measure does more things than what Proposition 19 and the medical legalization initiative Proposition 215.

The prohibition of marijuana would be eliminated for adults, allows for hemp agriculture and products which bill was vetoed by Governor Brown recently. This measure does not change laws about use by minors, medical use, workplace use or impairment while using marijuana.

The same infrastructure that is used to regulate beer and wine would be the same infrastructure to regulate marijuana.

Prevents the state and local agencies from cooperating with the federal government in dealing with marijuana issues.

Allows for reasonable number of plants  12 outdoors or 24 indoors to be grown in a household for personal use not for sale. Also, these plants must be cultivated in an area not visible to the general public.

The current war on drugs has failed, we are stuffing people into prisons and drug cartels are causing problems due to our prohibition of marijuana just like gangsters plagued our cities during the days of alcohol prohibition. We spend too much money on this drug war on marijuana, but can not afford to do other police activities in our cities such as dealing with the rapists and murderers that exist in society.

Help our economy, reduce crime, and prevent access to the drug for our youth. Visit the official site and sign a petition as soon as possible.

Taxing Services, No Thank You

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The rich in California in the “Think Long Committee for California” want to work together to make it where services are taxed. For state income tax rates to be lowered they want to have a tradeoff of services being taxed for the first time. If you want to take your dog to the veterinarian, get your teeth fixed at the dentist or your car repaired be prepared to pay extra.

Earlier this year my family had to pay for a hernia repair for my sister’s puppy and get him neutered at the same time and that rang up to 1800 dollars. If we had the Think Long proposal passed, that would add another 90 dollars to the bill. Not all of us are made of money, but we should not have to tax anything that moves to get the funding our state needs. Even though health care and education may be excluded, I don’t know of animal health care will be taxed as part of this program.

I hope all the providers of services in California work together to defeat the Think Long sponsored proposal. It is basically socking the fiscal obligations of the state to the people that cannot easily afford these tax increases. These billionaires are trying to increase their net worth on the backs of the people earning less even though they have plenty of money to go around.

Maybe the best solution is to make do with the money we have now, cap the maximum amount an individual can have for a public pension so college football coaches and city managers would no longer earn 500,000 a year upon retirement while making sure the low and mid range of public employees would still be protected at the same time.

Be careful what ballot measures you sign in the front of shopping centers and read the fine print so it does not cost you hard in the long run.

Say no to the misguided billionaires.

Fiat Lux the Brutality.

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Recently demonstrators have protested at UC Berkley and UC Davis and the behavior of the UC Police Department makes me embarrassed that the University of California is endorsing the excessive force that their police department has used on their campus.

The police brutality in Fullerton California has led towards greater awareness of the issue of police brutality, it has helped lead towards more people being wary of our law enforcement. Police brutality on the UC system is not just an issue with the Occupy protesters, but it is a systematic problem that has happened from the fee hike protests of recent years.

Since the UC system is having fiscal difficulties due to our state budget crisis, it would be in great interest for the chancellors, UC President and the UC Regents to learn how to work with the students better instead of losing money from lawsuits and alumni closing their wallets due to these incidents.

If students were using clubs and throwing grenades to the police then yes, I could understand a violent response. However these individuals were using the same methods of Martin Luther King and Gandhi to demonstrate for the issues they care about. Just as how the police in the southern states used fire hydrants on the black civil rights protesters, it is only going to radicalize and increase the number of supporters for the Occupy movement.

Sadly I thought we were the United States, but more and more we are becoming a carbon copy of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Crony corporatism, the lack of freedom of expression such as how opposition candidates and gay rights advocates get the same abuse as the Occupy protesters makes the comparison all so real.

For 2012, those who are concerned about the issues of the day should get mobilized in the ballot box so we could change the establishment for the better by running for office or teaming up with someone else who is so we can make the government work for the common people.

If the UC Regents and its chancellors fail to change tactics on non-violent resisters then it is up to the state legislature to write policy for them.

Sad, Yet Make Them Happy

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Due to education cut backs, schools in our area need funding from people like you and me. Microsoft has established a website where people can look to schools near where we live and contribute funds to make a difference for them.

The website is called Donorschoose.org, feel free to visit the site and read the sad, yet needed requests from many educators in our communities.

An educator in Ontario wrote:

My students deserve the best I can provide! Unfortunately, I was recently changed from Kindergarten to 2nd grade. In this transition, I found that the specific materials I have for my new students, such as lined paper and crayons, are specifically for Kinder aged students and not 2nd grade.

I feel horrible that this transition is not the students’ fault. In addition to having inappropriate materials for my students, the budget crisis in the state of California is getting worse and worse. This year, we were only given a fourth of what we usually get to purchase supplies for students. This means the majority of the supplies came from my pocket or extremely kind donations! My students truly deserve the best I can offer them! They are so excited to be 2nd graders and are so eager to learn. I do not want a budget crisis to interfere in any way with their opportunity to learn. I also would hate to have to eliminate any special projects encouraging further understanding because we are limited on supplies. Please help me keep these students motivated and un-phased by the budget.

Find a school near you and make the lives of children better.

Responding to Kathy Grimes

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After reading her column about the Republican Party and moderates that is hosted on her blog and the Flash Report, I decided to post my reply on my personal website since it might not get accepted. This is a longer version of what I replied to on her page.

Kathy, the Republican agenda may be a winning agenda economically. However as a gay man Id be scared big time if many in the establishment got in power in Sacramento. I do not want Bob Huff, Joel Anderson and their friends to write legislation attacking LGBT people which is another form of big government.

I do want industry to return to California, I do want people and businesses to uturn from Texas and Florida. Democrats fail to understand without private industry we have no public services.

The goal for the party is to stop using the wedge issues of bashing gays and Latinos and work on solving the real issues that we need to worry about. I do want us to “run to win”, I also agree that we need to “play to win”. Not all parts of California are receptive to the agenda of the Republican Party, but expecting a politician  Sharon Runner, Bob Huff, Joel Anderson’s caliber to be elected in Burbank, Chino, Paso Robles or Pasadena, I would like to have some of the drugs you might be taking.

We are not in Oklahoma or Utah and that is what the California Republican establishment fails to recognize. We have to make our own special blend of Republican Politics. I do agree that we should not give away the store to big business and labor unions that grease the palms of politicians with donations.

I do agree that we are being taxed enough and we are not getting enough in return. We do need to chew the fat of government off to make it efficient. As what I said to Ingra Barks, the 2008 platform is fine it just needs to remove just a little bit of content and I think we can reach out to more people better. It would not be a total revision compared to Munger’s draft, but its more reasonable.

Barks and Munger are Both Wrong About the Platform

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The California Republicans need to throw both visions down the shredder and start again with their state platform.

A platform that is vague and opaque will do nothing with the base that knocks on doors and staffs the phone banks, but we also need to make sure we can reach out to certain districts that have been alienated by certain facets of the Republican Party such as the Latinos and the LGBT community. Yet we should give the moderates who typically fund our party the confidence to continue funding our party with an agenda that does not turn off hearts and minds.

Yes, I am a supporter of the Munger faction. However we need to go after the ideas that win universally with all Republicans, yet decentralize on certain issues where certain regions of our state might love the gays and some regions may want to hide them under lock and key in the closet.

I agree with Governor Schwarzenegger that we are failing in the box office (Election Day) with 2008 and 2010 to name two elections that the Republican Party has tanked hard in trying to strike new ground.

Most of us can agree with Ingra Barks, a Bakersfield area radio talk show host/commentator on the issues she mentions such as:  seniors of a certain income level should not be taxed their way into poverty, our agriculture industry should be protected from heavy regulation when we are the breadbasket of the nation, that we need a water system that would keep people employed instead of sending half their people into poverty in the Central Valley and beyond, Crime victims should be given our fullest support compared to the Democrats in the state legislature judiciary committee, people should be protected from government seizing their properties for the benefit for another property owner, the second amendment should reign supreme where cancelled carry and self defense should not be compromised.

Aside from these issues, there are some albatrosses that hang around the neck of our party. Cultural and social issues do honestly divide our party and inhibit its growth in our state. If we want California to remain any semblance of its prime we need to have a comeback in the box office so we can bring some sanity to Sacramento.

Immigration may be the issue that will cause us more problems than views on abortion and the gays. With a growing Latino population, we can not afford to maintain a minuteman philosophy even though the undocumented population has been a severe unfunded mandate on local, county and state budgets. Latinos are known to be hard workers and they help drive the American society. Deporting 14m illegals of all nations from Europe, Asia, Canada and south of the border would honestly be impractical. We are going to have to integrate this population so they can be part of our society, but we need to avoid the mistakes of Ronald Reagan and punish employers who do hire undocumented workers, and then we need to undo Plyler v. Doe to make it where we are not obligated to educate the undocumented for free. Also we need to require that 1 parent of the couple who makes a child in our nation must have legal status from a green card or citizenship to make their child an American.  We will need to have a great immigration compromise if we ever want meaningful reform to happen.

On the two cultural wedge issues I have some solutions on the two issues that cause us to fail in the costal communities, abortion should be left to the individual and should only be paid for by non-government funds. Legislators should be free to their conscious to vote on LGBT issues. LGBT issue support or opposition is determined by religion, what region of our state people are from and the age of the legislator. Aside from that we should keep the existing platform with abortion and LGBT opposition stripped out.

We can not afford to be vapid like Mr.Munger, but we still need to be inclusive where Ms.Barks and the Republican establishment uses Latinos and LGBT people as raw meat on the balcony for their base. Existing platform does not need to be torched, but it needs less cuts than expected.

California Republican Party Platform Battle 2011

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California Republicans have made a fatal error that makes them irrelevant in the eyes of California voters. Just as how the Tea Party revolution swept through Congress, California was impermeable because voters find the message not to their standards. Voters in California may want different things compared to the rest of the nation. California is not exactly monolithic in its thinking, depending on where you travel the political winds travel in different directions. Inland California may want one thing, but Coastal California is not finding the Republican message appealing.

However Republican activists on the far right think that the same philosophy that has reined supreme which lost elections in California is the way to go. Mike Spence and Jon Fleischman believe if we keep our strident views on abortion, opposition to anything gay and an immigration policy that is strictly about deporting all the illegals at any cost we will regain the state house.

Unfortunately California Republicans have been just as competitive as the Kansas City Royals where we have lost seats instead of gaining representation in Sacramento and Washington. Even if we do not gain the majority in Sacramento, gaining our representation back with mainstream legislators will help prevent some of the most bizarre legislation from passing in committees when committee representation gradually increases each election. If the fringe of our party remains as the powerbrokers expect us to lose our 1/3rds veto and more insane legislation to pass.

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It Must Be Obvious California Republicans

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Want to know how the Republican Party can reach out to the areas that used to vote for Republicans such as Silicon Valley and the Central Valley? It is quite easy, stop being bigoted towards LGBT people. As someone who was bullied for being perceived as LGBT in high school, I find it disgusting that the political party I was weaned on has throw the raw meat on the balcony instead of expanding our political appeal.

Hearing the rhetoric that led to 97.5% of the Republican caucus to vote no on SB 48 and AB 9 makes me embarrassed to be a Republican. SB 48 and AB 9 is not about indoctrination of our children, it is about making safe and affirming learning environments so our children can learn. Is that too much to ask for, Mike Morrell and Jean Fuller? When I thought the only major hostile legislators were Joel Anderson and Bob Huff, learning that most of the caucus does not care about the marginalized in our school house walls makes me fight harder despite the odds.

When students are in fear of being beaten up and harassed where they take their lives in the instance of Seth Walsh who lived in Jean Fuller’s district or the ongoing harassment by students and staff in Bill Emmerson’s district in Menifee you know that these laws are absolutely needed where a school district failed to provide equal access to a gay straight alliance for gay history month when they allowed the black students association to do a presentation for black history month.

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History Education Must Not Be Erased

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Recently Governor Brown signed SB 48, a bill that adds Asian-Pacific, the disabled and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered community in the state education code to require accurate positive contributions from the people who make up the state of California.

Because the LGBT community got added to the section of the education code in the teaching of social science, traditional values advocates are on the warpath to make sure the community gets erased from our K-12 social science textbooks. The proponents from the repeal movement are willing to lie for the lord to make sure social science gets saved from the queers by scaring parents, particularly mothers to gain the support to win repeal by stating that “homosexuality will be taught in Kindergarten” and other choice phrases that led to Proposition 8 having a narrow victory in 2008. In SB 48’s text it states that the education is locally determined and age appropriate. Mark Leno or Ellen DeGeneres is not going to write the history curriculum. In Kern County you might see the information only in the textbooks, but in Los Angeles County you might have more detailed lessons.

Proponents of the repeal want to make it legal where educators can give hostile lectures as in Florida where Jerry Buell expresses his hostility to groups he disagrees with such as LGBT people and brings his dogma to the classroom. Educators such as Jerry have the right to free speech such as posting his diatribes on Facebook, but educators have a responsibility to be professional, inclusive and welcoming when they deliver their lessons to the students.

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Poke a Needle at the Dream

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The Dream Act is just a fancy way of stating that we need another amnesty in America. To understand the objective of the ‘dreamers’ and their advocates it all begins with incrementalism, start with one small step and then go to the next step because they failed when they wanted it all at once.

In California it all began with AB 540 which began the madness where undocumented “illegal” children who graduated from California schools can take part in public higher education in the state without having immigration called on them. Due to a US Supreme Court case Plyer v. Doe, public schools are mandated to educate these individuals. The mandate required by the Supreme Court in 1982 is a costly mandate where we have to spend up to 7,000 a year on each of these undocumented children.

Due to us allowing the undocumented children in our public higher education system it starts a chain reaction where the dreamers want it all so they can have their piece of the pie. Since the dreamers are fed up that they are having to pay full price even though the state government was nice enough to let them in the schools, they are getting their advocates such as local legislators such as Gloria Mcleod and Norma Torres to use up scarce state money so they can use Cal Grants to help pay for their education. Then pretty soon we will have another bill that will also require the state to give the community college fee waivers to these individuals too, which will help clog up our community colleges since there is no funding to add new seats and sections for those students already enrolled in the system.

Then, when these dreamers have a degree and they are undocumented there is a big question we should ask, who will hire them? These undocumented students might have a snazzy new degree in environmental science or project management, but they will flunk the e-verify test. When these individuals are not able to get hired they will get their buddy Congressman Joe Baca to defund e-verify so we can say “immigration law be damned, the dream must not be deferred”. However unemployment is around 10 percent and American Citizens and those with work authorization are left in the dark. Right now President Obama is working on a jobs program for the undocumented where over 300,000 will be given work permits circumventing congress, but leaving the people who are allowed to vote for him without any consideration.

Obama and his allies want to ignore immigration laws and those dreamers making the news are not the only ones who are going to benefit, we are going to get another amnesty and with overtly broad guidelines with who not to deport we might have an amnesty of millions which will not do much to help the legal citizens of the United States.