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Wednesday, March 3. 2010
Sliced Bread On Ice
Over the weekend my buddy John and I were watching the Olympics: all that snow, all that drama, the women figure skaters — and Johnny Weir — Lindsey Vonn, Stephen Colbert, ah, it was great!And the closing ceremony, with Captain Kirk and Catherine O'Hara, among the big name Canadian stars entertaining everyone. You could tell O’Hara wasn’t reading her own lines, it was mostly not funny. Well, you don’t want to upset anyone, don’t want offend any nations, certainly not the big bad wolf to the south.
The Olympics were good TV. Watching Shaun White win his gold in the Snowboarding Half Pipe was awesome! Really! Now that was entertaining! Watching the Men’s U.S. Hockey Team, an after thought to most analysts before the games started, watching them beat the Canadians—now that was awesome! And I got to watch in Hi Def with a Canadian in the room! She kept saying, “On paper the Canadian team is the better team.”
That was rich! We bandied that about for hours, days even, telling our Canadian friend her team must have lost the paper, or worse, used it for toilet paper.Eh … yeah … we had fun for a week … sigh …
Because, on Sunday, the Men’s Canadian Hockey Team found the paper and beat the U.S. Hockey Team in the Gold Medal Game … yeah, well … okay Marilyn; the (sheesh) Men’s Canadian Hockey Team … (dammit!) is the better team … on paper and (fuck!) on the ice.
And, for that matter, so is the Women’s Canadian Hockey Team. But the U.S. got more medals then Canada overall! HA! Take that, Marilyn! Neener, neener, neeeener!
This is serious stuff here, international sporting rivalries! Yessirree! We don’t act like ten year olds for nuthin’! Well, not all the time. We’re guys and for whatever reason, our maturity meter gets stuck on “ten year old” often. Some guys might be thinking, “Speak for yourself.” Naah, I’m speaking for all of us.So, while watching the Olympics, and then House and 24 on Monday, we kept getting bombarded with political commercials for the upcoming Republican Primaries, in which Republican Steve Poizner was being viciously attacked by one of his opponents. This was vicious too; one ad claimed he was a close ally of Nancy Pelosi! NO!
YES! Poizner is really a Democrat in elephant clothing! Or so Meg Whitman says.
“Where have I heard that name before,” you might be asking yourself? Meg is the billionaire former CEO of eBay! She is and has been clearly ahead in the polls and for the most part, had genteel and calm ads promoting herself to be the Republican nominee for California governor.But then, out of nowhere, she started a series of attack ads on a candidate most Californians have never heard of — until she (and her campaign) brought him to our attention. Thanks Meg Whitman! Your ads did such a fine job John and I may, for the first time in our lives, vote in a Republican primary! For Steve Poizner!
Then of course, Whitman wants Republican voters to forget she gave large campaign donations to , one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate, Barbara Boxer, just a couple years ago and said she was a huge fan of Van Jones, President Obama’s special advisor for green technologies and jobs. Oops. If you’re a good Republican, you hate Van Jones and everything he stands for! Just ask Sarah Palin!
Anyway, Meg Whitman’s attack ads made Poizner sound so good, we think he’d not only be a great candidate, but a great governor as well! On the Democratic ticket, we’ll have former governor Jerry Brown. Eh, I’ll probably vote for Jerry. He dated Linda Ronstadt the last time he was governor, over 30 years ago.
Which, strangely enough, was the last time California, as a state, had any sanity. That was before Howard Jarvis (and Paul Gann) and Proposition 13. Anyone over 40 probably remembers the ground shake that day in 1978 when the voters of California, 70% of whom showed up at the polls, voted overwhelmingly to pass Prop 13. No one ever looks at the long-term effects of these ballot initiatives … seriously.
The “Three Strikes Law” is another example of the ballot initiative gone wild.
Since that day, we have had ballot initiative after ballot initiative, some times 3-4 pages of initiatives in each election. Really! Not just statewide proposals, but local and county measures as well. Everyone has gotten in on the act. A couple years ago I read that 85% of California’s budget is mandated by ballot initiatives. Can’t find that reference now, but that statistic has stuck with me ever since.It doesn’t take an economics professor — or a Constitutional Scholar — to see what effect “true” democracy can have on a community, be it national, state or local. We call it “Dumbacracy.” Collectively, we as voters are as dumb as a rock. The best sound bites usually win. George W. Bush, if anyone wants a good example, or better yet, Ronald Reagan.
Barack Obama won the presidency because he mobilized millions of people who would have otherwise not voted, but also because the usual “independent” voters were so afraid of John McCain extending the Bush fiascos, they flipped and voted for the Democrat.
Obama will have to work a little harder in 2012 if he runs for re-election. The “Independents” aren’t so happy with him at the moment.
So, back to California’s fiasco, which has been rolling along since Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann got their proposition passed in 1978. Property taxes can be no more than 1% of a property’s assessed value, and that value can only be raised by 2% or less per year and the assessment isn’t based on current market value of the property, but on the value at the time it was purchased.
Think about that. If you’re a homeowner and bought your place in 1980 for instance, you are still getting taxed at 1980 rates, with a few small increases over the years. Damn! The next owner will get assessed the current market value and pay property taxes accordingly, but the ballot measure eliminated 60% of the property tax revenue from California’s various local governments and ultimately the state’s treasury. And no body has figured out a way to make up for that since then.Most Californians think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, even though they bitch about the decline in California’s educational system, the reductions in the police and fire services of our communities, the decline of our health care system — all three employing the most under-paid and under-appreciated professionals in our society: fire fighters, cops, teachers and nurses and those are the individuals who bear the brunt of budget cuts when the state legislature tries to balance the budget.
Howard Jarvis and his mad band of anti-tax fighters back Meg Whitman and that alone tells me who to vote for in June. Jarvis, it should be noted, passed away nearly 24 years ago but his Taxpayers Association is still going strong. Republicans still use his name in their campaigns because they know his name will get noticed by the voters. The actual name of the organization is the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
The man speaks from the grave. Yeah, the greatest thing since sliced bread. My doctors and nutritionists all tell me to stay away from sliced bread.
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