• California,  Proposition 13

    Proposition 13 – 30 Years Later

    Howard Jarvis, chief sponsor of the controversial Proposition 13, signals victory as he casts his own vote at the Fairfax-Melrose precinct.” June 1978. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times

    It has been 30 years ago today that California voters approved tax reduction initiative, Proposition 13.

    Thirty years ago today, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13 as a way to keep seniors from losing their homes to skyrocketing property taxes. But the 1978 vote also ignited a revolution that dramatically changed the way people across America look at government and taxes.

    The grassroots initiative has saved California property owners billions of dollars since it was passed, but the shackles Prop. 13 put on the ability of state and local governments to increase taxes could turn out to be its most important legacy. Even today, with the state facing a $17 billion budget shortfall, tax increases face certain opposition from many legislators and voters.

    “Clearly, the Prop. 13 movement had the general attitude … that government and its ability to tax people isn’t to be trusted,” said Mark Baldassare, head of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. “That’s very much the theme that Ronald Reagan picked up when he ran for president in 1980, and it’s had a dramatic impact on national politics, particularly on the Republican side.”

    Flap remembers the election well and was a California voter who voted to approve Proposition 13. Average Californians were struggling to pay their property taxes as each county trumped each other to reassess property and change the property tax rates to atone for spending mismanagement.

    This fiscal mismanagement continues today with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $17 billion deficit laden budget. God only knows what tax rates would be today if Proposition 13 had not passed and started a nationwide tax revolt.

    California’s LEFT continues to rail against the measure even after thirty years. Look at the pieces at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times who both editorially opposed the June 1978 vote.

    But, today’s polls show Californians still very much in favor of Proposition 13.

    Across the state, 57 percent of voters said they would vote for Prop. 13 if it was on the ballot today while just 23 percent would vote against the measure. Support for the initiative was even stronger among homeowners, with 64 percent saying they support it.

    About 79 percent of homeowners who bought their current homes prior to the passage of Prop. 13 said they support it.

    “It’s always been popular,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of Field Poll. “And for many years, political insiders have considered Prop. 13 as a third rail of California politics. You just cannot touch it or if you do, you’ll be electrocuted. And this poll is another confirmation of that.”

    The California Field Poll on Proposition 13 is here.

    Key graphs:

    • Sixty-six percent oppose a plan to gradually raise property taxes of longtime property owners so that they would pay rates similar to those who recently bought homes.
    • Seventy-eight percent oppose amending Prop. 13 so that local governments can increase property taxes by more than 2 percent per year.
    • About 70 percent of voters strongly object to the idea of amending a provision in the Prop. 13 that requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to increase taxes.

    Howard Jarvis with Proposition 13 started an era of limited government and tax limitation. It has also fueled a real estate boom in California over three decades.

    However, California politicians have NOT learned the lessons of 1978. And, this will be to their political peril.

    After thirty years, the “dream” of Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann lives on.


  • Barack Obama,  John McCain,  President 2008

    Barack Obama Watch: It Is The Economy, Stupid

    Barack Obama

    Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., second from right, Olympic athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and others, applaud at a Chicago 2016 Olympic rally, Friday, June 6, 2008, at the Daley Center Plaza in Chicago.

    News Item: Biggest jobless jump since ’86 — Wall Street sinks

    Pink slips piled up and jobs disappeared into thin air in May as the nation’s unemployment rate zoomed to 5.5 percent in the biggest one-month jump in decades. Wall Street swooned, and the White House said President Bush was considering new proposals to revive the economy.

    Help-wanted signs are vanishing along with jobs, so the unemployment rate is likely to keep climbing, a government report indicated, underscoring the toll the housing and credit crises are taking on jobseekers, employers and the economy as a whole.

    Adding to the pain, oil prices soared to a new record high, while the value of the dollar fell.

    The Dow Jones industrials tumbled almost 400 points.

    The White House snapped into crisis-management mode. The president is now considering further plans to help energize the economy, which had already been teetering on the edge of recession, said counselor Ed Gillespie. Bush acknowledged, “This is a time of turbulence in the housing market and slow growth for our overall economy.”

    And, Barack Obama is starting a tour on Monday as the presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee focusing on what?

    The economy, stupid

    The Obama campaign announced today that Senator Obama will launch a two-week economic swing—the “Change that Works for You” tour—on Monday, June 9. Obama will travel across the country, talking to Americans about how the economy affects their everyday lives. He’ll hold events with voters where they work and where they live, discussing the challenges we face and his plans to turn the economy around.

    The tour will kick off on Monday with an economic speech in Raleigh, North Carolina.

    “The middle class has always been the engine of prosperity in this country—but for nearly eight years we’ve had an administration that tells working people ‘you’re on your own,’” Senator Obama said. “Not when I’m President. I’ll reform our tax code to benefit the middle class instead of the big corporations. I’ll make sure that quality health care is affordable and accessible for every American. And I’ll provide real relief from the housing crisis by creating a foreclosure prevention fund, providing a tax break for homeowners, and cracking down on fraudulent lenders. Those are the kind of solutions that will make a difference for working Americans—and that’s the kind of change we’ll be discussing on this tour.”

    The WRONG prescription for the economy, Barry. But it sounds good to the voters and the voters are already pissed about $4 plus gasoline prices.

    If the economy begins to “tank” there will be no chance for John McCain to win the Presidency and the GOP will face a wipe out in the Congress.

    In a tough year for the GOP, the economy is making it just that much tougher.

    Look for President Bush to take more stimulus action and FAST.


  • John McCain,  President 2008

    John McCain Watch: Keeping America Safe

    John McCain’s first television ad for the general election: “SAFE”

    Team McCain has just released its first television spot for the general election. It will air in key battleground states.

    The Script:

    Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war.
    When I was five years old, my father left for war.
    My grandfather came home from war and died the next day.
    I was shot down over Vietnam and spent five years as a POW. Some of the friends I served with never came home.
    I hate war.
    And I know how terrible its costs are.
    I’m running for President to keep the country I love safe.
    I’m John McCain and I approve this message.


  • Barack Obama,  Hillary Clinton,  President 2008

    Hillary Clinton Watch: Looking to Obama for Payment of Campaign Debt

    Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

    In this July 19, 2006, file photo Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, during the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Washington. Clinton and likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama met privately Thursday night June 5, 2008 to talk about uniting the Democratic Party

    It is ALL about the money.

    In politics, money talks. And money is likely to be an important factor in discussions between Barack Obama’s advisers and the debt-saddled Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign.

    Clinton will likely seek help from Obama in retiring her massive campaign debt, which has swollen to more than $30 million, including $11 million she lent the effort, advisers said Thursday.

    The former first lady, who plans to bow out of the race and endorse Obama on Saturday, told donors she will raise money for Obama’s campaign, both to help the Democratic Party’s cash position and to expand the Illinois senator’s prodigious fundraising base. Her advisers estimate the former first lady could bring in $50 million to $100 million for the general election campaign — and much more if she were named Obama’s running mate.

    The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

    Flap envisions three scenarios:

    1. Select Hillary as Vice President, merge donors, pay off her debts and she releases all of her pledged delegates to Obama.

    2. Pay off Hillary’s campaign debts if and ONLY if she releases all of her pledged delegates to Obama immediately.

    3. No deal – Hillary keeps her debt, pledged delegates, lingers and lurks awaiting for a possible Obama gaffe or meltdown prior to the Denver convention.

    Obama does NOT desire Hillary as Vice President but on the other hand he wants her and Bill out of the way NOW.

    We will know soon.

    If it is leaked that Obama will attend Hillary’s Saturday concession announcement then she will likely be named Vice President.

    Stay tuned……


  • Iran,  Iran Nuclear Watch,  Israel

    Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Issues Another Warning

    Deputy Prime Minister of Israel Shaul Mofaz

    Deputy Prime Minister of Israel Shaul Mofaz, seen in April, on Friday warned that Iran would face attack if it pursues what he said was its nuclear weapons program

    Another warning from Israel today re: Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.

    An Israeli deputy prime minister on Friday warned that Iran would face attack if it pursues what he said was its nuclear weapons programme.

    “If Iran continues its nuclear weapons programme, we will attack it,” said Shaul Mofaz, who is also transportation minister.

    “Other options are disappearing. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme,” Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

    He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support.

    A former defence minister and armed forces chief of staff, Mofaz hopes to replace embattled Ehud Olmert as prime minister and at the helm of the Kadima party.

    Flap cannot help but think that the rise of Barack Obama as the Democrat Presidential nominee is driving Israel to pursuing action while George W. Bush is President. Obama is an unknown and has stated he would meet with Iran’s President Ahmadinejad without preconditions.

    In the meanime, the uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz continue to spin.

    Previous:

    Iran Nuclear Watch: The IAEA Inspectors

    Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel – Iran Could Have Nukes by 2009

    Iran “Reminded” with Deployment of USS Abraham Lincoln

    Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Demands Azerbaijan Deliver Russian Nuclear Shipment

    Shocker: Iran Threatens To Eliminate Israel


  • Missile Defense

    Missile Defense Watch: Another Successful Aegis System Intercept

    flagsview

    SM-2 Launch June 5, 2008

    Yesterday there was another successful test of the sea-based missile defense sytem.

    Air Force Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering III, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion of the latest flight test of the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) element, conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. The event, designated as Flight Test Maritime-14 (FTM-14), marked the fourteenth overall successful intercept, in sixteen attempts, for the Aegis BMD program and the second successful intercept of a terminal phase (last few seconds of flight) target by a modified Standard Missile – 2 Block IV (SM-2 Blk IV) interceptor. The mission was completed by the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70), using the tactically-certified Aegis BMD shipboard weapon system, modified for a terminal capability, and the modified SM-2 Blk IV. This is the 35th successful terminal and midcourse defense intercept in 43 tests since 2001.

    Aegis BMD is the sea-based mid-course component of the MDA’s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) and is designed to intercept and destroy short to intermediate-range ballistic missile threats. In 2006, the program’s role was expanded to include a sea-based terminal defense effort, using a modified version of the SM-2 Blk IV. Unlike other missile defense technologies now deployed or in development, the SM-2 Blk IV does not use “hit to kill” technology (directly colliding with the target) to destroy the target missile. Rather, it uses a blast fragmentation device that explodes in direct proximity to the target to complete the intercept and destroy the target.

    Congratulations to the Missile Defense Agency for another successful test of the Aegis BMD system.

    Does anyone see the direct application of this sytem?

    How about parking the USS Lake Erie off the coast of Israel(against Syria or Iran)in the Persian Gulf (against Iran or Syria) or Japan (against North Korea).

    And, to think that there are members of the United States Senate, namely Sentors Levin, Kerry, Kennedy and Biden who ridiculed the Reagan and the two Bush Administrations for researching and deploying this system.

    Amazing and WRONG short-sightedness.

    ramirezjune222006web

    Previous:

    China and Russia Critical of U.S. Missile Defense

    Shocker: Secret Launch Site for Iranian Long Range Missiles

    Missile Defense Watch: Bush Wins NATO Endorsement of European Missile Defense Shield

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