FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

Democratic leaders sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger an $18 billion deficit-cutting package on Tuesday, a plan he quickly vetoed as anti-tax groups filed a lawsuit to stop it.

The activity came amid the Legislature’s third special session since the November election to deal with California’s worsening budget deficit, projected at $42 billion over the next 18 months.

With Schwarzenegger’s veto, time is running out for lawmakers to find a midyear fix. The state controller has warned that California will be so short of cash it will have to start issuing IOUs in February to vendors and taxpayers expecting refunds.

Democrats said their plan would have avoided what Schwarzenegger has described as a “financial Armageddon,” but it appeared to be dead even before it arrived on the governor’s desk.

California Legislative Democrats tried an end run around the California Constitution that was amended in 1978 by Proposition 13 that requires any increase in taxes be affirmed by a 2/3rd’s vote of the Legislature.

If the Governor were to have a change of heart and approve such an outrageous scheme, the California Supreme Court would quickly issue an injunction and/or a referendum petition would be quickly filed by California voters.

Looks like the California Legislature better get busy and cut spending.

First, it was Hot Rod Blagojevich and his corrupt appointment of Roland Burris to Obama’s U.S. Senate seat along with the interference by Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry  Reid and Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Second, the NEPOTISM of a possible Caroline Kennedy appointment to Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate Seat.

Third, the apparent win of Al Franken, who is an incompetent a pol as Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And, now, there is the withdrawal of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson from his Obama appointment to become Secretary of Commerce because of corruption charges.

But, what do you expect from a MSM who did not properly VETT the Democrat Party or Obama during the last election cycle.

Chickens coming home to roost, indeed.

Brown who had not practiced law for over a decade before he won an election as California Attorney General has postulated a weird legal theory (in his brief before the court) as to why the California Supreme Court should overturn the vote of the California people restoring the traditional definition of marriage (one man one one woman).

Jerry Brown’s brief is here.

Nonetheless, the attorney general’s brief surprised some legal scholars.

Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, an expert on the state high court, said Brown’s argument “turns constitutional law on its head.” Uelmen said he was unaware of any case law that supported Brown’s theory.

He added that he expected the state Supreme Court to reject the argument. “I think it is much too radical for this court,” he said.

Goodwin Liu, associate dean and professor of law at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, said it was “extraordinary for the chief law enforcement officer of the state to decline to enforce a law — even on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.”

“The chief law enforcement officer of the state is charged with enforcing laws, even laws with which he disagrees,” Liu said.

“Whether or not it will carry the day,” he added, “I have no idea.”

Under Brown’s legal theory, Flap doubts the California Constitution could ever be amended.

The issue before the court “presents a conflict between the constitutional power of the voters to amend the Constitution, on the one hand, and the Constitution’s Declaration of Rights, on the other,” Brown wrote.

The issue “is whether rights secured under the state Constitution’s safeguard of liberty as an ‘inalienable’ right may intentionally be withdrawn from a class of persons by an initiative amendment.”

Voters are allowed to amend other parts of the Constitution by majority vote, but to use the ballot box to take away an “inalienable” right would establish a “tyranny of the majority,” which the Constitution was designed, in part, to prevent, he wrote.

Just call anyting an “inalienable” right and you can withdraw the people’s right to change the Constitution.

How stupid is this?

If the California Supreme Court rules in favor of this preposterous theory and overturns California Proposition 8 all of the members of the court will either be recalled or thrown ot of office at the next confirmation election.

The Yes on 8 campaign filed a brief telling the court that because the new law holds that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized or valid in California, the state can no longer recognize the existing same-sex unions.

“Proposition 8’s brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions,” reads the brief co-written by Kenneth Starr, dean of Pepperdine University’s law school and the former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton.

Stay tuned as reply briefs are filed with the court by January 5th.

Exit answer: Kenneth Starr

With their registrations sinking and their political clout withering, California Republicans have come out of the November election in danger of slipping into political irrelevance across much of the state.

“There’s been a broad repudiation of traditional conservative Republicans in California,” said Tony Quinn, a former GOP analyst and co-editor of the California Target Book, which focuses on political contests in the state. “There are almost no areas in the state that can be considered safely Republican anymore.”

But, Quinn does NOT mention Proposition 11 that barely passed and the changes the heavily Democrat gerrymandered districts. But, Flap digresses.

The GOP brand has been hurt by President Bush and the corrupt GOP establishment in Congress, no doubt.

But, there are opportunities and although down and out now, the upside is good for the GOP - but maybe not majority but relevant.

Here are the stats:

October 2004

• Total registered voters: 16.5 million
• Registered Democrats: 7.1 million (43 percent)
• Registered Republicans: 5.7 million (34.7 percent)
• Registration gap: Democrats ahead by 1.4 million

October 2008

• Total registered voters: 17.3 million
• Registered Democrats: 7.7 million (44 percent)
• Registered Republicans: 5.4 million (31.3 percent)
• Registration gap: Democrats ahead by 2.3 million

Counties that changed to majority Democrats since 2004

• Alpine
• San Bernardino
• San Joaquin
• Stanislaus
• Ventura

Counties nearing majority Democrats since 2004

• Del Norte (8 voters)
• San Diego (380 voters)
• Trinity (40 voters)

Source: California secretary of state

The rebuilding will begin by the end of the decade with new legislative districts and term limits throwing out the incumbent Democrats.

Flap doubts California voters will change the 2/3′rds vote requirement for passing the state budget or to raise taxes. But, do the Democrats really want to push the issue?

Voters now blame Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the economic mess which he was first elected to fix when he was elected six years ago. If the Democrats in the legislature want accountablility Flap is positive the GOP will be glad to oblige.

Watch for new registration initiatives as well for the California GOP beginning by next summer.

Stay tuned…..

California is on track to run out of cash in February or March and faces a $15 billion cash shortage by the end of its fiscal year in June unless officials plug an $11.2 billion budget gap, according to the state’s budget director.

Additionally, if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers fail to close the current fiscal year’s budget shortfall soon, California, the most populous U.S. state, may in March delay payments to its vendors or hand them notes promising payment, according to a Dec. 1 letter to top lawmakers from the director of the Department of Finance, Michael Genest.

The Democrats in the California Legislature refuse to cut spending and the Republicans refuse ANY tax increases. Governor Arnold proposes some spending cuts, a sales tax increase and perhaps a motor vehicle registation fee hike.

Stalemate.

When will there be a deal?

Flap bets when the state runs out of money and government offices are forced to close - but not before.

Remember that executions were halted in California by Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel who ruled that the three drug cocktail for lethal injections was unconstiutional - “cruel and unusal punishment.”

The United States Supreme Court overruled Judge Fogel in a different case and in so doing paved the way for a resumption of the California death penalty.

Or not.

There will be no executions by California in the near future.

An appellate court has ruled the state failed to follow required procedures in fashioning a revised protocol for administering lethal injections.

The revised protocol was not vetted through a period of public notice and comment, as required by the state’s Administrative Procedures Act, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled Friday.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s failure to comply invalidated the protocol, the panel concluded.

The ruling leaves the state with two options: send the protocol through the notice and comment process or appeal to the California Supreme Court, which may or may not agree to review the matter.

Of course, ending California executions was BS in the first place with declaring that lethal injections were cruel and unusual punishment. But, what is the excuse from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Administration this time?

Guess they are too incompetent to follow the rules.

In the meantime, murderers like Michael Angelo Morales languish on death row at San Quentin.

So, Judge Fogel’s BS order halting the California death penalty remains until the State of California follows the law and gains approval of a revised protocol for executing these capital criminals.

Stay tuned……

Previous:

California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008

Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions

Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Halts Construction of San Quentin Death Chamber

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger Proposes Revised 5-Point Lethal Injection Protocol

Michael Morales Watch: Judge
Jeremy Fogel Rules - California Method of Lethal Injection Violates a
Constitutional Ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition

Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Lawyers Withdraw Allegedly Faked Juror Statements Supporting Their Clemency Bid

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Ventura County Judge Asks California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid