WYFP: Higher Learning edition

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Saturday April 11, 2009 · 3:30 PM PDT

2009/04/11 · 15:30

Hello, felldestroyed here, bringing you this week's edition of WYFP!

First, I've got an admission to make: I've not posted any comments on WYFP in quite a few weeks, as most of my problems have only amounted to petty nonsensical irritants.

This week, my problem is... well, my problem is myself.

Let me backtrack a bit. During February 28th's edition of WYFP, I posted a comment indicating my acceptance to San Francisco State University, which I will be attending this fall. Yes, finding housing and work are still problems for me, especially because employment opportunities in my neck of the woods (Redding, CA) are limited for... everyone, really, and it's never a good idea to move into a place without employment already secured. I have money right now, don't get me wrong, but nearly all of it comes from state and federal financial aid.

However, that's not what worries me now. What worries me is my own sense of complacency. My main fear upon clicking on that button to declare my intent to enroll was that all of a sudden everything would be jinxed. My grades would suddenly plummet, and that would be the end of it.

felldestroyed

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Monday March 23, 2009 · 2:08 PM PDT

2009/03/23 · 14:08

By way of Dan Walters (who, no matter how much I can't stand the guy, does have his moments), we get this. Unsurprisingly, 2010 GOP Gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner (Insurance Commissioner) and Meg Whitman (Fmr. eBay CEO) have come out against one of Arnold's Special Favors: Proposition 1A. Proposition 1A would couple a spending cap with a tax increase. Guess why they oppose it? (Hint: they're not exactly fans of government spending.)

That's right, they oppose Prop 1A because it would institute a tax increase. Whitman, for her part, takes it even further and comes out in opposition to Propositions 1B and 1C, as well. In her argument against 1A, Whitman trots out boilerplate rhetoric that doesn't amount to much more than "taxes are bad!"

felldestroyed

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Tuesday March 17, 2009 · 5:09 PM PDT

2009/03/17 · 17:09

Finally yesterday's media blackout on the march on the state capitol is over with. Unfortunately, the two sources I was hoping would end that blackout--the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle--are still missing in action. Sure, the Chronicle has an article on students protesting cuts in education, but it's about a protest that occurred across the border in Nevada to lobby Republican Governor Jim Gibbons; 35 students from a high school in Ely did this, and the absence from school apparently counted as a school activity. In any case, it's an AP wire article.

Allow me to back up a bit. The march at the state capitol was held to protest possibly looming cuts in education at the college level. It was held to demand a return to non-fee-based, free access to education at the college level. Granted, Governor Schwarzenegger spared community colleges in his latest budget. Our fear was that we may be next. So, the Student Senate for California Community Colleges called for a march to be held yesterday (beginning at Raley Field in West Sacramento). The march culminated with a rally at the west side of the state capitol.

felldestroyed

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Saturday March 14, 2009 · 7:59 PM PDT

2009/03/14 · 19:59

Mac Taylor, our state's Legislative Analyst, has gone on record as saying that the poison pill that our state had to swallow last month just to keep functioning apparently wasn't enough. This hardly comes as a surprise, though one of Taylor's suggestions rules out a sure-fire way to increase revenue that our state badly needs: namely, an increase in taxes.

Taylor doesn't specify just what taxes we should or shouldn't raise; merely that we shouldn't raise any of them. With this, I suppose Taylor is acknowledging political reality. After all, in a state where it takes a super-majority of two thirds to pass a budget or increase taxes--and with Republicans in a minority of slightly more than two-thirds in both houses--an increase in taxes would be damn near impossible.

What genuinely worries me, though, is that the media in California are falling for this argument, hook, line, and sinker.

felldestroyed

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Sunday January 25, 2009 · 1:58 PM PST

2009/01/25 · 13:58

Well, not yet, but the State of California is functionally broke. According to an article in today's Sacramento Bee, the State is "almost out of ways to "pay bills, [and] fund programs", at least according to our state's Fiscal Controller, John Chiang. Chiang, by the way, has my undying respect for being seemingly one of only a handful of people to call Ah-nuld's bluff during our budget crises, including a refusal to implement a pay cut for part-time university workers last summer.

Poll

42 votes Show Results

How would you solve this crisis?

42 votes Vote Now!

How would you solve this crisis?

Raise taxes, cut services

4 votes

Cut taxes, cut services

8 votes

Raise taxes, fund services

8 votes

Purge the Yacht Party from state politics

0 votes

Pay-cuts for legislators

1 vote

Repeal Prop 13, the car tax, and the two-thirds rule

16 votes

Recall the guv

2 votes

Make Ah-nuld and the Yacht Party feast on humble PIE

3 votes

RSS

WYFP: Higher Learning edition

UPDATED: In which I actually agree with Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman about something.

IMPROVED: Yesterday's student march and the media blackout

Leg Analyst: 'Yup, California is still in the red.'

So... California is broke... [UPDATED w/ poll]