[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
01/31/10 0632.11 PST
San Jose, California
That too-well known squirrel of an American, Grover Norquist, famously said he didn’t want to abolish government, he just wanted to reduce it to a malleable enough element to drown in his bathtub. Ugly and disturbing rhetoric aside, Americans everywhere should know that in fact Grover’s big sick dream is really on the march in California, Governor Bicep absolutely, categorically, for any reason refuses to raise taxes, so the thrashing has begun, water flinging everywhere as the Governor and his furtive little band of cholos desperately try to hold the State underwater.
The latest comical plunge was the idea California shipping back all of its illegal alien misdemeanants and felons to Mexico, god damn right, git them dern Mexicans back where they belong. Such a classically stupid, racist, un-thinking Republican ploy. 30 seconds of thinking instantly reveals this is a two-tiered parole move, a little unfair to native California felons, geez. About 25% of our prisoners never return, which is all the fuck most Californians ever think about prisoners and "rehabilitation," believe me, just not returning is rehabilitation enough, God yes, and this would not likely uphold our appalling 25% rate. Then there’s the little fact most of our prisoners of course have friends and family all over California and will hop right back over the border upon release.
There’s a very good precise reason words like comical, furtive and squirrel have been used, for behind all the ridiculous posturing and shouting is a serene, immovable knowledge throughout the State that these little twerps, these sorry-assed excuses for men, could never drown our government or even diminish it, they’re far too small and weak for that.
They know it, too, there’s lots of very effective moves to say, shut down public schools, but they damn well know the outrage this would spark, so they sneakily make moves around the edges of their stated objectives, sad sacks of shit men who truly cannot live what they espouse.
Everyone also knows it’s distant bullshit, anyway, this foolish idea man cannot live without government. How stupid and backasswords can anyone get, Jesus, California and the United States are great Republics precisely because they have—or had—great governments. Did the Republicans build the great water system, the schools, or the Bay Bridges? Of course not, a fact our Democratic brothers and sisters should be marketing much more aggressively.
So in Sacramento the farce dances and reels on, the awful bicameral joke of a legislature is held hostage by a Republican thug minority in the Senate with Arnie’s acquiescence. Governor Schwarzenegger would rather be a little boy his laughable game of me-tough-drown-government than grow up to solve problems with fixed revenue streams, a nice way of saying raising taxes and goodbye to Prop 13.
Rob Black, the respected KRON finance analyst, sanguinely said last year reality will of course click in sometime this year and taxes will be raised. We’re all waiting and watching.
Democrats and I of course do not like raising taxes, we work hard for our money just like everyone else. We’re just willing to admit that at least having the potential for a society that functions requires taxation, we grew up and accepted reality. Then really acted on it in real time, Republicans, try it sometime, I’m positive the results will be good for everyone.
The skies cracked open in January with rolling thunder and slashing rain, but the gloomy weather didn’t produce the same political mood, not hardly, California has had lousy rainfall the last two years and everyone in the Republic knows we need the water. We’re going to spend $11 billion dollars upgrading the very best water and irrigation system the world has ever seen, that’s God damn right, where are the Republicans now to sneer about the evils of government? Shit. Hey Grover, looks like you lost—again—on a government project, dude.
Building and fixing a water system is not the same as fixing a political brain and mind, don’t we all know it. We have a start on one but, unfortunately, Governor Bicep and his cholos refuse to fix our revenue system, until they are replaced or somehow grow up California will continue to stumble along in a crude degrading parade of furtive, shitty little tricks like endlessly raising fees on students or cutting benefits to disabled folks. How far the Republicans have taken us in this two-thousand and tenth year after the death of our lord, oh yes.