Congressional Oversight of Executive Disappears (or almost)

blatham wrote:

My lost love!!!

Yes, the big swing is underway. These guys got entranced with Machiavelli and their own glittering bank accounts and came to believe hubris the real mark of a winner.

But I think there is deeper stuff going on too, and that's more problematic.

Hi ya Bernie!!!

I agree the administrations using pride and presumption as pre-requisite for manuvering worked - but the smoke cleared, indictments served, and most importantly, consequences for deceptive actions forthcoming from Justice, and with that, reformation.

btw, yur "barking and yipping" has certain panache.

Stradee wrote:

blatham wrote:

My lost love!!!

Yes, the big swing is underway. These guys got entranced with Machiavelli and their own glittering bank accounts and came to believe hubris the real mark of a winner.

But I think there is deeper stuff going on too, and that's more problematic.

Hi ya Bernie!!!

I agree the administrations using pride and presumption as pre-requisite for manuvering worked - but the smoke cleared, indictments served, and most importantly, consequences for deceptive actions forthcoming from Justice, and with that, reformation.

btw, yur "barking and yipping" has certain panache.

hi sweetie...lovely to see youse

I'd like to be more optimisitic but there's a long way to go before the bad guys lose control of either house or the Presidency and the machinations of power. And even if, say, Congress and Presidency fall democrat in 3 years, there is now an pervasive and very effective propaganda machine in place and that future Dem government will have been bequeathed a staggering fiscal dilemma, all the problems of the middle east, and years of dedicated dismantling of valuable programs and legislation to review and re-legislate. Consider the size and the effectiveness of resources and personnel put towards damaging the Clinton administration from the first days it took power and then multiply that by something like 2X, and that gives a proper perspective, I think.

Its true the voters in California chose to continue the Gerymandering that has given them a permanent class of professional legislators who can bask in permanent connections to the lobbyist moneypipelines that feed and corrupt them. They also chose to continue the power of state employee unions to buy as many of these state legislators as they choose. It was democratic, but not a victory for competent,, accountable government.

He doesn't call me sweetie.

stradee sweetie

We push the same boulder. I just grouse more in the process.

George, do you know how many people in CA belong to a workers union?

Accountable government should be for ALL of California, not the wealthy corporations that work employees to death, offering them no benefits or
representation. Plus, you may have mistaken Arnold for "competent" and "accountable". California doesn't need another Reagan.

State employees in Califiornia are certainly well-protected. They can't be fired and they don't have to work. The budget shortfalls are in large measure a result of past sell outs to these unions, granting things like pension rights at age 50 for prison workers and continued incompetence at CALTRANS.

Businesses are leaving California because of taxes, restrictive work rules, out-of control worker's comp liabilities and a host of like issues. A result is the widening gap between beople across the economic spectrum. In many areas of the state only those who have made a lot of money elsewhere can afford to live here.

The government has failed the people, george. Just call your internet provider and see who answers. Some guy sitting in an office in India. Who do we blame for outsourcing? California was once the fourth largest economy in the world. Since the administration waltzed into the white house, Ca rates 8th or 9th in the world economy.

The wealth has been distributed to a few, in the guise of creating jobs - that we had till the republicans took office. Makes no sense to me either, George.

Stradee wrote:

The government has failed the people, george. Just call your internet provider and see who answers. Some guy sitting in an office in India. Who do we blame for outsourcing? California was once the fourth largest economy in the world. Since the administration waltzed into the white house, Ca rates 8th or 9th in the world economy.

The wealth has been distributed to a few, in the guise of creating jobs - that we had till the republicans took office. Makes no sense to me either, George.

I agree with your opening proprosition -- the government of California has indeed failed its people. It has done so by creating a system of taxes and liabilities that stifle the beneficial economic activity that alone could better the lives of working people. The government of California doesn't have the power to compel a business to stay here in the face of better conditions elsewhere. Neither does it have the power to massively redistribute the material wealth that is created by the efforts of the people -- that is if you still value our freedoms and democracy. Perhaps you don't.

I think it is fairly obvious that the presence of Unions among the teachers in California, and for that matter, in every US state, is one of the major problems in Education. It is not possible that out of a hundred teachers up for tenure, only one or two are let go.

As anyone who has worked in Education knows well, some of the teachers working with our children cannot read, write or spell above the eighth grade level. Yet they continue to be protected by the tenure laws.