Two unrelated articles show how the education of children comes last when dealing with the government education bureaucracy and the labor unions representing teachers. In San Diego, the unions and the district struck a deal yesterday to avoid 1,481 layoffs, according to the U-T. Representing 7,000 teachers, the San Diego Education Association agreed to extend furloughs for a third and …
The Left Blames Messaging, Money,
. . . anyone but themselves. I’m not going to waste time searching out all of the left wing excuses for yesterday’s taxpayer victories in Wisconsin, San Diego and San Jose. The tried and true playbook will be to turn to the courts to defeat the will of the voters in the California elections and to blame money and a …
Pre-Election Outlook for Team Taxpayer
I played high school football and tonight feels like Thursday night before an important Friday game, not the big game, but an important one we need to win. Team taxpayer is favored to win two important contests tomorrow, the Wisconsin governor’s recall and Proposition B in San Diego. The U-T is reporting that Proponents of Proposition B have spent $1.8 …
San Diego tea party Proposition Recommendations
My fellow SLOB, W.C. Varones, has posted tea party recommendations for this June’s ballot. Since there is no official tea party position, and everyone can claim a leadership role in the tea party, I am following suit. I am a resident of the city of San Diego, so I am not covering propositions in El Cajon, Oceanside or other areas. On to …
Ron Paul Comes to San Diego – UPDATE
W.C. Varones and Left Coast Rebel attended the Ron Paul event held yesterday at UCSD. W.C. has a great post on the event. Left Coast Rebel is promising one. From W.C. Varones’ blog: He hit on all the topics you’d expect – the war on drugs, the debt and deficit, central planning, the TSA, big government destroying the economy, the …
No to Tax Increases in California
As a matter of fact, if there was some real pension reform, there wouldn’t be any need for tax increases. California is drowning under the burden of employee pension costs. Even the modest reforms offered by Jerry Brown are making no progress in the Democrat union controlled legislature. A couple of key parts of his proposal: Equal sharing of pension …
My tea party opposition to the Death Penalty
An issue that had completely disappeared from my view was thrust in front of me this morning when I opened the U-T to find that a repeal of the death penalty had qualified as a California ballot initiative for November. I am not in the mainstream of conservative thought in my opposition to the death penalty; but my reasons that …
Push-Polling From Nathan Fletcher
I got a call this evening from a number in Ogden, UT 801-823-XXXX purporting to be a poll about the San Diego mayor’s race. After asking me who I was supporting for Mayor of San Diego, and learning that I was supporting Carl DeMaio, I was asked a series of follow on questions. It didn’t take me long to figure …
Mayorial Race – Where’s the Focus on the Issues?
As we close in on the June 5 primary that will most likely determine the two candidates to compete in November for mayor of San Diego, media interest is heating up. My complaint? Lack of focus on the key issues for the campaign; how will we reform pensions and in general control spending in the city. Here on Rostra, most …
Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally – San Diego
I went to the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally last Friday in downtown San Diego. I was struck by how impassioned both the speakers and participants were. The President’s policies are uniting people of faith against him. The speakers all spoke of the importance of freedom and conscience to the proper functioning of government. They spoke of the continued …
Good Order and Discipline and Tea
Sgt. Gary Stein created the Facebook page “Armed Forces Tea Party” in 2010. He has been stationed here in San Diego. As you might expect, he eventually made comments critical of the President on Facebook. He is now facing discharge from the Marine Corps (pronounced “core” for the pronunciation challenged) for Conduct Prejudicial to Good Order and Discipline. He argues …
Math Strikes San Diego Unified
The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) has sent out layoff warnings to over 1,600 teachers and other employees for the next school year. The math behind the problem is simple. Part of the reason for the layoffs has to do with promises made in the past with the bill coming due now. From City Beat: Roughly $39 million of …
City Emails on Snapdragon Name Change
I have blogged my outrage a couple of times over local crony capitalism of Jerry Sanders giving away city naming rights to Qualcomm by allowing the temporary name change to Snapdragon. The U-T posted a treasure trove of emails that paint an unflattering picture. I have excerpted two of them here. Here is the city’s CFO wondering why the city …
Do State Labor Laws Trump Democracy?
That seems to be the position taken in a lawsuit filed by the Municipal Employees Association of San Diego. From the U-T: The Municipal Employees Association, San Diego’s largest public employee union representing white-collar workers, has accused Mayor Jerry Sanders of violating state labor laws by refusing to negotiate the elements in the initiative while at the same time using …
Defense Spending – Republicans Don’t Get It
Budget “cuts” for the Department of Defense proposed by Obama are fairly responsible as far as I can tell. But Republicans are already criticizing the administration’s proposals. Predictably, John McCain called the cuts unacceptable. So what are the facts? Most of the spending cuts come from winding down the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The base budget of the Pentagon …
Political Priorities for 2012 – One SD tea party perspective
My day job has become very challenging lately, and may continue to cause light blogging. When I have little time, it concentrates my mind on what is both important and within my sphere of influence. For example, I love following Presidential politics, but as a Californian I am going to have little influence on neither the Republican nominating process …
Promises, Promises
Governor Jerry Brown’s budget promises to cut public education by $4.8 billion if his tax increases aren’t passed next November. Promises, promises. That we could get some cuts in the bloated state educracy would be welcome indeed. The California school system is not performing that well, despite spending about $8,452 per pupil per year, although I think that number is …
Mayor Sanders and Crony Capitalism – Snapdragon
The U-T and San Diego Reader are reporting that the mayor signed off the temporary name change of Jack Murphy Qualcomm Stadium to Snapdragon, despite a memo from City Attorney Jan Goldsmith that the name change was not authorized unless approved by the City Council. The city loses money every year on the stadium, undermining public support for everything else …
Incompetent Polling on Brown’s Tax Hikes
Lest you get depressed over the stupidity in the headline in today’ U-T that a big majority approves of Jerry Brown’s proposed tax hikes, let me return you to reality, and a much better outlook. Here is the main quote. Nearly two-thirds of Californians favor Brown’s tax hike, but fewer than half of them think he’s doing a good job …
Occupying the Ports? #Occupy’s War on the Working Class
The Occupy movement intends to shutdown ports on the West Coast tomorrow, Monday, December 12. OccupySD plans are listed here. There stated aim is to draw attention to “unfair and unjust business practices of multinational corporations.” That there is a nexus between multinationals and the ports is left to the imagination of the reader. They also claim that their purpose …
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