After causing a bit of a buzz last week when she pulled papers to “consider” running against La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid, Councilmember Ruth Sterling got what many knew she would from the beginning: Cold feet. Sterling did not file her candidacy paperwork by Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline, leaving only realtor Laura Lothian in the race against Madrid. Lothian has …
City of Bell scandal continues to grow
The scandal in the city of Bell continues to grow — and to toll the death knell for runaway government pay and benefits. It’s hard to imagine that this raped city will not declare bankruptcy shortly. Breaking News: More Bell City Employees Were Receiving Big-Time Salaries Written by James Spencer August 6, 2010 The phone still rings in the city …
Why aren’t government agencies forced to show the long term obligations of pension deals to the public?
http://open.salon.com/blog/richard_rider/2010/08/06/city_of_bell_scandal_continues_to_grow Why should a city be allowed to pass their obligations to others? It’s obvious that the City of Bell greatly overpaid some of their employees and the pool of cities to which they belong will be forced to pick up the retirement tab. Now let’s look at the proposed San Diego Sales Tax increase. As Council member DeMaio has …
Our Own Microcosm of Freedom vs. Tyranny: The City Hall Machine vs. The Rest of Us
Kudos to Rostra blogger Bradley J. Fikes for this post calling out the thinly-veiled message in the U-T that actually precluded the sales tax proponents’ simple message: “Agree to a sales tax increase or you will die.” May I suggest we haven’t even begun to be spoon-fed this message. The coming months will be filled with it. This is the …
Jerry Sanders: Complete Failure?
First, a very important tenet for me. I do not use the term “RINO” or take shots at someone’s conservative credentials lightly, I cannot stress that enough. Now that we have that out of the way… Seriously? Jerry Sanders. Seriously, dude? At this point it isn’t “what have you done for us lately”, it is what have you done for …
Step Right Up, See The Stimulus!
So, you think those stimulus bills were a waste of time? Well, that just means you can’t handle a black president and his compassionate, fiscally wise congress. Listed below, is a sampling of these economy booster shots, courtesy of the Washington Examiner: Aug. 3, 2010. My own commentary follows each description. -$2 million earmarked for swine odor research in Iowa. …
This Isn’t Right
I thought a long while before writing this post. I lived with Mayor Sander’s position on gay marriage. Gave him a pass, for the good of party unity. I was pretty upset with his position on the Arizona law, but largely kept my mouth shut. But this sales tax increase is just too much. The one thing that holds the …
Mexico increases its drug cartel deaths to 28,000
In the past four years Mexico has lost more than 28,000 lives in Felipe Calderon’s war on drug. The new number adds approximately 3,000 murders to the drug cartel violence tally, according to the Mexican Center of Investigation and National Security (Cisen). While the murder rate is closing in on the 30,000 mark, National Intelligence Chief Guillermo Valdes says the …
Tolerance, Thy Name Is Dictator
At first the people of California passed a law stating that marriage would be defined as a union between a man and a woman. Then, a court overturned the law, claiming it was unconstitutional. So, later on, in 2008, after seven million people passed Proposition 8, the California constitution was actually changed. I went on the radio at this point …
Top 10 Flaws in the San Diego Sales Tax Hike
Not surprisingly, the City Council today advanced the dubious Sales Tax Ballot Measure. Put simply, San Diego taxpayers deserve better than a tax increase masquerading as “reform.” That’s why we are putting together a broad-based campaign to defeat this deceptive measure – and to articulate a bold and effective reform agenda. If you are willing to help with the campaign, …
SurveyUSA: 66% oppose sales tax increase in San Diego
Thanks to Vince Vasquez for the tip. To quote Vince from his Twitter post, “SurveyUSA polling data shows 66% of San Diegans oppose sales tax hike, even when tied to vague promises of reform.” See the poll results
Mary England’s take on her NO vote in Lemon Grove; GOP makes needed comparison to San Diego
Following up on last night’s post noting that a sales tax increase will not be on the November ballot in Lemon Grove, the lone — but in this case all powerful — holdout provides her thoughts to SD Rostra. From Councilmember Mary England: “It is time that the people see that we are serious about structured reform at city hall. …
Astro Turf provided by SEIU hijacks Arizona SB1070 rally
Not so long ago the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) played schoolyard games and called the Tea Party movement Astro Turf. It’s been more than a year and the grassroots Tea Party movement is still going strong. In fact many political candidates backed by the movement are poised to win Congressional seats and it appears the opposition SEIU …
Dronenburg leads fading appointed-Incumbent Democrat Assessor, 7-to-1 in Fundraising
It was news enough when 64% of voters rejected appointed- Democrat incumbent Assessor Dave Butler in the June primary. The GOP’s Ernie Dronenburg ran just 1% behind him (36% to 35%). But new fundraising figures are even worse news for Butler. His latest official filing says he raised a total of $650 between May 23 and June 30, 2010. $500 …
Lemon Grove Sales Tax Increase fails to qualify for Ballot
Three of four Lemon Grove councilmembers voted tonight to place a sales tax increase on the November ballot, but that wasn’t enough as Mary England single-handedly owned the power of veto. In a city that requires four votes to qualify such a measure, Councilman Jerry Selby’s vacation absence couldn’t have come at a more intriguing time, thus resulting in only …
Meg Whitman Tiene Dos Caras
In English, “Met Whitman Has Two Faces.” That’s on a Spanish-language billboard ad from Jerry Brown’s campaign, pointing out how post-primary Whitman is saying different things than pre-primary Whitman on issues like illegal immigration and halting AB 32, California’s strict global warming law. KFI’s John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou (get their podcasts at the link) say that duplicity . . …
“Dollar for Dollar” Proposes Match of Cuts and Sales Tax Dollars
Save a dollar, get a dollar. It’s a refreshingly simple approach to solving the City of San Diego’s budget problems proffered this morning by San Diego County Taxpayers Association President & CEO Lani Lutar. Lutar delivered this memo to Mayor Jerry Sanders and member of the San Diego City Council this morning. So far, Councilmember Carl DeMaio has reacted favorably …
Drug cartels, media blackouts are commonplace along the southern borders
A virtual media blackout is taking place along Mexico’s borders, and nowhere is the need to get the stories out more important than the U.S./Mexican border – a place where more than 25,000 have lost their lives because of cartel violence. “After years of relative calm, the gangland nightmare is back-and yet, barely a single mention of the clashes here …
Marti “Firetruck” Emerald
It seems after being publicly humiliated at a recent Council meeting Marti Emerald is taking steps to reach out to the community and push her message of, umm…well, I’ll try and get back to you when I find it. She has reinvented her monthly community newsletter although spelling seems to not be a concern. “Subject: We need to restore borwned-out …
K-12 per pupil spending reaches past the $25,000 mark
When you put the education costs per pupil in perspective not only are there big differences between states, but the public and private sectors glean unexpected results. The Cato Institute found public schools can be 93 percent more expensive than private schools. They contend the public school districts are anything but transparent and this creative accounting lends itself to muddy …
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