Democrat budget cap likely a budget visor...

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that Don Perata and the Governor have come to an agreement on the budget.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said Wednesday that Democrats have negotiated key points of a compromise state budget with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and that he considers negotiations over.

"I think we've, frankly, gone about as far as we can go," the Oakland Democrat said.

Perata said the compromise plan includes a major concession by Democrats -- a spending cap to limit annual state expenditures.

But one thing you learn in this business is that the devil is in the Senate... er... details.

As of this posting, nothing in writing has been submitted to Senate. So whether or not there is an actual budget spending cap in the proposal is yet to be seen. And if there is one, you can bet that it is not a real cap.

Keep in mind that Democrats have been insisting form months that a spending cap is a non-starter and is not up for negotiations. Put this together with the fact that the Governor's office stopped talking about a spending cap weeks ago, opting to focus only on a rainy day fund. And now all of a sudden there is an agreement for a spending cap? Me thinks me smells a rat here!

One only need look at the tactics now being reported in the Capitol Alert:

With Don Perata announcing an agreement between Senate Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the budget, the focus in the Capitol among those leaders has turned to picking off at least two Republicans in the state Senate to pass the spending plan.

Notice that there is no mention of actually putting the Democrat agreement in writing so that there can be honest and open negotiations. Instead they are opting for coercion, extortion and maybe even bribery. Some would call it "playing political hardball."

The good news is that Republican's popularity amongst their voters has been improving as they have stood their ground. This is largely due to the fact that most GOP voters didn't think that they would do what they said they were going to do.

In the end, this means that when this budget deal comes to the Assembly, the 7 or 8 votes needed to pass it will be hard to come by.

On another note: If Republicans can get a real spending cap, how much should they give up for it? Keep in mind that while we can probably balance the budget without them, Democrats will likely demand some sort of "Revenue Enhancements" in exchange for caving on a hard spending limit.

What would you be willing to give up?

- A one cent increase in the sales tax for three years?

- More borrowing?

- Closing "Tax Loopholes"? Which ones?

- Lottery funds, backed up by new taxes?

- Increase in income taxes on business & high income earners?

- or ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING!

California News Roundup - August 12, 2008

While budget waits, California legislators collect campaign donations -- As California faces a looming cash crunch, state lawmakers are making sure one treasury won't run dry - their campaign accounts.

Governor sues controller to force pay cuts -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sued state Controller John Chiang on Monday after he refused to follow the governor's order to slash pay for thousands of state workers to federal minimum wage as a cash-saving measure during the budget impasse.

Bankrupt Vallejo bleeding its police force -- Vallejo, already in an economic tailspin, has lost about 20 percent of its police force since the city began its slide into bankruptcy.

Lawmakers apparently miss deadline to change rail bond measure -- With a veto threat looming, lawmakers on Monday missed a deadline to replace November's $9.9 billion high-speed rail bond ballot measure with an updated version. Or did they?

Dan Walters: Feinstein is playing it coy on a 2010 run for governor -- As certain as the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano on St. Joseph's Day, the approach of another gubernatorial election means another months-long wait for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to decide whether she wants to run. Democrat Feinstein, as one might recall, did run for governor in 1990 and lost to Republican Pete Wilson.

$1 million in awards upheld in PUC bias case -- A state appeals court has upheld $1 million in damages and attorney's fees in a discrimination suit by a California Public Utilities Commission engineer who said he was harassed and disciplined because he is from India.

Los Rios college district puts bond measure on November ballot -- Between a rock and hard times, the Los Rios Community College District has placed a $475 million bond measure on the November ballot. "Enrollment is growing far faster than any of us could have imagined it would," said Brice Harris, chancellor of the Los Rios system.

Peter Schrag: What's driving illegal immigrants home? -- Though it hasn't got much notice, there's now fairly wide agreement that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has declined by a hefty 10 percent or more in the past year or so.

Barack Obama: The Child - The Messiah - The Obamessiah

This video pretty much says it all...

HYPE: The Obama Effect

I saw this adv for "HYPE: The Obama Effect" while watching Fox News this morning.



The trailer is even more compelling. I really hope that this movie will help unmask the left's newest messiah and reveal the fact that once you get past all they rhetoric of "Hope and Change" Barak Obama is nothing more than a Jimmy Carter liberal in a shiny new package.

Obama changes mind on the surge: It ain't so bad!

Let the flip-floping continue! Below is an article fromt he New York Daily News noting that the Obama Campaign unceremoniously removed all criticizm of the the surge from their website.

I don't know that this represents a change of opinion. But more a change of tactics. You know... If you don't have anything nice to say about the surge, don't say anything at all. (Hat Tip to the CRP)

"Barack Obama Purges Web Site Critique Of Surge In Iraq"
New York Daily News

"Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop 'surge' in Iraq, the Daily News has learned. The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a 'problem' that had barely reduced violence."
-- Daily News' James Gordon Meek

By James Gordon Meek
July 14, 2008

Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq, the Daily News has learned.

The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a "problem" that had barely reduced violence.

"The surge is not working," Obama's old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province.

The News reported Sunday that insurgent attacks have fallen to the fewest since March 2004.

Obama's campaign posted a new Iraq plan Sunday night, which cites an "improved security situation" paid for with the blood of U.S. troops since the surge began in February 2007.

It praises G.I.s' "hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics and enormous sacrifice."

Campaign aide Wendy Morigi said Obama is "not softening his criticism of the surge. We regularly update the Web site to reflect changes in current events."

GOP rival John McCain zinged Obama as a flip-flopper. "The major point here is that Sen. Obama refuses to acknowledge that he was wrong," said McCain, adding that Obama "refuses to acknowledge that it [the surge] is succeeding."

In case you missed it: Sacramento couple who let lawn die to save water face $746 fine

I don't know what to say about this one.

But then again this is the same city that lost $1.3 million worth of water meters just prior to a vote to increase water rates. They did pospone the vote... I guess their arguement for the fee increass didn't hold water... LOL!!!!!!!

Here is the article from the Sacramento Bee today:

Sacramento couple who let lawn die to save water face $746 fine

By Matt Weiser - mweiser@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, July 2, 2008

If Sacramento wanted a poster couple for its "green city" aspirations, it would be hard to do better than Anne Hartridge and Matt George.

The husband and wife bought a home in east Sacramento for easy biking to work and shopping. They installed solar panels and efficient appliances. Their laundry dries on a clothesline.

They didn't own a car until four years ago, when their eldest son, then 18 months old, was being treated frequently for food allergies. They bought a Prius.

So when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought June 4, Hartridge decided it was only right to let her front lawn die to save water.

"The whole water conservation ethic is very important to me," said Hartridge, a state employee who bikes or rides the bus to work.

But that ethic didn't agree with her neighbors, or with the city.

Before Hartridge could plan new landscaping, a neighbor complained to the city about her brown lawn, and the Code Enforcement Department slapped the family with a citation.

Their small brick home was declared a "public nuisance" in violation of city code section 17.68.010, which states that front yards "shall be irrigated, landscaped and maintained."

A $746 fine will be next unless they correct the violation.

"In order to make the lawn go, I would have had to keep watering it intensely, and since the drought was declared, I decided that wasn't a good idea," said Hartridge. "Honestly, I think there's a disconnect within the city about priorities."

Two weeks ago, The Bee reported that Sacramento's per capita water use is among the greatest in the world. Later that week, the same day Hartridge got the citation, an audit revealed that the city has lost or misplaced nearly 5,000 water meters, out of more than 100,000 it must install citywide to comply with state law.

"On one hand they're mislaying their water meters, and on the other hand they going out and putting enforcement on people who don't have green lawns," Hartridge said. "And there's water running down the gutters of my neighborhood every day."

City laws forbid landscape irrigation on Mondays (code section 13.04.860), between noon and 6 p.m. (13.04.860), and to such an extent that water runs into gutters (13.04.850).

All these violations could be seen on Hartridge's street this week – one street among thousands in Sacramento.

Neighbor Lois Guy, a retiree, thinks the situation is "crazy."

"It's private property, after all," she said Tuesday while trimming hedges at her home around the corner from Hartridge's. "They're in the process of doing something (with the lawn). So they should be left alone while they're trying to improve it."

Dennis Kubo, city code enforcement manager, said his department does not communicate with the Utilities Department about drought concerns or water efficiency. His department only enforces health and safety and "general welfare" codes.

"The zoning ordinance tells us that the property owner's got to have landscaping. So that's what we have to do," he said.

The city's landscaping rule is intended to maintain neighborhood visual standards to prevent one neighbor's tastes from harming another's property values.

The rule was the subject of much conflict last year when amended to provide gardeners leeway to grow more than grass. Sacramentans can now grow large trees, shrubs and, yes, even food in their front yards without fear of reprisal.

But the rules still require front landscaping to be irrigated, which means scores of homeowners could be penalized for growing cacti or other drought-tolerant vegetation.

"The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing when it comes to the city," said Karen Baumann, who triggered last year's controversy after she was cited in 2005 for inadequate lawn cover after she removed grass to plant vegetables and flowers in her front yard.

Hartridge was already having trouble keeping her lawn green when nature turned up the heat this spring. She watered every other day and even tried reseeding. But it didn't take.

For her it was a natural decision to stop watering the grass after the governor's drought declaration. But she never got a chance to plan new landscaping before the lawn police arrived.

Last Thursday, the day after the citation came in the mail, she called Code Enforcement to find out how to correct the violation. She was told an e-mail with landscaping solutions would be forthcoming. It never arrived.

She also called her city councilman, Steve Cohn, who did not respond. Cohn also didn't return a call from The Bee on Tuesday.

Last weekend she decided to cover what's left of her small lawn with redwood mulch, which she spread around a few hydrangeas and azaleas that survive with occasional water.

Hartridge awaits reinspection by Code Enforcement. She does not know when that will happen or whether her yard will comply.

Probably not, Kubo said. Mulch is allowed only as one of the "design elements ... integrated as part of the landscape," according to code section 17.68.010(1)a(1)b.

"If it's just one tree out there, maybe a couple of plants and then the whole front yard is loaded with bark," he said, "then no, that's not going to meet the criteria."

In Case You Missed it: 8 illegal immigrant crack dealers shielded by S.F. walk away

San Francisco is not just liberal... It is a city that exists on a whole different plain of leftist extremism.

But even knowing that, I have to wonder what the taxpayers in the city by the bay think of paying to fly convicted drug dealers to their home country in order to avoid deportation; or better yet, how about the $7,000 a month they are paying the low security youth camp these drug dealers escaped from.

This article from the San Francisco Chronicle just goes to show the extent to which these liberal sanctuary cities will go to avoid enforcing the law.

8 crack dealers shielded by S.F. walk away

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

An effort by San Francisco to shield eight young Honduran crack dealers from federal immigration officials backfired when the youths escaped from Southern California group homes within days of their arrival, officials said Monday.

The walkaways are the latest in a string of embarrassments for city officials who are protecting illegal-immigrant drug dealers from federal authorities and possible deportation because of San Francisco's 1989 declaration that the city is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.

Until recently, San Francisco flew juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of drug crimes to their home countries rather than cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a practice that drew national attention when The Chronicle reported it Sunday.

When federal law enforcement authorities demanded that San Francisco halt the flights and began a criminal investigation, the city decided to house some of the dealers in long-term youth rehabilitation centers. Some of those centers are run by a nonprofitcompany called Silverlake Youth Services in mountain towns southeast of San Bernardino.

Eight Honduran juveniles who had been convicted of dealing drugs in San Francisco were sent within the past few weeks to the company's group homes, where one month's placement costs $7,000 per youth - an expense borne by San Francisco taxpayers.

Within 10 days of being sent to the unlocked group homes, however, all eight youths ran away, said Bill Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. He said his agency has issued arrest warrants for them.

Siffermann said the city has stopped sending juvenile offenders to Silverlake because of the escapes. "We have now eliminated that as a prospect," he said, adding that San Francisco is trying to come up with an approach for handling the juveniles that does not involve giving them to federal immigration authorities.

San Bernardino County sheriff's Capt. Bart Gray said Silverlake had reported the Honduran youths as runaways - not as juvenile offenders. Three of the youths were listed as missing from Silverlake's Douglas House in the town of Yucaipa, 16 miles southeast of San Bernardino, on June 20 and two more on June 22, Gray said.

Juvenile probation officials say three other Honduran youths who had been convicted as juveniles in San Francisco disappeared from another Silverlake-run group home, but it was not immediately known which one.

Silverlake officials confirmed that the youths had vanished but would say nothing further, referring inquiries to San Francisco officials. Silverlake's operations officer, Jeff Boyd, said he was barred by law from commenting.