CaliFAILia

California was voted “Worst Run State” for the second year in a row last week, by 24/7 Wall St.. Due to high levels of debt with no relief in sight, the our S&P credit rating is the worst in the nation, our Moody’s credit rating is the second-worst. Much of California’s fiscal woes involve the economic downturn along with completely incompetent leadership ( see Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Villaragosa, etc.). Home prices plunged by 33.6%!!! between 2006 and 2011, of course that was spurred by Bill Clinton's housing bubble bursting after forcing banks to give out bad loans (called ninja loans- No Income, No Job or Assets). The state’s foreclosure rate and unemployment rate were the third and second-highest in the country, respectively. The space case Gov. "Moonbeam" Jerry Brown is claiming to be making efforts to get finances on track. Stuck on stupid state voters passed a ballot initiative to raise sales taxes as well as income taxes for people who make at least $250,000 a year but like Obama, Brown will not reduce spending and is still pushing the asinine "High Speed" rail project which is looking to waste $100,000,000,000 that's one hundred billion dollars if you get lost counting all the zeros. While median income is the 10th-highest in the country, we also have one of the highest tax burdens on income. According to the Tax Foundation, the state also has the third-worst business tax climate in the country, businesses are fleeing the state like rats off a sinking ship. Add to that illegals sucking $9 billion out of the pot every year and we have what will soon be a bankrupt state. 

Now I love California, there are moments when you are driving near the coast or looking up at the beautiful mountains, that you forget about the potholes, the traffic, the razor wire around the freeway signs, the weeds, the bums, the hippies, the filth, the bars on the windows and miles and miles of graffiti, where you remember what God put here and get that warm feeling. But then the mess comes flying back in your face and I realize, it's time to go. It's time to leave California like many of my friends have and look for cleaner (not greener) pastures. The problem is California is a vacuum, a trap that sucks you in and holds you. I don't have the money to make a move so I am forced to continue slogging through the sludge looking for the moments of sunlight, be that with friends or seeing it in nature. 

So my advice is RUN, run away from this beautiful nightmare. Pull a John Galt and let it fall into the 9th level of hell and when the filth has burned itself away and the cloud of smug has cleared maybe then we can go back and reclaim the beautiful freedom that was once a cornucopia to the world.

I first saw this poster when I was taking a tour of Ellis Island, it's from the early 1920's

Daily X-tra

So far it's just a coincidence that all of these x-tra post are regarding California. This one will be no different.


As of Monday Gov. Moonbeam will sign AB131, better known as the California Dream Act. A bill stating that illegal alien  college students in California would be eligible to receive publicly funded financial aid. While it won't provide a "path to citizenship" like the federal version AB!131 will cost the already broke state of California 40,000,000,000 (billion) dollars.

Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills says "Here today we don't have enough slots for all the students in California who want to attend our great institutions, there just aren't enough. So until the federal government makes immigration reform a priority and tackles that, what are we doing? We're offering false promises." Hagman also pointed out that the while the illegal students might end up with a degree it is still illegal for them to work in the state of California.

Democrats in CA are hoping this will help force the federal dream act through and pressure Obama to deal with the immigration issue. By deal with I mean giving amnesty to up to 50 million illegal aliens that invaded our Country and will be rewarded for disregarding our laws. I don't know any other place on earth that does that, and if I did I would avoid that place at all cost.

Daily X-tra

I know since the Amazon thing went down I haven't been blogging. Some of it was Amazon and some of it was a weird burnout. In order to get back into posting, I've decided to do a daily mini post just to keep me posting.


Today's X-tra shines some light on some California craziness; So you are headed out for the evening and you call the neighbor girl to come over and watch little Johnny for a few hours. She's 18 fresh out of high school and happy to sit on your couch, eat your ice cream and watch your kid 3 hours for $20. But a new bill in Calif. Assembly bill 889 (sponsored solely by democrats) is getting fast tracked and will mean for every 2 hours of babysitting the neighbor girl (we'll call her Mandy) needs a 15 min break and minimum wage. Oh and if you are late be prepared to shell out overtime and pray Mandy doesn't get hurt tripping on little Johnny's skateboard, that's workers comp. God forbid Mandy sneaks Bobby over and gets knocked up, then there's maternity leave. Yeah I'd rather take little Johnny with me. Read details at theunion.com

Not Gone

So last Wednesday California decided to join the growing list of states attempting to collect sales tax from web retailers to help find a way to close the state's black hole of a budget. Amazon.com on Tuesday sent me an email warning me that if California passed the law come 9/30/11 they would cut off their affiliate program, but Wed immediately after law passed they sent me another email saying my store was closed and my affiliate links were dead.

California's new law, signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday, requires online retailers to collect sales tax even if they have no physical presence in the state. How does that work when federal law states they have to have a brick-and-mortar store to qualify? My store had no bricks or mortar. Like the many other states before it, California counts Amazon affiliates who reside in California as a "physical presence." So, my personal blog with affiliate links to Amazon products (you know being unemployed, helped me to make a few bucks on the side), means I am effectively "selling" Amazon products and making money from them via my home in California.

You can go back and check it, I warned you that Gov. Moonbeam would be a bad rerun for California and he is living up to his name. The revenue loss from Amazon alone will be somewhere around $100 million. Not to mention all the small businesses that had to close. Timing couldn't be worse since today the new job report came out and unemployment is up to 9.2%.

It took me a while to decide if I would continue blogging at all. But I'm not gone, I will keep plugging away. If you like my blog and feel like contributing, please click the "Donate" button on the top right side of this screen.

Just Saying

• Let me state clearly, I don't care about Weinergate.

• Mitt Romney recently said he believes in "Man-made global warming", and now he is dead to me.

• Herman Cain is a better choice anyway, even if the racist at Time Magazine are ignoring him.

• Unemployment went up, the stock and housing markets went down, so of course Obama is out saying things are better. I can't even laugh at what an incompetent leader he is.

• Does anyone else thing Syria is starting border issues with Israel to take the attention off of them slaughtering their own people?

• If the ecoli outbreak in Europe has taught us anything it is eat less vegetables.

• Speaking of food, Big Sister Mrs.Obama has dumped the food pyramid for myplate, someone should tell her myspace is old news. I don't know who I dislike more her or her husband.

• California was ranked 49 out of 50 for "Most Business Friendly States". No wonder I can't find a job.

• I shaved my head and disappointed a lot of people, but summers are hot and I am too broke to afford a barber. My hair will make a comeback in the fall.

High Speed Really?

When Obama passed his trillion dollar (total & utter failure) stimulus plan two years ago a chunk of it was designated for high speed rail, though I haven't noticed any bullet trains whizzing by and traffic is worse than ever. That chunk amounted to $8 billion that was invested as "seed money" and now Veep Biden has told us the White House is investing another $53 billion of our money in getting this so call high speed rail going. But the more I read up the more clearly I see high speed rail is really just high-jacking our wallets. The Obama Express is moving all right, bringing us straight to bankruptcy hell, let me explain a few things that will help us pull the emergency stop line on this runaway nightmare.


Here in California the big talk has been a high speed line between LA and San Franfreako. The original projected cost of this masterpiece was around $28 billion dollars, but things change and budgets swell, so now the price tag is more like $43 billion. But as time passes the budgets keep changing and swelling, the final cost is looking to be oh $100 billion. Take the number form the above paragraph and add them up... So with all the stimulus money and the newly allocated cash plus the $9 billion in Calif bonds the rail project between LA and SF is $30 billion dollars in the red. That doesn't leave much for the rest of the country.


But high speed rails will reduce traffic and that will help everybody! Or will it? Let's stick with California, the line from LA to SF will alleviate little to no traffic. Not many of you currently stuck on the 101 fwy reading this on your smartphone because traffic hasn't budged in 3 hours are going all the way up to Frisco are ya? Same story country wide, high speed lines are mainly for city to city use and most of the backed up freeways are within city  limits. Even light rail lines in LA and NY do little to nothing to ease off the massive number of cars.


The biggest hurdle to making high speed rail a reality is  the track. We can't use the existing tracks because freight trains dominate existing tracks and if you've ever had to wait while a mile long freight chugs past, you know they don't move that quick. So new tracks are needed, country wide. Now granted it won't take as long as the original lines that crossed this great Nation, but I bet you it will cost a whole lot more. Not to mention the cost of Air Force One jetting back and forth so the Anointed One can drive a gold spike into every finished product.


If we really want to "Win The Future" we have to stop spending money or as The One puts it "Investing" and start saving. The American people have become the People of NO. No more pouring our hard earned money into a bottomless pit. No more taxing us into oblivion. No more bail outs, no business is too big to fail, even the states. No more socializing of American industries and institutions. We have to rise up, not in revolution, off our couches and into the voting booths. Make all these big spending politicians Democrat or Republican do what we've been trying to do for the last few years, find a real job.

Happy? New Year...

So it's 2011, and for the last couple days everything I've said was preceded or followed by the words "Happy New Year". But the more you think about it, the more it seems 2011 is not gonna be such a happy year. From the White House down it's going to be a tough year.

With the GOP in control in congress, I'm hoping for gridlock. I was always OK with the "Party of No" title, stopping Obama's socialist takeover will be paved with Republicans saying NO! Notice I said "hoping", I have no faith in the Republican party, they will fold at the drop of a pin and burn their constituency. Loyalty means nothing to the GOP hierarchy, mostly because we have nowhere else to go. They probably laugh about it behind closed doors.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to see people unhappy, but I don't see unemployment going down anytime soon and taxes are going up (in Cali for sure), oil is up, if Obama raises the minimum wage inflation will go up as well. Grocery store prices are already high, I spent fifty dollars the other day and got almost nothing. Last post I believe I spoke about tightening belts and we are going to have no choice in 2011. With all that, I still want to see people happy, but we are not going to find it in government or hollywood. Go to Church, Temple or wherever you go for solace and keep your friends and family close. You have to do it for yourself, cause no one is gonna do it for you.

Another Year Gone By...

Yeah I know I have been disregarding my blogging duties, but the new year brings new life to The Expert's Blog. Twenty ten was was an ill fitting cap to a turbulent decade. This time last decade we were worried about the millennium bug, Ten years later and we wish it was something so trivial. We started 2001 upbeat and refreshed, but we're quickly reminded of the insanity of the world on 9-11. To call the following years a roller coaster would be an understatement. We all wish it could be 9-10-2001 again, but the illusion is gone and dare I say we are in for a tougher decade.


The sharp turn toward socialism in America brought on by the Pelosi/Obama agendas will not fade into the night. We will have to fight to regain every inch of ground lost to the last four years of democrat change, yes four, Bush's last two years gave new meaning to the term "lame duck". Bush lost all will to fight the coming wave of liberalism and folded in every way. Giving up on social security reform, winning the two wars we were deep into and forcing banks, businesses and people to take responsibility for their actions by way of bail-outs and stimulus packages. Obama, who promised change followed with more of the same, ignoring social security, essentially throwing in the towel on Iraq and doing the least possible in Afghanistan, and of course issuing more stimuli and bail-outs. The out of control spending has dug us into a hole our grandchildren's grandchildren will be stuck with the bill for. See for yourself! 


All hope is not lost, we can still recover from this mess and come out a better people. But it is going to be hard, there will have to be sacrifices from everyone. Take my state California, we are going to have to go bankrupt. California is not to big to fail, taking a federal bail-out will only prolong the problems. Times will be tough, but the re-organizing that bankruptcy allows is exactly what California needs. Schwarzenegger talked big and I was one of the many who fell for his tall talk on Gray Davis and ending the spending. But instead of terminating, Arnold went on a spending spree, taxing and spending California into oblivion, and that's where we are. Unfortunately this is not the bottom, things will have to get tougher before they get better and California will be ground zero for the coming strife.


It doesn't matter which way we go, left or right, we are gonna have to tighten our belts. The difference is whether we let socialism squeeze us down to nothing or after a time of hardship we reemerge stronger and smarter. We need only to look at history to see our future. We are following the same path as ancient Rome and if we don't change course we will suffer the same fate. Do some homework, read up on Rome, particularly Cicero





He is consider one of the greatest orators of his time and he warned Rome of it's impending doom and was ignored. I am no Cicero, I don't claim that kind of ability or talent, but I can see the correlation between us and Rome and don't want to end up another failed nation doomed to see it's glory forgotten by history.


Forget about 9/10, we will never be able to get that back, remember 9/12, it's our only chance. Glenn Beck put these in his "Common Sense" book and I just keep thinking they are the right way to go.


The Nine Principles

1. America is good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

The Twelve Values

1)Honesty 3)Hope 4)Thrift 5)Humility 6)Charity 7)Sincerity

2)Reverence 8)Moderation 9)Hard Work 10)Courage 11)Personal Responsibility 12)Gratitude

I'm Back

Sorry about that little stretch of quiet, I recently started a new job and have been swamped. The holidays are a busy time at K-Mart, yep I'm working at K-Mart. I can't get into details on K-Mart, there is actually a no social networking clause in my job description. Big K aside, I have been following the news and wanted to comment briefly on some of the big and not so big stories.


First off Korea; North Korea attacked a small island belonging to S. Korea disrupting some war games. The MSM is hyping this into another war. Officially the Korean War was never ended so it would be a re-escalation, but beyond that, this is nothing new. The last power shift in NK between Kim Il-Sung and current despot Kim Jong-Il there was the same show of power type deal. Now Kim Jong-Il is passing the dictatorial torch to his son Kim Jong-Un so it is no surprise NK is acting up. They probably want what they aways want when they do something stupid, more food and money from the US. Which we always give.


The Wikileaks classified document dump is another thing in the news big right now. Again we are not learning anything we didn't already know. Iran was funneling weapons to Hezbollah during the recent spat with Israel, duh! Does something need to be done about this? Yes, of course but is it being blow out of proportion probably to cover another story? I think so.


That story would be the "lame duck" congress going back to their failed agenda. Yes Nancy Pelosi is still in charge and right now as I type House Bill S510 (food safety) is being debated and goes for vote tomorrow. This is another power grab by the federal govt. via the FDA. I feel like American food is pretty safe and letting the FDA run wild with regulations and taxes is just going to hurt us where it counts most, our wallets. But there's more, a week after massive protest in California over the rising cost of universities, the "dream act"  is getting the big push from democrats and RINO republicans. This will allow deportable illegal aliens to attend college at a highly subsidized rate, the cost of this of course falls on us the US taxpayer. The list could go on, but I promised brevity.

The Day After Tomorrow

Yeah I know this is hitting late, I am very good at procrastinating...


The midterms have passed, the outcome was favorable, mostly. I watched the coverage all day, not to mention twitter which kept my phone beeping for hours. I split my time time between the three major news outlets Foxnews, CNN and MSNBC. I am not a fan of the latter two, but I have to do something while fox is in commercial. The outcomes were pretty much what was expected, my prediction was 59 house and 9 senate and I was close. Though being from California I have some serious disappointment to deal with.


Fox's coverage was exemplary, they stayed very close to their "Fair and Balanced" motto. They featured a litany of contributors from both sides of the aisle and did it without showing much for bias. CNN tries, but the overall dislike of the GOP still shines through in their delivery. The coverage was solid overall and they served their purpose of filling time while fox was on commercial. MSNBC was despicable, the openly hateful and bitter Matthews and Maddow cringed at every GOP gain and used the losses to make fun of and poke at the opposition. Which makes it no surprise FOX dominated the rating of the night with CNN in a far second and MSNBC behind them. 


The pick up in the Congress was nothing short of a slaughter, rebuking Obama and all the outrageous spend him and Congress has been doing for the past six years, yes six. Nancy Pelosi took over six years ago, and while Bush had made some bad call before that, things went really down hill in his second term. The GOP pick up is definitely a referendum, but not a open door for the republicans to go back to the pre-Obama ways. The tea party intervened on behalf of the people, people who wanted the GOP remember its roots and what used to make them different form the democrats. Small govt, low taxes, stern control of our borders, our common language and culture (hat tip to Michael Savage). If the GOP doesn't remember and return from it's senility it just might have to be tied to a tree and well you know the rest.


My biggest disappointment lies with California who somehow let Barbara Boxer keep her senate seat and re-install Jerry Brown, yes Moonbeam himself to the seat of Governor. Not too mention ninety percent of the props that went wrong. California is stuck on stupid. Arnold was the worst kind of RINO and he did the same amount of damage or maybe even more the Gray Davis. Boxer is known throughout the Nation as the dumbest person in the senate, I knew she would be terrible for California from the first time I met her, that would be when she came to visit my high school many moons ago. I love California, I have lived in New York, Jerusalem, and have spent shorter amounts of time in other places and none stack up to California, her beaches, mountains, deserts and forest are amazing and the weather is awesome. But the govt intrusion into peoples lives is through the roof and everyday I want to be here less and less. Why should I be driven from the place I love by socialist?


The next two years will be crucial to this country and the direction it goes. Times will be hard, we have to break our addiction to unlimited spending, the withdrawals will be painful but if we don't go through it that crazy future commercial depicting the Chinese ruling over us might just come to fruition.

Is It Tomorrow Yet?

The first of November on an election year has gotta be the most stressful day, throw onto that it's Monday (monday's suck every time), add to that last night's Halloween party (tequila & chocolate don't mix) and you have a recipe for a long day! Here in California especially...


We've got the Governor's race in full swing and the two major candidates are neck and neck. Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown are in a battle royale for the future of California, Brown is on the Obama diet of tax and spend and Whitman of course wants to slash taxes and bring some business back to what  used to be the fifth largest economy in the world. Looking at track records Brown has a long one, of failure. he was governor before, I believe his nickname was Governor Moonbeam (a nickname he received from his then girlfriend and left wing activist Linda Ronstadt) and he was referred to as a hippie fascist, because he installed hippie causes in a fascist manner. 
Whitman on the other hand has almost no political track record (she did work for Mitt Romney and then John McCain's presidential campaigns), she's a corporate titan, Whitman served as an executive in The Walt Disney Company where she was vice president of strategic planning throughout the 1980s. In the 1990s she served as an executive for DreamWorks, Procter & Gamble, and Hasbro. Whitman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay from 1998 to 2008 in that ten years with the company she oversaw expansion from thirty employees and four million dollars in annual revenue to more than fifteen thousand employees and eight billion dollars in annual revenue when she stepped down. Being California is billions in the hole she would have her work cut out for her and while I do not agree with all of her ideas, she absolutely out shines governor moonbeam.


I'm not going into detail on the Boxer/Fiorina race, if Barbara Boxer is allowed to continue on her path of destroying California we deserve it, I would vote for a cinder block over Boxer.


Lastly I am going to run down the props on the ballot with just a simple yes or no, it is strictly my opinion, though I have read each in detail and I can tell you on some I gave it a lot of thought before I decided.

• 19: No, sorry stoners
• 20: Yes, redistricting is good
• 21: No, the parks get enough
• 22: Yes, the roads suck enough
• 23: Yes, global warming is a hoax
• 24: No, businesses are hurting enough
• 25: No, trying to fool us on this one
• 26: Yes, less fees is good
• 27: No, political power grab

Read up before you vote, don't wait till you are standing the booth to decide. I am not on the everyone needs to vote train, if you are stupid, stay home.

Divided We Fall

I have been as excited about the Tea Parties as the next guy, but I am starting to think we are headed down the wrong path. It is a fact that the Republican Party has been slipping away from conservatives over the last 10 years, maybe longer, running Bob Dole in '96 was pretty lame. The RNC has repeatedly decided just not to campaign in areas they think chances are slim. But being in California , in the late 90's I believe, and watching Matt Fong struggle without  RNC support and lose to Diane Feinstein by 8 points makes me very angry. But all that anger aside splitting the party in two just guarantees Obama a second term, and that is exactly what the dems would love to see happen. I've attended a few tea parties and watched several more on TV and the internet, I was proud to be a part and see other people who were like me and frustrated with what is happening in the Govt. But never did those feelings, not even for a second, make me want to split the republican party. We know what happens to third party candidates, they suck votes of off whichever party they are closest to and send the other guy into the winners circle. The excuse "We have to show the republicans we are unhappy by letting them lose" has not worked. They lost and we paid the price! We are drowning our grandchildren in debt. We can't afford the democrats another minute, much less another term by splitting our party.

I don't like it one bit. I have left the party before and came back after reading "If it's Not Close They Can't Cheat" by Hugh Hewitt (I'm pretty sure). He was right. We can't afford even a close race. We have to win and win big. Forming a "Tea Party" will only take us farther from that goal. That brings me to Sarah Palin, a very smart woman who has way more experience than Obama (exectutive wise). But we gotta face the facts she doesn't have enough experience by our standards to be President of the United States. Ladies don't mis-read me, I am not saying a Woman can't be President, just not Sarah Palin.

We need an experienced Republican (any race, creed or gender) to stand up and take on the challenge of being President. Then we have to back that person 100%. We cannot be sidetracked by a shiny new Tea Party. I hear what you are saying, who is it? Who will step up and take reigns? Honestly, I don't know. I can throw out names but it won't help. That being said it is time for the Republican party to step it up too. The RNC is weak and it bends to political correctness and whining liberals. I am not sire Michael Steele has what it takes to do it. But someone has to. If the RNC wants to survive the next 6-10 years someone has to take a stand.

Someone is out there, maybe not a Reagan, Lincoln, or Washington. But someone who will make a name for themselves. A name that will be synonymous with the great ones not living in their shadows. Someone who understands we are one Nation under God, indivisible. United we stand!