Breaking News of California's New Budget Proposal for 2009

So we all know that several states are in dire need of money because they were too stupid to save any money in the past when tax revenues were high. Many have asked for emergency bailout money from the federal government and have received a sypathetic ear almost everywhere.

Today governor Patterson of New York proposed a new budget that only increased 1% over last year! Glorious Revolution!!! I'm completely out of money so I'm just increasing what I spend by 1%. In a state where everything is regulated, taxed, incentivized and ueber-liberal, there will now be 88 new fees and/or taxes for those cash-strapped New Yarkers.

Some include an "iPod tax" that charges state and local sales tax for "digitally delivered entertainment services", State sales tax at movie theaters, sporting events, taxis, buses, limousines and cable and satellite TV and radio, costlier driving with the repeal of the 8-cents-per-gallon sales tax cap on motor and diesel motor fuel, plus and increase in the auto rental tax, tuition increases at state colleges, a 50 cent tax on cigars, no more sales tax break on clothes and shoes worth $110 or less, except during two weeks a year, higher taxes on wine, beer and flavored malt beverages. He would also impose an 18% tax on non-nutritional drinks like soda. The rich would pay more for luxury items through an additional 5% tax imposed on cars costing more than $60,000, aircraft costing more than $500,000, yachts costing at least $200,000 and jewelry and furs costing in excess of $20,000. In addition, a host of a fees, including those related to motor vehicle licensing and registration, parks and auto insurance, would go up, as would various state-imposed fines. Source here.

Glorious Revolution has obtained an exclusive copy of Republiliberal Governor Arnold Scharzenegger's notes for a news conference tomorrow and I have taken the liberty of posting them here. With both of my readers, this should help get the word out.

Fellow Citizens of the Great State of California, (to be read in an Austrian accent)

The following steps will be used to help ease the pain of the state checkbook.

1. Christmas lights-They are a waste of energy and a source of marital divisiveness. Christmas is an offensive Christian holiday anyway not celebrated by most progressives in California or at least not in the Bay Area.

2. Public television-Under the current tax code, too much valuable entertainment such as "Celtic Woman" and "Riverdance" has been given away for free for too long for those willing to watch the telethon commercials.

3. Drive In's-Old fashioned hamburgers and shakes have to be double taxed. If you want to enjoy them you will be paying dearly. They fatten you first of all and second of all, if you eat in your car you will be polluting the environment. "Idling eaters" would be ticketed.

4. Mini-Vans-This is an indirect tax on large families-Specifically bigoted "Pro-8" Mormon families. They are over-populating our already stressed planet with religious children and a mini-van tax should curb their overactive libidos. At least until the economy is back on track.

5. Carpet in General-Carpet is a petroleum product and contributes to the overall demise of mankind and must have a tax levied against it to promote eco-friendly floors such as dirt and bamboo.

6. Roast Beef-regular Glorious Revolution readers already know how much pollution those darn cows make.

7. Toilet Tax-Private johns will be taxed by the flush to deter water wasters and help with recent pay increases to the local sanitation workers union. Toilet paper will be extra. Citizens are counseled to compost their own waste and use it for composting home grown salsa gardens.

8. Fruit and Vegetable Tax-for those who don't heed afore-mentioned waste composting counsel.

9. Running Water tax-civilizations did without it for thousands of years and it didn't kill them...oh wait....

10. Grass Tax-any citizen with more than 10 square feet of lawn for their dog to do it's business on will be taxed at a rate of $5 per square foot per month until the grass dies and is replaced by xero-scaping.

11. Mail tax-this has been a service provided by the federal government but we are still going to tax it. It will still be available for those who really need it.

Hey at least we're not infringing upon the rights of i-pod owners like NY!! That's ridiculous.

Scary because you know some might actually be tried!

Do as I tax, Not as I do......

Perhaps the democratic socialist party would like to know the reason why their candidates support an even more progressive tax code. They have apparently had a rough time redistributing their own wealth. Perhaps with a new tax code they can create a kind of forced charity for themselves. I have to actually laugh at this because it is so hypocritical. If you want to know the character of the man you're voting for, perhaps you ought to examine how he practices what he preaches. Nevermind....if he preached this, he'd want 10%.....we all know that's impossible to do.

Barack and Michelle Obama had an average annual income of more than $500,000 between 2000 and 2006, but only gave two percent of their income for charitable purposes.

The Bidens' income averaged $260,000 over the last 10 years, but they averaged just $650 a year in charitable giving.

And the cherry on top.....last week in Florida.....

"We want to do this, change our tax code... John McCain and, and Sarah Palin, uh, they, they call this socialistic. You know I, I, I don't know when, when, uh, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness." ---Barack H. Obama

Don't Mix the Kool-Aid!

Today, New York State Governor David Patterson held a press conference with the same tone as California did about a month ago. "We are broke and we'll need federal assistance"An article about it can be found here. Since New York State derives a whopping 20% of it's revenues from Wall Street which is obviously not making the money it once was, the State find itself much like a welfare recipient told that he will have to go to work or sell the bimmer. The falling revenues have ballooned the deficit projection for the state to $12.5 Billion. So here's my question for the day....if this was your household and you found out that next year you'd be severely in debt, what would you be expected to do? Probably sell your belongings, get another job, move from your home and reduce your standard of living. And when a government faces extreme debts? We just ask for a loan, a grant or assistance from the federal government's checkbook from the Bank of China. Is it any coincidence that the first two states to publicly acknowledge their financial turmoil are irrefutably and by far the two most socialistic and big government run liberal homesteads? Eh....don't think so.

So what should these states do? Perhaps some welfare reform, perhaps some funding cuts for their ultra-liberalized education system and less government bureaucracy. I don't think New York or California deserve any more federal grants. In 2006, New York received 5.9% of the entire country's budget. ($144 Billion dollars in government assistance) What American in their right mind would let the State get away with asking for more? Trim some fat people.....

So what did we learn today?

#1.Socialism and Capitalism don't mix. You can't have it both ways. If you're going to spend the money, you'd better have it to spend before you write the check. However, there is always the US Government which has opened the door and given itself to become the "Sugar-Daddy" of the new century.

#2. If you're going to ride the liberal high tide of spending on government social programs on the backs of Wall Street investors in the good times, then you'd better think twice about denouncing the "evils of American Capitalism" in the bad at the risk of appearing to be a financially illiterate kool-aid drinker.

#3. Diversify your investments and save 10 percent of your income for a rainy day. These "ideas" have been around a while. If NY knew that 20% of it's income depended on securities who hedged that the overinflated prices of 600 sq. ft. Manhattan apartments averaging $1.67 M would continue to rise, don't you think you'd have a back-up plan if Wall Street had a period of repricing? That never happens though..I mean look at history......or not. And just because you have the money doesn't mean it needs to be spent. It rains in New York right?

This is one socio-economic policy whose merits the Manhattan liberals would have a hard time explaining. (Notice a couple of the links are to the unbiased NY Times?)

Spaceship Obama

Check out this video of Joe Biden finally being asked some real questions by a reporter. There was al link to YouTube but this links to the local news station's website. Something about copyright-pff. After the interview, the Obama campaign refused to do any more interviews with the station citing unprofessional reporting. Does it remind you at all of a grade school bully running to tell the teacher that someone finally stood up to him and exposed his inadequacies? Don't ask me those questions...I want softball questions about Obama's next speaking engagement. This is but a little taste of what we as Americans are in for with an Obama presidency.

This is the first time in the whole campaign that I have seen a reporter actually doing his/her job. Notice how defensive he gets when asked about socialism or Marxism. The problem is that these people on Spaceship Obama don't see themselves as Marxists or Socialists. Obama has apparently figured out how to stimulate the liberal medulla oblongata causing mass delusion and willfulness to buy his socialist snake oil. I agree with the comment on an earlier post by Choopes. She said, "I guess some Americans really would rather live under communism, just as long as we disguise it as a democracy." Call it willful ignorance.

My Nightly Ramblings

How would you define conservative/liberal principles? I guess in the world in which we live, a conservative/liberal is already considered foul language. Some conservatives even say they they are the minority and a rare breed. Can I take a moment and disagree?

My guess is that we all need labels. I've written about this before with democrats, republicans and the likes always feeling like they need to belong to a party. Let me outline one thing before I continue...being a conservative is not synonymous with being a republican and being a liberal is not synonymous with being a democrat. There are plenty of both in either party.

So are conservatives a rare breed? Maybe in Berkley CA or Manhattan, NY but my instincts tell me that the majority of American believe in many conservative principles. I may be shot for this next statement but I believe that same majority believes in many liberal principles as well. Let me give an example.

I don't think that anyone would argue that a person is responsible for his or her own success in life and no one will disagree that self-reliance is a virtue worth striving for. We are all compassionate. I think the majority of Americans favor the tradition of a "traditional family." I don't think the majority of Americans want government interference in their private lives and no one wants half their paycheck sent to a fiscally irresponsible government. Everyone wants to feel safe in their own country and have a strong national defense. These would be conservative values. At the same time, I don't think that we would all turn a blind eye to someone who lost their job and needed unemployment from Social Security for a month or two until they found a job. I believe that most Americans care about how we treat the environment, that equal rights are given to every citizen to vote and be treated equally, and that government has it's checks and balances.

I think the divide comes when people draw a solid line in their own values system on topics that they are passionate about. When a economic liberal and a economic conservative meet to discuss the economic bailout packages, they forget everything good about one another and fight like dogs-inciting so much animosity between liberals and conservatives that each of us feel entitled to take a side, label ourselves a member of a party or ideology and begrudgingly "accept" one another's presence in our country-hoping that someday the other will eventually "come around" or die out.

It's not fair to label every liberal American as a jobless, baby-killing, ecoterrorist who sits and drinks latte bought with food stamps all day discussing the injustices that have beleaguered the minorities and the evils of capitalism, before burning down the local Hummer dealership.

But today it IS okay to label conservatives as self-serving, uneducated, backwards thinking, numb skulled bigots that have never given a thought to their own belief system that drag their knuckles to church so they can fill their hick heads with religious opium to hate black people and gays.


Be honest though-there are some people that fit these extremes exactly. Does that mean everyone who calls themselves a conservative or liberal condones these beliefs? NO!

Why can I not be a conservative and love black people? Why can I not be a conservative and not be narrow-minded? Why can I not be a conservative and be unbiased in my opinions? Why can I not be a conservative and have an education that means something? Why can I not be conservative and be religious?

I believe there is room for all people and their beliefs. Each of us is entitled to it and has the right to do so without coercion-so long as it doesn't interfere with other's rights to do the same or hurt another human being.

I understand that this is not how economic policies are made however, but in my idealist mind, I envision a time in America that we can stand up for a cause that neither forces us into a corner of belief nor keeps us from searching out and embracing opposing viewpoints-without feeling shamed or untrue to ourselves in the process.

But what would we call ourselves? (to be read with sarcasm) Perhaps it will just remain an ideal.

To each it is given the opportunity to decide where their beliefs are on the Economy, National Defense, Abortion, Affirmative Action, Death Penalty, education, environment, gun control, health care, immigration, UN, taxes, and welfare. In any regard, having an opinion about these things is important.

It all comes back to making a minute's effort to understand the opposition before we pass the eternal judgment of hell on each other.

Comments welcome.......