How many planes would it take to put out the current fires in southern California, with a single formation and flyover?

It the leftists before Gray Dufus hadn't blocked new powerplants, we'd have plenty of power today.

Kramer

__________________
“It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve; it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy."
Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers

Because the population of Cali was the most legitimately pissed off in late 2003 that they had been in a very long time, largely due to our fair state's dysfunctional politics over the past couple decades. Davis didn't cause all this himself, far from it, but he was unfortunate enough to be in office at a time when the state's population was in an extremely surly mood, and the captain goes down with the ship.

Ideologically speaking, I don't see any real difference between the two; the real difference is that Arnold's simply a much better politician than Davis was. His approach since 2005 seems to have worked pretty well. He works with the Democratic majority in the State Assembly in drafting all big pieces of legislation, then these are submitted to the public via referendum, and in doing so, they manage to cut the California Republican Party out of the loop. That approach probably wouldn't work in any other state, but it's quite effective.

We would have plenty of power today, if the Republicans had built a state-of-the-art, underground power grid connecting all fifty states and Canada and Mexico instead of invading Iraq.

With a modern energy grid, energy could be generated only in Canada, Mexico, or Alaska and be delivered to the rest of the US.

I am not sure I can agree with you concerning working politics and our republican governor. Davis had been elected five times before being ousted by an inexperienced newcomer to politics. That our current Republican governor can obtain some cooperation by being disloyal to the Republican party does not do anything to establish confidence in his policies or his politics.

With modern airplane technologies, why do we have forest fires lasting longer than twenty-four hours?

I think our beloved and fearless Governator should requisition sufficient C13x cargo craft to be refitted with water tanks and flown over any area on fire that could result in private property damage or loss of life.

Even if it took one hundred planes twenty four hours, the total cost of the effort could be less than the amount of damage and loss of life.

California could have all electric or hydrogen public transportation by now. Most of it could have probably been accomplished via bureaucratic fiat.

Most likely, they were blocked by leftist environmentalists who probably were worried about the yellow spotted dung beetle... Environmentalists are tools of the left.

Kramer

__________________
“It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve; it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy."
Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers

Why would environmentalists have as many issues if it is underground? From a scale economy perspective, they could have included fiber optics and copper for good measure.

well that the nature of politcs there .. well i've listen of a couple interviews in a certain politisian..well all of them were the same they well keep making promeses that are made to be broken then.. well i hope this interview with the Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards. As a former presidential candidate and United States senator, Bill Bradley brings a rare insight and knowledge to the interviewer’s chair. Bradley and Edwards also share an optimistic view of the potential of what this country can accomplish if united under strong and compassionate leadership. Well im kinda in to political issiues right now since the US election is near..oops incase you don’t know Senator Bradley’s interview with John Edwards will air December 10 today at 5:00 am, 7:00 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and 11:00 pm. All times ET in Sirius radio in satellite radio…..

many thanks!
bLUeaNgeL

Unemployment insurance in California.

What is the opinion, if employees were required to pay half of the UI premium instead of the employer paying all of the premium?

One potential benefit could be that of the employer no longer contesting UI claims by ensuring full compliance with at-will employment doctrine.

Since UI could be made more "automatic" there could be significant reduction in the bureaucracy involved, in addition to substantial automation potential that could result in faster claims processing and lower costs.

What objection would anyone have to any of the executives of the several states or the federal executive implementing such a policy, if they can do it reasonably, within their current budgetary means?

In California, we could improve air quality by transitioning to alternative fuels and technologies. It would not require any expansive effort on the part of the public sector to create more of market for alternative fuel capable vehicles, since it could be accomplished via attrition of vehicles that nearing the end of their service life and probable the least efficient in terms of fuel economy and pollution.

well thank god his health plan bombed......and its curious that a debate here among dems contained not one question addressing another universal health care defeat ..perhaps its because the libs pulled the plug themselves?

this state is screwed...vote NO on the term limits proposal..its just another political white wash..there ads sppting it is outright bamboozling mistruth.

__________________
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile....

Here’s a synopsis on the plan and why it blew up.....the particulars especially the fact that hillary's plan ahs many of the attributes that this on did , has not been surfaced by the msm.....hummmm.

Saying No to CoerciveCare
By SHIKHA DALMIA
January 31, 2008; Page A16

On Monday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "universal" health-care plan was shot down by a committee in the state's Senate, 7-1. The most vociferous opponents were not fiscal conservatives, but labor unions that launched a last-minute revolt against its most crucial feature: an individual mandate that would have forced everyone to buy coverage.

This defeat has national political implications. Hillary Clinton, for example, has denounced Barack Obama for refusing to include an individual mandate in his health-care plan. Yet many California unions argued that a mandate would force uninsured, middle-income working families to divert money from more pressing needs toward coverage whose price and quality they cannot control.

The unions are correct: This is exactly what is happening in Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney enacted a similar plan two years ago as governor. (And Mr. Romney's plan is the inspiration for both the Schwarzenegger and Clinton plans.) The experience in the Bay State deserves a lot more scrutiny than it has been getting.

Massachusetts uses a sliding income scale to subsidize coverage for everyone up to 300% of the poverty level -- or a family of four making around $60,000. Everyone over that limit is required to pay for their own coverage if their employers don't provide it. All this has inflated demand, which, combined with onerous regulations on insurance suppliers, has triggered premium increases of 12% for this year -- double last year's national average.

No one is escaping the financial sting. The state health-care bill for fiscal 2008-2009 is expected to touch $400 million -- 85% more than originally projected. Still the state won't be able to fully shield those it subsidizes from the premium increases. But uninsured folks who don't qualify for government help really get pounded. Before the hike, the cheapest plan for uninsured couples in their 50s cost $8,200 annually. Now, unless government bureaucrats hand them an exemption, they might well find it cheaper to pay the penalty -- up to half the price of a standard policy -- than purchase insurance. That is, pay to remain uninsured. This is legalized extortion: TonySopranoCare.

The government response to rising premiums is, unsurprisingly, price controls. The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority -- the bureaucracy created to oversee RomneyCare -- is considering prohibiting underwriters from raising premiums more than 5% for unsubsidized plans, meanwhile requiring them to cover 40-odd benefits from hair prostheses to chiropractic services. If companies can't scale back coverage, they'll have to compromise care; and the Connector is perfectly willing to assist.

As reported in the Boston Globe, the Connector is encouraging insurance companies to include only a limited network of cheaper physicians and facilities in some plans to hold down premiums. Patients who wish to see more expensive providers will have to dig into their own pockets. Dr. Steffie Wollhandler, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, worries that the Connector will revive Gov. Romney's original idea of enrolling poor people in plans that only offer access to neighborhood health centers ill-equipped to treat anything beyond routine ailments. Forcing people to buy substandard care they cannot afford is not universal care, she says. "It is a hoax." And so Massachusetts is marching toward a system of two-tiered medicine -- the alleged market inequity that universal care is supposed to cure.

How about enforcing the mandate? In Massachusetts, non-compliers lose their personal tax exemption -- about $220 -- the first year, followed by fines in subsequent years. California was planning to garnish the wages or impose liens on the mortgages of the uninsured to pay for coverage. "This bill was like telling someone who is in need of help, 'I'm going to give you food, but I'm going to take away your clothes," Leland Yee, a Democratic senator from San Francisco, told the California Chronicle.

The problems with RomneyCare have prompted Mr. Romney himself to abandon it. And Mr. Obama is surely correct that part of the reason 45 million Americans are uninsured is not that no one is forcing them to buy it, but that they can't afford it. It may be too much to hope that Mr. Obama would embrace market-oriented measures -- such as deregulating insurance markets, giving patients more control over their health care dollars, and fixing the federal tax code to let individuals, like employers, buy health coverage with pre-tax dollars -- to bring down insurance costs. But unlike Mrs. Clinton, he at least seems to understand the perverse side effects of an individual mandate.

Should Hillary Clinton ever be in a position to bully people into buying coverage, a coalition of labor and fiscal conservatives might well do to HillaryCare what it just did to GovernatorCare.

Saying No to CoerciveCare - WSJ.com

__________________
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile....

CA's unions that control the state politics will never allow any proposal that might affect their cradle to grave salary and benefits befitting royally and paid for with public funds. They learned from their federal drone counterparts nothing beats the public nickel when it comes to their comfort. I'm not arguing the merits or shortcomings of any alternative plan, just pointing out the reality of what actually controls CA.