2009 A Year in Review

As this is my last blog of 2009, I’m doing it. I’m the first! The very first 2009: year in review! It has been an exciting one hasn’t it? We started with a brand new president, full of hope, 2009 was going to be a great year! Well, I don’t know if it was great, so much as just completely crazy.


2009 has seen some big issues come our way, from California’s budget crisis (parts one and two), to national healthcare, to possibly dismantling the Federal Reserve.

So let’s recap:


- We have a new President ladies and gents! Someone who people either find hopeful or horrific, no one can accuse Obama as being lazy as he’s packed some big issues into his first year in office.

- The economy goes from bad to bad. Ok, let’s face it, the economy hasn’t really gone anywhere in the last year. We’ve been assured that without the billions in bailout money it would’ve been a whole lot worse, but it isn’t exactly a whole lot better either.


- Among several other states, California finds itself in a budget crisis because of the economy. The legislature throws some band-aids on it to stop the hemorrhaging, but is back in the red only a few months later.

- To protect consumers, Congress starts discussing several different angles on financial regulations. None are particularly helpful and appear to just increase the crazy bureaucracy. Except for the possibility of getting rid of the Federal Reserve, which would put the power of the purse back in Congress’s hands where the founders intended it. But, given how we all feel about Congress, are we really comfortable with that?


- Senator Al Franken is elected giving the Democrats 60 votes in the Senate, a so-called “supermajority”. Except that for some reason they still can’t get anything passed. (To hear my full rant on this particular issue, feel free to email me!)

- California’s Gubernatorial election is in full swing! It appears that the conservative candidates will be Steve Poizner, Tom Campbell, and Meg Whitman vs. democratic candidate Jerry Brown.

- This year saw the outing of a power religious group: “The Family”. While the particular political dealings of this group are still veiled, I highly recommend the book for some totally scandalous (but completely true) reading: http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060559793/The_Family/index.aspx


- Two propositions are submitted to California’s Secretary of State giving the people the opportunity to scrap the current California constitution and start all over.

- Healthcare. Need I say more?


It’s been quite the year. Publicly and personally, it’s been a year full of change. At times it’s been scary, and at other times it’s been nothing short of amazing. I hope your 2009 brought you health and happiness and that 2010 brings you everything you hope for. Happy New Year everyone!

'Twas the Night Before Voting

'Twas the night before voting, when all through the Senate, All creatures were stirring, discussing their tenets

The healthcare debate must come to a close, the Senate will vote while the West coast will doze

The Senators nestled all snug in their seats, In hopes that the bill will not meet defeat

Hopefully hoping to go home at last, They’d been working much harder than holiday’s past

But out from the floor there arose such a clatter, we all sprang from our couches to see what was the matter!

Away to the news stations we flew like a flash, to cable, to internet and other such trash

The flashing of cameras at great shelves of books, giving the semblance of smartness to people with looks

When, what to my inquiring eyes should appear, but former Governor Sarah Palin! And her politics of fear!

With a lively old interviewer, just nice as heck, I knew it a moment it must be Glenn Beck

Knowing without doubt that his rivals were lame, he yelled and he shouted and he called them by name;

“Now Nancy, now Stewart, now Hoyer and Kerry! On Colbert, on Schumer, on Obama and Harry!

To the top of the ratings! To the top of them all! Now watch me, now watch me, now watch me,” he called.

As the Senate’s debating drew near to an end, with a bill full of provisions and a nation to mend

The protestors they came, to the capital they flew, with a bag full of signs and some firearms too

But then, in a twinkling, I read it online, they have all the votes to pass it on time

As I took off my glasses and was turning around, from my laptop there came an unmistakable sound

She was dressed in a skirt suit, her lipstick dark red, And her blouse neatly pressed, hair perfect on her head

In her hand she held over 2,000 pages, And all she can say is “it’s one for the ages”

Her eyes—how they twinkled! Her dimples so merry! Between you and me, she’s been into the sherry.

Not that I blame her with a nation so torn, though there’s not much to do but regard them with scorn

Who would like a Congress that does everything wrong? And is a big part of why this year’s been so long.

But don’t worry good people, 2010’s a new year, we’ll vote them all out and change will be near

For now though adieu as I must take flight, Happy Christmas to all and to all a Good Night

You'd Have to be So High...

To continue with last week’s theme of ballot initiatives in California’s November 2010 election, this week we’re going to talk about everyone’s favorite topic! Legalizing marijuana! (Don’t forget your towel.)

To hear a national overview of the different views, check out this clip from This Week with George Stephanopoulos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zizS76elpiU

To hear it straight from the mouths (ok, website) of the official “Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010” check out their About Us page: http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/about

The general idea is that, rather than continuing a seventy-year war on marijuana, which we seem to be losing both in terms of actual dollars flowing back to the Mexican drug cartels and actual dollars that we spend locking up drug offenders who are caught with non-medical marijuana, we should legalize it, regulate it, and tax it.

California has always been on the forefront of decriminalizing the use of marijuana starting in 1996 when we became the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use. In July of this year, Oakland became the first city to assess a sales tax on marijuana. The initiative has already gathered the signatures it needs to be presented on the general election ballot in 2010. (And here I thought pot-heads were lazy and had no motivation! I am appropriately impressed.)

According to The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/index.cfm) drug arrests have more than tripled in the last 25 years leading to 1.8 million drug arrests in 2005 alone. The majority of these arrests are for simple possession of marijuana and most people in prison for drug offenses have no history of violence.

Between the reduced prison costs of legalizing marijuana and the possible revenue from taxation, it kind of sounds like a deal. So what IS the big deal anyway? (Got your towel?) Well, there is still a pretty big list of questions that have not yet been answered: “Who is going to determine or regulate how marijuana is produced and distributed? Who will it be distributed by? How is the state going to collect the taxes? Will it really have an impact on the illicit trafficking and production of marijuana? Will this lead to proposals to legalize other drugs?”

All right all my business friends out there, ready for your next big business idea? Producing and distributing (selling) pot! Who knew that you too could grow up to be a drug dealer? You can drive around town in your fancy BMW and wear lots of bling. Next thing you know, you could be Snoop Dog’s best friend.

In other news, the Senate has finally passed a health care bill. Help us all. More about that on Wednesday!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, for your Bills, Bills, Bills

Today we’re going to revisit the Job Bill. Almost a month later after my first Job Bill blog, the House is still working to pass a version of the bill lovingly dubbed by Democrats as the “Jobs for Main Street” bill. Currently, the tab is up to $174 billion, but it includes:

$36 billion for highways and mass transit.
$20 billion to keep Highway Trust Fund solvent for existing obligations.
$23 billion to pay teacher salaries in an attempt to save or create about 250,000 education jobs.
$2 billion for job training, summer jobs for teenagers and for AmeriCorps.
$500 million to retain or hire firefighters.
$1.2 billion to put 5,500 law enforcement officials on the beat.
$2.3 billion to extend the $1,000-per-child tax credit to 16 million poor families.
$24 billion to states for Medicaid for the poor and disabled.
$41 billion to extend emergency unemployment benefits for six months.
$12.3 billion for health insurance subsidies for long-term jobless workers.
$600 million for improvements to airports and seaports.
$2.8 billion for water projects.
$2 billion for housing renovations.

Sometime this week the House will officially vote on the bill as well as voting on a temporary, two-month increase in the national debt of $1.2 trillion. About half of the jobs bill will be financed by the left over or repaid money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP – the Treasury Department’s bank bailout).

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey had some harsh words for critics of the bill who say the price tag is too high, “We make no apology whatsoever for trying to give the same amount of attention to Main Street needs as was given earlier to Wall Street needs.” (Oh! Zing!)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20091215/pl_bloomberg/ahqzpf24e2eg
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091216/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_jobs

Reforming, Rewriting, and Repairing

Let’s start off today with some trivia! Who once said, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”?

It has been argued recently, both in the press and amongst my family and friends, that California’s government has become overly large, complex, and destructive. California’s constitution is the third largest in the world. Not only amongst states, but amongst any governing entity with a constitution (states, countries, etc.). We have diluted our constitution with over 500 amendments since its ratification in 1879. As a result, our education system is practically on the brink of collapse, our elections produce legislators with ideological extremes who cannot pass a decent budget to save their (or our) lives, and our water will likely dry up completely before anyone does anything about that looming crisis.

At this point to “effect” Californians’ safety and happiness, it seems that the next logical step is to “alter or abolish” the government. Ok, take a deep breath, I’m not saying that we should take up arms and storm Sacramento (although that would be really exciting), our founders actually gave us the tools to fix the underlying problem in a non-violent way (way to be on top of that founding fathers).

Through a constitutional convention, California can completely scrap the constitution as it stands now and start all over! Sounds like a pretty good idea right? Unfortunately, as of now there is only one way that we can make this convention happen: our legislators can authorize a convention with a two-thirds vote (HA! The very idea that two-thirds of our legislators would agree to do this totally cracks me up.).

Enter Repair California (www.repaircalifornia.org). A non-profit organization started by the Bay Area Council (http://www.bayareacouncil.org/bay_area_council.php), Repair California’s mission is to give Californians the opportunity to take part in a Constitutional Convention to completely rewrite our current, overblown and diluted constitution. On October 28, 2009 Repair California presented the Attorney General with the language for two Propositions which will appear on the November 2010 ballot and which you will know as Proposition 1 and Proposition 2.

Proposition 1 amends the current constitution to allow the citizens of the state the opportunity to call for a constitutional convention with a majority vote on a ballot initiative.
Proposition 2 is the ballot initiative calling for a citizens constitutional convention.

I highly recommend reading both initiatives. Proposition 1 is only two pages long and Proposition 2 is only slightly longer at 16 pages. The text can be found here: http://www.repaircalifornia.org/Docs/repair_california_prop_1.pdf and here http://www.repaircalifornia.org/Docs/repair_california_prop_2.pdf.

There are still lots of hurdles to clear before the citizens constitutional convention can become a reality. Both measures have to get 1.4 million signatures before the attorney general can even allow them on the ballot. Then, both initiatives have to be passed by the people, clearly one is no good without the other. Once the convention is held and the delegate’s reform package is written, is must again be voted on by the citizens in 2012 to become legally binding. I realize this sounds incredibly overwhelming and a little scary. But really, I think sticking with our current constitution is far more terrifying.

To calm your fears a little, here’s an interesting statistic: since 1950, five states have undergone constitutional conventions to completely rewrite their constitutions. They are Montana, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan and Connecticut.

Now for the answer to trivia! In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.

Big Bank Bohemoths & My Economic Solution

Today in the wake of Obama’s jobs summit and the plethora of speeches on the economy, we’re going to have a small history lesson.

One of the problems that I hear over and over again (in that plethora of speeches) is how the government gave all that money to the banks to bail them out so they could start lending again. But, now, (shocker) they’re not lending. Now I have a theory. Sure, lots of people are defaulting on mortgages because of variable or resetting interest rates resulting in crazy huge bills that they can’t pay because they’re unemployed. But how the heck are they supposed to go out and start their own small businesses if they can’t get a loan? (No, of course I am not talking about myself! Wink, wink!) Face it though, banks have lots and lots of other ways to make money. For example, investing!

For a complete list of where Citigroup Inc makes their money for example, check out their most recent 10-Q. http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=6877451-1106-1291714&type=sect&dcn=0001047469-09-009754 By the way, if you can read it, can you let me know what it says? I’m five minutes away from being a CPA and I pretty much barely understand it.

Back to my last point though, banks can invest in lots of things to make their money these days. Like hedge funds or derivatives. Both are totally safe investments, of course, so when they take your hard earned money that you put into your savings account to get a whole 1.5% interest and they put it into a derivative investment and either make lots and lots of money or lose everything, I’m sure we can all feel good about it.

Anyway, I believe I promised you a history lesson. Way back in the day (when people were partying like it was 1999, because it WAS 1999), three senators wrote a bill formally named The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. (Informally the bill is called The Gramm Leach Bliley Act or GLBA – go ahead, I give you permission to laugh!) The first section of the bill repeals Section 20 of the Glass-Steagall Act to now allow mergers between securities and banking companies and also repeals Section 32 of the Banking Act of 1933 to permit officers and directors to serve in those capacities for both securities and banking companies. To read the Senate Banking Committee’s Summary of the Bill check this out: http://banking.senate.gov/docs/reports/s900sum.htm.

To give you an idea of how popular the bill has been since its passage, economists Robert Ekelund and Mark Thornton have stated that the bill, “amounts to corporate welfare for financial institutions and a moral hazard that will make taxpayers pay dearly.” Economist Paul Krugman called Senator Gramm, “the father of the financial crisis” because of his sponsorship of the bill. Yikes.

Here are my thoughts: bring back Section 20 of the Glass-Steagall Act and Section 32 of the Banking Act of 1933. As if the banks weren’t already too big before this crisis, now there’s only five large banking institutions left. What’s going to happen when they mess up again? Do you think maybe they’d start lending again if we took away their securities? It’s time to break up the behemoth party. And if I’m not convincing as an economist, check out economist Robert Reich’s personal blog: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/10/too-big-to-fail-why-big-banks-should-be.html. (I love that I use the same blogger as Robert Reich! It gives me goose bumps!)

Oh California's Education System, Why Are You So Terrible?

Ok, I admit it, today I am picking on an easy target: California’s education system. As we all know, it sucks. Big time. Let’s go over some of the statistics:

* Only 36.3% of California’s high school graduates go on to college, compared to 40% nationally.
* We rank 18th out of the 20 largest states in the percentage of 12th graders who go directly to college and 17th in the amount who ever go to college at all.
* We are 30th in spending per pupil
* 49th in student to teacher ratios, and
* UC fees have increased 300% in the last 10 years

Yikes. In this blog though, I would like to concentrate on bullet #3! Only twenty states spend less per pupil than California. And what exactly are we spending that money on? Before school started this year, my sister (who teaches 1st grade – damned those kids are cute) confessed that the budget crisis is creating a borderline hostile atmosphere at her school as the various grade levels duke it out for whatever money they can get their hands on. In the same breath, she told me that she wasn’t sure she would even have the budget money to provide her five and six year olds (who go through erasers like no other) with enough pencils for the school year. Tragic.

As it that wasn’t bad enough in and of itself though, let’s talk about earmarks! As school budgets are created by those higher ups somewhere out there, money gets set aside for certain activities or expenses and once those budgets are passed it becomes illegal to spend that money on anything else. For example, at my sister’s school thousands of dollars has been tied up to buy new PE equipment. Now, that’s very nice and everything, but the school can’t afford to hire a PE teacher so there is no PE program to buy new equipment for! And in the meantime my sister is worried about pencils.

In a really great example of misused funds, remember Swine Flu? On Friday, state schools chief Jack O’Connell announced that the state has purchased 23 million masks and gloves to prevent the spread of Swine Flu. Yup, even if those suckers only cost 50 cents apiece, we’re talking over $11 million. (If you’d like your own Swine Flu mask now that flu season is almost over, there’s a pretty good assortment here: http://www.google.com/products?q=swine+flu+mask&rlz=1I7DLUS_en&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=yOcaS-1RjbCzA8Xr6PwE&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=6&ved=0CDgQrQQwBQ)

The supplies were paid for by a federal grant which was given for the sole purpose of purchasing the masks and gloves.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr09/yr09rel160.asp
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten5-2009dec05,0,2869973.column
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579367,00.html

Afghanistan: How much sleep are you losing over it?

Last night President Obama gave a much anticipated speech on the future of American involvement in Afghanistan. So what’s the verdict? (drumroll please) We need a surge! What else is new? It’s like our new favorite war term.

About 30,000 more lucky winners get to head off to the hot, dusty Middle East bringing the grand total of military personnel (does anyone else wonder what exactly the term “military personnel” means? I mean, are they troops or what?) to about 100,000.

Of course, what’s everyone’s new favorite question? How are we going to pay for this? Funny, you would have thought we would wonder that eight years ago when we actually went to war. It appears that we have two (ugly) choices: one, raise taxes or two, issue war bonds.

First, let me ask, how often do you think about the fact that we are actually at war? That we are in fact involved in two wars?? I’m going to guess that you don’t think about it all that often. So let’s take a look back into the history books shall we?

World War II: The American public was actually put under strict rationing. From food and gas to clothing, Americans consumption was limited so that our resources could be directed to our troops. Recycling was actually born during World War II to help reuse materials that could be useful in war. War bonds were issued and training sessions were held to teach women how to shop wisely to help conserve food. Can you imagine how we would all react if our government put us on rationing today? (Can we say communism?)

Vietnam (speaking of communism): I only have two words for you, the draft.

So I have to ask, given our history, why does asking Americans to sacrifice just a little, for a war that we all wanted to fight so badly, scare our Representatives so much? I, for one, want to know why we think we have to make a choice between raising taxes or issuing war bonds? Heck, let’s do both! Remember when the troops in Iraq didn’t have enough bullet-proof vests?? I certainly do, and I say, by all means, raise my taxes to make sure that my friends overseas (who are fighting my battles) are a little bit safer.