Issa Criminal!
As is hopefully well-known by now, a certain Darrell Issa is attempting
a legal coup against the democratically elected governor of California, Gray Davis.
Why exactly do you think the Republicans prefer to get rid of Democratic leaders by means that don't necessitate running against them? What do you think they fear?
That they'll lose because the people aren't behind them, that's what. Like the way they did in the last election.
Keep in mind, as a former California resident, I was never too big a fan of Davis. But he was elected, and this Issa fellow wants to perform a legal coup de'tat.
And why does no one mention the part Enron played in creating the huge budget deficit Davis is being blamed for?
Why do I even keep asking these questions?...Urgh...Well, here's some statements instead.
I was in California during that crisis. Davis was being screwed all around. Enron pretended, as you may remember, that this was just the free market when in fact they(as we have found out since) were just milking California because they could, and because it would make Davis look bad. (which is odd--there were many legit ways to criticize Davis but the decision seemed to be simply "destroy") PG & E also had little problem with this, as they aren't fond of Davis--they want more nuke plants and he, and most Californians, didn't(they're really not a good idea in such an earthquake-prone state even if you are pro-nuke). And much more. Like the money they too could skim off this scam. It was about trying to suck money out of what was then the 6th largest economy in the world, even despite the dotcom collapse. Not any more. And the ripple effect was even more massive job losses--me included, that's why I'm here now--statewide in a state where at one time job offers were so plentiful they'd tangle in your bloody hair.
There was an obvious fix in when the commission that is supposed to oversee this(I mean the one in CA, and I forget its exact name because I've been gone for a year) decided to do nothing. This was so obvious it provoked outrage but no one could do anything. What liberal ideas could you possibly be referring to? This was robbery plain and simple, and now known to be since the Enron collapse. "Liberalism" had nothing to do with it.
It was a shitty situation all around. You try coming home to find no power available, and worse, rarely knowing when it was going to happen--and paying more for this privilege. They CLAIMED there was a rotating schedule, but that wasn't really the case.
It's known that Enron was purposely trying to take advantage of California, and that PG & E smelled rustling cash(this was their way of raising rates they'd been legally prevented from raising before and crying poor at the same time) and went along. What's not known for sure is whether this was a Republican-planned attack on a Blue state. During the very late campaign it was used to try to make the incredibly stupid Bill Simon look like a viable alternative to Davis, because Simon's campaign wasn't gonna do it--it was terribly run. And this was how the deficit was achieved. It smells.
To get a full picture of this you'd really have had to be there during the governor's election campaign, possibly one of the nastiest in California's history.
And whereas people might say, "Oh, poor widdle California, boo-hoo," well, you know what, we worked our asses off when there were jobs, at very long hours. I don't know about others but I certainly had none of the perks you hear about at the dot-com companies and such--I was admin support and I worked hard. Surely conservatives respect work, do they not? This situation forced me to go on unemployment for the first(and so far only) time and I deeply resented that. If conservatives don't want people on social programs they shouldn't fuck up any chance people have of getting work. Which it appears they did.
This had nothing to do with liberal or conservative; very few would call Gray Davis a liberal, least of all himself. Yet conservatives crow this was an example of liberal programs not working.
But that deregulation was instituted under PETE WILSON. I know because it was begun when I first got to the state and Wilson was governor. The consequences came to fruition once Davis was governor. He didn't cause it. Typical of a conservative to "forget" a little detail like that. But remember, conservatives are into meme warfare these days, not debate.
But he's a Democrat and that was enough. The main point of this is power. They wanted him out of the way. The most you could say about Davis is that, as he wants to remain in office, he tends to at least try to appear he's responsive to, duh, the voting public. Which is of course hardly appropriate in this day and age for an elected official to do, as our wonderful president has shown.
Some suggest the whole crisis was an attempt to punish one of the most important "blue states." I believed this when it was going on and believe it now. Now extend that theory to the White House and entire country and you have the reason America's economy has been wrecked. They don't represent the American people in this day and age--if anything they seem to think WE should represent THEM in some way. We wouldn't go with them on their little mad excursions(like the impeachment of Clinton--remember Hyde saying, "What is wrong with people in this country?" in bafflement over Clinton's surging approval ratings) so they're just going to keep pounding the square peg till it fits into their round hole.
But there is hope at the end of all this. It turns out Darrell Issa, who made his fortune from car alarms,
is in fact a perp himself. I quote:
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, the driving force behind the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, was prosecuted with his brother in San Jose in 1980 for allegedly faking the theft of Issa's Mercedes Benz sedan and selling it to a car dealer for $16,000, according to court records.
Issa, in a phone interview with The Chronicle Tuesday, blamed his brother for the car theft, which was detailed in documents on file in Santa Clara County Superior Court and which has never been made public.
Oh my. Now we know how he made such a fortune with that Viper car alarm.
Do spread this information far & wide.
Labels: politics
Post a Comment