Tuesday, July 21, 2009

PERCHANCE, MAYBE MARS WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE THAN CALIFORNIA...

THEE DUCKS IN A ROW...
http://web.mac.com/videopalitalia/iWeb/Site/Photos.html



NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD PEOPLE TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY!

THE GRUBENATOR SPORTS OVER 100 AIDES WHO EACH MAKE OVER $100,000.00 a year in salaries.

ARNOLD'S VERSION OF "JAILHOUSE ROCK" IS TO RELEASE OVER 27,000 CALIFORNIA STATE PRISONERS AS PART OF THIS COMPLETELY INSANE BUDGET MISDEAL...

THIS IS THE LINK TO YOU TUBE'S ELVIS PRESLEY'S RENDITION OF "Jailhouse Rock."


THERE ARE NO JOBS FOR THESE PEOPLE.

THERE IS NO VIABLE REHABILITATION IN OUR PRISONS.

SO, LADIES, WHICH SHOULDER WILL YOU SLING YOUR PURSE ON -THE RIGHT OR THE LEFT?

OH, BY-THE-WAY, WE'RE STILL WERKIN' HERE AS Dustin Hoffman said in "Midnight Cowboy."
This movie gets worse: LAUSD as well as all California school districts are mandated, according to this Draconian so-called California budget, to raise K-14 class sizes, fire countless teachers, dissolve music and art and sports programs, demand that special education students walk their way to school as there will no longer be those yellow school buses, and everything in-between (school nurses and counselors) will also fall by-the-wayside...

LET ME SEE IF I'VE GOT THIS STRAIGHT -WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE ON THE STREET, WE BEING STUDENTS, TEACHERS, LITTLE CHILDREN, THE ELDERLY AND SICK WHO HAVE ALSO BEEN CUT BY A LEANER MEDICAL, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FROM OUR CSUs, and last-but-not-least THE 27,000 NEWLY-RELEASED CALIFORNIA STATE PRISONERS...

DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THE INCREDIBLE FOLLY AND IMMINENT DANGER IN THIS BRAINLESS, SAVAGE AND TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE CALIFORNIA STATE BUDGET?

Wayne Dennis Kurtz.

What have we become?

Wayne Dennis Kurtz.

budget

HECTOR AMEZCUA / hamezcua@sacbee.com

Assembly GOP leader Sam Blakeslee

POPULAR COMMENT
OK children, let’s review: Mr. Schwarzenegger flip-flops on tax increases, demagogues the issue and wins an Oscar for best impersonation of a latter-day Willy Stark. Mr Steinberg & Ms Bass throw civil servants under the bus and make the interests of the undeserving paramount to those of hard-working, revenue generating State employees. Compounding this, SEIU exhibits all the rationality of a sack full of rats on crack in a burning meth lab. The result is a State budget that is the functional equivalent of a ponzi scheme that only Bernie Madoff or Ken Lay could love. To paraphrase the Dead: “what a long, strange trip it has been!”

-- f4bav8r

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Our Region - Top Stories

GOP threatens to scuttle budget deal

Published: Tuesday, Jul. 21, 2009 - 5:22 pm
Last Modified: Tuesday, Jul. 21, 2009 - 6:13 pm

California's newly mintedbudget deal was threatened late today after the Assembly Republican leader said he would withhold GOP votes because of an emerging Democratic proposal to release thousands of prisoners to home detention and county jails and create a commission to review criminal sentences.

In an e-mail to his colleagues titled "Budget Double-Cross?" GOP leader Sam Blakesleeof San Luis Obispo said the budget agreement with Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger clearly ruled out "early prisoner releases." Moreover, he said leaders had agreed to tackle the prison issue in August after the main budget bills had been approved. Votes are expected Thursday.

"Just two hours ago I learned from staff that Senate democrats are concocting a radioactive corrections bill that includes the worst of the worst -- sentencing commission and release of 27,000 prisoners, etc.," Blakeslee wrote. "When I spoke with (Senate Republican Leader) Dennis (Hollingsworth) he was as surprised and upset as I was regarding what appears to be a serious breach of the agreement in the Big 5. I have called and personally told both (Assembly Speaker) Karen (Bass) and (Senate President Pro Tem) Darrell (Steinberg) that there will be no Republican votes for any portion of the budget if they allow such a bill to be part of the package."

The deal emerging from behind closed doors is meant to cut the state's prisons budget by $1.2 billion, but it tackles a sensitive issue statewide and a politically explosive one for lawmakers. Blakeslee could not be reached for comment. His e-mail, first reported byCapitol Weekly, was confirmed by a GOP Assembly member who received it.

Later, he released a statement: "Budget negotiations depend on the good faith actions of all parties. A corrections bill that includes the early release of 27,000 prisoners and a sentencing commission was never discussed or agreed to by Republicans. We made it abundantly clear during negotiations that such policies would endanger the public and were unacceptable."

The new prison proposal includes a component of home detention and electronic monitoring, assuaging some critics who complained that previous proposals would have released criminals onto the streets with little supervision.

Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian, president of theCalifornia Police Chiefs Association, said his organization may look more favorably on this plan than others to simply release prisoners to the streets.

"I wouldn't rule it out....It depends on how it is structured," he said. "I want to see some specifics. All kinds of questions would need to be answered. Who would monitor (electronic devices)? What would be the response time for violations? But at least it's a step in the direction of supervision and oversight."

Tim Yaryan, a law enforcement lobbyist, said that police unions would not applaud the notion of releasing any prisoner, but they might not actively fight a home detention program as part of the budget deal.



Steve Lopez

Could parents' screams jolt L.A. Unified into action?

Parents, fed up by the state of public education, are demanding reforms and threatening to pull out their children, try to shut down schools and start charters.
Steve Lopez
July 22, 2009
I don't know about you, but I'm doubling the dosage on my blood pressure meds.

We've got a California budget "fix" that kicks thousands of people in the teeth and gives us another three, maybe six months, before we'll need another one.

We had state nursing board members who twiddled their thumbs while nurses accused of gross misconduct stayed on the job for three years or longer, until the dirty secrets were exposed in this newspaper.

And now a slew of talented young teachers are looking for work after being fired for lack of seniority, even as dozens of other teachers keep getting paid despite their removal from classrooms for misconduct allegations.

The world's gone mad, no doubt. But shenanigans of this variety are so common, most people just shrug. That's why I'd like to call attention to some parents who are ticked off about the state of public education, but instead of shrugging, they're screaming.

There's the Lemonade Initiative, started by "three LAUSD moms who are mad as hell about the current state of education in Los Angeles," as their website says. And there's the Parent Revolution, which has more political clout and some financial backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Eli Broad foundations, among others.

I haven't yet met with the Lemonade moms, but I have been talking to the latter group, which has had it up to here with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the teachers union. So they're plotting a takeover, one school at a time, and demanding improvements -- or else.

Or else what?

Or else they'll pull out their children and try to shut down the schools, forming charters in their place, with a teacher contract that rewards the good ones and tosses out the bad apples.

"We have to pick some fires to light," said Laura Alice, a soldier in the Parent Revolution.

Two fires are now burning out of control, with no chance for containment. The posse, which you can learn more about atparentrevolution.org, has gotten signed support from a majority of parents at feeder schools for Mark Twain Middle School in Venice and Garfield High in East Los Angeles.

So now Parent Revolution leaders are meeting with officials at the schools their children will one day attend and demanding that they shape up fast. And the parents aren't asking for a few more textbooks and cleaner bathrooms. Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution and a former political aide for both President Clinton and L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, listed the top three demands:

A new labor contract for teachers.

Accountability from all educators.

And a whittled-down bureaucracy.

Well, yeah. Sure. Count me in.

But what are the chances?

"They cannot stop us," Austin said Tuesday morning at the Cow's End in Venice, where we had coffee with two fighting-mad parents. "We're not playing their game anymore."

Although I respect Supt. Ray Cortines and appreciate that teachers union boss A.J. Duffy's job is to fight for his members, I doubt that either institution is capable of the radical changes being demanded here. Trying to get a new contract is particularly daunting.

But if the schools don't respond, it's conceivable that Austin and his group can carry out their threat of forming charters.







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