california dreamin'

i remember watching woody allen's 'sleeper' years ago, when i was still a fresh californian and being perplexed by his description of the bizarre, nose run, totalitarian government being "worse than california." i had no idea what he was talking about until i spent several years living somewhere else.

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last week, i walked past a chronicle newspaper stand and saw a headline stating that an attempt to block california's environmental mandate will be on the ballot come this election season. this came after a headline, that ran a few weeks ago stated that the high speed rail initiative, which was already fought for and approved by voters, is heading back to the ballot as well.

i am in disbelief as to just how clusterfucked this state is when it comes to politics.

this is the same state that replaced it's governor it just elected with one liner movie star, famous for being nothing more than a total idiot on screen. and now they hate him. truth be told, i think he has done a better job than anyone gives him credit for. yeah, his hubris really screwed him up in the beginning, but his setbacks made him a more shrewd politician. the only reason people hate him now is because of the economy, which he ultimately has little over. generally, people don't like or trust politicians -- less so in times of recession.

now, regardless of where you stand on these aforementioned issues, this flip-flop behavior is a collosal waste of everyone's time and money. it impedes any progess and momentum.

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there are two major problems with california.

problem one is that california has a significant population of strict partisans -- government hating righties and government acknowledging lefties. these two factions don't work together at all. it's my way or the highway. this was the reason why there was no budget for quite a while. instead of working together and realizing that the solution may be a combination of both tactics, the righties wouldn't allow higher taxes and the lefties wouldn't allow budget cuts. in the end the righties won, as they always do, but it would have been nice if these people could play together and spared the state the shame of looking like a bozo state.

problem two is the fact that the people have too much power. ordinary people should not be involved in politics. i mean, look at how poorly people drive. you want these same idiots driving your state? the same state that, on it's own has an economy as large as a successful western european country?

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i had a rule when living in new york, never trust a californian.

at one point i needed a roommate to fill in the spare bedroom of my bitchin' south williamsburg loft. i get a call from an old san francisco dj named jon howard. he was pretty well known back in the day. i remember seeing his name on many fliers. so, mister howard comes over to my apartment and says he wants the room. he is really excited about it and assures me the that we have a deal. we set the move in date and he takes off. the day of his move in, i make it a point to be around, to help him out. the time when he was supposed to show up rolls by, i don't see him or hear from him. then an hour passes. two hours. i call the dude up and ask him where the fuck he is. he tells me this crazy story about how, just the day before, he'd been walking around in soho and ran into a friend, who had a room for rent in his apartment on tompkins street. he took the room after we had our agreement and never even bothered to tell me.

this is why you never trust a californian and this is why ordinary californians should be as far away from any power as possible -- they are unreliable.

yes, this state is run by a bunch of morons -- it's people. california would be better off outsourcing it's politics to some other state.

link | rss | share | posted: 2010-05-04 18:45:46