It is Wednesday morning here in the lovely state of California, and I awaked to find that ‘We have met the enemy, and he is us,’ to quote Pogo, that wonderful possum from the Okefenokee that Walt Kelley used in his comic strip. If you don’t remember Walt Kelley & Pogo, you have really missed a lot in life.A short time ago, Californians went to the polls in a special recall election to oust our former governor, Gray Davis. Ahnold was elected by a large majority and went to work to correct many of the things that are wrong. The first thing that he did was to reverse the new State tax that would have tripled auto registration. Then he vetoed the Legislature’s attempt to give California State drivers licenses to illegal aliens . . . ! ! ! At this time the State of California is virtually bankrupt, and our credit rating for borrowing money is the lowest of all of the 50 states.

When the governator was stonewalled by the Democratically controlled Legislature, he went to the people, and ordered a special election for a number of propositions that he felt were needed. They were all ‘no brainers,’ and easy to understand, at least they were until the libs got a hold of them.

They, (the opposition) began by telling us that this special election would cost some $80 million dollars (which it didn’t) and then promptly began a campaign against all of the measures, that cost easily twice that much. We were deluged on radio, TV and in the print media by ads against all of the propositions. Why? Because it would begin to bring an end to great power and mismanagement in our government.

One of the propositions was to increase the length of time that California teachers would have to wait for ‘tenure’ from 2 years to 5 years. Why would teachers, or anyone outside of the United Stated Supreme Court need tenure anyway? If you don’t do your job well, you get a warning, and if you don’t improve you get terminated. Is that difficult to understand?

Who was/is against this? The California Teacher’s Union for one. To hear their public opposition to this proposition, you would have to believe that the Governor’s proposal would have stripped school lunches away from the little tykes, and done other irreparable harm. They screamed about cutting back monies for our schools . . . which, in typical Democratic manner, was a baldfaced lie. What the governor proposed, along with many other areas of California government, was to cutback the amount of the INCREASE . . . get that, the INCREASE in funding, over the prior year! To Democrats, that is a cutback, no matter that it actually is an . . . what is it now, boys and girls? . . . an INCREASE !

The public employees unions in California have gotten drunk with power, and use it constantly at the State Capitol to get what they want. It’s all about power and control, most of it behind the scenes. Employees are practically coerced into joining these unions, and a portion of their dues goes to support liberal candidates that the Union leaders which to support. Talk about taxation without representation !

You don’t actually have to join the union, but they make it so difficult, that few opt out. The same with the payroll deductions to support political candidates . . . you CAN opt out, but the blizzard of paperwork is against you, and you are immediately set up as a ‘trouble maker.’

As an aside here, I have a very good friend whose wife WAS a teacher. Her District nominated her for Outstanding Teacher of the Year. When it was discovered that she was not a union member her nomination was withdrawn, unless that is . . . she decided to join the union. Is this a great country or what? Do you think she wasn’t an outstanding teacher after all?

Another of the propositions would permit California Schools to drive YOUR 12-17 year old daughter to the nearest Planned Parenthood (read Abortion) Clinic, where she would be given the option of having an abortion to terminate her pregnancy. Hold on now . . . and all of this WITHOUT parental notification ! ! ! Yes, you read that right, the parents would never know unless their daughter chose to tell them.

Now these are the same schools where it is ILLEGAL to give a child so much as an aspirin, without parental notification AND permission. But, they can have a serious surgical procedure, and end a life. (yes, that’s what I said … I’m one of those that believe life begins at the moment of conception . . . prove me wrong). Go figure!

The extremely disturbing thing about all of this is that we maybe, I said MAYBE, had a 42% turn out to vote yesterday! That means that 58% of the registered voters of the State of California didn’t give a rat’s ass about voting.

My wife and I went into the polling place yesterday morning and voted in about 45 seconds. We had our ballots marked already, we had studied the propositions, there were no surprises. Think that is what the average voter does? Hardly. Most people are seeing the things on which they are voting for the very first time when they get into the voting booth.

These things are written in such a way that a person with a MA or even a PhD would have difficulty understanding them, much less John Q. Public.

Yesterday also, the city and county of San Francisco (they are one and the same, geographically) tried to outlaw ownership and sale of all firearms within the city and county. This would make it the toughest anti-gun law in the nation, outdoing even New York and Washington, DC. Of course few cared that it was totally illegal . . . a violation of the Second Amendment, and federal law takes precedence over state, county and city laws.

A couple of days ago O’Reilly had Angela Alioto on his program. Angela Alioto is the well-to-do daughter of former Democratic Mayor of San Francisco, Joseph Alioto, and she is adamantly opposed to any one having any type of firearm. When O’Reilly tried to point out to her what happened in New Orleans, when gangs of armed people looted, mugged and attacked . . . her reply was that the police would protect her. . . . . Now in event of a disaster, and an earthquake IS coming to San Francisco, it’s only a matter of when . . . the police not only will have their hands more than full, they physically may not be able to reach her home, even if they had the manpower. Her answer to that was that criminals shouldn’t have guns! ARRGH ! How can you get through to people who can’t think any better than this?

I know this is long, and I know that practically none of you live in California, but you should care, because California is a bellwether for the nation. How many things do you have now, where you live, because they began here on the Left Coast? Be warned!

Contributed by guest writer,
David S. Wagner
Col (USAR ret.)