Don't you just love smug, self-righteous, hypocritical liberals?
I'm not trying to be divisive; I'm just venting my incredible sense of betrayal from that side of the aisle.
"Ritzy Marin County town, concerned about crime, wants to photograph every car that visits" by Associated Press | July 20, 2009
TIBURON, Calif. - Visitors should be prepared to have their pictures taken as they enter and leave this picturesque town of million-dollar views and homes along San Francisco Bay.
I wouldn't want to go there anyway.
Officials want to photograph every car and use the license plate information to solve crimes in the town of 9,000. Critics see the plan as an intrusion into the rights of visitors, but proponents say it is a sensible precaution that will not cross privacy lines.
“As long as you don’t arrive in a stolen vehicle or go on a crime spree while you’re here, your anonymity will be preserved,’’ said Peggy Curran, town manager....
Cameras are already watching Americans as they drive, bank, and shop, and police around the country routinely use cameras to enforce speeding and traffic violations and spot stolen cars....
'course, we got those because of "terrorists."
Actually, we are better than you, California: No Candid Camera in Cambridge
State budget situation is also much the same though.
Read The California "Crisis" first.
"Calif. budget crisis fuels calls for change" by Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times | July 19, 2009
SACRAMENTO - These are nadir days in the California State House.
Lawmakers are foundering as they attempt to halt a financial meltdown. Their popularity has plunged lower than usual.
Now the 120 women and men of the California Legislature face another daunting challenge: a growing push to reconstruct the way state government works. If legislative leaders and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger don’t take steps to overhaul their operations, it might be done for them.
The unraveling budget has spurred groups of the political left, right, and center to press full speed ahead with campaigns for what each considers the remedy for dysfunction.
A bipartisan organization sponsored by several foundations is finalizing a menu of potential solutions. Those are expected to include a change in budgeting practices and a possible shift of state-run programs such as health, education, and welfare to local governments that may enjoy more public trust.
Sounds good at first, right?
A deep-pocketed San Francisco Bay Area business group that includes Google and
Now I'm not liking it: Cleaning Out California
In that scenario, 400 California residents of all stripes would ponder the state’s problems in a months-long session and draft a new blueprint for government that presumably would land on the statewide ballot.
State employee unions are pushing for a repeal of the Legislature’s two-thirds vote requirement for tax hikes and budget approval. And conservatives have been authorized by the state to collect signatures on what they hope will become a ballot measure that would return the Legislature to part-time status.
“We may be at a Howard Jarvis-Paul Gann moment,’’ said Assemblyman Michael Villines, a Clovis Republican, referring to the authors of Proposition 13, the 1978 initiative that launched a nationwide tax revolt. “There’s a huge frustration among the electorate right now, and there’s a lot of wind in the sails of these reform movements.’’
Be careful which ones you approve, voters.
The last true constitutional convention took place in 1878. Progressive-era measures meant to overcome the power of railroad barons led to changes in 1911 that ushered in the initiative process. And a commission toiled for more than a dozen years in the 1960s and ’70s, enacting a slew of constitutional revisions that included the birth of a full-time Legislature.
So what happened to you progressives anyhow?
In 1994, a similar commission pondered more fixes after a fiscal crisis sparked by the demise of the state’s aerospace industry. But by the time the commission produced nearly three dozen recommendations two years later, the dot-com economy was roaring and nothing became of them. Few expect a rerun. Analysts anticipate a long slog before California’s economy rebounds and public ire dissipates....
A constitutional convention looms.
What is wrong with FOLLOWING the ONE YOU GOT?
Steinberg considers the convention a stalking horse, but backers say it’s a serious attempt to undertake a government overhaul. The proposal is being pushed by the Bay Area Council, which represents 275 of the San Francisco region’s biggest employers, including
Which is why I'm suspicious as hell! Corporatism is the purest form of fascism.
Their motivation is simple, said John Grubb, a spokesman for the effort: California’s education system is among the worst in the nation, the prison system is in the hands of a federal judge, there is an endless water war, “and the Legislature fails to act.’’
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