Tag: California

Is that not what the supreme court is being asked to validate? In the case before our Nation's highest court, the justices are being asked to determine whether California's 2008 Proposition 8 as enacted by voters is constitutional.  They are being asked to either affirm or deny the decision of United States District Court Judge Vaughn Walker,  who overturned it on August 4, 2010; his argument being a violation of both the Due Process clause, and Equal Protections clause of the 14th amendment.

A inaccurate understanding of the 14th amendment if ever there was one.

Due Process guarantees a process under which something might be taken.  It allows the imposed upon person or class to prepare a defense or answer to actions being used to deprive an individual, or group, a particular thing.  It also requires law to be sufficiently understandable or substantive.

However, America is not a democracy; rather, the United States are a republic.  And that distinction isn't one of mere semantics.  In a republic, the voice of the people is more indirect the more non-local the matter is.  When it comes to elections, I can think of none more non-local than the presidential election.  Among the checks and balances the Founding Fathers included in the Constitution was the balance of the voice of the people with the voice of the states, thus the use of the Electoral College to elect the president every four years.

And yet, for the past 41 days, perhaps because even as recently as the day before Election Day eleven states (at a total of 146 electoral votes) were considered to be in the "tossup" column, there has been considerable behind-the-scenes debate about a potential "reform" to the way that some states apportion their electoral votes, a reform that, had it been in place during this election, may have significantly impacted the outcome.  Actually, instead of "reform" I should be referring to this as a "back to the basics" approach to the Electoral College.

Right to Work states lead the nation in creating new jobs (1999-2009)

1. Texas              +866,000
   
2. Florida             +291,600
   
3. Arizona            +194,800    
   
4. Virginia            +138,400
   
5. Nevada            +124,500

46. California        -170,400
    
47. Indiana           -225,300
    
48. Illinois            -332,700    
    
49. Ohio              -508,200
    

First there was the accidental release (sans medication) of a convicted butcher-knife killer who'd racked up 124 major misconducts in prison.

Seven days later we learned that the Democratic administration accidentally released 62 convicted sex offenders... rapists, pedophiles... nice people.

Now, the very next day, we learn the folks at Granholm and Cherry's Department of Corrections ignored for a month an arrest warrant to pick up a parole violator named William Dunlap who'd allegedly beaten and robbed his girlfriend, Fran Wolf.  According to the Ivory Tower, this "mistake" was much more costly than the previous two may have been.  

At 3:30 a.m. on June 14 -- only 20 minutes after the last bartender left - Wolf was in the bar's office when Dunlap approached her from behind and bludgeoned her with a sledgehammer before stabbing her multiple times in the chest in front of a security camera, police said. Dunlap fled with a few thousand dollars, police said. Police found him four days later, hiding in a crack house in Detroit.

If Dunlap had been apprehended on the warrant before the murder, he would have been detained pending a special hearing to determine whether he violated parole. A guilty finding most likely would have returned him to prison, Marlan said.

"The state could have prevented this murder," said Deila Ruiz, a longtime friend of Dunlap. "He should have been locked up."

According to good old Russ Marlan it is "not uncommon for investigators with busy caseloads to take a month or more to track down parole absconders."

And by "parole absconders" he means convicted criminals who wind up taking sledge hammers and knives to the girlfriends they'd just gotten done abusing while the administration twiddled it's thumbs for a month.

Think about this, kids... Dunlap was initially released through all of the proper channels.  He was out on parole.  Now the Granholm-Cherry administration wants to set loose early THOUSANDS of additional violent convicted criminals. Dunlap was the low hanging fruit.  He was one of those they ALREADY thought was safe to release.  

The thousands of additional cons they want to release now (as they make room to import Californian prisoners) have NOT been paroled yet.  In some cases that means they're literally considered MORE dangerous than Dunlap.

So let's say we cut them loose.  Say we turn out another 2,000 or 3,000 violent felons and they violate their parole.  Are we supposed to believe the administration will be willing and able to track them down and execute the warrants to lock them back up again?

They had a warrant here and still let Dunlap live in the same apartment with the woman he'd just pummeled.  That "mistake" cost her her life.

And how do Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry respond to the tragic news?  They don't. They ignore their administration's mistakes and hope we'll forget. That trouble will simply go away.

Which is sort of tough... when they patently refuse to put the criminals away.

Imagine the candidate looks you square in the eye and promises, sincerely, that if you vote for him and send him to Washington, DC he will kill your job.  Yours, specifically and individually.  He will target your industry, he will target your employer and he will implement policies that will just plain get you fired.

Probably not the best campaign strategy, but what do I know.  I'm not a UAW member.  Let's take a survey.

Show of hands, how many of you would vote for this candidate.  Why don't I see any hands?  Anyone?

OK, new question... how many of you would vote for this candidate, scribble him a check and volunteer on his campaign?  Still nobody?  

See, you guys and girls aren't team players.  If you were United Auto Workers members each of you would have both hands in the air and you'd be waving them around wildly, or you would if you were being honest.

Read on...