Whiff of evil, indeed. I can only hope that they'll overreach to the point that the younger folks, as they age with clout, who will all have friends that got offed in Iraq, start the pendulum swinging back again. But it could be 2010 before such a reversal starts.
I am heartened on a local level. Pretty happy with the way the various propositions and candidate elections went here in California, and particularly here in San Diego. Here, for the past decade, the city pension fund has been deliberately and secretively underfunded, so that it faces a massive shortfall despite the recent big bull market, and we can't sell bonds until we come clean with the auditors, which will mean indictments. Stadiums and ticket guarantees, not libraries or pothole repairs. Closed city council meetings. SeaWorld, not clean water or functional sewers. This fall the voters of this city, like the auditors (KPMG), finally showed they were aware and fed up. There is a strong chance they've elected -- via write-in after a mere five week campaign -- the only councilmember who voted no on all that stuff. The counting may go on for a couple more weeks, but she has the lead by several thousand votes. All that remains is to ensure that 3000 San Diegans didn't write in Mickey Mouse. The great irony? The powers that be pushed through a ballot measure doing away with the strong city manager form of government, replacing it with a strong mayor system. Seemed like a great plan six weeks ago, when only two republicans were running for mayor. That this might occur concurrently with Donna Frye, the anti-development radical, winning the mayor's seat . . . it has to be their worst nightmare. The bastards never anticipated THAT. Maybe the pendulum will start swinging back right here.
I'm very pleased about it.
Hey, we can't talk politics on the Momo/TIF or Valuation threads anymore, so expect the final spasm here, Mike.
Cheers, Tuck |
