Tag: California

Again: Mountain lions do not belong in human-settled areas.

Oy: “A mountain lion creeping alongside a Southern California woman’s backyard wall forced road closures as wildlife officials tried to capture it.” For apparently 90 minutes. Do Ventura County police not carry guns? …because if this was a large dog causing this much trouble they’d have simply shot it*. A mountain lion, on the other hand… sure, isolate it, catch it, and release it out in the wild.  Whereupon it will simply come back to where all he tasty, slow-moving food is.

Shoot the lion.  Keep shooting them.  They’ll eventually take the hint.  Heck, it’s not like they’re even endangered in California.

Via @MelissaTweets.

Moe Lane

PS: I know that the cops are prohibited from shooting them, sure.  But they shouldn’t be.

*Local cops actually did shoot a dog in my town house complex a while back.  Something like five, six times. And no, I’m not sure why actual wild predators get more consideration than somebody’s ill-tempered, yet theoretically domesticated, pet.

I believe that Southern California will be all right with the flash flood risk.

Because they really need the rain.

Drenching rain will fall on much of California through Tuesday night, bringing some relief to the ongoing drought and raising the risk of flash flooding.

While a series of storms have brought rain to parts of northern and central California over the past few weeks, Tuesday’s storm will bring the first significant rain event for Southern California since the spring.

They’d accept half the state being covered with mud if it meant that the reservoirs were full of rainwater…

Via Drudge.

Quote of the Day, …And Nobody In California Thinks About It edition.

Look, the basic problem for California right now is that it hasn’t rained enough for the last few years.  It’d still wouldn’t have rained enough if the state had been run on free-market libertarian principles for that time, either.  But let’s not pretend that government can’t ever make things worse:

Property owners have long sought to divert more water from streams and build new wells, but efforts have been slow. Concern about promoting development or taking water from wildlife often got in the way, along with the sheer expense of new construction.

“People will throw a foot valve into a stream rather than fix a well,” said Steve Simms, a lifetime San Mateo County resident who runs a Pescadero plumbing business and consults on water. “It becomes this whole layer of bureaucracy and costs that they have to deal with.”

Continue reading Quote of the Day, …And Nobody In California Thinks About It edition.

NIMBY watch: Deep-blue California town upset Barack Obama visited, messed up their commutes.

I do have a reaction to this:

As gossip websites buzzed about Gwyneth Paltrow and President Obama — her “you’re so handsome that I can’t speak properly” is already being mocked unmercifully — her Los Angeles neighbors lashed out Friday that the Paltrow-hosted presidential fund-raiser had come at their expense.

Traffic stood still, children were stranded at school, residents could not leave their own driveways. That’s not the way life is supposed to be lived in Mandeville Canyon.

It’s only two words, though. Second word? ‘You.’ If the citizens of Mandeville Canyon didn’t want Barack Obama personally making their lives difficult, maybe they shouldn’t have voted for the man in 2008 and 2012. 61% percent of the vote in 2012 for CA-33, I believe.

Moe Lane

PS: No, you should have no sympathy.  These people looked at Henry Waxman for decades and said to themselves Gee, we gotta keep that guy in office.  Harden your hearts.

Field Poll: Barack Obama’s appeal going sharply downward in California.

45/42 favorable ratings. In California.  This is not good news for Democrats, going into the formal 2014 election season: I mean, imagine how Obama’s doing elsewhere.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, said the trend is ominous for Obama, because the latest declines come from his base.

Support among California Democrats dropped 8 percentage points to 68 percent over the last three months. Approval was down 11 points in Los Angeles County and 7 points in the Bay Area, usually liberal strongholds.

“These are constituencies that have been strong followers,” DiCamillo said. But there’s “frustration in the president not getting his way in affecting policy in Washington.”

…and the word I bolded there is interesting. At first I thought that either DiCamillo or the reporter who wrote the article got the word wrong: it should be ‘effecting.’  But then I remembered: when a Democratic President is weak* it’s never his fault.  There are a lot of people out there with a vested interest in pretending that Barack Obama is a mere hapless spectator in the legislative process, mostly because then they don’t have to deal with the actual truth.  Which is, of course, that Barack Obama wants to direct the process; he’s just stunningly incompetent at it**. Continue reading Field Poll: Barack Obama’s appeal going sharply downward in California.

R.L. Miller and the California Democratic Establishment’s #waronwomen. #ca26

If you are wondering how it is that Jeff Gorell (R CAND, California-26) is managing to put Julia Brownley in such electoral fear – in California, forsooth! – well, it’s because Brownley is an awful candidate, of course. And she has awful friends, too. Let’s go to the Twitter, shall we?

First off, meet some of Jeff’s supporters.

Continue reading R.L. Miller and the California Democratic Establishment’s #waronwomen. #ca26

Julia Brownley’s (D, CA-26) new campaign slogan: “Erreichen über den Gang für echte Ergebnisse!”

Oh, I’m sorry: I temporarily forgot there for a moment that the official language of this country isn’t German*. As apparently so do did current Democratic incumbent Julia Brownley… at least, that’s the charitable possibility. The more accurate one? Well, let Republican challenger Jeff Gorell explain. Or perhaps just wax wroth:

Statement by Jeff Gorell, candidate for California’s 26th Congressional District, regarding use of foreign or fake military officer photographs in Congresswoman Julia Brownley’s taxpayer-funded government mailers:

“It’s been brought to my attention by concerned local veterans in the 26th Congressional District that Congresswoman Julia Brownley recently sent district voters a mass-mailing funded at taxpayer expense designed to imply that Brownley has the support of local military veterans.”

“Sadly, the overtly political franking mailer proudly portrays an image – next to Brownley’s photo – of an officer in uniform that is NOT a military uniform of any branch of the armed forces of the United States. The emblem in this photo appears to be that of the German Luftwaffe, a German military branch from the mid-1930’s.” (See below)

“The photograph is likely a purchased stock photo of a model in a costume contrived from various emblems to look like an official naval uniform. However it is clearly not an American Navy Uniform, or that of any U.S. military branch.”

Continue reading Julia Brownley’s (D, CA-26) new campaign slogan: “Erreichen über den Gang für echte Ergebnisse!”

Ventura County Dem chair David Atkins screams for Julia Brownley (D) to give back ‘stolen’ money.

Point:

Counter-point:

The Ventura County Democrats apparently believe that Julia Brownley’s  $235,000+ in salary and investment income, which puts her in that top 4%, is the product of theft…

Continue reading Ventura County Dem chair David Atkins screams for Julia Brownley (D) to give back ‘stolen’ money.

Ventura County, CA Democratic chair David Atkins literally rooting for Republican voters to die.

And I am not using the word ‘literally’ incorrectly.

david atkins

Note, by the way, that judging from the aforementioned Fallen quote Mr. Atkins apparently sees himself as a demon.  Which is… fascinating, but I do not have enough of a background in clinical psychology to really analyze that man’s self-image. Although I will note that it’s so easy to go evil, in this thing of ours.  You always have to be careful. Continue reading Ventura County, CA Democratic chair David Atkins literally rooting for Republican voters to die.

Cook Political Report shifts California-26 from Lean D to Toss-up.

This is fallout from last Tuesday’s California primary: freshman Democrat Julia Brownley got 46% of the vote to Republican Jeff Gorell‘s 44%. What should probably worry Brownley more is that the combined total percentage of Republican votes was over 50%.  It was generally not a great night for California’s Democratic candidates:

  • In CA-07 incumbent freshman Democrat Ami Bera is likewise dealing with an environment where Republicans got over 50% of the vote.
  • In CA-16 incumbent Jim Costa has the same problem… which he did not have in 2012.  This race may have more possibilities than we thought.
  • In CA-25 Democrats were locked out of the race to replace Buck McKeon.  That seat is now Safe Republican.
  • In CA-31 the same thing might still happen: one Republican won first place, and the second spot is up to the absentee ballots. If this happens it will mark the second cycle in a row that the jungle primary system has ensured a Republican representative in what is considered to be a Democratic-leaning seat.
  • In CA-52 freshman Democratic incumbent Scott Peters is staring early retirement in the face: he got only 42% of the vote against a field of Republican candidates.
  • And, in general: there is no indication that any sitting incumbent Republicans from California are in trouble in the House this year.

All in all, the GOP is looking more and more like they will not lose any net seats in California this year (I consider CA-31 balanced by CA-52) and may actually pick up a couple.  And the funny part? The Democrats still haven’t seemed to work out how to work with the new top-two primary system. So if you believe that there were shenanigans involved in the post-Census redistricting… then I guess that those shenanigans failed, because the system now seems to be predisposed to punish political parties that can’t maintain ballot discipline..

I know, I know: ain’t it a shame?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Via comments here it’s now looking like the next California controller might have to be a Republican:

Republican David Evans has edged into second place in the seesaw battle for state controller, pushing Democratic Assemblyman John Pérez into third and, at least for now, out of the Nov. 4 general election.

But a report by the secretary of state’s office Friday morning showed that 991,699 ballots remain to be counted across California, making the most recent numbers anything but final.

Numbers released Thursday night show Republican Ashley Swearengin, the mayor of Fresno, leading the race to replace termed-out Democrat John Chiang with 761,108 votes, or 24.6 percent of the ballots cast.

This jungle primary thing just doesn’t stop being funny.