moonbeam – Moe Lane

Will Gov. Moonbeam have a Ronnie Raygun moment? #OWS

Title chosen with malice aforethought. The OWS is not exactly known for liking the Gipper.

You gotta wonder whether Governor Moonbeam (known mundanely as Jerry Brown) is going to intervene in the current situation in Oakland. Short version: the city of Oakland is tired of the rat-infested squatting being done by the Occupiers, and wants them gone. Well, the city wants them to stop camping overnight. This is a fairly reasonable request, which means that I expect that the Occupiers are going to fight it, tooth and dirty nail. Possibly literally: you just don’t know how that crowd is going to react, once they realize that they’re spinning their wheels and the movement gets distilled down to the fanatics.

The reason that I wonder whether Gov. Brown is going to intervene is that he used to be the mayor of Oakland. And do you know how he dealt with rioters, back in the day? Continue reading Will Gov. Moonbeam have a Ronnie Raygun moment? #OWS

Sympathy for the Moonbeam.

While the rest of the country is focused on Arizona, California remains in a bit of a fix – and by ‘fix’ I mean ‘rampaging financial crisis.’ The state needs to come up with twenty five billion dollars to handle its budget shortfall, and incoming Governor Brown has decided to split the baby* in the new budget. He’s proposed 12.5 billion in spending cuts and 12 billion in tax hikes. Said tax hikes will take the form of extensions on current tax rates (which will need to be ratified by the voters in a June vote; the spending cuts will hit everywhere except K-12 education & prison guards (which are represented by two lobbying groups that were heavy supporters of Brown). But the controversy over that may pale in comparison to Brown’s proposed elimination of redevelopment agencies, which is currently having the same effect on local governments as a thrown rock does, right after it impacts the hornet’s nest. No doubt more controversy, objections, push-back, push-push-back, and scenes of torch-bearing mobs are all to follow.

All in all, I’m glad that I’m not Governor of California – and, truthfully, there’s a certain relief in the notion that I’m not obligated to give the Governor of California advice on how to fix his state’s long-time financial woes. I will, anyway** – I’m that nice a guy – but I don’t have to, and arguably the state of California has already made it clear that fiscal conservatism is not welcome over there. Which is their privilege: but it means that all I have left to offer is a certain rough sympathy. Which, for what it’s worth, I extend.

Moe Lane

Continue reading Sympathy for the Moonbeam.

CA GOV: Moonbeam COULDN’T fire aide making ‘whore’ comment…

…because the technical term here would be ‘divorce.’

Yes. Fox News reports that the source of the misogynist attack is now alleged to be no less than Anne Gust Brown herself, who is both wife and campaign aide to Jerry Brown. This is ‘alleged’ because there is some indication that this may be, of all things, a deliberate attempt by the Brown campaign to fix blame on the one person that cannot be fired or reprimanded by the candidate… because how can somebody go after one’s own wife*? And what makes this so stereotypically… well, Democratic… is that there’s a hint – just a hint – that Moonbeam himself may have uttered (or at least repeated) the slur in the confusion. Which, if true, means that Brown is making his wife take the fall for his own vicious, anti-woman attitudes.

Yeah. That’s one big hero that the Democrats have running over there in California. I’d suggest that Californians ask him about this, but Brown’s reportedly canceled all of his public appearances until the next debate.

As I said: one big hero.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Yes, definitely, Meg Whitman for Governor. Aren’t you tired of THOSE PEOPLE yet?

*Although Sanford Bishop (D, GA-02) certainly managed. Relatedly: Mike Keown for Congress.