State of the State - Coming soon to 2009

On Thursday, the governor is going to give his next State of the State address. I'm not sure I want to hear it, although I probably should just so I can know what is going on. Surely he'll say something about the terrible mess this state is in. What is budget deficit at now, 40 million? More? Less? I don't know. It's scary. It's frightening. Most people don't seem to care. Someone who has a talk radio show said most people wanted to talk about the pastor at Obama's inauguration, Rick Warren and not the budget. Sad. I'll admit it, I don't like Rick Warren. He's said some horrible things about gays, evolution, atheists, and others. However, he has said global warming is a problem which is a huge thing for an evangelical to admit. He's respected by many people (usually those I call stupid, but I need to learn to be nice) and is a big influence. Obama has said he wants to respect other view points and that includes the evangelical.

When people are included in something and treated with respect, they tend to be nicer about things. Maybe even amenable to change. When you cut someone off, well really, do you think the are going to listen to what you say? Probably not, they'll just ignore you and continue believe their beliefs. (yes, I do realize I could learn a lot from myself, but I'm not a good enough person to do it. Maybe Obama is). None the less, he is going to be the pastor at the inauguration, but he's not going to be making any political decisions. He's not going to even have a say. So why not let Obama respect someone who is different then him and go about his way making good decisions. He's done really interesting things, like putting people who know something about an area in charge of an area. For example, look at the appointment for the head of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Jane Lubchenco whose research interests include biodiversity, climate change, sustainability science and the state of the oceans. Oh look, someone who knows something about the administration she runs. Odd that.

Back to the whole budget thing. I don't think the pastor is that big of a deal, I think the budget is more so, but it seems that most people in California don't agree. In fact, they think this whole meltdown is good because it will get rid of the waste in the system. Of course, no one mentions what that waste is. Seriously, the state is actually a pretty lean system. Yes, there are some people over paid, but does the private sector do any better? Hmm, millions for CEOs that destroy their business vs. a few extra hundreds of thousands of dollars here and there. Yes, there are problems with our government. I could tell stories about the bureaucracy we have to go through, but overall, people do a lot of work for little money.

I think we are going to see what happens when we don't pay for public services. No medicare, medicaid, environmental regulations etc. Do you want to know if that restaurant you're eating in is clean. Not likely to happen without a state working checking up on it once in a while. Firefighter, police, prison guards, public education, roads, bridges that don't fall in an earthquake, parks, beaches, etc. All these are good things, and so quickly we forget how they are paid for.

I don't know what's going to happen. I'm upset about our governor, and not just about the budget. Did you hear about the layoffs? Yea, we did to (I have to work from home on those days). But we didn't not hear anything about how it was going to be done, when started etc. until the Sacramento Bee printed the story. Then all of the sudden the governor started sending out letters about what was going to happen to us. Thanks mr. S, that makes me feel so appreciated.

And worst of all are the comments people put on the Sacbee website. They are angry, hateful, and ignorant. Everybody blames the Democrats of course. It's all their fault since they are in charge of the legislature (No mention of the person in charge of the whole state). No body is willing to give up anything to help close the budget shortfall. "I didn't cause it so I don't need to pay." B.S. We all caused it and we all need to pay. I really want to find out how much the average person paid in taxes for the past ten years and see if it has gone up or down. I think that would be interesting.

Well, I guess that is enough complaining for now. Wait till tomorrow. :-)