(Xinhua) -- Caliphornia Governor Jerry Governor Moonbeam Brown ... those who ignore history are bound to repeat it ... on Friday ordered all state agencies and departments to immediately halt new car purchases and turn in taxpayer-funded cars that are not essential to state business, in an effort to cut the state's passenger vehicle fleet in half.
Brown, who took office 25 days ago for the third term as the governor, asked agencies and departments to analyze the purpose, necessity and cost-effectiveness of every fleet vehicle, and submit a plan for cutting unneeded vehicles.
In addition, he also directed every agency secretary and department director to immediately review their organization's home storage permits and withdraw those that are not essential or cost-effective.
"There is a lot of wasteful spending on cars that aren't even driven," Brown said. "And we can't afford to spend taxpayer money on new cars while Caliphornia faces such a massive deficit."
"Fifty percent is a starting point. If we find more waste, we'll make more cuts," he added.
Non-essential vehicles must be sold or transferred within 120 days of the plan's approval, according to his plan.
The Democratic governor, who has taken from his Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a state with a staggering fiscal deficit of 25 to 30 billion dollars and a huge public debt, hoped to halve the number of the state's passenger cars, trucks and home storage permits - which allow state employees to use passenger cars for their daily commute.
Employees involving in public health and safety and some others may not be negatively affected by the order.
The governor will also move underutilized vehicles to new locations, so that the fleet is more efficient overall.
Caliphornia has approximately 11,000 passenger cars and trucks in the state fleet, and approximately 4,500 home storage permits that don't serve a health or public safety function,the Department of General Services estimates.
Earlier this month, Brown also ordered state agency and department heads to collect and turn in 48,000 government-paid cell phones.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
...that are not essential to state business...
But they're all essential. Every car. Every program. Civilization will end without 'em. Don't you know. And if you don't the Party Control Media will fill every minute of broadcast and every column of print telling you so. Sob stories in 4....3....2... (you heartless bastards) /sarc off
#2
Jerry Brown has also cited Egypt unrest to make case for tax hikes! I'm sure that will work. I expect to see rioting in California before long. Brown continues the same old same old policies...and problems.
#5
In Mass. they have stopped referring to state employees who don't need to come in during snowstorms, rain, sunny Fridays in summertime and Mondays after the big game as "non-essential" and now refer to them as "non-emergency personnel."
There is also a study out that predicts Mass. will be the first state to declare bankruptcy.
Of course pension benefits still flow under bankruptcy.
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/01/2011 14:48 Comments ||
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#6
Heh, heh. Thanks for that, Goodluck. I thought it had been forgotten so I didn't bother to Google it. But then I read the article at the link and there was mention of one of Brown's more infamous proteges, Adriana Gianturco. That brought back all kinds of bile. Gianturco was Brown's Director of Transportation (CalTrans). She was the one who came up with the idea of the Diamond Lane. She was the epitome of arrogance. I'll never forgive Brown for turning that woman loose on the people of this state. That and his opposition to Proposition 13 were two of the biggest sins a politician could commit.
#7
I love the carpool lanes. I couldn't drive around without them. I think the toll lanes are one of the greatest sins a politician could commit. It's all just perspective, lol. You either need passengers or you need lots of money.
MARK COLVIN: What does that depend on? Who will make the decision as to what is critical infrastructure?
TIM WU: This new organisation created by Congress will make the decisions and no one quite knows, the bill is quite vague; it's just their mission to try and decide what critical infrastructure is and no one quite knows what they'll come up with.
MARK COLVIN: So Congress won't have a say in it? Obama: Who?
TIM WU: No Congress is delegating the power to this new agency.
MARK COLVIN: And when the president decides to cut off the internet, whether it's in certain areas or right across the country, will Congress have any say in that?
TIM WU: No it's all done by the president. Obama: Durn tootin'!
MARK COLVIN: And is there any judicial review; can the Supreme Court look at it? Obama: They're in my pocket, anyway.
TIM WU: No, it's just the president. It's almost a quasi-military thing to declare a quarantine you know fire the bolts and then everything that is supposedly critical infrastructure is separate from the internet.
It's a very interesting kind of thing; it's like, I don't know what the analogy would be but if you can imagine the safe room and then all of the sudden you jettison the rest of the world and all the critical infrastructure is separated all in one instant, that's the idea and it's not a process and it's just the president's decision.
MARK COLVIN: People have seen what happens when a country shuts down the internet in Egypt in the last week or so. Has there been a huge outcry in America about this?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/01/2011 15:30 ||
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WASHINGTON -- Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus took the job with $23 million in debt and cut a third of the staff he inherited from his predecessor, the controversial and gaffe-prone Michael Steele.
In year-end federal finance reports on Monday, the GOP central committee showed that $2 million of its debt came during Steele's final two weeks as he sought to keep hold of his chairmanship. The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, reported a continued fraction of that debt but had enough cash in the bank to pay off the loans immediately.
"While the year-end FEC report reveals the Republican National Committee is $21 million in debt, I believe it is best to get out all the facts as we know them associated with our financial position," Priebus said. "To date, the committee has approximately $23 million in debt: $15 million in loans and $8 million owed to vendors."
Priebus, a former Steele ally who unseated him, campaigned for the chairmanship promising to get the RNC's finances in order heading into the 2012 presidential elections. With Republicans hoping to limit President Barack Obama to a single term, committee staffers are overhauling the operation that is expected to have millions in donor dollars and a national campaign-in-waiting ready to hand the eventual nominee, as well as help other Republicans running for office.
If they listened to their former conservative base, the Tea Party, they would have money in their bank account. The Republican "Establishment" doesn't look so respectful after all.
(Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack B.O. Obama said Friday that his signature healthcare law is not perfect and "needs a tweak," but it does not mean "refight the battles of the last two years."
"I believe that anything can be improved. As we work to implement it, there are going to be times where we say, you know what, this needs a tweak, this isn't working exactly as intended, exactly the way we want," Obama said at Families USA Health Action conference in Washington, D.C.
He was basically echoing what he said in the State of the Union address Tuesday night, when he promised to work with Republicans to improve the law but offered few details on how to make it better.
"I'm willing to work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to make care better or to make their health care more affordable," he reiterated.
One of the most likely things that may gain bipartisan support in redoing the reform law is a tax-reporting provision deeply unpopular with business.
"I've even suggested we begin by correcting what was a legitimate concern, a flaw, in the legislation that placed unnecessary bookkeeping burdens on small businesses," he said.
Obama also said he is open to ideas including patient safety innovations and medical malpractice reform.
Republicans have been vowing to "repeal and replace" the healthcare law, which Obama signed in March last year. They have already pushed the repeal bill through the House of Representatives, where they recaptured control in November's midterm elections. But the bill is almost surely to die in the Senate, which is still in the hands of Democrats.
"I am not willing to just refight the battles of the last two years. I'm not open to efforts that will take this law apart without considering the lives and the livelihoods that hang in the balance," said the president.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Hopefully there is nothing left to tweak after the courts are done.
#3
"Obama says healthcare law "needs a tweak" "is a freak".
FIFY.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/01/2011 5:49 Comments ||
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#4
Seems it was rushed through so fast, they forgot to add the severability clause. In so doing, the law is either all constitutional, or not all all. If it was severable, one or more portions of the 2,000 page bill could have been struck down, but leaving the rest in place.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/01/2011 5:59 Comments ||
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#5
The hilarious part is that when all is said and done, Obama may end up doing more to *end* socialism in the US than any president since "Ol' Frank" started it in earnest.
Essential to Obamacare was the destruction of both Medicaid and Medicare, and so far it has gone much of the way to destroying those two. But then, if Obamacare is thrown out by the courts, there will be *no* major system of socialized government health care.
The only thing that could stand in his way is if the Republicans do something insanely stupid, like trying to restore Medicare and Medicaid. If they can just be prevented from doing this, America will be freed of two of its biggest millstones dragging it underwater.
#8
Tweak? Maybe someone needs to have a little talk with TOTUS. That unconstitutional mandate is central to Obamacare. There's no tweaking your way out of this one.
And he wasted the first two years of his presidency shoving that crap down our throats instead of dealing with the economy.
He and his enire pack of idiot advisors, czars and in-pocket politicians need to go.
#9
The Florida Judge that struck down Obamacare was appointed by Reagon. Obama has been channeling Reagon in the media the past couple of weeks. I reckon that séance stopped yesterday, real quick like.
#10
Tweaked? That law needs to be dragged out in front of Congress, shot and strung up as a warning to other bills that might want to be unconstitutional, socialist crap.
#14
It looks like the Zero Administration will ignore the recent court action against Obamacare, as if it never happened. If they can stall the court process, by the time the issue does get to the Supreme Court, Zero will have appointed a couple more communists to that level, and he'll be in like Flynn.
Even if the Supreme Court acts immediately on this issue, I don't have a lot of faith in their rectitude. After all, the USSC approved FDR's seizure of private gold without just compensation and invalidated gold clauses in contracts, both obviously unconstitutional then & now. Those old-time justices were by & large appointed by Republicans.
Zero's only proper way out is to file an appeal and seek a stay of the judgment. Either that or order his many minions (IRS, HHS, etc.) to cease to carry out Obamacare until the issue is settled. If he doesn't do one or the other, Articles of Impeachment should immediately be acted on by the Congress. Those gutless wonders won't do that either.
#15
The current implementation of Section 8, Article I, of the Constitution concerning the militia is found in Title X, United States Code, Subtitle A, PART I, CHAPTER 13 -
311. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
- emphasis added, because some people like to ignore the implications. The 'draft' is a misnomer of the selective activation of the unorganized militia.
#16
The Doctor has prescribed a Tweak
tweak [twiːk]
vb (tr)
1. to twist, jerk, or pinch with a sharp or sudden movement to tweak someone's nose
2. (Engineering / Automotive Engineering) Motor racing slang to tune (a car or engine) for peak performance
3. Informal to make a minor alteration
n
1. an instance of tweaking
2. Informal a minor alteration
[Old English twiccian; related to Old High German zwecchōn; see twitch]
tweaky adj
#18
Medicare payments to Doctors have been cut forcing more and more to refuse to see Medicare patients. Wonder why the AARP has been flooding the airwaves with Medicare Supplimental Insurance adds? As payments continue to drop medicare patients have to find othe sources of money. Th AARP sells suplimental insurance to cover these costs and in the process makes more money.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/01/2011 19:55 Comments ||
Top||
#19
Our Pharaoh, aka Kenyan Komrad Kommisar, aka Chi-Town Mau Mau Spear-chuckin' Commie pacifist CinC, say 'dat, "We need some tweakin'!" We needs refinement and 'mo sensitivity
Posted by: pan ||
02/01/2011 22:18 Comments ||
Top||
#20
He be so special......Here's one for our Awlmightie
potus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS0P7w4YCDI
Posted by: pan ||
02/01/2011 22:49 Comments ||
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#21
Saying that Obumblecare needs a tweak
is like saying
the Titanic needed a bilge pump......
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Xinhua) -- 
(Xinhua) -- U.S. President 
The Florida Judge that struck down Obamacare was appointed by Reagon. Obama has been channeling Reagon in the media the past couple of weeks. I reckon that séance stopped yesterday, real quick like. 
