Category Archives: stimulus package

This Week in Conejo Valley Politics, April 26, 2009

Gavin Newsom declared his candidacy for governor and war on Jerry Brown, who also wants the job. Newsom is San Francisco’s mayor; Brown, attorney general. Other candidates hedged or failed to declare their candidacies during the Democrats’ state convention in Sacramento.

State Senator Fran Pavley said to vote yes on Props 1A-F in an editorial in the Ventura County Star.  They aren’t perfect, but the alternative is worse, she said.

Sue Broidy is the new director of Region 10 for Democrats in Ventura County. She has been successful at increasing Democratic voter turnout, supporters say. Thus began the last days of Elton Gallegly’s tenure as congressman.

The Thousand Oaks Police Department is now using Twitter. Now you can follow the low-speed car chases from Leisure Village to the botanical gardens in real time.

This website warned you last week: water prices are rising. It’s true.  The Thousand Oaks City Council decided “in concept” to establish a tiered fee system.  You will also have to water your lawn less often.

A retired sheriff’s deputy wants to alleviate the pain of suffering people by opening a cannabis shop. Westlake Village says no. It will not permit a medical marijuana dispensary to open in the city. It is against our zoning ordinances, say officials.

Who needs math and English teachers anyway? Even after dipping into a rainy day fund, the Conejo Valley Unified School District board will have to cut its budget by about $5 million. Anticipate larger classes and fewer teachers and counselors. The board hopes for federal stimulus dollars.

Despite tea parties, the Thousand Oaks City Council is also eager to get federal stimulus money. It wants about $40 million to undertake various projects, mostly related to water and the glamorous topic of sewage. These have to completed within 2 years.

Cows and humans have 80% of their genes in common, say scientists who unraveled the bovine genome. This explains why some people vote Republican.

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The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

“At any rate I’ll never go there again!” said Alice, as she picked her way through the wood. “It’s the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!”

And so it was. Just when we thought the Republican Party could not embarrass itself any more than it already has, it did.

They were called tea parties.

Fancying themselves patriots, Republicans, mad as hell that they lost the presidential election after having squandered the last eight years, held tea parties throughout the nation this week.

Brian Dennert, brave blogger that he is, waded into one yesterday, armed with his intellect and a video camera. Here are the results:

On one hand, it is good to see that there are people who care enough about public policy to take to the streets in protest. These ladies are charming in their earnestness, in their friendliness to the interviewer, and in their willingness to speak their minds.

On the other hand, it is appalling to see such a display of uninformed right-wing paranoia. The common thread of all these tea party events was this feeling of persecution on the part of Republicans. They posed as the afflicted minority, asserting that they were deeply offended by all of this taxation.

One cannot help but point out that we can thank the Texan-in-chief, former president George W. Bush, for much of the deficit we currently have. He left office with a $482 billion deficit under his oversize belt buckle.

Speaking of Texans, no tea party can be complete without its Mad Hatter. This is where the new Texan-in-Chief, Governor Rick Perry, steps in. Did people really vote for this guy?


Apparently so. He’s continuing the Bush tradition of all-nonsense politics admirably.

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, incidentally, is this:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

These lines are, along with the Second Amendment, conservatives’ favorites. The Tenth Amendment was used to justify segregation during the 1960s. Hitch your wagon to a star, Governor Perry.

Governor Rick Perry of Texas holds forth on the virtues of the Tenth Amendment.

Governor Rick Perry of Texas holds forth on the virtues of the Tenth Amendment.