Comments on: Schwarzenegger Finally Learns: Freedom Is Profitable, Statism Starves

By: Californian

Californian — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 05:50:04 +0000

Okay so it sounds like Arnold is getting a clue! He has made California so hostile to business no wonder CA has one of the highest unemployment rates.

Hopefully Arnold will get some “balls” and open the CA coast up to drilling. In the past Arnold has taken the easy way out when dealing with the unions by bending over and grabbing his ankles. I hope that will change.

By: Jim Baker

Jim Baker — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 02:40:42 +0000

Steve,
First, it must be nice to be doing volunteer work. I still have to support my family with my work. I am wondering what proven damage has been done to the environment through the exploitation of the Jonah play and through the BLMs leasing of government land? Other than an explosion of the sage grouse population, what would be gained by not using BLM land in Colorado and Wyoming and who would gain what?
There isn’t even a baseline for what an ideal environment would be. Is it an environment that doesn’t change? Is it an environment free of humanity? What year was it, when everything in the environment was just right for all the plants and wildlife, and should we attempt to recreate that ideal because we are such experts on how it was ideal? We can’t even predict tomorrow’s weather accurately, so how do we have a complete knowledge of mother nature? Try this on. Humans are part of nature. Who can even say how that fits into the ideal big scheme of the enviroment. See, I don’t even buy into the first premise of political environmentalism, which is to claim that there is a big crisis that mother earth must be saved by yet another species which has no understanding of the why of its own existence. But now I am digressing. By the way, I just spent my weekend in Wyoming, and I highly recommend the Snowy Mountains for their beauty. But bring along a lot of $5 bills, the government is now charging fees to use the picnic grounds. I guess the federal government is broke, just like like California, eh? I just thought I would throw in something related to this blog and just for fun.

whyyeseyec,
No offense, but please don’t consider Colorado. It doesn’t have any beaches anyway, eh. I’m just saying….

By: whyyeseyec

whyyeseyec — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:45:34 +0000

Forget it. Arnold can`t get anything done now. It`s too late. This should have been the 1st thing he did upon taking office in 2003. He chose to throw in his lot with the evil Dems and look where we stand.

To add insult to injury, Calif voters will elect a dem governor in 2010 thus hastening their already certain demise.

I am making plans to leave the state soon. I will take my family, my business and my education to another state that appreciates hard work and independence…..

By: SteveB/Colorado

SteveB/Colorado — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:19:31 +0000

#67 Jim Baker: “….now there are several friends of the environment organizations who use these hearings as a mechanism to restrict energy exploration whenever possible….” Actually, that’s not a bad idea. BLM is supposed to be governed by the principles of multiple use (Federal Land Policy Management Act-1976). But when some BLM field offices are approaching 80-90% of the land being leased, that’s not multiple use. Extensive development in Wyoming (Pinedale, Jonah) has clearly been proven to have an adverse impact on wildlife. Which is one reason why some of those friends of the environment groups you mention are historically conservative hunter and angler groups. Hunting & fishing is a big part of the economy of western Colorado and is being adversely impacted by all the energy development.

Those who thought they were discussing a California issue thread can learn something from the discussion between Jim & myself. These energy issues are far more complex than “drill, baby, drill.”

You asked my business: I presently engage in volunteer work in the outdoor education and recreation field. I’ve been active in the field for 25+ years. And yes, I do look beyond the quarterly lease sales.

By: Marc Malone

Marc Malone — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:12:51 +0000

What could Ah-nohld do? Does he not have state of emergency powers. It’s what Pawlenty did in MN, while the legislature was on vacay. He simply de-funded programs. That’s just one example.

Ah-nohld could go over the legislature’s heads to the people; make his case directly. He could convene a committee of top economists to figure a way out, then use his star power to sell the plan. He could name names as to who is blocking reform attempts. There are any number of things he could do.

By: JimBaker

JimBaker — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:51:52 +0000

Glad to hear that you arrived from a conservative state Steve. I might also simplistically guess that, because you came from Indiana my assertion about Colorado’s demographics is refuted.
Colorado cut taxes AND spent billions rebuilding I-25 during the last Republican administration. I might use the tax we already have on gasoline to work on roads and bridges. Deny that a fee is a tax, but who gets the money? You and me?
Finally, my job in the energy industry is to put together seismic data so the best places to drill can be found. I have friends who work to acquire those BLM leases you mention, as well as other leases, and they universally report that the leasing side of things is becoming increasingly more difficult. The BLM now holds many public hearings before any BLM property gets listed for mineral permit. The difficulty is that now there are several, friends of the environment, organizations who use these hearings as a mechanism to restrict energy exploration whenever possible. The legal shenanigans can be unlimited in some of these cases. I’m not saying that is a necessarily bad situation, but I am saying that maybe you should look a little beyond quarterly reports to see how things get done over at the BLM. By the way, what business do you work in?

By: raybojabo

raybojabo — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:12:00 +0000

Arnold needs to hire Sarah Palin as a consultant to get this thing done right.

By: SteveB/Colorado

SteveB/Colorado — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:04:58 +0000

#49 Jim Baker: “If you are a Colorado citizen like I am…..” Yes, I have lived in Colorado for 28 years, and no, I didn’t come from California. I came from the conservative state of Indiana.

Yes, Colorado has trended Democrat in recent elections. But to attribute that to an influx of Californians is simplistic at best. Republicans in the state squandered their political capital on such things as tax cuts without thinking of impact on services, like road repair and building new prisons; social issues like gay marriage; while ignoring impending budget traps. As for the fees and registration increases that you call tax increases, just how would you pay for new & repaired roads and bridges?

Finally, you asked me to clarify the energy industry getting special favors. I never said anything about “special favors.” What I said was that industry has gotten what they want over the past 8 years. I’ve tracked the quarterly BLM energy lease sales; have you?

By: whyamInotsurprised?

whyamInotsurprised? — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:33:39 +0000

#24 Jeff … read #41 CJ – he has it right.

Ahnuld turned out to be more of a girlie man than even he imagined but the truth is he didn’t have much to work with. The retards that hold all the offices in Ca. blocked his efforts at reform and well, there isn’t much you can do unless you resort to Barry-like tactics and totally disregard the rule of law. That said, it is up to the citizenry to climb out of their ignorant “do-gooder” stupor and figure out that they are slitting their own throats by leaving these clowns in office.

As for the oil drilling, $2 billion over 14 years, yawn! Get serious. When the oil starts flowing there should be some serious tax revenues to help the government deficit BUT, and it is a BIG BUT, SPENDING has got to stop!

By: Old One

Old One — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:30:15 +0000

The hubris possessed left and liberals will never let go of their current monopoly on power in either California or Washington until they have created a complete economic and social collapse and are forcefully driven from power by the enraged citizenry. The complete meltdown in California is now well underway and will follow soon in the rest of the country.
The inevitable results of such a collapse nationally will not be unlike that which transpired in Germany 1919 through 1926 and anyone who has ever studied real history, not the marxist lunacy being rammed down young American’s throats by leftists and their usefulidiot teacher & professoriat commisars and dupes know what happened in Germany 1929-1945.
California has been in a slow motion meltdown since the the late 1950 that bean during the reign of Fat Pat Edmund Brown and later accelerated under his misbegotten son Jerry the Fairy.
The state was has been a gerrymander produced dictatorship of liberal democrats since the 1962 reapportionment with the democorrupts fiscally feeding a burgeoning army of welfare heavily criminal welfare parasites while nourishing legions of an ever expanding sinivelling counter-productive bloated bureaucacy.
A cabal of welfare recipients, a KGB of manipulatve and avaricious government employee unions with an insatiable appetite for tax revenues legally and electorally supported by the trial lawyer brigands, multi-millionaire funded envirowackos all of whom have fed the easily procured democrats seeking campaign moneyy have delivered the state to economic ruin.
California with less than 13% of he nation’s populaton has 32% of the the country’s welfare recipients and the highest paid state employees in the nation earning nearly double the average wage of workers in the private sector. We have more than twice the number of lawyers found in European nation with twice California’s population.
California may be bankrupt but its legions of bureauweenies continues to expand at the ceaseless rate of 44 per day 365 days a year. Meanwhile state revenues from personal income taxes, sales and corporate taxes continue to crater as unemployemnt rises. At the same time lawyering envirowackos and judicial actviists judges have shut off irrigation water to the state’s farmers to “save” a minnow.
I too like other commentors, a native born Californian am counting the months to my exit when my third generation Californian wife retires and we can flee to Texas with the gold we have purchased and then for Mexico to escape Maobama’s planned health care shut off of senior citizen via euthanasia holocaust as the the entire nation disintegrates economically in a tsunami of Argentina style hyper-inflation.