Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Profiles In Douchebaggery



After Gov. Arnold Schnitzel's final State of the State speech in early January, he and Darrell Steinbutthole wallowed in self-congratulation despite the obvious inabilities to even balance the budget. I've learned that such delusional mutual congratulation is not an isolated incident, but the norm for the Sacholes.

As the picture above depicts, here is a recent example of circle jerking: The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum bestowed its John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to four California legislative leaders who attempted to fix the state's never-ending budget crisis by embracing a budget that raised taxes on all Californians - despite the recession and people losing their jobs/homes.

Granted, the JFK library is in Boston, but its press release quoting Caroline Kennedy (cousin of Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver-what a coincidence) captured the self-congratulatory tone common in Sacramento:

"Faced with the most difficult choices and a budget crisis of unprecedented magnitude, these legislative leaders had the courage to negotiate a compromise that they felt was in the public's best interest. They did so knowing they would suffer the wrath of their constituents, powerful interest groups, and their own party members. The members of the Profile in Courage Award Committee (Arnold and Maria) chose to herald this story of political courage and bipartisan compromise with the hope that it will inspire other elected officials facing similar challenges to stand up with courage, to cross party lines, and to do whatever is necessary to better serve the public interest."

Heres my Twitter update, OMG!!!!

The honorees are state Sen. Dave Cogdill and Ass-man Mike Villines, both Republicans, and Sen. Steinberg and Ass-woman Karen Bass, both Democrats. (but all are liars, thieves, whores and cheats)

The two Republicans were ousted from their party leadership roles for violating the GOP's stance against tax increases, so perhaps that could be described in some ways as showing a bit of courage, although I would never use the word courage to describe doing the wrong thing. And besides, its not like they lost their homes or money.

California has ridiculously high tax rates, and its government is wildly awry in waste, yet Cogdill and Villines thought it better to take more money from the people who work hard and pay the bills than to challenge their allies in the state bureaucracies.

Maybe someone can explain this to me, but it's not clear how courageous it was for the two Democrats to endorse the tax increases, given that the state's Democratic Party is committed to few things other than raising taxes in order to pay for a state government that spends more than it takes in.

The state began issuing high-interest IOUs to vendors in lieu of payment. In 2010, California's budget problems still go largely unresolved. California has been officially ranked dead last among the 50 states on fiscal health according to the PEW (good name for it) association.

No elected officials here are interested in tough choices. They like to give puffed up speeches and rub/oil each other on the butts while talking about all their courage and tough-mindedness.
Anthony Adams of Hesperia, another tax-supporting Republican, use the word courage to describe his own vote. He purposely dodged a recall effort and announced that he won't seek re-election, this way, at least he has a story to tell himself and his grandkids to justify his moronic budget vote.

Lets not forget, former Speaker, Karen "Buzz cut" Bass as she gave new meaning to the word courage when, as the Los Angeles Times reported, "In one of her last acts as speaker of the state Assembly, Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) quietly doled out 10 percent pay raises and promotions to 20 of her staff members."
She did this against a backdrop of state worker furloughs and budget deficits. But if one defines courage as merely doing something that will anger many people, as the JFK folks seem to do, then former Speaker Bass had courage.

And the new speaker, John A. Perez, well, he has courage, too, in case you were worried about a courage deficit during this change of power.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Perez "handed out pay increases or promotions totaling nearly $132,000 per year the day he was sworn in this month, including a $65,000 raise to his chief of staff."

Hey where's my award? for having the courage to not mail all of them some of my feces?

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