California - The Death Spiral State

Thank you, Bill Clinton!

Your open doors immigration policy successfully turned California into a one-party state and opened the door to the kind of ridiculous situation where California Democrats can continue to serve in the Senate after being convicted of corruption.

Besides laws are for the little people:

California State Senator Roderick Wright has been found guilty of living outside his Inglewood district when he successfully ran for his state seat in 2008.

Wright was found guilty by a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury who deliberated less than two days before finding the Senator guilty of eight counts, including two counts of perjury, one count of filing a false declaration of candidacy and five counts of fraudulent voting in elections in 2008 and 2009, all felonies.

If a private company did this, it would used an example of insane corporate greed...

But since it's only your government - and government means "us" ...except for the part about where "we" share the insane profits reaped by the Harry Reid family - It is hunky-dory.

Over the last two or three decades, the Bureau has squeezed the ranchers in southern Nevada by limiting the acres on which their cattle can graze, reducing the number of cattle that can be on federal land, and charging grazing fees for the ever-diminishing privilege. The effect of these restrictions has been to drive the ranchers out of business. Formerly, there were dozens of ranches in the area where Bundy operates. Now, his ranch is the only one. When Bundy refused to pay grazing fees beginning in around 1993, he said something to the effect of, they are supposed to be charging me a fee for managing the land and all they are doing is trying to manage me out of business. Why should I pay them for that?

And:

But the connection is nevertheless important in two respects. First, BLM has promulgated a regional mitigation strategy for the environmental impacts of the solar developments. Let’s pause on that for a moment: the excuse for limiting Bundy’s rights is the endangered desert tortoise. But wait! Don’t they have desert tortoises a few miles away where the solar projects are being built? Of course they do. That’s where they get to the mitigation strategy, which may involve, among other things, moving some desert tortoises to a new location:

The Gold Butte ACEC is preliminarily recommended as the best recipient location for regional mitigation from the Dry Lake SEZ. This ACEC is located 32 miles (51 km) east of the Dry Lake SEZ.

Gold Butte is the area where Bundy ranches. There are a few problems with the Gold Butte location as a mitigation area; one of them is that there are “trespassing” cattle:

The resource values found in the Gold Butte ACEC are threatened by: unauthorized activities, including off-road vehicle use, illegal dumping, and trespass livestock grazing; wildfire; and weed infestation.

So it is possible that the federal government is driving Bundy off federal lands to make way for mitigation activities that enable the solar energy development to the north. But I don’t think it is necessary to go there. Rather–this is the second and more important point–it is obvious that some activities are favored by the Obama administration’s BLM, and others are disfavored. The favored developments include solar and wind projects. No surprise there: the developers of such projects are invariably major Democratic Party donors. Wind and solar energy survive only by virtue of federal subsidies, so influencing people like Barack Obama and Harry Reid is fundamental to the developers’ business plans. Ranchers, on the other hand, ask nothing from the federal government other than the continuation of their historic rights. It is a safe bet that Cliven Bundy is not an Obama or Reid contributor.

The new head of the BLM is a former Reid staffer. Presumably he was placed in his current position on Reid’s recommendation. Harry Reid is known to be a corrupt politician, one who has gotten wealthy on a public employee’s salary, in part, at least, by benefiting from sweetheart real estate deals. Does Harry Reid now control more than 80% of the territory of Nevada? If you need federal authority to conduct business in Nevada–which is overwhelmingly probable–do you need to pay a bribe to Harry Reid or a member of his family to get that permission? Why is it that the BLM is deeply concerned about desert tortoises when it comes to ranchers, but couldn’t care less when the solar power developers from China come calling? Environmentalists have asked this question. Does the difference lie in the fact that Cliven Bundy has never contributed to an Obama or Reid campaign, or paid a bribe to Reid or a member of his family?

Based on the evidence, I would say: yes, that is probably the difference. When the desert tortoises balance out, Occam’s razor tells us that the distinction is political.

So let’s have some sympathy for Cliven Bundy and his family. They don’t have a chance on the law, because under the Endangered Species Act and many other federal statutes, the agencies are always in the right. And their way of life is one that, frankly, is on the outs. They don’t develop apps. They don’t ask for food stamps. It probably has never occurred to them to bribe a politician. They don’t subsist by virtue of government subsidies or regulations that hamstring competitors. They aren’t illegal immigrants. They have never even gone to law school. So what possible place is there for the Bundys in the Age of Obama?//

The Party of Use Your Money to Keep Their Lifestyle

Instapundit observes:

SHOCKER: Chelsea Clinton Mother-in-Law Used Charity for Personal Gain: Dem congressional candidate took six-figure salary, leased mansion as head of taxpayer-funded charity.

Well, it takes a lot of money to stand up for the poor against the exploitative rich.

Now that everyone knows he's a crook, the media decides to report on it.

Apparently, it's no longer in their interest to protect him.

//The Chronicle review of his voting record in the Legislature, where he is currently in his 12th year, shows more than 30 instances dating back to 2003 where he cast votes that were arguably counter to his stated positions or the interests of his constituents in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, and then received large campaign contributions from the industries that benefited. Those included chemical, oil and insurance companies, campaign contribution records show.

Laws are for the little people...

...or white males...

...or something.

Democrat Attorney General Shuts Down Corruption Investigation After Catching Democrats Accepting Cash Bribes, Because Racism

In 2010, when he was still attorney general of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, now its Republican governor, launched a corruption investigation targeting politicians in Philadelphia. The operation caught at least four of them, all Democrats, allegedly accepting bribes of cash and gifts adding up to at least $18,000. But after Democrat Kathleen Kane was elected attorney general in 2012, she reportedly shut down the investigation. Via The Inquirer of Philadelphia:

In a statement to The Inquirer on Friday, Kane called the investigation poorly conceived, badly managed, and tainted by racism, saying it had targeted African Americans.

Those who favored the sting believe Kane killed a solid investigation, led by experienced prosecutor Frank G. Fina, that had ensnared several public officials and had the potential to capture more. They said they were outraged at Kane's allegation that race had played a role in the case.

According to The Inquirer, prosecutors collected hundreds of hours of audio and video tape of the Democrats accepting bribes in the stings that the attorney general’s office ran. Sources close to the investigation also insist that the sting targeted both Democrats and Republicans, but that only Democrats were interested in learning more about the opportunity for corruption.

The investigation relied on lobbyist Tyron Ali, who reportedly agreed to wear a wire after being arrested for fraud. When Kane nixed the investigation, the attorney general’s office secretly dropped charges against Ali. The four politicians reportedly caught taking bribes were state representatives Louise Bishop (District 192), Vanessa Brown (District 190), Michelle Brownlee (District 195), and Ronald Waters (District 191). A now former traffic court judge, Thomasine Tynes, was also accused of accepting a Tiffany’s bracelet and not reporting it. According to The Inquirer, Waters said he may have gotten something for his birthday (the tape reportedly shows him accepting cash from Ali on his birthday), Brown declined to talk about the allegations, Brownlee claimed she couldn’t remember whether she took a bribe or not, while Bishop denied the allegation. The Inquirer has more on what the four said here.

It’s not just a race card Kane played. She appears to have played the gender card too. A statement from her office claimed reporting on the kyboshed investigation amounted to “nothing more than the Good Ol’ Boys club playing political games to discredit me.” It sounds like Kane’s fitting right into that club. Read The Inquirer’s whole report here.