Congressman Tom McClintock recently offered remarks in Washington , D.C. to the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Pacific Research Institute that clearly illustrate why California is facing such a large fiscal mess. His beginning joke is so funny because it is so true:

“I know that everybody likes to poke fun at California – but I can tell you right now that despite all of its problems, California remains one of the best places in the world to build a successful small business. All you have to do is start with a successful large business.”

Here is the rest of the speech:

Laugh if you will, but let me remind you that when these policies finish wrecking California, there are still 49 other states we can all move to -  and yours is one of them.

I should also warn you of the strange sense of déjà-vu that I have every day on the House floor as I watch the same folly and blunders that wrecked California now being passed with reckless abandon in this Congress.

*   We passed a “Cash-for-Clunkers” bill the other day – we did that years ago in California .

*   Doubling the entire debt every five years?  Been there.

*   Increasing spending at unsustainable rates?  Done that..

*   Save-the-Planet-Carbon-Dioxide restrictions?  Got the T-Shirt.

To understand how these policies can utterly destroy an economy and bankrupt a government, you have to remember the Golden State in its Golden Age.

A generation ago, California spent about half what it does today AFTER adjusting for both inflation and population growth.

And yet, we had the finest highway system in the world and the finest public school system in the country.   California offered a FREE university education to every Californian who wanted one.  We produced water and electricity so cheaply that many communities didn’t bother to measure the stuff. Our unemployment rate consistently ran well below the national rate and its diversified economy was nearly recession-proof.

One thing – and one thing only – has changed in those years: public policy.  The political Left gradually gained dominance over California ’s government and has imposed a disastrous agenda of radical and retrograde policies that have destroyed the quality of life that Californians once took for granted.

The Census Bureau reports that in the last two years 2/3 of a million more people have moved out of California than have moved into it.  Many are leaving for the garden spots of Nevada , Arizona and Texas . Think about that.  California is blessed with the most equitable climate in the entire Western Hemisphere; it has the most bountiful resources anywhere in the continental United States; it is poised on the Pacific Rim in a position to dominate world trade for the next century, and yet people are finding a better place to live and work and raise their families in the middle of the Nevada and Arizona and Texas deserts.

I submit to you that no conceivable act of God could wreak such devastation as to turn California into a less desirable place to live than the middle of the Nevada Nuclear Test Range .  Only Acts of Government can do that.  And they have.

You can trace the collapse of California’s economy to several critical events: the rise of environmental Ludditism beginning in 1974; the abandonment of constitutional checks and balances that once constrained spending and borrowing; and the rise of rule by public employee unions .  There are other factors as well: litigation, taxation, illegal immigration – but for the sake of time let me concentrate on the big three.

The first was the rise of environmental Ludditism with the election of a radical new-age leftist named Jerry Brown as governor of the state – an election that also produced overwhelming liberal majorities in both legislative houses.

Like Obama today, Brown lost little time in pursuing his vision of California – an incoherent combination of pastoral simplicity, European socialism and centralized planning.  At the center of this world view was a backward ideology that he called his “era of limits” – the naïve notion that public works were growth inducing and polluting and that stopping the expansion of infrastructure somehow excused government from meeting the needs of an expanding population. Conservation replaced abundance as the chief aim of California ’s public works, and public policy was redirected to developing irresistible incentives for the population to concentrate in dense urban cores rather than to settle in suburban communities. Brown infused his vision into every aspect of public policy, and it is a testament to his thoroughness and tenacity that its basic tenets have dominated the direction of California through both Republican and Democratic administrations.

He cancelled the state’s highway construction program, abandoning many routes in mid-construction.  He cancelled long-planned water projects, conveyance facilities and dams.  He established the California Energy Commission that blocked approval of any significant new generating capacity.  He enacted volumes of environmental regulations that created severe impediments to home and commercial construction, empowering an incipient no-growth movement that began on the most extreme fringe of the environmental cause and quickly spread. This movement reached its zenith with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the enactment of AB 32 and companion legislation in 2006.  This measure gives virtually unchecked authority to the California Air Resources Board to force Draconian reductions in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.

This has dire implications to entire segments of California ’s economy: agriculture, banking, distilling, cargo and passenger transportation, cement production, manufacturing, construction and energy production, to name a few.

We, too, were promised an explosion of “green jobs,” but exactly the opposite has happened.

Up until that bill took effect, California ’s unemployment numbers tracked very closely with the national unemployment rate.  But since then, California ’s unemployment rate began a steady upward divergence from the national jobless figures.  Today, California ’s unemployment rate is more than two points above the national rate and at its highest point since 1941.

The second problem is structural: the collapse of the checks and balances and other constitutional and traditional constraints on government spending and borrowing.

Let me mention a few of them.

The State Supreme Court decision in Serrano v. Priest severed the use of local revenue for local schools and invited the state take-over of public education.  AB 8 of 1979 – the legislature’s response to Proposition 13 – essentially did the same thing to local governments generally.

This means that vast bureaucracies have grown up over the service delivery level, wasting more and more resources while hamstringing teachers in their classrooms, wardens in their prisons and city councils in their towns.

Next, constitutional constraints on fiscal excesses began to fall.  In 1983, Gov. George Deukmejian approved legislation to remove the governor’s ability to make mid-year budget corrections without having to return to the legislature. The loss of this provision exposed the state to chronic deficit spending by removing any ability of the governor to rapidly respond to changing economic conditions. In 1989, Deukmejian sponsored Proposition 111 that destroyed the Gann Spending Limit that had held increases in state spending to inflation and population growth.  If that limit had remained intact, California would be enjoying a budget surplus today.

The disastrous tax increases by Pete Wilson in 1991 and Arnold Schwarzenegger this year were made possible by this tragic blunder. Finally, we’ve watched the constitutional budget process that had produced relatively punctual and relatively balanced budgets for nearly 150 years collapse in favor of an extra-constitutional abomination called the big five.

That new process, that began under Pete Wilson and has culminated under Arnold Schwarzenegger  bypasses the entire legislative deliberative process in favor of an annual deal struck between the governor and legislative leaders behind closed doors and handed to the legislature as a fait accompli.

This short-circuits the separation of powers that is designed to discipline fiscal excess and it literally bargains away the line-item veto authority of the governor..  It is a process that allows legislative leaders to extract concessions from the executive that would not be possible if the separation of powers were maintained. With the checks against excessive spending broken down, borrowing became the preferred method of public finance.  The Constitutional requirement that all taxpayer-supported debt be approved by voters began to erode in the 1930’s, when a depression-era Supreme Court decision allowed the state to run a temporary deficit in the event of an economic down-turn – as long as the shortfall was addressed in the following fiscal year.  This practice was narrowly construed until the Wilson administration began using it to justify spreading out a single year’s budget deficit over several years.

During the 1980’s, Gov. Deukmejian began employing a legal fiction called a “lease revenue bond,” to circumvent constitutionally required voter approval.

Although Proposition 13 still protects property owners from unsustainable increases in their property taxes, most of the other fiscal constraints are now gone, and California has entered a period of unprecedented public debt to finance an unprecedented expansion of state government.

The third factor that also can be traced back to the 1970’s was the radical transformation that took place in the nature and power of the state’s public employee unions.  Until that time, state law prohibited public employee strikes against the public and prohibited collective bargaining or closed shops.

During the Jerry Brown era, a series of collective bargaining acts handed to public sector unions all the rights and powers of private sector unions – but without any of the natural constraints on private sector unions.  The unions soon brought these newly-won powers to bear to elect hand-picked officials to state and local office.

Today, political expenditures by public employee unions exceed all other special interest groups, while they hold compliant majorities in the state legislature and most local agencies.

The result has been radically escalating personnel costs and radically deteriorating performance.

The impact on governmental services has been devastating.  Despite exploding budgets, service delivery is collapsing.  Firing incompetent teachers has become a virtual impossibility, adding to the deterioration of educational quality.  Essential services can no longer be performed because labor costs have made it impossible to sustain those services.

Today, California is like the shopkeeper who leased out too much space, ordered too much inventory, hired too many people and paid them too much.  Every month the shopkeeper covers his shortfalls with borrowing and bookkeeping tricks.  Ultimately, he will reach a tipping point where anything he does makes his situation worse.  Borrowing costs are eating him alive and he’s running out of credit.  Raising prices causes his sales to decline.  And there’s only so much discretionary spending he can cut.

That’s the state’s predicament in a nutshell.  California ’s borrowing costs now exceed the budget of the entire University of California and it is increasingly likely that it will fail to find lenders when it must borrow billions to pay its bills at the end of this month. Ignoring dire warnings, Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislators from both parties earlier this year imposed the biggest state tax increase in American history.

And I can assure you that the Laffer curve is alive and well.  In the first two months after the tax increase took effect, state revenues have plunged 33 percent.

Although there are many obsolete, duplicative or low priority programs and expenditures that the state can – and should – do without, there aren’t enough of them to come anywhere close to closing California ’s deficit.

Sadly, California has reached the terminal stage of a bureaucratic state, where government has become so large and so tangled that it can no longer perform even basic functions.

Fortunately, we have a model that we know works.  A generation ago, it produced a high quality of public service at a much lower cost.  It maximized management flexibility and it required accountability at the service delivery level.  It recognized that only when commerce and enterprise flourish can we finance the basic responsibilities of government.

Restoring this efficiency will require a governor and a legislature with the political will to wrestle control from the public employee unions, dismantle the enormous bureaucracies that have grown up over the service delivery level, decentralize administration and decision making, contract out services that the private sector can provide more efficiently, rescind the recent tax increases that are costing the state money and roll back the regulatory obstacles to productive enterprise.

Alas, we don’t have such leaders and even if we did, the systemic reorganization of the state government can’t be accomplished overnight.  Restructuring the public schools would take at least a year; prisons at least two; and health and welfare three to five years before serious savings could be realized.

This brings us to the fine point of the matter.  What Churchill called history’s “terrible, chilling words” are about to be pronounced on California ’s failed leadership: “too late.”

A federal loan guarantee or bailout may be the only way to buy time for the restructuring of California ’s bureaucracies to take effect, but the discussion remains academic until and unless the state actually adopts the replacement structures, unburdens its shrinking productive sector and presents a credible plan to redeem the state’s crushing debt and looming obligations.

Without these actions, federal intervention will only make California ’s problems worse by postponing reform, continuing unsustainable spending and piling up still more debt.

In short, if California won’t help itself, the federal government cannot, should not and must not.

And before anyone gets too smug at California ’s agony, remember this: Congress is now enacting the same policies at the national level that have caused the collapse of California .  So whistle past this cemetery if you must, but remember the medieval epitaph:  “Remember man as you walk by, as you are now so once was I; as I am now so you will be.” The good news is there is still time for the nation to avoid California ’s fate.  If anything, the collapse of California can at least serve as a morality play for the rest of the nation – unfortunately in the form of a Greek tragedy.

It’s a pretty long read but if you care about America, you will see the direction DC is taking you. I am behind enemy lines so-to-speak, all the stuff that’s going on in the national scene has been going on here for many years….WAKE UP!

Other contributing factors include agencies being staffed with individuals unsympathetic or even hostile to business concerns. Wildly excessive government spending contributes to unpredictable government behavior at the state level and also the local level.

A California blogger has put together a list of 100 businesses that have left California due to the anti-business climate of this state.

The important thing to remember is, when jobs leaves a state with it goes state revenue. All of that revenue that would be spent on education, PD, fire, infrastructure and even the pet projects of the elected officials disappears….So what happens then? THEN the state “Borrows money” to keep doing the same stuff with less money…NOW California is BANKRUPT, and business keep leaving, due to the climate of “Hate the rich, tax the middle, and give to the undeserving”…..

Check this out:
From The Business Relocation Coach

Apparently, No state agency keeps track of enterprises that move out of California or which companies elect to expand in other states even though they are headquartered here. That lack of knowledge is quite convenient for elected officials who deny that state’s anti-business attitudes and policies hurt commercial enterprises. Hence, without a central repository, it’s difficult to determine how many jobs are lost specifically because of California’s unfriendly business environment.

In this blog, I’ve attempted to note facility moves and disinvestments in California on a catch-as-catch can basis based on incomplete media reports. Below is a roundup of activity that I’ve been able to find since I started this blog in July, 2009. This imperfect and incomplete list of 100 moving-out-of-state events is the “tip of the iceberg” about the loss of commercial enterprises in California:

• Abraxis Health, a unit of Los Angeles-based Abraxis BioScience Inc., opened a new plant that will create 200 jobs in 2010 — in Phoenix. This follows the company’s Phoenix expansions that occurred in 2007 and 2008.
• Alza Corp. in 2007 eliminated about 600 jobs in drug R&D while also exiting its Mountain View, Calif., HQ. At the time the company said that its 1,200-person Vacaville facility will continue to operate. But the Vacaville Reporter on Oct. 23, 2009 revealed that the plant is being offered for sale by J&J, its parent company. It’s unclear if more layoffs are in the facility’s future.
• American AVK, a producer of fire hydrants and other water-related products, moved from Fresno to Minden, Nevada.
• American Racing moved its auto-wheel production to Mexico, ending most of its 47-year operation in California.
• Apple Computer has expanded in other states, most recently with a $1 billion facility planned for North Carolina.
• Audix Corporation relocated from Redwood City, Calif., and to accommodate growth moved to a 78,000-square-foot facility in Wilson, Oregon.
• Apria Healthcare Group of Lake Forest is shifting jobs from California to Overland Park, Kansas, a K.C. suburb.
• Assurant Inc. cut 325 jobs in Orange County and consolidated positions in Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina.
• Automobile Club of Southern California placed 1,100 jobs in Texas.
• Barefoot Motors, a small “green” manufacturer, moved from Sonoma and will grow in Ashland, Oregon.
• Bazz Houston Co. located in Garden Grove, has slowly been building a workforce of about 35 people in Tijuana. In early 2010 the company said it expects to move more jobs to Mexico, citing cost and regulatory difficulties in Southern California.
• Beckman Coulter, a biomedical test equipment manufacturer headquartered in Brea, relocated part of its Palo Alto facilities to Indianapolis, Indiana, two years ago. In early 2010, it’s making a multimillion-dollar investment to expand and create up to 100 new jobs in Indiana. The company said the area offers a “favorable business environment and lower total cost of operations, plus a local work force with strong skills in both engineering and manufacturing.”

• Bild Industries Inc., which specializes in business news, directories and market reports, moved to Post Falls, Idaho, from Van Nuys, a part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.
• Bill Miller Engineering, Ltd., suffering under the “hostile business climate” in California and Los Angeles County, moved from Harbor City to Carson City, Nevada.
• BMC Select has conducted an unusual relocation. The company, which had shifted its headquarters from Idaho to San Francisco, relocated its H.Q. back to Boise in January 2010. The building materials distributor said that regaining its footing in Boise retained access to high-quality employees while reducing wage and occupancy costs.
• BPI Labs, which formulates, manufactures, and fills personal care products for the health and beauty industry, relocated from Sacramento to Evanston, Wyoming, a move the company’s owner called “very successful . . . . It felt good and I’ve never looked back.”
• Buck Knives after 62 years in San Diego moved to Post Falls, Idaho.
• CalPortland Cement has announced in late 2009 closure of its Riverside County plant because of new environmental regulations from a state law (AB 32). The company’s CEO wrote, “A cement plant cannot be picked up and moved, but the next new plant probably won’t be built in California meaning more good, high paying manufacturing jobs will be lost to Nevada or China or somewhere.”
• California Casualty Group left San Mateo for Colorado, cutting operating costs to remain competitive.
• CalStar Products Inc., headquartered in Newark, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area, in January 2010 was awarded $2.44 million in federal clean energy tax credits. The company said in the future it expects to build additional plants in the Mississippi Valley and the East Coast. In late 2009 CalStar opened a plant in Caledonia, Wisconsin.
• Checks To-Go moved to Utah where workers’ comp rates helped make the troubled company healthier.
• Chivaroli & Associates, a healthcare-related insurance service based in Westlake Village, Calif., moved a regional office to Spokane, Washington.
• CoreSite, A Carlyle Company, is delaying a Santa Clara project while it expands its data center in Reston, Virginia.
• Creators Syndicate may flee L.A. because it operates like a “banana republic.”
• Creel Printing Left Costa Mesa for Las Vegas and SoCal loses 60 more jobs.
• Dassault Falcon looked at building an aircraft services facility in Riverside County but instead located in Reno.
• DaVita Inc. moved its HQ from Los Angeles to Denver; expects to see millions of dollars in savings over time.
• Denny’s Corp. – the large restaurant chain – once had its headquarters in La Mirada, later in Irvine, Calif, and then moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina. In fairness, I note the move occurred in the early 1990s. However it’s noteworthy because the company was founded in California and its growth over time created HQ jobs in another state.
• Digital Domain, the Academy-Award-winning visual effects studio based in Venice, Calif., placed new studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Port St. Lucie, Florida, which combined will have about 500 employees. The facilities will allow the company to reduce costs while continuing to deliver cutting-edge work.
• Ditech, headquartered in Costa Mesa, announced in January 2010 a 269-job cut and is moving most activities to the GMAC Financial Services (parent company) headquarters in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. In 2007, Ditech relocated some workers from Costa Mesa to Phoenix. A once robust Costa Mesa facility employing hundreds will be down to 20 or 30 workers.
• DuPont Fabros Technology suspended a $270 million Santa Clara data center project in favor of one in Ashburn, Virginia.
• eBay, based in San Jose, will create 450 jobs in Draper, Utah, in a new $334 million operations, customer support and data center.
• EDMO Distributors, Inc., a world-wide wholesaler of aircraft avionics, test equipment, and pilot supplies, moved its HQ from Valencia, Calif., to Spokane Valley, Wash. Since, it has built a larger headquarters in the city’s Mirabeau Point community complex.
• Edwards Lifesciences based in Irvine will expand with 1,000 employees – not in California but in Draper, Utah.
• EMRISE Corp. completed its HQ move from Rancho Cucamonga to Eatontown, NJ, in May 2009. The company said the move “will result in additional annualized cost savings of approximately $1 million and facilitate improvements in operating efficiency. . . . The cost savings associated with relocating our corporate headquarters will start immediately. . . The aggregate total of these expense reductions will increase our profitability and cash flow in this and succeeding years and, over time, substantially improve our ability to further reduce our long term debt.”
• Facebook, based in Palo Alto, will expand in a major way in Oregon by locating a custom data center in Prineville. It will be a 147,000-square-foot facility costing $180 million and will employ 200 workers during construction and another 35 full-time once operating in 2011.
• FallLine Corporation Left Huntington Beach, where they were being “hammered” with multiple governmental regulatory fees, for Reno, Nevada.
• Fidelity National Financial left Santa Barbara for Florida, spurred by California’s “oppressive” business environment.
• First American Corp., based in Santa Ana, will open a call center in March 2010 not in California but in Phoenix, where it expects to employ about 400 people within two years.
• Fluor Corp. moved its global headquarters from Aliso Viejo to Irving, Texas, with about 100 employees asked to relocate while the company planned to hire the same number there. In 2006, when Fluor moved into its new headquarters building, a company statement said: “The official dedication had a decidedly Texas theme” as a horseshoe was raised on the building, a time-honored Texas tradition.
• Foxconn Electronics, a large contract electronics maker, moved some of its Fullerton operations to Dallas.
• Fuel System Solutions moved its headquarters from Santa Ana to New York.
• Gregg Industries, owned by Neenah Enterprises Inc. in Wisconsin, closed a 300-employee foundry in El Monte foundry under pressure from the South Coast Air Quality Management District to make $5 million in upgrades. The company didn’t want to make the investment in the difficult economic climate so it decided instead to leave the state.
• Helix Wind Inc. may move its research and development, engineering, and testing departments from San Diego to “more supportive” Oregon.
• Hewlett-Packard, HQ’d in Palo Alto, at various times has moved jobs to Tennessee and Texas.
• Hilton Hotels Corp. in 2009 is moving from its longtime corporate H.Q. in Beverly Hills to a new office in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
• Hino Motor Manufacturing USA moved from California to Williamstown, West Virginia, in 2007, where it now employs about 100 workers. The company has growth plans to “Raise Hino’s presence from medium-/heavy /heavy-duty trucks to all ranges of trucks” and an aggressive program to improve fuel economy and emissions. The company builds trucks under its own brand and also manufactures Toyota-branded vehicles.
• Intel Corporation, HQ’d in Santa Clara, has chosen to expand operations in neighboring states.
• Intuit of Mountain View created a customer support office (110 people) not in California but in Colorado because of lower operating costs.
• Intuit placed a data center near Quincy, Washington.
• Intuit also located Innovative Merchant Solutions LLC in Las Vegas as part of a $1.8 million investment in Nevada.
• J.C. Penney closed it Sacramento call center and moved the work to five out-of-state centers.
• Kimmie Candy Co., a manufacturer that was started in 1999, moved from Sacramento to Nevada in 2005. “I really don’t have a lot of regrets about moving up to Reno,” said owner Joe Dutra.
• Klaussner Home Furnishings in closing its La Mirada manufacturing plant will maintain its NC and Iowa operations.
• Knight Protective Industries moved to Oregon “where 4-day work weeks were permitted by the state” and wanted by the employees.
• Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. announced in February 2010 that it is closing its Irvine plant, laying off 56 people, and will shift the work to Malaysia and Singapore. The facility had been owned by Orthodyne Electronics Corp., which Kulicke & Soffa bought in 2008.
• LCF Enterprises, which makes specialized high-end amplifiers used by researchers, medical professionals and others, moved from Camarillo, Calif., to Post Falls, Idaho.
• Lennox Hearth Products Inc. in Orange, Calif., will lay off 71 workers and by March 2010 will transfer the jobs to Nashville and Union City, Tennessee, “to reduce costs and increase operating efficiencies.”
• Lyn-Tron, Inc., a supplier of electronic hardware, moved from Los Angeles to Spokane, Wash. Their website has a rather California(ish) statement: “Our commitment is to maintain a manufacturing environment that is progressive and safe, where our employees are able to achieve their personal objectives, thereby adding to their quality of life and to the community in which they live.”
• Mariah Power, a “green” manufacturer of small wind turbines, moved from California to Nevada and in 2009 teamed up with another company to begin production in Manistee, Michigan.
• Maxwell America, a boating equipment maker, in February 2010 closed its Santa Ana offices and moved them to Hanover, Md. One reason given was the indirect impact of California environmental regulations. A company official said over the years many California boat builders relocated to the Midwest and East where they don’t face the same restrictions.
• MiaSolé, based in the Silicon Valley, was reported in January 2010 to be planning a 500,000-square-foot plant, which could be one of the largest solar factories in the United States. The location is not near its in Santa Clara headquarters but in the Atlanta, Georgia, area where its workforce eventually could exceed 1,000. The news came one week after MiaSolé received $101.8 million in federal tax credits.
• MotorVac Technologies announced in February 2010 that it’s leaving Santa Ana for Ontario, Canada. MotorVac’s CEO said he “really fought hard to keep MotorVac here, but unfortunately the numbers didn’t support it.” The move cuts costs because it’s new owner, UView, has its own plant with excess capacity in Canada. “And the general cost of doing business in California is much more expensive.”
• Nissan North America moved its Los Angeles headquarters to Nashville, Tenn.
• Northrop Grumman by 2011 will relocate its Los Angeles H.Q. to the Washington, DC metro area. It’s the last major aerospace company to leave Southern California, the birthplace of the aerospace industry.
• One2Believe, a specialty religious-toy maker, left California for East Aurora, New York.
• Patmont Motor Werks, Inc. (GoPed manufacturer), after being hit by California regulators for hundreds of thousands of dollars in small fines even though his company has a stellar safety record, moved to Nevada.
• Paragon Relocation Resources moved from Rancho Santa Margarita to Irving, Texas.
• Pixel Magic, headquartered in Toluca Lake, Calif., (Los Angeles metro area), is locating a studio in Lafayette, Louisiana, where it will create 40 new jobs between 2010 and 2013. The company, which provides digital effects for motion pictures and television, said the Louisiana people they were in contact with have an immediate understanding of technology and data handling.
• Plastic Model Engineering, Inc., a custom plastic injection molder and mold manufacturer, moved from Sylmar, Calif. to the “Inland Northwest,” notably Post Falls, Idaho.
• Precor will stop manufacturing fitness machines in California and re-open in North Carolina.
• Premier Inc., the largest healthcare alliance in the nation, will move its HQ from San Diego to Charlotte, involving an investment of $17.7 million and adding 300 jobs in North Carolina. The announcement was made Oct. 14, 2009.
• Pro Cal of South Gate, in Los Angeles County, a unit of Myers Industries, expanded its Sparks, Nev., operations to become the company’s primary West Coast production and distribution facility. Pro Cal is a plastics manufacturer of nursery containers and a big recycler.
• Race Track Chaplaincy of America started 2010 by shifting its headquarters from Los Angeles to Lexington, Kentucky. The non-profit group said it had wanted to relocate from the Hollywood Park Race Track for several reasons, one of which is the significant cost of doing business on the West Coast.
• Red Truck Fire & Safety Company left Fresno for Minden, Nevada in 2007 because of California’s myriad fees and regulations that meant “death by thousand cuts.”
• SAIC will move its headquarters east, from San Diego to McLean, Virgina, which the Washington Post called “Another Coup for Area.” The announcement was made Sept. 24, 2009; it is unclear how many employees will move east in 2009 and 2010.
• Scale Computing, a data-storage developer and manufacturer, is leaving Silicon Valley for Indiana.
• Schott Solar Inc. will close its sales and customer service office in Roseville and will relocate the office to Albuquerque, NM.
• SimpleTech transferred its manufacturing work from Santa Ana to Asia more than a year ago.
• Smiley Industries, an aerospace manufacturer, moved to Phoenix, where productivity improved.
• Solaicx, based in the Silicon Valley, said in early 2010 that it will expand its manufacturing plant in Portland, Oregon. Solaicx received $18.2 million in federal tax credits as part of Washington’s efforts to advance green energy.
• SolarWorld, a maker of solar technology founded in Camarillo, consolidated manufacturing in Oregon after that state offered property tax abatement and business energy tax credits. The company will employ about 1,000 in Oregon by 2011.
• Special Devices Inc. brought 250 jobs to Mesa, Arizona, from Moorpark, Calif.
• StarKist headquarters is leaving San Francisco for Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Stasis Engineering moved from Sonoma County to West Virginia, a “friendlier business climate.”
• Stata Corp., which specializes in data analysis and statistical software, moved from Santa Monica, California to College Station, Texas.
• Tapmatic, a metalworking firm whose owners were “fed up with the onerous business environment,” moved from Orange County, California to Post Falls in northern Idaho.
• Teledesic moved to Washington state in anticipation of better capital gains.
• Telmar Network Technology Inc. moved from Irvine to Plano, Texas, consolidating some 150 workers there.
• Terremark postponed a Santa Clara project earlier this year to invest $50 million in a Culpeper, Va. project.
• Terumo Cardiovascular Systems is moving R&D from OC to Ann Arbor, Michigan, involving 65 jobs and $3.5 million in investments.
• Toyota will stop making cars in Fremont, will idle 4,700 workers, and move work to Canada and San Antonio, Texas.
• True Games Interactive Inc. will its H.Q. from Irvine to Austin, Texas, where it expects to have about 60 workers by the middle of 2010.
• TTM Technologies will leave L.A. & Hayward and move to other states and China to achieve big cost savings.
• Twentieth Century Props of L.A. has gone out of business as film-making has moved to lower-cost states.
• Understand.com moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Reno, a loss for California in that the company is a leader in web-based patient education content and shows strong growth. The company was named 2007 Innovator of the Year by a Northern publication and the company’s founder and received a media and Reno-Tahoe Young Professionals Network “20 Under 40” award and was selected as a 20/20 Business Visionary by Nevada Business Magazine.
• US Airways is realigning operations and California is no longer considered part of its “core.” The airline is closing its John Wayne Airport maintenance station and in early 2010 will redistribute the mechanics across its system.
• US Press shifted work from Los Angeles and San Diego to Portland, “where union rules were almost rational.”
• USAA Insurance closed its 625-person Sacramento campus in favor of other states.
• Yahoo opened a data center in Quincy, Washington, a community that now hopes to land high-tech manufacturing.

The list will grow as Sacramento considers more measures that will increase corporate taxes, increase workers’ comp costs, increase regulatory reporting requirements (along with higher fines for minor infractions), increase gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes, increase water rates, increase electric-power rates, and increase assorted fees that will cause services to become more expensive.

Tell me is there any wonder this state is collapsing? DO you see anything similar with DC and California? Take a look at the leadership of BOTH since 2006….Then pair that with what is happening now….I’ll wait. IF you still don’t see the resemblance there is no hope for you.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has now identified with certainty the heaviest element known to science.

The new element, Pelosium (PL), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.  These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Pelosium is inert, and has no charge and no magnetism. Nevertheless, it can be detected because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Pelosium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Pelosium has a normal half-life of 2 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a biennial reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. Pelosium mass will increase over time, since each reorganization will promote many morons to become isodopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Pelosium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalyzed with money, Pelosium becomes Senatorium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Pelosium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

:rotflmao: :rotflmao:

Anti-Graffiti Plan Raises Stakes for Homeowners

Looking to prevent your home from becoming a tagger’s canvas? The city of LA has a plan that asks homeowners to pitch in or pay — whether they want to or not.

All new buildings in Los Angeles — including homes — must have anti-graffiti coating under an ordinance approved unanimously by the City Council on Tuesday. Homes in the tagThere is an exception if the owners promise to remove any graffiti on their property soon after it appears.

The ordinance will take effect 30 days after being signed by the mayor.

The anti-graffiti coating must cover the walls and doors from the ground to a height of at least nine feet. The coating is mandated on all buildings, unless owners sign a “Covenant and Agreement Regarding Maintenance of Building (Graffiti Removal)” with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.

Now this is a problem near and dear to my heart. I’ve been involved with my local PD, the City Council, the School board and community neighborhood watch. We have put a serious dent in the graffiti in our area, it’s not gone but there are many more days where you see NONE, than days where you see it. We did it and continue to do it by making a few simple changes to the law and by patrolling the area regularly as well as quick removal when it happens. What we don’t do is make the business/homeowner the bad guy….

What we did was in the city limits an arrested graffiti vandal’s parents get the bill for any and all vandalism he commits….This has been as large 15k, it has also resulted in a couple of deportations of illegal immigrants. When the PD come knocking on a door of a vandal they come with a warrant, often they find practice canvases in and around the house that match the vandals tags. This makes prosecution a snap. The city offers a reward for the arrest of these morons and my wife and I have put a couple hundred bucks in our pockets catching them.

We take pictures and catalog “Tags” and gang symbols….Then we either paint it over or sand blast it off.. The city has made it a priority to have it removed within 24 hours, and locally we carry spray paint and camera’s… We take a pic and paint it over immediately. The tagger/gangmember never gets to see his work…They generally move somewhere else less aggressive.

See I love to hunt, and since deer and pig hunting are somewhat seasonal, taggers and gangbangers are open season all year and I don’t have to buy a permit. Yes Fred, I’m better at catching these idiots than killin river bottom hogs, the hogs are smarter….Anyway… :rollingeyes:

What the city of LA is doing is basically a tax hike for homeowners, they are giving up trying to catch the morons with paint and are going to punish the very people that bring revenue into the city….Smart huh? If I was a home builder in LA, I’d move. IF I was going to buy a home, it sure as hell wouldn’t be LA.

Antonio Villiargosa is a typical libturd politician, he is an elitist, he is a tax and spend liberal and it’s killing the city. The city is slum anyway and as long as they can keep giving everything to the welfare slugs, and the illegal aliens they will have an ample supply of DEMOCRAT voters and thereby solidifying the end of a great state…

A deficit spending spree in a time of world economic collapse.

Unemployment rates at almost 10% (avg) but some states are seeing 15 to 20%

Gas and food prices soaring.

North Korea on one of our most revered holidays sent a couple of messeges to Obama tied to short range missles.

Iran experienced an internal riot, and continue on the path to Nuclear ability Oh and they have already said they will wipe out another country.

The DOW has lost over 7% since June, which should speak loudly about how investors and job creators see our countries leadership.

The BIGGEST single state economy is BANKRUPT and offering IOU’s to it’s creditors.

There is more but there is really no need to go on…

AND the OBAMA aministration is worried about “Climate Change” that is a code word for liberals that says “Global warming is ALL man made” which is a fart in a stiff wind. There are MORE scientist against the Al Gore theory now than there ever have been. AND yet that’s the “Priority” with this idiot in chief? WTF..

Oh yeah and then there is “Health Care” which will also increase taxes…Both of these issues that Obama is pressing are going to KILL businesses, Which in case you libtards don’t know are the BIGGEST givers to Charity, when the taxes cut into profits things get cut.. LABOR is usually the highest cost of business so where do you think the cust happen first? You got it yet? Fuckin idiots!

There goes America folks right into the abyss and headed the way of California. Enjoy the ride and arm up, it’s going to be a target rich environment when the shit hits the fan.

The reason I say that is, when you get such a culture switch as California has endured over the past 30 years, you end up with an area that resembles what the immigrants left. Take a look at LA. Mayor Antonio Villiaragosa is as corrupt as any politician in Mexico. Look at the education system, the health care system of California is a clear cut case of a good idea entrapped by corruption. in 1986 Reagan granted Amnesty to the Illegal Immigrants that were here already with a promise to curb the flood of future illegals. That didn’t happen, so now we have the “Original Illegals” that have MULTIPLIED and destroyed what little infrastructure was left, including Education, and Health-Care. On top of that we have the next generation of illegal’s waiting for Obama to grant Amnesty,  so they can follow in the foot steps of their forefathers….Now; for the first time in my life I am very worried for our nation. I honestly believe we are headed down the road to ruin.

When the IOU’s quit being honored, possibly as soon as July 11th, there will be an explosion in California that will have consequences from coast to coast. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of nutjobs to go around in this state, and they are ALL NOT MEXICAN, but if you look at a few undeniable stats like “Welfare recipients” and “Prison racial breakdowns” as well as education statistics. Facts are facts. Look it up. Look at the hispanic UPTICK that corresponds with the state “Downturn”. Look at who raises the biggest stink when there is mention of school performance measures… They say it’s not fair, it’s because the classes are too big, or whatever….ITS THE EXPLOSION IN MEXICAN NATIONALS that has created that “Environment”…

I am not being racist because I notice the obvious, if you are offended it’s because you are in denial of the obvious.

So you ask how do you fix it? Let me tell you how easy it is. YOU QUIT MAKING IT EASY! Americans are people that overcome hardship, Americans are people that deal with things, find sollutions and get better, Americans USED to do that. NOW in California, if you don’t speak english, we make it easy for you, we make those that don’t speak spanish listen to a bi-lingual teacher re-read an assignment in spanish for you. We have signs in spanish we have everything for you so you really have no reason to learn english… Everyone suffers for that kindness. We have made an entire generation of immigrants into drooling zombies (Better known as Democrat voters) by allowing them the ability to remain MEXICANS first, rather than TRUE Americans, that believe in GOD, Family and Country. The new generation believes in “Gang, 40’s, and Ho’s” there is no “Patriotism” other than on Cinco De Mayo for the most part. Now there is one caveat.. ALL Mexican’s do not deserve this rant, if you are a hard working family, including your kids, you speak english, you don’t fly your Mexican flag and you consider yourself AMERICAN first… This rant is not about you or anyone like you. ITs about those that have sucked the life out of California by being what they left.

(/end rant)

2. Over Regulation. You look at the resources and possibility for employers to call California home, yet why do they leave? They leave because of Cal EPA, they leave because of Cal OSHA they leave because of the taxes levied on them they leave because of the HIGH cost of employing people. Our State Government is punishing the very folks it needs. They make really cute commercials showing how wonderful it is here…BUT they leave out the real reason we have the nations highest unemployment rate. REGULATIONS. The wonderful beaches, are HOMELESS encampments for the most part the mountains are great for “Green stuff” like Hiking and skiing but try to go hunting and fishing, or try to show your kids how to live off the land and see how much red tape you have to go through. Try to get a business license for something around here and you will see real quick why business are again EXITING STAGE RIGHT>

3. Crime rates, recividism, and the lack of public outrage when laws were passed regarding personal rights. When the Anti-Gun morons in California decided to pass these “Little” laws that didn’t really affect “ME” at the time were enacted, then there was a small outrage. It was the NRA that made their voces heard in Sacramento but they had little support in the form of public outrage. We simply kept working, kept enjoying the scenery and kept looking out for “Numero uno”….NOW we can’t buy much more than a pea shooter or we can buy it but only after CONSTITUTIONALLY ILLEGAL Government intrusion. We must submit to countless privacy invasion, now they are going to stamp ammo…any outrage yet?
So Sacramento has successfully restricted INNOCENT LAW ABIDING CALIFORNIA citizens in their right to self preservation, you then make laws and judgments that give the criminals advantages in courts. Oh and lets not forget their treatment behind bars, cable tv, weight rooms and “Networking Opportunities” that make the small time criminal come out stronger, more street smart and more well connected than when he went in. And then for shits and giggles lets take a few more cops off the streets when budgets need cutting….

4. When Arnie took office I HAD HOPE! That soon faded after I realized that he had NO HELP in the state house, he tried some good things and it was HAMMERED by the libtard elites, the very powerful unions and the ever present ACLU and LA-RAZA folks. they were able to stop a lot of plans Arnie had when he first took office that MAY have allowed CALIFORNIA to remain above this HISTORY MAKING DEBT! He had good ideas that would have stopped some of the illegal immigration SUCKING at the state teet. He had business friendly ideas he touted on his campaign to oust Davis, He had tried and true REAGAN type common sense sollutions to the problem of businesses leaving. WELL that didn’t last long, the Kennedy hand up his ass was obviously very strong and it took his nuts and turned them into small grapes…(Either that or steroids) So here we are— FUCT.

So for those of you not in California, stay tuned.. this will be interesting. Trust me, IF/When the shit does hit the fan, you will know I’m knee deep in the middle of it by the body count on roads headed South East.  First SOB tries to get in my way ends up on my bumper like a deer carcas….

Let me lay out the Propositions and how I am voting:

Proposition 1-A: THE “RAINY DAY” BUDGET STABILIZATION FUND -NO
A plan that is a bait and switch by the elite power brokers in Sacramento, this will cause taxes to be INCREASED. It proposes to limit future deficits by increasing the State’s ‘rainy day’ fund,” but it would also exact “higher state tax revenues of roughly $16 billion.” Yes, Proposition 1-A is nothing less than the authorization of a massive tax increase to deposit in a state “reserve.. California had a big reserve and could have one again if it addressed some of the real issues, like the BILLIONS of dollars annually being sucked out of the coffers by the illegal immigrants and their 3.5 kids apiece. (I’ll never vote for another tax increase as long as long as the Illegal Immigrant issue is overlooked)

Proposition 1-B: EDUCATION FUNDING. PAYMENT PLAN-NO

This is another wonderful proposition and it’s basically saying that YOU and I need to pay more so the teachers union doesn’t lose revenue. I love the teachers and think they are underpaid, BUT I also think enough is enough. You are getting paid by the state for asses in seats, over half of the asses in the seats are from Illegal Immigrants, maybe not all now, but the ones that have come in since prop 187 as passed and then overturned in the courts. IF those seats were empty your class sizes would be smaller, your work load less and  the need to build more schools would be non existent.

Proposition 1-C: LOTTERY MODERNIZATION ACT-NO

A shell game, it is arm twisting the creditors and adding more taxes to players and of course the lottery was supposed to benefit education….but every year there seems to be a problem with educational funding….Hmm perhaps a union is behind this??? Hell No on this too.

Proposition 1-D: CHILDREN’S SERVICES FUNDING-NO

The California Legislature imposed a tax on cigarettes a few years back  for early childhood programs. Now, here is that same Legislature telling you that it wants to move that money around in whatever way it sees fit. Time to reign in the reckless fucknozzles and tell them NO MORE!

Proposition 1-E: MENTAL HEALTH FUNDING.-NO
TEMPORARY REALLOCATION

Californians voted in 2004 to provide funds for specific mental health services. It was called Proposition 63. Now comes the Legislature to undo the work of the supporters of Proposition 63 by getting what they hope is a forgetful public to take money from that purpose and give it over to another purpose. Typical of the con men running this state… all we are seeing in these props are shell games and bait and switch.

Proposition 1-F: ELECTED OFFICIALS’ SALARIES. PREVENTS PAY INCREASES DURING BUDGET DEFICIT YEARS-NO

This is hilarious, what do you think will happen if you prevent pay increases if the budget isn’t balanced? You will get a balanced budget on the backs of the working class every year! We will see quicker hand ringing than this year.. the RINO’s that actually fought tax increases and didn’t back down will be much quicker to back down if their wallet is tied to their vote….I say screw and hit the NO button on all of them.

The real TEA party voice starts in California, not because we as a state are conservative or liberal or Dem or Rep, it’s because WE ARE TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY! and we get to vote our voices TODAY! Let the idiots in Sacramento hear you California.

On the way up to Idylwild

On our first hike we went to Black Mountain, they have a fire lookout tower that is staffed by volunteers. We were the first visitors of the season.

On the way up to the tower

View from the tower

Base of the tower

Looking from the cabin living room over the deck

Deck friends

The next day we did a short 5.5 mile hike on very scenic trail. The trail was mostly shaded and all down hill, unfortunately it was all up hill on the way back…

Second day hike

Thursday we decided to really push ourselves and we decided to take on “Devils slide Trail” The trail is only 2.7 miles but it’s all uphill to the saddle.

Start of Devils slide trail.

Devils slide trail looking at suicide rock

Natural bridge near the top of trail.

At the saddle.

The one thing we noticed about Idylwild was the Obama fans, the bumper stickers for Obama or against the war or against Bush….Well, I figured it was my place to call attention to the facts…So my “Keep the change” bumper sticker, and my “Buck Ofama” writing in the dust on my back windshield started many looks but for some reason no one challenged my views in person…Damn Shame too…

I could retire up there no problem, it’s very peacefull during the week. On the weekends it gets a little busy but it’s not Big Bear and there is hunting allowed in some areas near there… All in all a great trip.

Local listeners to KFI-am-640 have been treated to the John and Ken show, those guys are loaded for bear over the RINO’s in California. WE have an abundance of RINO’s around here and when the population of ANY species gets too big for the land to handle it must be dealt with. RINO’s are known to trample on common sense, they destroy HONOR, they eat all the available cash crop to grow their own coffers. They are a menace to society and we must hunt them down and remove them from any leadership position. Heads on a stick so to speak, it’s time for us to unite, and recall all those that do not live up to their stated CONSERVATIVE values. IF they classify as RINO’s they need to be REMOVED ASAP!…

This is a public service announcement for Californians.

Arnie Swarzenegger needs to be removed ASAP he has always been a RINO and perhaps the most RINO like EVER!

Recall ABEL MALDONADO

Vote out Anthony Adams and Jeff Miller.

This is a good start but there are also the 3 idiots that voted for the STICK-IT-TO-US in the DC senate.

My question is what the hell are those doing the right thing getting out of the “New Deal”? Those of us that didn’t over-extend, those that didn’t take all the equity out of our homes, those that made sacrifices to keep our jobs, those that don’t expect others to pay for OUR mistakes, those that obey the law and DON’T Work the system?

It seems to me those of us in California are getting the shaft, not only NOW but we will be on the hook come payback time too.

What I’ve seen in California is, we are getting gas taxes raised 12 cents, we are getting sales taxes, raised car tax, registration tax, and all kinds of good tax hikes. We are also going to accept money from the feds in the stimulus package. So what I see is Obama is giving me the working, law abiding, pay my bills on time, make good decisions so I don’t affect others lives a 13 dollar a paycheck raise. And Arnie is taking about 25 dollars a paycheck in taxes. so I am actually going to end up in the hole 12 bucks a paycheck now, and much more later, thanks but no thanks I woant out of this new deal.

All those that are in favor of this fucking stimulus bill need to ask yourself a question. IF GWB would have pushed this would you have supported it? and if so would you still support it after you found out NOBODY read it except Newt Gingrich the author? That is what we got, we got Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid crafting the bill and Obama signing it. NO ONE ELSE READ THE BILL, only now are we finding out what’s in it.

Here is a bit of common sense that might make you go HUMMMM….

This whole mess started with the housing bubble, the Democrat assertion is that “Bad lenders duped the Homebuyers” How does that happen? For starters it happens when YOU DON’T READ WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING! Ummmm What does Congress do? Votes for shit they don’t even read.

Here’s another Congress douchebagery original, Today they find out the Post Office CEO is making a TON of cash, they voted the position a pay raise “in order to get the best talent available in the market place” YET they are putting a cap on Bank and Car Company CEO’s pay? Ummm helllo Bueller?

The dumbing down of America is complete, thank liberals for the de-education of our nation. I have never wished for an all out civil war but right now I think one is needed, it might be the only way we get our country back.