Friday, November 9, 2012

California Comebacks: First Steve Jobs, Now Jerry Brown

Of all the state election results across the nation, few can top the shocking good sense of California voters in approving temporary tax increases to raise $6 billion a year to shore up the state’s tattered public schools and university system. That’s right: There were voters in these hard times agreeing to be taxed despite the “no new taxes” mantra of simplistic conservative politicians.

"The ballot measure, Proposition 30, was an audacious gamble by Gov. Jerry Brown".
Just about everyone knows the Steve Jobs comeback story, but just about everyone outside of California has forgotten that Jerry Brown had already served two terms as Governor of California, leaving office the first time in 1983. After that it was all downhill for a long while. He was defeated in his 1982 run for the Senate, and then failed in his third and last bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination, that time against Bill Clinton.
Then in 1999, Brown began his climb back up the political ladder, winning two terms as Mayor of Oakland, and one as California Attorney General, before winning a third term as Governor in 2011.
Jobs will no doubt remain the most popular California comeback hero, but even though I'm a faithful Mac user since 1984 I believe that Brown deserves just as high a place in public esteem thanks to what he has accomplished in this election.
Let's hope that California will once again lead the way, and that voters nationwide will remember that it's worthwhile to pay higher taxes in order to maintain essential public services.
(The above quotations are from today's NYTimes editorial, "Californians Say Yes to Taxes".)

Posted via email from FRauncher's posterous

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Simon Johnson: The Importance of Elizabeth Warren - NYTimes.com

One of the most important results on Tuesday was the election of Elizabeth Warren as United States senator from Massachusetts. Her victory matters not only because it helps the Democrats keep control of the Senate but also because Ms. Warren has a track record of speaking truth to authority on financial issues – both to officials in Washington and to powerful people on Wall Street.

This comes from Simon Johnson: The Importance of Elizabeth Warren - NYTimes.com.
I wonder if she could be a serious contender for President in 2016. Too honest, I suppose

Posted via email from FRauncher's posterous

Get Used to it T-Party, The Real America is No longer in the Boondocks

No, you cannot have your country back. America is moving forward.

That’s the message voters sent the Republican Party and its Tea Party wing Tuesday night when they re-elected President Obama and strengthened the Democrats’ control of the Senate.

No amount of outside money or voter suppression or fear mongering or lying — and there was a ton of each — was enough to blunt that message.

President Obama and his formidable campaign machine out-performed the Republicans, holding together a winning coalition that is the face of America’s tomorrow: young voters, urban voters, racially and ethnically diverse voters and women voters.

The "Real America", imperfect as it may be, is no longer on a mid American lily-white farm, or in a small town in the hinterland. The Real America is now in the cities and their suburbs. Even those mythical family farms of yore are now owned by millionaires or big corporations. Get used to it Tea Partiers!

Posted via email from FRauncher's posterous