"It's starting again... there's no shelter from the wind! Like a fire from the sky-- Winds Of Change Are Blowing BY!" --from "Winds Of Change" by Jefferson Starship

Here it is, wintertime. Though next Monday marks the Winter Solstice, you can feel that Demiter has gone below to stay with Hades in his non-air conditioned abode on the River Styx. The cold day temperatures, wet stuff from the skies, and increase in traffic accidents should clue you in that it's time to ditch the Speedos and haul out the heavy coats.

And what changes will come down this winter? If you are recieving SSI, Medi-Cal, or General Relief? Your bennies are about to become Mako chum, if the Assembly Republicans have their way in the budget battle. I read in the U-T that the 'Pubs have submitted their own version of a state budget. It basicly repeats a mantra first heard in Mel Brooks' "History Of The World Part I": "F--- THE POOR!" Already, the Governator and the Assembly Dems are giving the one-fingered salute to this idea...and Boy Howdy, it deserves it! Besides ripping the guts out of the programs that help our most vulnerable citizens?

The 'Pubs also want to "relax" workplace safety and compensation laws. As in pull a "Sneaky Pete" Wilson and do away with overtime compensation, safety rules, and other protections in the name of "Making California Competitive." Gee whiskers, Scrooge, does that mean also chopping our Minimum Wage Law to the FEDERAL level, as Ahnold tried to pull on state workers? Don't bet against it!

The fact of the matter here is that the Assembly Republicans are still living in a fantasy world, where the Free Enterprise system provides for all willing to take the Corporate Hose between their gleuts...and punishes without mercy those who refuse the injection. To these unkind folks, the idea of raising tax rates...even to repair and restock governmental coffers that have naught but a penny inside...smack of heresy and blasphemy.

But against which God is it blasphemous to raise tax rates?

The one "True God' that these "sick 'pubbies" truly hold fealty to...HOWARD JARVIS! Forget "Reagan" as their "one true leader"...it's Uncle Howie, the greed-sotted alkie who brought us "Proposition Thirteen" (now known as the Jarvis-Gann Amendment to the California State Constitution). When Jarvis-Gann was passed by the voters in 1979, it was passed with much fanfare and huzzahing, and lauded as "the shape of things to come."

In a way, the Jarvis-Gann supporters were right...for it did show the shape on things to come--as in something wicked this way comes! Within four years, California's cities and counties were feeling the effects of the unholy hellride that had just begun! Nobody was safe, and it soon became "Everyone for themselves...you're on your own!"

And here we are today. The Winds Of Change have blown us upon the rocks of possible State bankruptcy. Folks are losing jobs by the tankerload. Funds are being chopped...and diverted to those who need them the least. And yet, the Assembly "Pubs still drink their 1979-vintage Jonestown Kill-Aid and refuse to do what is right for all Californians, not just for those who contributed to their campaigns. The lesson is very clear. Every Assembly Republican should be targeted by the voters for removal...either via recall, or during the primary elections coming up next year.

For how California goes, so goes every Californian. If you still kow-tow at the shrine of Howard Jarvis and drink from the chalice of sacaremental Jonestown Kill-Aid? You had best open your eyes, Bubba, and see what your false god has unleashed upon the rest of us. Then stick a freaking crowbar into your wallet and start paying your share!

For your "God of Tax Cuts and Tax Fighting" is merely a "God of Greed." And to counter-paraphrase Gordon Gekko: "Greed Ain't Good!" --RKJ