California Roundup: Broken Teabag; Feeble Computer Excuse; No Pot For You!

* Tea Party foofaraw that dominated the news this weekend centers on Sacramento's own Mark Williams. But wait! Is there really a central Tea Party government that can expel him? And is talk radio washout Williams a true tea party leader or just one of Randolph Bourne's ambitious and aggressive classes in search of a bigger role in the destiny of the world?

* Even the L.A. Times doesn't believe Controller John Chiang's punchcard excuse for not instituting minimum wage for state workers.

* L.A. County Sheriff Lee "the System Is the Consciousness" Baca says he needs more money for drugs.

* Democrats find a tax they can't support: State Party stands as neuter on Prop 19, the legalize-and-tax-pot initiative.

* CalPERS board president Rob Feckner responds to criticisms, claims Reason and Stanford "conjured" the fund's half-trillion-dollar liability. This is in response to Adam B. Summers "How California's Public Pension System Broke and How to Fix It." [pdf]

Comments

[Max]

I'm already dripping pre-cum on this one.

[Jay Dead]

Hopefully you left your diaper on. Otherwise, mommy has to clean it up. You don't want to make mommy mad, do you?

[Ska]

Diaper? Don't you mean bib?

[P Brooks]

Gee, I wonder if I could get a booking on Olbermann as a "Democratic election strategist"? I mean, if I say it, it must be true.

I have some proposals here, which I would very much like to see implemented.

[robc]

But wait! Is there really a central Tea Party government that can expel him?

You stealing my comments from the morning links thread?

[Jack of All Threads]

Laser used to shoots down planes
Laser beams have been used for the first time in naval warfare to shoot down aircraft, it can be disclosed.

The weapon, mounted on a warship's missile, shot down four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in secret testing carried out off the California coast, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

In a joint enterprise between US Navy and Raytheon Missile Systems the technology has now got to the stage where lasers will be deployed on warships as part of their short-range defence.

For the first time a 'solid state' 32 mega watt laser beam of directed energy has been fired from a warship to a distance of more than two miles burning into a drone travelling at about 300mph.

The laser is mounted on a Phalanx close in weapons system that has a radar detection system. The targeting system was used in Iraq, to train fire from a Gatling onto rockets and mortars raining down on British bases.

Raytheon developed the system after buying six off-the-shelf commercial lasers from the car industry and joining them to make a single, powerful beam guided by the Phalanx's radars. Unlike other tests which have been conducted on aircraft it uses a solid state laser rather than a chemical generated beam.

Mike Booen, vice president of Directed Energy Weapons at Raytheon, said the tests off San Nicolas Island were "a great day for the laser".

"This is more real than Star Wars," he said, speaking at the Farnborough Air Show. "Our lasers destroyed the UAVs lighting them on fire.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....lanes.html

[MP]

This is more real than Star Wars

WTF? It's more real than The Lord of the Rings too. You know why? 'cause it's a piece of Fantasy Fiction, you nitwit.

[Lamar]

.....the old Star Wars or the new Star Wars?

[Ska]

It would have been soooooo much cooler if the head of "energy weapons" at Raytheon said it was more real than Fallout.

[R C Dean]

No shit. I read that and immediately thought "Gatling Laser".

I just hope they can scrounge parts to keep it running. I know I couldn't.

[Mike]

Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are both real. I saw them in the theater.

[wylie]

Nuke our imagination from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

[Johnnybegood]

Wrong Star Wars, buddy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.....Initiative

[fish]

Well if nothing else I'm sure he'll be happy with that photo! Williams looks like he's the bride at a gay wedding!

[Lamar]

Is the Tea Party racist, or just the members? Zing!

[NAACP]

Dear Tea Party,

Good boys. Now show us some of that fancy tap dancing.

[Jesse Jackson]

Kiss it. Kiss it.

[rac]

We should all welcome people who are thinking about the effect of an ever-expanding government on their lives. Call it tea party or call it whatever you want. I happen to work in DC and walked over to the anti-health care protest one day. Lots of very normal looking Americans from all over the country, including some people of dark persuasions, by the way. I did not hear any racist remarks. I did not see the signs that some in the media chose to highlight, but maybe they were there. The bottom line for me is, what is the central message. Ignore the fringe. The liberals will do that for sure. I never heard of Williams. Fuck him and his ilk.

[BakedPenguin]

Democrats find a tax they can't support: State Party stands as neuter on Prop 19, the legalize-and-tax-pot initiative.

Worthless fucking shitbags. I haven't been a "modern" liberal for nearly twenty years, but looking at the utter shit that they are makes me ashamed I could have ever cast a vote or thought well of these pustulating sores on the ass of humanity.

They used to at least pretend they stood for personal freedoms. Now, they shut their worthless festering gobs about it, because these bastards stand for nothing but nanny state bullshit, reckless spending, special interest vote pimping, and race baiting.

Die you dicklords. Die slowly and painfully in the bureaucratic medical hellholes of your own devising. My contempt and hatred for you is beyond words.

[JW]

Well said, oven-roasted flightless fowl.

It's all about the power and remaining in such. All other considerations are secondary.

[Enyap]

"They used to at least pretend they stood for personal freedoms."

When was this? 20 years ago was the height of the bipartisan drug war insanity, Tippers war on music, Lieberman's war on video games, and the war on guns that resulted in the AWB.

[G-Love]

"...because these bastards stand for nothing but nanny state bullshit, reckless spending, special interest vote pimping, and race baiting."

You forgot poverty pimping.

[Cyto]

The California controller's arguments about the payroll system make no sense at all. At the most simple it would require an update statement to the database - replace current wage rate with minimum wage rate. How effin' hard can it be? I have multiple antiquated systems here, including undocumented, proprietary 3rd party apps and I could accomplish this in an afternoon (tops). The guy says years and nearly 9 million bucks. Holy crap - if he gave that testimony under oath he should be prosecuted for perjury. Or they should keep dragging the sources of the estimates in until they get the guy who started the number - he'll disavow the whole thing in a quick minute.

[Hockey Guy]

If they were all getting a raise it would have been done this morning.

[jtuf]

Judging from the number of people 15 and over that smoked marijuana in the past year, there are over 20 million Americans who smoked pot in the past year and are able to vote. Why do the Libertarian and Green presidential candidates get less than 2 million votes combined? Why on Earth do 90% of recent marijuana users choose to not vote for a candidate that will legalize pot?

[cynical]

Dude, like, I was gonna go vote or whatever, but, like...

[Paul Krugman]

Rob Feckner had better not be assuming a greater than 6.5% ROI.

[johnl]

Wow Feckner is seriously sidestepping the issue when he says
"""
The studies - completed by graduate students at Stanford University and the Reason Foundation - concluded that pension funds use overly optimistic assumptions about future investment returns, thus lowering projected liabilities.
"""
While skipping over the Novy-Marx and Rauh paper in JEP the graduate students relied on. This is really shameless.