The Governor of California is a conservative REPUBLICAN, so stop talking nonsense about Democratic control.

***

Nonsense. The base problem is not that people have come from other countries, and cannot use English at first because they just plain don't kno it, but that California has become grossly OVERPOPULATED. It doesn't matter who is in all those cars that clog the freeways so traffic moves at 8mph, stop-and-go. California's quality of life has been ruined by TOO MANY PEOPLE.

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So the environment doesn't matter? Much of California is already a desert. Should ALL of it become a desert wasteland? If you ravage the Earth, where are you going to live?

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Plainly someone who writes "neighboUrhoods" is not American so is commenting from afar about things s/he doesn't know.

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I take it NWO = New World Order. I'm not keen on conspiracy theories, thanks. What POSSIBLE reason would ANYONE in the United States have for bankrupting the United States?

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There is no God. Find some rational explanation.

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Repeat: Arnold Schwarzenegger is a conservative REPUBLICAN, not a Liberal Democrat.

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The only fair tax is a progressive income tax. But you mean FLAT tax, which benefits ONLY the rich, and victimizes the rest of us.

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This is a serious discussion. Please don't be frivolous (and unfunny while at it). California does not have FREE healthcare, and the Federal healthcare law, which hasn't even taken effect yet, does not provide FREE healthcare, but compels people to spend their OWN hardearned dollars on PRIVATE healthcare whether they want to or not. But since that won't take effect until 2014, why are you talking about it now? It has NOTHING to do with California's present problems.

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Michigan is not drowning in illegals. Its problems revolve around the export of jobs to China, India, etc. And until Congress and the President do something to stop the export of jobs, the economy will NEVER recover. Fortunately, I heard yesterday that in September, when Congress returns to full activity, they WILL -- finally -- address the export of jobs.

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It is enuf to deport illegals. You don't have to steal from them the things they have earned thru hard work. Ultimately, however, we need to accept that Mexico is the most important "foreign" country in the world to us, and we need to do now what we should have done in 1850, at the end of the Mexican War: annex Mexico as perhaps 12 States of the Union, whereupon we can absolutely transform Mexico, to democratize it and give its people (become U.S. citizens) the basic political and economic rights they have been denied by Mexican independence. Over time, desperate independent Mexico will become an extension of the prosperous U.S. Sunbelt, whereas now it seems more likely that the Sunbelt will become like desperate independent Mexico. We will get free flow of Mexico's vast oil and gas reserves to finance the development of Mexico, and tens of millions of hardworking citizens who will fix their own areas and help us fix ours. That is the only long-term solution. All else is trying to sweep the tide out to sea with a broom.

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We already had welfare reform, under Clinton. Many people on welfare CANNOT work, tho people who can certainly should. That is a trivial part of California's problems, and blaming the poor is exactly wrong. The RICH control everything, so they are responsible for everything.

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There is no such thing as toO Liberal.

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EVERY state is in deep financial difficulty now. We have a RECESSION. But Blue States are almost uniformly RICHER than Red States, and their people live better lives, with better education and better services. Manufacturing has been offshored, not just moved out of California but out of the entire country. Why does everyone know this except 'conservatives'? The rich whom conservatives slavishly serve are the ones who have moved all manufacturing, and now are moving even service jobs, out of the United States. So who gets blamed? Liberals.

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Gangs are not getting handouts from "sanctuary cities", and the officials of any city that tries to void national laws should be crushed -- sent to PRISON. California does not establish immigration policy. Washington does, and Washington has been controlled more than half the time by supposedly conservative REPUBLICANS. Our lax immigration laws are the result of the rulers of the Republican Party, the rich, who want illegals because they work cheap, don't demand benefits, and can be easily intimidated by threats of deportation if they demand all the pay they are due.

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This discussion is about California's financial difficulties, not Obama's race. Stay on topic.

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Nancy PELOSI is in the Federal Government, which has not specially victimized California. California, and every other state, governs itself in most things, and has had a number of REPUBLICAN, CONSERVATIVE governors, including one actor named Reagan and another named Schwarzenegger.

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California's governor is a REPUBLICAN. Why do supposed "conservatives" blame California's problems on Liberals when the state's governor is a conservative? Oh, that's right. "Conservatives" have an aversion to the truth.

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Housing prices rose because tens of millions of people moved in. Supply and demand. The problem is overpopulation. You can't have paradise with millions of people pushing in on you.

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Have you tried to get food stamps? Try it. Try living on the paltry maximum income allowed for food stamps: $1,174 a month for a single person, total, for all expenses including rent or mortgage, heat, electricity, water, clothing, telephone, food (without food stamps) -- everything. Oh yes, people on food stamps are just rolling in dough! I hope someday your income is reduced to $1,175 a month, one dollar above the food-stamp eligibility income, and you DON'T qualify for food stamps. As for Alaska, yes, Alaska will indeed never have the problems of a highly urbanized, overpopulated area, because it IS too cold. But the only reason Alaska isn't poor as Mississippi or Appalachia is OIL. Alaskans pay no state taxes because the oil industry's royalties pay for EVERYTHING in Alaska. You want to talk about handouts? How about the check every Alaskan gets from the state every year? They pay no taxes but get a check from the government. Isn't that what people like Sarah Palin and other "conservatives" condemn? Yup. It would be wrong in California but it's fine in Alaska.

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"Perverts" are found in all communities, Liberal and Conservative. Liberals don't make excuses for them. Conservatives do, because what passes for "Conservatism" is actually only tribalism, and "he's one of us" excuses ANYTHING, even a Louisiana Republican Senator being exposed as wearing a DIAPER with a PROSTITUTE. He's still in office, by the way.

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If we retain a border with Mexico, "enforce and deport" will inevitably fail. It's a revolving door, and everybody knows it. The border is the problem, not the solution. We're all in this together, and beggar-thy-neighbor beggars us all.

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Nonsense. Media, traditional and electronic, report EVERYTHING. Fox News is hardly Liberal, but is indeed biased. If you aren't seeing in media what you think is happening, maybe it's not really happening but is just a figment of your imagination. There is, however, "citizen reporting" online nowadays, so if you see something that the media aren't covering, tell them about it.

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[In reply to this comment: "Liberals should not be allowed to run for office or vote." ]

Yes, democracy is a terrible idea. Only the "right" people should be allowed to vote. If you are serious, you need to leave the United States for a place more congenial to your views. Communist China, Afghanistan, Cuba, and Iran are good choices.

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Who exactly is making all this money but not paying taxes or supporting their children? You have created a straw man that is wholly false. Illegals are just getting by, and some give up and return to Mexico or Guatemala or other places because they CANNOT get by.

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"Business friendly" = welfare for the rich; tax breaks that the rest of us have to make up for; lax safety standards so that people get injured or killed on the job needlessly. Wages so low that people cannot support their family. No health insurance, so if they get sick, they have to burden taxpayers. No pensions, so when they get old, they are reduced from poverty to penury. And wages and benefits here can NEVER be low enuf for some businesses, who will continue to export jobs and blame "regulation" and taxes and everything they think they can get away with blaming, when the ONLY thing that really matters is their GREED.

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[In response to this comment: "I would say look at their liberalism and how much these people expect the Government to give them. DUH"]

Which people expect to be given what? Code: blacks, Hispanics, illegals, legal immigrants: THEM. It may be a coincidence that the initials of this country are U.S. or, in Britain, US. WE don't need people like YOU. WE need to see society as US, not THEM.

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Nancy Pelosi works in Washington, not California. If she were responsible for California's ills, then all the country would have the same ills. But neither she nor anyone else can fix a free-enterprise economy. The most we can hope to do is administer a type of economic lithium that cuts off the depths of the valleys and the heights of the highs, so we steer a steady economic course. But there are greedy, 'brilliant' people who will evade all regulation, and bring us disaster.

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What an interesting perspective. Spending money on teachers, cops, and firemen is irrresponsible waste. Perhaps if your house catches fire, we should just watch it burn. And toast marshmallows.

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Plainly you did not understand the CRITICISM that Kotkin put forward. Your 'analysis' is as good as your reading.

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That is not an answer, just a silly slander. The question is not stupid. Your answer, however, surely is.

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Repeat: the Governor of California is a REPUBLICAN. And what is "California, you will not be missed" supposed to mean? That bankruptcy of the largest state in the Nation would have no impact on the other states? No, I guess plunging the rest of the country into 27% unemployment, and bringing down the Nation's banking system wouldn't mean anything -- to you, or other people living in a world of delusion.

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And whom, exactly, would you hang? I seriously doubt you have any solutions of any kind to anything. You even admit you don't have a solution. So you would just strike out aimlessly at everybody, and expect that to fix everything? Please don't waste people's time posting nonsense.

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Please do move to some desert island. You will find, however, that you can't support yourself, but will starve to death within a very few months. If you get sick, you will die without other people's help. Grow up and admit that society is not dispensable, and taxes are the dues we pay to live in a community that can take care of us when illness, accident, or unemployment strikes.

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"Anchor babies" do NOT give their parents any rights to stay in the United States. It is a completely phony issue. And the jobs will NOT come back, because they are being exported by the millions, by greedy corporations that care nothing about ordinary Americans, only about their private profits. Only if we stop blaming the poor, instead to realize that it is the rich who control everything and so are the ones ruining everything, will we finally end the export of jobs and make the obscenely rich pay the much higher taxes they can easily afford to pay and which alone will get us out of the nitemare the rich have gotten us into.

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Let me remind the Liberal-legislature bashers that essentially NO bill becomes law unless the GOVERNOR signs it (veto overrides being extremely rare). The Governor of California is a REPUBLICAN, and no bill becomes law unless that REPUBLICAN Governor signs it. Given that fact, it is pointless to attack the legislature when nothing the legislature proposes can become law without the Governor's signature. In essence, then, ALL measures that become law during the tenure of any governor are the responsibility of ONE person: the Governor. That is the political and legal reality that legislature-bashers do not understand -- or understand full well but lie about. The only exception to that rule is ballot measures passed by referendum. If the electorate votes in a law, then the electorate is to be held to account for it. Are these Liberal-bashers denouncing the Liberal electorate? Maybe so.

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So you are blaming homosexuals for the economic problems of California. Oh, that makes sense.

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If California were to sink beneath the sea, which you seem to wish, 36 million people would die. That you wish 36 million Americans dead tells us everything we need to know about you.

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If you want to talk about retirement packages, let's talk about the obscene salaries, pensions, and severance packages of the executives of major corporations, paid for by artificially high prices charged to us for the goods and services provided by people who earn almost nothing by comparison with the compensation of executives. There is NOTHING socialist about the Obama Administration, and people who throw around the word "socialist" should take a few minutes to look it up. The stimulus package went to bolster PRIVATE banks and corporations, not just help states having trouble paying for teachers and police. As for the deficit, Ronald Reagan TRIPLED the national debt; Bush the First then made it QUADRUPLE what it had been before Reagan-Bush; then Bush the Second further DOUBLED the debt that Reagan-Bush had already quadrupled. The ONLY year the Nation had a surplus was under a DEMOCRAT, Bill Clinton. Those are the facts, but "conservatives" don't want you to know the facts.

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Everything is Obama's fault, of course. If the sun is too hot, it's Obama's doing. If there's a tornado, it's Obama's doing. If the economy collapses before Obama even takes office, it's Obama's fault. Of course. We all know what this codetalking means: Obama is black -- "Them", not "Us". "They" are "the types" that support Obama. Message received.

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Why do "conservatives" so hate the United States?

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And what is your solution? The old pols are corrupt; the young ones coming in are corrupt. What's the fix?

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Obama has nothing to do with California's financial difficulties. Stay on topic. And how many illegals are voting? Or are you just making that up?

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Where does the money come from? The answer, "realists" pretend, is from the people. The reality is that money is printed by GOVERNMENT. All money comes from Government; some goes back to the Government to be spent on public purposes. Who says that environmental protection doesn't protect the environment? On what basis do you make so preposterous a claim? Do you think that there should be no labor unions, and that "the private sector" should be allowed to pay as little as possible, and reduce its employees, who do all the work of the company, to penury so its shareholders can enjoy undeserved riches from passive investments? The rich do NOTHING. We have a term for them: "the idle rich". Some corporate executives who are paid richly do, of course, do some work: they drive corporations into the ground, and demand the Government bail them out. Then the conservatives who think corporations are God's hand on Earth, blame the Government for bailing out the corporations! How very convenient never to deserve any blame for anything, but always be able to blame unions, environmentalists, and idealists. Yes, those damned idealists! Always doing something crazy, like creating the United States of America!

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Liberals are the only reason we don't have 80-hour workweeks for $15 a week; sweatshops, and workers locked in firetraps. All the good things of this country were done by Liberals, who built roads and schools and libraries for everyone, not just the rich. Everything good about the United States was created by Liberals, including the very structure of the United States, which was not just Liberal for its day but genuinely "Revolutionary".

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Illegal aliens do not vote. The homeless ("bums") do not vote, because you have to have a residence to put on a registration form. Find something legitimate to complain about.

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[In response to "LIBERALS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ]: ... ARE THE BEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!...!

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The bulk of California's illegals are from Mexico, and are acknowledged by locals to be extremely hard-working, not lazy in the slitest. We know what the complainers don't like: Mexicans are, for the most part, brown. Illegals should of course be deported, but because they are not entitled to be here, not because they are "lazy" -- lazy people who are taking our jobs. Hm. What must employers think of US if they would rather hire "lazy" illegals?

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It's very easy to pay for every legitimate social program: tax the rich. They have the money. Go where the money is. Instead, the rich really are getting richer, and everyone else is getting at least relatively, poorer, and sometimes poorer in absolute terms. The rich love deficit spending, which is why they insist on it. Why? Because not only do they pay low taxes, but they also buy the debt instruments that the Government issues, so when we pay interest on those instruments, guess who gets the money!

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Empty-headed, ridiculous slanders have no place in a serious discussion. Your remarks condemn themselves. But that doesn't mean other people shouldn't condemn them too.

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Greece has less than 11 million people; California, over 36M. If the debt load was the same, then California would be much less in debt. What is your point? When too many people flood into an area, all kinds of public facilities, such as roads and schools, have to be built. Such things entail an enormous initial outlay that then has to be paid down over time. So why is anyone surprised that California has a very large public debt?

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Hm. Everyone who has an accident or injury or illness or period of unemployment should rely upon CHARITY, huh? And if people don't WANT to give charity, then the would-be recipients of charity should just die, right? I sincerely hope that someday you have a catastrophic illness or accident and have no recourse but charity. Be certain of this: I wouldn't give you one red cent, even if I won $100 million in the lottery. I would, however, be proud to pay the taxes a millionaire owes.

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Another selfish fool heard from! All money comes from GOVERNMENT. If it were not backed by Government, it would just be paper with pictures on it, little bits of metal, or meaningless numbers in a bank's computer file. The value of money derives from the health of the SOCIETY the Government governs. When people are suffering because of the hard-heartedness and vicious exploitation of the rich, the society is weakened. Weaken society enuf, and the value of money collapses. Taxes are not "theft". They are DUES you pay to be permitted to live in society and get all the benefits of living in a society. 'Progressives' of course DO build and repair infrastructure. How can anyone expect anyone to believe a ridiculous assertion that they do not? Ludicrous. Tax breaks for the rich and rich corporations are not called "entitlements". Unemployment benefits or support for the disabled ARE called "entitlements". Helping the rich get richer is good; helping the poor keep from dying is bad. That is the credo of today's rich. What happens when the rich say "Let them eat cake"? Answer: the rich get slaughtered, and everything they own gets redistributed. Prompting violent revolution is not enlightened self-interest.

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There are books about the evils of "conservatives", but you wouldn't read them.

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The person who said "California will become a hispanic state, and anyone who doesn't like it should leave" is YOU. "Hispanic" means a person whose ancestry, but not necessarily present language and culture, derive from Spain and its former colonies. It implies nothing else. Essentially ALL Hispanics born in the United States have ENGLISH as their first language, and their parents worry that their grandchildren won't know any Spanish but the words for foods. Chinese and other Asian immigrants would be surprised to hear they aren't present in large numbers in California, as would the 50% of Californians who are non-Hispanic whites. Hawaii has always had a nonwhite majority, but somehow that is not denounced as a terrible thing. Why is that? As long as Mexico and other countries of Latin America are miserable, that long will millions wish to escape them. Plainly the fix to the real problem is to help Latin Americans live well, but that would require a generosity of spirit, and enlightened self-interest, both of which are beyond the reach of the bulk of people who have commented on this article.

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Congress is supposed to address offshore outsourcing in September. Write to your Representative and Senator DEMANDING that the export of jobs be replaced by the export of goods and services. There is NOT an infinite supply of replacement jobs for the jobs that major corporations are sending to China and India. There really is not, especially for people of ordinary skills and education, in California or anywhere else in the Nation.

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You know NOTHING about Hispanic immigrants. The reality is that unprecedented numbers of Hispanic immigrants ARE learning English. If you watch any Spanish-language TV station you will see that one of the biggest segments of the advertising dollar is English-language courses. It is very hard to learn a language after childhood. Try it. And try imagining yourself surrounded by a society whose language you don't understand. Immigration is a last resort for most people, who would much rather stay in their own country and own culture, where they are brilliant in their own language, not clumsily stupid-sounding in another language. We should enforce our borders, but our borders should be drawn in reasonable places, according to reasonable criteria. The border between the United States and Mexico, like the border between the U.S. and Canada, should not exist. Mexico tried for a century and a half to pretend the U.S. didn't exist. Didn't work. Now we are trying to pretend that Mexico doesn't exist. That's not working either. The border in its present location CANNOT be enforced. Cast it down to the southern border of Mexico, and maybe we CAN [I hit something and was cut off before I could finish that sentence].

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Socialists are not in charge of California. You apparently have no idea what "socialism" means. Arnold Schwarzenegger is in charge of California's state government. He is a REPUBLICAN conservative, not a socialist.

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Illegals get NONE of those benefits. That is all propagandistic dishonesty.

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"Minority freeloaders". Why don't you just say what you mean, "N*s and sp*s"?

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Yes, the United States was heaven on Earth before those damned "progressives" ruined everything. 80-hour workweeks for $15 a week. No benefits, no insurance, no unemployment payments, no healthcare for the poor. Workers got sick and became useless parasites? They died, if no rich person wanted to give them charity. Great system. And slavery, that was a great institution too, right? The benevolent slaveowner took care of these otherwise useless subhumans, right? "Right-to-work" means "right to be paid almost nothing and have no benefits", so the rich owners of corporations can become ever more obscenely rich. Ah, the good old days, when the rich paid almost no taxes, the poor were literal or effective slaves, and the government shot people who dared to strike!

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The Federal Government does not run state governments, and no two individual members of the Federal Government run any state. You plainly do not understand the concept of federalism.

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My goodness! You can tell a person's immigration status from a photograph? That's amazing.

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"Lazy" illegals taking all those jobs and working at things Americans won't do. You've got to make up your mind. Illegals are not eligible for welfare, so they all work, but they're lazy? How do lazy people find jobs, especially in a depressed economy, and keep them when lots of other people are waiting for an opening?

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Liberals are better educated, make more money, and pay more taxes than Liberal-bashing "conservatives". So true is that, however, that "conservatives" try to make excuses for why they are failures in life, blaming other people while pretending moral -- or racial -- superiority. There is nothing sadder than white trash defending the rich SOBs who keep them poor while condemning the Liberals who want to help them to live better.

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Corporations are saints. We get it. And when they cut wages and slash benefits, and make people pay more of their healthcare costs, they are just being responsible corporate citizens. When they close American factories or back-offices and send those jobs to China or India, it isn't because they are greedy monsters who have no respect for Americans and don't identity with their fellow citizens; it's because they were "forced" to leave the country. At least 14 million jobs and counting, exported by the rich you so love. Too bad they don't love you, but would sell you out in a second for 50 cents more in their next dividend check.

***

Yes, Israel is relevant to California's economic situation, the topic of this comments area. As for God, there is no God. It's a silly fantasy made up by silly, weak people to keep them from facing death. So many Gods, so little sense. God was not ON our money for DECADES after the founding of this Republic, when we were expanding and becoming a model for the world. Religion is the answer of people who have no answers.

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 11:09 PM