No More Life Without Parole For Those Under 18 in California

I heard that California might finally dump life with parole for those people who under 18 years old. The alternative sentence would be 25 to Life according to an article in the California Chronicle

In my opinion, that still does not solve the problem. Trying to get parole in California is very hard to get because the governor grants the right to parole. In my opinion, the governor should be removed the parole process and replaced by a full vote of the parole board. If the majority of the parole board votes for parole, than the criminal is parole. The governor still has a right to issue an executive order to block the parole’s board decision and keep the prisoner in prison. Thi

Do you really want the governor to make all the parole decisions when those three strikes cases come up for parole board in ten year. No, it is a waste of the governor’s time to review every parole board decision. Delgate the responsiblity to the full parole board and have the governor to have the ability to issue an executive order to block a parole board decision as a check. There will be some scumbag rapist or murderer that the parole board will decide to parole and should not be paroled.

Most of three strikes cases are for minor crimes and therefore, the criminal should be paroled at 25 years. In my opinion, that was badly designed law and changing on the parole process in anticipation for these cases is sound corrections policy.

Does the conservatives have an alternative plan that is well-designed and sound on this? The answer is no but if you got a good solution to this mess, than I like to hear it.

GM Better Not Get a Going Concern Rating from the Auditors

One of the things that GM does not want is a going concern audit opinion on its financial statements. Going Concern is defined as “The idea that a company will continue to operate indefinitely, and will not go out of business and liquidate its assets. For this to happen, the company must be able to generate and/or raise enough resources to stay operational”.

Right now, GM’s ability to being a going concern is in jeopardy.
In this excerpt from an article in CFO magazine, GM is very concerned about its ability to going concern is

“In a conference call with reporters, conducted from Washington, D.C., GM CFO Ray Young said: “They are in fact-gathering mode right now, and so we are here in order to respond to their questions.” According to a Reuters report on the call, Young added that the talks are “not a negotiation session by any means. They are going to continue to gather facts and continue to ask for clarifications in terms of our submissions.”

The sober warning about the position that Deloitte probably will take accompanied GM’s fourth-quarter report, which showed that in 2008, excluding special items, the automaker lost $16.8 billion, or $29 per diluted share. This compares to an adjusted net loss of $279 million in 2007. GM said the loss was driven by the impact of the U.S. recession and subsequent global contagion. Including special items, the company reported a loss of $30.9 billion in 2008.

Last year “was an extremely difficult year for the U.S. and global auto markets, especially the second half,” chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said. “These conditions created a very challenging environment for GM and other automakers, and led us to take further aggressive and difficult measures to restructure our business.We expect these challenging conditions will continue through 2009, and so we are accelerating our restructuring actions.”

Maybe Richard Shelby (who is a Senator from Alabama) was right. GM was not fiscally solvent to get the bailout money and the government ability to prop out GM was ultimately a waste of money. I want really wanted to see the union jobs saved and American manufacturing preserved.

The problem about GM is simple. GM did not build cars that people did not want. The Republican’s strategy of blaming union is a farce. The Republicans are blaming the unions because they want to bust the union. The real blame should be placed on the people who designed and marketed GM cars. All the unions did is made the cars and they did not design the cars. Therefore, the Republicans should be called out for engaging in union-busting tactics instead of attack the real problem which is the design issue.

I have never bought an American made car in my life. Why? I do not think that American cars are designed very well for the types of cars that I purchased. The Big Three did not design the sedans and compacts that I like to buy. I even think that Honda Element which is a cross-over car is better designed than anything that comes out of Detroit.

It is simple. If Detroit cannot make the cars that the American people want, than the Big Three cannot compete in the current environment. I am very skeptical that GM has the ability to retool the company and downsize to the point where they can make cars at what Detroit is good at. If they survive, Detroit should focus on truck manufacturing and production of plug-in hybrids.

If I were the auditors, I would be probably see a lot of warning signs on GM ability to be a Going Concern. In my opinon, I just do not think that they will make it.

Best Supporting Actior: The GOP acting as Fiscal Conservatives in California

I am a liberal but I thought this cartoon was pretty funny and might be funny for my conservative readers

Socialism, Socialism, and More Socialism

So at lunch, I was reading my normal Topix Top News Wire feed to look for an interesting news story. I stumbled across an editorial from a small-town newspaper. It labeled Obama program as socialism but fails to defend or mention the “merits” of the “invisible hand” of the markets. Therefore, it appears to be rant by someone who has not taken in economic 101 in college

The problem is that editorial failed to defend the “invisible hand” of the free market and that the “invisible hand” would be able to deal with the market. Currently, the “invisible hand” does not work and it takes the government to stimulate the economy.

The editorial fails to provide alternative solution to the problem. The idea that “tax cuts”: is going to work is an argument does not work at the current time and lacks imagination. I fail to see how Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the guys on CNBC has developed a viable alternative solution to this problem. Until I do, I do not take editorials or blog posts like this seriously.

Is the PCA or OPC More Doctrinally Pure

I know a lot of friends that attend churches in PCA and the OPC. For a long time, I did not know when the churches were founded until I read a blog on Boar’s Head Tavern.

Among the two chuches, there is a debate who is more doctrinally pure towards the Reformed Faith. I have attended both services and I would have to state the OPC. However, I think the PCA less rigid and is bearing more fruit than the PCA from a Christian perspective. If you are a reader of this blog, I would invite comment on what you think about this issue

Bobby Jindal

So Bobby Jindal thinks that turning down the stimulus funds is going to really help his state. If you are a fiscally conservative Republican, why would you reject the stimulus funding. It would help you meet the budget shortfalls without raising taxes and the people of your state would reward for it.

In reality, he is going to accept the money. This is just a political ploy so he can score brownie points with conservative Republicans before the real horserace begins in 2011.

Investment Bankers Salaries

When I was in school at Fullerton, another student in Beta Alpha Psi
told me that it was a good idea to become a financial analyst At the time, I blew him off because (i) I did not have the grades and (ii) I have autism and therefore, I could not survive the cutthroat world of investment banking.

Now, I am learning that it is good not to be investment banker. Salaries are coming down and there is a surge in unemployment. If the bankers face a prospect of fong-term unemployment, it would be very tough on them. The problem is what can they do for alternate unemployment.

Based on prior reading, I read that nursing is facing a long-term shortage. So one way a banker can get a job and not be unemployed for a long-time is to become a nurse. Imagine that. How the mighty have fallen. From being a titan on Wall Street to working as a nurse, would be a exercise in humilty and patience. How many of them would do it?
I do not know.

Instead of being greedy, values like empathy and compassion are necessary for the position. Few Wall Street people have that and so a lot of them are going to remain unemployed for a long-term because they cannot the shift from investment banking to health care

More Voting: California Adds Four New Props for Special Election

It seems that California has too many propositions to vote on. There is a petition to change all kinds of the laws in the state. From the Howard Jarvis tax revolt of Prop 13, to Prop 187, to the invention of the three-strikes law, the Golden State allows voters to vote almost on anything.

Now, the governator wants us to vote on four propositions. For some reasons, I tired of voting on so many propositions and would rather see the process end. I have see too many looney propositions and we need to design a better system for the initative proces in this state

Roland Burris

It looks like that Roland Burris might have to resign.   It seems that Mr. Burris engaged in some graft himself.

 

Well, it is state of Illinois.  Mr. Burris can just get another standard issue jumpsuit from the Bureau of Prisons and join Blago for a nice trial  It is amazing how corrupt that Chicago politics but he earned it.  From the halls of the senate.to the BOP prison, how the might have fallen in a

such a short time.

Obama’s Trip to Canada and Alberta Tar Sands

One that Obama needs to discuss with Canada is the status on Canada’s plan to drill in Alberta tar sands. The Alberta tar sands is where there is a huge area of oil deposits. When gasoline prices were spiking last year, there was significant effort to tap the reserves of the tar sands. However, there has been significant scheduling delays and cancellations of drilling

Environmentalists did not want that area to be drilled on because it would cause significant harm to the environment in Alberta. These projects are very expensive and any delays to them will results in the projects being shut down. Since the projects are expensive, the recent decline in energy projects has forced these projects to be sidelined because the oil companies would be incurring significant losses if they decided to drill there with oil being $35 a gallon. While the severe recession might has caused oil prices to decrease, it might have robbed us of a good source of potential energy.

It would be good idea if Obama to discusses this issue with Steven Harper because we are going to need all of the energy that we can get because the next spike in oil prices can occur at any time.