Let's Buy San Quentin!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yea! Let's get a collaborative of Pelicans together to buy it. Then we could hold the state hostage and tell them, "send us a new GT3 every day or we'll open the gate and release all the death row inmates! Bwahahaha!!! We'll even give them all machetes and chainsaws on the way out!"

This state is so fuggered up it's comical. Anyone know if the Hollywood sign is a state monument? Maybe I'll go buy the letters "LLY" and make the city send me a check every month under threat of knocking them over and sticking them with a big giant sign over their city reading "HO WOOD"

I love this kinda' stuff...

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090515/ts_alt_afp/financeeconomybudgetuscalifornia_20090515132911

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Schwarzenegger under fire over mass sell-off plans

Fri May 15, 9:28 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Faced with a massive budget crisis, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has outlined major budget cuts and plans to sell some of the state's most treasured landmarks.

Schwarzenegger unveiled proposals on Thursday to replenish California's state coffers and counter an estimated budget shortfall of 15.4 billion dollars.

Plans include drastic budget cuts, as well as the sale of the Los Angeles Coliseum, which hosted the Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and the 157-year-old San Quentin state prison, which houses over 5,000 inmates.

"To solve our immediate cash crisis, we simply cannot avoid deep and painful cuts in spending," said Schwarzenegger.

"Some of these solutions are things I would never have considered in the past but, unfortunately, our state could be in a worst case scenario if the propositions fail."

But the new plans, which came less then a week before a vote was due in special elections that include five provisions to mend the state's budget woes, have faced strong criticism.

"Whoever made the decision to throw this on the table five days before an election made a boneheaded decision," Zev Yaroslavsky, president of the Coliseum commission, told the Los Angeles Times.

"People are not as foolish as some politicians think they are."

Schwarzenegger has said that if the state fails to vote through his tough measures on May 19, the deficit will increase to 21.3 billion dollars.

He has also warned that his contingency plan would see thousands of lay-offs, shorten the public school year by at least seven days, as well as include healthcare cuts to about 225,000 children and the release of thousands of undocumented immigrants.

"Californians have a right to know the truth about the size of the problem our state is facing," he said.

California has been battered by the recession, which has sent tax revenues nose-diving. The state, global center of high technology and the movie industry, has a 1.8-trillion-dollar economy that generates about 13 percent of US gross domestic product.

[Scooter]

I would rather just buy the Hearst Castle Road. Could you imagine a Hearst Castle Hillclimb?

[island911]

Well with Gitmo closing ....

[tabs]

Why not let the State go BK and then buy the stuff up for pennies on the USD....of course they will be taking n worthless USD's....

[tabs]

I think I wana put a bid in for Yosemite...I will pave it over and put in a parking lot...

[looneybin]

just who is Ahnold thinking would buy up these properties?
developers? the cities where they are located?
good luck.
i'll kick in with the pelicans to buy san quentin. we could have auto-x's in the parking lot & BBQ's w/ 'old sparky'

[dd74]

USC will buy the L.A. Coliseum if given the chance. They have more money than the Vatican.

[teenerted1]

well if he releases the thousands of undocumented immigrants south of the border he could solve some of the multiple budget problems they have now...like healthcare to start????

[ljowdy]

Lets start by denying any governmental services to illegal aliens and instead of services, a bus ticket to Tijuana. Send all illegals that are in jail to Mexico or their home nation.

People on welfare MUST work for the State, even if it's cleaning the freeways or watching children of parents that can work.
.
Cut the pay of the Calif. politicians.

Get rid of the radical "green" mentality and offer tax cuts for big business. So many left due to environmental and tax issues. Lower registration fee's for companies with large fleets to make it worth their while to be in this state.

Go to a flat tax.

[Hugh R]

If we buy San Quentin, do we get the inmates too? If so, lets buy the LA Coliseum as well and have the inmates, especially on death row, do gladiator fights. We can charge admission! Bring in the lions and tigers as well from the zoo that we're also going to buy. Yeah baby, everybody say "Toga!, Toga!, Toga!"

[red-beard]

Can't we just let them loose in San Francisco?

OK, I'm in for fifty

[widgeon13]

Your recommended solution is entirely too logical and would solve way too many existing problems.

Originally Posted by ljowdy

Lets start by denying any governmental services to illegal aliens and instead of services, a bus ticket to Tijuana. Send all illegals that are in jail to Mexico or their home nation.

People on welfare MUST work for the State, even if it's cleaning the freeways or watching children of parents that can work.
.
Cut the pay of the Calif. politicians.

Get rid of the radical "green" mentality and offer tax cuts for big business. So many left due to environmental and tax issues. Lower registration fee's for companies with large fleets to make it worth their while to be in this state.

Go to a flat tax.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by looneybin

just who is Ahnold thinking would buy up these properties?
developers? the cities where they are located?
good luck.

Uh, Middle Easterners? I mean they can afford a stadium or 3, but what they see as a purchase might be different.

Actually, privatizing the prisons is a concept overdue. That's one way to break these damn prison guard unions and don't think Ahnold doesn't know that.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by milt

Actually, privatizing the prisons is a concept overdue. That's one way to break these damn prison guard unions and don't think Ahnold doesn't know that.

Why privatize? I vote for foreign outsourcing.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Why privatize? I vote for foreign outsourcing.

Fine and dandy. Especially to a country with far harsher laws than we have. And let them implement their own version of incarceration - no more cushy three-star-hotel treatment! Bet recidivism would drop by about 90%!

[Netspeed]

Originally Posted by dd74

USC will buy the L.A. Coliseum if given the chance. They have more money than the Vatican.

Lololo....I thought the same thing. Fight On!

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by milt

Uh, Middle Easterners? I mean they can afford a stadium or 3, but what they see as a purchase might be different.

Actually, privatizing the prisons is a concept overdue. That's one way to break these damn prison guard unions and don't think Ahnold doesn't know that.

Privatized prisons have led to some serious, serious corruption here. Judges sending kids away for kickbacks and the like.

Don't do it.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Privatized prisons have led to some serious, serious corruption here. Judges sending kids away for kickbacks and the like.

Don't do it.

Well, there's sure no corruption in the pen now, huh.

What does the judge have to do with anyway? He sentences convicted or approves the sentence determined by a jury. Unless there are further legal procedures, inmates are now the jurisdiction of the prison and parole people. I see no reason that prisons can't be run by a company with oversight from the dept of justice. You'd therefore have a check and balance system that you don't have currently.

The costs to our governments to house these prisoners is staggering. We have contractors fixing the roads now, not state employees. That's the way it ought to all be. I have a city employee as a neighbor that works in administration. When we talked about this very same thing (privatization), he had a plausible argument at hand as to why it's not always in our best interest.

For the life of me, I can't remember a thing he said. Something about quality. Say what? Let a city crew fix a street and I'll guarantee you a big bump, or many. Let a contractor do it and the city inspect it. If it fails, the contractor will have to redo it. The city redoes nothing, WYSIWYG.