Are Lake Havasu Police Dishonestly Shaking Down California Tourists?

Not sure how accurate this is, so make of it what you will, but it is nonetheless an interesting discussion that shows the lengths some communities will go to in an attempt to keep their finances in the black.

That's one of the things I object to here in Washington state. The state troopers aren't there to enforce the law, they are there as basically a shakedown racket done at the behest of Governor Christine Gregoire. The speed limit on the freeways is only 60mph and the limit on big city streets is 40mph. In California and just about everywhere else, those limits are five mph higher. Washington does this to harvest more tickets and, as a result, there are many owner operator truckers who won't haul loads to the state.

Of course, this does zero for the comity between cop and civilian, too. Just what the police and the quest for public safety need, no?

Nepotism is Alive and Well in Washington State

It will be interesting to see if Huffington Post celebrates this even though it is such a blatant case of nepotism it's ridiculous.

Courtney Gregoire, the daughter of our not so hot Governor Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, was named Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's Legislative Director. The young Gregoire had earlier been the LD and chief counsel for Senator Maria Cantwell despite being fresh out of law school at the time.

You think Joe Notconnected gets that job (as well as that seat at Harvard) with Cantwell? Only if you believe that Joe the Plumber has a brain.

A commenter on the Seattle Times site who dubbed himself "Seattle Tomes," got to the heart of the matter with this take:

"For those of you who suggest she is qualified, she was admitted to practice law in January, 2006 (Go to WSBA web site). She has been a lawyer just over three years. This gets her a job as legislative director and chief counsel for Cantwell and now a plum job with Locke. This smacks of nepotism no matter what side of the aisle you are on. New lawyers typically have to earn their chops before they get such sweet jobs, that is unless, of course, you are politically connected, as is Gregoire's daughter. Absent that connection, her resume would be in the round file for both those jobs, guaranteed. There is a different standard applied to the political class. Qualified, my arse."

Yup yup!

It's this kind of political inbreeding, where pols and their families begin to see positions in government as entitlements rather than things to compete for and earn fairly, that is partly responsible for holding this country back.

Locke, who outsourced state tax dollars and jobs to India as Governor Gregoire's predecessor, is a boob, calling his Indian transactions "a good deal for taxpayers." His appointment as Commerce Secretary is not change I believed in when I caucused and voted for Obama.

By the way, Gregoire just slammed Washington's college students with big fee increases during an economic downturn.

But Republicans make it easy for Democrats to get elected as long as they keep running candidates who are a cross between Jim Bakker and Ebenezer Scrooge and they have their own aristocrat wannabe problems, too.