Boobus Americanus and the California Republican Party

Boobus Americanus and the sad state of the California Republican Party is the topic of this blog post.  I  think of myself as a political independent now. However for more than 10 years I considered myself as a Republican.  And while I do agree with some of their positions they are getting really bad.

For instance one of the ideas of California Governor Jerry Brown aka “Moonbeam” is a high-speed bullet train to nowhere that is a classic “white elephant”.  One California newspaper describes it as “The bullet train is still the same old, unneeded, overpriced, boondoggle it always has been, unlikely to attract enough customers to be profitable, unlikely to get more money from Washington on which it relies, and it still hasn't attracted a dime of private investment.”

The only people who support this idea are greedy pork barrel pigs feeding at the trough. And some of the surprising supporters of this idea are, guess who folks, California Republican legislators. They argue that it will create jobs.

I guess when it comes to those “limited government” folks that saying is just something that they trot out come election time when they tell the voters that “we want to get the government off of your backs.” Yeah right!  They want to get the government into your wallet so they can make money off of it. And they are not as enthusiastic about getting the government off of your back as they claim.

Another example is the California redevelopment law which Moonbeam himself helped to dismantle. Steven Greenhut was right when he said that Governor Brown was right and the California Republicans who supported redevelopment were wrong.  Chris Norby is one notable exception in that he was and is a fierce opponent of the law.

The law was designed to revive inner-city neighborhoods. Instead of its stated purpose, it instead turned a financial mess where officials subsidized auto malls and hotels to divert tax revenues that would go elsewhere.

True property rights advocates rightly despised redevelopment because it gave certain cities an excuse to take property via eminent domain and give it to developers who claimed at least that they had better plans for the property. Anything eyed by these agencies according to critics became blight.

From a competitive party in California to the political wilderness they now find themselves the California Republicans have done it to themselves.   A series of political blunders and plain old fashioned greed did them in.  As a result, the California Legislature is now heavily Democratic, almost to the point of being what is known as “veto proof” which means they can almost override any veto by the Governor. 

Party loyalists might claim that people like me left the Republican Party. That is not true. The Republican Party left me first. 

Stay tuned. More to come on Boobus Americanus and California in particular.

Boobus Americanus and California attorneys

Hello again loyal readers. The Old Cynic is back with Boobus Americanus and California attorneys.  This blog post discusses California attorney who have that fancy law degree but not much gray matter between their ears.  In other words they are either a a chickens*** attorney themselves or the cases they have are a chickens*** cases.  I should say chicken manure but I cannot help myself.

As long time readers are aware, I have worked for many years in the legal field in California and

worked with quite a few attorneys and other legal professionals.  This blog post discusses my

recent experience with two licensed California attorneys.

The first attorney e-mailed me and requested a quote from me to work on a probate cases.  The

signature at the bottom of their e-mail stated that they are not only a licensed attorney in

California, they are also licensed as an architect in both California and Texas. They are also a

licensed California real estate broker as well as a California notary public.  Sounds impressive

does it not?

I should have known this attorney was not the type that I would want to work with when they

asked me if I would agree to take a percentage of their fee once the Court approves their fee. That

is not legal and is specifically prohibited by the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern

California attorneys.  But as I could use the business I responded to their e-mail.

The estate was rather small so I quoted them two prices, the first for an easy probate for small

estates and a higher price for a standard probate.  I also informed them that a probate referee

would have to appraise the estate property and would charge a fee for that.  Their response was,

"How much does this probate referee charge?  How long will this take?  Does he get paid up

front or at the end?  The estate has little cash and no income."

Jeez talk out a chicken**** case! This person has all these degrees and is taking on a case from the “bottom of the barrel”.

I e-mailed them back and told them that based on their latest e-mail that I was not interested in

working on the probate case and suggested that they find someone else. I never heard back.

The second attorney was the latest one.  They stated that they wanted to respond to a petition for 

confirming a biding arbitration award that their company received the day before. The attorney

who studied law at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California (Yes folks I do

some checking on every attorney I work with. I learned the hard way what happens when you

don't) informed me that they did not want to spend their time on it. They also stated that while

they were “ licensed to practice in California, but really I manage a boutique residential real estate brokerage   so I should not be litigating”.

They added that they wanted to “petition to vacate or correct the arbitration award and also wanted to cross-complain for libel and slander, tortious interference with contractual relations, etc .”

They further stated that, “There are several "issues" with the Petition  most notably, that it names "_________________ , LLC, a California limited liability company" when in actuality we are _________________, a California Corporation I read your blog about specific demurrer and still don't know if that mistake is grounds for anything.”

They stated at the end of the e-mail, “Thoughts, pricing, timing.”

I e-mailed them back and told them that without more information I could not quote them a price and asked them when and where the arbitration hearing was held, the amount of the award and did they attend the hearing. I received no response at all.

My God give me a break. This person has been a licensed attorney in California for over 15 years and went to a big name law school. And they are stating things that a layperson would be stating.  And they expect me to respond in some way with such little information.

Talk about a chickens*** attorney. For the life of me I still cannot say which one of these attorneys is the bigger chickens*** ! And believe me folks when I tell you that there are many attorneys out there just like these two examples.  That is the scary part!!

Stay tuned. More to come on Boobus American, not only as attorneys but in all aspects as well.