• Letter Writing Campaign 2016

If you have city emails sent to you, you've already seen a request to join a letter writing campaign, and this blog is encouraging you join the effort.

We have a limited amount of time so we urge you to send this as soon as possible!

It's our yearly pilgrimage that consists of groveling to Governor Brown, in hopes that he'll finally take his boot off of our neck and return about 1.8 to 2.0 million dollars to our city that was taken away in 2011.

Below is the sample letter that came in the email.

Before I breakout my crayolas here, let's remember who it is we're dealing with. It's the same man that is desperately wooing two ridiculous causes at the same time.

On the one hand he's head over heels in love with what's known as The Browndoggle, aka The Train to Nowhere. 

On the other hand, he loves the idea of global warming so much that he's willing to lie about how dire things are going to be if we dare to "deny" his proclamations on the matter.

Anyone that wants to tell me that I'm a luddite —for not bothering with something I have no control over, I insist that your comment to me start with a take on Governor Brown's remark about 135 degrees "for months on end" and why he's out to lunch on it... or even better, why you agree with it.

Hey peeps, since when is skepticism akin to heresy? (Oh yeah, it's always been heresy to the faithful to not buy into their obsessions... like celestial microwaving, or whatever they've rebranded GW to these days).

With that established, I wrote a letter in 2014 and 2015, and like a great president once said, "Won't Get Fooled Again!"

Let's be honest here, I don't even think the governor's office opens the mail if the postmark is from south of Santa Barbara, but if you need to brush up on your long hand, this would be a good assignment for you. 

You could also threaten your kids with having to write to Governor Brown —in cursive no less— if they don't take the trash out or put the dishes away.

I know that Linus Van Pelt has spent the better part of 50 years believing this year is going to be different, that the Great Moonbeam is going to finally sign Wildomar's bill and all, but I don't have that kind of unquenchable steadfastness like he does.

I'm pretty sure that the Tooth Fairy is more real than a reasonable Jerry Brown.

Below is an excerpt from Wildomar Rap's blog of October 2015. It has a question to Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez and her answer regarding Wildomar's missing VLF funds.

Wildomar Rap:

Bringing it back to legislation, maybe you can talk about SB 25 which was going to help Wildomar. I don't know if it's even worth trying anymore with the current governor. 

Melissa Melendez:

SB25 was a bill where they took away the [portion of the] Vehicle Licensing Fees that went back to the cities. Wildomar was one city, and Menifee as well, where when they calculated their budget, they calculated that money in with the other money they were supposed to be getting.

Then the state, in 2011, took that money away, and so there went Wildomar's budget. There has been a bill three years in a row, my entire time in the legislature, they have done a bill to give that funding back, because it was promised to these cities.

The cities didn't do anything wrong, they played by the rules, but the state took it (VLF funds) away. Three years in a row I helped with this bill and three years in a row the governor has vetoed it.

Now I will tell you, and I don't mind saying this out in public, that I had a conversation with governor Brown a couple of months ago. We were at dinner, not just he and I it was a group of people((which led to some laughter among the attendees)). But it just so happened that he was sitting right across from me... I got the lucky seat.

So I said to him, "Governor Brown, we have this bill coming up which will really helps two cities in my district [by] giving back their vehicle licensing fees. They were pretty hard hit, what are your thoughts on that?"

And he paused for a minute, and he looked at me in his Jerry Brown way, and he said, "What was the percentage of votes I got in Riverside County?" 
((The assembled let out a protracted gasp at that))

He actually said that to me. 

I was stunned, I said, "uhhh... Well... you know, it was probably higher in some other areas of the state." 

And he replied, "I think it was about 22 maybe 23%, so I'm not really motivated."

So that bill is never going to pass (be signed into law), ever.

Despite my personal disbelief in the Governor coming to his senses here —and signing SB 817, allow me to be somewhat of a hypocrite and urge you to do something I'm not all that jazzed about.

Join the letter writing campaign. 

I hear you can even fax it or email it.

Here are links to past blogs urging past letter writing campaigns.

Link to 2015 Blog

Link to 2014 Blog

[This space reserved for 2017 Blog Link]

If you haven't had enough of my graphics, thought I'd throw in this one from last year.
The original caption was:
Every voice matters when a group is screaming at deaf people.

Please pardon the sarcastic tone of this blog. There are only so many times you can hear the same story and think the ending will be different this time. 

If all this VLF funds talk is new to you, just click VLF funds at the bottom of the blog where you see "Labels". That'll send you to many past blogs covering this topic.

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What is the face of a coward? The back of his head as he runs from a battle.

— Francis Underwood 
(Kevin Spacey), House of Cards

Wildomar Rap reminds you that shouting at deaf people is about as useless as flipping off a blind person.