Gov. Brown signed the Internet Sales tax law and Amazon promptly dropped tens of thousands of Associates in a heartbeat. The state still doesn’t get their sales tax and now are missing out on the combined loss of income taxes from affiliates and their reduced spending. The state loses and so do we. We knew this was coming and I had briefly looked into creating an LLC in another state, but it would be a hassle and there was a question of California charging a $800 out of state business fee. Jumping through hoops wasn’t really my idea of fun so I looked around for another solution. My first thought was auctioning off my affiliate links to the highest bidder. I could probably get a little buzz going about that, but didn’t want to mess with that arrangement with some stranger. I did a little more research and found some discussion about VigLink.

VigLink essentially rewrites your links with JavaScript to be routed through their system. Any earnings are tracked back to your ID and then they pay you after taking a commission. For those of us in states that are now locked out of Amazon Associates this is better than nothing. I signed up the other day and will have to see how things go. The commission takes a little bit off the top, but since VigLink funnels clicks through their own accounts they get to the higher tiers which could help make up for it. If your Amazon links are producing $0 then try VigLink at least until you can get something else going.

An additional minus point is that users of AdBlock Plus will probably not have their click-throughs converted. One more plus though is that you aren’t stuck just with Amazon. If you wanted to post to other sites or do a price comparison between different sites then you can still participate in other programs easily. I think VigLink has over 12,000 sites they cover.

• Prop 13 – Yes
• Prop 14 – No
• Prop 15 – No
• Prop 16 – Yes
• Prop 17 – Yes
• Governer – Whitman or Poizner (favoring Poizner for 2nd Amendment)
• Lt. Governer – Sam Aanestad (anyone but the douchebag Abel Maldonado)
• Secretary of State – Damon Dunn (better website, Orly Taitz sounds like a wacky birther)
• Controller – Either one, Evans is a fresh face in politics
• Attorney General – Eastman or Cooley
• Insurance Commissioner – Brian Fitzgerald (not the douchebag Mike Villines)
• Senator – Devore or Fiorina
• Judge Office #28 – Kim Smith
• Judge Office #35 – Soussan Bruguera
• Judge Office #73 – Laura Matz
• Judge Office #107 – Tony De Los Reyes
• Judge Office #117 – Pattricia Vienna
• Judge Office #131 – Maren Nelson
• Superintendent – None, they all sound like union hacks
• Assessor – John Loew (just because he put “Lower Taxes” as his middle name and affiliation with Howard Jarvis)

Price trend of Quill Condos in Downey using data from Redfin

I thought it would be interesting to look at the sale prices of condos in the condo complex where we rent in Downey, CA. The graph speaks for itself. Prices in Southern California were completely out of touch with reality. Look at the bubble in the early 90′s. Prices only went up by 50% and then declined for 6 straight years. In this last bubble, prices increased nearly 350% between 2000 and 2007. Much of those gains have been wiped out in 2 years since the bubble burst.

This graph is quite useful because it is comparing identical units (~300 sq. ft. max difference) in close proximity to each other. Expanding the comparison to Downey as a whole would introduce comparisons between dissimilar homes in substantially different neighborhoods. It doesn’t make much sense mixing the large sprawling homes of Northeast Downey in with the tiny houses south of the 105.

Does anybody really believe prices will continue to trend upwards with high unemployment, shadow inventory twice the size of what is listed and the upcoming wave of Option ARM recasts? Good thing Congress extended the $8,000 credit, wouldn’t want housing to be affordable.

1. Require dealers to obtain an ammunition seller’s license and to collect a buyer’s thumbprint, name, drivers license, address, phone number and date of birth.
2. Make handgun ammunition inaccessible to customers.
3. Transfer of handgun ammunition must be done face-to-face.

Fine, #1 and #2 are just annoyances, but what about #3? Requiring handgun ammunition to be transferred in person effectively bans all mail order and Internet sales of handgun ammunition. Right now you can count the number of places where this is the law on one hand and the motivation put forward is to improve the enforcement of other laws and aiding investigations. As long as you can order ammunition through the mail, then criminals will be able to buy ammunition for the guns they aren’t suppose to own. So if a criminal doesn’t obey one law surely they’ll obey this other law if we pass it. Right?

That’s the ultimate problem with laws trying to control firearms and ammunition. The only ones who abide by the rules are those of us who are law abiding to begin with. Criminals can’t own guns, but they still find ways to obtain them. Now criminals won’t be able to buy ammo online, but does anyone believe they’ll have trouble obtaining ammunition illegally for their illegally possessed weapons? The criminals go on breaking the law and the rest of us are saddled with more regulations, rules, hoops to jump through and higher prices. What would be next, a background check and 10 day waiting period for purchasing ammunition like we have with firearms?

Funny thing is there’s nothing in the law about the components used to manufacture ammunition, those will still be available through mail order and the Internet. So even if this passes, criminals could order bullets, cases, powder, primers, dies and a nice progressive reloading press and assemble their own ammo. Actually that’s what I’m thinking of doing. How backwards is this state that the laws they try to pass encourage individuals to think like criminals.

I’ll be mashing my F5 button this weekend on this page: AB 962 Status

• 1A – Extend tax increases for 2 more years with $16 billion coming out of tax payer pockets
• 1B – Takes money from 1A and gives it to schools
• 1C – Borrows $5 billion from future lottery “profits”
• 1D – Takes $600 million in tobacco revenues from some kids and gives it to other kids
• 1E – Takes $200 million of mental health money from some mental health programs and gives it to other mental health programs
• 1F – Politicians can’t give themselves pay increases when there’s a budget deficit

1F is the only one that even remotely looks like a good idea on the surface, but what the hell does it actually accomplish? Politicians aren’t going to be more motivated to pass a balanced budget knowing they’ll get a little bump in their salary when lots of them are already rich bastards. Funny how none of the propositions propose reducing the burden of government, the only option we have is to increase the burden or shift around who receives our money. If you missed it, here’s my little quote I call The Encumbrance of Government.

So yeah, NO on all the propositions.

“Contrary to popular perception, California not only taxes and regulates  its economy more than most other states, it also aggressively interferes in the personal lives of its citizens. California ranks #48 on economic freedom and #37 on personal freedom. California simply needs to cut government spending. The budgetary categories most out of line with the rest of the country are public safety, natural resources and environment, and administration. The state actually does not spend more than average on education and social services. For a large state, it is also fairly centralized, with local governments receiving about half of their revenue in state grants, and almost two-thirds of all state and local tax revenues controlled by Sacramento. Labor laws are of course extremely strict; for instance, California is one of only five states to mandate short-term disability insurance. Health insurance mandates add about 60 percent to the cost of premiums in the state. Eminent domain reform has been cosmetic, and the state’s liability system almost reaches the abysmal quality of the Deep South. On personal freedoms, California does well of course on same-sex partnerships and marijuana, but it also has the most restrictive gun laws in the country, a highly restrictive policy regime for motorists, and smoking bans. Arrests for victimless crimes are surprisingly high, with 21.6 percent of all arrests being for victimless crimes, the fifth highest in the country. Effective homeschooling regulations are about average, but the state has no statute explicitly permitting homeschooling. Fortunately, the state has a reasonable asset forfeiture regime (burden of proof on government, owner knowledge of criminal activity required).”

We can’t ignore the fact that we carry a tax burden well above that of other states. Prop 1A on the May ballot seeks to extend this year’s $16 billion tax increases for up to 4 years instead of 2. Are we really going to let Sacramento take more of our hard earned money out of our pockets?

And so it begins. If you work in any position funded by tax payers I wish you luck.

PROP 10 – ALTERNATIVE FUEL VEHICLES AND RENEWABLE ENERGY. BONDS. INITIATIVE STATUTE.

Busy week so I’m falling behind on the propositions. I’m starting to experience an acute episode of political fatigue so I’ll be happy once the process is over (not necessarily happy with the results though). Check out The Blarg for more analysis on these since I agree on both of them.

PROP 9 – YES

PROP 10 – NO

And in other news I should have a nice little package showing up on my doorstep this afternoon. More on that later.