Carl Guardino is president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. We are told that some 300 of the Valley’s "most respected" companies belong. The LA Times tells us that Carl is helping to fund the campaign against Prop 23.

Prop 23 is a modest proposal that would ‘temporarily’ halt the madness of California’s Cap and Trade legislation, AB 32. Cap and Trade is a devise to punish private citizens for using energy. C&T is highly controversial as a new but hidden tax allegedly  intended to punish polluters. The money is supposed to force renewable energy change worldwide. Although C&T passed the U.S. House, it is stalled in the 59 vote Democrat Senate. However, California’s radical legislature got a local variant passed which was enthusiastically signed into law by the governor. 

Of course, any reasonable scientist will agree that to make C&T truly effective all nations must implement similar laws at the same time to have any measurable impact on climate. Assuming you believe the UN’s thoroughly discredited global warming panic. 

But of course, most nations, including industrial nations are not playing. In fact, few people know that the Chinese are building a major coal plant each week, into the foreseeable future. If you are worried about pollution  you had better talk to the Chinese first. 

The reasons why C&T is stalled in the Democrat dominated Senate are obvious. It’s bad law, would punish the poor and innocent,  fundamentally anti-economic and growth,  plus it offers no measurable impact on global "warming."  

In the meanwhile the giants of Silicon Valley are joined in a common cause to defeat Prop 23, Prop 23 merely allows C&T to become active if unemployment reaches a historic average of 5% unemployed. Are the titans of computer capitalism that naive? They know how to make money—but do they understand Economics 101?  If you make energy more expensive,  it’s the poor and middle class who would suffer a lower standard of living. Or, is the Silicon Valley Leadership Group a political shill? 

The SVLG has a large Board of Directors, including representatives from Wells Fargo, IBM, B of A, UCSC, PG&E, Lockheed Martin and many more. So are these companies merely run by stupid anti business greenies or are they merely naive? 

Examining Guardino’s credentials, to my surprise, he is not some idealistic wunderkind who amassed a software fortune overnight. Instead — he’s a political hack. 

His pedigree includes six years on the staff of a forgotten Democrat Assemblyman. Then he gets a job at HP as a lobbyist. According to the Times he is a leader against Prop 23—and thus "leading" business folks to an early economic grave. 

Lenin must be quoted here, " the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them. "

While it’s a shame California’s Chamber of Commerce remains "neutral" on a clear cut choice, Jack Stewart’s California Manufacturers & Technology Assn supports Prop 23. 

The damning idea that otherwise intelligent business people are manipulated by a democrat x staffer cannot be overstated. Part of the reason the golden state continues to sacrifice  its prosperity is that big business is too closely tethered to big government.

The challenge  will  be whether the message gets through that Prop 23  is the antidote to California’s C&T.  The notorious AB 23, is California’s ultimate solution to destroy good paying  jobs. That includes the geniuses at big business in Silicon Valley.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 9th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.