From the Sacremento Bee:
One of the ironies of Arnold Schwarzenegger's time as governor of California is how he has failed to do some seemingly simple things – like balance the state budget – while at the same time tackling some of the most complex and arcane issues in government.
California's budget deficit could reach nearly $28 billion over the next two years unless drastic steps - including raising new taxes - are taken to stem the fiscal bleeding, the nonpartisan legislative analyst's office said Tuesday.
Calling it a "monumental problem," Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said the state faces several challenges coming off a difficult budget year, with revenue continuing to falter this year and an economic recovery unlikely in the near future.
Analyst urges immediate action to stem state deficit
By Rebecca Kimitch, Staff Writer
On a day when the Legislative Analyst suggested raising the state income tax by 5 percent, one termed-out Republican lawmaker said his party may have no alternative than to support tax hikes.
California's gay chickens were shocked with mix emotionslast Tuesday in California. Early in thenight, gay chickens all over the state were ecstatic as the results came inover Proposition2, which would require that California's farmers allow chickens the rightto a comfortable living space.
Last Tuesday, California'svoters passed a constitutional amendment stripping the ability of gay personsto enter into a marriage contract. The final ballots have been tallied, but theheated debate over gay marriage is far from over. There is an important underlying issuerelated to this proposition, and it concerns the right for two persons to enterinto a voluntary contract. This is an argument California courts will have to face withregard to Proposition 8's constitutional implications.
In Monty Python's "Monty Python and theHoly Grail", a group of angry peasants drags a young woman into thetown square and demands that she be burned at the stake because she is a witch.When the local authority questions their rationale, the villagers reply thatthey know their victim is a witch because "she looks like one." It islater revealed that the costume and disgustingly long nose that the"witch" apparently possesses were placed on her by the villa
Only days after Californian's agreed to shell out $40 billion for a high-speed rail program, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan to hopefully put an end to the crippling state budget deficit.
There is an interesting article from Bloomberg today on the Fed's refusal to identify the recipients of nearly $2 trillion dollars worth of emergency loans.
In a debate over Britain's membershipin the then-emergent European Union, Margaret Thatcher accused Labor LeaderNeil Kinnock of being a toady for the European interests, and playing alongwith their demands "for the purpose of being little SirEcho and saying 'me too!'"