GovernorSchwarzenegger had the nerve to suggest that legislators take a paycut as a symbolic gesture and to save the state some money. As heput it in his State of the State address on January 15, “if youcall a taxi and the taxi doesn't show up, you don't have to pay thedriver.”

In other words, thecitizens of California should not have to pay our legislators forfailing to do their job.

Nothingshort of a massive dose of retroactive common sense -- not to mention ashot of banking industry regulation -- could have stopped theforeclosure crisis that's been the nuclear reactor in California'sbudget meltdown. Nothing short of a sprinkling of pixie dust that woulderase the state's onerous two-thirds approval requirement for budgets will loosen the current legislative long-jam.

In the recent blockbuster The Dark Knight,the by-this-point infamous Joker sidles up to the permanently scarredHarvey Dent and expresses his hope that "There won't be any hardfeelings between us, Harvey." The Joker's reasoning for why Dent shouldnot blame him for the mutilation of Dent's face and the death of Dent'sgirlfriend is that the Joker was "sitting in [Police Commissioner]Gordon's cage" and "didn't rig those charges" at the time it happened.The defense is laughable, and Dent makes as much clear.

It's a strange world when a Democratic president does in six days what Republican governor could not convince a Republican president to do in four years of letter-writing, lawsuits and international embarrassment.

Yet, that's happening today, as President Barack Obama lowers the Environmental Protection Agency's long-standing blockade of California's tough automobile emissions standards.

As the hand-wringing over California's budget crisis inSacramento continues, the hard truth that the world's 8th economicpower is sliding into fiscal insolvency is finally starting to hit hometo rank and file Californians.

The Golden State is at the leading edge of the most recent recession. The national unemployment has risen to at least 7.2 percent, and the rate is much higher (8.4 percent) here in California. Unfortunately, things will continue to get worse before they get worse before they get better.

As California headsthrough January, ever closer to the magical date of February 1, allCalifornia citizens face a startling truth: the state is rapidlyheading toward becoming, for lack of a better word, broke.

In the classic MelBrooks film "Young Frankenstein," Baron Beaufort Von Frankenstein'slast will and testament loudly bemoans the fact that "there was a timewhen the name Frankenstein conjured dreams of virtue." The implicationis that Baron Von Frankenstein's name now conjures the opposite, andindeed, given what we all know of Mary Shelley's novel, this would be arealistic implication.

Those few deluded soulswho are hoping for a return to honesty, integrityand responsibility in government got a taste of "hope" and "change"this Saturday, with the confirmation hearings for incoming laborsecretary Hilda Solis.