I don’t want to get into all the nitty-gritty details of California’s budget crisis and the state GOP’s epic meltdown in reaction to it, but it is worth noting the degree of craziness we’re dealing with here:
To be sure, none of the GOP lawmakers who demanded that the state close its $42-billion shortfall without raising taxes detailed the doomsday cuts that approach would entail, nor did the activists who lobbied against the tax increases. If the state had laid off its entire workforce of 238,000 — every prison guard, firefighter and clerk — it still would have fallen billions shy of a balanced budget.
And, yet, the Republicans and their activists are furious that the Governator broke his 2003 promise not to raise taxes, as if he had any rational alternative.
Add to this that the hardcore Republicans are convinced that the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the stimulus package) is some kind of theft of their tax dollars even though the White House estimates that it will create roughly 400,000 jobs (.pdf) in the Golden State and that it appropriates nine billion dollars for their education system alone.
I mean, take a look at the lunacy.
Like the governor, the six Republican lawmakers who joined Democrats in approving the tax increases are also facing vitriol within the party. Chief targets include Sens. Dave Cogdill of Modesto, whose support of the budget led to his overthrow as Senate Republican leader, and Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria, who cast the deciding vote.
Conservative blogger Matthew Cunningham has started a Facebook group, “Never Elect Abel Maldonado to Anything, Ever Again.” More threatening, Ernie Konnyu, a former Bay Area congressman, has launched a campaign to recall Maldonado.
Efforts to recall other GOP lawmakers for their break with the party on taxes have sprouted. Conservative purists are pushing the state party to censure them Sunday.
Good luck getting the Republican base to nominate anyone reasonable to run for governor or U.S. Senate in two years. Why do I hear Pink Floyd playing in the background?
Crazy,
Toys in the attic I am crazy,
Truly gone fishing.
They must have taken my marbles away.
Crazy, toys in the attic he is crazy.
Crazy, Over the rainbow, I am crazy,
Bars in the window.
There must have been a door there in the wall
When I came in.
Crazy, over the rainbow, he is crazy.
Ask Meg. Whitman, x-eBay (founder and CEO) why she wants to run for Gov. of CA in 2010.
she has toys in her attic…. maybe those she bought from the leftovers on eBay.
Thanks very much booman for the sunday morning laugh!
I’m guessing the LAT doesn’t know much about Ernie except that he was in congress once. Maybe they could have looked at wiki or something. Maldonado has made some enemies obviously, but Ernie Konnyu isn’t any threat.
That district was a safe moderate-Republican one, back in the 80s when there still was such a thing as a moderate Republican. Two redistrictings later it’s now very safely Democrat; Mike Honda was reelected with 72% of the vote IIRC.
How can I post this to my facebook profile? This rocks!
What seems to be going on is that the Republicans are now paying the price for not paying attention to substantive policy matters for all these years. Now that we’ve got a Dem. President and Congress, the GOP is reduced to standing on the sidelines, whining and stomping their feet. They don’t even have the wherewithal to be a useful and legitimate opposition party, because they have nothing to say.
It might be possible that the fools have lost their minds and are playing with their toys in the attic. But, agter watching the talkies this AM, I have to tell ya- the gindals, the sanders, the wills- they are simply evil. They have chosen to represent the insane ones that believe that it is OK tp see thousands if not millions of the citizens of this country sleeping on the steam grills of our cities. They have chosen to represent the insane ones that appear to be ok with the idea the markets will fix themselves without any assistance whatsoever.
I wonder what the insane ones will say when the crime rate skyrockets and the lppting begins and the tent cities spring up all over this country.
Oh, I know- build more prisons! Then we can employ more people!
“The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path.
The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.
And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.
They don’t run the asylum anymore and they have all but burned it to the ground. Still the lunatics try to set more fires.
Hey You
For the love of Pink Floyd…these bastards have decimated the California education system. As of this latest budget, California will become No. 50 down from No. 47 on school spending per child. They should be praying we get more federal aid.
This is so sad. Look what happens when you don’t get a Head Start.
I think I’ve figured out what those whacky Repubs are doing: They are laying the groundwork for an insanity defense when they’re brought to court for corruption, tax evasion and/or whatever crimes they know they’ve committed.
What a curious thing it is to watch the Republican Party march down the road to collective suicide. Their leaders for the most part refuse to acknowledge their present situation and the profound part they played in the economic-banking-military-industrial-diplomatic f..k up that the USA has become.
For my part I say good riddance to these selfish and evil people. I hope they don’t take down the rest of the country with them.