But It's The Truth

It was probably only a matter of time before we began to hear from the relatives of the chick that slept with Arnold Schwarzenegger and bore his illegitimate miniature bodybuilder offspring with a seemingly inherited giant head. Yesterday, we got to hear from the daughter of ex-Schwarzenegger maid Mildred Baena. That would be a one Jackie Roso. Let's see what drivel she spewed so that people could pretend that they're interested.

She apparently told "Entertainment Tonight" in regard to her mother that "She's like a superwoman, pretty much...She's always been there for us, for me and my brothers. And that's why me and my brothers will always be there for her, no matter what." Yeah, I'd say that she's a superwoman. Anyone who could keep the secret that they're sleeping with their boss (who happens to be the governor of California) WHILE still working in the family home is somewhat of a superwoman. Somewhat of a superwhore as well, but I'm OK with the superwoman moniker.

The best part though, was this: "It doesn't matter what any newspaper says... I know my mom, and her friends and her family, we all know her. The Mildred that they put out there...it's just like...gossip, rumors." Well, I don't know what exactly she's referring to, but pretty much all I've heard is not really as much gossip and rumors as it is the truth. And those "rumors" didn't so much come from the media as much as they actually came from Arnold himself when he admitted to being a lying and cheating scumbag and fathering your child. It's hard to imagine any reason for him to say those things unless they were true. So it's really not so much gossip and rumors as much as it is your mom is a homewrecker.

I'm not quite sure why this chick feels the need to say anything considering that her mom hasn't spoken up yet at all. She also, apparently, hasn't spoken to her mom since all of this came out. She might want to wait just a little bit longer next time she decides to speak out about things that are totally true. Just a thought.

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Oh, No They Don't

I've gotta say that I'm kind of surprised at the restraint that almost all of the news and tabloid outlets have shown by not publishing a photo of Arnold's newly announced illegitimate child that he fathered with his maid at his house when he was cheating on his wife and the mother of his four legitimate children, the lovely Maria Shriver. If only some of the media could refrain from making idiotic comparisons and/or analogies, then we might very well be on our way toward some responsible reporting of an issue that really kind of doesn't matter. But no. Leave it to ABC to ruin the very, very short streak that we were on. I present to you THEIR way of framing the story. Behold! Utter crap!

Good Lord. Really? Who thought that was a good idea? Well, over at ABC, it would be the director of Yale University's Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic, a one Dr. Alan E. Kazdin, as he is actually quoted using the phrase "This event is like a personal 9/11." I know that 9/11 was almost ten years ago, so I'm guessing that he WAS, in fact, around for the events that took place on that day. That's why I'm so perplexed as to why anyone would make such an idiotic statement. ( was about to say "And he's a doctor!" Then I realized that might actually shed some light on his thinking patterns as opposed to confusing me even more. He should step out of his ivory tower once in a while and see how the real world thinks of 9/11. Because while it's thought of in a lot of ways, one of those ways is not when your husband/father turns out to be a lying, cheating, seed-spreading scumbag. It sucks, but it doesn't 9/11 suck.

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The Sperminator

By now, I'm sure that you've been made aware of the extramarital dalliances of the ex-Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not only did he screw around on his wife, but he fathered a child with this other woman (who was a member of his household staff, otherwise known as a maid) about TEN YEARS ago. Holy cow. And he managed to make it through an election not once, but twice and not have this discovered? Amazing.

That's really the most amazing thing out of all of this. Well, and that Maria didn't just castrate him on the spot after she found out. She went out on a limb as she vouched for his character during the election in which he became the Governor of California. Little did she know that as she was telling everyone what a great guy he was and how well she knew him that he had an illegitimate child (with his maid) that would have been about three or four years old. Sure, he's a great guy.

See, it's one thing to cheat on your wife. It's a completely different thing to be spawning children with the hired help. And it's in a totally different league when you wife is humiliated in the public eye when all of this finally comes out. It still hasn't come out exactly why he told her, either. Considering that he was able to keep this under wraps for ten years, I can't imagine what happened at this point. He must have been paying off his mistress-maid quite well in order for her to have not even said a peep.

Cheating on your wife is just a scumbag thing to do. Not being a responsible and involved parent once you've fathered a child is an even more scumbag thing to do. Translation: Arnold is a scumbag. I hope Maria takes him for everything that he is worth and then some.

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The Governator's All A-Twitter

I need for November to hurry up and get here so that everyone can freaking vote and will stop being subjected to the incessant barrage of campaign ads and literature which are seemingly endless. After that, then I need for January to hurry up and get here so that Arnold Schwarzenegger can get the heck out of the office of the governor of California and go about trying to get some cushy job in the Obama administration (which seems to be what he's angling for lately, even though he hasn't said anything about it). Not that his replacement is going to be any better, mind you. We're faced with the abhorrent choices of either Meg Whitman (who has already spent over $108 million of her own money, so you can only imagine how she'll be pissing away mine if she's elected) or Jerry Brown (who might be in the early to middle stages of dementia, depending on the time of day and if he's speaking publicly or not). But I'm so ready to get rid of the Governator right now that either one almost looks appealing.

Arnold hasn't always put being governor first. No, if you've ever heard him talk, you know what his first priority and his first love is. Laughter. That man loves to tell a joke. Making an audience laugh is what he seemingly lives for. He thrives on one-liners. His enormous face just lights up if he can make a crowd laugh with one of his silly jokes. Like back in May, when he was at Emory University in Atlanta to give the commencement speech, and he said, "I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend, but with my accent, I was afraid they would try to deport me." Or in July when he said that "...while BP appears to have contained the Gulf oil leak...no one has figured out how to contain Mel Gibson.” Oh, yeah. He's a riot.

If the state wasn't in the complete s***hole that it is (that could say sinkhole; you don't know), I don't know that I'd give a fat rat's ass what he does or said. But the state isn't exactly thriving, so I guess that's why he irritates me so much lately. And after I read that he was on his way to Asia, the irritation continued. I guess he's going over there to bid on having the World Expo in California in 2020. Whatever. We have problems NOW, Arnold! There a little thing called a 19 billion dollar budget deficit that needs tending to now! (Just four more months. Just four more months. Just four more months.)

But just because he's on his way to Asia, don't let that make you think that he is no longer worried about getting laughs, because they are just as important to him when he's flying in the air as they are when he's doing nothing on the ground. The Governator likes to take to Twitter when he's feeling particularly joke-y and there's no one around to pretend to laugh. He tweets quite a bit when he isn't feeling joke-y, but mark my words, if there's no one around to hear his one liner, it's off to the Twitter he goes!

And tweet he did. Ready for his sky-high snark? He twat tweeted "Over Anchorage, AK. Looking everywhere but can't see Russia from here. Will keep you updated as search continues."

And he even included a lovely photo of him looking for Russia. Behold!

::: sigh ::: Well, I'm glad that he's kept two year old SNL skits in mind for just such an occasion. Now if he would just pay a little more attention to things that are happening now instead of things that might happen ten years from now, I'd relax a little bit. In the meantime, I can't wait for January; after which the only time I'll have to hear from him (hopefully) is when he's doing the talk show circuit for Terminator 12 or Conan The Barbarian 14 - Conan Goes To College.

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America's Funniest Governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to enjoy being Governor of California, but mainly because it gives him a platform from which to tell jokes. Look, he had all of these lofty ideas when he took office, but wasn't able to accomplish the majority of them. While I'm sure that was frustrating for him, I'm afraid that it was frustrating for the wrong reasons. I fear that the main problem he had with not being able to achieve what he wanted to wasn't so much the lack of achievement as much as it was the decline in his popularity.

If there is one thing that the Governator likes, it is to be liked. And the only thing that he likes more than that is to get a laugh out of folks. Whether it be a calculated joke, an off the wall comment or even a prank, Arnold likes to make people yuk it up.

The Governator is aware that there is only so much that he can do. He is also aware that the Legislature for the state of California is absolutely pathetic. According to the latest Field Poll, the California Legislature had a 13% approval rating. 13%. My question to that thirteen percent is: What are your standards, exactly? How can you approve of anything those ass clowns are doing up there in Sacramento? Are you staffers of the Legislature? Blood relatives? How can you approve of their job performance?

Seriously? Maybe they don't know about some of the abhorrent behavior exhibited by some of these elected morons. Let's take a one Tom Ammiano who, at the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee Gala, began shouting "No, no, no, no!!!!! You lie!!!" and "Kiss my gay ass!!!!" among other colorful phrases when the Governator got up to speak. That according to a one Beth Spotswood over yonder at SF Appeal. (Beth's piece, by the way, is awesome. Hilarious, yet surprisingly informative. I would highly recommend giving it a read.) Seriously, dude? "Kiss my gay ass"? You're comfortable, not only shouting that (in San Francisco, none the less. Talk about livin' on the wild side.), but shouting it at the Governor? Apparently, general respect for each other as human beings has completely bypassed Mr. Ammiano (and his gay ass).

Back to our funny, funny Governor. When the Governator vetoes a bill, he tends to include a little explanation as to why he did so. Arnold is so fed up with the Legislature at this point, it's a wonder he hasn't just sent every veto back with a bullet hole right through the middle of the failed legislation. But see, a bullet hole just wouldn't be funny. Well, not funny enough for Arnold. And it's too blatant. Subtle humor is some of the funniest humor.

When vetoing AB1176 which was sponsored by the aforementioned, looking-for-a-date-for-his-ass Mr. Ammiano, The Governator sent along this veto.

Seems innocuous enough, doesn't it? Not so fast. It seems as though Arnold, in a way that can only be described as sophomoric, yet brilliant (not to mention overdue and oh-so deserved), managed to include another little message which one could assume was directed toward Mr. Ammiano. That sentiment? Behold!

According to The Huffington Post, when this was brought to the attention of Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear his response was, "My goodness. What a coincidence." What a coincidence indeed! And what a most excellent response. "I suppose when you do so many vetoes, something like this is bound to happen." (Translation: "I suppose when you tell the Governor to kiss your gay ass, having him tell you to eff off is bound to happen. You're lucky you didn't get punched inside out, sir.")

Stay in school, kids! You can't have this kind of fun without a vast and solid vocabulary to work with!

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Nice Job, Budget Hole

Wow. The California Legislature just does not get it. They just don't. This whole budget debacle has the state on the brink of insolvency and their solutions involve accounting and paperwork tricks, piracy and/or thievery of local governments, borrowing with an interest rate that has increased because the state has almost earned itself junk bond status, and making residents pay an accelerated income tax which results in another 10% being deducted from worker's paychecks. And the best part of this whole dealio? They ("they" being the legislature) act like this is something that has been done TO them. Rather, they've spent the last several years spending money like drunken sailors on leave in a whorehouse. (Sorry drunken sailors. Really, thanks for your service to our country!) They were warned/notified/slapped upside the head time and time again by not just fiscal conservatives, but by regular people who knew that the level of spending that California was doing was simply out of control and was going to result in financial doom. It did. But don't let that stop the Representatives from continuing to blame everything and everyone but themselves. They are awfully proud of their own act, I'll tell you what.

The budget was supposed to have been done sometime back in February, I think. Definitely by May. June 30th at the latest. Here it is the 24th of July and still no budget. But they claim to be close! In fact, theyu were so sure that they were close that there were pictures accompanying all of the news articles about this and they just showed the "Big 5" (which, while also the name of an awesome sporting goods store, really has nothing to do with sports and is just a newly made up term to refer to the top 5 honchos in the Legislature.) standing there just beaming with pride. And The Governator was just gushing about how they had done such a good job with this "difficult problem". Um, perhaps you self-important folks have forgotten this, but, uh, let's see...how do I put this? Oh, right! That's YOUR JOB!! That whole balancing the budget thing? YOUR JOB! Why are you so proud of yourself for doing YOUR JOB? And please don't forget that the only reason that you're having to "struggle" through this in the first place is because of YOUR reckless and irresponsible spending! It's YOUR fault and now YOU'RE fixing it and you act like you've just learned how to levitate! Don't like it? How about you try not forking out so much cash in the future there, Spendy McInsolvent-State.

Here's how they're going to save $1.2 billion (by the way, the amount of the government created deficit is $26.3 billion. I know! Didn't know they had it in them, did you? Yeah, try living here for a while. Nothing will surprise you. Nothing much.): Instead of paying state employees on June 30, they're going to pay them one day later on July 1. July 1 is the start of the new fiscal year. Thus, if you don't pay them on the last day of the old fiscal year, it won't be deducted from that year's budget! Isn't that ingenious of them?! It's such a brillia.....wait. What now?

That's the stupidest solution that they might have come up with yet. Are you kidding me? That's like if you can't figure out how you're going to make your car payment AND your house payment one month. You look at all of your expenses and finally you exclaim, "Honey! I've got it! We just won't pay our car payment this month and that will make it so we have enough money! I'm SO smart!" No. If you think like that, you're not smart, you're an idiot. You still have to PAY for it. Thus, in this example, next month you'll have to pay your car payment for that month AND you'll have to come up with the payment for the month before that you skipped. Er, I'm sorry, I mean "put off". For the payment that you "put off". It's not like they're not going to have to come up with another $1.2 billion EVENTUALLY. Or are they just planning on making this a regular occurence every year? They probably are. Consider it done.

They also always seem to want to borrow money from the lottery fund as well as tax the hell out of cigarettes, tobacco and alcohol. Now, while it might seem fiscally responsible to bank your state's budget on the lottery and cigarettes, it's a ridiculous tax in those instances. Sure, I understand that the theory/justification for taxing those products is because they have adverse effects to those who use them and the extra money collected as a tax goes toward things that are supposed to...I guess either warn people of the evils that await them should they indulge in those sinister produts or to help people after their lives have been ruined by that one wine cooler on a hot afternoon. And I'll concede that smoking is incredibly bad for you and will not end well. The jury is still out on whether any alcohol at all is fine and dandy, but overall, as long as used in moderation, alcohol hasn't nearly earned the scourge that has been attached to it. But here's where that argument falters: If it's the adverse effects of using these products, does that mean that there's going to be a bacon tax in the future? An ice cream tax? A pie tax? (Mmmm. Pie.) Obesity is a huge problem (no pun intended) in this country and it's due to the abuse of the fatty foods. But do you hear anyone screaming for the Hostess Police? Only if they've stolen your Twinkies. Ouch.

One of the other highlights in their pathetic proposition is to cut funding for state parks by $8 million. The Governator had originally wanted that budget cut by $70 million. Both rather small pittances considering that the state budget is about $26.3 billion in the hole. Nice job, budget hole. Here's the thing, though: For each dollar that is used to operate state parks, $2.35 is generated in return, for a 135% profit margin. It's MAKING money. Want it to make more? Try raising the fees by a dollar or two. Nothing major. A couple of bucks tops. But they're going to cut one of the more effective sources of revenue instead. Good idea! Sure. Any more bright ideas, budget hole?

Of course there are! But how about the things that they WON'T talk about? They act like making cuts is a bad thing. The state is spending too much money, you morons, you! Yes, I'm sure that at some point, those programs or whatever were a fine idea. Then again, you folks want to turn California into some sort of Shangri-La utopian society. Please remember that the guy in the book that found Shangri-La, he went crazy by the end of the book! What does that tell you about "paradise"? It ain't all it's cracked up to be, that is correct.

Look, almost one third of the California prison population is illegal immigrants. Who's up for a mass deportation project?! Anyone? Hands? Wait. What? What's the problem? There has to be a problem because NO ONE talks about illegal immigration. It is costing the state a gazillion dollars for services for folks who are not even supposed to BE here! Over $7 billion alone just for what it costs to fund education and to make provisions for the vast number of kids in schools that are illegal and, shocking, do not speak English. Yeah, it's hard to get a good education when you have no idea what the crap the teacher is talking about. Really tough that way.

And the waste. My God, the waste! Do you think even one of those Reps has suggested any sort of audit? Anything to account for...well, anything? The waste is insane. Fortunately however, we have The Governator who is willing to do whatever it takes. Not only that, he'll Tweet about it also! WTF? Behold!

Oh what the hell was that? What's with the big knife there, Arnie? And could someone please explain to me that watch he's wearing that is the size of a pie plate. Nearsighted much, Arnold? Sell off some of the state cars! Now that's a brilliant idea. Of course, it WOULD help things if you knew just how many cars the state had. Last time they checked, they couldn't nail down the total amount, but they guessed it was between 70,000 and 78,000. Ah, I forgot that it wouldn't matter what the total is anyway. That time when they counted? Yeah, they couldn't account for almost 20,000 of the vehicles. Hard to say what's up with that.


But hey, if you want to sell what we've got, Arnold, you go right ahead! How about selling some of those legislature seats while you're at it? What's that? Oh, yeah. I forgot. The legislature has already been bought.

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How Now California Cow?

Oh, where to begin? I suppose a California fiscal doom scenario update is probably in order seeing as how I've already mentioned that, while the state amasses more debt by having to issue IOUs (which pay the amount owed PLUS 3.25% interest when they're finally redeemed), the legislature has been busy bickering about what constitutes "real honey", what IS 100% pomegranate juice and how should the blueberries of the state be regulated.

(I swear, if ONE single person currently in the legislature manages to win their re-election we might have to seriously consider going back to the voting rules of yore. You know, the ones where you had to be a land owner in order to vote. The theory behind it being that you're invested and will therefore be informed on the issues to make the proper voting choice. Lately, people are not invested. People are morons. And since I've heard that we can't shoot them, nor is the deserted island (upon which to exile them to) available, a way to keep them out of the voting booth definitely needs to be looked at. And if that happens, hey, don't rule out all of the shooting! I'm just sayin'.)

So what's the problem now? Simple (an answer that both answers the question AND describes those working on the problem). More of the same. Only this time they've branched out. Instead of not working on the budget and focusing on fruits and condiments, now they're looking at cow tails. The tail of a cow. The cow's own tail. What now? Yep. Behold!

No! No! No! I said COWS TAIL. Not COW TALES! Again! From the top! Behold!

That's better. OK, so I got wind of this one when I read an article over yonder at JoinArnold.com that quoted the Governator as saying,"“In the midst of the biggest budget crisis we are having a debate about cow tails. So ask the legislators to stop debating about cow tails and let's do the budget.” Good Lord, what?

Here's the scoop: Apparently, there is something called "tail docking" which involves cutting off up to 2/3rds of a cow's tail. According to the text of SB 135, it's author, a one Dean Florez, writes that "tail docking is arcane...and that there is no benefit to tail docking normal healthy tails in dairy cattle based upon peer-reviewed scientific studies and governmental sponsored research." OK. That seemed reasonable. Right up until I read the analysis of the bill, that is.

In the analysis, a survey done earlier this year reported that ..."89.3% of the dairies are not docking tails and 86.2% of the cows are in dairy operations where tail docking is not practiced. The advisor concluded that the results from this survey suggest tail docking is an uncommon practice in California." Are they kidding? Of course they're not.

Let me get this straight, Mr. Florez. You can't talk about the budget right now because you're too busy trying to get some bill passed that only applied to 13.8% of the dairy cows in the state? I say "dairy cows" because in the beef industry they don't dock tails AT ALL unless the tail is injured! (How does a cow injure its tail exactly? They're not a very raucous animal, it seems odd that they'd sustain an injury of any sort. Dusty hooves, maybe. Other than that, hard to imagine.) So the total number of cows in the California that would be affected by this bill would hover somewhere around the neighborhood of less than 10%. I don't know that we need laws that are geared toward: A) Less than 10% of anything, and B) Laws about the the tails of cows!!

How much more do you plan on regulating this state, oh-sagelike Representative there? Seriously. You can't do ANYTHING in this state without it falling under some sort of guideline and regulation and/or requiring a permit and/or a fee! NOTHING! And it's always under the futile threat of up to $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail. Right. That happens ALL the time. (Tail dockers busted! On the next episode of COPS - The Bovine Beat!)

Regardless as to the over-regulation that has made your wannabe utopia more regimented than a German prison camp, don't you have other more pressing issues to deal with first? Let's say you're at home and your house is on fire. You rush for a phone to call 911, but before you do that (and as your house is STILL burning) you decide to call 1-800-DENTIST because that upper tooth on the left has really been sensitive lately and you've really been wanting to get that taken care of. Does THAT MOMENT seem like the best time for that?! NO! I understand your tooth hurts, but what say you wait until you're out of the burning building first, all rightee?

Are these people morons? Have they all sustained some sort of cranial injury which causes them to think and react like mildly retarded four year olds with just a touch of ADHD? Oh, and if the name Dean Florez sounds familiar to you, well, thanks for reading! But it's because Rep. Florez was the one who felt like The Governator was overreacting when he told the Representatives to stop bickering over the age old question, "What is honey?" and get back to work on the damned budget. Rep. Florez is the one who said, "He should really, really take a course on fundamental government on how the legislature works. The fact that he doesn't understand these things worries me." The fact that he is more concerned about honey and cows REALLY worries me. (And makes me question how he spends his free time.)

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California's Budget Problem Solved!

Well, hey, in case you haven't heard, California...yeah, it doesn't have any more money. And just in case you haven't heard this, it's going to pose somewhat of a problem. Soon. Shocking, eh? Not really. Oh, I'm sure it's extremely surprising, but only if you're one of the state legislators. If you're just a regular person who pays attention on occasion, it's pretty much what you'd expected.

See, here's the thing: California relies heavily on taxes to fund its massive, massive trough of money which it seems to dole out left and right with not a whole lot of discretion. (Translation: The state spends money like drunken sailors on leave.) But when there are not enough taxes, do they curtail their spending? Oh, no, of course not! That would be fiscally responsible and this is California! Let the spending continue!

But I digress. Where was I? Oh, the budget. Yeah, California is screwed. A drunken sailor is rarely an economics whiz. From what I can tell, the only legislator without their head shoved mercilessly up their own arse is Tom McClintock. He told The Free Republic back in 2007 that the 2008 financial situation was going to be craptastic. BUT, not only did he predict this disaster, he also came up with ways to solve this disaster. And that's the main component that is sorely lacking in the California legislature today; the part about the feasible solutions (not to mention the ability to be able to identify a problem in the first place). There were forty, four zero, forty areas he found where cuts could be made with minimal negative impact upon the program which was being trimmed.

It's not like his suggestions weren't reasonable. They were perfectly reasonable. WHY none have been adopted, implemented, DONE is beyond me. The man makes sense. Come on, does California really need to fork over $5.22 million a year to veterans that have moved from California back to the Philippines? Is it reasonable to spend $10 million dollars a year for an anti-methamphetamine campaign? ($10 mil? A year? Are the people who are running this campaign doing meth themselves? Why so much? What's wrong with some poster board with "Just Say No" scribbled on it in Magic Marker?) There is a $40 million a year Physical Education Teacher Incentive Program to attract gym teachers? Wow, how's that goin'? Yeah, that's what I thought.

So you get what I'm saying, right? California is being run by a bunch of lawmakers who are fiscally acting like, not only drunken sailors on leave, but drunken sailors on leave who are borderline retarded at best! California is going to be about $10 billion in the hole in a few months. Arnold is calling a special session and ideas like raising the state sales tax by 1.25% are being thrown about. (I guess ideas like Tom McClintock's are just being thrown out.) Lawmakers aren't thrilled about returning for a special session. (I can't imagine why not. It's not like they have to pay for their own gas to get there or anything.) It's pandemonium. Cats and dogs, living together, mass hysteria.

But I've solved the problem! It didn't take me long, maybe about 10 minutes. But once the ol' common sense kicked in, it was smooth sailing. Do you know what California spends each year on illegal immigrants? Neither did I! But I found out! And lo and behold (brother and sister of Flora and Fauna) it was $10.4 billion dollars annually four years ago! There are, by all estimates, approximately 3.5 million illegal immigrants in California. I'll do the math and I'll come to the conclusion that it equates to about $2971.42 per illegal per year. Problem solved!

Now, if the state is so concerned with meth which is illegal, you'd think that they'd be at least a little concerned with people who are illegal and who are contributing to sucking the state dry. Look, it's one thing (and a ridiculous one at that) to let people who aren't even supposed to be here, stay here. But it's another thing to let the people who aren't even supposed to be here, stay here AND give them money as well! (I'm allowed to be here and no one is handing me three grand a year!)That's the silliest thing I've ever heard of! If I walked uninvited into a stranger's home, I'm pretty sure he'd ask me to leave AND expect me to! And if I refused, I highly doubt that the homeowner would just turn around and walk back into the kitchen and let me stay! AND give me money before he left the room! That's not going to happen! Unless you're the state of California.

Look, I know it's a harsh, general, blanket statement (though I do like blankets!) to say just cut off any services that feed money into programs for those who have no legal grounds to be in this country. But I have yet to hear a convincing (let alone valid) argument for why we should continue to run ourselves into the ground because we have overextended our means for those who shouldn't even be here. And the reality is that some things just suck. Decisions like this suck. They do. Suck, suck, suck. (Suck cubed, if you will.) But what's the worst that could happen? The population of illegal individuals dwindles closer to nothing than to not nothing? We'll learn that it turns out that Americans will do those jobs that they're not supposed to want to do? The state won't be in financial turmoil? That programs for people who are supposed to be here don't get cut? Yeah, those all sound horrible. Or they don't. That's right, they don't.

Not once this year have I heard anyone suggest that cutting services to illegal immigrants is a good way to help get the budget deficit down. (In 2007, Tom McClintock did address California's willingness to fund the in-state tuition of illegal immigrants at the cost of $75 million per year as one of his forty areas where cuts could be made. But everyone ignored him then and they're ignoring him now.) All I keep hearing about is how to raise taxes to take care of this. On top of more taxes, Arnold has also suggested cuts to schools (because whenever there's a financial crisis, it's best to just punish the teachers and take money from that which they already don't have) and to Medicaid.

Are you telling me that you'd rather pay 8.50% in sales tax than cut off financial support to people who shouldn't even be here? You'd rather have your child attend an understaffed school taught by overworked and underpaid teachers without enough money for an adequate amount of supplies and books than continue supporting illegals? You'd rather have seniors (who are a large chunk of Medicaid recipients) see their medical and prescription benefits decrease in order to keep doling out cash to illegals? You have to be kidding if you answered 'yes' to any of those. Even if you can't cut off everything, there is NO way that the California lawmakers can't consider cutting services to those who are illegally in this country. Cut the funds of those who are allowed to be here and continue to fund those who are not allowed to be here, does that make sense? Of course not. (Thus, it will most likely continue to happen.)

I'm all for the way that we elect our lawmakers. It's a fine system. But as the population of the state grows, the economics become more complicated. The people need to become concerned about electing officials with a solid grasp on the economic situation (and not just that they know they get free gasoline for their state issued vehicles!). The people also need to become concerned about electing officials who can demonstrate that they are fiscally responsible so that this disaster doesn't just continue until the end of time (and, if I have to keep hearing about it, but then have nothing get accomplished, that could not come too soon for me). The whole situation is a joke and the only ones laughing are the ones in the Legislature. What say we just call one big 'do over' and kick them out along with the illegals and see how we do on our own? It couldn't be worse than it is now. Unless you think that the amigo below is really giving you something to think about, that is.

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