The alternative to democracy is a philosopher king? I'm sure that will work out just fine in the real world.

The ones who oppose all tax increases and would have a veto power even if they comprised only 25% of the legislators. They, and Californians who are too mellow to do anything to fix this mess, are to blame. Sure am glad I don't live there.

So these holier-than-thou anti-republican politicians do not want to raise taxes or institute new taxes, right? Don't they love to raise sin taxes, however? So I'm not sure why when Tom Amiano suggested we tax and regulate Marijuana the conservatives ran in horror. Judge Gray, a libertarian from the O.C and member of LEAP spoke in favor of he bill and was a key proponent. So let me get this straight: The republicans want to protect your kids by letting your kids buy unregulated marijuana from the black market without and I.D check, but don't want to raise taxes in order to make sure that your kids get a good education. I guess that would be in line with their stance on Climate change - "climate change is a hoax" mentality. So who do the hard-line republican anti-tax zealots really care about? Defense contractors and white protestan males and their own conscience. Pro-life but good luck. You'll have a low-quality life.

Now of course I understand that Amiano's bill won't save everything but when a state spends more money on prisons than education that gives me pause.

Insane water subsidies is also another issue for another day. Have we solved any of these tough problems in California? Nope. Just hoping technology will get us out of it. Ethical/moral and fairness/justice issues are still not resolved.

If I was in CA right now I'd be camping out at Sacramento for sure. No excuse for the people at the top of the government to continue collecting their paychecks when they send thousands of people on furloughs and cut social services. I'm sorry but that is unethical.

It has been suggested here and other places that one of the problems crippling the state is the 2/3 majority for passing a budget and tax increases. To the contrary, this is saving us from possibly outrageous taxes. The democrat majority in Calif. can only think of spending and taxing, trite, but true. Were it not for some republicans, not necessarily Newt Gingrich far righters, the democrats would not even begin to consider any spending cuts. Were it not for the 2/3 requirement, any republican in California, or for that matter, anyone who does not believe in unfettered spending, would be marginalized to complete insignificance.

I am a liberal-moderate politically, but I firmly believe the size of the state in CA too big. I usually vote Democrat but there are times when I think a reset of expenditure levels is in order. This is such a time. Many of our ancestors left Europe precisely to get away from meddling bureaucracy. THis was the ubiquitous form of tyranny there that drove many across the ocean. But this tyranny now appears to be here in full. I have friends who recently moved out there and I am shocked at some of the things they tell me . One is example is that they administer this seemingly useless written driver renewal test to everyone in the state,even younger people w/ perfect driving records. The test has many obscure questions that seem to have little correlation to driving ability. Many people fail the test and have to go back and talke it again. How many people does govt. employ to administer this unneeded test. Another: there was a problem w/ people selling stolen scrap metal so the state set up this elaborate system whereby people who want to sell scrap metal have to be fingerprinted and fill out forms etc. Once again, what does this cost? I think there needs to be a realization that there are limits to what govt. can do and that you can't engineer a perfect world. The solution to the CA budget problem is to shrink the state apparatus. America has advantage relative to the rest of the world only to the degree that we are exceptional and one big part of our exceptionalism is our relative freedom from bureaucracy

The whole point of California is egotism and denial of connection. Ayn Rand's perfect state. While not everyone there appears to be as conservative as old Crazy Widder Lady was, you have to understand that the liberalism of Californians is only as deep as their tans. They are glad to push causes...but they don't want to pay for those causes in any way that would keep them from getting their crotches waxed weekly.

Some people were surprised when Transformers 2: Electric Boogaloo contained racist caricatures and the suggestion that the President, a stand-in for Obama, wants the nation to fall to terrorists in the form of Decepticons. Why surprised? Stephen Spielberg did Schinder's List because it was his own parish. That doesn't mean that he, a rich and fairly isolated Californian, has any understanding of what is wrong in the real world.

The appeal of philosophies like Brightstar 2 (Electric Boogaloo) is that its practitioners believe they have sufficient competency, power, wit, nerve, and testosterone to beat any challenge from life, nature or the "mud people" that trouble them. The schadenfreude when they suddenly realize they were wrong is amusing...or would be if human blood wasn't being spilled.

I hate saying this stuff, because I know a couple of Californians and they are suffering from these policies. They would like to bring the people together to solve their problems. But bringing Californians together is like trying to herd cats and psychotic pit bulls with rabies into one paddock.

Perhaps Enron was the future of government after all. If power is the dominant force in politics, maybe California can become the first corporate state. Psycho science fiction authors like Jerry Pournelle have been predicting corporate states for a long time and think that government by committee (with lots of donuts and coffee) would be more sensible than outmoded, silly ideas like democracy and individuality.

I get the feeling that, after the collapse, the best thing Obama could do is allow California to have Government by Enron. Make it an object lesson for the rest of American and the world, and when it collapses, make the whole place a museum of failure like Hiroshima.