Today the voters had a temper tantrum... Angry White Men etc.

The LA Times is right about this, though:

Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over the state's fiscal debacle.

By rejecting five budget measures, Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.

They do bear the blame. Because they vote for Democratic control.

The priority of the Republican Party is to not raise taxes (and cut them, if possible). The priority of the Democrat Party is to not cut government spending and public-sector employees' salaries and numbers (and increase them, if possible).

By electing a (nominally) Republican Governor and a truly Democratic state legislature, the voters ensured that both parties' priorities -- don't raise taxes, don't cut spending -- would be honored. That trick was managed by the timeworn method of borrowing and deficit spending. Both parties claim to be against borrowing, but at best its a second-order priority for both. When push comes to shove, they will borrow rather than violate their first priorities.

But this situation can, obviously, continue for only so long. Yesterday came "so long."

It turns out that voters do not view both parties' priorities as equally important. They seem to favor the Republicans' priority of not increasing (or cutting) taxes over the Democrats' priority of ever-growing spending (although they do seem to like the latter, too, make no mistake).

But by failing to actually vote the Republicans a working majority to achieve their priority without deficit spending, they've driven California's finances over a cliff.

California is now undertaking emergency layoffs -- something that could have been avoided had Republicans had enough power to keep the public service unions from growing in numbers and salaries paid for years and years. And had Californian voters dropped their "let's be nice to everyone" attitude and helped fight the unions' ever-growing demands before the state's budget was bleeding crimson.

The public avoided making this decision, but now appears to making it, after years and years of procrastination, and letting finances get into terrible shape. It turns out "let's be nice to everyone" only goes so far, and at the end of the day, they don't mind massive layoffs in the state workforce all that much.

California will probably go bankrupt now, and the voters -- collectively -- bear much of the blame, for failing so long to realistically confront the dilemma they were offered, choosing instead to borrow and delay any sort of prioritization of wants.

If California doesn't go bankrupt, it will be, most likely, due to the political class conspiring together to raise taxes no matter what the laws might say -- claiming an "emergency situation," courts will allow "emergency revenue enhancements" and the like.

And the voters will only have themselves to blame for that too -- those who don't exercise their right to vote prudently may find it taken away from them by a self-aggrandizing political class which has figured out that many Americans have simply become bored with democracy, and don't prize their right of self-determination very highly.

It's Going to be Bad: Define bad? Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

Total protonic reversal.

Posted by: Ace at 09:02 AM | Comments (120)
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Amid the rest of the circus going on at the RNC, the committee members have been considering a resolution to re-brand the Democratic Party the "Democrat Socialist Party." RNC Chairman Steele already announced that he does not support the namecalling resolution on the theory that "sticks and stones my break some bones, but words are shit."

Late yesterday it looked like the committee was going to avoid the question during today's voting:

However, New Jersey committeeman David Norcross, one of the sponsors of the resolution, told CNN the language is being massaged so that Steele and others on the committee will be more receptive.

"The language is being changed so that the proposers and chairman Steele are on the same page," Norcross said.

He said that as of Tuesday afternoon, the chairman of the RNC Standing Committee on Resolutions had changed the language to "condemn the Democrats' march to socialism" instead of "talking about the 'Democrat Socialist' party."

Total non sequitur: Is "committeeman" a word in frequent use?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:58 AM | Comments (38)
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Republicans offered an amendment to the cap and tax bill that would have suspended the expensive new plans should gas hit $5/gallon.

Democrats voted to shelve it. Plus other circuit-breaker type measures:

Democrats Vote for 15 Percent Unemployment. Democrats rejected a GOP amendment that made clear that if the U.S. unemployment rate should exceed 15 percent, then the national energy tax would cease to be effective.

Democrats Vote for Skyrocketing Electricity Costs. Democrats rejected a GOP amendment that would have protected residential customers from higher electric utility rates. The amendment would shelve the national energy tax if electricity rates increase by more than 10 percent over 2009 rates.

Posted by: Ace at 08:30 AM | Comments (53)
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Wait, didn't I already watch this episode? In a speech for legislators in Sarajevo, the Vice President claims he was shot at when he visited Bosnia in 1993. He has now claimed to have been shot at in at least three countries (Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan).

You'd think maybe he'd take the hint? (And to the watching Treasury agents, no that was not a threat against the Vice President. I am entirely kidding. And to Napolitano's Goonsquad, who I expect have no senses of humor, come and get me!)

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:22 AM | Comments (34)
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This appears to be an attempt at evenhandedness (that's not sarcasm, I mean it):

"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

On May 6, Maine became the second state to legislatively allow gay marriages without a court order. The Maine marriage bill, like Vermont's and New Hampshire's contains religious conscience exemptions for churches and also explicitly provides that no person for any reason (religious or not) that is allowed to perform marriages can be forced to perform a marriage they don't want to.

Petitioners have until 60 days after the close of the legislative session (roughly mid-June) to collect 55,087 signatures. The marriage bill passed by the legislature is stayed until that time. If they manage to get the signatures, the stay continues through the election. If they don't get them, the stay expires.

Incidentally, Doctor Zero over at Hot Air's Greenroom had an extensive discussion of gay marriage (he's opposed) which I think makes good reading. If I ever have a free second again in my life, I intend to reply to several of the arguments he's making.

Oh, And While I'm Thinking About It: There was some expectation that the California Supreme Court Prop 8 decision would come down this week. That does not appear to be the case. The Court issues decisions on Mondays and Thursdays with one working day's notice in advance. Since there is no notice of incoming decision tomorrow, we can rule out a decision this week. Several commentators have suggested that the Cal Supremes will let the recent marrige events in Iowa and New England alter their decision.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:01 AM | Comments (26)
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I blame the Republicans.

In a major rebuke to President Barack Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States and denied the administration the millions it sought to close the prison.

...Obama is scheduled to give a major address Thursday outlining in more detail his plans for Guantanamo, but it's already clear that Congress has little appetite for bringing detainees to U.S. soil, even if the inmates would be held in maximum-security prisons.

Meanwhile the AP still has a story (now up on Drudge) saying no one is talking about releasing terrorists on the streets of the US, even thought that's not true.

It seems someone should tell that to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

He told a House hearing today that they could radicalize others, even if held in U.S. high-security prisons. And he said if any detainees with terror training are ultimately ordered released, then it would present a challenge to the FBI to keep close tabs on them, either with physical surveillance or wiretaps.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:46 AM | Comments (53)
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Ah, the kind, caring liberal in all its splendor.

"He became Ground Zero among the neo-cons, but he's vastly smarter than most of them," said Time's Joe Klein, an admirer and critic who praised Krauthammer's "writing skills and polemical skills" as "so far above almost anybody writing columns today."

"There's something tragic about him too," Klein said, referring to Krauthammer's confinement to a wheelchair, the result of a diving accident during his first year of medical school. "His work would have a lot more nuance if he were able to see the situations he's writing about."

Between this and the Maureen Dowd's plagiarism, I'd say we are getting a pretty good look at the essence of liberal "thinking"...insulting and stupid.

Lest we forget...Klein was the author of Primary Colors, a fictionalized version of the '92 Clinton campaign. The book was published under the name "Anonymous" and Klein denied being its author several times before fessing up.

In short, Klein is a fucking liar and the fact that he still holds down a job in the media is testament to the fact you can get away with anything (even lying to the face of fellow reporters) if you are a good little liberal.

Whoops [Gabe]: I double posted. But definitely go see John Podhoretz rip Klein a new one.

"Cripplehawk" [ace]: So Jules Crittenden dubs Klein's curious new smear.

He also wants to know what hazardous combat postings Joe Klein's been taking of late.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:14 AM | Comments (73)
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Has anybody checked in Sandy Berger's sock drawer?

The Inspector General of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told congressional committee staffers Tuesday that a hard drive containing over a terabyte of information -- the equivalent of millions of books--went missing from the NARA facility in College Park, Md., sometime between October 2008 and March 2009.

The Department of Justice and the Secret Service are conducting an investigation, but it's so far unclear whether the drive was lost as the result of a crime or an accident.

Information on the harddrive included things like Secret Service logs, Social Security numbers, and "highly sensitive information." It "somehow disappeared" while it was being moved.

My question, which is not addressed in the article, is whether the information is backed up somewhere else.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:12 AM | Comments (24)
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The failed healthcare and pension company expects to miss a key deadline next week and threatens that bankruptcy may result if it does.

GM's filing said it would announce May 27 whether it would extend the bond exchange or declare it a failure. If it fails, GM faces bankruptcy.

A GM bankruptcy filing could send shock waves across America as it further slashes employees, voids contracts with suppliers and dealerships it deems unnecessary and reduces debt owed to banks, bondholders and others, who would be forced to absorb losses.

And that's the key. They're asking for another bailout or more loan forgiveness. I'm sure Obama will provide; he's tied himself too closely to this restructuring for it to fail.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:50 AM | Comments (43)
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All but one of the legislature's proposed budget changes have been crushed at the polls. So, where do we go from here?

On Thursday a small group of Senate and Assembly members will hold the first of what's expected to be a slew of daily public sessions to wrangle over the details of the budget.

Schwarzenegger has called for cuts that would hit every corner of the state. He announced plans to lay off 5,000 of the state's 235,000 workers and has proposed slashing education by up to $5 billion, selling state properties, borrowing $2 billion from local governments and potentially reducing eligibility for healthcare programs.

And that might not be enough. There are still whispered suggestions that California renew its request for a federal bailout. Bankruptcy, even with the likelihood that state services will be disrupted, has also been discussed.

It's not that complicated. The state is spending more than it has and more money than it can obtain. Tax hikes are extremely hard to pass here because of Prop 13's requirement that they pass by 2/3 vote of the legislature. Legislators simply did not want to make the kinds of spending cuts required to keep the state going.

Now they have to find those cuts or throw up their hands and let the whole thing burn. I'm actually expecting bankruptcy. Liberal interest groups will start to take out legislators who support cuts to particular programs and Democratic legislators depend on those groups to get elected. If it goes to bankruptcy, the Democrats can then claim that they tried their best, but it was unavoidable. Less blame that way.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:24 AM | Comments (191)
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