I’ll take a California on the rocks, please

California’s broke and can’t print money so spending cuts are on the way. One can quibble over some of them: closing 80% of the state’s parks doesn’t seem designed to save money so much as to inconvenience as many people as possible, but if the budget crisis accomplishes nothing else, it’s done this: forced a politician to tell the truth:

“Government doesn’t provide services to rich people,” Mike Genest, the state’s finance director, said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t even really provide services to the middle class.” He added: “You have to cut where the money is.”

Our country’s been playing at class warfare for almost 100 years but for most of that time the middle class was suckered into believing that they were on the side of the poor and against “the rich”. In California, they’ve discovered the reality of the situation and have rebelled. It will be interesting to see what happens when that realization emerges in other states, too.

Tea bag sent as protest to Congressman paralyzes office in fear

The revolt of the tax payers. Imagine the havoc if we sent them all CFLs!

Bi-Partisan taxpayer rape

We’ve forked over $750 billion to bankers so that they can buy other banks, pay themselves nice salaries and attend conferences in sunny climes where they gloat over our stupidity and their greed.

Most of the banks that received the money are far smaller than behemoths like Citigroup or Bank of America. A review of investor presentations and conference calls by executives of some two dozen banks around the country found that few cited lending as a priority. An overwhelming majority saw the bailout program as a no-strings-attached windfall that could be used to pay down debt, acquire other businesses or invest for the future.

I can hardly wait to see what the next trillion goes to.