Pass the popcorn, Nahanni: California organizes circular firing squad to determine who will make up its 50% shortfall in revenues

It's another Blue State miracle! The Gaia-friendly Democrat Utopia has hit a budgetary wall, unable to raise taxes and unwilling to cut spending to come anywhere close to meeting its obligations.

Federal judges have ordered California to thin its immense prison population by 40,000 inmates or 24% out of a total of 168,830. There are currently 22,173 illegal immigrants housed in state prisons at an annual cost of at least $32,500 each; the yearly tab for housing illegals comes to nearly three quarters of a billion dollars.

But California's powerful prison guard union wants a large prison population because it drives higher employment for guards, a profession in which annual wages for union members can easily exceed $100K. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has gone so far as to publicly pillory California's "Three Strikes" sentencing policy, stating, "The three-strikes law sponsor is the correctional officers’ union and that is sick!”

In 2004, California voters approved Proposition 1A, which blocked the practice of the state assembly diverting taxes raised locally and, essentially, confiscating them. But, the wily California assembly began "borrowing" the local funds instead. Even the wealthy city of Newport Beach has a $20 million shortfall due in large part to this practice. Now voters may have to raise another proposition in order to ban the state from its predatory "borrowing" practices.

Across the state last week, students and faculty held protests because of large budget cuts to public schools and colleges. But Democrats in power still haven't quite comprehended the needs for significant cuts. After the state-wide demonstrations on Thursday, Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Solano, termed the protests a "flashpoint for anger over the state's disinvestment in education... Sacramento must listen -- without prioritizing education, the future of California is at risk... To all those whose favorite word is 'no' whenever we discuss the need for more revenue, the students have spoken..."

It's not just a handful of moonbat state legislators like Yamada: the entire governmental apparatus is completely dysfunctional. Today's editorial from The San Francisco Chronicle was subtly titled "Fix the shortfall yourself, Sacramento."

...voters are dismissive and furious over the state's political and budgetary gridlock, and they're in no mood to help Sacramento solve the crisis. The results are also a failing report card for government reformers, who are going nowhere in their bid to rewrite the state's decision-making rules...

...[Yet when] cuts are announced - such as teacher layoffs or state park closures - they become even more angry... Solutions to ease this crisis atmosphere go up in smoke.

So how will California make up its massive deficit gap? No one knows, including the Democrats in power. California is currently holding "tens of billions of dollars in unsold bonds, and Treasurer Bill Lockyer has warned that with the state's lowest-in-the-nation credit rating he may market new debt only sporadically."

Lockyer warned against a big water bond issue last year, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ignored him. They approved an $11.2 billion bond issue, loaded with pork, that will tap the deficit-ridden budget for more than $20 billion in principal and interest.

Why should taxpayers spend $250 million to finance removal of dams on the Klamath River by PacifiCorp, a utility owned by billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.? Or $20 million for "economic development" in Siskiyou County? The Klamath flows through Siskiyou en route to the sea, but contributes nothing to our water supply.

Nearly $10 billion in unsold bonds would finance a fraction of the proposed bullet train linking Northern and Southern California. But the project's "business plan" is ludicrously inadequate, with cost, ridership and fare projections that defy reality, and full financing is so far an illusion... [in fact, the] High-Speed Rail Authority is paying a public relations firm $8 million to peddle the deeply flawed project

The unrealistic expectations of the various constituencies -- led by public sector unions and their powerful fundraising machines -- make the California situation especially dire. Unless these unions are dismantled, there doesn't appear to be any way to get a realistic consensus.

As an aside, one of the overseers of this debacle, Speaker Granny Rictus McBotoxImplants (D-CA) was unavailable for comment, seeing as how she is trying to break or bribe Bart Stupak in order to help the President take over the entire health care industry.