I find this whole fiasco terribly disheartening, and I don't even live in California. In fact, I've never been there. But I have wonderful friends and relatives who live there. They aren't insane, fruity, or nutty, and I'm guessing Californians are probably pretty fed up with the mass media stereotyping of it's citizenry as crazy.

There is nothing crazy about reacting angrily to the budget mess. But I wonder why no one is looking for some of the actual villains (hello energy speculators who engaged in price fixing and gouging during the so-called California energy crisis) who drained the coffers. I believe a few Texas energy speculators were part of the problem?

Then there is what appears to be gross mismanagement over a considerable amount of time, by both Republican and Democrat administrations.

And then there is the revenue problems exacerbated by too many of California's citizens' extreme poverty. Can't collect much in property taxes from poor people who don't own property, and can't afford to pay sales taxes on a ton of consumer goods, or income taxes because they can't get jobs, because they can't get a proper education from the federal, state, and local (if it exists) education dollars. So all they do is suck service dollars from the state for housing, health care, food stamps, and maybe child care, that is hobbled together with huge gaps in benefits, or non-existent because they have been disqualified for benefits for one stupid reason or another. So the state benefits are never enough for them to get ahead, which just entrenches the poverty cycle and concentrates it.

But I don't suppose anyone is talking about that much. Better to focus on the celebrity cult, which is almost as bad in Hollywood as it is in Washington D.C. Of course, no one is crazier than Washington politicians. Except the establishment media which creates media celebrities to cover the political celebrities, the sports celebrities, the Hollywood celebrities...

Is anyone paying any more attention to the state of the state, than they are the state of the nation?