Hey, he's a Rebublican... Everyone knows that goes hand-in-hand with meanspiritedness. ;)

November 2010, or a little over 17 months from now.

He can do a lot more damage between now and then.

Will Rodgers!!!!!

This pisses me off to no end.

Sounds like payback. Didn't you (the voters of California) just tell the Governor to make drastic cuts on all government services programs by voting down all the cost cutting measures on the ballot?

The parks I would expect are just the first salvo. You guys are way way way in the red and something has to give.

There is one quick way for the state to get out of debt.

Legalize marijuana.

The state could impose a tax, perhaps as much as 100%, with most of the revenue going to pay off the debt.

The way it is now, it's possible to visit a doctor and get a medical marijuna card. Anyone who wants marijuana can get it if they want, legally.

This would allow the state to make some money with it.

Gray Davis, of course.



And a 100% marijuana tax might be enough to turn me into a raving anti-tax Republican.

I wouldn't mind a hefty marijuana tax to make it legal once and for all. I love that so many states are considering legalizing it now that it can rescue them from financial ruin, but that was not good enough when it was a harmless drug compared to alcohol and tobacco, and it grows from the frelling earth itself.


I hate to see the shuttering of parks, but I've a feeling we might look back a few years from now to find it quaint when all social and government services have stopped.


Get a grip, people. Aside from raising YOUR taxes to amounts you couldn't possibly afford to pay, please make some suggestions for where you'd like billions of dollars cut from the state budget before you go crying about such relatively minor issues as closed parks.


Believe me, I think this is horrible. Closing off nature from the public is abhorent to me. It's also boneheaded in that the parks turn a profit for the California economy.


But compared with what's to come here in California, and with what is going on elsewhere in the world as I type these words ... state park closures are really a ... a ... ok, no better analogy available ... a walk in the park.

Is California is in worse shape now than when Grey Davis was recalled? Just curious.

Yes, of course we are.


Of course, I have no idea why people were so upset with Gray Davis that he had to be freaking recalled. That's absurd. I certainly didn't love the guy ... but WTF was up with that?

We're only talking about $70 million. That's only .29% of the budget shortfall (and about .01% of the total state budget)! This is an unnescessary cut that will do nothing to solve the problem! It will destroy our state parks sytem and cost the state hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in lost tourism.