The Assembly Republican Caucus released this document providing statistics on "California Private Sector Job Loss vs. State Employee Job Cost." The key numbers are:

Real Facts: California Private Sector Job Loss vs. State Employee Job Cost

12.3%	California Unemployment Rate
2.24M	Californians currently listed as unemployed
-1,298,700	Private sector jobs lost in California since 2005
+38,100	State government jobs added since 2005
$55,000	Average California private sector job salary
$3,600	Average state taxes paid by each private sector employee
$90,000	Average cost to taxpayers to pay salary and benefits for each California government job
25	Private sector jobs it takes to support one government job

I love this Washington Post story. Apparently, the National Pork Board (which is a government entity) threatened to sue the web site ThinkGeek, because one of their items for sale violated their trademarking of the phrase "the other white meat." It isn't actually a lawsuit... only a cease and desist letter, but it will undoubtably become an Internet classic.

There's just one problem: The meat in question comes from unicorns.

Let's let the lawyers from Faegre & Benson explain: "We are writing you in connection with your activities at the Web site www.thinkgeek.com, wherein you have been marketing a product called 'Radiant Farms Canned Unicorn Meat' using the slogan 'Unicorn -- the new white meat.' A copy of the Web site page is attached for your reference."

It goes on like that for 12 pages. The dry, legal response to an obvious joke has set off an Internet-wide case of the giggles, especially at the Web site targeted by the letter. The offending item was a prank "product launch" posted on April Fool's Day, complete with a picture of very unappealing, but fictional, canned meat.

"It was never our intention to cause a national crisis and misguide American citizens regarding the differences between the pig and the unicorn," deadpanned Scott Kauffman, president and chief executive of Geeknet, the site's parent company. "In fact, ThinkGeek's canned unicorn meat is sparkly, a bit red and not approved by any government entity."

In the end, ThinkGeek isn't afraid:

ThinkGeek says it's confident that its use of the slogan is protected as parody by fair-use laws. Either that, or by the unicorns.

I was blown away by this Cal Watchdog post about California Senate President Darrell Steinberg's proposal to "restructure" in order to close the multibillion dollar deficits in the state's budget. The plan is just so ludicrous that I can't believe they thought we might actually think this was a good idea.

Is this just a mole game with the state budget, or will “restructuring” work? Had the written budget solution plan not used the word “shift” before every listed state service, perhaps real budgeting might have occurred.

Instead, Steinberg’s plan calls for:

• Shifting state juvenile parole services to counties;
• Shifting low-level criminal offenders to counties;
• Shifting drug Medi-Cal programs to counties;
• Shifting offender treatment programs to counties;
• Shifting drug court to counties;
• Shifting CalWORKS child care to counties, while increasing the county share of CalWORKS grants, services and administration.

When a program shift is not enough, “realigning” services is. While the Adult Protective Services and aging services are being shifted to counties, two of the aging programs will be “realigned” to counties as well. The aging department is slated to be “eliminated” however, it appears as if the programs are all being shifted or realigned to the county, or being taken over by the Health and Human Services agency.

And while the plan includes eliminating the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, the plan is to transfer “remaining functions” to the health care services department and add one oversight position to the agency. This seems to make the elimination a moot point. Eliminating a department on the state level, and increasing it on the county level is a mole game.

The real issue is that Steinberg is proposing to shift a great deal of the state’s financial burden to the counties, and then plans to pass legislation that will allow the counties to raise taxes without a two-thirds vote. He called it “raising revenue,” but the end goal is the same. Raising revenue is Democrat-speak for tax increases in the public sector. In the private sector, to raise revenue is defined as selling something of value.

OK, I had a great, detailed post almost complete and then my browser (stupid Safari) puked all over itself. Of course that meant everything I typed was gone. I just don't feel like redoing it, so here is the abbreviated version. Read the rest of this post!

In keeping with my regular practice, I'll post my thoughts and recommendations on the propositions up for a vote on the June 8th ballot.

Proposition 13 - "Limits on Property Tax Assessment. Seismic Retrofitting of Existing Buildings"
As I understand it, the proposition would amend the California constitution to allow property owners to make seismic upgrades to their unreinforced masonry (brick) buildings without an increase in their property taxes. The taxes would only increase when the building is sold. This measure comes from the legislature. Read the rest of this post!