On Monday Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a bill that would legalize marijuana. The purpose of legalization would be no other than taxation. With the state still being pushed towards the deficit cliff, any new source of funds seems like a good one.

Marijuana is reported to be California's cash crop raking in over $10 billion a year. That puts it above all other crops raised in the state. So of course the politicians see a new revenue stream and their eyes light up.

Of course a Republican would never propose the legislation. So it came down to Tom Ammiano, a Democrat, and guess where he's from. San Francisco of course.

So will the legislation pass? I really don't think so. Of course new revenue is what the state really needs but at what cost is it willing to go to get it. Legalizing marijuana will change the whole dynamics of the drug war and issues surrounding drug use. MJ is still illegal nationwide and with the DEA raiding medical marijuana dispensaries at will, how will their policy change once the whole state is full of MJ. Concerning drug use, there might be a spike, there might not. MJ is already the most widely used drug. If someone wants to smoke it, they will. So if its available in stores, what is to say there will even be a spike. Those who want it, already have it. The fact that it is illegal really does not seem to be detering anyone.

If the legislation does pass though, I would not be surprised. California loves to take the lead and leave it up to the Democrats to want to tax it.

California Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Legalize Pot [AP]  

So as we all know, the state finally has a budget. And what I really love about the budget, besides the 11 billion in new taxes, is that fact that it still needs to pass that May 19 special election. There will be two measure for the people to vote on, and if they don't pass, we get to pretty much tear up the current budget and start anew.

Hooray to solving problems!

I do have to give credit where it is due though, and so cheers to Senator Abel Maldonado. He stuck to his guns and got what he wanted. What was funny was some people were saying he was trying to divert democracy by calling for open primaries. That person was actually Art Torres of the Democratic Party. Wow! Abel Maldonado was trying to divert democracy by calling for open primaries? That Art Torres sure is a goofy one.

So Tuesday was quite the day for our new President. Two big items were on his agenda.

In the morning he signed into law the stimulus package authorizing $789 billion dollars to spent in hopes of reviving the economy. Besides the fact that only 3 Republicans in all of Congress voted Yes on the matter, and the other fact that no one really knows what it all entails, it seems like a sure fire plan.

President Obama also ordered17,000 troops to be deployed to Afghanistan. The President sees the country as quickly destabilizing. Additional troops are necessary to save Afghanistan.

Throughout this week Senator Roland Burris started talking, and he kept talking when he should have stopped talked.

First, he admitted that he spoke with Robert Blagojevich about appointment to the Senate seat and fundraising. He is the brother of ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. During Burris's testimony in the impeachment trial, he said that he had not spoken to anyone besides Rod Blagojevich. So now Sen. Burris did speak to other people about possibly raising money.

Then Senator Burris really messed up. Burris stated that he did try to raise money for ex-Governor Blagojevich. OUCH! Now he gone completely against his testimony and therefor perjured himself. Not a good way to start off your term.

Now the Chicago Tribune is calling for his resignation and so am I.

So the lawmakers up in Sacramento finally got too work. Over the weekend, many of the legislators were locked in the capital building so that a state budget could be reached. Was a deal completed? Of course not.

The budget is very close to being passed though. How close you might ask? One vote away.

One Republican vote in the state Senate is all that is needed and the Democrats are looking to Abel Maldonado (R - Santa Maria) to supply it. Senator Maldonado is holding out though for a list of his own demands which include not paying state legislatures if the budget is late. Now that is a great idea. It motivates the people in Sacramento to do their job and do it one time. Not 100 days late, and counting. Well of course the Democrats fiercly opposed this idea so Sen. Maldonado has not given in.

The great thing about this budget mess is that as soon as this one is passed, the next one will be here and we can start all over again.

The state of California is slowly moving into a state of disarray.

Lets start of with the work furloughs. Last week was the first of many days to come that state employees will not be going to work. About twice a month, many state employees will be told to stay home as a way to trim some fat off of the budget. That's the budget that is about 97 days late. A furlough does seem better than losing your job though so I will give Governor Schwarzenegger some credit here.

Following the fantastic start of the furloughs, a panel of judges said the state has to release 55,000 prison inmates over the next three years because of overcrowding in our prison system. That is a whole lot of bad guys that might be hitting the street near you sometime soon. The judge said the overcrowded prisons were limiting the prisoners rights to adequate healthcare.

The even better news is that our economy is so bad, when we do release these prisoners, we probably won't have any jobs for them. Besides them being convicts (who wants to hire convicts?) the job market is terrible. It is extremely difficult for regular law abiding citizens to get jobs, what does that panel of judges expect the ex-cons to do. Unfortunately, they might  return to what they know best, crime. And if they do, we'll just be shipping them back off to prison. It is a nice cycle of life that we have going on here in the state. In jail one day, out the next, and back in on the third.

This morning Brett Favre announced his retirement from the NFL. After his somewhat succesful season with the New York Jets, Brett decided he had had enough. And so after 18 seasons in the NFL we salute one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game.

But wait, is he really going to retire? Last season he retired, only to come back. And the season before that he contemplated retirment only to keep chugging along. It seemed like Brett was tired of playing for the Green Bay Packers and was just looking for a change in scenery. Could Brett be doing this again? After only one season with the Jets, he did fairly well except for missing the playoffs. It was the end of the season collapse that did them in.

So lets speculate, if Brett did come back and got traded, who would you like to see him play for?

Just a couple bleeps on my radar screen today.

1. Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBAY, has announced that she will be running for Governor in 2010. She will be running on the Republican ticket and is hoping to pull the state out of the mess it is in. Not many other Republicans have announced if they will be running.

On the Democrat side things are a lot more crowded. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced his intentions. Also Attorney General Jerry Brown is said to be getting his campaign ready as well. There is also a lot of speculation around Los Angeles Mayor Antoinio Villaraigosa and whether he will run. The best candidate on the Democrat side though, if she runs, would be Senator Dianne Feinstein. Senator Feinstein still has not announced though. Considering how much she sucked up to Barack Obama on inauguration day, I'd say she'd have the edge.

 Who would you all like to see as our next Governor?

2. In California, we have experience with wildfires. Well so does Australia. Over the last week fires have raged in Southern Australia. The current fires were said to have been building up over the years as that part of Australia is very dry. So far the fires have been reported to have killed 173 people. In some areas, the fire moved faster than victims trying to flee by car.

Some of the fires were suspected to be caused by arsonists.

3.  Finally, last night were the Grammys. Now I am not one to usually watch award shows. Last night was the exception to the rule. I watched the awards, more so to watch the performances than anything else. My favorite performance had to be when Coldplay front man Chris Martin was at his piano singing Lost, and out of nowhere Jay Z was on stage to perform his verse from the remix of the song.

The biggest surprise of the night had to be when Robert Plant and Allison Kraus won album of the year. This was probably because I had never heard of the two or the song they sang. It must have been a good song though to be out everyone else.

Oh yeah and Chris Brown was arrested for making criminal threats to his girlfriend Rihanna.

This video says there was a list of 104 players who tested positive in 2003. Alex Rodriguez was one of them. Barry Bonds was not. I wonder who else was.

I will admit that I am not an economist. I could still be considered young and naive to some. But what I'm really concerned about is what happened to the invisible hand of the economy that we were all taught about in economics class. The principle was first developed by Adam Smith in his book the Wealth of Nations. It came to be interpreted that the economy will correct itself given time. At least that is how I understood it.

So where has that principle gone in present day? Over the last year the federal government has invested $800 billion into the bank and car industry. Now they are debating investing another $800 billion into the economy to stimulate it. Well thats roughly $1.6 trillion. Where in the bloody heck do they expect to get that money?

Oh wait its ok, lets just pass it on to the future generations. Who cares about them. Well I do because I am the future generation. I want Washington to subscribe to my version of the invisible hand and let the free market correct itself. Government intervention is not the problem. Government is the problem. Lack of fiscal restraint in the state and across the nation has brought us to this mess. Now lets clean it up by letting all the bad blood drain out of the economy before we inject more bad blood into the economy. Consider it a rehab for the US economy.

This week the government released documents that our favorite baseball player, Barry Bonds, tested positive for steroids five times. Not once, not twice, not three times, ok you get the point. Five different times this guys tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. So now all those Giants fans really have no where to go with their debate that Barry really is as good as they say he is.

Another good point being made in reports is why was Barry never suspended?

Barry Bonds cheated the fans of baseball by using steroids. This game is supposed to be an American pasttime and it has now been tarnished, on the field and in the record books.

Personally, I never really liked Barry Bonds. Not just because I'm a Dodgers fan and he plays for the Giants. More so because he was the epitome of doing it the wrong way. Instead of working hard and doing it ethically, he went the sour route and cheated.

President Barack Obama sure wishes everyone paid their taxes. Mainly because three of his picks for some high ranking positions have been held up in confirmation hearings because they failed to pay taxes.

First it started off with Treasury Secretary Tim Geinther. It was found that he some how did not pay about $35,000 in taxes. Reports said some of this was because he tried to do his own returns some years. Oops! Bet he won't try that again. Luckily he was able to pay the back taxes and the politicians in Congress decided to look the other way eventually confirming Geinther.

Second came former Senator Tom Daschle. Now this guy forgot to pay about $140,000 in taxes that were overlooked because of a "complex tax code." The taxes were traced back to a driver he used and did not pay taxes on. So because of Daschle's mistakes, it cost him the position of secretary of health and human services. The man who was supposed to save and revamp the health care industry pulled out of his bid on Tuesday. President Obama came out and said he made the mistake and would take responsibility.

And finally, we have Nancy Killefer who was to take the role of White House performance officer, whatever that is. Well this little lady forgot to pay employment taxes for her household help. The actual amount was not disclosed but it was bad enough that Killefer withdrew her bid.

So the moral of the story is if you want to hold a high ranking position in government one day, you might want to pay your taxes. It could come back to haunt you. 

So as you all know, the Pittsburgh Steelers were victorious on their quest for their sixth Superbowl. The game overall was played fairly well. The game changer defintely had to be the interception ran back 100-yards for a touchdown which ended the first half. If the Cardinals had scored on that possession they would have gone into the half with the lead and momentum. Instead, they went in with their heads down.

The second half of the game was a bit more exciting. When the Cardinals finally took the lead, one thing popped into my head. Too much time on the clock. And with that, Big Ben threw his way to another championship. The defense of Arizona could not stop Pittsburgh to save their life. And with that, the connection in the back of the endzone to Santonio Holmes to win it. Did you see the play? There were three Cardinals defensive players in front of Holmes and he still came down with the ball.  

We could Monday morning quarterback all day, but we wont. So what did you guys think about the Bosses performance at half time?