11/2    California Uber Alles is such a great song
        \_ Yes, and it was written about Jerry Brown. I was thinking this
           as I cast my vote for Meg Whitman. I am independent, but I
           typically vote Democrat (e.g., I voted for Boxer). However, I
           can't believe we elected this retread.
           \_ You voted for the billionaire that ran HP into the ground
	...

8/29    OC turning liberal, maybe there is hope for CA afterall:
        http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/us/politics/30orange.html
        \_ and the state is slowly turning conservative. Meg 2010!
           \_ We will see. Seems unlikely.
        \_ Yeah, because CA sure has a problem with not enough dems in power!
           If only dems had been running the state for the last 40 years!
	...

7/15    "Mom jailed over sex with 14-year-old son"
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38217476/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts
        \_ I just bought a hot homeless teen runaway lunch.
           Am i going to jail?
           \_ Was she 18?
        \_ FYI people "MILF" doesn't always mean what you think it means.
	...

4/15    Guess who is not on this list (States with worst projected deficits):
        http://www.cnbc.com/id/36510805?slide=1
        \_ Don't know how CA missed that list; we're looking at a $20B deficit
           on $82.9B spending (24.1%)  -tom
           \_ Even if that number is accurate, it makes California #7. That's
              enlightening given the attenion California has received.
	...

9/2     California will survive its crackup:
        http://tinyurl.com/qfzdpn
        \_ not if we can help it.
        \_ I like the comparison with Italy.  Maybe someday we can have
          dozens of political parties fighting!  yay chaos!!
          \_ Do you think Italian people have a lower quality of life than
	...

8/12    Thanks for destroying the world's finest public University!
        http://tinyurl.com/kr92ob (The Economist)
        \_ Why not raise tuition? At private universities, students generate
           revenue. Students should not be seen as an expense. UC has
           been a tremendous bargain for most of its existence. It's time
           to raise tuition to match the perceived quality of the
	...

8/14    How California's Lock-Em-Up Mentality actually makes crime worse:
        http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111843426
        \_ Sounds nice, but the stats say the crime rate is better since
           we started locking them up.
           \_ You should look up "correlation and causation."
              \_ Just because they are not necessarily correlated doesn't
	...

4/21    Real Per Capita spending in CA budget:
        http://www.lao.ca.gov/2008/spend_plan/fig_6.jpg
        Note that is is flat, which is the opposite of what we have
        been repeatedly told on the motd.
        \_ Does capita take in account for unaccounted illegal immigrants?
                                                                -Dr. jblack
	...

2/27    CA unemployment increases from 9.3% to 10.1% for Jan
        \_ Good thing the legislature passed the biggest tax increase in
           history!  That should solve it.
           \_ because cutting taxes has done such a great job so far!
                \_ it has.. giving mortgages to poor folks did us in
                   \_ 100% horseshit.
	...

2/27    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7914357.stm
        *shocking* allegations.
        China denounces US 'rights abuse':
                China has responded in detail to a US report published this
                week criticising China for alleged rights abuses. Beijing
                released its own report on the US, saying crime is a threat to
	...

9/2     I'm young, and stupid. Does the IRS want reporting on 401K, IRA,
        Roth 401k/IRA? I am decades from retiring, and no plan to withdraw
        anything. But, I just realized that I haven't reported any of my
        retirement plans to IRS for several years, now wondering if I'm
        in big shit...
        \_ The account custodian (bank/brokerage/mutual fund) reports it to
	...

11/5    "Tax Policy Center in Spotlight for Its Romney Study":
        http://www.csua.org/u/y7m (finance.yahoo.com)
        'A small nonpartisan research center operated by professed "geeks" ...
        found, in short, that Mr. Romney could not keep all of the promises he
        had made on individual tax reform ....  It concluded that Mr. Romney's
        plan, on its face, would cut taxes for rich families and raise them
	...

3/5     My dad is retired and has no income. My income tax bracket is
        pretty high. If I open up a joint high interest CD account with
        him and the INT-1099 comes, is it possible to file it under him
        100% to take advantage of the lower tax?
        \_ IRS says the interest is allocated according to who allocated
           the assets. Do you think it will generate enough interest to
	...

3/7     "Michigan woman still collecting food stamps after winning $1 million
        lottery"
        http://www.csua.org/u/vp3 (news.yahoo.com)
        `"I feel that it's OK because I mean, I have no income and I have
        bills to pay," she said. "I have two houses."'
        \_ My first reaction was pretty hostile to her, but then, I
	...

4/17    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_no_taxes
        "The super rich pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades
        ago, and nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all."
        And people are still complaining about taxes being too high.
        \_ yeah but only 3 out of the 5 people who aren't rich but complain
           are actually counted.
	...