Oh, and, in case that last post didn't give you fiscally irresponsible nightmares

Housing prices are continuing to crap out!

Do you ever get frustrated living in California? It isn't that the rest of the country isn't in a housing slump as well, but nowhere did things seem more overvalued than here in the west. We have so much farther to fall! And we're going for it! Weeeee!

The Recession has landed!

Run for your lives! The economy is, uh, over!

I'm definitely not an economist, so I don't understand how all this works. But it seems weird to me that for months there's been this lingering question of whether we're heading for or already in a recession or whether we're afraid for no reason. So, it's here. Okay. It's almost a comfort to know that we're IN the recession:

Although the classic definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of declines in the gross domestic product, Stephen Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital pointed out that the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nonpartisan organization that is the official arbiter of recessions, doesn't always strictly follow that definition. "If you go back to the 2001 recession, there was only one negative GDP quarter, and there might not even be one negative quarter in this recession," he said.

There's an official arbiter of recessions? How does an organization get that gig? Does it pay well? Is it like being an undertaker - no matter what, you'll always be in business.

Things are bad out there and it seems that even those employed in sectors not effected by downturns (like, people not in manufacturing, etc) get scared and stay home with their money too. And the dollar is worth less, so no European vacation this year either. Boo!

Oil For School

San Diego Unified is sending out just over 900 pink slips today.


This comes at the same time as the Speaker's new push to raise oil taxes to boost education funding.

The bill would put a 2% tax on oil companies that make more than $10 Million. Wait, oil companies weren't even paying a 2% tax before? I really need to get into that business.

Republicans are skeptical of the plan.


“This really is a drill,” said DeVore. “I wouldn’t want to insult the Democrats’ intelligence that they actually believe in the policies they’ve advocated. Clearly, these policies would devastate California’s domestic oil production.”

No More Cuts

Yesterday, students at Cal State San Marcos protested the cuts that are a-coming.

I was over there and students are angry. Granted, we're always a little angry. But this whole situation is unacceptable.

Here's an idea: WE HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM!

Oh To Be LGBT in SD

Today we're going to focus on LGBT news in San Diego.

The UT just realized we live in lots of different neighborhoods. Apparently it was a bit of a shock to find gay people outside Hillcrest.

The government didn't try to count the number of gay and lesbian couples in the 1990 census, making it impossible to officially track neighborhood increases in the gay and lesbian population. But longtime residents say there's no question that more gays and lesbians are moving to North Park and University Heights.

What if the government did start trying to count the number of LGBT couples?

A little older news, but oh so relevant, federal judges ruled that bigotry is not acceptable. Well, kinda.

They did rule that the Poway school district was within it's rights to pull a student out of class who wore a shirt that said “I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned” on one side and “Homosexuality is Shameful, Romans 1:27” on the other. This on the "Day of Silence". That's just in really bad taste.

Stop Flying Arnold

The Governator's often daily commute from Sacramento to Santa Monica isn't good for the environment. Or for the state. *gasp*

Arnold also spends alot of money flying back and forth and out of the state and renting out the penthouse suite at the Hyatt in Sacramento. He pays for it with all his own money, he says. But that's still crazy.

How much can you be getting done? And if you really care about the environment, shouldn't you live like you do? And he's doing it for his kids, because he thinks they need him down here, but my parents made me move when they changed jobs and it all turned out fine.

You Didn't Hear About the Housing Crisis?

San Diego had this great plan, see. They were going to sell off 17 different properties through a broker and make $37.5M. Yeah, turns out, it isn't working so well.

I know, it's a shock, what with the housing market doing so well.