Sigh…

… In Florida, (which is slowly sinking into the ocean, mind you)

“If you consider CO2 to be a pollutant, than everybody zip up their mouths and don’t exhale for the rest of the meeting because you are polluting the air,” he said. “CO2 in my opinion is not a pollutant,” Wood said. “God gave us C02 to grow plants, for us to exhale, everything else.”

Meanwhile, in California:

As difficult as it may be to face, the simple fact is that California is running out of water — and the problem started before our current drought. NASA data reveal that total water storage in California has been in steady decline since at least 2002, when satellite-based monitoring began, although groundwater depletion has been going on since the early 20th century.

Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing.

Early good news…

My state is on the mend…

California’s budget deficit is gone after years of financial troubles, Governor Jerry Brown said on Thursday, proposing a state budget plan that would raise spending on education and healthcare, boosting total expenditures by 5 percent with a surplus remaining.

California’s job growth tops the national average, unemployment has fallen to below double-digit levels for the first time in nearly four years and more money is expected to flow into state coffers from the voter-approved tax increases.

The state Department of Finance projected unemployment will fall to 9.6 percent this year and 8.7 percent in 2014.

Brown’s budget plan projects $98.5 billion in revenues and transfers and plans spending of $97.7 billion, according to the proposal published on the state Department of Finance website.

That would leave a surplus of $851 million, in addition to a projected $785 million surplus for the current fiscal year, which ends in June, allowing the state to put $1 billion toward a rainy day fund. As recently as November, the state budget watchdog, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, projected a $1.9 billion gap.

So the next time someone says that raising taxes is going to kill jobs and drive the rich away, keep this in mind.

A bold new vision for California…

From the LA Times:

Having won a coveted two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature for the first time in more than a century, California Democrats now face the temptations of one-party government — and the perils that come with it…

When Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) was asked what he intended to do with his caucus’ new power, he responded with one word: Nothing.

(h/t to Digby)

Now I know that John here might just not want to start putting out a wish list of stuff so close to the last election that will be picked apart and attacked by Republicans, but seriously… Nothing? You can’t list one major initiative or accomplishment that you’d like to pass in the coming session now that you have the power to see them passed?

Do you honestly believe voters will continue to reward Democrats with a supermajority in our state legislature for doing nothing? For not trying to solve the problems of our state?

Seriously, we just finished an election with one presidential candidate who was so cynical he routinely altered his positions depending on the crowd he was speaking to on a given day, and now we have an elected leader who rivals that cynicism with his passivity.

You were elected to do your damned job, sir. Go do it.