50th district fun is back again!

Here in coastal North County San Diego we have the 50th congressional district, which has been crazy ever since late 2005, when then congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham was exposed for being one of the most corrupt politicians ever, complete with creating his own bribe menu on his congressional stationary, where he would be promise a valuable government contract depending on the size of the bribe.

April 2006 brought a special election to the traditional conservative area, with Democrat Francine Busby performing surprisingly well against a pack of Republicans. The subsequent June runoff pitted Busby against former South San Diego congressman Brian Bilray. The race was neck and neck, but vicous attack ads against Busby combined with her gaffe at a Hispanic rally saying "you don't need papers for voting" pushed him into the lead, and he won by a 5% margin.

Undeterred, Busby ran again against him in the regular November election, but people weren't paying much attention any more and she lost by more than 10%.

In 2008, Bilbray won again, and now for the 2010 election Busby is determined to be the 50th Congressional's William Jennings Bryan, trying a third time against the odds to defeat Bilbray. She has started a series of house parties to raise money and awareness for her campaign, and she recently raised a lot more awareness than she expected.

Busy was at a fundraiser hosted by Shari Barman and her partner Jane Stratton in the Encinitas suburb of Cardiff, at a beatiful house that can be seen here. Surrounding the house are many shrubs and plants, which is where the strangeness started.

From the back patio Busby began addressing the crowd, and a mysterious stranger began shouting, heckling and cussing from behind some bushes, including gay slurs. A bit later, a sherrif's deputy arrived at the door responding to a noise complaint, asking for the owner. She wasn't entirely cooperative, and the deputy was on the nervous side. He ended up grabbing the 60-year old woman, cuffing her, and pepper spraying some of her middle-aged guests. Enter police backup, including a police helicopter (I swear they fly that damn copter over my house every chance they get), and you have quite a party.

The owner spent the night in jail and strangely enough Busby's weak campaign now has some legs, as she got national exposure and lot more campaign cash.

Will it be enough to challenge Bilbray in 2010? I doubt it, but we'll see. I say you should vote for her because her middle name is "Pocino". That's cool.

It's IOU time for California!

Here in California we have Democrat-controlled California legislature that loves to raise taxes and refuses to slash spending. We also have a stubborn Republican minority that refuses to spend a dime on new taxes. In addition, we have a constitution that requires a 2/3 majority to pass the budget. What does this equal? Gridlock! This goes on pretty much every year, even in boom times, and is usually resolved by questionable tactics such as borrowing against future years.

The chickens have come home to roost this year though, and there are no sleight of hand maneuvers with a $26 billion (and growing) shortfall. Now we're running out of money, and have started issuing IOUs until the budget gets worked out...but this could take a while. Meanwhile California's credit rating is threatened to getting cut to junk status.

Years of fiscal mismanagement combined with a recession led to this, and it's looking grim. Think you'd be able to do what it takes to balance the budget? Try for yourself here. First, remember that the Republicans can block any tax increases, so try and just make cuts. Then see if you can add taxes to make it work. It's not easy!

George Will has a good article that argues that the federal government is in danger of heading down California's road, with oppresive taxes, subservience to organized labor, and excessive regulation.