This is an odd story in many ways. It’s not just that Republicans don’t usually talk that talk, it’s also that the mainstream media is covering it as though it’s a done deal, when it’s really just some general rhetorical ideas. If the governor wants the state to borrow a bunch of money for any reason through the issuance of bonds, the voters have to give the approval. This governor’s recent record on persuading the voters to give him what he wants is 0-4. Bond issuances haven’t been too popular with the state’s voters in the past few years, either. When the voters feel like their own money is tight, they don’t care to see state government being extravagant.

Just for fun, though, lets assume that we actually embark on this spending spree. The conservative types will be wringing their hands about how to pay for it, but we already know that answer, as long as the state can make the payments on the bonds. The state gets the money to pay off bonds the same way it gets money for anything else–taxation. Whether the state is sitting on the treasury or spending like a drunken sailor, the important questions aren’t about how to spend it, they’re about who gets taxed how much.

Maybe we do need to have a building frenzy. There’s a saying among Cal-Trans engineers that there are only two kinds of roads in California–inadequate and under construction. The most important things we’d get wouldn’t be the new freeways, levees and buildings, they’d be the jobs. The great economic depression of the 1930s evaporated when the federal government started spending money to build things. The rich guys paid for that recovery, but these are different times. Maybe we could use a shot in the economic arm, but the middle class justifiably uneasy about staying middle. It’s not likely to want to pay for Arnold’s sudden interest in big construction projects. I suspect the governor’s talk was just talk. I’m pretty sure he knows that these things are not really going to happen during his term in office. Maybe not even during his life.

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Another current story that’s getting way too much attention from the media is Sam Alito. The mainstream media talks as though the Democrats are giving the guy a thorough grilling which could lead to rejection of his nomination. The alternative media is searching hopefully for any sign that the nomination might crumble, but it’s nowhere to be found. The donkeys are just putting on the show they’re expected to give. Everyone in that Senate hearing room knows that Alito can’t be stopped just because of his conservative baggage. He’d have to confess to a felony to avoid getting the robe and the gavel.

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We’ve talked a couple of times about retirement plans, especially about big companies pulling the rug out from under people with long careers behind them. This week, the story jumped out of the business section and into the general news, because the company involved is the revered Big Blue–IBM. The company hasn’t yet dumped anyone out of their existing plans, but from now on, you’re on your own when you work for IBM. There’s no more "defined benefit" plan. IBM, like several other big companies last year, says its employees must rely on their own savings and investment strategies–usually one of those plans called a 401K. It’s really just a limited access savings account with a bank that plays the stock market. This a big comedown from defined benefit plans where your pension keeps coming as long as you live. Unless you’ve got a lot more money than most working people ever see in their lives, your 401K will dwindle away when you retire. The longer you live, the more likely you’ll go broke. Not only that, it’s subject to the ebb and flow of the stock market. If your stock takes a big dive, you could work until you’re 65 and be sleeping in a cardboard box when you’re 66. This trend may turn out to be as big a threat to the U.S. middle class as the shipping of jobs overseas. The most secure job in the world right now appears to be harassing American credit card customers from a phone bank in New Delhi.

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The news is all about the White House tapping our phones, but that may be the least of our worries about privacy. I mean if they’re listening to your phone calls, that may be as close as you ever get to having a talk with your President. The revered Microsoft company probably has more means to spy on you and control the information you receive than even the federal government. There’s a guy in China who’s been using Microsoft’s services to post some political opinions on the Internet which the government doesn’t like. China used to enjoy a reputation which suggested that the government would just go over to his house and shoot him, but this is the new world of China dominating the manufacturing economy of the world, so hardball now is played in a different league. The Chinese government simply leaned on Microsoft to shut the guy down, and Microsoft complied. No reason why it couldn’t happen in this hemisphere. We already know they’re tapping our phones. We’d be foolish not to assume our Internet travel and our Email are not being monitored too.

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