And in other news . . . California has a New Governor

Governor moonbeam is back! And his opening salvo reminds us why we love practical Jerry. He opened by proposing that 48,000 state employees turn in their cell phones . This represents a 50% cut.

One commentator suggested that he also look at all the unused landlines that the state is paying for, but that are not being used. The article mentions that in a 2009 audit, they found 8000 unused lines in LA county alone. The annual cost: $1.5 mil .

Brown is an interesting and parsimonious character. He never moved into the governors' mansion in his first term, and brought to bear his monk's frugality to Sacramento. Then there is the story about the A $100 million hole in the carpet in the governor's office. Before leaving office, Ronald Regan offered to replace the carpet in the governor's office at his own expense. Brown refused. Near his desk, a hole opened up in the carpet. One day, Davis informed Brown that GSA has been scheduled to fix the hole. Brown was angry. "Don't you understand -- that hole has already saved us a couple of hundred million dollars. "People can't come in here and rail against me for not funding something, when there's a whole in the governor's rug."

So far, he refused office space on K Street in Sacramento for his transition team, preferring to use his Oakland campaign offices.

Apparently, the other thing Brown's time in seminary taught him was the need for sacrifice. He is going to be making some very unpopular cuts normal liberals would never suggest, such as cutting spending on public libraries. But that is the nature of the beast. We go from flash (Arnie) to stash.