Drives Me Crazy

You don't have to walk very far these days to find yourself bumping into outrage. Whether it's moral or philosophical, there's always something truly annoying right there on the horizon, even out here in sunny California. With all our vast resources and potential, we still find ourselves fumbling around in the metaphorical dark.
Now we get word from Sacramento that our state's lawmakers, amidst a flurry of budget cuts covering everything from welfare-to-work programs to the AIDS prevention office, have saved their cars. More to the point: California taxpayers will be paying for their legislators to drive around the Golden state in style. The rides in question are not Ford Focus Sedans. We will be buying Cadillacs, and a hybrid Lexus or two. I suppose we could congratulate the representatives who chose the green alternative, but green really is the issue. The long green. The tall cash. The program that provides wheels for the idjits who can't seem to pass a budget on time will cost us in the neighborhood of five million dollars this year. As a state that is some six billion dollars in the red, this probably seems like an inconsequential sum, but as another great Californian once said, "It ain't the size that's in question here. It's the principle."
Does it make more sense to provide legislators with monthly passes on Caltrain? Should we encourage carpooling from Bakersfield? Better yet, why not ask them to pick up the tab on their transportation out of the ninety-five thousand dollar a year salary that we are already paying? Since we're also paying a one hundred seventy-three dollar per diem for mileage, do we really have to buy them cars to use it up?
The good news, if there is any, is that the Governator and his hydrogen powered Humvee drive recklessly off into the sunset we return to our past: Jerry Brown will be looking to get his hands on the 1974 Plymouth Satellite he drove back in his first term as governor. That's one sweet ride.