Here is No Why

New Poll!

June 12, 2009 10:05 AM

o the vast majority of you agree with me--not to mention reason and good sense--that "Gangsta's Paradise" is Coolio's best song. Some of you voted for "Fantastic Voyage," which I guess is respectable. One of you voted for some other song, which frankly makes no sense to me. I think this should lay our previous disagreement to rest, Mr. Vice.

In any event, the new poll also got its impetus from a conversation I was having with a friend. Morenononsense and I were discussing various state governments, and I asserted that New York's is clearly the most ridiculous. He pointed out that Illinois and California were pretty fucked up, too. But I still think that New York's takes the cake. Here's a brief summary of the why each of these states is up for consideration:

New York

Parliamentary tactics stall all business for a week after a coup that involved, in one way or another, all of the following: a billionaire power broker who is not a member of the senate; two state senators--one accused of slashing his girlfriend's face with a bottle, the other accused of taking illegal campaign contributions--who defected from their party on the grounds that it wasn't being aggressive enough about seeking ethics reform; a locked door; a literal search for a lost key; ridiculously parliamentary tactics; a complete disregard for the actual functioning of the state government.

California

A recall election featuring a porn star, a dwarf, and about 90 percent of the state's population which lead to the election of an Austrian former actor and Mr. Universe as governor wasn't bad enough. Now the state's facing a nearly $25 billion budget shortfall and could literally run out of money in the next few weeks if they don't figure something out.

Illinois

Rod "LEGO minifig" Blagojevich.

My vote goes to New York. The shit that's going on there is, in my opinion, the most ridiculous nonsense that's happened in a state government in my life time. I'm impressed that the New York State Senate is able to be that incompetent and petty. Just wow.

3 Comments

morenonesense said:

wait, wait, wait. although i'm not sure how i'm going to cast my vote, you forgot the following about NY: a Governor elected with roughly 75% of the popular vote is forced to resign one year into his term for having his stomach pumped by whores, followed by the inauguration of the nation's first blind Governor (which is a good thing) who promptly holds a press conference describing his own marital and narcotic indiscretions. oh, and there is so much more... what a state.

June 13, 2009 10:09 AM

TheExpat said:

I'm going with California. The Governator, along with Reagan, take the taco in my humble opinion. I have a lot of left-leaning views and I support things like high emissions standards, but California is where sprawl began in earnest, not to mention their enormous state deficit which, as a fiscal conservative I cannot conscience.

In all, I still think Arizona has an inexcusably horrible state government and would vote for it in a heartbeat were it a choice in your poll. C'mon, they want to allow concealed weapons in bars, Ismael!

June 13, 2009 10:20 AM

Lauren said:

As much as I'd like to agree with TheExpat on this one, I can't. Arizona's legislature is fucked up and stupid, but they don't pull the shenanigans that go on in New York or California. And really, New York's shenanigans this week take the cake. A missing key??? What is this, Nancy Drew?

June 15, 2009 12:09 AM