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From Countdown Dec. 16, 2009, Keith's Worst Persons segment.

OLBERMANN: First time for Countdown‘s number two story, tonight‘s worst persons in the world.

The bronze to Jay Walder, this month‘s chairman of New York City‘s MTA, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the city‘s managers of subways and buses and stuff. The authority today approved budget cuts, closing two subway lines, reducing trains, charging school kids more to take public transportation to school. This is a result of the shocking, total surprise budget shortfall that the MTA has had every 18 months or so for the last four decades. The latest, 400 million dollars they suddenly discovered last week they just didn‘t have.

I know this is a local thing, but this has been going on since I was a kid. It is the biggest running scam in this town since they caught Boss Tweed.

Our runner-up, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann—although we really must thank her for unintentionally lightening the mood tonight—compared a Code Red anti-health care reform rally to a moment in history I guess she thought she understood. “It‘s the charge of the light brigade.” You know, like the poem, half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the valley of death road the 600? A little over 600 British cavalry men charged the Russian lines at Balaclava in the Crimean War on October 25th, 1854. At least half of them were killed, injured or captured, largely because the 600 were attacking 20 Russian infantry battalions that had 5,240 men and 40 siege guns.

Supposedly, Lord Cardagan was ordered to make the charge by Lord Lucan, because Cardagan was his brother in law and Lucan had hated his guts for 30 years. So, Congresswoman, if you want to compare your nut bags to the charge of light brigade, have a nice ride.

But our winner, former Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino. I‘ll admit it, when she was still on the job, I wondered, was she specifically selected because she had no clue? Had she been trained to not have a clue? Did she have one of those memory imprinting problems?

But after the president told CBS last night that he didn‘t wave the flag at West Point about Afghanistan because he thought, quote, “one of the mistakes that was made over the last eight years is for us to have a triumphant sense about war,” Ms. Perino followed up on Fixed News by saying, “I hope President Obama didn‘t mean it the way it came across, when he suggested that President Bush was too triumphant in his rhetoric when talking about war.”

Ms. Perino, over here, ma‘am. I‘d like to show you a photograph and ask you if you recognize when or where it‘s from. Hmm? No? No clue? Any idea who the guy was? Seriously? You‘re hoping President Obama didn‘t think President Bush was too triumphant in his rhetoric when talking about war? I mean, even Mr. Bush has now said mission accomplished was now a mistake.

Dana, is my head attached to my shoulders or did I leave it at home by accident, Perino, today‘s worst person in the world.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget cuts will finally finish off our state.

The cuts Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed to make up the difference, if enacted by the Legislature, would turn California into a place that in some ways would be unrecognizable in modern America: poor children would have no health insurance, prisoners would be released by the thousands and state parks would be closed.

Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians, although prisons and schools would take hits, as well.

“Government doesn’t provide services to rich people,” Mike Genest, the state’s finance director, said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t even really provide services to the middle class.” He added: “You have to cut where the money is.”

In less than two weeks, the administration has gone from warning residents that a vote against the budget measures would send the state — some $24 billion in the red — into utter turmoil to sanguine acceptance that “the people have spoken” and that the government must move on.

It gets worse.

These proposals, as well as those that would make cuts to state parks, the prison system and other state agencies, are winding their way through Sacramento now, where they will be voted on by committees and eventually the full Legislature.

If lawmakers sign off on closing the health insurance program for children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, California would be the first state in the nation to close the popular program. Begun in 1997, the program, known as S-CHIP, reimburses states at a higher rate than for Medicaid to deliver health insurance to children and teenagers. With the cuts to Medicaid, the state would probably increase its number of uninsured people by nearly 2 million, the California Budget Project says.

But Gray Davis just had to be recalled.

Vagabond Scholar: The Torture Flow Chart.  And waterboarding isn't "simulated drowning."  It's drowning. 

Peace Action Blog: Senator Kerry's hearing with soldiers on Afghanistan

Kansas Jackass: GOP asshats still blocking Sebelius confirmation

Prose Before Hos: Greg Mankiw's naive analysis of Obama's $100 million budget cuts

Right Wing Watch: Let the hate crimes freakout begin

HOLY CRAP: burkha-logic...The Stinque Zombie Bible...Theocracy in California public schools...Runnning amok in FLA. public schools...Jim Wallis, Lefty?...Saudi government upholds child marriage...Proof of virginity...God's will...Art reflects life...As a Man Pisseth...Is Lying a Traditional Value?

I'm a little surprised. I'd think that parks would be a natural for stimulus hiring:

The dire economy could make it harder to enjoy the great outdoors.

From Nevada to New York, state parks across the country are facing budget cuts -- in some cases steep ones -- just as they are anticipating another busy season. Officials in several states say there will be less money to employ workers to clear trail brush or repair footpaths. Restrooms will be shuttered. Some lakes and pools will be closed weekdays, or altogether. Some parks will have shorter seasons or curtailed hours, or bar the public from eating at certain picnic areas or sunbathing on certain beaches.

The economic downturn has led to lower tax revenues for most states, and federal stimulus money can't be used to patch holes in state operating budgets.

"It's rare if a state is not having pretty serious problems," said Philip K. McKnelly, the executive director of the National Association of State Park Directors. He said many states expect their parks budgets will be cut 10% to 15% from the year before.

The hits to state parks are unfolding a year after skyrocketing gas prices kept people close to home, leading to a record number of visitors at state trails, lakes and pools. This year, while gas prices are expected to be lower, families that are nervous about job losses and conserving money are expected to flock to state parks, where a day's outing is typically far cheaper than one at a private amusement park.

California finally passed a budget last night. The budget is devastating and will hurt just about every single Californian. It is the consequence of two things 1) the recession put California in a deep hole 2) the structural way that California's legislature operates on taxes and the budget mean that a conservative budget is the only one that is able to be passed.

Dave has more details on the budget and the aftermath over at Calitics, but the fact still remains...

California's government is hopelessly broken. Republicans turned the budget negotiations into a hostage crisis by exploiting the rule requiring a 2/3rds vote of the legislature to pass a budget. Senator Abel Maldonado blackmailed the Senate into accepting even more spending cuts and an open primary that threatens progressive power as the cost of his vote for the budget deal.

California Republicans are an extreme minority. A party in exile. Rejected by Californians at the ballot box, Republicans have decided to take revenge by using the budget crisis to achieve their radical goals, no matter the cost.

Only TWO other states -- the small states of Rhode Island and Arkansas -- require a 2/3rds supermajority to pass a budget. But, ironically, it requires a 2/3 vote of the legislature to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to repeal the 2/3rds rule.

Since Republicans in the legislature will try to block that too, it is up to we, the people, to restore democracy to California and finally end the Republicans' obstruction. And the only way we can stop them is to repeal the 2/3rds rule by ballot initiative.

This is insanity. And it's made possible by the 2/3rds rule, which allows a small cabal of extremist Republicans to hold the state hostage to their demands, as they have done year after year.

We have to stop the insanity. The only way this madness will end is if we eliminate the 2/3rds rule. Please join the Courage Campaign and CREDO and take the pledge to support a repeal of the 2/3rds rule.

(full-disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

John Amato:

I don't understand why we don't have a gas tax in CA either. With the prices so low, people will not complain about it because they understand how bad conditions are and it would raise a ton of money. If oil goes through the roof again, then the tax gets rescinded. Rachel Maddow in the above video also points out the absurd problem that exists because property taxes are capped in California.

MADDOW: The GOP is also in exile in the great state of California, where Democrats have big majorities in both Houses of the legislature. However, California is turning out to be a test lab for what happens when the party in exile, the “party of no” can‘t get overruled. Legislative rules in California require a 2/3 vote on certain legislation, which means a few minority Republican votes are needed to pass the Golden State‘s horrible new budget.Why is it horrible?

Well, because California capped property taxes when I was five. I remember because that shut down my town‘s library for most of the week, not that I‘m bitter.With no real property tax base, California is instead really dependent on income taxes, and since people‘s income goes up and down with a lot of volatility depending on the state of the economy, California‘s state budget has ended up being really sensitive to economic downturns. And in case you hadn‘t noticed, this is to economic downturns what a buffalo is to a buffalo wing.

You would think that the last person to get the shaft in hard times would be the sick and helpless - but you would be wrong. Yet another illustration of why we so urgently need universal healthcare:

States from Rhode Island to California are being forced to curtail Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, as they struggle to cope with the deteriorating economy.

With revenue falling at the same time that more people are losing their jobs and private health coverage, states already have pared their programs and many are looking at deeper cuts for the coming year. Already, 19 states -- including Maryland and Virginia -- and the District of Columbia have lowered payments to hospitals and nursing homes, eliminated coverage for some treatments, and forced some recipients out of the insurance program completely.

Many are halting payments for health-care services not required by the federal government, such as physical therapy, eyeglasses, hearing aids and hospice care. A few states are requiring poor patients to chip in more toward their care.