You may not know his name, but Charles Murray is something of a hero. He got the attention of California’s tax-and-spend legislators by cutting their pay by 18%. “We’re broke. This cut needs to happen now. It’s the right thing to do,” Murray told the Los Angeles Times. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pay went from $212,100 to $173,900. California’s Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s salary dropped from $133,600 to $109,500. Murray is the chairman of the Citizens Compensation Commission. State Attorney General Jerry Brown declared the cuts legal and proper.

A spokesman for the tax-and-spenders, Senate Secretary Greg Schmidt, declared that legislators weren’t going to take their celery cut lying down. “I don’t know how we will proceed yet. There are multiple opinions on these matters…it may end up decided by a court.” Voters in the Golden State established the Citizens Compensation Commission when they approved Proposition 112 in 1990. Now the states’ arrogant rulers intend to challenge whether the governed have a right to consent. The Democratic political machine won’t tolerate interference by the people. They bought your vote, California, fair and square. The cost may have brought California to its current state of financial ruin, but holding power over you – the voter – is worth every one of your hard-earned pennies.

Some questions sane individuals might ask dwellers of the Left Coast are these: how much longer will you put up with your government’s arrogance? Are you awake? If you are, what are you smoking?

If Californians did their duty, Charles Murray wouldn’t have to do his.

– Mr. Curmudgeon