I haven't seen a diary about this, but it deserves front page treatment. David Dayen (dday) of Hullabaloo and Calitics has a great post about the current state of the budget stalemate here in California. Please read the whole thing, but some salient points after the flip...
It occurs to me that what Steinberg is doing is what progressives have asked Harry Reid to do in the US Senate for years now. When GOP obstructionists threaten to filibuster key legislation, we always say "Make them filibuster! Make them stand up in the well of the Senate and talk endlessly about how we can't afford to provide health care for children, or how we have to offer more tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%. Let the whole country see it!" Well, we're basically doing that. The 15 members of the Yacht Party caucus in the Senate will be locked down and forced to reiterate their arguments indefinitely.
One key takeaway for everyone ought to be the sorry state of political media coverage here. We complain -- rightly so -- about the state of the political media coverage of Washington. But at least there a there there. In California, we basically get no coverage:
Problem is, the whole country won't be seeing it, the whole state won't be seeing it, in fact almost nobody will be seeing it. This is the true failure of a lack of political awareness in California, and a lack of political media. The pressure points are nearly impossible to hit.