from : http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_11707...

SACRAMENTO — A sweeping plan to pull California government back from the brink of insolvency was falling a single vote short of approval early this morning.

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In one telling sign of the competing pressures, just before Steinberg approached him Maldonaldo was seen looking at the web page of conservative talk radio personalities who vowed to put the "head on a stick" of any Republican who voted to raise taxes.

on edit, some more gems from these neaderthals (from http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11... ):

"This is war! War!" shouted influential conservative talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou over Los Angeles radio station KFI, which can be heard in most of California, when a few Republican legislators mentioned the possibility of a compromise including some sort of tax increase. "We're going to get these heads on a stick. Heads on a stick!"

Their Web site featured the same "heads on a stick" exhortation with names and pictures of four Republican lawmakers.

Do these words have power beyond mere rhetoric? Maybe. The strong signal of their station gives John and Ken a large audience that at times has swamped local governments with mail and other forms of protest.

Their call for "heads on a stick" tactics against Republicans who deviate from the party line evoked images of the medieval Transylvanian warlord known as Vlad the Impaler, who once lined a Balkan highway with the heads of hundreds of Turkish soldiers displayed on lances. This proud descendant of Attila the Hun and model for the literary Dracula was known for eating some of his opponents and drinking their blood.

The State budget is failing to pass becuase a third Republican cannot be found to vote for it in the state senate, despite "sweetners" like massive corporate tax cuts.

Republicans are more afraid of the right wing talking heads than they are of bankrupting the world's seventh largest economy