California’s $42 billion budget defecit has been the subject of bitter partisan bickering, leading to a stalemate between parties that prevented a budget from being passed for 8 months.  The California budget crisis was finally addressed in part with a budget that was finally passed in February.  The budget package includes a mix of spending cuts, tax increases and borrowing plans.

Unfortunately, that budget still falls $6M short of the defecit.

That being the case, Governor Schwarzenegger is now pushing for a May special election that would theoretically prevent a stalemate and defecit like the one currently facing California.  The Governator is pushing for budget reform that includes measures like a spending cap to create a rainy day fund, as well as the ability to borrow from future lottery earnings.

Critics of this election may have an alternate option to just voting “no,” however, thanks to State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s AB390.  Ammiano wants to legalize marijuana, and regulate and tax it in the manner of alcohol and tobacco.  California has already legalized medical marijuana.

California is known for being an agricultural state, and as it turns out marijuana is in fact California’s largest cash crop.  The state grows $14B worth of pot a year, which is over double the amount of vegetable sales, and nearly 7 times that of grape sales.  This figure does not include the college dorm closet crops, though some would argue that those crops will go the way of bathtub gin once weed becomes more widely and legally available.

Legalizing marijuana isn’t a new topic with T-shirt makers ’round these parts; in addition to the NORML shop we have thousands of other opinions on the matter, with most favoring legalization.

Analysts say that Ammiano’s measure would provide California with an estimated $1 billion in tax revenue a year; NORML estimates that this figure is between $1.5 and $2.5 billion.  Whatever figure you believe, it’s clear that the revenue from a statewide cannibis tax is nothing to sneeze… er, cough at.

Bernard Madoff surprised the public on Tuesday when his lawyers told the court that he would be pleading guilty on Thursday to what could be the largest pyramid scheme in history.

The former NASDAQ chairman was arrested after telling his sons that he was at the helm of a $50 billion pyramid (a.k.a ponzi) scheme.  In court on Tuesday prosecutors saw his $50 billion and raised him $14.8 billion, for a total of and estimated $64.8 billion in fraud.  However, this lofty amount is suspect – some think that Madoff himself exaggerated the figures in a misguided attempt at self-importance.  Go big and go home… and by “home” we mean house arrest followed by the Big House.

While prosecutors and Madoff himself have estimated the Ponzi scheme at 11 figures, the authorities estimate that the actual loss was probably much lower.  Of course, the whole rub with a pyramid scheme is that a lot of the money doesn’t actually exist.  That being the case, many of the original estimated billions could be the imaginary earnings pitched to investors as a fairy tale.  Thus far about $1 billion has been found to dole out to the long, angry line of bamboozled investors.

And so we bestow upon Bernie Madoff a Fantasy T-Wearer award today, with the “guilty” T-shirt seen at right.  While there are of course a lot of Madoff T-shirts from which to choose, we chose this one for a reason: since Madoff fudged so many numbers over the years, it’s only fitting to imagine him proclaiming a number that would seem to be 100% correct.

UPDATE 2.12: The judge gave the Monopoly treatment to Madoff, who has now gone directly to jail without collecting $200.

President Obama outlined his plans to improve the nation’s education system, a promise and mandate he’s made throughout his campaign and in his recent address to Congress.  In a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, he noted that “The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy and unacceptable for our children, and we cannot afford to let it continue.”

One of the more controversial points in his plan is performance-based pay for teachers.  Bucking the Democratic stand-by of backing the unions, Obama called out his party with this statement: “Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom.”  He also stated that it’s high time we reward good teachers, rather than continuing to make excuses for bad ones.

Similarly, he announced that it’s time to revisit standardized testing and to stop lowering standards for specific communities.  Invoking President Bush’s call to end “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” Obama noted that tougher, clearer standards across the board and testing that measures modern-day success metrics like creativity and entrepreneurship are essential for a successful education revamp.

In order to help achieve those goals, Obama is also suggesting that the funds of No Child Left Behind, one of President Bush’s main initiatives, is tied to results.  One of the main criticisms of the program in the past has been its dependency on standardized testing, which could theoretically incent teachers to lower standards and teach specifically for student success on those tests.  How Obama envisions a program results methodology that ensures quality learning across the board, however, has yet to be outlined.  But perhaps we can all agree that President Bush would be pleased that a new administration is in fact putting a major focus on the important question as to whether our children is learning.

How these mandates will shake out in the day-to-day of the American educational system is still unknown, but you can track the stimulus money going toward education at the Recovery.gov website.

For those of you who have been driving around for the last 5 months in a car with the clock set an hour ahead of the actual time because you never did figure out how to set the darn thing, good news: Daylight Saving Time is again upon us.  (Arizona, you can skip this blog post.)

Falling back and springing forward has been a controversial subject since its conception in 1905 by the British William Willett.  Willett felt that daylight was wasted in the summer by people having a lie-in, and he was also annoyed at cutting his golf game short in the late afternoon.  Willett actually wanted to move the clock forward 80 minutes, perhaps reserving those extra 20 for a rousing round on the 19th hole.

The Bush administration is the most recent one to take on Daylight Saving Time.  President Bush extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks in 2005, a change that took effect in 2007.  While Daylight Saving Time has had a lot of political debate over the years, it was one of the least controversial decisions by the Bush administration – so much so that even the most strident of Bush critics couldn’t seem to think of a good reason to question it.

So if you haven’t set your clocks forward, now’s the time to do it.  Enjoy your extra hour of sunlight, and don’t worry – that hour of sleep you lost will make its way back to you in the form of a lazy, sunny late afternoon nap.

American Idol fans will find out tonight who the last 3 members of the Final 12 are.  Last night, the judges announced that 8 previously eliminated contestants will duke it out tonight for the 3 open spots.

Anoop Desai fans celebrated when their favorite bluesy crooner was tapped as the last of the contestants given this second chance, and now are anxiously awaiting tonight’s broadcast.  The details of exactly how the final 3 will be chosen, however, have been kept very vague.  Will they sing for the slot?  If so, do the judges decide?  Is there an applause-o-meter?  Will there be a dance-off?  Will Tatiana and Kara DioGuardi have an ultimate cage match to determine her worthiness?

All these questions and more will be answered tonight.  In the meantime, Anoop fans can of course sport their support with some Noop Dog T-shirts.

UPDATE: He made the cut – great news for Anoop and everyone who’s down with the Noop Dogg.

It was the “Network“-style on-air explosion that started a movement: Rick Santelli’s heartfelt rant on what he feels is reckless and unending spending by the Obama administration – spending that rewards the “losers” and punishes responsible consumers.  Santelli went really old-school and called for a “Tea Party” revolt against the mortgage bailout plan.  For those who didn’t see it:

The “Shout Heard ‘Round the World,” as CNBC is billing it, was most certainly heard by an activism-minded group of fiscal conservatives now calling themselves the New American Tea Party.

At this point, a search for “mortgage bailout” in our catalogue returns a great many objections to the plan and lot of Tea Party designs.  One of the organizers also had a Tea Party Revolt shop set up with Tea Party gear, so that those who didn’t have the time or design skill to make their own Tea Party T-shirts have a way to sport their support.

I spoke with the designer of the Tea Party logo to get an explanation as to why folks are getting involved in this movement.  Here’s the response:

“The average tax payer and small business owner all feel like we’ve hit the limit of what we can take. We will be bled dry…and it will be worse for our children. When Santelli pronounced we should have a second Tea Party to object to the excessive spending and taxes, we all let out a collective Yungian [sic], ‘YES!!!!’

Thus, the Nationwide Tea Party movement sprang up overnight. Grass roots organizations like Top Conservatives on Twitter, Smart Girl Politics, and DONTGO Movement rallied to cosponsor and spread the word.”

For those of you who want to join in the Tea Party movement, mark April 15th on your calendar.  That’s the next scheduled Tea Party protest.

As for Rick Santelli, he was recently invited to the White House.  For coffee.

Those of us who are dog owners know well the random amusement our canine pals can provide.  Whether your dog watches TV (Animal Planet is always a fave), skateboards or just makes unlikely pals, you never quite know when your dog is going to do something out of the blue to make you laugh.

Dogs being an insanely popular T-shirt topic (20 million dog t-shirts and gifts and counting), it’s no surprise that our community occasionally sends us some fun dog content.

This video was too great not to share with y’all.  And Bizkit himself wins a Fantasy T-Wearer award today, with the “I’m actually asleep” Dog T-shirt at right.  (We regrettably don’t make dog helmets.  Yet.)  Wear it well, Bizkit.  And may you dream more of laying in the sun and ogling furry blondes than chasing them.

The Lone Star state celebrates Texas Independence Day today which, like July 4th, is a day to celebrate independence from a foreign nation.  The Texas Revolution was a successful stand by American settlers against Mexico, which culminated in the Texas Declaration of Independence that was adopted on March 2nd, 1836.

Texas T-shirts are a very popular subject for designers, with 1.3 million products just on a “Texas” search.  And although Texas Independence from Mexico has been realized, the Independence discussion isn’t yet over: some Texans want to secede from the U.S. as  an independent nation.

That independent Texas spirit was brought into the national spotlight in 2006, when gubernatorial hopeful Kinky Friedman inspired supporters and non-Texan fans nationwide with well-researched positions like “I just want Texas to be number one in something other than executions, toll roads and property taxes.”  Friedman strongly supports an independent party movement in Texas, and beyond his political aspirations has a career that spans both music and writing.  While it’s not hugely unusual for a politician to author books, Friedman isn’t exactly writing anything along the lines of “Dreams From My Father.” Though perhaps Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola” is close.

Though Friedman lost out to Rick Perry of “Adios, MoFo” fame in the polls, he did manage to capture 12.6% of the vote.  (No word on whether Ralph Nader might consider Friedman as a campaign strategist.)

And so, in honor of Texas Independence Day, we award Kinky Friedman a Fantasy T-Wearer Award, with the “I messed with Texas” shirt at right.