It's a rather amazing piece of so-called journalism: today's San Luis Obispo Tribune ran a budget story extremely biased toward the Yacht Party's framing, making Sam Blakeslee and the Republicans that have been filibustering a budget deal for months now look like the good guys. The article repeats Blakeslee's spin almost verbatim, and misleads its readers about who has compromised and who has not. By doing so the SLO Tribune is serving as the Yacht Party's accomplices in their effort to destroy our state:

Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, said Friday that state budget negotiations have reached a crucial point, as some Republicans are more willing to discuss tax increases for the first time and more Democrats seem willing to discuss cuts in programs.

Both sides are apparently moving out from their ideological corners, but movement by Republicans is considered particularly significant because of their steadfast opposition to tax increases in the past.

This is an outright lie - Democrats have *repeatedly* proposed and voted for cuts. The Democrats' majority vote budget deal included $8 billion in spending cuts. The Tribune does not mention this anywhere.

By omitting that crucial piece of information they play along with Blakeslee's and the Yacht Party's strategy - to use a media strategy to make themselves look willing to compromise, to make the Dems look bad, and to force the Dems to do the Yacht Party's dirty work for them.

Commentators in Sacramento have joined Blakeslee in saying the tone in the negotiations recently changed dramatically. Blakeslee said he expects there to be progress toward a budget solution soon. "I believe there is a very good likelihood we will find an ultimate compromise in the next two to three weeks." The tenor has become more respectful, he said, with less of the complaining in front of the news media about the other party after each meeting between the sides.

"They are approaching these negotiations differently," he said of what is happening right now. "The Republicans will put forward what taxes they will swallow. The Democrats will put forward what cuts they will take."

Nowhere in this quote, or in this article, does the reporter explain where the uncompromising tone came from - *exclusively* from what Peter Schrag called the Kamikaze Party, which has for months refused to vote for a budget deal, driving the state to the brink of bankruptcy.

Now Blakeslee and his GOP allies want to make themselves look good by proposing some taxes. That is designed to put the onus on Democrats to compromise - *even though they have already done so.* What the Yacht Party wants now are new "compromises" - including a hard spending cap that WILL destroy every public service in our state.

But the SLO Tribune doesn't tell readers that either. Here's how they describe the Yacht Party's new ransom note:

Blakeslee said he wants a guarantee that government will not continue to grow at a faster rate than the private sector, something it has done in years of double-digit growth in the state budget.

Note that this is a distortion - government services have grown because we have a growing and aging population. Blakeslee wants fewer people to be educated and wants fewer seniors to get pensions and health care.

And he said Republicans will continue to argue that taxes should not harm businesses in the state. His party supports tax cuts that will attract more businesses to California, and keep those now here from leaving for other states.

Blakeslee said the issues to be addressed in the negotiations are taxes, cuts, structural budget reform that includes spending caps and planning for greater reserves, and an economic stimulus package to help California out of its current crisis.

The SLO Tribune doesn't say that the spending cap would rachet downward in a recession, leaving government services unable to recover - the same problem that crippled Colorado when they adopted a hard cap.

Nor does the SLO Tribune explain what the Yacht Party's economic stimulus would be: gutting environmental protections, including disallowing court review of CEQA decisions, making it easier for pesticides to be used, and destroying what remains of organized labor.

Speaking of, the SLO Tribune passes on without comment this closing remark by Blakeslee:

He likened Republicans capitulating on taxes to Democrats considering doing away with collective bargaining, a sacred issue for many of the unions that support Democratic legislators.

Of course, collective bargaining is a *basic human right* that courts have for decades upheld - not some perk that Dems give to union allies. But this Freudian slip by Blakeslee shows his party's true goal - break labor, break services, break California.

And it's a goal they are about to accomplish, with newspapers like the SLO Tribune serving as the house organ for the Yacht Party.