Never mind

From our We Don't Need Your Stinkin' Billions Files, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tells Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that he's optimistic that California will be able to secure $4 billion in short-term loans to keep the state running," reports AP.

"Schwarzenegger wrote a letter to Paulson on Thursday with an update of California's fiscal situation. Last week, the governor asked the federal government to protect California if the state was unable to secure loans in the private market.

"Since then, Congress has passed a $700 billion Wall Street bailout package and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to improve credit."

In the words to Emily Litela -- Never mind.

Hey, one good thing about this whole financial mess -- it lets the governor do what he loves best -- be California's leading pitch man. Now, the guv is asking you to buy California bonds.

"The Republican governor has taped a one-minute radio ad encouraging Californians to buy short-term bonds as the state prepares to borrow $4 billion in cash next week," the Bee's Kevin yamamura reports.

"We do this, of course, every year to pay for the schools, health care and other very important services, and your investment will actually protect those vital services," Schwarzenegger says.

The LAT's David Zanhiser says the financial mess, new sales tax measures on the ballot in Los Angeles this November may be a tough sell.

"Leaders of Los Angeles' K-12 schools, community colleges, city government and transportation authority each placed tax hikes on the ballot to take advantage of the high number of Democrats expected to vote for presidential candidate Barack Obama.

But with so much economic uncertainty, the business leaders who typically bankroll local tax increases have been donating much smaller sums than in previous years -- if they gave at all. And voters have been telling politicians that they are unsure they can handle an additional financial burden."

That's gotta go double for all the bonds and new programs on the November statewide ballot. 

It's that time of year again. Time for Shane Goldmacher's piece on how state NAACP head Alice Huffman is getting paid thousands of dollars as a consultant for campaigns backed by the NAACP.

By our count, it's actually, $158,500, if you count the additional $50,000 AC Research received for "campaign literature and mailings," but hey, you say potato...

"Huffman has strongly denied any connection between the money and the endorsements, as have the campaigns paying her. There is no violation of state law involved. 'When you get me, you don't get the NAACP,' she said.

"Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause and Yes on 11 proponent, said the hiring of Huffman was unrelated to her role as NAACP president."

Dan Walters does some health care mop-up. "Health-access advocates cannibalized portions of Schwarzenegger's plan, especially those that imposed new regulations on private insurers, and wrote them into individual bills that also made it to his desk last month.

"With California's health care stakeholders exhausted, the unspoken consensus is to wait to see what Congress and the next president, whoever he may be, can devise before taking up the Sacramento battle again with a new governor.

Here are ElectionTrack's Top 10 money recipients from the last 24 hours:

Yes On Proposition 7: $1,750,000
No On 8: $728,600
Yes on 1A: $303,000
Tony Strickland For Senate $123,548
Hannah Beth Jackson for Senate: $89,115
Lois Wolk for Senate: $76,273
No On 4: $61,784
Fran Florez For Assembly: $41,782
Marty Block For Assembly: $35,605
Yes on 8: $33,800

And finally, nothing says I don't love you anymore like sawing your home in half.

"A married couple in Cambodia who had "finally had enough" of each other have gone their separate ways by literally cutting their home in half.

The wife will stay put with the upright half while her husband has carried away his half to start again on the other side of the village.

"Neighbours said the couple saw the radical action as the most cost-efficient and equitable way to avoid each other in a country where divorce lawyers can be expensive.

"Vorng Morn, the headman of Cheach village, fifty miles from the capital Phnom Penh, told the Phnom Penh Post: "We tried to persuade them to think clearly before they did this because they had been married for nearly 40 years. But they did not listen."

Hey, we don't know if this story is real or not, but even if that photo with the story is photoshopped, we figured it was Roundup-worthy.