• The SacBee has a nice little comparison between the three budget plans, Arnold’s, the Democratic conference committee’s, and the GOP borrow and spend “plan.”

• Are we a “high-tax” state? George Skelton takes a look at some of the numbers.  It’s not such an easy question.  You can get numbers anywhere from 6th in the country to 45th on different metrics.  Take a look at the article, there’s a lot of data there.

• Josh Richman of the MediaNews Group of newspapers in the Bay Area, puts the lie to the McCain campaign’s argument of sexism over the lipstick comment. Somehow it’s cool for McCain to talk about putting lipstick on a pig about Hillary Clinton’s (video here). It’s good to see there are some journalists still willing to call a lie for what it really is.

• An interesting method of clearing a hillside in downtown LA: 100 goats. Photo courtesy LAist contributor  Jonathan Alcorn.

• There’s a fundraiser for Ginny Mayer for State Senate on September 14th. Ginny Mayer is running for the 35th District, which runs along the coast from Seal Beach to Irvine and Newport Beach, currently held by Tom Harman.