What a depressing juxtaposition this is. I got these two items via e-mail literally minutes apart. The first is the video at the top of this post: a BBC report about a "Dubyaville" shantytown in Los Angeles full of people who lost their homes in the mortgage meltdown.

Here we are, supposedly the richest and most powerful country in the world, and the British media is reporting on us like we're some broken-down wreck of a third world country.

Meanwhile, at the same time, all the Republicans in the California state assembly are working to keep yacht and private jet sales tax-free tax loopholes in place. And did I mention that California has a $16 billion budget deficit?

This is why the Republican brand is like tainted dog food: With the economy nosediving and a massive deficit, their response is to protect tax breaks on yachts and jets rather than help the people who can't even afford a roof. (Any minute now, Bar Bush will be along to tell us how not having to worry about all that troublesome yardwork is actually working out quite well for them.)

Yeah, yeah, I know, all those extra sales of yachts, jets, and yacht-jet Transformers, and all those sales tax savings, will go right back into the economy, and everyone in the Dubyaville will get totally sweet jobs in the aeroyacht industry and get their homes back in no time. Blow me.

Anyway, if you're wondering what to do with your tax savings from a recent yacht, jet, or yacht-jet Transformer purchase, why not give it to the Courage Campaign so they can run some Yacht Party ads on cable news and fake news shows. I mean, you already got your tax break, so what do you care if the next guy has to pay sales tax on his? Why, he might use those savings to get a bigger one than yours, and you wouldn't want that, now would you?

Update/Clarification On Yacht/Plane Sales Tax: If you buy your yacht, plane, or yacht/plane Transformer in CA, you do have to pay sales tax. But if you buy it outside of CA and leave it outside of CA for 90 days, you do not have to pay any CA sales tax at all. True, you'd have to pay the sales tax of whatever state you buy it in... but Oregon doesn't have sales tax, and it's right next door.

I would also ask the question: If the loophole is that hard to exploit, then why bother to preserve it at all?

(h/t siri, Bob Cesca, and Sadly No! for the Dubyaville video)