Saturday scenes and scenery: People who need government

Congresscritters have gone home for Memorial Day weekend. They need their break.

And as a result, an economic relief bill -- extending unemployment benefits, health insurance subsidies, supports for Medicare payments to doctors, and small business loans -- won't be acted on until sometime in June.


On Wednesday, people who need government help, who have nowhere else to go, rallied outside San Francisco City Hall preparatory to going inside to ask their elected officials not to balance the local budget on their backs. They set up a mock grave yard for the nonprofit helping agencies that are about to be gutted because city revenues have crashed during the recession. (That's Zhang Huan's Three Headed Buddha statute in the background.)


Supervisor Chris Daly spoke to the crowd.


The vibe was serious ...


determined ...


... resolved.

These folks will take a hit from the city budget, despite all the good will in the world from Supervisors. And they will take a hit from State Government which, like Washington, is disabled by Republican obstructionism and without the cash to pay the bills. And they'll take a hit from the Feds, who needed a break today.