Tim Blair writes:

It’s a quagmire in California:

Recently released crime statistics show the homicide rate in California is 265 percent higher than the death rate suffered by U.S. and British military personnel in Iraq.

Whoa! Things aren’t so good business-wise, either. Nissan has decided to cut and run:

When one little company like Nissan North America pulls out of a great big city like Los Angeles, does anyone even notice?

They do when Nissan is the 80th corporation to do so since 2002.

Nissan’s headed for Nashville.

Nissan Motor Co. announced Thursday it is moving its North American headquarters and nearly 1,300 jobs from California to the Nashville area to take advantage of the lower cost of doing business in the Southeast.

"The board of Nissan decided to relocate our North American headquarters, and we're coming to Tennessee," Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said at a news conference at the state Capitol attended by Gov. Phil Bredesen and other top state officials.

The headquarters, which has been based in Gardena, Calif., will relocate to Williamson County, a suburban area south of Nashville. . . .

Ghosn cited lower real estate and business taxes as major reasons for the move.

"The costs of doing business in Southern California are much higher than the costs of doing business in Tennessee," he said.

Beyond Nissan--and the 79 other corporations that have decamped from L.A. alone since 2002, when a company as deeply associated with California as Fender Guitars relocates to neighboring Arizona, you know the state isn't exactly business-friendly. (Just ask my wife, who frequently intercedes on behalf of business owners.) These problems have accumulated over the several decades of California's exponentially growing hard left tilt, and can't be blamed entirely on Governor Schwarzenegger, but what is Arnold doing to help reduce them? Hiring a former aide to Gray "Rolling Blackouts" Davis as his new chief of staff.

Will the last person out of California please turn out the lights?