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Archive for the 'California' Category

California’s Prop 14: The People vs. The Parties

By Nancy Hanks | Related entries in California, Independents, News, Open Primaries, Politics

Independent voters in California (aka “decline to state”) vote in primaries at the whim of the party big-shots. And California Dems (including the school employees union) are playing some bad language games trying to dissuade voters from supporting Proposition 14, the “Top Two” open primary referendum on the ballot for a vote in June that [...]

March 11th, 2010 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

Scott Brown: It’s not Teddy’s seat. Try before you buy.

By mw | Related entries in California, Democrats, Elections, Massachusetts, Republicans

Gergen served up a softball and Scott Brown knocked it out of the park. “It’s not Ted Kennedy’s seat. It’s not the Democrat’s seat. It’s the people’s seat.” If Brown wins, this may be the moment that put him over the top.

January 13th, 2010 | Permalink| 13 Comments »

This Is What You Call A Low Information Voter

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California, Video, Voting

I feel dumber for having seen this, but it’s so hilariously clueless that I couldn’t stop watching. (Stolen from BTB. Thx Doug!) Tweet

July 29th, 2009 | Permalink| 8 Comments »

California Budget Deal Reached

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California, Money

Looks like they’ve finally come to an agreement, but at the expensive of the poor and elderly. From LA Times: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced Monday that they had reached a deal to close California’s $26.3-billion deficit and begin paying all of the state’s bills again, potentially ending months of partisan wrangling and [...]

July 21st, 2009 | Permalink| 9 Comments »

Why Is California Issuing IOUs? Remember Enron

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California, Economy, Energy, History, Money

After I read Matt Taibbi’s piece about Goldman Sachs gaming the oil/gas marketplace and wrote my own response, I started to think about the massive $24.3 billion budget deficit in California, and I wondered, “How could they get that far in the hole?” Sure, the global economy has tanked the past couple years and revenues [...]

July 6th, 2009 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Broke California To Issue IOUs To Businesses

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California, Money

They’re seeing red in the Golden state. From Reuters: California’s controller said on Wednesday that he would have to issue IOUs in a week if lawmakers can’t quickly solve a $24 billion budget deficit, and the state’s treasurer plans to tap a reserve fund to meet debt service costs. The measures came as a budget [...]

June 25th, 2009 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

California Budget Eliminates Welfare, Closes State Parks

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California

California voters had their say and now Schwarzenegger is doing what needs to be done. From Mercury News: In a state that long has prided itself on its social safety net, it could well go down in history as the most drastic reduction in social programs ever. And billions in further cuts will be unveiled [...]

May 27th, 2009 | Permalink| 32 Comments »

Former Former Bush Solicitor General Wants To Overturn Prop 8

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California, Homosexuality, Law, Marriage, Sexuality, Supreme Court

This was a bit of a surprise when I heard about it, but apparently Ted Olson has joined forces with the Equal Rights Foundation and they’ve just sent out a press release about yesterday’s decision. Here are some key excerpts (.pdf) … â€œYesterday, the California Supreme Court said that the California Constitution compels the State [...]

May 27th, 2009 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

California Upholds Gay Marriage Ban, But Gay Marriage Wins

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California, Homosexuality, Law, Marriage, Religion, Sexuality

Anybody who reads this blog knows where I fall on the gay marriage issue, but the Supreme Court of California wasn’t reallly deciding the validity of gay marriage itself, so the ruling was actually dead on in my opinion. This article from Bloomberg points out why… The court legalized gay marriage a year ago before [...]

May 26th, 2009 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

Obama To Announce Tougher Fuel Standards

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, California, Cars, Energy, Gas, Obama

This is a pretty big stake in the ground, because they’ll be using California’s standards…the toughest in the nation. No doubt you’ll be hearing that this is bad for business, but that’s what they said about seat belts, airbags and every other time CAFE standards were raised. And I think we’re all fairly aware that [...]

May 18th, 2009 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

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