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By Francis Robinson
$29.95
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By Gore Vidal
$16.00
$23
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Wikimedia Commons
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken the ax yet again to California’s social programs, vetoing almost $1 billion in spending on welfare, special education, child care and other programs before signing a budget bill into law.
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White House / Pete Souza
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As the gay marriage train prepares to leave the station, it’s odd but telling to see Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging the resumption of same-sex marriages in California while Democratic President Barack Obama remains opposed.
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boc.ca.gov
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California’s outdated technical infrastructure has made 200,000 state employees very, very happy. After an injunction by the governor to cut workers pay to the state’s $7.25 minimum wage, the state controller has successfully argued that such pay docking would be impossible given the state’s outdated payroll computer system.
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http://gov.ca.gov/
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Around 200,000 state employees in California will notice an adjustment in their July paychecks—and it won’t be the kind of change they want. According to an order issued Thursday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ... (continued)
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Wikimedia Commons / Phil Konstantin
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We’ve known for years that Jerry Brown would run to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, but the former two-term governor waited until Tuesday to make it official. In his announcement video, Brown promised not to raise taxes without ... (continued)
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AP / Rich Pedroncelli
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By Arthur Blaustein — California now struggles with fiscal and social disaster because of a 32-year-old initiative that makes raising revenues and passing budgets nearly impossible.
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gov.ca.gov
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After terminating his second stint as California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be looking for a fourth act in life. The movie-star-turned-politician told reporters in Italy, “I am not going to run for anything else.” So what’s next? Environmental activist? Hummer salesman? Judge on Project Runway? (continued)
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White House / Pete Souza
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The California governor and rare Hollywood Republican released a statement Tuesday in support of health care reform, in which he praised the president and urged his “colleagues on both sides of the political aisle at the national level to move forward and accomplish these vital goals for the American people.”
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Flickr / Kiwi Flickr
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Soon California can stop being the butt of jokes—although seriously, Alabama, let’s not point fingers. Party elders in Sacramento have reached an agreement that should balance the budget with $15.5 billion in cuts that will hurt students, the poor, children and the elderly. Republicans, who make up only about a third of the state Legislature, managed to thwart any new taxes.
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Flickr / Franco Folini
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Looks like Republicans are going to win out in California’s seemingly endless budget battle, despite holding a minority in the state Legislature. The deal lawmakers are inching toward favors Gov. Schwarzenegger’s desire to make the poor, the elderly and schoolchildren pay for the state’s financial crisis.
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U.S. Army / Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a Democratic proposal to cut $11.4 billion in spending, saying that “the Legislature must solve the entire [$27 billion] deficit ... and must not push the problem off to tomorrow.” With IOUs now a certainty and the state in financial ruin, a prominent Democrat called the governor’s stance “the most irresponsible thing that I’ve seen in my 15 years of public service.”
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Flickr / denn
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Unable to agree whether to raise taxes or cut spending, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state’s lawmakers will instead rely on time travel. Sacramento hopes to “save” somewhere around $10 billion by shifting costs to next year’s budget and resorting to other accounting tricks.
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This week on Al Jazeera’s “Fault Lines,” Avi Lewis investigates the political causes, the human impact and the global economic repercussions of California’s budgetary crisis. Check out this great report, which features Truthdig’s own Robert Scheer.
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Flickr / d_vdm
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to do away with textbooks in favor of online ones, because kids today “get their information from the Internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones.” The question remains what effect will this have on students who may not have access to all that technology, and what the switch may wind up saving—or costing—the state.
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Flickr/CLippahbOY
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Gov. Schwarzenegger’s newest proposal to close the Golden State’s budgetary gap: selling some of California’s biggest landmarks, including the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, the California State Fairgrounds and the San Quentin prison. Because the proposed sales might come during a slumping real estate market, there are questions about whether taxpayers would be getting a good deal.
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Flickr / William van Bergen
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On a desperate mission to save California from a $24 billion budget gap, a legislative committee voted to eliminate both the Secretary of Education office, a whopping $2.2 million endeavor, and the Office of Planning and Research ($50 million), while the Waste Management Board, stuffed with ex-lawmakers with six-figure salaries, would see its responsibilities enhanced.
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gov.ca.gov
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As if delivering the tagline of his latest movie, California’s governor announced to the state Legislature Tuesday that the “day of reckoning is here.” But Democrats are fighting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut funding for schools, the poor and sick children while refusing to raise taxes.
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By Matt Welch —
Instead of making the positive case for big government, or at least beginning to explain, let alone defend, what Sacramento does with all that money, California’s political class has instead opted for a four-pronged strategy: deny, scare, attack, then call for higher taxes.
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The “Real Time” host laments the ballot initiative, which, he says, has made his home state ungovernable: “This is why America’s founders wanted a representative democracy, because they knew if you gave the average guy the chance, he’d vote for a fantasy world with no taxes, free beer and vagina trees.”
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Flickr / mikebaird
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Jules Witcover —
Once again the voters of California, said to be the leading indicators of national trends, have spoken. And what they have said this time is a resounding “No!” to legislative irresponsibility. The megaphone employed was this week’s special statewide election to consider six ballot initiatives.
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AP photo / Rich Pedroncelli
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After voters refused to grant Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budgetary wishes on Tuesday and Washington offered little hope in lending money to California, the Governator announced a new plan to help solve the budget crisis by attacking the poor. He is considering eliminating the state’s main welfare program, health insurance for low-income families, and an aid program for low- and middle-income college students.
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Flickr / Franco Folini
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Californians gave the electoral finger to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday when they voted against five ballot measures intended to fix the Golden State’s budget drama by increasing taxes, redistributing state funds and borrowing money. On top of already double-digit unemployment, a plummeting housing market and an eroding educational system, the state now faces a budget gap of more than $21 billion.
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Wikimedia Commons / Daniel Nicoletta
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Friends and admirers of the late San Francisco supervisor and gay rights activist have been rallying to establish an annual commemorative day in his honor, and on Thursday, the California Senate approved a bill that would officially make Milk’s birthday, May 22, Harvey Milk Day in the Golden State.
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AP photo / Rich Pedroncelli
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California is running short on cash fast—$23 billion short. According to chief legislative budget analyst Mac Taylor, the Golden State may not have enough moolah to keep it going through July, and this after across-the-line tax hikes approved in the February budget package.
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White House / Eric Draper
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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biographer has revealed that the California governor recently thought about leaving the Republican Party, but decided he wouldn’t gain much by doing so, politically. Camp Schwarzenegger has yet to respond, but the news fits, given the governor’s problems working with his own party.
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osmoothie.com
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California has the biggest economy in the union, but the state is in a real hole. With major shortfalls and a $40 billion budget in legislative gridlock, Sacramento has laid off some workers, furloughed others and slashed wages. Now the governor is threatening to, er, terminate 20,000 more employees.
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California’s governor tells “60 Minutes” how he went from a guy who drives a Hummer to a guy who drives a Hummer that runs on vegetable oil and why he wouldn’t count out a run for the White House.
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letstravelvacations.com
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By David Sirota — A voyage to Sin City in this moment of ecological and economic crisis is a journey to a giant concave mirror reflecting back the magnified—and ugly—truths about this epoch of cataclysmic consumption and hubristic hedonism.
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welt.de
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By Ellen Goodman — There is something refreshing in seeing a mother and public citizen auditioning for a second act. Beyond that, there is something tender and timely in seeing this particular woman coming home to the family business.
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Truthdig / Peter Scheer
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By Jeremiah Levine — A little-noticed California proposition could limit the kind of partisan gerrymandering that Republicans and Democrats have used to influence elections around America for decades. But is that a good thing?
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AP photo / Kiichiro Sato, file
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By Chris Hedges — The swelling numbers waiting outside homeless shelters and food pantries around the country have grown by at least 30 percent since the summer. If Barack Obama continues to turn to the elites who created the mess, if he does not radically redirect the nation’s resources to assist the working class and the poor, we will become a third-world country.
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The California governor told CNN’s Campbell Brown that Sarah Palin will be ready to be president “by the time ... she’s sworn in.” What’s that about on-the-job training?
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California Governor's Office
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Tight credit has put California’s state budget into a bit of a pickle, with funding for the government’s day-to-day operations drying up faster than Sarah Palin’s popularity. A sign of trouble is a letter—leaked Friday—from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that warned of a potential emergency request for a $7-billion loan within the coming weeks.
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uab.edu
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He wasn’t always known for his coolheaded leadership skills during his 16-year NBA career, but now, after almost 10 years off the court, Charles Barkley is apparently gearing up to compete in the political arena, telling the New York Daily News that he aims to run for governor of Alabama in a few years.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Although it’s currently the Democrats’ turn in the spotlight, California’s Republican governor stole a few headlines Thursday with the news that he may skip his party’s convention next week. The Golden State is still trying to work through a budget stalemate, and it just wouldn’t do to have the star governor basking in the warmth of Republican love while his state is in fiscal turmoil.
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By Joe Conason — Touring America’s oil rigs and nuclear plants, John McCain sometimes sounds as if he’ll produce enough wind to power the nation all by himself.
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joystiq.com
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Amid a state budget standoff, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered that some 200,000 state workers receive only the federal minimum wage. That’s a $1.45-per-hour cut from California’s minimum wage. But the man who issues the checks, the state controller, says he will refuse to follow the order and, if necessary, will borrow funds to maintain present pay rates.
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Mr. Fish
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The renowned author sits down with Truthdig literary editor Steve Wasserman to tell stories about his books, the many loves of his life—including dinosaurs and Halloween—and his own starring role in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rise to fame.
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A now-retired California judge who sentenced nine men to death, Donald A. McCartin, and actor-activist Mike Farrell make “an unlikely pair,” as they put it in this co-authored article. McCartin was once known as “the hanging judge of Orange County,” while Farrell has long opposed the death penalty, but today they see eye to eye.
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bbc.co.uk
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President Bush called for a speedy end to the ban on offshore oil drilling in American coastal waters Wednesday, chiding his congressional challengers by declaring that there’s “no excuse for delay” in lifting the “outdated and counterproductive” restrictions. However, some of his political opponents on this issue, like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, are giving him heat from his own side of the political aisle.
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Flickr / Randy Son Of Robert
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it official: California is in a drought. It’s the first official drought declaration for the Golden State in 17 years. Schwarzenegger has threatened water rationing to protect the state’s $32 billion agriculture industry.
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Flickr / bobster1985
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The California Supreme Court has ruled that gays and lesbians have a right to marry. Chief Justice Ronald M. George aptly explained the landmark 4-3 decision: “Even the most familiar ... traditions often mask an unfairness and inequality that frequently is not recognized or appreciated by those not directly harmed.”
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epp-ed.eu
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A California senator is working to push a bill through the state’s legislative channels that would make global warming a required study topic in California public schools, but detractors maintain that the science behind Sen. Joe Simitian’s proposed academic addition is unclear.
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nytimes.com
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California’s celebrity governor has thrown his muscle behind the McCain campaign. Despite the occasional pander, McCain still plays better with California’s moderates than Mitt Romney, who appears to have been embraced, if reluctantly, by the more conservative elements of his party.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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California is sick of the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to block two-year-old legislation that would cut auto emissions in the state well beyond federal guidelines, and the state attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the agency, which under the Bush administration has failed utterly in its principal mandate.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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The president has at last landed in the Golden State to see for himself the fires that have caused over a billion dollars in damage and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. With uncomfortable parallels to Katrina already in place, we can’t say we’re all that excited about his arrival here.
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indybay.org
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Celebrity Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and environmental superstar Al Gore stole the show at Monday’s U.N. climate crisis speechathon, offsetting President Bush’s notable absence. Schwarzenegger rallied the crowd with his unique Hollywood-infused rhetorical flair: “One responsibility we all have is action. Action, action, action.”
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By Marie Cocco — Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal won’t please progressives looking to do away with corporate insurance or conservatives who prefer unaffordable micromanaged care to government “bureaucracy,” but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger has until mid-October to put his pen where his mouth is on gay issues. For the second time, the California Legislature has passed a law that would make marriage in the state gender-neutral. The governor vetoed the first effort back during his more conservative phase.
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Antonio Villaraigosa (pictured above with USC Annenberg’s Dean Geoffrey Cowan) convened at Creative Artists Agency’s swank new Beverly Hills HQ Tuesday for a conference on bipartisan politics, and this perhaps scripted meeting of high-wattage minds (and personalities) produced some thought-provoking—and surprising—conversations and announcements.
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