California

AP Claims California's $68 Billion High-Speed Rail Got 'Overwhelming' Voter Approval (of 52.7%), Would 'Span the State'
By Tom Blumer | October 20, 2013 | 1:13 PM EDT

In a Sunday morning report which tries to put the best possible face on a project which appears to be on track to make the $22 billion "Big Dig" in Massachusetts look like a petty cash disbursement, Juliet Williams at the Associated Press claimed that the $68 billion involved thus far "would span the state." No it wouldn't, unless all of the formerly Golden State north of the San Francisco Bay Area — roughly one-fourth of the state's land mass — were to secede.

Williams also wrote: "Voters in 2008 approved $10 billion in bonds to start construction on an 800-mile rail line to ferry passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2 hours and 40 minutes." Nope. It's an 800-mile rail "network" (quoting from the state's ballot measure guide) which was supposed to include San Diego to the south (see the top left at Page 6 at the link), and apparently now does not. In other text seen below, she cited that 2008 proposition, which carried by a margin of 52.7% to 47.3%, as evidence that voters "overhelmingly approved" the project.

Funny Movie Star Rob Schneider Switches to GOP
By Tim Graham | October 1, 2013 | 10:45 PM EDT

Movie star, comedian, and “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Rob Schnieder announced he was switching to the Republican Party in an interview with Anne-Marie Murrell of the website Politichicks.tv. 

“The state of California is a mess,” Schneider declared, “and the supermajority of Democrats is not working. I’ve been a lifelong Democrat and I have to switch over because it no longer serves the people of this great state. We need to have a new voice. We need to have a new direction, and we need to break the supermajority. It isn’t helping with jobs.”

Study: Calif. Taxes Make Liberal Golden State Second Most Expensive to Own a Car In
By Ken Shepherd | August 26, 2013 | 12:36 PM EDT

When you think of California, a few things spring to mind. One is the state's love affair with the automobile. Another is, of course, how in the past 25 years the state the state has abandoned the center-right politics that gave it governors like Ronald Regan and George Deukmejian for hard-left, tax-and-spend politics.

So it should come as no surprise that the penchant for the latter is harming the former. In a Highway 1 blog post this morning at latimes.com, Los Angeles Times staffer Jerry Hirsch noted how it's high taxes that has a larger impact on the sky-high cost of owning and driving an automobile in California, not the price of gasoline (emphasis mine):

Girl Scouts March in Gay Pride
By Lauren Enk | July 3, 2013 | 1:40 PM EDT

If the newly gay-friendly Boy Scouts were paying attention last week, they may have caught a glimpse of their future. 

According to USAToday, Girl Scouts marched in San Francisco’s infamous gay Pride Parade “for the first time.” Celebrating the “boost” that the DOMA and Prop 8 rulings gave to the Pride Parade, the article quoted Girl Scout parent Del Gregor, who brought her 11-year-old daughter to march in the parade, as saying that she wants her kids “to be able to tell their children they were a part of this.” 

Modesto Press Posts 'Stop the Mormons' Protest Photo With Item on College Football Prospect Choosing Missionary Work
By Tom Blumer | May 25, 2013 | 8:47 AM EDT

UPDATE: The photo has been changed to a University of Hawaii logo.

For outrageous and tasteless photo placement, it's hard to top the one accompanying an article in the Modesto Press about top college football prospect Aaron Zwahlen.

Despite the availability of many photos of the player, at least a few of which are likely public domain, the Press chose to use the following photo accompanying a report that Zwahlen is choosing to do two years of missionary work with his church before he begins his collegiate career at the University of Hawaii (HT to a NewsBusters tipster):

California Considers Mandated Insurance for 'Gay Infertility'
By Ben Shapiro | April 12, 2013 | 5:38 AM EDT

For decades, members of the left have insisted that the right is fighting a war on science. But when it comes to the issues of abortion and homosexuality, it is the left that fights a consistent and ridiculous war with reality.

This week, Wesley Smith of the Weekly Standard reported that California would be considering AB 460, a bill that would mandate group insurance coverage for so-called gay and lesbian "infertility." What in the world does that bizarre phrase mean? It doesn't mean situations in which two members of a lesbian couple are both infertile and incapable of conception using some third party's sperm.

Krugman Credits Cali's Comeback to Fighting 'Fanatical' Conservatives on Tax Hikes
By Clay Waters | April 2, 2013 | 2:16 PM EDT

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was giddy over a triumph of the liberal vision in the supposedly resurgent California economy in Monday's "Lessons From A Comeback." The state has overcome a "fanatical conservative minority" to push through "desperately needed tax increases." But is California really back?

....California has been solidly Democratic since the late 1990s. And ever since the political balance shifted, conservatives have declared the state doomed. Their specifics keep changing, but the moral is always the same: liberal do-gooders are bringing California to its knees.

Renowned Golfer Ponders Retirement Because of High Tax Rate
By Ryan Robertson | January 22, 2013 | 4:14 PM EST

So the Lefty, better known as Phil Mickelson publicly aired his political grievances in an interview with CBS Sports the other day, noting that federal and state tax policies in California have him strongly weighing whether now might be the time to retire.

The three-time Masters champion said he would have to make some "drastic changes" when more than 60 percent of his future earnings are taken away by the government, due to the passage of California's Proposition 30 and the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts for top income earners:

Special Report: Taking ‘Christ’ Out of Christmas
By Paul Wilson | December 11, 2012 | 11:41 AM EST

Christmas: a season of generosity, good cheer, preparation for Christ’s birth – and a swarm of lawyers seeking to purge any mention of Christianity from the public square.

Every Christmas, the so-called secular community starts shrieking whenever any mention of religion is brought into the public eye. Lawyers successfully targeted a school’s performance of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’ Even Christmas trees have too much religious content to suit the self-appointed censors.

Citing Charlie Sheen as Recent Precedent, Media Continues to Mock Angus T. Jones
By Ryan Robertson | November 29, 2012 | 11:06 AM EST

You may recall when CBS fired Charlie Sheen early last year from the popular Two and a Half Men series for a string of "felony offenses involving moral turpitude." In the weeks and months that preceded this decision, an increasingly erratic Sheen received an inordinate amount of media attention for his drug-induced rants. To this day however, Sheen's bad boy persona is received warmly by the media, and he's been rewarded for it with ad spots for Fiat and DirecTV and even another show on the FX network that jokingly plays off his history of reckless hedonism.

By contrast, Sheen's former co-star, Angus T. Jones, the titular "half man" on the sitcom, has been castigated by the media for his recent religious conversion and subsequent YouTube testimonial in which he urged folks to avoid his popular TV series. Perhaps pressured by producers, Jones has since apologized for coming across as indifferent and unappreciative for the lucrative opportunity, but that hasn't stopped the media for characterizing Jones's video as another celebrity meltdown. [ video below the page break ]

NYT's Nagourney Credits California's Economic Recovery to Tax Hikes He Helped Push
By Clay Waters | November 29, 2012 | 7:52 AM EST

Wednesday's lead New York Times story from California-based Adam Nagourney strongly suggested that tax hikes promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown (and Nagourney himself) were paying off in economic resurgence in the already tax-high state: "California Finds Economic Gloom Starting To Lift."

After nearly five years of brutal economic decline, government retrenchment and a widespread loss of confidence in its future, California is showing the first signs of a rebound. There is evidence of job growth, economic stability, a resurgent housing market and rising spirits in a state that was among the worst hit by the recession.

Calif. Creates State-Run ‘Opt-Out’ Private Sector Retirement Savings Scheme; AP Cites As Potential ‘National Model’
By Tom Blumer | September 29, 2012 | 9:43 AM EDT

From the "I thought Social Security was supposed to have solved this decades ago" Dept.: The State of California has just passed a law mandating opt-out pension plan contributions of 3% of earnings for six million workers in the private sector, or roughly half of its private sector workforce.

The targeted population is the cadre of those working at employers of five or more who do not offer a retirement plan. It has the distinct aroma of a bailout, because of who gets to manage the money. Excerpts from a predictably dreadful Associated Press report by Judy Lin follow the jump (bolds and numbered tags are mine):