Blog

Dan Walters figures out Gov. Brown wants bullet train dead

For a few months, Cal Watchdog has been the only outlet in the media underlining how fundamentally strange and self-defeating the actions of the state government have been in defending the bullet train. After an August court ruling from Sacramento

Refund illegal taxes?

John Seiler March 3, 2014

Suppose you buy a new car with a GPS navigation system built in. But you drive it home and realize the system wasn’t installed. Should you get your money back for the lack of the feature? Of course you should.

Immigration amnesty not nearly as popular in CA as gay rights

Chris Reed March 3, 2014

There really has been a genuine change in American views of gay rights. The longer the Republican Party sees its members look at this new world and then act out in the fashion of the Arizona legislature, the harder it

Incoming Assembly speaker seeks vast new power for Coastal Commission

Chris Reed March 2, 2014

If you had to come up with one state agency that has done the most damage to California’s economy with its regulatory sweep and overreach, you’ll never come close to topping the state Air Resources Board. But it you wanted

Attorney for plaintiffs in bullet-train lawsuit suggests way out

Chris Reed March 1, 2014

Michael J. Brady, the Redwood City attorney for Kings County and other parties suing the California High-Speed Rail Authority, offers his theory on the easiest, cleanest way for Gov. Jerry Brown to abandon the bullet-train fiasco. This is from an

Another court embarrassment for state AG Kamala Harris

Chris Reed February 28, 2014

Fresh off her odd handling of the bullet train’s legal issues, Attorney General Kamala Harris is at it again. Per the coverage of the San Francisco Chronicle, incompetence followed by posturing is what this looks like: “Attorney General Kamala Harris

‘Inspiring’ de Blasio channels CA Dems: White teachers > minority students

Chris Reed February 28, 2014

In the run-up to Bill de Blasio’s recent election as mayor of New York City, I lost count of how many times I heard pundits describe the tall Democrat with the mixed-race marriage as offering an inspiring new progressive vision

Death, taxes and state incompetence with computer projects

Chris Reed February 27, 2014

There are fewer sure things in life than the likelihood the California state government will screw up a computer project. We may be home to Silicon Valley and the greatest concentration of information-technology skills in the world, but once a

Self-parody department: Dakota oil boom depicted as threat to CA safety

Chris Reed February 27, 2014

The San Francisco Chronicle has broken new ground in over-the-top petrophobia. Not content to warp the California debate over fracking in the Golden State by never mentioning the Obama administration considers it safe, the Chronicle’s editorial page actually is warning

Why is CalSTRS’ version of corporate skulduggery tolerated?

Chris Reed February 26, 2014

Beginning in the late 1990s and for about a decade afterward, corporate accounting scandals unfolded one after the other. Bipartisan outrage over CEOs and CFOs cooking the books gave way to mostly Democratic initiatives to impose much more sweeping rules