The New York Times is still having difficulty dealing with democracy in California -- namely the state's unique ballot initiatives, which sometimes produces results inconvenient to a liberal agenda. First it was last year's surprise passage of Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage that threw the Times for a loop. This week it was the rejection of five fiscal measures in a special statewide referendum on Tuesday, notably Proposition 1A, pushed by supporters and the Times as a necessary measure of fiscal solvency that would have raised or extended a variety of taxes in return for a vague spending cap.
Thursday's front-page story by Jennifer Steinhauer, "In California, Democracy Doesn't Pay the Bills," came on the heels of her equally insulting Wednesday piece, "Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent."
(The online headline to Thursday's story was milder: "California, a Broke State, Reels as Voters Rebuff Leaders.")
Even a photo caption showing a glum, bored poll worker echoed the theme that it was California voters who had irresponsibly doomed their state to bankruptcy, not the lawmakers who had made the mess in the first place:
Larry Vida, a poll worker, waited for voters on Tuesday, when Californians rejected measures intended to keep the state solvent.
Steinhauer aimed her first sneer at California's "direct democracy":
Direct democracy has once again upended California -- enough so that the state may finally consider another way by overhauling its Constitution for the first time in 130 years.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returned home from a White House visit on Wednesday to find the state dangerously broke, his constituents defiant after a special election on Tuesday and calls for a constitutional convention -- six months ago little more than a wonkish whisper -- a cacophony.
As the notion of California as ungovernable grows stronger than ever, Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has expressed support for a convention to address such things as the state's arcane budget requirements and its process for proliferate ballot initiatives, both of which necessitated Tuesday's statewide vote on budget matters approved months ago by state lawmakers.
Steinhauer characterized the one ballot measure that passed -- halting pay hikes for lawmakers -- as a temper tantrum that voters would soon come to regret:
The only ballot measure to succeed was one that prevented lawmakers and constitutional officers from getting raises in times of fiscal distress, a sort of chin-out electoral scowl by voters, who will now probably see their health care systems, schools and other services erode. On Friday, the state controller, John Chiang, and the treasurer, Bill Lockyer, are expected to appear before lawmakers and warn them that the state is nearly unable to pay its bills.
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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For decades I have watched
May 21, 2009 - 11:46 ET by snaggletoothieFor decades I have watched the incompetant lawmakers in Sacramento drive the state into debt rather than confront the greedy state employee's unions. Now the legislators owned by the unions and the NYT want me to vote for more irresponsibility? They got their answer.
Liberals are so ready to
May 21, 2009 - 11:47 ET by kgLiberals are so ready to have a dictator in power.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
So annoying...having to get the majority of votes!
May 21, 2009 - 11:54 ET by jefflebowskiLook hard at this folks! This is the attitude of liberals who want total power. They don't care about tolerance or in the principle of majority rules. They believe they are smarter than we are and our opinions don't matter because we are all racists, sexist, homophobes, etc. Look at what is going on in Congress now that they control all three branches!! Wake up and get with the tea party movement! Organize your neighborhoods to elect conservative leaders who will honor and preserve our freedoms under the Constitution. If we don't take back the House in 2010...it might be all over. I'm doing my part...are you?
Angry White Dude
www.angrywhitedude.c...
Where's the dysfunction?
May 21, 2009 - 11:53 ET by KC MulvilleThe dysfunction here is strictly because of political parties.
The media argues: the people can't have it both ways! They can't have it where their elected leaders authorize spending, and yet the people deny it. Notice, however, that the media always scolds the people. They never scold the spending.
The natural question, then, is that if the people hate the spending so much, why do they keep electing representatives who create the spending? The media never asks this ... why not?
The media is furious that voters don't endorse (and underwrite) the platform of the Democrat party, but they won't release control over the state. They are the ones who are in denial. They are the ones who can't see the obvious.
The real story here and one
May 21, 2009 - 12:25 ET by jdhawkThe real story here and one that neither liberals or conservatives are covering is where are the Republicans?
If anything, the failure of these initiatives on the part of Swarzendufus is a referendum on bambi, the first stupid liberal's tax and spend agenda. Are the Republicans taking advantage of it? Of cours, they aren't. They're in hiding. That is because most of them are tax and spend dimocrat lite.
Hello, are there any elected conservative with a set of balls? Come out, come out, where ever you are . . .
Silence . . . crickets . . . zzzzzz
I guess VP Cheney is the last former elected conservative with cohones.
upended? UPENDED!?
May 21, 2009 - 11:59 ET by katainkentholy ******* cow who is working for who here?! I am truly becoming nervous about the direction the line of bull**** that is starting to come from the MSM.
of course now the state will trot out the hostages (emergency services, schools, prison system) and see if they can sweat the voters. I fully expect my state (WA) to see the same thing happening this fall. The budget that was signed was unsustainable w/o raising more revenue.
___________________________________________
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past - George Orwell - 1984
Or they could start with
May 21, 2009 - 12:35 ET by Tom PaineOr they could start with the $17 billion they spend annually on health care, education, social services and incarceration of Illegal Aliens…
Pot calling kettle...
May 21, 2009 - 12:01 ET by KJ_sezSo... lemme get this straight... California and Californians need fiscal and moral advice from a New York newspaper that is financially insolvent, as well as intellectually and morally bankrupt?
Ummm... we'll pass. Thanks for nothing, dimwit.
KJ
May 21, 2009 - 12:14 ET by well99You hit the nail on the head.
I loved viting No!
May 21, 2009 - 12:05 ET by lbcdawnHold on a minute....
May 21, 2009 - 12:14 ET by NC CopI thought paying taxes was patriotic like Biden said??!?! Surely, the people of California, a state that overwhelmingly went for Obama, would realize that, no?
Apparently patriotism is running low in California......(yes, that is sarcasm).
Obviously an evil right wing conspiracy is in play here, that's the only answer!!!!!
the state didn't really overwhelmingly go Obama
May 21, 2009 - 12:44 ET by UndercoverConservativethe state unions, teachers, SEMA, etc decided in closed leadership session, without rank and file vote, to support Obama. The rest, well, the gerrymandering here in CA is designed that even a popular victory for a conservative candidate is very difficult. They make sure to have at least one liberal college if possible to offset working class folk, add a big city of dependents to offset working class, and plenty of "activists" and "community leaders" harassing the farm workers.
WWW.GS2AC.COM. 2nd Amendment Grass Roots Action in the Bay Area, CA. We're not all "Breakfast Cereal" folks here! :)
Californians are perfect
May 21, 2009 - 12:21 ET by okiehawk44For the better part of the past 60 years all I've heard out of California is how superior it is to all other states and how they have the most advanced education system and how they have their own regulations for vehicles and they're the best and how their houses, cars, boats, and universities are the best and the rest of the nation is stupid, lagging and/or lost.
Well now. How come is it Californians that you are BROKE! Dead broke and can't rub two nickles (or pennies even) together and need the rest of us rubes to bail you geniuses out?
Go to H**L California and STFU I'm sick of ALL of you.
hey now
May 21, 2009 - 12:45 ET by UndercoverConservativebe nice. We of La Resistance are doing everything we can :P If ya don't like California, send us more lawyers, guns and money! :)
WWW.GS2AC.COM. 2nd Amendment Grass Roots Action in the Bay Area, CA. We're not all "Breakfast Cereal" folks here! :)
I think we have enough
May 21, 2009 - 14:39 ET by Dan DiegoI think we have enough Lawyers.
they could easily start with stopping the support for illegals
May 21, 2009 - 12:41 ET by UndercoverConservativebut where would they get their slave underclass from then?
Sad it's so blatant how the Constitution (State and Federal) is so "inconvenient". Once again, proving that it WORKS!
WWW.GS2AC.COM. 2nd Amendment Grass Roots Action in the Bay Area, CA. We're not all "Breakfast Cereal" folks here! :)
NY Times Throws Rocks
May 21, 2009 - 12:53 ET by 411The Times is just sore because they cant have any taxpayer dollars to save them, yet.....
RB/411acrossamerica.com
NY Slimes!
May 21, 2009 - 17:54 ET by blazermaniacAs a New York State resident, I have two words for the New York Times. "DROP DEAD!"
So...if "democracy"
May 21, 2009 - 13:15 ET by rbosqueSo...if "democracy" supports the liberal agenda, that's OK; otherwise, the state needs to change the system...
OK got that straightened out!
Thats right, when democrats
May 21, 2009 - 14:26 ET by MrSnugglesThats right, when democrats won in 06 and 08 it was "democracy works!". Yet anytime they lose, its nothing but excuses and belly aching.
Now is when things will get
May 21, 2009 - 13:18 ET by SnappyNow is when things will get interesting. Once the feds decide that California is to big to fail and step in with tax payer dollars we will truly see "Taxation without Representation" as the rest of the country props up issues and inititives which WE did not vote on or have any say in, yet are paying for....and down the road when we are standing in line to pick up our govt issued electric car in trade for our handgun turn in there is not a thing we can say........whoops, slipped over the edge there for a second.
Typical liberal meme
May 21, 2009 - 13:26 ET by moderncommentaries83"Democracy" only works when the votes are in their favor. As many, including Obama himself, point out: Obama won so the "will of the majority" must be honored (read: give Obama carte blanche to do whatever he wants and don't you dare question him).
But when the votes don't go their way - see Prop. 8 (or any gay marriage vote where real marriage is upheld), the elections of 2000 and 2004, tax initiatives in California - and suddenly democracy is awful.
They are the biggest bunch of lying hypocrites I've ever had the displeasure to encounter.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
California has been run
May 21, 2009 - 13:48 ET by fitzfongCalifornia has been run like the New York Times for years...wastefully, irresponsibly and counter to the wishes of its customers and shareholders. Both the Times and California have been shedding customers by the truckload and they've both become virtually worthless. Jennifer Steinhauer and people like her are the collective source of the demise of the New York Times, so her complaints about the voter revolt in California are about as useful as those coming from the SEIU goons who created the problem to begin with. If the NYT shareholders stood up the Pinch and Steinhauer like the voters in California have now stood up to Schwarzenegger, the legislature and the State Union mob, the Grey Lady would not be drowning in its own red ink.
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." -Winston Churchill
Californian to NYT: Drop
May 22, 2009 - 00:04 ET by RogerCfromSDCalifornian to NYT: Drop Dead, Gray Lady.
A nation cannot be free without a free, unbiased media. We are not free.
We are a Rebublic, not a Democracy
May 22, 2009 - 08:32 ET by SmorgasbordWhy are you doing the same thing as the democrats and calling our type of government a democracy? It is a republic. The states are republics too. In a democracy, people vote, and the majority rules. A republic elects officials to do the voting for us.
The propaganda media calls it a democracy so people will think of the democratic party. If they called it a republic it would remind the people of the republican party. Call it what it is so we will be reminded of the republican party (I don't belong to any party) and the type of government we are. Even college kids call it a democracy. Let's educate them.
NYT
May 22, 2009 - 09:09 ET by jessieHjessieH The NYT is inept. This is the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, not the govt. run country of AMERICA. Put the same bills up for a vote in all 50 states. Let's see if the govt. & the NYT can " HEAR US NOW!".