California voters kill budget measures  —  Only salary curbs survive in a rout of Schwarzenegger's slate of reforms  —  Reporting from Sacramento — The “big five” elected leaders — Schwarzenegger and the legislative chieftains from both houses — are slated to begin closed-door meetings today upon …

Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent  —  LOS ANGELES — A smattering of California voters on Tuesday soundly rejected five ballot measures designed to keep the state solvent through the rest of the year.  —  The results dealt a severe setback to the state's fragile fiscal structure …

Is California Too Big to Fail?  —  So what about California?  A reader asks.  Ummm, that's a tough one.  No, wait, it's not: California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed.  And not a little garden hose.  More like this.  Their outflow is bigger than their inflow.

Obama, Cheney plan dueling speeches  —  President Barack Obama will attempt to regain control of a boiling debate over anti-terrorism policy with a major speech on Thursday—an address that comes on the same day that former Vice President Cheney will be weighing in with his own speech on the same theme.

A Small Man  —  This blog has had many differences with Joe Klein of Time magazine, whom I once considered a very friendly acquaintance before he accused me and those who argued for an aggressive policy in Iraq and with Iran of being war criminals and began spouting anti-Semitic conspiracy nonsense that …

Stand Up, Joe Klein, So We Can Kick Your A**  —  Times columnist and sensitive liberal Joe Klein actually said this about Charles Krauthammer:  —  “He became Ground Zero among the neo-cons, but he's vastly smarter than most of them,” said Time's Joe Klein, an admirer and critic who praised Krauthammer's …