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How hosed is California based on state-sector pension obligations alone? Alert reader Robert Kelley sends along this gruesome little database of the 5,115 people currently drawing pensions in excess of $100,000 from the Golden State. (If you want to go down a fascinating rabbit hole of Internet searching, I highly recommend looking up the half-mil-pension-receiving Bruce Malkenhorst.) Kelley comments:

I used to work at a library and for a city government in the Bay Area.  I took a look at some people who I knew worked there and retired recently.  One librarian had retired with a $110k a year pension.  A former police chief who retired recently (in his early 50s) from my tiny city now has a pension of $185k a year.  These government workers are retiring with full health care benefits for them and their families at no additional cost, and they can retire at age 50 or 55 depending on where they work.

It's an amazing gravy train.  Given that a person at age 55 can reasonably expect to live 30 years now, that means the effective yearly salary paid to those people during their working years is about double what is stated.

The next time you hear about a schmuck Coastal Commission Analyst only making $80k a year, think about that.  The real cost is more like $160k a year.  Beats working.

While public employees continue enjoying gold-plated retirements, the ongoing media scare campaign over Gov. Schwarzenegger's "annihilating" cuts continues apace. The latest, care of also-alert reader Ray Eckhart, comes from the New York Times, under the headline "Deep Cuts Threaten to Reshape California." The word "pension" was not harmed in the production of this article.

The cuts Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed [...] would turn California into a place that in some ways would be unrecognizable in modern America: poor children would have no health insurance, prisoners would be released by the thousands and state parks would be closed.

Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians, although prisons and schools would take hits, as well.

My take on big-California-government apologists who don't ever come out and say big California government is kewl, here.

Ex-VA AG Bob McDonnell, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Virginia, announced some campaign fundraising numbers today, the Monday after he was officially nominated at the VA GOP's state convention over the weekend. Since the start of the 2nd quarter 4/1, McDonnell's camp says it has raised $3.7M from 2,159 donors (making the average donation per individual right around $1,700). When combined with monies still left over from the 1st quarter, McDonnell's camp claims "nearly" $4.9M cash on hand, according to a release.

This weekend's nominating convention was just a formality for McDonnell, who's been running unopposed for the GOP nomination since January. He's still waiting for VA Dems to choose his opponent from three contenders: ex-DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, state Sen. Creigh Deeds and ex-Del. Brian Moran. Dems are set to make their selection in a statewide primary 6/9.

The fundraising numbers are something of a formality, too. Along with the hotly contested NJ gubernatorial race, VA GOV is seen by both national parties -- but particularly by the beleaguered Republicans -- as a harbinger of '10's congressional cycle. Both parties are expected to pour vast amounts into VA's general election contest, making it tough for either nominee to grab a monetary advantage in the race. It's also hard to determine exactly what candidate fundraising totals foretell in a state with no contribution limits.

Still, McDonnell has shown that he's ready to fight hard to pull the purple VA back into the red column in Nov. Most polls show him leading a general election matchup against the Dem, even after an expensive statewide ad campaign targeting him run by the DGA through a VA-based 527.

There's also the boisterous Dem primary fight, which has focused even more attention on McDonnell criticisms. But the Republican's campaign says all the noise coming from the Democrats has been a good thing for McDonnell.

"We continue to build the resources we need to win this November," McDonnell's campaign manager, Phil Cox, said in the statement announcing the fundraising numbers. "And we are doing this while our potential opponents are waging an expensive and increasingly negative primary race. This is a crucial advantage as we take Bob McDonnell's positive message of new jobs and more opportunities to every voter in Virginia."

(EVAN McMORRIS-SANTORO)

The Dish was all over yesterday's big story - the assassination of George Tiller by a crazed Christianist. We traced O'Reilly's troubling rhetoric here, here, and here, and readers checked my reaction here. We chronicled the disturbing role of Operation Rescue here, here, and here, and commentary from the far right here, here, here.  A noteworthy voice on the far-right was Robert P. George, who struck the perfect chord. We also aired personal accounts of abortion here and here.

A traumatic Sunday, to say the least. For the right approach to religion, listen to Bob Wright.