Today on the front page of the Drudge Report, the banner headline is a link a New York Times story talking about "quiet conversations" taking place about seeing how to possible change federal law to allow state governments to utilize some sort of bankruptcy-type approach to reorganizing debt. The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert blog has a story on that here.

From where I sit, this is really all about a massive problem (that is not exclusive to California and local governments within the Golden State) — where politicians, largely those elected BY the political donations of public employee unions, have committed governments to long term employment contracts that are simply not affordable, or realistic. Of course I am referring to all of these overly generous defined benefit programs (I should note that not every government employee has a gold-plated plan, but a whole lot do).

Efforts to… Read More

Yesterday the Pasadena Star-News ran article about the City of Arcadia and the planned speaker for the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. I served as a consultant on Mayor Peter Amundson’s campaign the two times he ran, so I know a little more about this than some. The “controversial” speaker is the Rev. H.B. London. The Rev. London is a Vice-President of Ministry Outreach/Pastoral Ministries for Focus on the Family and worked in the Arcadia area. Tradition has let the Mayor invite whomever he/she wanted to speak at this event or the variations that have taken place. Someone from Focus on the Family is a good fit, because Focus was founded in Arcadia by Dr. James Dobson before growing into the amazing international ministry that it is. But you see the problem isFocus on the Family, the … Read More

Thirty years ago today, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President of the United States of America. Take twenty minutes to hear or read the speech.

When you read the warnings on debt, freedom and of course Reagan’s declaration that,” government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Can you not think of our situation today?

And for those pundits that talk about the new normal of unemployment and economic decline should take note of Reagan’s insight.… Read More

I confess, I don’t read Calbuzz too often, unless I am mentioned in it. Their latestattack on Flashreport and its publisher is intellectually dishonest, and typical of what leftists do. Let’s just take the begining of the post, where our friend, and Flashreport publisher Jon Fleischman, is referred to as a "knuckle dragging blogger".

Now, we’re not surprised by this. Leftists cannot comment, or argue any political point, without insult. Arrogance and condescencion are key elements of their communication style. They believe they are educated, moral, and singularly authorized to have an opinion based on their self appointed standing in the world. Me, I just laugh at them.

Their heroes are people like Pelosi, Obama, Reid, Brown, etc. Need we say more? They personalize disagreements on policy, engage in psychotic projection on motive, and are hostile to facts, history and evidence.

Here is a catalogue of the other insults in the post: "tinhorn barons and viscounts…yeoman,… Read More

California lawmakers keep trying to squeeze more money out of our overtaxed, overregulated economy. Instead of helping private sector jobs survive they are chasing them out of the state.

Take for instance Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner’s proposed legislation to force out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases made by Californians. This ill-conceived measure would backfire by killing jobs and making our state’s budget problem worse.

If this law passes, 25,000 California small businesses called "affiliates" could lose their business relationships with out-of-state online retailers as has already happened in other states. Many California affiliates would simply have to move their businesses to another state.

As Forrest… Read More

FR friend and Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has produced an awesome video, worth a few minutes of your time. Our favorite part is when he takes the entire section on the California Air Resources Board and literally rips it out of the massive budget document… He then tells the folks at CARB, "Don’t worry, we’ll recycle this," as he drops their budget into his office shredder…

Check it out…

1.18.11 Asm. Donnelly / Budget Shreding from CA Assembly GOP on Vimeo.… Read More

Pardon me for perhaps being the last observer of California politics to comment on a incident that occurred last week, but it’s been a busy time for me, yet I could not let this one pass buy without commentary. So last Tuesday Governor Brown comes and meets with the Senate Republican Caucus to discuss his budget plans. After the meeting is over, one Senate Republican, Tom Berryhill of Modesto, apparently told reporters that, “no one person in there is ready to support extra taxes.”

Senator Berryhill (pictured) went on to say that the budget is, “really not our problem. The Democrats own this.”

Apparently these sentiments did not go over well with Democrat Senate President Darrell Steinberg who used Berryhill’s comments to strip him of the Chairmanship of the Senate… Read More

CalPERS Continues its Nose-Thumbing of Divestment Laws… The State retirement giant is entrenched in its outright defiance of laws mandating divestment from companies doing business in Iran and Sudan (see my FR entry from February 2010).

Yet, CalPERS is spending a significant amount of money — $550,000 — to comply with the laws, while doing no such complying.

San Diego CityBeat‘s Dave Maass has covered this issue in detail in the past and digs up the latest in a January 5 story. Some excerpts:

CalPERS has a funny definition of “compliance.” … In fact, CalPERS’s board passed a policy in February 2009 stating that it would not divest from companies as the law demands, period. As CityBeat reported last year, CalPERS failed to disclose this decision to the state Legislature in its annual report. … Read More