This morning Assemblyman Curt Hagman will have his bill, AB 2429, heard before the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee. This piece of legislation is very straightforward. Ask yourself, should a part-time elected official (most city councils, school boards, water boards and so on…) be taking down full-time employee benefits? If your answer is no, then Hagman’s bill is the way to go. Simply put, beginning with January of 2013, those elected to part-time local offices may not receive any benefits for service, other than the allowable stipend under state law. Right now the vast majority of the state’s over 25,000 local elected officials are not only getting their monthly stipends, but are also taking down gold-plated health care plans. In some cases, after being re-elected a second time, they are awarding these part-time officials with lifetime healthcare benefits. One particularly egregious practice is where the local elected waives the healthcare insurance, and the local government which they oversee then pays them cash in lieu of taking it!

If a position is full time — then I think everyone understands that it… Read More

When the economy is hurting, it means that most people are having a tough go of it. Families who are managing tight budgets are doing everything they can to make every dollar stretch further. Of course, as we know, when California residents are less prosperous, that adversely effects the amount of taxes generated for government use. If your income is less (or nonexistent), that means you are paying less (or no) income taxes. If you have less money to spend on buying things, then you are generating less sales tax. It’s not a difficult situation to figure out. It falls on the shoulders of our state’s policymakers — the Governor and 120 state legislators, to address the consequences of shrinking tax revenues. But as we have seen in a state budget calamity that has been going on for year, Democrat politicians in California have been unwilling to implement billions of dollars in savings — even when those savings have been laid out in front of them, providing an actual road map towards saving vast sums of taxpayer funds.

We have seen recommendations in the form of findings from state audits, reports from grand juries, recommendations from the… Read More

In the last few days a story has emerged concerning the Bank of America terminating all dealings with their existing corporate customer because the company — horrors! — manufactures firearms.

http://www.rogerhedgecock.com/story/17668445/bank-of-america-drops-mcmillan

Naturally gun owners are incensed, as am I. But I’ve had a longstanding dislike for B of A. We had quite a row years ago — they “done me wrong.”

Bad idea, B of A. As a result, I very publicly kicked Bank of America’s butt from San Diego to San Francisco. Payback’s a bitch, as B of A found out. Here’s the story:

My Very Satisfying Battle with Bank of America by Richard Rider

Back in the early 1990’s, I had an extremely annoying run-in with Bank of America. With their usual disdain for the small individual customer, they treated me poorly. But I got even – big-time. Perhaps others might find this story and strategy useful in dealing with unresponsive businesses or governments.

For over a decade, my wife and I had a large safe deposit box at… Read More

The Democrats in Sacramento push a prodigious amount of freedom restricting legislation. But last week, we saw something special even for them: a single bill unabashedly aimed at both your First and Second Amendment rights. It was a liberty restricting “two-fer,” a shameless double-barreled attack on the Bill of Rights.

The bill, AB 1527, bans the open carrying of unloaded rifles and shotguns on public streets in an incorporated city. It followed up a similar bill last year which outlawed the open carrying of unloaded handguns. As such, it is, like that earlier bill, an undisguised abridgment of the Second Amendment.

According to testimony in support of the bill before the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this new legislation is needed to close a “loophole” in the prior law. Said a lobbyist testifying in support of the bill, because the prior ban applied only to handguns, some citizens are now carrying rifles instead, daring the police to arrest them, and saying “neener neener” to the cops. That’s right, an adult, testifying before a Legislative committee, actually supported his testimony with the playground taunt “neener neener.” You can’t… Read More

This video of solemn, disgruntled, baffled, clueless NEW YORK TIMES writers — bitching about losing their coveted guaranteed defined benefit (DB) pension plan — looks like something the ONION would have produced — only the NY TIMES version is funnier. It’s worth a viewing.

“I’ll be eating cat food”? Living in “cardboard boxes”??

The video was made by writers/luminaries at the newspaper and intended as an internal video for fellow “Guild members.” At the NY TIMES, one joins a “guild,” not a labor union.

CAUTION: Don’t eat less than 60 minutes before watching. You’ve been warned!

It’s really hard for those of us who live outside the liberal bubble to realize how TOTALLY out of touch progressives are with fiscal reality. It seems like all those interviewed in this video live together in a hermetically sealed room, feeding off each others’ thoughts and opinions.

Everyone who still looks to the NY TIMES as a source of news needs to understand who is WRITING that news. And it shows — both in the paper’s bias and the plummeting readership.… Read More

For me, the “wedge issue” that could reverse the dreary GOP appeal to minorities is school choice. It’s something I’ve championed for decades.

No single measure could better help minorities than offering everyone options to seek better educational choices for their kids. Democrat minorities understand and appreciate this option better than white suburban Republicans, but everyone would benefit — except, of course, the labor unions.

But what has been missed in CA is that school choice IS happening in a number of other states. In the Golden State, it’s like we’ve given up our kids’ future for the benefit of CTA and the other education labor unions. It’s a concession that needs to change. The Democratic Party has chained itself to the unions — the GOP should commit itself to the parents, the kids and the taxpayers.

Here’s an excellent summary of a recent WSJ article on Louisiana’s remarkable education reforms — including though not limited to widespread school choice. It’s improving education options at both private AND public schools. And even a… Read More

City elections in San Diego are regulated by the San Diego Ethics Commission. Considered an unnecessarily aggressive local agency by most election lawyers, the Ethics Commission heavily regulates politics in the City. San Diego has added additional rules to the statewide requirements under the Fair Political Practices Commission, which are enforced by the Ethics Commission, and both agencies usually end up having simultaneous jurisdiction over election campaign issues there, sometimes causing legal fees to skyrocket. Unique to San Diego and in addition to the state election requirements of disclosure of contributions and expenditures, and criminal rules administered by the District Attorney and Attorney General, are rules that regulate the use of personal funds, imposition of personal responsibility for campaign debt, limit campaign contributions to just $500, outlaw contributions from “business entities”, allow the Commission to conduct its own “audits,” and regulates all independent expenditures of $1,000 or more. The San Diego law is so oppressive of expressive rights protected by the First Amendment that some of the provisions of the law have… Read More

We will all miss Andrew Breitbart.

… Read More