After years of effort and prodding from Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Susan Peters (and a looming budget shortfall) the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors finally tackled a multi-million dollar budget problem by eliminating costly “extra” benefits for future retirees.

It’s a start — but it’s not the only budget busting pension issue: Sacramento County has nearly $950 Million in pension obligation bonds that have to be serviced from the General Fund – at the same time they’re facing significant budget cuts.

The scary thing is, Sacramento is not alone – all across California, bloated and under-funded (how did they manage to do both?) pensions have spawned a financial monster; and with few exceptions, no one is dealing with it. Public employee retiree pensions and benefits threaten to swamp already stretched budgets – throwing taxpayers into a fiscal nightmare. It’s the monster under the bridge everyone tries to… Read More

After years of effort and prodding from Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Susan Peters (and a looming budget shortfall) the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors finally tackled a multi-million dollar budget problem by eliminating costly “extra” benefits for future retirees.

It’s a start — but it’s not the only budget busting pension issue: Sacramento County has nearly $950 Million in pension obligation bonds that have to be serviced from the General Fund – at the same time they’re facing significant budget cuts.

The scary thing is, Sacramento is not alone – all across California, bloated and under-funded (how did they manage to do both?) pensions have spawned a financial monster; and with few exceptions, no one is dealing with it. Public employee retiree pensions and benefits threaten to swamp already stretched budgets – throwing taxpayers into a fiscal nightmare. It’s the monster under the bridge everyone tries to… Read More

In an effort to emulate my colleague Duane, and post something up on this blog that has nothing to do with politics, I thought I would throw out there my new dilemma.

Recently I picked up a new LG "Chocolate" cell phone. I have only been using it for a few days, and we’ll see if it is an improvement over the RZR or not. I won’t go into any more of that for fearing of being too "Duane-like" in this post.

While monkeying around with the phone, I found out how to download ring tones from the ether — and after spending nearly an hour listening to snipets of cool music, ultimately settled on downloading "What’s Going On?" by the amazing Marvin Gaye (pictured), whom I consider to have been one of the most amazing contributors to the music industry of all time (despite his left-wing politics).

There was also some irony my phone ringing out with "What’s Going On?" when someone… Read More

Santee Councilman Brian Jones is taking a hard look at an anticipated open 52nd Congressional seat next year, and has filed committee paperwork with the FEC. Brian tells me "I am planning onmaking an announcement the first part of July…I am still makingcontacts and generating support."

As posted here several times, the media and blogs have been rife with stories about son Duncan D. Hunter taking a shot at dad’s seat. Several other lookers have been mentioned, but movement has been relatively slow.

Congressional Quarterly details Jones’ foray into the realm of the "big boys" today (see CQ article). Brian notes to me that his background in the story should be "ministry leadership" instead of "industry leadership," as he previously had six yearsexperience on staff at Sonrise Community Church. (The CQ reporter subseqently corrected this… Read More

The College Republicans continue to be the major voice of clarityagainst the Jihadists on campus.

Thursdaynight the College Republican club at the University of California, Irvine, sponsored an unforgettableevent… It was held at the Bren Center withover 1300 paying to get in. It featured excruciating stories of three former terrorists [PLO and an early Hezbollah]. Each man is marked for death. One carries wounds of one assassination attempt. I have never heard such realistic and credible evidence spoken in public.

UC Irvine boasts the largest number of Muslim students in California, estimated to be several thousand. Naturally it has a militant Muslim Student Association. Hamid Algar, a Western Muslim scholar of impeccable academic credentials, who is qute hostile to Israel, still charged the MSA as being similar to Comintern financed by the Saudi government.

Walid Shoebat… Read More

The College Republicans continue to be the major voice of clarityagainst the Jihadists on campus.

Thursdaynight the College Republican club at the University of California, Irvine, sponsored an unforgettableevent… It was held at the Bren Center withover 1300 paying to get in. It featured excruciating stories of three former terrorists [PLO and an early Hezbollah]. Each man is marked for death. One carries wounds of one assassination attempt. I have never heard such realistic and credible evidence spoken in public.

UC Irvine boasts the largest number of Muslim students in California, estimated to be several thousand. Naturally it has a militant Muslim Student Association. Hamid Algar, a Western Muslim scholar of impeccable academic credentials, who is quite hostile to Israel, still charged the MSA as being similar to Comintern financed by the Saudi government.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

One of the first things a candidate does when the declare their intent to run for a state legislative race, is decide whether to accept the voluntary spending caps. This is a product of the Proposition 34 “campaign reform”. The idea behind Prop. 34 to give a benefit to candidates that agree not to spend so much money. The benefit is that the will be acknowledged in the ballot pamphlet as agreeing to obey spending limits. Sort of like a “that’s a god boy (or girl)” pat on the head for voters. They also get to buy a ballot statement that is sent to all voters in the official sample ballot. The cost varies based on numbers, but is in the several thousands dollars range. You can seesome Prop. 34 info here. If you don’t agree, you don’t get these benefits, but you do get to blow the spending caps. The caps are currently $483,000 in an Assembly … Read More

I just returned from a trip to Vancouver, B.C. and even in that beautiful city had occasion to think of a few things political and legal:

1. Our Governor was all over the news during my five days in British Columbia! While his activities as diplomat do not include the force and effect of a formal treaty, he seemed to get a lot done on a "voluntary" basis. He signed memoranda of understanding with Canadian provincial leaders and with the conservative Canadian Prime Minister on a range of issues, including the environment, and also some conservative icons too, such as copyright protection. Know which place in the world is the biggest infringer on intellectual property rights of theentertainment industry, through pirated copying? Phillipines? China? Nope! Guess Quebec and you got it right! The Governor inked an agreement with the P.M. which will include a promise to introduce legislation that for the first time will make copyright infringement of this type a crime.

2. No recall in Canada? Can you imagine a Mayor of a city in California who gets drunk, goes to his girlfriend’s house, assaults her, publicly admits he is… Read More