Part l of two parts

Corruption is the misuse of public or private power. Whether it is a state bureaucrat or a company CEO, corruption is the misuse of entrusted power for private gain.

During the gubernatorial debate last week, Democratic Gov., Jerry Brown chided Republican challenger Neal Kashkari for having worked at Goldman Sachs.

Brown should remember the old proverb, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” There is likely far more malfeasance and graft in California state government than in the multinational investment banking firm; government bureaucrats are not elected, and accountable to no one, while Goldman Sachs is at least accountable to its shareholders and regulators.

I’ve written extensively about the well-documented state corruption at the Employment Development Department, State Parks Department, Fish and Game, Air Resources Board, Coastal Commission, CalFire, and this year, even in the State Senate.

Scandals and corruption appear to be standard operating procedure for government agency employees at the top. Why else would state lawmakers make it easier for unelected… Read More

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The good news for Neel Kashkari, GOP candidate for CA governor against incumbent Jerry Brown, is that he has shrunk Brown’s lead from 20 points after the June 3 primary (http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-brown-kashkari-field-poll-20140625-story.html) to 16 points as of September 4 (http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/09/04/Brown-Lead-Over-Kashkari-Shrinks-to-16-Points). The bad news is that no political watchers anywhere expect Kashkari to win.

Kashkari deserves credit for the four-point improvement, as it likely derives from his forceful campaigning. In early July, Kashkari stood outside the American Federation of Teachers convention in Los Angeles and challenged the AFT and Brown to respond to the Vergara ruling in CA, which found that teacher tenure rules are permitting substandard teachers to stay in the classroom, particularly in underserved… Read More

Two years ago, when 2013-14 legislative session began, things looked very dark for California homeowners. Democrats, many hostile to Proposition 13, achieved a super-majority in both the Assembly and Senate. Many publicly expressed their hostility to the landmark property tax initiative and one even said he would like to “nuke” Prop 13. Others were a bit more subtle, saying only that it was time to “examine” it. Of course, in this context, “examine” is a euphemism for… Read More

California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara,authored a bill this legislative session to ban offshore oil drilling from an area of state waters in the Santa Barbara Channel known as Tranquillon Ridge. Jackson claimed her bill would do away with a “loophole” in state law.

But there is a hitch — Following Jackson’s time in the California State Assembly 1998-2004, prior to being elected to the State Senate in 2012, she lobbied to get an off shore drilling project approved off the coast of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Jackson teamed up withLinda Krop, the chief counsel of the Environmental Defense… Read More

Critics have suggested that leaders of the labor movement suffer from economic illiteracy that has made them the architects of their own demise. The unwillingness of unions to make concessions in the face of global competition starting in the 1960′s was a major factor in Americans losing millions of union jobs. In the present day, unions push for minimum wage hikes well beyond what inflation might justify (about $9.00 to $10.00 per hour), with “fight for fifteen” campaigns which, if successful, will carry the unintended consequences of higher unemployment and accelerated small-business failures. Today only about 7% of America’s private sector workers belong to unions.

One can also make the case that unions are becoming irrelevant because much of what they fought for is now enshrined in law. Labor laws protect workers from wrongful termination. OSHA standards ensure workplace safety. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a host of other social welfare programs all provide a safety net for the aged, disabled and unemployed. The Affordable Care Act, fraught with flaws that will hopefully either get repealed or replaced, at least guarantees anyone can purchase… Read More

A stark demonstration of the uneven nature of our “recovery” from the longest recession since the Great Depression. Texas is carrying the nation!

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Once again, Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg has thumbed his nose at the working class and other Californians of modest means by blocking legislation that would have slightly delayed implementation of carbon emission fees charged to oil companies. The fees are part of the state’s “cap-and-trade” program, California’s one-of-a-kind effort to reduce word wide carbon emissions. These fees are really taxes that will be passed on to consumers.

California drivers need to brace… Read More

The Friday wrap-up of the 2014 legislative session brought passage of the ban on plastic bags, mandatory paid sick days,new groundwater regulations, more gun control, expanded tax breaks for Hollywood,and bilingual education bills. The Democrat-majority of the California Legislature has made it clear it honors only the interests of labor unions, trial lawyers, environmentalists and liberals politicians. And that’s it.

Gone is any pretext of concern for taxpayers, business owners and employers, or any respect for free enterprise and free markets.

The left has shown an historic distrust in free enterprise and free markets, and instead relied on socialism to artificially make market “corrections” following downturns, largely due to government intervention, heavy-handed regulations and manipulations.

California is a state whose politicians,… Read More