The Californian initiative process pains me.

Great idea on paper, but in reality – we’ve allowed idle lawmakers to relinquish responsibilities to the public, which supposedly hired them for the job.

Yet, even when voters “decide” (measure proponents love to say that), it’s rarely the end of the discussion.

Days, weeks or months later, a psuedo-lamaker legislates from the bench and we’re back where we started with just a dash more bitterness.

It’s a wonder voters show up at all anymore.

In good old San Diego, there’s an epic battle playing out over an initiative that’s got all the makings of a daytime drama.

The initiative proposes reforming the City’s guaranteed pension system and replacing it with a 401(k)-style plan for “most” new hires.

Basically, the so-called “comprehensive pension reform” eliminates pensions in favor of 401(k)s for all new hires but police officers (one of the proponents, Mayor Jerry Sanders, is a former police chief) and proposes a five-year hold on current employee salaries used to calculate future pensions.

A… Read More

As an addendum to my “Fix It” episodes, I thought I’d share an op-ed I wrote that was published in the Orange County Register last Friday.

The Orange County Register: Opinion CAMPBELL: Biggest National Security Threat is Debt

Conservatives should not oppose attempts to makes cuts to defense, homeland security.

By Congressman John Campbell

As conservatives, we are always trying to reduce federal spending because there is a lot of waste and inefficiency in government, because more government spending often does not result in better outcomes, and because there are many things the federal government simply should leave to “the States respectively or to the people,” as the 10th Amendment instructs.

Clearly, spending for the “common defense,” enumerated in the preamble to the Constitution, is one of the unassailed responsibilities of the federal government. No argument there.

But, why is it conservative orthodoxy to assume that defense spending is immune from waste and inefficiency or that more spending in this area alone is… Read More

The Florida shooting death of a young black man by a white Neighborhood Watch bozo is indeed tragic. But should black men (especially Obama) be worried with getting murdered by white bigots and vigilantes? Or is the REAL danger other black males?

Everyone knows the answer, but doesn’t want to talk about it. Certainly Obama doesn’t.

Consider these factoids from Wikipedia:

A United States Department of Justice report which surveyed homicide statistics between 1974 and 2004 stated that of the crimes surveyed, 52.2% of the offenders were Black, 45.8% were White, and 2% were Other Races.

Of the victims in those same crimes, 50.9% were White, 46.9% were Black, and 2.1% were Other Races.

The report further stated that “most murders are intraracial” with 86% of White murders committed by Whites, and 94% of Black murders committed by Blacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States#Murder… Read More

Two years ago today, President Obama signed his healthcare plan into law. The President took to the national stage to do a victory lap, promising that the new law would improve health care, job creation and the economy.

Despite the President’s promises to lead the country with unmatched transparency and accountability, he, alongside Nancy Pelosi and the bi-cameral Democrat majority, hustled this government takeover of our healthcare system behind closed doors with bold partisan fervor. None of us can forget Mrs. Pelosi telling the American people: “we will just have to pass it for you to know what’s in it.”

On today’s two year-anniversary, we now know what is in it: higher taxes, more entitlement programs, excessive government spending and unconstitutional federal mandates. No surprise seeing as how this is a crowning achievement for a big government, tax and spend President.

No one can argue that our healthcare system needs reform. No one in the Republican Party is arguing that people with pre-existing conditions should be denied coverage, or that the millions of uninsured should remain uninsured. But no amount of presidential oratory… Read More

We just got this in from longtime FR friend Assemblyman Brian Nestande, who has long been a proponent of transparency in the legislature…

It is ironic that one week after California celebrated “Sunshine Week,” which highlights the need for more openness in state government, the majority party in Sacramento passed shell budget bills that keep taxpayers in the dark on how their hard-earned tax dollars will be spent.

During yesterday’s Assembly session, Democrats passed 37 empty budget spot bills to the Senate. The Senate passed a similar number of bills over to the Assembly. The proposals did not contain any specific language, but will be amended at a later date to reflect the majority party’s budget proposal.

Californians deserve to know how the Legislature is spending their money. Passing budget bills where the details will be decided in a back room shuts taxpayers out of the budget process.

The Assembly should be voting on fully-detailed budget proposals that can later be reconciled with proposals from the Senate, not shell measures that will later be… Read More

I don’t like to get involved in a back and forth on issues on which I blog, but when someone comments on what I say, I want them to begin their comments by correctly stating what I said.

In this case, John Hrabe commented on my position on Proposition 28 by saying I was saying that the founding fathers would have opposed term limits. I said nothing of the sort.

My comments began with my analysis of the effects of term limits in the Legislature right now, from my personal observations.

This is where I agree with John. The process corrupts even the best of us. That, however, is normal. We are all human, and it takes a person of incredible moral insight and strength to avoid the temptations of political office. There are lines of people who wait to feed the egos of politicians, and, unfortunately, too many of those politicians fall victim to the ego strokes. The good news is, however, is that a politician who does fall victim to those temptations has to face the voters, and if it gets too bad, they will lose.

Unfortunately, the special interests who feed the politician’s ego don’t face the voters, and don’t really care who… Read More

This video speaks for itself…

… Read More

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I received a statement from Assemblyman Jim Nielsen regarding a piece of legislation authored by Assembly Speaker John Perez that would change the “single sales factor” system of taxation in a way that would cause certain out-of-state businesses that do business in this state to get hit with a big increase in the taxes that they have to pay. Nielsen also sent along a California Republican Party resolution on this matter, adopted at the last CRP Convention, which is also below.

“Governor Jerry Brown said that he thinks Assembly Speaker Perez’s $1 billion tax increase on companies for middle class scholarships is “a good idea.” This just a day after he capitulated to the public unions’ demands by incorporating the worst portions of their tax hikes into his plan. Families, business owners, students and taxpayers should be fully aware of the coming battle in 2012: Jerry Brown, legislative Democrats and the unions are launching a nuclear tax attack on California.… Read More