Greek Tragedy: There has been much publicity as of late, particularly among the financial community, about the fiscal problems in Greece. The Greek government has spent far more money than it has taken in and done it for enough years that they now have a huge deficit and an even bigger debt. There are fears that Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland could be next. Stock markets around the world lurched downward out of fear that these systemic debts and deficits may not be able to be repaid and that these countries may need to default on their debt.

But they are not alone. Here are the current year deficits (2010) and outstanding national debt as a percentage of that country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Greece, the largest European countries and the U.S.:

Country

Deficit as % of GDP

Public Debt as % of GDP

Americans for Prosperity of California, part of the national grassroots taxpayer advocacy organization, issued its own statement about the Governor’s revised budget today, which I have posted below. One of the key budget points for taxpayer protection groups is the Governor’s commitment to cutting spending.

As noted in the press release below, Democrats are simply returning to an already-dry well by demanding more and higher taxes. This is a short-sighted plan that will only serve to worsen California’s dwindling tax base. It may seem like inverse logic to Democrats, but cutting taxes in the short-term will actually lead to increased tax revenue in the long-term as businesses and taxpayers thrive and the tax base grows.

Today the California State Assembly debated SJR 9, authored by Democrat State Senatoe Christine Kehoe, which would urge the Congress and the President of the United States to adopt the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 1283) that institutes a policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation, and to repeal the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy.

You can read the full resolution here.

Republican Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, a Marine Corps Veteran, gave a passionate floor speech in support of ending this policy, saying that one should be able to serve openly in the military regardless of their sexual orientation.

… Read More

I think the only thing this political cycle that troubles me more than Republican candidates who tout the endorsements from editorial board of major newspapers (said editorial boards packed with liberals trying to mess in the Republican primary when virtually none of these editorial writers are Republicans) — are Republican candidates who are rolling out the endorsements of — public employee unions!

Seriously. I know that everyone likes it when I name names — but for the purposes of this blog post, I will refrain. But today alone I have received emails from two Republican candidates, campaigning as conservatives, bragging that they the choice of public employee unions.

In one case is the endorsement of the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association and in the other case it is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, our state and local governments have been hit by a pension tsunami of epic proportions and the state’s public employee unions have been at the forefront of lobbying for unsustainable salaries and benefits — with no seeming regard of whether these… Read More

Barack Hussein Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, upper west side New Yorker Elena Kagan, in 1996, wrote an article for the University of Chicago Law Review entitled, “Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine.” Kagan argued that government has the right, even considering the First Amendment, to restrict free speech, when the government believes the speech is "harmful", as long as the restriction is done with good intentions.

The problem with these laws that restrict the First Amendment, such as campaign finance rules, are the words "good intentions." Whose good intentions is the question to be asked, and usually those are the intentions of government power and its liberal bureaucrats, who seek to expand government authority and restrict freedom of speech, and not the intent of the Founding Fathers of our constitution, who sought to eliminate rules against fundamental freedoms.

Kagan failed as a nominee to the Federal appeals… Read More

The lightly regulated world of social media has created high-profile privacy and security controversies for companies like Facebook, Google and others that collect and disseminate massive amounts of personal data from millions of users worldwide — issues that could create political liabilities for politicians like Democrat Attorney General candidate Chris Kelly. Bringing order to that Wild West environment has given candidates like Mr. Kelly, formerly Facebook’s chief privacy officer, a chance to work on policy making long before they hold elected office. But social media companies like Facebook also sit at the heart of intense debates over online privacy. Mr. Kelly’s campaign will be a litmus test for how these privacy issues resonate with the public in the political arena, and also for how the strengths and vulnerabilities of a background in social media companies confers on other executives who may consider running for public office. Our friends over at California Watch have written about this in more detail. Check it out… Read More

Here is a series of trivia questions for you. All with the same answer.

In the 1994 Republican landslide who was the only incumbent Republican west of the Mississippi to lose in November?

Who has lost Republican primaries to Congressman Howard Buck McKeon, former Senator Pete Knight, former Assemblywoman Sharon Runner and Assemblywoman Jean Fuller?

Who has lost general elections for the State Assembly to Larry Chimbole and for the State Senate to Congressman Jim Costa?

Who has run for office claiming residence (and family roots) in Victorville, Lancaster, Tehachapi, Bakersfield, Phelan, and Hanford?

Who has no problem using endorsements from four years ago like they were just secured earlier in the day?

Who is it that can get Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado and Senator Sam Aanestad to agree that a political new comer would be better in the general election than a man that has served in the Legislature for close to two decades?

Who’s primary opponent for the State Senate has secured endorsements from the following State Senators? Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingworth… Read More

I am going to go out on a limb — and figure that former Governor Pete Wilson does not poll well among Spanish-speaking Californians. I could be wrong, but I think that a new Spanish-language radio ad released this morning by the Poizner for Governor campaign bears out my theory.

The ad actually replays the message from Governor Wilson in a recent Whitman ad…

What I found to be most interesting is the candor of Poizner, telling listeners that he supports the Arizona law…

Here is the translation — and if you want to hear the ad "en espanol" — it is below…

Translation for “Hablando Claro/Tell It Straight”: Narrator:

Don’t you hate it when politicians say one thing to one group and something else to another? That’s what Meg Whitman is doing. Here is the radio spot that she… Read More