European politicos got a rare inside view of political campaigns in Europe and the United States at a pivotal conference conducted this week by the prestigious Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Berlin.

The International Conference on Political Communication (IKPK) brings together a mix of American and European campaign experts for a discussion on the most interesting developments in the political world on both sides of the Atlantic. For Europeans who often receive a distorted view of American campaigns through the lens of their own media, the IKPK provided the more than 300 German political observers with the opportunity to hear directly from experts working in the field.

Conducted annually, the… Read More

Attending a high school reunion after more than a few decades ought to be a memorable experience for anyone. Hopefully the occasion is filled with warmth and remembrance, rekindled friendships, stories and laughs. But as our lives develop and we build our adult networks based on shared values and common professions, a high school reunion offers something else; a unique opportunity to meet people we knew very well and still care about, whose lives all went in completely different directions.

My high school classmates chosea diverse assortment of careers. Some became engineers, some went into sales, some are entrepreneurs; some work in high-tech, some in aerospace, others in construction. And some are teachers, some are police officers, and some are firefighters. Without any exceptions I could observe, all of them made conscientious choices, all of them worked hard, all of them were responsible with their savings and investments. And now they’ve reached the age where whatever retirement plans they made are unlikely to change much.

How to ensure government pensions are not blown up by the next sustained market downturn is a complex challenge, complicated further… Read More

People move for more freedom. States that have more freedom attract more businesses, more jobs and more workers.

According to the John Locke Foundation, freedom is based on fiscal policy, which measures taxes and budgetary measures, and generates 50 percent of a state’s score. Twenty percent each goes to education and to regulatory policies, and 10 percent to health care policy.

The ‘least free’ state according to the John Locke Foundation is New York, closely followed by California, then New Jersey, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

This would explain why California has a record number of residents who left the Golden State for other states during the last decade, according to new tax return data from the Internal Revenue Service. “About 5 million Californians left between 2004 and 2013,” the Sacramento Bee reported. “Roughly 3.9 million people came here from other states during that period, for a net population loss of more than 1 million people.”

The IRS said this also resulted in a net… Read More

In California, exceptionally high firefighter pay and benefits makes “firehouse” firefighter positions coveted slots, with few openings and huge applicant interest. Couple that with a strong desire by existing firefighters to get their offspring and relatives hired (a.k.a. nepotism), and it’s a scenario ripe for corruption.Here’s one of the more amazing examples. In 2007 the Oakland Fire Department unwisely had all the applicants show up on ONE day. They started lining up 3 days ahead of time.

They were astonished when 8,000 applicants showed up for 23 firefighter openings. Chaos reigned as the fire officials swooped down on the crowd and picked the people they wanted to be firefighters, including the fire chief reputedly picking his son. The article below is an amazing read.

There have been numerous other stories of insider help to get preferred (mostly family) candidates selected. This would not be as big a problem if the CA cities and counties paid closer to market wages — comparable to what most other states pay (ignoring the volunteers). But as long as this job (a job many want even without the high… Read More

“[T]he one thing that the federal government must do . . . is keep us safe.”

Senator Marco Rubio spoke those words during the last Republican Presidential debate, and the focus of his campaign could not be more timely. In this era of rising crime and failing schools, of international terrorism and nuclear proliferation, of staggering national debt and low economic growth, we need leaders who know how to keep Americans safe and how to put our country back on the path to prosperity. Marco Rubio is the leader we need in these perilous times, and I am proud to endorse him and pledge my full support for his election as the next President of the United… Read More

Governor Brown has foolishly decided to poke a hornets’ nest with his signing of Assembly Bill 401. While AB 401 itself isn’t particularly controversial, as it merely authorizes a couple of state agencies to devise a plan by 2018 to assist low income individuals with paying their water bills, the problem is what Brown wrote in the letter approving the bill.

Although not common, Governors occasionally issue a statement when they approve a bill passed by the Legislature. In signing AB 401, Governor Brown exposed his disdain for the taxpayer and ratepayer protections set forth in Proposition 218, a Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association initiative approved by voters in 1996. Brown stated that, “Proposition 218 . . . serves as an obstacle to thoughtful, sustainable water conservation pricing and necessary flood and stormwater system improvements.”

The Governor could not be more wrong. Proposition 218 mandates that water rates be based on “cost of service” principles. Simply stated, “cost of service” means that you should not pay more for water, sewer or refuse collection than it costs to provide you with that service. The reason voters… Read More

Good news! California’s unemployment rate dropped significantly in September, from 6.1% to 5.9% — while the nation’s unemployment rate remained stable at 5.1%. The bad news? No increase in the number of CA jobs.

Okay, okay — I exaggerated a bit to make a point. Actually the number of CA jobs DID increase in September — but by only 8,200 jobs. That’s a lot of jobs — until you consider that we have a whopping 39,000,000 people in the Golden State. That’s FAR less job growth than the number needed to handle our modestly increasing state population. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/oct/16/sandiego-job-growth-unemployment-falls/

By now my readers should know how this drop comes to pass. It’s not from significantly increasing employment — it’s from people dropping… Read More

CAUTION: The following commentary will trigger intense feelings of hatred (of me) among some firefighters. My apologies in advance.

Firefighting has always been an honorable profession. It’s a job that, from time to time, definitely can be more dangerous than most occupations. But the “problem” for the California Fire Foundation (CFF) and other boosters of firefighters is that — these days — toofewfirefighters are dying on the job.

Now, MOST of us think fewer firefighter deaths is a good thing. I suspect most firefighters strongly agree. Better equipment, safer procedures, better exercise programs, less firefighter cigarette smoking and — MOST IMPORTANT — significantly fewer fires have all contributed to this drop in the firefighter mortality rate.

But the problem that trend presents is that — for those groups trying to justify high pay and benefits for firefighters — lower mortality experience doesn’t help the cause. So they have been getting — shall we say — “innovative.”

It… Read More