Two maxims about Congress: the correlation between high levels of confusing information and low levels of public interest; and if ever there were an embodiment of the law of unintended consequences, it would be many of the "great ideas" enacted by Congress.

Such is the issue of Government Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, and others) and the noble cause of government promoted "affordable home ownership."

Given the issue’s complexity, general public opinion might not reflect reality when it comes to causation of the mortgage meltdown over the last two years. Many in the public think it was greedy bankers and unscrupulous lenders…and to be sure there’s enough blame for all. But some in Congress would like you to think they bear no part of the burden of blame.

The risk to those concerned about policy matters is that Congress often does its worst under the veil of complexity, more than content to leave you believing someone else is the villian.

Fortunately, Peter Wallison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, today sets out in clear terms,… Read More

I love football. It’s a great sport to watch on television, but even more fun to attend in person. As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, much of my life was spent with no close-by National Football League team, once the Rams picked up and moved East. While the absence of an NFL team for Los Angeles was unfortunate, it was significantly mitigated by some great college football teams in the area. But I do get my hopes up every time I hear that someone is thinking about bringing an NFL team back to my home town. So I have been following with some interest the efforts of billionaire Ed Roski (pictured) to construct a stadium for NFL play over in East Los Angeles, and bringing a team to Los Angeles County.

Of course it is no surprise that one of th hurdles to engaging in a major construction project in California is regulatory cost. This state is one of the leaders in the nation in the unfortunate catagory of making it much more… Read More

I love football. It’s a great sport to watch on television, but even more fun to attend in person. As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, much of my life was spent with no close-by National Football League team, once the Rams picked up and moved East. While the absence of an NFL team for Los Angeles was unfortunate, it was significantly mitigated by some great college football teams in the area. But I do get my hopes up every time I hear that someone is thinking about bringing an NFL team back to my home town. So I have been following with some interest the efforts of billionaire Ed Roski (pictured) to construct a stadium for NFL play over in East Los Angeles, and bringing a team to Los Angeles County.

Of course it is no surprise that one of th hurdles to engaging in a major construction project in California is regulatory cost. This state is one of the leaders in the nation in the unfortunate category of making it much more… Read More

First, they banned our cell phones (with the exception of First Lady Shriver), now they want our GPS, satellite radio and garage door openers. The California Air Resources Boardhas approved a "Cool Cars" regulation that will require car windows to have an advanced glazing in order to block the sun’s heat, supposedly reducing the need for air conditioning. This was the same government agency that earlier this year floated the idea of banning black cars in California for the same reason.

Unfortunately, as withso many brilliant government ideas, the regulation was adopted before this window glazing technology was completely tested. Turns out the glazing can interfere with GPS, garage door openers, cell phones and satellite radios. The regulation will even be imposed on soft-top vehicles, leading to speculation Jeep may stop selling its soft-cover vehicles in the state. Sun roofs would be tinted so dark they would essentially be black (forget driving PCH with that California sunshine beaming down on you).… Read More

The great "moderate" signed a few more idiotic bills this week, further cementing his legacy as the worst governor in California history. His performance was so bad this week that it prompted GOP Assembly Caucus leader Sam Blakeslee, no conservative himself, to write the following memo to his caucus. All of you GOP types out there clamoring for a "moderate" solution, please tell me why again? What we get with "electibility" is ….. crap.

From: "Blakeslee, Sam"

To: "Assembly Republican Caucus" Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:57:45 -0700 Subject: Governor’s Signatures

Members: Yesterday we all witnessed the public policy disaster perpetrated by the Governor’s hand.

His decision to sign into law some of the most noxious legislative proposals brought before us this year is both disheartening and revealing.

Most of us have read in today’s papers accounts of the Governor’s shocking reversal of position on the issues about which we care most deeply: taxes, second amendment rights, family values, over-regulation, etc.

This sudden… Read More

In 1996, then Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian introduced a bill that would give public employees the option of moving from the current "defined benefit" pension system to a "defined contribution" system. The major difference between the two system is that under a defined benefit system, the contributions are made to a fund, managed by someone else (in Californias case, a union elected board, with a couple of Governor appointees and appointees by the Controller and Treasurer, both union controlled Democrats), and the payment that is made to the retiree is defined by the state. A defined contribution system is a 401(k) system. It allows the investments to be controlled by the employee, and the benefit the employee receives depends on how smart the employee was in making the investment.

Kaloogians bill passed the Republican controlled Assembly at the time, and ended up in the Democrat controlled Public Employee Retirement Committee, of which I was the Vice Chair. A whole host of government employee union lobbyists (a group I used to refer to as the "Red Brigade") showed up in the committee to oppose the bill. What was most interesting… Read More

Massive news reports show that CAIR [Council of American Islamic Relations] the notorious terror apologist group, recently invited by Sen. Darrell Steinberg to celebrate theend of Ramadan in the Rotunda of the State Capitol, is in the hot seat again.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/63023-republicans-accuse-muslim-advocacy-group-of-trying-to-plant-spies

… Read More

Despite the best efforts of the California Chamber of Commerce to expose anti-job legislation through their “Job Killer” reports, California legislators continue to author, debate and pass bills that have resulted in record high unemployment in the Golden State. Though legislators may believe they are reigning in large corporations, the data shows that small and medium sized businesses have borne the brunt of the effects of these efforts. According to the Chamber of Commerce, 70-80% of all jobs come from small/medium companies. In order to lower the current unemployment rate, small businesses need to be able to put as much of their money into salaries as possible, and put Californians back to work.

But as the unemployment lines grow longer, the chore of finding the best talent becomes increasingly difficult for employers that are hiring. Taking resumes via mail, email, job boards and every conceivable social… Read More