Jerry Brown has a long, varied, and colorful history in California politics. Most anyone, friend or foe, would say he’s a maverick.  He definitely does things in his own way and doesn’t much care what the crowd is doing. How many politicians would go from being governor of a state to mayor of a city in that state? Very few would, because they’d see it as a step down, but not Jerry Brown.  Also, he gets pegged as a liberal but his policies are often a mixture from all sides of the political spectrum.

It is generally agreed upon, even by the staunchest proponents of progressive taxation, that expecting people to pay more than they can is an injustice which ought to be remedied in whatever manner possible. Yet, it is precisely this vision of progressivity which gave rise to one of the most steeply regressive policies in the country – a policy which afflicts states just as deleteriously as it does individuals, and sometimes with even more regressive effects.

“The reality is, we have to live within our means.” Which fiscally conservative luminary would you guess made that statement this week? The answer is Gavin Newsom. Yes, the very same Gavin Newsom who currently serves as the Democratic mayor of the liberal bastion known as San Francisco.

The California School Employees Association has filed a lawsuit to amend Proposition 14's language, and legislators, who voted for the initiative last year as part of a budget compromise, have directed their attorneys not to fight the legal challenge.  If the lawsuit is successful, critical elements of the Top Two Open Primary initiative will be stripped.  Proponents of the open primary measure are incensed and vow to mount a robust legal and public relations campaign

If you really want political change, you must vote the change you want to see. This means coming to terms with the impossibility of solving economic and social problems with the same strategies that created them. The Democratic and Republican parties have offered nothing but ineffectual solutions to the issues that plague California. Their answers are always the same: more spending and more taxing.

For the past few months, many of my colleagues have been college students from Southern Hemisphere countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and Australia.  They are here on temporary visas working in the ski industry during their summer breaks.  And they are smart, industrious kids.

In light of China increasing its defense spending 7.5% this year, the Wall Street Journal conducted a poll entitled “Is China a military threat to the U.S.?”  As of this writing, 151 online visitors have answered the poll, with 61% answering “no,” China is not a military threat. 

In examining immigration policy, those interested in the topic are apt to first look to traditional, English speaking media covering the matter.  For Californians, this means reading the LA Times, The Daily News, The Sac Bee, The San Francisco Chronicle, etc.

In becoming preoccupied with English speaking outlets, the immigration issue from the “other perspective” gets shoved into a blind spot.  A disclaimer: This isn’t a call to put on the suit of multiculturalism or to adopt the “other perspective” as one’s own.

On March 2, Governor Schwarzenegger spoke in Palm Springs to highlight his jobs package and encourage taxpayers to support a new measure that would exempt from the yoke of the sales tax, companies which work to produce cleaner technology through such mediums as the windmill and biomass harvesting. The green measure is coupled with a number of loosely related initiatives seeking to increase job numbers and state revenues, including the potential $10,000 homebuyers’ tax credit.

There is no group of people that is used more for political purposes than our country’s troops and veterans.  This politicized behavior began shortly after the Bush Administration launched the Iraq War (taking its eye off Afghanistan) seven years ago this month and continued for the better part of the 2000s.  The Bush Administration sent hundreds of thousands of our nation’s men and women half-way across the world to topple the Iraqi government and then re-build that same nation.  Once the troops were on the ground, any attempts to have a serious discussion about the purpose of the mis