Obstacles facing third party candidates for state office have always been great, and for a time seemed all but impossible to overcome in California. As Green Party gubernatorial candidate, Laura Wells relates, “I ran in 2002 and 2006 for State Controller... One effect of running twice was experiencing how much the doors closed to independent parties during those four years.”

California’s effort to fight global warming may be caught on the horns of a dilemma.  While the state (and especially Governor Schwarzenegger) wants to lead the nation in all things green, the matter of poor economic conditions and high unemployment has become an unexpected roadblock.

As the Coffee Party continues to garner national attention, it is beginning to present a more detailed framework for effecting cultural, political, and social change in America.  Viewed as a left-leaning counter to the Tea Party, the Coffee Party is coming off a successful weekend "Summit", in which hundreds of local groups gathered at coffee shops around the nation to discuss the next steps toward pursuing meaningful reform.

The latest poll covering Tea Party preferences reveals a less antagonistic view toward the federal government than many would have predicted.  The Selzer & Co. poll interviewed over 1,000 nationwide respondents, including Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and self-proclaimed Tea Party adherents.

Here are some of the pertinent highlights from Tea Party responders:

As previously noted, California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is differentiating herself from her more fiery counterpart Steve Poizner in addressing issue of illegal immigration.  With her recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, any cloudiness surrounding her stance on the issue should be less murky.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether illegal payments were made to employees at California public pension fund giant CalPERS and others to influence where they invested money. This is part of several nationwide probes into many public pension funds.

As noted in CAIVN's Public Safety and Prison Reform forum, "the per-prisoner cost of California prisons is in the range of $50,000 per year, significantly higher than in other states," and the main reasons are, "Extraordinarily high medical costs driven by an aging inmate population, the remote locations of most facilities, and the relatively high cost of health care in California."

While the nation has been focused on healthcare and jobs, 2010 has already witnessed a significant spike in the number of injuries and deaths for US troops fighting in Afghanistan.  Compared to the first three months of 2009, the number of US troops killed has approximately doubled, while the number of injured US troops has more than tripled over the same period.

Along with the rising tide of amateur budgetary solutions recently percolating in California’s ballot initiative process, the occasional piece of legislation with truly drastic implications will often manage to work up enough signatures to be proposed, and this election cycle is no exception.

After months of some lawmakers making questionable statements about what health insurance reform meant for our nation's seniors - death panels, killing Medicare, etc. - a report that received virtually no attention found that seniors are actually the big winners from national health insurance reform. 

Of course, no American would know this as the media was and still is more interested in propping up the tea party movement and reporting on the politics of reform as opposed to informing the public of the actual content in health insurance reform itself.