California Democratic Senate Majority Leader, Dean Florez, has introduced legislation that would tax sodas and sweetened beverages as an assault against the obesity epidemic. Senate Bill 1210 would levy a one cent tax on every teaspoon of sugar or caloric sweetener added to beverages. Revenues will go directly to cities for funding parks, recreation, and obesity prevention programs in public schools throughout the state.

Apparently, Mitt Romney and many conservatives haven't learned their lesson.  During CPAC, the former Massachusetts governor devoted a segment of his well-delivered speech to extolling President George W. Bush.  He praised Bush for pulling the nation out of recession after 9/11, taking on the teachers' unions, taking down the Taliban, waging war against jihadists, and keeping America safe.  Unfortunately, Romney neglected a pool of contradictory data and the powerful lessons of 2006 and 2008.

Why is it that state politicians can’t seem to understand that water is a necessity, and not a game? US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) recently decided to take up the clarion call of water for needy Central Valley farmers, in a proposal attached to the AgJOBS bill currently in the Senate.

Creative destruction, as any economist knows, is a healthy feature of a capitalist economy, especially when it comes to the eradication of failed ideas. However, as any economist also knows, in order for the destruction involved to be truly “creative,” not only must old paradigms fall by the wayside, but new ones must invariably take their place, and there must be a healthy environment for those paradigms to exist, otherwise they will whither and die.

Seeking to pick up steam going into the 2010 congressional midterms and even the 2012 presidential election, conservatives of all stripes descended on Washington DC this past weekend to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).  Much of the conference’s focus was devoted to reigning in the federal government’s size and scope, with many speakers gleefully pouncing on President Obama’s battered national agenda.

While the effect of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases was originally called ‘global warming', the name soon got changed to ‘climate change’ as it better explains the actual process. True, some places get warmer. But other areas get cooler.  Or the amount of rainfall starts to fluctuate.  If snowfall in the Sierras or Rockies drops, then the southwest and California will have droughts.  It’s just that simple. Moreover, we just had the bizarre spectacle of Washington D.C.

Obama pledged to shut down Guantanamo Bay by the end of his first year as President.  One year later, Guantanamo Bay is still open and may remain so for an indefinite period of time.  Legal logistics and a strong, conservative backlash have hampered efforts to close down the US military base located in communist Cuba. 

California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed legislation that would divert a large portion of California's public water supply to Southern California agribusinesses.

Many in this nation are growing increasingly concerned about the national debt and foreign policy of the United States.  As a result, CAIVN would like to share a portion of Marcy Winograd's recent press release in order to stimulate debate and discussion.  Here is the abridged version:

Though he was ridiculed in the media (for no other reason than his boring demeanor), Al Gore was on to something with his 2000 Presidential campaign promise to put Social Security money in a "lock box" where politicians couldn't touch or spend it. The current system is a pay-as-you-go system where people who are paying into the program now are funding the retirements of people who are retired now, with the expectation that future generations of workers will fund the retirements of today's labor force.