According to the latest economic forecast, California has exited the worst of the Great Recession, but faces another two years of a long, slow, and painful recovery.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California in 2003, the first thing he should have done was get Gary Johnson on the phone. You see, Gary Johnson was elected Governor of New Mexico for two terms during the 1990s. Like California it was a Democrat-leaning, Western state with serious budget issues. Over the eight years of his remarkable tenure, Gary Johnson managed to tackle a lot of the same problems California faced in 2003 and still faces today.

We've all heard of the military-industrial complex.  Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, specifically warned of the potentially dire consequences of an unhealthy alliance between the US Government and the defense industry.

An open carry revolution is underway in the United States, and Californians are participating in the act of exercising their constitutional rights. In fact, the second amendment of the Bill of Rights states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

With only one year left in office, Governor Schwarzenegger has set an ambitious agenda to salvage what many believe to be a disappointing tenure.  The Governor aims to work with the Legislature and reform-minded organizations to achieve the following goals:

1.  Balance a budget that is $21 billion in the hole, mainly through spending cuts in strategic areas

Following Senator Nelson's infamous "Nebraska Compromise", which forces the other 49 states to pay for Nebraska's new Medicaid recipients, journalists, legislators, and citizens have lashed out for what has been labeled a "sleazy back-room deal" by many folks across the political spectrum.

While reasonable people debate the pros and cons of the current health insurance reform bills, little is being said about one particularly insidious amendment.  For the sake of clarity, let's call it "Big Pharma's Biological Bonanza".

A Harvard University study suggests that the severity of H1N1 was oversold to the public.  It is unclear how H1N1 will affect public health over the coming months, but thus far, it has proven far less deadly than original predictions by the medical, pharmaceutical, and government communities.

According to Wolfgang Knorr, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, the fraction of atmospheric carbon dioxide has not increased in the last 160 years.  His findings, published in the Geophysical Research Letters, appear to contradict the climate consensus on CO2 emission levels, often viewed as the main culprit for anthropogenic global warming.

One of the world's most accurate trends forecasters is predicting the rise of a viable 3rd party by 2012.  Gerald Celente, of the Trends Research Institute is making some dire predictions for 2010 and 2012.  Celente is considered a "Prophet of Doom" by many, but a highly credible track record makes his prognostications difficult to ignore.  Here's an abridged version of his accurate predictions over the last couple of decades:

1.  Stock market crash of 1987