This week, President-elect Barack Obama selected Nobel Prize winner andCaliforniaresident Steven Chu to serve as his energy secretary in the incomingadministration. On the surface, this pick appears to be a ratherinspiredchoice -- after all, how often is it that a man with a Nobel Prize inscientificresearch actually has the policy chops to work in a presidentialadministration? No doubt, coming off the heels of such choices as GaleNorton,countless of the supposed advocates of "competence" are getting smalltingles down their spine.

It’s a funnything: the elementary and high school education centers acrossCalifornia do not appear to be showing improvements, and yetfunding for public schools is at an all-time high across the state.

The Los Angeles Times reportedFriday that California would adopt "the most sweeping curbs on greenhouse gasemissions in U.S." According to the story, the state air boardhas ordered that a 15 percent cut in emissions be achieved over the next 12years, which will supposedly bring our emissions down to 1990 levels.

After years of attack dog politics, the American people may not be able to let go of constant invectives and dueling gotchas. The latest example is the case of Illinois’s corrupt Governor Rod R. Blagojevich. His crimes seem real enough and – should he be convicted of the alleged wrongdoings – he deserves punishment for his malfeasance. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has laid out the charges in clear terms, and has also been unambiguous about the president-elect’s lack of involvement.

By ignoring theprinciples of sustainability, our current industrial-farming model isdestined to collapse. To understand the need for sustainability inour food policy is to make the first, crucial step toward renewal ofour farm system.

Yesterday, I wrote an article titled "America: Land of the Czar?" which presented my worries that America is indirectly handing over its representative government authority to unelected officials with superior power. Now, just today, the news from Washington D.C. is that the Senate has blocked the auto bailout package from going through.

I knew we were in trouble when the official Voters' Guide arrived earlier this year. It was the size of a small-town phone book, studded with legalistic and often arcane discussions, with choices like Props 7 and 10, that sometimes seemed to repeat themselves. Others asked us to vote “yes” in order to say “no” (Prop 8) and all told, would have drained more than $21 billion dollars out of our state’s already depleted treasury.

Americans have traditionally respected private property and individual rights, rejecting elitism and excessive power. We reject unchecked power, generally associated with partisan elitist states and political institutions that take rights and property from the general population and distribute them to preferred party members and supporters in order to reinforce their power. We are also weary of governance by officials with extreme powers to regulate or supervise other bodies of power, like a Czar does; a term derived from the Greek title for "Emperor".

California is one of the most influentialstates of the nation, and as of right now, one of the more economicallytroubled ones.

Within our state's budget, there is plenty thatnot only can be trimmed down, but deserves to be trimmed down. As manyCalifornians may agree by now, it's time to trim the fat; and not justceremonially, but really. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared early thisweek that California is in a state of emergency, and the budget mustbe amended to reflect, and subsequently, fix that.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a California-based Federal districtcourt has taken up the question of whether California'sprison overcrowding violates the prisoners' "constitutional rights."The case name has not been released to the public, and there may be no singlecase, for the question comes on the heel of multiple lawsuits filed byattorneys claiming medical neglect of prisoners constitutes an infringement oftheir Constitutional rights.