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"I think it's eerily like 1994. Not much will change." That's what Rich Hamblen told me about the 2010 midterm elections on our way to a political conference sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Tenth Amendment Center. And Rich would know. With decades of political activism under his belt, and a year of hard time for civil disobedience pertaining to a Second Amendment issue dear to his heart, the man has some serious street cred when it comes to politics. I challenged him, ever the optimist, and

An acquaintance, undeniably well-off, complained to me recently that a tax increase on those making more than $250,000 was unfair to small businessmen like her husband (a physician).  I experienced a rush of liberal orthodoxy and immediately asked if she didn’t think there was a problem with the concentration of so much wealth at the upper end of our society.  She agreed.  And she complained about how much bank executives made.  But, she argued that $250,000 was too low to be considered anything

Though  the mainstream political press has naturally focused on the stinging  Democratic losses and sweeping Republican gains in last week's  elections, 2010 has proven to be an historic year for third party and  Independent politics in the United States. One  of the primary motifs in media coverage of this year's elections has  been the public’s deep discontent with both the Democratic and  Republican parties.  In poll after poll, record numbers of  Americans opted to identify themselves as In

On July 1, the federal government and dozens of states set up temporary “high-risk” health insurance pools for people denied health insurance due to so-called pre-existing conditions. These pools were one of the major provisions included in federal health care reform signed into law early this year. However, this is only a temporary fix intended to provide health insurance to individuals without coverage until the law goes fully into effect in 2014, when insurance companies will no longer be ab

Watching the awe-inspiring television images from the recent U.S. Open golf tournament at Pebble Beach, I began to envision the Monterey Peninsula marred with splotches of oil, and the famed golf course closed as the result of a drilling accident.  Then, I began to imagine the outrage that such an incident would trigger here in California and across the country, and wondered how it would compare with the response to the BP disaster in the Gulf Coast. Here’s the difference: The images of Pebble

The most heated debate in Sacramento during the past two years hasn’t been budget cuts depriving poor children of health care or awarding billion-dollar tax breaks to corporations.  It hasn’t even been California’s massive multi-billion dollar budget shortfalls. Generating far more public outcry is the mandatory spaying and neutering of cats and dogs. In 2008, unsuccessful spay/neuter legislation logged some 32,000 letters and e-mails either in support or opposition -- many thousands more th

There'snot nearly as much housing help as the $4 billion the BushAdministration deliveredin September. Of the $731million President Obama handed out this time, though, at least California got thelion's share. Bothrounds were part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's NeighborhoodStabilization Program; Thursday's funding was part of this year'sstimulus bill. The program was created last year to help states and some localcommunities buy, renovate, sell or develop foreclosed or aban

Last week, President-elect Barack Obama nominated Hilda Solis to the position of Labor Secretary. This marks yet another time when Obama has turned to the Golden State for guidance in his cabinet, as  Solis is the representative of California's 32nd district, and I am sure that those people who elected her to this position must be very proud. I am also sure that they must have very bad taste, for this is the second time that Obama has committed such a colossal blunder that it has des