Apparently, talk of reforming Constitutions is much in vogue these days. Britain is considering a proposal to reform the House of Lords to be like the United States Senate. California is all abuzz with whispers of a constitutional convention. While… Continue Reading
I agree with the guy who says he won’t dive with Humboldt squid for the same reason he won’t walk into a pride of lions on the Serengeti. Some things in the water are dangerous and sharks are actually only… Continue Reading
On NPR today, former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown places the blame for the budget crisis on term limits. Brown says that the people in the Legislature today do not want to work with each other because they have not had… Continue Reading
The California High Speed Rail Authority has some really cool graphics, including Flash movies, showing what it will look like when we have their bullet trains. I certainly do like the idea of getting to downtown Los Angeles in half… Continue Reading
See if you can spot the astonishing misuse of the English language by the Speaker of California’s Assembly, Karen Bass* — ostensibly the second-most powerful person in the state government after the Governor — in this Fish Wrapper interview. I’ll… Continue Reading
The Fish Wrapper‘s “budget balancer” toy is admittedly simplistic, but by accepting that I had to both raise some income taxes and cut a bunch of stuff, I got from a $24,000,000,000 deficit to a $789,000,000 surplus for the state… Continue Reading
Iran falls into national paralysis as the nation reels from apparently-corrupted elections. Initially, there’s little way for us in the West to tell if the elections were less democratic than expected, but over time we learn that the returns came… Continue Reading
I don’t get it. First the Governorator says he likes same-sex marriage. Then, he says that he won’t let the City and County of San Francisco issue same-sex marriage licenses because Prop. 22 was the decision of the people of… Continue Reading
I ran into a buddy today at the courthouse. I asked him how he was doing, and he said, “Living the dream!” That was encouraging and uplifting. It made me feel happy for my friend and reminded me that he… Continue Reading
Upholding Proposition 8 was the right thing for the Supreme Court to do. When the people act directly, that is the fundamental and most legitimate exercise of power imaginable in a democracy. I don’t like what they did but they… Continue Reading