The Independent

Porker of the Month:  Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) Porker of the Month for loading up her goodie bag just before Halloween as she prepares to leave the Senate to run for governor of Texas.  While claiming to be a fiscal conservative, the four-term senator requested 149 pork-barrel projects costing $1.6 billion in authorization and appropriations bills for fiscal year 2010.  On September 28, 2009, she told the Austin American-Statesman , “I’m proud of being able to garner Texans’ fair share of their tax dollars.”  “Sen. Hutchison is repeating the same old insidious quackery about the earmarking process:  that it can be made accountable and that it somehow levels the spending playing field,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “The only fair way to distribute the taxpayers’ money is to eliminate the practice altogether and instead work to ensure that every dime of taxpayer money is spent using the budget

Dear Friend: I am pleased to let you know that I have joined a bipartisan effort to create a nationwide network for locating missing adults and senior citizens. The Silver Alert Act ( S.557 ) would create a national alert system, modeled after the Amber Alert, providing federal coordination and assistance across state lines to locate missing seniors. The need for this legislation is clear. With an aging population, and a growing number of people who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer's disease, thousands of adults go missing every year. Thus, while local law enforcement officials continue to work hard to locate missing seniors, a coordinated national effort makes sense.  The Amber Alert program has proven to be successful in many cases involving missing children. It provides a good model to provide law enforcement agencies with the added resources they need to locate loved ones.  The Silver Alert Act specifically encourages states to develop Silver Alert plans and provides funding t

State descent began with CalPERS push for pension spike Ten years ago today, California's march toward its present fiscal chaos began. On June 16, 1999, the board of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) -- its investment portfolio bulging after several years of large gains -- voted to ask Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature to broadly increase benefits for more than 800,000 government employees and retirees. There was some skepticism. An aide to Davis, who was then cultivating an image as a pragmatic, can-do centrist, said the governor worried about the prudence of such a broad benefit boost. Assemblyman Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, questioned how CalPERS could assert that the massive benefits hike could be enacted with little or no strain on the state budget. The contention presumed CalPERS' huge portfolio would continue its big annual growth indefinitely. But the Wall Street dot-com boom was at its zenith, with some technology mutual

Thank you for writing me about AB 1288. I appreciate your suggestions on proposed legislation affecting our state. I generally do not take a position on legislation until a bill has reached my desk because it can change significantly from the time it is introduced until the time it is finalized. For the current session, the California Legislature has until September 11, 2009 to pass legislation, and I have until October 11, 2009 to sign or veto proposed bills. You may continue to follow this and any other bill under consideration by lawmakers at the Official California Legislative website: www.leginfo.ca.gov . You may also read my legislative messages at www.gov.ca.gov . Again, I appreciate your interest in California's future. An informed and engaged public is important for effective government in our state. Sincerely, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Paul B. Farrell Oct. 20, 2009, 8:08 a.m. EDT Death of 'Soul of Capitalism:' Bogle, Faber, Moore By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Jack Bogle published "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" four years ago. The battle's over. The sequel should be titled: "Capitalism Died a Lost Soul." Worse, we've lost "America's Soul." And worldwide the consequences will be catastrophic. That's why a man like Hong Kong's contrarian economist Marc Faber warns in his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: "The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today." No, not just another meltdown, another bear market recession like the one recently triggered by Wall Street's "too-greedy-to-fail" banks. Faber is warning that the entire system of capitalism will collapse. Get it? The engine driving the great "American Economic Empire" f

President Obama and his juvenile administration has final pissed me off! Up to this point I kind of chuckled at their antics... but no more - I AM INSULTED!  Rick White House Escalates War at Fox News Senior Obama administration officials took to the airwaves Sunday to accuse Fox News of pushing a particular point of view and not being a real news network. FOXNews.com Sunday, October 18, 2009 The White House escalated its offensive against Fox News on Sunday by urging other news organizations to stop "following Fox" and instead join the administration's attempt to marginalize the channel. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox." Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization." "Other news organizations like

"There have been 28 episodes of hyperinflation of national economies in the 20th century, with 20 occurring after 1980. Peter Bernholz (Professor Emeritus of Economics in the Center for Economics and Business (WWZ) at the University of Basel, Switzerland) has spent his career examining the intertwined worlds of politics and economics with special attention given to money. In his most recent book, Monetary Regimes and Inflation: History, Economic and Political Relationships, Bernholz analyzes the 12 largest episodes of hyperinflations - all of which were caused by financing huge public budget deficits through money creation. His conclusion: the tipping point for hyperinflation occurs when the government's deficit exceed 40% of its expenditures. "According to the current Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projections, US federal expenditures are projected to be $3.653 trillion in FY 2009 and $3.766 trillion in FY 2010, with unified deficits of $1.580 trillion and $1.5

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Senate Finance Committee’s health care mark, like the House health care bill, would mandate health insurance.  Specifically, beginning in July 2013, the proposal would establish a requirement for individuals to obtain insurance and would in many cases impose a financial penalty on people who did not do so.  Moreover, the Senate mark would allow the government to decide what health care insurance policies are acceptable, thereby limiting consumer choices and increasing government intrusion in personal decisions.  Although CBO estimates the modified Senate Finance Committee healthcare overhaul bill would cost $829 billion over 10 years and will decrease the deficit by $81 billion, this is accomplished by raising taxes by $500 billion on employers and those who already have insurance, as well as by cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits by over $400 billion.  Furthermore, according to CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation, at l

American Thinker: Gore On The Grill October 14, 2009 Gore On The Grill By Brian Sussman Last Friday, global warming's poster boy, Al Gore, spoke to the Society of Environmental Journalists' convention in Madison, Wisconsin. After his speech to this flock of propagandists, there was a rare Q and A session. Among those asking a question was Irish filmmaker Phelim McAleer, director of Not Evil, Just Wrong, a movie critical of the global warming movement. McAleer queried Gore about a 2007 decision by the British High Court which determined that Gore's global warming flick, An Inconvenient Truth, was so packed with fraud that it required a 56-page disclaimer if it was to continue to be shown to students in the United Kingdom. McAleer asked, "The judge in the British High Court, after a lengthy hearing, found that there were nine significant errors [in the movie]. This has been shown to children. Do you accept those findings, and have you done anything to correc

You guys for the most part still don't see that we have been living in a bubble for the past 25+ years when our economy grew not because of anything we made and exported as happened from the end of WWII to the early 80s, but by the accumulation of DEBT. We are still living in a bubble and the Dot Com and RE bubbles were more like zits that popped up and then disappeared as a result of medication, in the form of more debt. 401K and IRA legislation helped cause the transfer of wealth from the middle class to those of the wealthier class working on Wall Street, in the hopes THEY could make us (the middle class) rich because of their special powers and knowledge. Have you seen how much wealth they created for us? Not. Wall Streeters made themselves wealthy because they win no matter what happens ala Madoff. The only reason the middle class hasn't fallen off the edge of the cliff yet is because of dual income families. I can remember a time when only ONE salary could supp

O.C. double-dippers rake in nearly a half million a year October 14th, 2009, 5:13 am · 61 Comments · posted by Jennifer Muir There’s nothing like sticker shock. That’s just what The Watchdog gets looking at the total amount of dinero county bigwigs like CEO Tom Mauk and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens collect each year. When you add up the pensions they collect from their previous place of employment, and the salaries and benefits they accrue in O.C., they’re raking in nearly a half million bucks a piece. (More specifically, Hutchens earns $492,243 a year from her pension, salary and benefits, and Mauk gets $487,805. We’ll break down those figures later in this post.) Mauk and Hutchens are among the other type of double-dippers working in Orange County. You might remember that the Watchdog wrote a couple weeks ago about Orange County employees who retire, start collecting their pensions, then come back to the county to work part-time. At the time, many of you asked about double-dip

Governor vetoes anti-puppy mill bill October 12th, 2009, 1:49 pm · 26 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer schwarzenegger-and-dogIt passed in the state Assembly, and it passed the state Senate, but it died this weekend on the governor’s desk. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed The Puppy Mill bill (otherwise known as Assembly Bill 241, The Responsible Breeder Act of 2009.) “This measure would make it a crime for any person or entity to own or control more than 50 unsterilized adult dogs or cats for breeding or raising for sale as pets,” Schwarzenegger wrote in his veto message. “I support measures designed to prevent animal cruelty and that punish persons engaged in the abuse of animals. However, this measure simply goes too far in an attempt to address the serious problem of puppy mills. An arbitrary cap on the number of animals any entity can possess throughout the state will not end unlawful, inhumane breeding practices. Instead this measure has the potential to cri

The approved measures provide a variety of home loan protections for consumers, including a ban on so-called negative-amortization loans. By Marc Lifsher October 12, 2009 | 6:47 p.m. Reporting from Sacramento - In a flurry of end-of-session bill signings, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved seven new laws that provide a range of consumer protections to home-mortgage holders and may allow some to hold on to their houses. Late Sunday night, the governor signed AB 260 by Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). The measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, tightens restrictions on mortgage brokers so they cannot steer borrowers to riskier, higher-interest loans when they qualify for less-expensive ones. The new law also bans so-called negative-amortization loans, which offer monthly payments that cover no principal and don't even cover all the monthly accrued interest. Such loans amounts can actually grow larger over time. The law also limits prepayment penalties to no more than 2% of th

This is what our President and his administration are worried about? Let me say right now... if they stay on this course they will only have four years in office.  Rick By DOUGLAS J. ROWE TV GUIDE The Obama administration says it's treating Fox News Channel as a political opponent, and executives at the top-rated cable news network are responding that the White House can't tell straight reporting from opinion. White House communications director Anita Dunn recently told Time magazine that she thinks the channel offers "opinion journalism masquerading as news," and kept up the criticism on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday and in The New York Times Monday. Fox's senior vice president for news, Michael Clemente, issued a statement Monday, saying: "It's astounding the White House can't distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part." And Fox's senior vice president for programming, Bill Shine,

By Charles Sicurani (AFP) – 2 hours ago PARIS — French agents have arrested an engineer working at the CERN nuclear research lab on suspicion of being in contact with the Al-Qaeda militant network and planning attacks, officials said Friday. "Perhaps we have avoided the worst," Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux told journalists, adding that investigators were trying to establish which targets in "France or elsewhere" the suspect was hoping to strike. Security sources in Paris said the suspected Islamist, one of a pair of brothers detained on Thursday, worked at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research on the Franco-Swiss border just outside Geneva. The pair were arrested in Vienne, a town on the Rhone river some 100 kilometres (65 miles) southwest of the Alpine lab, by officers from France's security service acting on a warrant from an anti-terrorist magistrate. According to officials, the engineer had made contact over the Internet with Al-Qaeda in the Is

Q: I take several medications that need to be refrigerated. Should I be concerned about ordering them from Web sites and having them sent in the mail? A: Order only from sites that carry the VIPPS seal, indicating that they are Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites. Most major national chains, such as CVS and Walgreens, carry this seal. All these sites ship medicines requiring refrigeration on a rush basis, with cold packs to keep them at the right temperature. This is the same way drugs are shipped to pharmacies by wholesalers and manufacturers. Verified sites also require that someone be home to receive and sign for the refrigerated package -- this ensures that the medication will not sit outdoors and get too warm. If you are in doubt, check the shipping information listed on the Web site or call to confirm the shipping methods.

Mark Hyman, MD The UltraWellness Center The aging American population is facing a sharp increase in diagnosed cases of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia affect about 10% of people 65 and older. Among those in their mid-80s and older, up to half have a significant degree of cognitive impairment. Millions of younger Americans suffer from less obvious mental impairments, including mild memory loss and diminished alertness, as well as brain-related disorders, such as depression and chronic anxiety. Neurologists now believe that most mental impairments are caused by lifelong exposure to toxic agents, including pollution and tobacco, and to naturally occurring molecules that damage brain tissue and impair circulation to the brain. Research clearly shows that some foods can improve mental performance and help prevent long-term damage. Best choices... Sardines. They have two to three times more omega-3 fatty acids than most other fatty fish. Our bodies use omega-3s

Wall Street Regulation Won’t Be Completed This Year, Bair Says - Bloomberg.com Wall Street Regulation Won’t Be Completed This Year, Bair Says By Alison Vekshin Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Congress won’t approve an overhaul of Wall Street regulation this year because lawmakers disagree on the plan and need time to weigh proposals, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said. “I really don’t think anything is going to happen this year, certainly not a bill becoming law,” Bair said yesterday in a question-and-answer session at a dinner in New York honoring women in banking. “I think we’ll see a lot of activity hopefully in the first quarter of next year.” Bair, 55, said Congress should carefully study the options and hold more hearings. There are some areas where lawmakers clearly need to act and other areas “we still may be working through that maybe it would be better to take a deep breath and think about it a little more,” Bair said. House Financial Services Committee

Laura Lee People tend to worry about the wrong things. We worry about safety each time we board an airplane, though we are far more likely to die in a car accident. We worry about a terrorist attack, though the household chemicals that we keep under our sinks are more likely to cause us harm. Some seemingly harmless products pose significant risks that most Americans have never considered. Here, six of the surprising dangers that most of us encounter regularly... DISHWASHERS Each year, an average of about 7,500 Americans suffer dishwasher-related injuries. Most of these are cuts or punctures caused by upturned knives or forks. In the past 10 years, at least two people were killed when they slipped and fell onto open dishwasher drawers and landed on sharp knives. Steam burns from opening the door and leaning over the dishwasher -- or reaching in immediately after the cycle is finished -- also are common dishwasher injuries. Young children

Robert McHugh, Ph.D. The Labor Department reported Friday that Unemployment for September rose to 9.8 percent. One out of ten Americans who are seeking work, are out of work. If laid off full time workers settling for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate in the U.S. is now up to 17 percent. If we include discouraged workers who are no longer seeking employment (they are not included in the Labor Department's unemployment figures), then the unemployment figures rise to 10.1 percent and 17.3 percent. The problem is getting worse, and evolving into a crisis of Family Household income. Consumers account for 70 percent of all spending, of GDP. The Labor Department reported Friday that 263,000 more people lost jobs in September, non-farm payroll job losses, but actually the number was even worse than reported because the Labor Department reduced the actual number of job losses by "let's pretend" jobs that they imagined in their deepest melatonin dreams wer

Meanwhile, from Phoenix comes news that a new wave of defaults is about to slam into the mortgage industry. Commercial properties, retail space, office complexes, apartment buildings are hard to rent. You can see why. In 2007, America was already outfitted with far more retail space than it actually needed. Americans had gone on a shopping spree for the previous ten years...prompting builders to add more and more space. By 2006, the United States had 10 times as much retail space per person as France. This was the bubble phase of a boom in consumer credit that began in 1945. When you get to the bubble phase, few people stop to ask questions. Instead, everyone assumes that the trends in place will remain...and even intensify. So even into 2008, in Phoenix as well as other growing areas - principally in the sand states - the building continued. And now it is 2009. Where are the shoppers? Where are the renters? Alas, they are thinner on the ground than anticipated...and the

The following column appeared in The Wall Street Journal on October 3, 2009: Don't Blame Voters for California's Budget Woes Big spending pols falsely claim citizen ballot initiatives have tied their hands. By SHIKHA DALMIA, ADRIAN MOORE AND ADAM B. SUMMERS With the Golden State still struggling to balance its books, politicians from both sides of the aisle have come up with a nifty way to avoid responsibility for the mess: Blame the voters. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, summed it up for his fellow pols recently by telling a reporter: "All of those propositions tell us how we must spend our money. . . . This is no way, of course, to run a state." State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, has made similar comments in denouncing "ballot-box budgeting." Their indictment is false. Voters aren't tying lawmakers' hands too much, but too little. Here's the background: For decades, state officials have habitually proposed

By Jon Coupal Two years ago, when then Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced a bill to prohibit the spanking of children, she was ridiculed for what many Californians considered to be frivolous legislation. In light of recent revelations of the "S & M" tinged escapades of a married, middle-aged lawmaker and one or more lobbyists, some capitol observers are wondering if Lieber should have targeted an older demographic. Although the just-resigned legislator, who described his conduct to a colleague unaware that he was also sitting before an open microphone, now says he made it up, it calls into question just what services and gifts are provided by lobbyists in an effort to influence legislation. After all, the lobbyist with whom the official claimed to have this special relationship had business before a committee on which he served as vice-chair. The Sacramento Bee recently completed an analysis of gifts, over and above campaign contributions, that are provided to Californ