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...