A Lt. Governor Who Could Become Government Reform Czar
Talk about a public private partnership – how would the issue of government reform fare if a chief architect of privately funded reform ideas holds one of the top constitutional offices in the state? It’s possible if Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger selects former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg to be the interim Lt. Governor with a portfolio as the new czar for governance reform.
No one knows if the governor would select a Democrat for the post if it becomes vacant, but Hertzberg’s name is frequently mentioned as a possibility. It is hard to imagine Hertzberg wanting the post until you consider what he has been up to lately.
The effusive Hertzberg is co-chairman of California Forward, the foundation funded government reform project that is just now issuing ideas on how to reform California’s dysfunctional government.
There has been much speculation about whom Schwarzenegger would appoint to the Lt. Governor’s office should the current occupant of that office, John Garamendi, win a congressional seat in November.
Questions Dog Fiorina’s Senate Plans
Will Carly Fiorina really be on the Republican ballot next June? Inquiring minds want to know.
Sure, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard opened an exploratory committee in August to look at the possibility of seeking the GOP Senate nomination to challenge Democrat Barbara Boxer and, yeah, those “exploratory committees” are typically little more than a modesty patch for the actual campaign.
And Marty Wilson, the former aide to governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger who’s serving as Fiorina’s consultant in that exploratory effort, swears up and down that he’s seen absolutely nothing to suggest that the businesswoman is anything less than completely committed to running and beating Boxer.
Still, with the news coming out in recent days, you gotta wonder.
There was a story by Mike Zapler of the San Jose Mercury-News a few weeks back about how HP, through a Dutch subsidiary, sold $120 million of the company’s products to Iran, despite a US ban on doing business with the country.
Apathy of the Public and the Paralysis of the Power in LA
This article first appeared on ronkayela.com.
How did it come to pass that we, the people, wound up working for the
unions instead of the unions, the public employee unions, working for us?
We can’t blame them for the state of our city. We let it happen by doing
nothing while they organized and pursued what was good for them. They
joined forces with other special interests like developers, contractors,
lobbyists and started electing the people they wanted to into office,
people who serve their interests far better than the public interest.
Even when that became obvious years ago, we did nothing about. We didn’t
pay attention. We didn’t vote. We let them write their own contracts,
their own work rules, the laws they wanted.
Ethics and Honor
Every summer a new crop of America’s finest young men and women arrive at a place high above the Hudson River in upstate New York. That place is the United States Military Academy at West Point. It is here that they will take their first steps in becoming our nation’s military leaders of tomorrow. Over the course of the next four years they will learn many things.
But on that first day they will learn 12 very important words. “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
This is the Cadet Honor Code. It is simple, straightforward and “lie, cheat, or steal” at West Point has a broad definition to cover any unethical or immoral behavior.
Recently here in California, we had a video surface that showed two Republican legislators waiting for a formal hearing to begin engaged in a conversation about the sexual exploits of one with a married female lobbyist who has two children. Assemblyman Mike Duvall, the person who made the disgusting comments, is also married with two children. It has been replayed too many times to count and I will not dignify what was said by repeating it here.