Since California doesn’t have any governance problems that require action or merit discussion, isn’t it nice that the race for governor is focused on the question of: who is more tied to Goldman Sachs?

The answer to that is easy: Meg Whitman was on the board and got favorable treatment in IPOs. But I’ve been reluctant to weigh in. Like everyone else, I have so many conflicts of interest that I wonder if I too am a Goldman stooge. A close friend works for Goldman. Another friend did a real estate deal with some Goldman guys. The co-author of my new book is a former shareholder. One of my first editors at the Baltimore Sun has edited terrific stories for McClatchy’s Washington bureau that have exposed Goldman’s bad dealings. And Goldman is my fellow creditor in a bankruptcy fight over my former employer, the Tribune Company.

Plus, as an American taxpayer, my money was used to help save Goldman.

Whether you "like it or not" as one of our Lieutenant Governor candidates is fond of saying, Arizona’s tough new immigration law is a flash point in our national conversation on immigration and a catalyst for reform.

Despite tiptoeing ever-so-slowly into the punditocracy, two things have become readily apparent: (1) there is no indigestion for having to eat your own words; and (2) there is no penalty for making unfulfilled prognostications.  But like that phrase in most of our public servant oaths, there is often a little mental reservation. 

While noting that chances were slim for comprehensive immigration reform this year in my first Fox & Hounds Daily piece, it would have been prudent on my part to say it would not happen in 2010 unless there was some galvanizing event (i.e. the Mass Immigrant Marches of 2006 or the signing of Arizona’s SB 1070).

On April 15, after two months of speculation, President Obama gave a
speech at the Kennedy Space Center outlining his new ambitious plans
for NASA and the American space program.

It’s a bold plan with a number of positives, not only nationally, but
in particular for the state of California. Its emphasis on unmanned
missions and private rocketry contractors can only help the state,
which is home to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ames Research
Center, plus contractors such as Space X and Scaled Composites.

However, the long-term risks for California under this plan threaten to
undermine any true benefits the state might see. There are two
significant factors that raise concern: the shifting of risk from the
public to the private sector, and the continued failure of the
government to establish clear, achievable goals for the manned space
program. One of these two factors will invariably cause a future crisis
for our space program, but the other may have more profound impacts on
our overall competitiveness, both in aerospace and in other scientific
sectors.

The recent news cycle has featured a story about a civil lawsuit filed by the SEC against the insanely profitable Wall Street Master (Of All Masters) of the Universe, Goldman Sachs ("Goldman").  The SEC charges in the Complaint initiating this soon to be titanic litigation, made public last Friday, that Goldman created some 25 ‘Deals’ (like the one from which this piece derives its title: "Abacus 2007-AC1"). 

These Deals enabled Goldman and some of its most beloved clientele to literally bet against the housing market, at a time when those bets could pay off BigTime.

Now, Goldman vehemently denies all of this (in a press release within minutes of the filing, Goldman called the allegations: "completely unfounded in law and fact").   I want to make it very clear at the outset that what I am about to discuss further here are but allegations in a new lawsuit, neither proven facts nor adjudicated matters found true by any court anywhere.   It does not take much to file a lawsuit – in fact, even a Rhesus Monkey, armed with a typewriter, about $300 (here in the Los Angeles Superior Court) and a stack of papers, who can find his or her way to the Courthouse, can file a lawsuit!

The labor unions continued the all out assault on Meg Whitman’s candidacy for governor with yesterday’s announcement that they are launching another campaign to attack Whitman’s record. This is on top of the already announced independent expenditure efforts backed by the public employee unions to attack Whitman and the childish histrionics of the Queen Meg campaign.

But the unions have an agenda of their own for California. That agenda’s bottom line is at least $40 billion in new taxes. The unions have been pushing a catalog of tax increases for some time now. The recent revelation of their "tax everything" plan was promoted at the end of a long march to the state capitol that ended last week.

Among the list of union tax demands are the following tax increase proposals listed in a Capitol Alert report:

Tomorrow I will be at Kentwood Elementary School in Los Angeles with
Governor Schwarzenegger and some of California’s finest educators to
discuss the work I have done for the Governor’s Council on Physical
Fitness & Sports.  We will announce that in 2010 we’ve already
signed up a record 1 million more Californians to take the Governor’s
Physical Fitness Challenge, and that thanks to Coca-Cola, eight new
schools are being awarded fitness centers.  

This is not about politics, it is about children.  Over the past five
years, I have seen what is possible when parents, educators,
officeholders, and community members join together and support our kids.

We launched the Governor’s Fitness Challenge in 2006, and encouraged
California’s kids to get off the couch or computer chair and get some
exercise: 30-60 minutes, every other day for a month.  Those of us who
exercise know that even 30 minutes can do wonders to refresh the mind
and body, prevent obesity, or just give us the chance to clear our
heads.

Spring seems to have brought with it an outbreak of a new type of allergy: allergic historicus . Unlike allergic rhinitis or hay fever, allergic historicus is not characterized by sinus problems or itchy eyes.  The symptoms, rather, are using historical examples that illustrate one’s ignorance and thus exposing the victim to easy ridicule.  An interesting pathology of the condition is that some people in proximity of an allergic historicus suffer may develop a related condition, historicus fatuus, or even worse historicus dementis.

For example, Dick Armey recently proclaimed the Jamestown Colony as "socialist venture" that left "everybody dead and dying in the snow."  Let’s see:  Jamestown was founded as a for-profit venture by the London Company, a joint stock company in 1607, or about two hundred years before French thinker Saint-Simon first wrote about socialism.  Perhaps Armey confused Capitan John Smith, soldier of fortune and tireless promoter of North America as a place to get rich, with Karl Marx. After all, both men had beards.

If you’ve been to a lunch meeting, a cocktail reception or most any
gathering of business people in Los Angeles in the last few weeks,
you’ve probably talked about the economy.

Suddenly, it seems, everybody’s asking: Is the economy really recovering? Do you see a turnaround in your business?

The picture is jumbled partly because economic forecasts now are highly
politicized. Liberal organizations and individuals are trumpeting a
Great Recovery, while conservative ones are dismissing any alleged
comeback as too meek or as a temporary bounce. Those divergent stances
are understandable since the economy may play a big role in the
critical elections this fall.

The debate over public union pensions, benefits, and influence is gaining more and more attention with the mainstream media and the public at large. This couldn’t be more evident than the release of a new documentary skewering teachers unions and a skit making fun of the public unions on this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live.

In the SNL satirical skit, Kenan Thompson played the host of the "2010 Public Employee of the Year Awards." As he tells his audience at the mock award show, "people with government jobs are like workers everywhere except for lifetime job security, guaranteed annual raises, early retirement on generous pensions and full medical coverage with no deductibles and office visit fees or co-payments."

Have a laugh when you take a look at the skit for yourselves here.

A new documentary on teachers’ unions called "The Cartel" was produced and reported by former Bloomberg television reporter, Bob Bowden. He argues in his 90-minute documentary that the state of the public schools are the greatest threat to the nation and that powerful teachers unions are the cause of failed public education.