Ring the church bells and start the parade! The worst is over for the California economy!

And how do we know this? Simple. That’s what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Of course that “happy days are here again” chatter is going to leave the governor facing a major league sales job when it comes to convincing already-skeptical Democrats in the Legislature that they need to make even deeper cuts to California’s social services.

After all, who needs the grief – and nasty floor battles – a debate over those cuts is sure to bring when at least some of California’s current fiscal problems may simply go away if the Legislature waits long enough?

On separate occasions last week, two justices of the California Supreme Court criticized the initiative process. One critique charged that the process could deny citizens basic rights; the second fingered initiatives as a key reason for California’s dysfunctional government. Both arguments are off-base and, to use court terminology, need to be appealed.

Early last week, Justice Carlos Moreno charged that certain basic rights could be subject to change by simple majority votes under the initiative process. Moreno’s remarks were delivered in reference to the gay marriage initiative. What’s odd about the comment is that the Justice ignores the role of our courts in the governing process.

If a law is indeed unconstitutional – if rights are being taken away – then it is the role of the court to overturn the offending law. In the case of the gay marriage initiative, that legal test is going-on right now. Laws passed by legislative bodies face the same scrutiny. Courts are not shy about declaring laws unconstitutional, it happens all the time.

The world has been watching California’s political and fiscal troubles, and the world is blaming our direct democracy.

So wherever there’s talk of expanding the rights of people to decide on laws or constitutional amendments, a new criticism ring: Let’s not let our country/province/city become another California.

I’ve been traveling around the country for the past week with Bruno Kaufmann, a Swiss-Swede journalist who is president of the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe, a think tank on direct democracy based at the University of Marburg in Germany. He’s shared with me how California’s name is taken in vain in direct democracy debates around the world, particularly in Europe, where a new citizen’s initiative process is beginning to take shape. Bruno, political strategist Gale Kaufman, and I will talk more about this at a public event today in Sacramento.

Recently, the Peterson Institute for International Economics opined of the European initiative: “ Anyone who thinks this is a good idea should look across the globe to California, which has nearly a century’s experience with direct democracy and citizens’ initiatives, and which is lurching from one fiscal crisis to another and is probably the most ungovernable state in America.

Arizona made
a colossal blunder last month, one that provides a cautionary tale for
California.  As a result of
legislative raids on its funds in order to fill gaps elsewhere, the Arizona
Parks Board voted to shut down two-thirds of Arizona’s state parks.  Four have already been shuttered.  Thirteen more are slated for closure
between now and June.  If
additional funds aren’t found by then, the remainder of the system will also be
padlocked.  Sound familiar?

California’s
state parks dodged that bullet last year. 
A cut to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s $140 million general
fund allocation was initially expected to lead the full closure of close to 100
state parks.  The outcry was great
enough, though, that the administration ultimately indicated that the savings
could be realized through other means such as adding to a deferred maintenance backlog
already over one billion dollars, delaying the purchase of new equipment, and
reductions in park operations instead of outright closures. 

Many political reformers will tell you that money corrupts politics. But how do we get through to voters without an aggressive effort to reach them, which nearly always involves money?

Despite being the talk of California’s political world with over 700,000 views on YouTube, the Demon Sheep created by the Fiorina for U.S. Senate campaign was unknown to most of the very involved community group members I spoke to in Los Angeles this week.

The Sacramento echo chamber sometimes make you believe that the political stories being discussed all around you are also spreading far and wide and having an impact. In our great state of 36-million people it takes quite a lot to have an impact, especially when politics is not very high on the average citizen’s ‘things I like to do’ list.

Using new
technology, everyone in America can join the Online Tax Revolt, and March for
America.  There is no cost; it is
an old-fashioned protest march in the street with signs and the symbols of
protest and even "real" streets. 
It ends in Washington on Tax Day April 15 where each participant’s
avatar and team will join in the live rally taking place in the Capitol that
day.

Today the
Online Tax Revolt makes its soft launch at the CPAC
meetings in Washington DC, on Neal Boortz’ Nationally syndicated Radio Talk
Show and with  announcements here
in Fox and Hounds and selected other sites.  On March 1 the hard launch starts with aggressive buys on
talk radio, emails, social networking sites, direct mail, banner ads and such.

We know
there are millions of Americans who sympathize with Tea Party activists.   The Tea Party is currently more
popular than either major party. 
But most people, for one reason or another, cannot or do not turn
out.  Who among us is not now
picking up a mental pitch fork, at least from time to time?  Who among us is not, to one extent or
another, cheering on the Tea Parties? 

In another sign that California’s city governments are finding new and creative ways to engage their residents on excruciating budget decisions, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been attempting to drum up participation in the city’s, Los Angeles Budget Challenge website. Utilizing the “Budget Challenge” software developed by Next Ten, the website is a facile survey-based platform that asks budget cut and revenue questions while it tracks the actual fiscal impact of your choices.

As Mayor Villaraigosa recently encouraged, “I believe community participation in the city’s budget process is essential." But is the “community” really participating in this process? After going through the site myself, there are definite “Good”, “Bad”, and “Ugly” aspects to the initiative.

I retire this year as a speech pathologist for the public school system with a heavy heart knowing how low education has sunk.

I am passionate about my work and am very accomplished in my field. However, since the creation of the Department of Education and the Federal Government involvement in local school districts our education system nationwide has declined. From establishing Law 94142, now called IDEA, to No Child Left Behind, special and general education teachers are drowning in unnecessary paper work.

We are constantly told that if we don’t dot our Is and cross our Ts we are opening ourselves up for a lawsuit. There is a whole cottage industry that has grown around lawyers and advocates milking parents and school districts for money or they will seek a resolution in a court setting. Some do a good job of advocating for students’ rights, but there is always the threat of a lawsuit. Countless hours are spent in meetings when we should be teaching students.

Meg Whitman is running a full-court press to force Steve Poizner out of the Republican race for governor, which shows just how concerned she is about an upcoming series of Democratic attack ads.

On Wednesday, for example, her campaign announced that Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo, the former minority leader, had dropped his endorsement of Poizner and was moving into the Whitman camp.

A trio of GOP legislators, state Sen. Mark Wyland of Escondido, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen of Yuba City and Assemblywoman Connie Conway of Tulare, also magically picked Wednesday as the day to urge Poizner to “do the right thing, step aside and join us in supporting Meg.”

Whitman even took what’s been a rare move for her by actually talking, however briefly, to a few California reporters this week.

“Democrats are worried about my candidacy,” she told KCBS radio in San Francisco.