Opinion

In his latest television ad, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dusts off his old shtick of portraying himself as an outsider battling evil.

California's gargantuan $26 billion budget deficit means that even its most vulnerable state workers must share in the pain.

California residents are still largely unaware of the devastation being wreaked upon higher education in their state by mammoth cuts to the budgets of the 10 campuses of the University of California system.

Disabilities act compliance, state budget, Al Gore's silence, etc.

Doubtless, thousands of other women's ears perked up when Sen. Charles Schumer, introducing Sonia Sotomayor at Monday's confirmation hearing, mentioned the Latina jurist's girlhood affection for Nancy Drew books.

Law-enforcement experts have long known that a close-knit neighborhood is the most effective tool in deterring crime.

At Thursday's rally for imprisoned journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, speakers at the state Capitol could have riled the crowd with denunciations of North Korea, but conspicuously and deliberately they did not.

Among the rare domestic policy innovations strongly promoted by both the Obama and Bush administrations is centralization of all Americans' medical records. The appeal of the notion is hard to miss.

Liberals, torture, K Street, Central Valley water, etc.

Barack Obama has had a masterly run. Starting with the Iowa caucuses in January 2008, he has been, if not The One We've Been Waiting For, the one best suited to tap the wellsprings of public sentiment and capitalize on political circumstances.

If the consensus of the economic experts is grim, the consensus of the climate experts is utterly terrifying.

Let's not repeat mistakes with new generation of immigrants.

This week's hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court represent the opening skirmish in a long-term struggle to challenge the escalating activism of an increasingly conservative judiciary.

State workers, Kevin Johnson, deputies, Steve McNair, etc.

If success in politics depends on compromise, which is certainly the case in a democracy, and our California legislators are failing in their attempts to come to agreement, then our politicians should think about a new approach.

The state is out of money, paying its bills with IOUs and facing a fiscal train wreck. The Legislature desperately needs more urgency, and more competence, from its leaders.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's apparent decision to impose a fourth furlough day won't just devastate state worker households already pushed to the brink by the three unpaid days off he's already imposed.

While cost for all-mail elections is important, it's not the only or even the most important consideration in the administration of elections. Access, fairness and accuracy are.

Here's a cause we all should join: Free Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

An obituary for Air Force Gen. Herb Gavin appeared in our paper last week. It included many highlights from his distinguished military career. It did not, however, include an event that made him a hero to my family.

If the airport or the courts were to reduce their law enforcement staffing, it would not increase patrol staffing one bit; it would only increase the number of deputies to be laid off.

Clever folks in the state Capitol are still posturing and arguing as they hack and slash their way through an anticipated $26.3 billion deficit. Up for negotiation are millions of dollars in cuts and tens of thousands of public jobs – numbers too huge for most of us to understand and digest.

Campaigning for president, Barack Obama said repeatedly that any overhaul of the health care system should be negotiated publicly and televised for all to see. Throughout this year's negotiations, however, the big deals have been struck in secret.

While millions of Americans learned last Sunday of the military ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on CNN or the Internet, seven Sacramentans witnessed the overthrow firsthand. I was among a delegation of labor representatives from Sacramento who flew to the capital, Tegucigalpa, to serve as international observers of the Honduran election.

The summer of 2009 will sadly be remembered in California for more than the untimely death of Michael Jackson or the celebratory triumph of the Los Angeles Lakers. For California educators, these summer months are truly dog days because, as the next school year beckons in the weeks to come, many of us are having the same radical and tragic realization.

You've got to speak to the public. I think the governor should give an address to the whole state. Ask every television network, every radio station, for 10 or 12 minutes. Explain the mess we're in, how we got here and what we need to get out of it.

Every year is different. Not only are new cards being dealt, but the rules change. When I was doing the budget, Pete Wilson was governor, and he was very, very engaged. I don't know if that's the right way to do it. I just know the last time we had the old-fashioned balanced budget was when he was governor. We would spend literally hours, every day, day after day, trying to work through it. At the time, the most difficult issue was the implementation of federal welfare reform. It was very hard.

State employees, Proposition 13, online sales taxes, etc.

I interviewed former Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday night during a Zocalo Public Square forum at RAND.

I would go talk directly to the other leaders. When I was Republican leader, Bob Hertzberg, who was the Assembly speaker, and I were so concerned about our staffs sabotaging deals that we would go and meet in private locations. Sometimes the staff, in its zeal to protect an interest or an interest group, or even the members themselves, can derail a good negotiation.