There are some very interesting stories amidst the collection of pre-election headlines that have mutiplied as the big day draws near.
DEMOCRAT DEAN FLOREZ CRITICIZES JESSICA’S LAW
One of our first blog posts, from Brad Mitzelfelt, was on Jessica’s Law. Yesterday, Florez was critical of the measure that seeks to ratchet up the state posture on repeat sexual predators. Why? Well, apparently there are some new restrictions in this measure about how close these predators can come to certain places (like schools). Flores believes that due to the urban nature of big cities (like Los Angeles) where things are close together in proximity, that this will cause "predator flight" (my words) to areas of less density, where things are planned with more open space. An interesting thought…it will be interesting to see how this develops.
ARNOLD vs. POMBO? No…Arnold versus federalism!
There are couple stories featured today along the lines of "Arnold v Pombo" – of course referring to our Governor, and Stockton-based Congressman Richard Pombo. At hand, a measure before the Congress that would take away or loosen the federal restrictions on off-shore oil drilling. Make no bones about it, this measure does NOT create some sort of ‘federal right to drill’ — it simply would put the matter in the hands of the states. So, it is not likely that California is about to allow this drilling off of the coast anytime soon. But the real issue is this — shouldn’t we be able to, if we wan’t, free from regulation from the Beltway? Kudos to you, Congressman, your instincts are right. Sometimes you have to help California, despite California ;-)
WHO IS WILLIAM ROBINSON?
This low-profile founder of DHL Shipping is a major poltical giver from the Inland Empire, and you can read more about him here.
LIBERTARIAN JOURNAL PENS PIECE AGAINST 75
Talk about being so close to the trees that you can’t see the forest. This falls under "tales of the 
unbelievable" – but yet true. There is a piece at Reason Magazine site today – featured on our main page (look for the BROWN link) by Tim Cavenaugh, the online editor for Reason. For those of you who are not familiar with Reason, they are the premiere libertarian organization/magazine in America. Anyways, Cavenaugh’s logic is more or less that government should not intrude into the private relationship between a union member and their union, period. Of course, the article doesn’t talk about the propriety of public employee unions using government financial services to facilitate withdrawals of money from government employee paychecks. Of course, the big picture that is lost on Cavenaugh is that massive amounts of moneys ripped from employee paychecks without express permission are the single most influencial factor on the growth of government, and regulation, in California. Like I said, someone is staring at the bark beetle, and not realizing the forest is burning down…
Have a great day!
Jon
PS: Don’t miss Dan Walters’ and John Ellis’ columns today (prominently linked on the main page — they are definately worth a read).