Here are a few passing thoughts for a quiet Saturday…

• Former State Senator and FR friend Ross Johnson is Chairman of the State’s Fair Political Practices Commission.  He is opposed moving to electronic-filing only for required FPPC filings from candidates, PACs, etcetra.  I agree with Johnson, mainly because of a law that prohibits some informations from the paper reports from being placed on the internet.  Such a change should not limit any degree of public disclosure.
• Putting aside the fact that I am a Lakers fan, I think that all taxpayers need to be very worried over discussions that the Kings might move to a new arena at the government-owned Cal-Expo site.  The Maloofs were salivating over a taxpayer subsidy of their franchise not too long ago, and I’m sure they are still anxious to gauge Joe and Jane Public.
• If House Republicans are going to make a stand on earmarking, they should do so by calling for some objective criteria that all earmarks must meet in order to be in order.  The problem is that everyone’s focus on reforming the earmarking process doesn’t address our biggest challenge — that a vast number of Republicans continue to vote for terribly egregious pieces of pork spending.   If we cannot police ourselves, are we deserving of the majority?
• I dont know the Chancellor at U.C. Irvine.  But I can tell you that he has now been defined by me, and many of my close friends, as a weak leader who is totally consumed with the need for approval from the left-to-far-left faculty.  It was a good call to reverse his bad decision to hire an ultra-liberal dean.  It was a bad call to reverse the reversal of his decision.  Unimpressive.
• I’m still looking for someone who believes that San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican, was sincere about his recent overnight "evolution" of his position on the notion that marriage, as an institution, should be between a man and a woman.  I have certainly spoken to quite a few San Diego GOPers who feel like they have been fooled by a politician who, already having been endorsed by the Republican Party, is changing policy positions as he gears up his re-election.
• Every day that Governor spends out of the state, whether in New York speaking to the United Nations, or in Mexico talking about immigration reform, is one less day that he is in Sacramento pushing his tax increase to massively increase the state government’s role in health care.  So, here’s to many more trips for Arnold!
• In general, former Assemblyman Brooks Firestone is not my favorite kind of politician.  He is not just moderate in his ideology, but is moderate in his temperment.  I don’t think that these kinds of politicans truly make big differences because it seems like they are lacking in a defining passion.  That said, I’ve heard from many whom I respect that Firestone has been doing good things on the Board of Supervisors in Santa Barbara County.  Apparently he’s decided to retire, so we’ll see what is next for the wealthy heir of the Firestone Tires fortune.
• I inquired around as to why Supervisors in Orange County have not "clipped the wings" of Treasurer Chriss Street, after all of the controversy in which he has been embroiled.  The response I got was underwhelming — basically that he doesn’t do anything anyways, so he can’t really mess anything up.  Nice.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.