Retired State Senator Larry Stirling weighs in this morning. From the San Diego Daily Transcript:

The California child-support fiasco In the annals of government screw-ups, the repugnant epic of the federal and California state governments bollixing child-support collections is the worst.

Unpaid child support for 2 million children now totals approximately $19 billion, up from $14.4 billion just six years ago. This whole mess started with a 1988 federal law that requires each state to create a "statewide computer system to track and help collect child-support payments."

The collection of civil child support orders falls under the "police powers" of the states. Federal legislators should read the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which clearly forbids such initiatives.

The state of California should have sued the Feds, pointing out to the court that such legislation is "ultra vires" to federal constitutional authority and therefore void.

States did not sue because the Feds included a hook designed to snare the greedy. That law promised money to the… Read More

"If somebody calls me and says I want to be a partner, and the next day tries to stick a knife in my back, tell me again why I would want to do business with him?" so says Sam Zell, the Chicago billionaire who outbid Eli Broad for control over the LA Times.

Adding to the excitement was the struggle between the Left wing billionaires who were battling against each other to buy the Times. Billionaire David Geffen, whose favorite writer is Maureen Dowd, was bidding against billionaires Broad and supermarket king Ron Buckle. All are high profile donors to democrats and were key Clinton supporters.

Besides exposing the fact that the big money in California is generally left of center, it was fun towatch the mud wrestling between Zell and Broad. According to Zell, Broad approached him to buy in as a partner, butin less than 24 hours Broad tried to bid aroundZell with his buddy Burkle.… Read More

San Bernardino Republican Party members must be ecstatic over the news that JohnsonClark Associates Political Director Mike Richman will be joining the county’s central committee as its new Executive Director. Richman will serve part time in this position, while also beginning his own consulting firm serving political and public affairs clients.

Many of you know Mike Richman from the outstanding work he did in 2006, when he, in his role with JohnsonClark, managed Michelle Steel’s successful Board of Equalization primary campaign and then served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Steve Poizner’s bid for State Insurance Commissioner, which Poizner ultimately won. He also was heavily involved in the election of Anthony Adams, who is the Assemblyman from the High Desert, and one of this website’s State Capitol bloggers.

The San Bernardino County Republican Party Executive Director position has traditionally served as a… Read More

Senator Harman was the only Republican on the Senate Housing and Transportation Committee to vote with all seven Democrats to ban kids from using mobile phones while driving.

The Harman/Democrat plan makes sure little Johny and little Suzie can’t talk on the phone while driving, even if they use a head set or talk on the speaker phone. As far as I can tell, text messaging while stopped would be illegal too.

Harman’s knack for morphing himself into the role of mother, father, grand mother, grand father and Aunt Nellie all at once by telling the rest of us what to do and what not to do is becoming tiresome.

Apparently Harman does not believe that the role of government should be limited.… Read More

San Bernardino Republican Party members must be ecstatic over the news that JohnsonClark Associates Political Director Mike Richman will be joining the county’s central committee as its new Executive Director. Richman will serve part time in this position, while also beginning his own consulting firm serving political and public affairs clients.

Many of you know Mike Richman from the outstanding work he did in 2006, when he, in his role with JohnsonClark, managed Michelle Steel’s successful Board of Equalization primary campaign and then served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Steve Poizner’s bid for State Insurance Commissioner, which Poizner ultimately won. He also was heavily involved in the election of Anthony Adams, who is the Assemblyman from the High Desert, and one of this website’s State Capitol bloggers.

The San Bernardino County Republican Party Executive Director position has traditionally served as a… Read More

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL Misguided measure Don’t mix politics and investment decisions April 4, 1940

When it comes to your retirement savings, do you want investment decisions to be made by professional money managers or by freshman Assemblyman Joel Anderson of La Mesa?

Anderson, a conservative Republican who claims to be pro-business, thinks he knows better than the professionals how to invest the $386 billion in pension funds controlled by the California Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System. Consequently, Anderson has introduced a bill to require CalPERS and CalSTRS to sell off an estimated $24 billion worth of stocks and bonds in 300 foreign companies.

Why? Because the firms, mostly large multinationals with operations all over the globe, do business in NAZI GERMANY.

If Anderson’s measure is approved, CalPERS and CalSTRS would have to divest such historically profitable companies as DaimlerChrysler, Hyundai, Alcatel and Siemens. The result, according to the professional money managers, would almost certainly be a… Read More

[NOTE: I cross-posted this yesterday on Red County/OC Blog and Red County/San Diego]

With the fall of the Iron Curtain, droves of Russian and other Communist apparatchiki found refuge and gainful employment within the bowels of California government, or so it may seem to avid watchers and participants in the Golden States’ politburo.

A prime example is the California Coastal Commission, which has been described by one noted policy analyst as combining "bureaucratic ideology of near- Stalinist zeal with corruption of the worst kind."

Despite repeated attempts to kill the Commission, it continues to operate as a kind of Central Committee, with executive director Peter Douglas as General Secretary – ruling with an iron fist and virtually no accountability to the public as it issues nyet after nyet on development matters – unless of course, the proponent happens to be on the celebrity ‘A’ list.

The commission stands as a monument to favoritism, corruption and a situational view of property rights. Its history… Read More

Assemblymember Anthony Adams’ hometown newspaper, the Hesperia Star, last week featured a profile of the 59th Assembly District’s new assemblymember (and Flashreport State Capitol correspondent). The Hesperia Star noted Assemblymember Adams’ hectic Capital and District calendar of events as a staff reporter interviewed him over coffee at a neighborhood Starbucks.

Excerpts from the Star piece on Adams:

“But the recently-elected state assemblyman — Adams took office last December after winning handling in November — is accustomed to such flurries of activity.

In Sacramento, Adams’ typical day begins with a 7:30 a.m. breakfast meeting, at 8:30 he gets to his office at the capitol, at 9 he conducts yet another meeting, the first of several activities sandwiched into tidy 30-minute segments.

On some days, he attends committee meetings. (Adams is on the… Read More