Baseball, for a second… It wasn’t lost on sports fans in San Diego this week that although Padres ace Jake Peavy unanimously won the NL Cy Young Award for his "Triple Crown of Pitching" performance, an indicted Barry Bonds was getting most of the media attention.  Justice must be served, of course, but one could at least hope that prosecutors might consider the timing of award announcements for the deserving — and give it a day or two — before announcing indictments of others.  OK, perhaps Bonds is deserving as well.  Hey Barry, have a prison sentence with that asterisk.  At 30 HRs a year, A-Rod will snuff out your record in about a decade.  I can’t wait.

Cal-Chamber Weighs In… Here’s the San Diego delegation’s voting record from Cal-Chamber’s 2007 Legislative Scorecard.  No surprises, and it doesn’t quite strip the wheat from the chaff as much as a CRA or CRF, but it clearly exemplifies the two parties’ polar opposition on business issues.  I know, I have an uncanny ability of stating the obvious…

Senate
Hollingsworth (R) – 100% (14-0)
Wyland (R) – 100% (14-0)
Ducheny (D) – 29% (4-10)
Kehoe (D) – 7% (1-13)

Assembly
Anderson (R) – 100% (14-0)
Garrick (R) – 100% (14-0)
Horton (R) – 100% (14-0)
Jeffries (R) – 100% (14-0)
Plescia (R) – 100% (14-0)
Walters (R) – 100% (14-0)
Salas (D) – 14% (2-12)
Saldaña (D) – 7% (1-13)

Click here for the entire scorecard.

Nathan Fletcher: Worth Reposting… I’ve been so tied up the last several days, I hadn’t even seen Nathan Fletcher’s account of his brother’s helicopter going down in the Pacific last weekend (he’s ok), even though Jon had it as the Veterans Day Commentary on these pages and Nathan’s blog entry was also in my inbox.  It’s a great read, so if you happened to have also missed it, I’d encourage you to take the time now…

Lazy mornings, little brothers, and helicopter crashes

Speaking of the 75th AD… On a side note (and as an update), since Fletcher is also a candidate for the AD 75 seat, it should be noted that his opponents had nothing to say about his very personal Vet Day commentary.  What opponents, you ask?  Exactly.  It continues to look like no credible person will suicide it against him.  And, if he’s as good a legislator as he is a writer, he’s going places.  Oh yeah, both the New Majority and Lincoln Club endorsed him this past week.

NR and Washington Times on CA Iran Divestment… In the last couple of weeks both of these national conservative heavyweight pubs have focused on AB 221 and divesting from terrorist states, the Times byline none other than national security yoda Frank Gaffney himself.  The National Review piece pays tribute to Joel Anderson’s successful efforts to pass the bill:

This nation at war needs more security-minded political stalwarts like Assemblyman Joel Anderson, a freshman Republican legislator from San Diego, who is doing yeoman’s work to help stop the threat of terrorism from regimes such as the one in Tehran. Last January, he introduced crucial and innovative legislation, AB 221, to prohibit state retirement boards from investing in companies conducting business in Iran. In September, the bill finally passed unanimously in both the California Senate and Assembly, after indefatigable efforts by Anderson in overcoming opposition on several fronts. In October, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law.

Read the entire NR article; it’s well worth it, a good synopsis of the travails of the Sacramento minefield.

Here also is the Gaffney piece in the Times, where he writes, "Clearly, it is time to bring to bear another instrument capable of dramatically curbing the cash flow to Iran and, for that matter, other terror-sponsoring regimes."

City Attorney Mis-using Prop 64 Funds?… Just when Mike Aguirre thought it might be safe to come outside and play again, thus ending his apparent self-imposed exile after trying to evacuate all of San Diego to a Wal-Mart parking lot in Arizona…the newest and latest from TaxpayersAdvocate.org, a letter to the city council:

November 13, 2007

TaxpayersAdvocate.org is conducting a fiscal and management review of the San Diego City Attorney’s office. The primary intent of this project is to focus on how and where the San Diego City Attorney spends taxpayer’s funds and resources.

Unbudgeted Use of Prop 64 Funds

In the course of our investigation we were surprised to come across the existence of un-budgeted Prop 64 funds, received and spent by the City Attorney’s office.

For decades the City of San Diego has been involved in dishonest budget and accounting practices which ultimately resulted in Federal criminal investigations, a review by the SEC and the improper use of millions of dollars.   In recent years this Mayor and Council have re-dedicated themselves to open and honest budgeting. Therefore, the existence of an unbudgeted revenue source and expenditures by the City Attorney raises a number of disquieting legal and public policy questions.

The letter goes on.  Read it all at Red County/San Diego. 

And, Speaking of the City Attorney… The Democratic Central Committee decided last week not to dole out an early endorsement to Aguirre.  In the meantime, former Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith continues to seriously mull a campaign against him.  This could get fun.

Have a great week!

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.