Just when you think nanny government can’t get any more intrusive, Senator Jack Scott introduces an asinine bill like SB 1499. This ridiculous bill will make it a crime to sell metallic balloons in California. A staple of parties and celebrations, the balloons are apparently the cause of periodic power outages when they get loose and become entangled in electrical wires. So to prevent such inconveniences, Senator Scott wants to ban the balloons in California.

Los Angeles radio talk show hosts John and Ken are some of the most vocal opponents against nanny government bills and, as you can imagine, they are vehemently opposed to SB 1499. To express their disgust for SB 1499, they decided to use an effective tactic that Rush Limbaugh calls “showing absurdity by being absurd.” Instead of utilizing the old political protest tactic of “burning in effigy,” the radio hosts sponsored a Jack Scott “stomping in effigy” last week.

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I came home for the weekend to find the price of premium gas approaching $5 per gallon. It is about 40 cents higher than in the DC area. Not only is the price of gas unlikely to stop there, but other energy prices are rising too. The price of natural gas has risen dramatically in the last few months. Natural gas provides almost all of our home heating in California as well as about 50% of our electricity generation. Remember the spikes in electricity prices back during the energy crisis of 2001? Well, there won’t be that big a jump this time, but there will be a jump in your electric bill and your heating bill soon. So it’s not just the price of gasoline which will be impacting your wallet.

So what is happening in Washington to try to deal with this new energy crisis? Nothing. House Democratic leadership has blocked a number of Republican sponsored bills from consideration on the floor, and the only bill they are pushing is a "windfall profits" tax increase on domestic oil production which they know is going nowhere in the Senate or with the president (and which would increase the price of gas rather than decrease it anyway). So there is literally… Read More

It’s easy for political pundits and campaign operatives to Wednesday morning quarterback a campaign’s effort. More often than not, this evaluation process means unfair praise for the winners and excessive blame for the losers. That’s why I wanted to take a moment- to recognize the stand-out campaign manager of the cycle. The best campaign manager doesn’t mean the best campaign. It doesn’t even mean that you won the race. The best campaign manager means the person who best executed the X’s and O’s of a ground campaign. The 2008 Primary’s Campaign Manager of the Cycle is Barrett Tetlow. Barrett is an experienced campaign operative, who arguably managed the primary’s best ground effort. The Larry Dick campaign was always walking precincts and calling voters. They walked every house several times over in an “unwalkable” district and chased them with a phone call. … Read More

There can’t possibly be anything more frustrating than being one of the two Republicans who serve on the State Budget Conference Committee. The reason for this is that even though California voters long ago placed a two-thirds vote requirement to pass a state budget, this important clause intended to prevent a tyranny of the majority is ignored during the process where legislators actually go through the budget proposals. Or, to put it more simply, legislative Democrats in the Senate and in the Assembly use a majority-vote threshold in their Budget Subcommittee meetings, and in the case of the Budget Conference Committee, the Committee itself is stacked with a 2-1 advantage of Democrats to Republicans (which does not mirror the makeup of either house where Republicans have more than 1/3 of the seats). The result, predictably, is that Republicans are pretty much left out of the process at this stage, able to vocalize concerns about overspending, but lacking the votes on the Conference Committee to do anything about it.

Needless to say, this means that in terms of Democrat and Republican… Read More

There can’t possibly be anything more frustrating than being one of the two Republicans who serve on the State Budget Conference Committee. The reason for this is that even though California voters long ago placed a two-thirds vote requirement to pass a state budget, this important clause intended to prevent a tyranny of the majority is ignored during the process where legislators actually go through the budget proposals. Or, to put it more simply, legislative Democrats in the Senate and in the Assembly use a majority-vote threshold in their Budget Subcommittee meetings, and in the case of the Budget Conference Committee, the Committee itself is stacked with a 2-1 advantage of Democrats to Republicans (which does not mirror the makeup of either house where Republicans have more than 1/3 of the seats). The result, predictably, is that Republicans are pretty much left out of the process at this stage, able to vocalize concerns about overspending, but lacking the votes on the Conference Committee to do anything about it.

Needless to say, this means that in terms of… Read More

Today California Congressman Kevin McCarthy rang the opening bell for the stock market.

You can see the video here.… Read More

Just off the transom — from State Senator Bob Dutton, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee…

In my write up of last Friday’s big Orange County GOP fundraising dinner, I mentioned that Orange County Register columnist Frank Mickadeit would undoubtedly follow with some thoughts on the dinner. You can read them all here, though below I have excerpted the part of his column where he gives a stinging assessment of the performance of Florida Governor Charlie Crist.

Crist. Oy. Brought in as the keynote speaker because he’s on the short list of potential McCain running mates, his performance Friday night truly did help his party. By showing unequivocally he would be a complete disaster for the GOP – the worst running mate since Dan Quayle.

Mr. Crist looks great: – silver hair, ragged shirt, baggy pa— … wait, that’s Mr. Bojangles; let’s try again: silver hair, warm smile, great tan, perfectly tailored suit of clothes, decent teeth. It’s when he uses his… Read More