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I’m off to the Capitol City this morning for a Board of Directors Meeting for the California Republican Party. Also on my Southwest Flight are CRP Secretary Steve Baric (we carpooled), RNC Delegation Executive Director Kathy Tavoularis and also David Cordero, a longtime GOP activist who does government affairs for one of Orange County’s myriad of water districts. Wheels up!… Read More
The arguments being made by some that Proposition 98 would somehow inhibit infrastructure (such as water conveyance) construction in California have been debunked as being without merit. Still, using this faux argument, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has once again, like he did with Prop. 90, sided with the redevelopment lobby against property owners in announcing his opposition to Proposition 98. Once again the Governor and "his" political party are on opposite sides of this issue of meaningful reforms of eminent domain abuse — with the Governor again supporting the status quo. I think the Governor should change his middle name to "Disappointment" – sigh.… Read More
I am just arrived in Berlin todayfor a round of meetings to advance Mike Reagan’s trip here in early July. Mike will bebroadcasting his daily radio talk show from here. I am also on a secret mission,working on a project for Mike,which, if successful, will also be announced by him on his trip here.
The history of Berlin, particularly the more contemporary history, is both fascinating and heart-breaking. And Berliners really care about it. On a short walk this morning from Potsdamer Platz to Pariser Platz, the enormity of the confrontation between East and West that resulted in the creation in 1961 and destruction in 1989, of the Berlin Wall, is literally pushed into your face.Good for Berlin!
The street I walked along connecting the two traffic circles was itself literally ground zero of the Berlin Wall. At Potsdamer Bahnhof, where I started my walk, amidst a beautiful open-air shopping area, I encountered about 20 yards of the real wall, reconstructed as a monument to that grim time, for all to see. The Berlin Senate includes discriptive signs along with the pieces of the wall, and stories and pictures of its… Read More
Berlin has one sort-of Las Vegas style casino, named "Speilbank Berlin." It is on the Marlene-Deitrich Platz across the street from the newish Grand Hyatt Hotel. Both these enterprisesand the surrounding buildings and shops were developed by Daimler-Benz and Sony Corporation out of the rubble of the "no man’s land" that existed between East and West Berlin during the Wall period. People trying to escape Communism used to get shot at and chased by tommy-gun armed East German "Vopos" and their German Shepherds in this area. And now, since the early 1990s development boom,amongst other new development still buzzing in the area, and in old east Berlin, there is Der Speilbank.A monument to freedom. Acasino.
Purely for investigative purposes I visited Der Speilbank late last night after a plateof schnitzel and white asparagras (in season here and a local delicacy) at my hotel. The contrasts to Vegas,or one of our Indian casinos,were most interesting.
First, unlike Vegas, you need to pay 2 Euros (a little less than $4) just to enter this casino. Not a lot of money, but it seems the Germans… Read More
With just over five weeks to go, Bob Watkins is out a consultant and a fundraiser in the GOP race to replace Congressman Duncan Hunter.Both Sacramento-based JohnsonClark Associates and a local fundraiser confirmed with me that they ended their respective relationships with the Watkins campaign earlier in the month.
Media consultant Jennifer Kerns issued a statement in response to my resulting inquiry:
Bob Watkins’ campaign has confirmed they have concluded their contract with JohnsonClark Associates. Over the last seven months, JohnsonClark has created a strategic framework for the Congressional campaign; now during the final five weeks of the campaign, their execution plan will be carried out on the grassroots level. JohnsonClark remains available to the Watkins campaign as consultants, and will be assisting the campaign for the general election.What this means for the Watkins effort may be open to some conjecture. Yet, it won’t be lost on political watchers that the loss of one of the state’s most capable consulting firms at such a late date is significant.
Watkins, currently the… Read More
Late last month, a federal judge ordered the state’s largest public employee union, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, to repay as many as 28,000 non-union state workers, who were not given a change to challenge the union’s 2005 dues increase to fight the Governor’s slate of reform measures (the unions were not excited by the measures which, if they had passed, would have averted the fiscal crisis we find ourselves in today).
It’s a bit convoluted, the process by which non-union members can get stiffed with a union fee, but the real issue here is that this decision by Judge Morrisson England, is so after-the-fact so as to be almost laughable if it wasn’t tragic. Yeah, it’s morally right that the SEIU thug-bosses have to go back (under the Judge’s orders) and ask these state employees if they object to the assessment, and if so, refund them each around $135 plus interest.
But the point is that the damage is done.
**There is more – click the link**… Read More
Late last month, a federal judge ordered the state’s largest public employee union, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, to repay as many as 28,000 non-union state workers, who were not given a change to challenge the union’s 2005 dues increase to fight the Governor’s slate of reform measures (the unions were not excited by the measures which, if they had passed, would have averted the fiscal crisis we find ourselves in today).
It’s a bit convoluted, the process by which non-union members can get stiffed with a union fee, but the real issue here is that this decision by Judge Morrisson England, is so after-the-fact so as to be almost laughable if it wasn’t tragic. Yeah, it’s morally right that the SEIU thug-bosses have to go back (under the Judge’s orders) and ask these state employees if they object to the assessment, and if so, refund them each around $135 plus interest.
But the point is that the damage is done.
We caught up with Lew Uhler, President of the National Tax Limitation Committee. We sought… Read More