From today’s WSJ Political Diary E-mail:

Joe Shell, RIP

California conservatives lost a political hero last Monday with the death of Joe Shell at age 89. The former University of Southern California football hero went on to a successful career in the oil industry and in 1952 was elected to the state assembly, where he rose to become GOP leader.

But the old gridiron star’s finest hour came in 1962, when he decided that the Republican Party should not accept Richard Nixon’s decision to move back west to run for California governor after his presidential loss to John F. Kennedy. "I never trusted Nixon either to be a conservative or to be honest," he once told… Read More

For weeks we have been watching the anticipation build up in advance of the arrival of the Olympic Torch to San Francisco on its worldwide journey to culminate at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Let me start by saying that I thought it was a remarkably poor decision by the International Olympic Organizing Committee (IOOC) to put the 2008 Summer Games in China, whether because of the trampling of the rights of the people of Tibet, or for that matter, the trampling of the rights of billions — the Chinese people. It also, frankly, seemed to be a bone-headed choice to run the torch through San Francisco, perhaps the least patriotic city in our nation. That said, with the torch coming, and the political madness coming to a crescendo, all eyes were on yesterday’s big run.

Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to do a "last minute switcharoo" while many thousands gathered along the advertised torch route, many to protest China, and presumably many who just wanted to see a little history jog past their front door. Newsom quietly and quickly instead had the torch route diverted across town, miles from the original route, for what we even-then a shortened… Read More

Our state legislators will take up an important bill this morning dealing with your tax dollars and those who seek to use their position to unlawfully benefit themselves.

The California Assembly Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security will be discussing Assembly Bill 1858, introduced by Assemblyman (and longtime FR friend) Kevin Jeffries, which if enacted would require any public employee who is hired after January 1, 2009 and convicted of a felony involving the abuse of his/her position to forfeit the government contributions made into the their pension plan, but would not affect the personal contributions made by the employee.

This common sense bill is in fact an extension of current law which maintains the same stipulation for elected officials. In spite of this, the bill seems headed for failure in committee today at the hands of union opposition.

Assembly Democrats have an opportunity to support good public policy and emphasize the integrity of public offices and stand against those who would steal from the California taxpayer.

Or, they have another opportunity to demonstrate the prevailing theory around the Capitol —… Read More

Congress has been a place of little activity of any note for about the last month. I have told you that I expected this to be an unproductive year given the looming and very unpredictable election. But we are underperforming even my low expectations. It has been unexpectedly difficult to find agreement on the expiring Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Farm Bill and No Child left Behind Reauthorization, not to mention take on the housing crisis, energy, budget, etc. The continuing Clinton/Obama battle is, I think, making consensus on things even among Democrats difficult, not to mention Republicans and the President.

So, since there’s no real news, here are some tidbits of thoughts and occurrences from the past month:

A few weeks ago, the House went into "secret session" to discuss the implications of passing or not passing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (referenced above). When in "secret session" the House is swept for "bugs" and there obviously are no spectators and C- Span is turned off. Interestingly, the session is recorded and held as a classified document for 50 years or until Congress … Read More

FR friend Jeff Flint, over at his Red County/Placer website has a blog post that spells out a potential scenario where Tom McClintock may not have the valid signatures necessary to be a candidate for Congress in the 4th District.

Never mind that the post reminds you of a theory that might be advanced by Mel Gibson’s character in the movie Conspiracy Theory, stranger things have and will take place in the world of politics.

It’s worth checking out, for sure. … Read More

So the Governor wants to raise revenues? What a schmuck.

When he was campaigning for Propositions 57 and 58, the Economic Recovery Bonds, he promised that we would never be in a deficit situation again.

I found this old clip of him at you tube…

He was groveling for votes and making all kinds of promises. He screwed it up. He allowed government to grow in the face of a predictable downturn in the economy and revenues. Now, he wants the people, already reeling from a housing and energy price crisis, to fork over more money. And for what? What is better now than five years ago?

Nothing. Not roads. Not education. Not public safety. Not health care.

Governor, you’ve got a lot of gall coming to the people now with your hand out.… Read More

Fresno City Councilman Jerry Duncan is playing a leadership role at the local level in opposing ill-advised state legislation, authored by liberal Democrat Fiona Ma, that would put a huge new burden on California employers, both in the private and public sectors. We asked Duncan to share with FR readers more about this bill, and what he has been doing to try and stop it…. Keep up the good work, Jerry! – Flash

LOCAL LEADERSHIP IS NEEDED TO STOP ANTI-EMPLOYER LEGISLATION By The Honorable Jerry Duncan, Fresno City Councilman

The assault on California small business by members of the liberal left in the California Assembly is alive and well. The latest incarnation of this is the introduction of AB 2716 by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco and is backed by organizations representing over 1200 Unions.

**There is more… Read More

For those FR readers that have followed my one-Senator crusade to save our planet – or as I like to call her "Mother Gaia", I sadly have to report I have given up. :-(

* I’ve bought carbon credits.

* I’ve defended mean attacks on Al Gore for living large and jetting around the world in private planes while he tells others to live small and take the bus.

* I even wrote legislation to encourage others to buy carbon credits and drive in the HOV lane. But for all my good deeds, I hadreality abruptly slap me in the face yesterday when my bill to stop global warming was killed by Senate Democrats.

I’m an emotional wreck.

FOR IMMEDIATE… Read More