Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has penned this very sobering column about city finances in Los Angeles, and the thirst to raise tax there… Never mind that Los Angelinos already are among the highest tax Californians already…

City Unions To L.A. Taxpayers: Peel Me A Grape By Jon Coupal

Los Angeles city government is in trouble. Projections are that it will face a budget deficit of at least $400 million in the coming fiscal year.

The financial bind in which the city finds itself is no accident. It is the result of a series of conscious decisions by elected officials and bureaucrats.

According to the U.S. Census… Read More

Section 25 of Article I of the California Constitution, believe it or not, guarantees to the people of this state the right to fish. Seriously, I am NOT making it up. In fact, here is the exact language straight from the source:

Section 25. The people shall have the right to fish upon and from the public lands of the State and in the waters thereof, excepting upon lands set aside for fish hatcheries, and no land owned by the State shall ever be sold or transferred without reserving in the people the absolute right to fish thereupon; and no law shall ever be passed making it a crime for the people to enter upon the public lands within this State for the purpose of fishing in any water containing fish that have been planted therein by the State; provided, that the legislature may by statute, provide for the season when and the conditions under which the different species of fish may be taken.

The reason that I point this out is that the ongoing efforts of extremists to infringe upon the liberty of Californians, under the… Read More

Section 25 of Article I of the California Constitution, believe it or not, guarantees to the people of this state the right to fish. Seriously, I am NOT making it up. In fact, here is the exact language straight from the source:

Section 25. The people shall have the right to fish upon and from the public lands of the State and in the waters thereof, excepting upon lands set aside for fish hatcheries, and no land owned by the State shall ever be sold or transferred without reserving in the people the absolute right to fish thereupon; and no law shall ever be passed making it a crime for the people to enter upon the public lands within this State for the purpose of fishing in any water containing fish that have been planted therein by the State; provided, that the legislature may by statute, provide for the season when and the conditions under which the different species of fish may be taken.

The reason that I point this out is that the ongoing efforts of extremists to infringe upon the liberty of Californians, under the… Read More

A few weeks ago I was at a conference where NRA president Wayne LaPierre spoke about the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision regarding the Washington, DC, gun ban. During the speech LaPierre showed a video of what had taken place in New Orleans during the Katrina aftermath. Law-abiding citizens’ only means of protection was taken away when Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the confiscation of every privately-owned gun in the city.

The video is chilling—it’s something you’d expect in a dictatorial regime, not in the United States of America. LaPierre used the unconstitutional events in New Orleans to explain how important it is that the Supreme Court uphold the individual right to bear arms, just as the Founding Fathers intended in the Second Amendment.

Viewing the frightening New Orleans video brought to mind a bill passed in our own legislature last session. Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa (a fellow FR blogger and champion of our individual freedoms) authored… Read More

Veteran Capitol columnist Dan Walters was pretty accurate yesterday in the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert Blog (free registration required and encouraged) when he referred to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) as, "…a Naderite, Santa Monica-based thorn in the side of California business for the past two decades…"

Apparently the group has decided to change its name to "Consumer Watchdog" — what a farce.

The only thing that this group cares about is creating more and more ways and opportunities to file more and more lawsuits. The FTCR is a vibrant and active front-group for the trial lawyer community.

While they wave a rhetorical banner of trying to "help consumers" — it’s just not true. It hardly helps consumers to see all… Read More

As we keep reminded everyone that will listen, what we have had in California State government is a massive over-spending problem. Here is a staggering figure for you — since 2003, spending in the state budget has increased over TWENTY FIVE BILLION DOLLARS.

The team over at the Senate Republican Caucus, under leadership of Senator Dick Ackerman, has put together a great source document to help you to understand the size of this increase, and also make you wonder whether this massive increase in spending was effective. There are lots of charts and graphs to help you to digest what is really some complex financial data.

Check it out here.… Read More

Veteran Capitol columnist Dan Walters was pretty accurate yesterday in the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert Blog (free registration required and encouraged) when he referred to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) as, "…a Naderite, Santa Monica-based thorn in the side of California business for the past two decades…"

Apparently the group has decided to change its name to "Consumer Watchdog" — what a farce.

The only thing that this group cares about is creating more and more ways and opportunities to file more and more lawsuits. The FTCR is a vibrant and active front-group for the trial lawyer community.

While they wave a rhetorical banner of trying to "help consumers" — it’s just not true. It hardly helps consumers to see all… Read More

While I think it is a positive thing that NO DEMOCRAT FILED AGAINST REPUBLICAN STATE SENATOR ABEL MALDONADO, it is rather curious given that this seat should be "in play" and a top target for Senate Democrats.

I just read a well-though-out piece musing about this by Robert Cruickshank over on the left-wing-haven-of-socialist-ideas The California Progress Report, a Democrat activist who lives in that district.

He muses that the fix might just be in..… Read More