Last Wednesday I featured a guest commentary is this space from State Senator Tom McClintock. Entitled Ethanol Economics, McClintock made the case against a recent decision by the California Air Resources Board to mandate that by 2010, every gallon of gasoline sold must be made up of at least 10% ethanol.

Bonus link: What is ethonal? The Wikopedia entry is here.

Today I am pleased to feature a ‘rebuttal piece’ penned by former California Secretary of State Bill . Jones, the Republican Party’s nominee for U.S. Senate a few years back, is now the Chairman of the Board of Pacific Ethanol:

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

This morning, I went through my usual routine of getting up, turning on ‘The Higglytown Heros’ for Ella, putting a pot of coffee on to boil, and reading the news. Near the top was the latest installment from the San Francisco Chronicle, entitled “State GOP Chief Flayed Over Scandal”.

Now I grew up in a small country town of fewer than 900 souls. I’ve seen a hog bled, boiled, and flayed. It’s not a pretty sight. And unless you have dogs around, there usually there is considerable clean-up involved. So the Chronicle painted a pretty ugly picture in my head of what they were about to do to Chairman Ron Nehring.

But then I actually had to laugh out loud. Literally. The best quote the Chronicle could get ‘flaying’ Nehring was from San Diego’s own pro-illegal immigration activist and all around gadfly Raoul Lowery Contreras. Specifically:

"I have talked to a number of money people, and they have told me as long as Nehring stays chairman, they will not give a dime," said Raoul Lowery Contreras, a Southern California GOP activist who writes the CalNews.com blog and has called for Nehring’s resignation.… Read More

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Monday was another historic day in presidential politics. Nearly a thousand Romney supporters gathered on the floor of the Boston Garden to raise money for his campaign.

We had done it before in January (at the Boston Convention Center that time) and raised over $6,000,000 on that day. Although the numbers are not all in, we probably pulled in at least a few million yesterday. This is not your usual name-tag-at-the-door, chicken-veggies-and-a-speech fund raiser.

The Romney Team does everything better, faster, bigger.

Sunday evening over 1,000 Romney supporters had a barbecue at Fenway Park where the Boston Red Sox Play. Governor Romney rallied the troops, his wife Ann did too. His son’s four of five of whom are working full-time campaigning for their dad told some funny stories about the campaign trail.

But the best part about Sunday evening was getting to go down on the field at Fenway and walk where so many legends of Baseball have played.

This photo shows us at the ball park. From… Read More

Last week, I had an opportunity at the invitation of the California Chamber of Commerce to participate on a couple of panels at a meeting of their advocacy council at the Chamber’s amazing offices a block from the State Capitol. Right before lunch, as a panelist, I got to take on 3-1 odds going up against three proponents of weakening term-limits, Rob Stutzman, Tim Hodson, and the iniative’s chief flack Gale Kaufman. The lunchtime speaker at the event was none other than conservative syndicated columnist Bob Novak. Below is an article that Novak penned, inspired by his recent visit to the Golden State…

As I read it, I tried to remember the Governor, in all of his recent lobbying of Congress to take on the battle against global warming, just once call for making permanent the tax cuts passed a few years back…… Read More

Nationally read conservative columnist and pundit Michelle Malkin has penned something on the Kamburowski incident now. Malkin’s comment:

It is interesting, of course, that the open-borders SFChronicle is suddenly concerned about deportation failures and immigration abuses. Nevertheless, the story is a legitimate story–and the California GOP should be mortified.

Question: Who was behind Kamburowski’s appointment? Did he have White House connections?

You can read it at her website here.

That said, I think that people are trying to make more of this than need be. Michael Kamburowski is not the first or last employee who hid information to get a job, and lost his job over it. Unfortunately, it happens all of the time.

That said, it is notable that Michael was in a high profile… Read More

Once again, today, I had someone try to tell me that the President’s proposal to grant amnesty to the millions of criminal aliens here in America is actually NOT amnesty.

According to the latest White House propaganda sheet on the Bush/Kennedy package, they make the following case as to why the proposal is not amnesty:

This Proposal Is Not Amnesty Because Illegal Workers Must Acknowledge That They Broke The Law, Pay A $1,000 Fine, And Undergo Criminal Background Checks To Obtain A Z Visa. To apply for a green card at a date years into the future, Z visa workers must wait in line behind those who applied lawfully, pay an additional $4,000 fine, complete accelerated English and civics requirements, and compete in the merit system based on the skills and attributes they will bring to the United States.

Apparently the folks at the White House aren’t familiar with the term proportional justice, which essential says, "Let the punishment fit the crime."

It would seem that the President and supporters of… Read More

Just wanted to verify Jubal’s (Matt Cunningham) scoop – the CRP Board of Directors just voted unanimously to confirm Bill Christiansen as an interim Chief Operating Officer of the party. Bill has agreed to serve until he is replaced.

I caught up with Steve Schmidt, formerly the campaign manager for Governor Schwarzenegger last year, who worked extremely closely with Bill, and he was very pleased with the quick, decisive action of bringing Bill onboard, adding, "The selection of Bill to be the CRP’s new interim COO is an outstanding one. He was the director of our party-based Victory Operations last election cycle, and I was one of a great many who were impressed with him. He is experienced and well qualified."… Read More