Today’s front page story of the New York Times about the new importance of California in presidential politics as a result of moving our primary to February includes a quote from former State Senator Jim Brulte. Brulte’s comment is pretty simple: a candidate who campaigns in California will learn more about our state and be "a better president for California." As a result of the new primary, all the major presidential candidates are spending time in California seeking to be "our President."

And here today and this weekend in Washington, D.C. at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at the venerable Omni Shoreham Hotel on Calvert Street, a bevy of the leading Republican presidential candidates are also seeking to be "our" president — the "conservative" one. With one major exception.

Every leading candidate, with the exception of John McCain (who has now passed on attending three separate conferences staged by National… Read More

ThoughMitt Romney’s speech at the Conservative Political ActionConference isstill one-halfhour from now, there is a standing-room only crowd of about 1,500 currently inside the Regency Room at the Conservative Political Action Conference waiting to hear the speech, and another 500 or more waiting in line to get in as the D.C. Fire Marshall has limited access to the room because it is so full. Guiliani similarly spoke to a standing-room only crowd earlier today. I have never seen such huge turnouts for non-meal function speeches at a CPAC, and I have attended about 20 of them over the years. This conference is HUGE!

Your author has noted other candidates for President, and their earnest supporters, such as Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (who spoke at 1:30 pm today). Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas spoke this morning and was politely received. Newt Gingrich has been very evident as well, attending the conference today and mingling in the halls with delegates even though his formal speaking role is not… Read More

Gary Kreep, the President of the Ramona-based United States Justice Foundation, has been a long-time California participant at the national Conservative Political Action Conferences in Washington, D.C. I had a chance to ask Gary about his observations on this year’s conference. Gary told me he was impressed with the high-level of turnout from college and high school age conservatives, especially those involved with some of the campaigns, such as Tancredo, Romney and Brownback. (I also saw plenty of youthful enthusiam for Rudy Guiliani during his speech!) ButGary said what he also appreciated were the dinner speeches last night by two leading Bush Administration conservatives: Vice-President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (and now American Conservative Union Board member!) John Bolton.

Gary said there was a good reason that Cheney received several standing ovations at his dinner speech last night: he told CPAC that the economy is growing, that 7.5 million new jobs have been created because of the tax cuts, that the Administration supports making the tax cuts permanent, and that it is essential to "stay the course"… Read More

Bad Bill Alert! (well, actually, silly bill alert)

Sometimes good intentions lead to really terrible laws. Everyone wants people to be responsible and save for the future. But making a law that gives $500 to every baby born in California (regardless of their parent’s legal residency status) in hopes they will save it is just plain silly.

SB 752 authored by Democrat Senator Darrel Steinberg and co-authored by Republican Senator Bob Dutton will give every newborn $500 – which will cost taxpayers a whooping $283 million per year – in hopes that their parents will be encouraged to save for their children’s future. Another nanny-state bill that believes that people aren’t capable of taking care of themselves, so the government should.

Notwithstanding this literally pays illegal immigrants $500 to come to California and have a baby, it also fails the math test. In an article in the… Read More

Yes, it’s only a straw poll, but not many folks thought anyone but the supposed big three would be faring well, even at this early juncture. All of a sudden Duncan Hunter’s picture is being shown alongside McCain’s and Giuliani’s. Check out Fox News. The latest from the AP on the South Carolina contest:

John McCain Pulls Even With Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter in South Carolina Straw Poll

Sen. John McCain pulled even with two of his Republican rivals when counting resumed Friday morning in a presidential straw poll in conservative Spartanburg County.

Though most of the roughly 800 votes were counted on Thursday night, ballots tallied Friday morning weighed heavily in McCain’s favor, said GOP county chairman Rick Beltram.

The updated count put McCain in a dead heat with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and California Rep. Duncan Hunter. Beltram would not release any specific numbers and said a final tally would be known Friday afternoon.

The count was suspended because of severe weather that… Read More

Bad Bill Alert! (well, actually, silly bill alert)

Sometimes good intentions lead to really terrible laws. Everyone wants people to be responsible and save for the future. But making a law that gives $500 to every baby born in California (regardless of their parent’s legal residency status) in hopes they will save it is just plain silly.

SB 752 authored by Democrat Senator Darrel Steinberg and co-authored by Republican Senator Bob Dutton will give every newborn $500 – which will cost taxpayers a whooping $283 million per year – in hopes that their parents will be encouraged to save for their children’s future. Another nanny-state bill that believes that people aren’t capable of taking care of themselves, so the government should.

Notwithstanding this literally pays illegal immigrants $500 to come to California and have a baby, it also fails the math test. In an article in the… Read More

I know I’ve been posting fun — not serious — stuff of late, but some things are just too outstanding to pass up. Consider John Hoy’s email today with the subject header"Another great story promo from the SD Union-Tribune online edition," referring to this:

Dismemberment details emerge

The suspect arrested today in the brutal murder-dismemberment of a man in the South Bay area is described by his former boss at a local porn store and others as polite and thoughtful.

Not that the story itself is fun or oustanding, but consider that the online promo writer was able to package the words brutal, murder, dismemberment, porn store, polite and thoughtfulall into one tightly-wrapped sentence.

Hey, whatever sells readership, but someone needs to hire that guy as a political hit-piece writer.

For extra credit, tell me from where I derived the title of this post.… Read More

This last week we have witnessed the declaration by Al (Sore Loserman) Gore that the problem of global warming is a "no longer a scientific debate, it is a moral issue." Yesterday, I saw a commercial that showed some old white guy who said that the "scientific evidence shows that the irreversible effects" of global warming won’t occur until thirty years from now. Of course, the fellow is standing on a railroad track with the train coming. He announces "that won’t affect me" as he steps off the track. The picture then moves to a little girl, who, the commercial implies, gets run over by the train. This obviously contends that an indifference to global warming now will kill our children.

As the rhetoric on the issue heats up (so to speak), we must congratulate the California government for solving the crisis. Less than two months after AB 32 took effect, California and the rest of the country have suffered record low temperatures. I am impressed at how well that bill has worked. Although, given its effectiveness so far, no further action is necessary to implement the bill, I… Read More