According to an article in Roll Call todayfrom Washington, D.C., senior "Democratic Members" of both Houses of Congress have told the press that their ethics reforms in the new Congress will stop with the current lobbyist reforms and that new 527 committee reforms will not be considered. If that is the situation, and in light of a Federal Court’s decision in Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC and John McCain, which emasculated late election regulation of 527’s speech in Federal elections, the only thingthat can now stop unlimited corporate and union issues advocacy during Federal elections in the 2008 cycle is if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the Wisconsin Right to Life decision. Legal observers note that Justice Alito, who replaces Justice O’Connor in the prior divided decision upholding regulation of 527s per the McCain, Feingold law, may be more inclined to see the case as a First Amendment infringement and uphold the lower court.… Read More

Last November, the Democrats took a majority in Congress, and I don’t have enough space in this column to talk about all of the reasons why that is terrible news for America. I will simply say that if you consider the ideological perspective of Nancy Pelosi, the newly minted Speaker of the House of Representatives, you would see that she has a vision of a much larger role for the federal government than was ever envisioned by our nation’s founding fathers. Or to put it more succinctly, the freedom, liberty and property of all of the people of this great nation are imperiled by her view of a larger and more invasive role of the federal government. Needless to say, it should be a top priority for all Americans who believe in a truly limited role for our national government to rally together to ensure that the reign of Pelosi lasts precisely two years, and no more. Right? Herein lies the big challenge ahead in doing just that. Nancy Pelosi and the Party of Clinton did not achieve a majority in Congress because they were just better campaigners than the Republicans — in a very large measure, Democrats gained control of Congress because… Read More

Last November, the Democrats took a majority in Congress, and I don’t have enough space in this column to talk about all of the reasons why that is terrible news for America. I will simply say that if you consider the ideological perspective of Nancy Pelosi, the newly minted Speaker of the House of Representatives, you would see that she has a vision of a much larger role for the federal government than was ever envisioned by our nation’s founding fathers. Or to put it more succinctly, the freedom, liberty and property of all of the people of this great nation are imperiled by her view of a larger and more invasive role of the federal government. Needless to say, it should be a top priority for all Americans who believe in a truly limited role for our national government to rally together to ensure that the reign of Pelosi lasts precisely two years, and no more. Right? Herein lies the big challenge ahead in doing just that. Nancy Pelosi and the Party of Clinton did not achieve a majority in Congress because they were just better campaigners than the Republicans — in a very large measure, Democrats gained control of Congress because… Read More

If you ever have to stay in Long Beach, may I suggest the Hyatt of Marriott hotels? They are non-union. The others are unionized. The Long Beach City Council decided that letting employees decide if a hotel is unionized isn’t good enough.

They passed an ordinance forcing unions on the hotels, because they are on city owned property. The Mayor vetoed the ordinance and the override vote.

SUNDAY SAN DIEGO

A couple of weeks ago, the SD Reader’s cover story by Matt Potter, entitled "San Diego’s Bad Behavior in the Spotlight," was an insightful piece about some of the best political catfights and other donnybrooks in the area during 2006.

Most interesting was that significant portions of thearticle focused on how blogging impacted the political landscape throughout the year. First, a section on former Orange County Register editorial writer Chris Reed’s hiring by the San Diego Union-Tribune to pen America’s Finest Blog. Reed’s penchant to go after SD City Attorney Mike Aguirre resulted in Big Mike deciding he needed to blog back, and thus started The Aguirre Report.

Life has not been the same since.

Some excerpts from the "Mike vs. Chris," portion of Potter’s Reader story, in which a blogger actually gets equal billing with the colorful… Read More

SUNDAY SAN DIEGO

A couple of weeks ago, the SD Reader’s cover story by Matt Potter, entitled "San Diego’s Bad Behavior in the Spotlight," was an insightful piece about some of the best political catfights and other donnybrooks in the area during 2006.

Most interesting was that significant portions of thearticle focused on how blogging impacted the political landscape throughout the year. First, a section on former Orange County Register editorial writer Chris Reed’s hiring by the San Diego Union-Tribune to pen America’s Finest Blog. Reed’s penchant to go after SD City Attorney Mike Aguirre resulted in Big Mike deciding he needed to blog back, and thus started The Aguirre Report.

Life has not been the same since.

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

* If you have a badge issued to you by a member of the California Legislature, you may want to frame it for posterity. Speaker Fabian Nunez has announced that there will no longer be badges produced for non-legislators. Which really begs the question — why were badges created for non-legislators in the first place? I wonder if the current badge-holders will have to turn theirs back in. Undoubtedly for all of their hard work, Jason Kinney, Roger Salazer, Andrew Acosta and Steve Maviglio must have badges, no? I guess they will have to make their favorite drive from Sacramento to San Francisco while observing the speed limit. Sorry guys. * I can’t say how disappointing it is that the Governor has proposed what are, so obviously on the face of them, new taxes to finance this ill-fated government incursion into healthcare in California. When he and his senior officials are trying to thread some sort of needle over technical yet important distinction between a tax or a fee, then the Governor just doesn’t get it. For example, what kind of an person doesn’t think a hike in the payroll tax — is a payroll tax? After the… Read More

* If you have a badge issued to you by a member of the California Legislature, you may want to frame it for posterity. Speaker Fabian Nunez has announced that there will no longer be badges produced for non-legislators. Which really begs the question — why were badges created for non-legislators in the first place? I wonder if the current badge-holders will have to turn theirs back in. Undoubtedly for all of their hard work, Jason Kinney, Roger Salazer, Andrew Acosta and Steve Maviglio must have badges, no? I guess they will have to make their favorite drive from Sacramento to San Francisco while observing the speed limit. Sorry guys. * I can’t say how disappointing it is that the Governor has proposed what are, so obviously on the face of them, new taxes to finance this ill-fated government incursion into healthcare in California. When he and his senior officials are trying to thread some sort of needle over technical yet important distinction between a tax or a fee, then the Governor just doesn’t get it. For example, what kind of an person doesn’t think a hike in the payroll tax — is a payroll tax? After the… Read More