Some thought my post yesterday didn’t do enough to differentiate Governor Schwarzenegger from Senator Perata on the crackers controversy, although it did directly link to a SDUT article with a comment from the Gov’s staff.

Ok, fine, here’s the comment from the UT directly, powerful, unlinked, unadorned, and un-editorialized:

Adam Mendelsohn, a Schwarzenegger spokesman, said, “The governor could not disagree more with Senator Perata’s comments.”

One of the most hitting statements in response to Perata came from Assemblyman Jay La Suer, who represents God’s crackers living in the area visited by Arnold last week and ridiculed by Perata this. A cracker jack of a release:… Read More

Friday, Governor Schwarzenegger flew up to the North State to spend some time recognizing area firefighters for their work (click here for photos). There have been several outbreaks in forested areas [good thing they aren’t all "roadless" so our fire crews can get at the fires…oops, did I say that?] The challenge [so far] was the Junction Fire in Trinity County, just west of Weaverville which is west of Redding about 50 miles. Thedifficulty here was to keep the fire from sweeping through Weaverville as had happened to over 20 structuresand homes during a big firein 2001. This blaze came from farther west and had a wind pushing it towards town, just a couple miles away, even shutting down Hwy 299. The quick work of the CDF units in the area and others drawn in from other north state CDF units, combined with the local departments, volunteers from Weaverville, Junction City, Douglas City, Salyer, Lewiston andseveral… Read More

Yesterday, I alerted FR readers to Attorney General’s Bill Lockyer’s joining a suit against Wal-Mart in Rosemead, because it posed a public health risk. See here.

Now a self proclaimed citizens group is suing Pico Rivera over the Wal-Mart there. (Ironically, this is the Wal-Mart Rosemead citzens go to.)

Why?

Not public Health, but because people like to shop Wal-Mart compared to other businesses in the area and might want to go there instead. Really. See the article here.… Read More

For those paying close attention to the race for California Governor, there has been a lot of criticism heaped on the candidacy of Treasurer Phil Angelides for failing to have any consistency message or theme throughout his campaign. Actually, all along, one of the reasons why the Schwarzenegger campaign has been so successful in defining Angelides’ campaign is because they have, in fact, discover the single consistent theme of the Governor’s Democrat opponent: Phil Angelides cannot help but support tax increases. Not some of them – ALL of them. So it really isn’t that surprising or newsworthy that yesterday, the Democrat nominee for Governor endorsed Proposition 89, which imposes yet another tax on Californians — this time he is embracing a corporate tax increase (of course, FR readers understand that a tax on companies simply means that the products and/or services provided by that company will increase costs to we, the consumers). Of course, every one of Phil’s calls for a tax increase comes with support for yet another program to increase the size and scope of California government. In this case,… Read More

For those paying close attention to the race for California Governor, there has been a lot of criticism heaped on the candidacy of Treasurer Phil Angelides for failing to have any consistency message or theme throughout his campaign. Actually, all along, one of the reasons why the Schwarzenegger campaign has been so successful in defining Angelides’ campaign is because they have, in fact, discover the single consistent theme of the Governor’s Democrat opponent: Phil Angelides cannot help but support tax increases. Not some of them – ALL of them. So it really isn’t that surprising or newsworthy that yesterday, the Democrat nominee for Governor endorsed Proposition 89, which imposes yet another tax on Californians — this time he is embracing a corporate tax increase (of course, FR readers understand that a tax on companies simply means that the products and/or services provided by that company will increase costs to we, the consumers). Of course, every one of Phil’s calls for a tax increase comes with support for yet another program to increase the size and scope of California government. In this case,… Read More

Now that I see Don Perata is in the mix, re-stating the media’s oft-reported but incorrect contention that there were "several" strident opponents of illegal immigration "angrily confronting" the governor at his La Mesa Town Hall stop last week (in the SDUT this morning, for one),I thought I should weigh in.

As I have noted before, here, I was there. Although there were a relatively few folks (like two, as I remember) who "angrily" questioned the Gov on some serious issues — after he clearly indicated that any line of questioning was acceptable — this was not a hostile crowd, not by a longshot.

Further, my guess is that although many in the crowd did not agree completely or at all with Arnold’s position on illegal immigration, they listened to his answers completely and politely,applauding throughout. The media have now created a fact about the hostility ofthe crowd… Read More

It took me a while to find something that I have in common with the campaign staff of Phil Angelides. But, as luck may have it, the last couple of days have helped me to figure that one out: We have no clue about Phil’s campaign strategy!

I figured that my confusion stemed not from the lack of a strategy, but rather from a lack of any external discernible sign of one. But now I understand that I am, in fact, on the same page as everyone in their office – there IS NO strategy.

Three times this week we’ve seen confusion from his senior staffers to support my conclusion:

INCONSISTENCY #1 – Taxes on Tractors Confused Senior Staffers: Brian Brokaw, Spokesperson and Steve Maviglio, Other Spokesperson (loaner) Brian Brokaw said Angelides wants to increase taxes on California farmers because he sees the small bit of tax relief they receive on equipment such as tractors as a "corporate tax loophole. And… Read More

Do you think that a foreign national who is in this country illegally (that is to say that they have violated our laws by sneaking into America instead of going through the normal immigration process) should be issued a California Driver’s License? Well, if that is the way you think, than this cracker is YOU. At least according to State Senate President Don Perata. Click through to Shane Goldmacher’s California Observer website for more…… Read More