There is a story on today’s Drudge Report about a family getting kicked out of a Chinese buffet in Iowa for leaving too much on their plates. Kinda reminds me of last night when we were making $35 Billion choices at 3AM and watching how much of it will go for hog feed. I’m very disappointed in the process.

There is great need and merit in doing the effort to improve highways, levees/flood control/water storage. Unfortunately, less than half, perhaps by far, [the ink is still drying on the bill proposals asI tap this out] will get to this type of true infrastructure. For example, there was $3 Billion ostensiblyfor levees but no programming that it will actually go for levee work in that bond. It could still end up with any given amount of the $3B going for bugs and shrubs.

Sorry folks, but I’ve watched Lucy pull the football away from Charlie Brown on previous "water bonds"[btw, no water storage either, the… Read More

After a long city council meeting 4 of the 5members of the West Covina City Council and the City Manager were looking to relax and get something to eat. They innocently traveled 20 minutes away to the Dal Rae in Pico Riveria.

I should note that Iknow the W.C. council pretty well and would never disparage them.

Now they are being accused of violating the Brown Act. See article here.

No need to worry. They took the City Attorney along. Councilwomen Shelley Sandersonexplains;

"Sanderson said Alvarez-Glasman was at the dinner to make sure the members did not discuss city business."

Hats off tothe City Attoney for spending his free time (unless hisservices end up in the bill) as chaperone. If more Council’s would do the same thing these problems just wouldn’t come up.

Memo to West Covina Chamber: You really need to work onthe Shop West Covina campaign.… Read More

[Update: Assemblyman Chuck DeVore just called to say that a late-scheduled session has been set in the State Assembly for 5:30 p.m. today…]

The Democrats in Sacramento must be really enjoying themselves today. What could possibly be more enjoyable for them than to see Republicans boxed into a corner. In the downstairs office, you have a GOP Governor against whom almost all of the Democrats have endorsed, and across the aisle they have GOP legislators, who stand as their longtime opponents in their quest to massively grow the size and scope of state government. It is being reported in articles all around the state (check them out on the main page of the site) that both houses of the legislature are going to be voting today to send a on a package of four bond measures for the November ballot. It is with great glee that Senate and Assembly Democrats are pushing as hard as they can to include literally as much non-infrastructure spending as possible into a bond package on which the Governor would like to stake his re-election. It’s a win-win for… Read More

[Update: Assemblyman Chuck DeVore just called to say that a late-scheduled session has been set in the State Assembly for 5:30 p.m. today…] The Democrats in Sacramento must be really enjoying themselves today. What could possibly be more enjoyable for them than to see Republicans boxed into a corner. In the downstairs office, you have a GOP Governor against whom almost all of the Democrats have endorsed, and across the aisle they have GOP legislators, who stand as their longtime opponents in their quest to massively grow the size and scope of state government. It is being reported in articles all around the state (check them out on the main page of the site) that both houses of the legislature are going to be voting today to send a on a package of four bond measures for the November ballot. It is with great glee that Senate and Assembly Democrats are pushing as hard as they can to include literally as much… Read More

After talking with several folks "in the know" inside of the State Capitol — it is clear that the legislative sessions hastily scheduled for this afternoon are pre-mature. It would appear that Perata and Nunez are somehow trying to push Republicans into making a speedy decision.

To that I say – PUT ON THE BRAKES.

The only rush here is an imaginary deadline that doesn’t exist. What is the advantage of a speedy vote? Well, it seems like there might be two of them that are the most obvious:

I would counsel legislative Republicans that not rushing into a vote, and taking the time to review this proposal (and subsequent proposals if this one doesn’t cut the mustard) is the prudent thing to do. Taking some time would allow legislators to do some pretty… Read More

Not much to report by way of an update, other than to say that if the bond package as it sits now comes out to vote tonight, it would be a high-drama affair because there are a lot of GOP legislators who are not going to vote for a package tonight, and probably not THIS package at all.

That said, there are lots of meetings going on and somebody somewhere is trying to convince your legislator to borrow your money to pay someone else’s rent or help them buy a house.

Nice.

[Imagine THIS nightmare – a plan that gets just enough GOP votes to get onto the ballot — then the Governor campaigns FOR the bonds, while a great many of his supporters (myself among them) spend the fall campaigning FOR the Governor and AGAINST the bonds. The Democrats must be salivating, indeed.]… Read More

In the mad rush to push through Bond measures to meet the imaginary deadline, Democrats didn’t make the text of the proposals available until around 5 p.m. Since then, staffers all around the capitol and in the legislative office building have been scouring them.

The word is that upon examination, the final language isn’t quite what as agreed upon in the “Secret Squirrel” Big 4 meeting – that now they are having to figure out exactly what was changed.

This is illustrative of the kinds of things that happeb when you try to rush through things.

Time to put on the brakes.

[Update: Assembly Floor session has now been delayed until 8 p.m. Delays will start to play into a new drama. This weekend is supposed to be a big GOP Legislative ‘cashectomy’ on donors in Wine Country. Wouldn’t it be just like the Dems to keep everyone in session…?]… Read More

I have never met Eric Roach. People tell me he is a great guy. He just lost an election to Brian Bilbray (pictured below, to the right) in the 50th CD. I hope he does not run another campaign June 6th.

Given all the residue from Duke Cunningham’s crimes, It is not going to be easy to hold on to this normally safe Republican seat on this confusing ballot where the general election for the special and the primary for 2006 are on the same ballot. Roach can only win the primary by bringing Bilbray down which will only help the Democrat in the race. The most likely scenario for a successful Roach is to win the primary and allow a Democrat to win the general thereby having to face an incumbent in November. That gives us a very high probability of losing the seat completely. This year will be close enough without losing what should be safe Republican seats over internal squabbles.

Politics is a team sport and the Republican… Read More