I am running out the door this morning as the Orange County Republican Party is hosting a small breakfast reception with none other than northern California Congressman John Doolittle. I’ve known John for many, many years (working for him for a short spell) and he is a fine Congressman. He’s a strong, conservative voice in the House Leadership serving as House Republican Conference Secretary. It will be good to see him, let alone a couple miles from my front door!

Look for some great work the next three days from guest editor Nicholas Romero, who will be filling in for me. Also, look for some FR ‘regular faces’ to be filling in for me on this Daily Commentary page! Today the FR features a column from Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia. Plescia has just assumed the reigns of leadership from… Read More

Where’s the beef? Well according the son-in-law of Robert Redford—author Eric Schlosser it’s in the hamburger but that hamburger is made from about 1000 different cows.

It’s factoids like this that Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation” and a new book aimed at kids “Chew on this” that make you question whether McDonalds is such a good idea the next time you are on the road with the kids. But read a little deeper and you’ll find the demented mind of an author who wants a federal bureaucracy to oversee the frying station and a guy who probably has at least a little racism in him.

“The same demographic groups widely employed at fast food restaurants—the young and the poor—are also… Read More

This year marks the 10th Anniversary of Curt Pringle’s reign as Speaker of the Assembly. This was the first GOP Speaker in some time. (I don’t count the moderates kept in power by Democrats). They have a blog set up that you can see by clicking here.

There has been a lot ofconcern and anguish about the Governor’s appointment of Kennedy, now Nunez, and the lack of firing of Reiner etc… The Governor Appointments Secretary to the CRP executive Committee there were over a 1000 vacancies that needed to be filled.

Speaker Pringle did thing differently. I know because today marks the 10th Anniversary of my appointment by him to the California Library Services Board, now know as the Library of California Board.Please feel free to email me questions about how the transaction reimbursement rate on inter library loans is determined.

Upon taking the Speakership, Pringle and his staff immediately started recruiting people to fill slots that were open. I worked with John Nelson. Now the Library Board wasn’t the most powerful. But I got… Read More

There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in California politics today: * The latest Field Poll numbers show that the public is wising up to the poor public policy behind actor/producer/director Rob Reiner’s "universal pre-school" measure. The measure, which would create a new tax burdon on Californians, creates a centralized, statewide bureaucracy to provide pre-school. Conservatives oppose the measure both for the new taxes and another government-run program (a massive one, at that) — but also Democrats are starting to oppose the measure (such as former Senate President John Burton) because they feel that a lot of wealthy folks who already send their kids to pre-school will be the primary beneficiaries. * FR friend Bill Bradley, a columnist for the LA Weekly and blogger extraordinairre at New West Notes (you though I wrote a lot, this guy types circles around me) reveals that there is a new independent expenditure firing up on behalf of Phil Angelides. * Negotiations are underway again to negotiate an infrastructure funding package for the November ballot. This is your opportunity to contact your… Read More

There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in California politics today: * The latest Field Poll numbers show that the public is wising up to the poor public policy behind actor/producer/director Rob Reiner’s "universal pre-school" measure. The measure, which would create a new tax burdon on Californians, creates a centralized, statewide bureaucracy to provide pre-school. Conservatives oppose the measure both for the new taxes and another government-run program (a massive one, at that) — but also Democrats are starting to oppose the measure (such as former Senate President John Burton) because they feel that a lot of wealthy folks who already send their kids to pre-school will be the primary beneficiaries. * FR friend Bill Bradley, a columnist for the LA Weekly and blogger extraordinairre at New West Notes (you though I wrote a lot, this guy types circles around me) reveals that there is a new independent expenditure firing up on behalf of Phil Angelides. * Negotiations are underway again to negotiate an infrastructure funding package for the November ballot. This is your opportunity to contact your… Read More

As of late, there has been quite a bit of speculation on the race between incumbent Bill Horn (disclosure – former employer and former client) and Bruce Thompson for San Diego County’s 5th Supervisorial District. Obviously, Horn has been under some fire from the local media in regards to various disclosure errors he, and maybe his Chief of Staff, made in regard to a particular rental property. Certainly the Union-Tribune, never a fan of Horn in particular and North County politics in general, has taken the much awaited opportunity to land some blows. But to a certain degree, unless there is more, I think North County voters are accustomed to Supervisor Horn under fire from the establishment and their media organs. Without a well funded comparison campaign, its hard to believe these issues are going to have a major impact on the results.

Which leads us to the importance of the next week or so. Thompson (pictured to the left) supporters… Read More

According to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, legislative leaders have said they are in agreement on the "main points" of a $30 – $35 BILLION (yes, with a B) borrowing plan for infrastructure investment. We hope that Senate and Assembly Republicans will hold firm for pay-as-you-go and other needed reforms. Without these "must include" reforms, a massive borrowing plan would, in fact, be the financial equivalant of sailing the S.S. Titanic right into an iceberg!

Here is an excerpt from the Business Journal:

A multi-billion dollar infrastructure bond will be on the ballot this fall, the leaders of the California Legislature told a San Jose audience Tuesday.

… Read More

If there was really ever any question after the number of signatures submitted, Jessica’s Law has qualified for the November ballot. As a result, the citizens of the State of California will have a direct ability to enact what the predator and pedophile apologists in the legislature have denied them for several years…an ability to have a sensible means of protecting our neighborhoods and children.

Cities like National City, Santee and La Mesa (my own) in SD County and others in the state have in the meantime taken matters into our own hands, by enactingor looking at laws that effectively flaunt current state law in this regard, by adopting local ordinances restricting the presence of registered sex offenders from areas where children congregate. We believe we must, because to wait for the state to do the right thing does not make our kids any safer while we’re biding our time. And, by the way, this doesn’t exactly put us in a good light with the ACLU and ambulance chasers.

Jessica’s Law will change all that, making local ordinances a moot point by placing significant restrictions on sex offenders. I believe in local control,… Read More