It will take a college degree to understand the Secretary of State’s voter information pamphlet for the November, 2012 election, given the partisan, pro-union move by the Legislature and the Governor to force measures off the ballot next June, and lump them all together in November. But history demonstrates the crowded ballot really helps Republicans, whom demographics demonstrate are better educated and more prepared to comprehend the information and actually vote than voters registered in other parties in California.

The Democrats changed the balloting on propositions because they were afraid an “anti-union”… Read More

Sing again: The last laptop report, entitled “Song of the Shopkeeper”, engendered more positive responses than anything I have written in a couple of years. It wound up being published as a front section editorial in The Washington Times, and received some radio coverage as well. It seems that almost everyone has a “shopkeeper” in their family’s past or present or knows of one. I thank you all for your comments and stories. I am honored to give voice to all you shopkeepers out there. One regular reader of these missives suggested a quote that I should have put in the original tome. Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have once derisively described England as, “a nation of shopkeepers”. It was meant as an insult. I wonder if Napoleon remembered these words when his army was later defeated by those very same “shopkeepers” at the Battle of Waterloo?

The Numbers are In: The federal deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012 was $1.298 trillion. That is the second highest deficit ever. Here is a chart of the deficits for the last 5 years, in billions of dollars:… Read More

In the midst of struggling economy, California should not miss the devastating lesson the agriculture industry in Georgia is experiencing as a result of the E-Verify program.

Earlier this year, Georgia passed E-Verify legislation without considering a solution for agriculture. Since the law went into effect, farm labor workers have been fleeing the state, leaving crops literally rotting on the vine.

A report released earlier this month by the University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development showed the state experienced a $75 million loss directly attributable to harvest or packing labor shortages.

California should take note: agricultural accounts for $1.2 trillion a year in exports, the potential effect of a federally mandated E-Verify program without a solution for agriculture could cripple our economy. Productivity will plummet and food prices will skyrocket – something California needs to avoid.

The argument that any vacated labor positions would alleviate the unemployment burden California suffers has been tested and the results were disappointing:

In conversations with local voters over the last few weeks, I’ve discussed several abusive practices the Democrats used recently to ram bad policy ideas through the legislature. These practices draw virtually uniform condemnation, regardless of whether the voters are registered as Republicans or Democrats. That’s no surprise. They threaten representative democracy, something every citizen of any party has an interest in, and are so manifestly unfair that they cannot be defended even along party lines.

What is a surprise, however, is that these abuses are so bad that even the usual Democratic cheerleaders in the mainstream press are beginning to complain.

One of these abuses practices – cooking the books to hide the amount of public money spent by the Legislature – exploded in the press when Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino complained that his own party’s leadership cut his office budget in retaliation for his vote against the state budget. The mainstream press, represented by the Los Angeles Times and a few other papers, actually filed suit against the Democrat controlled Legislature to get timely, honest accountings.

The Republicans have… Read More

The following outstanding editorial appears in the print edition of the Wednesday Wall Street Journal…

California’s Governor Does Labor’s Bidding On Voter Initiatives This month marks the centennial of California’s voter initiative process, and Governor Jerry Brown has commemorated the occasion by signing a law that makes it easier for unions to defeat ballot measures they don’t like. Consider it more evidence of Mr. Brown’s disappointing return to Sacramento.

The California constitution stipulates that ballot measures be placed on a general election ballot unless lawmakers call a special election. What constitutes a “general election” was hotly debated during the 1960s and early 1970s. However, when the legislature wanted to put several bond measures on a primary ballot in 1971, Mr. Brown, then the secretary of state, obliged. Initiatives have since appeared on either primary (typically in June) or November ballots.

This has benefited voters since initiatives receive more scrutiny and debate when there are fewer measures on the ballot. The November… Read More

What started as a dispute on Twitter has now escalated into a full-on political battle between one of the legislature’s most liberal members and one of its most conservative. In her inaugural tweet, newcomer to Twitter Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen of Modesto, a Republican, tweeted that she was proud was the only one in the 80-member Assembly to score a perfect zero from the Sierra Club (an achievement of which any rational personal can be proud, as the Sierra Club is an extremely liberal group). It didn’t take long for the Adam Keigwin, Chief of Staff to one of the legislature’s most liberal members, Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco, to harass Olsen on Twitter because of her tweet. Yee recently was the recipient of the California Sierra Club’s coveted Phil Burton Treehugger Award.

Apparently Assemblywoman Olsen then attempted to get a hold of Senator Yee directly, by calling his cell phone, to discuss things. Alas, Yee must have been too busy speaking to the #OCCUPYSF rally to return her call. She is still waiting for a… Read More

Yesterday in Los Angeles at an event with famed philanthropist and felon Michael Milken, Governor Jerry Brown said that he would soon be releasing details of his own pension reform plan, adding that his proposal will include a constitutional amendment and by necessity be put in front of the voters for approval. This comes on the same day that legislative leaders announce the formation of a special committee to review the issue of reforms to the public employee pension system. It is worth noting that the six-member legislative committee that has now been magically formed is stacked with four pro-union votes, thus guaranteeing that no policy recommendations will come from the committee that are not signed off on by the bosses at California Teachers Association, the Service Employees International Union, et.al.

… Read More

Our sources have confirmed that this week the California Republican Party has received over a million dollars in donations that will be used to super-charge the signature gathering process to refer to the voters the State Senate lines drawn by the California Redistricting Commission. This is not “committed” funding — we have confirmed that these donations have already been put into the party’s bank account. With this significant amount of recent funding, along with funds already raised and commitments forthcoming, I would guess that the referendum effort is probably just a few hundred thousand dollars away from securing all of the… Read More