Song of the week: “It’s America” by Rodney Atkins "It’s a high school prom, it’s a Springsteen song, it’s a ride in a Chevrolet. It’s a man on the moon and fireflies in June and kids selling lemonade. It’s cities and farms, it’s open arms, one nation under God. It’s America!" My new, favorite, inspiring, patriotic song. If you haven’t heard it, go online and listen. Back here in DC, the "lame duck" session continues to trudge towards its end, likely with little resolution of much because lame ducks are rarely very productive. So, since there is nothing definitive to report on the lame duck at this point, here are some random thoughts of mine about recent developments on other topics:

Deficit Commission: I do not… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail… … Read More

The California Supreme Court will receive written arguments next week to set aside the open primary system scheduled to go into affect in special elections next year and in 2012 as a result of the passage of Proposition 14. A superior court judge and an intermediate appellate court have already essentially approved implementation of Proposition 14. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge driven largely by non-recognized minor party candidates who claim they are at a disadvantage as a result of the implementation law, known as Senate Bill 6, over the issue of "declaring party preference."

Under Proposition 14, candidates for partisan office who are registered in established political parties can essentially "hide the ball" from voters by not disclosing their party registration on the ballot. I have always felt that this was one of the biggest flaws in Proposition 14, because it give voters less information on the ballot, not more, about the candidate. I thought that might be a pretty good line of challenge, too. But the folks challenging the law are from parties that… Read More

Eight citizen members of the California Redistricting Commission held their first meeting last Tuesday at the Secretary of State’s offices in Sacramento. The commission so far is made up of 3 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 2 Decline to state voters chosen randomly from a pool of 36 people. Those 36 are the survivors of 120 applicant/semifinalists who were vetted thru the complicated process required by the Voters First Act. Four partisan legislative leaders got to strike two people each from the final pool of applicants. Now the final 8 will chose an additional 6 members from the final pool of 36, to finalize the commission membership at 14. It is all a little like the finals of “Dancing With The Stars,” except Bristol Palin would have been cut by now. Soon the commissioners will begin work on dividing up all of California’s partisan legislative districts based on Census data soon to be provided by the Obama Administration. When they are done, we will really learn what “random” and “nonpartisan” actually mean.… Read More

The American people have chosen new leaders for the House of Representatives. After listening to millions of Americans over the last two years, it became clear that a majority wanted Congress to focus on creating jobs, cutting spending and reforming Congress. With a change in leadership for the 112th Congress which convenes in January, we will renew our focus on those three vital areas.

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Tomorrow I fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco and a few days later get to do the return flight. Those two airports have body scanners. Usually, I fly from Ontario and Sacramento, which must be the choice of terrorists due to the lack of body scanners.

To be honest, I don’t like a lot of the screenings. I view a lot of the security as show and would prefer that the resources are put into tracking down terrorists rather than individually searching little kids, grandma’s and National Guardsmen. I have seen all three.

I have been inspired by Steven Greenhut’s article to show my official California State Assembly ID card. This card deems me as someone that can enter the State Capitol at 3 a.m. with as many boxes of stuff without anyone saying a thing. I must be very trustworthy, like everyone else in the Capitol. I will see if it will let me sit between two poor passengers on my flight because I didn’t allow enough time for screening.

But for the next part I need your help. Some guy took the idea of wearing a speedo. That was my plan, but… Read More

If anyone has any remaining questions as to why Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives earlier this month, take a look at this video.

The video shows Indiana Republican Congressman Steve Buyer trying to be recognized by California’s Democrat Congresswoman Laura Richardson, who was running the floor at the time. She repeatedly tries to use parliamentary chicanery to deter him from expressing outrage that a bill bypassed the committee process.

Republicans are particularly sensitive to this kind of trickery, considering Democrats are trying to pass their remaining agenda items during the lame duck session. Trying to further shove their agenda on the American people after such a sharp repudiation shows just how arrogant and unheeding Democrats have become in their fundamental transformation of our government and society.

Frustrated at Richardson’s robotic, vapid unwillingness… Read More

Attached are the raw notes of my law clerk, who attended the 11/17/10 Fair Political Practices Commission Task Force meeting on the 12 areas of proposed reforms and changes to election regulation in California. Please understand these are raw notes, not legal advice, and I am offering them simply to be sure the information is circulated to any readers who are interested.… Read More