A little after midnight last Wednesday, Congress, both the House and Senate, adjourned until after Election Day. Apparently, we will come back for a "lame duck" session starting November 15th. This adjournment occurred earlier than had originally been planned, as a majority of Democrats were desperate to get home and campaign.

Normally, and particularly with this Congress, any time the House and Senate are out of session, the nation is much better off than when we are in session spending money, raising taxes, restricting freedom, and killing jobs. However, Congress left town last week leaving one major piece of work undone. On January 1, 2011, the largest tax increase in American history will occur unless Congress acts. All Republicans and dozens of Democrats in both houses have publicly stated that they support extending the current tax rates for ALL taxpayers, at least for a couple of years. Based on these announcements, it is pretty clear that a bill to extend all of those rates would pass both houses should a vote be taken today. But, in a demonstration of the importance of who it is that holds the gavel of Speaker and Majority Leader, Pelosi… Read More

Not so sure I’m going to be able to keep this up for the next four weeks.

Signage, ahhh, signage. We’ll deal another day with the question of whether it was worth it for you to purchase all those campaign signs, as well as the inordinate amount of time you are now spending in maintaining their presence.

But, as long as you did, let me ask. Those large signs…why for the love of Pete do you have some of them placed along main traffic routes positioned parallel to the roadway, instead of having the wording facing the oncoming traffic?

How many people do you know that while driving 45 miles per hour suddenly turn their heads 90 degrees to the right or left to read something facing the middle of the street? Do you?

Just askin’.

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All of Barry’s enlightening advice…and other posts.

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From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail… Gallup Delivers a Stunner As Election Day draws closer, every major public opinion poll shifts from interviewing registered voters to those whom it identifies as "likely" voters. Gallup, the oldest U.S. polling company, first developed the model it uses for identifying likely voters back in 1950 and its final election polls have proven highly accurate. Yesterday, Gallup delivered its first 2010 "likely voter" poll and the results floored the political community. In the generic ballot question, which asks which party a voter would favor in a generic House contest, Gallup gave the GOP a 46% to 42% edge. But… Read More

It’s not often that conservatives have many positive things to say about the main stream media—especially California’s newspapers. But based on its recent reporting, I think the LA Times deserves some credit. In recent months, the Times has done some great investigative journalism and uncovered lots of government corruption—exactly what we want our media watchdogs to do. First, back in June the Times reported on the welfare cash card abuse. Over $1.8 million was withdrawn from ATMs in casinos—a complete waste of taxpayer money. Second, the Times exposed the City of Bell salary and pension scandal in July. The scandal was so huge it grabbed … Read More

Do you have a campaign budget? How much more do you have to raise to get there? Divide that number by 28. That’s how much you need to raise today, and tomorrow, and every day from here until election day. Commit yourself to getting on the phones and meeting that goal. Every day.

My guess is you’re already behind. You’d better get going.

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All of Barry’s enlightening advice…and other posts.… Read More

So here we are, in record-setting late-budget territory. The good news is — we have a budget deal, right? Or do we?

Last Friday it was announced that there was a budget deal. It’s now Monday, and I am looking for word on what is in that budget deal? Of course, there is no public document on what is in thebudget deal because — well — because of the dysfunctional system.

Presumably last Friday the "Big 5" (Governor, Democrat and GOP leaders of each chamber) got together, with their key budget staff members, and hammered out something they all felt comfortable (on the part of the legislative leaders) bringing back to their caucus. (I should add that there is no doubt in my mind that the union bosses are so integrated on the Dem side that they will have been heavily consulted during the Big 5 talks, and thus were participants to that process).

So now we are in this "window period" where the budget deal is being taken to all of the legislators, and it is also being discussed with key constituency group leaders and I’m sure details are getting out now to those lobbyists and… Read More

News Flash: You’re not going to win every vote.

Instead of telling people what you think they want to hear, why don’t you start telling them what you believe? Tell them why you and your ideas are the best for the job, even if they may disagree with you on some issues.

Obfuscation and speaking out of both sides of your mouth is likely to eventually come back to bite you. Honesty seldom does.

Reminder: You’re not going to win every vote.

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All of Barry’s enlightening advice…and other posts.… Read More

If I owned the Los Angeles Times and could even the score with the Brown campaign’s and that newspaper’s terrible treatment and lies about Meg Whitman, I’d get one of my reporters to ask Jerry Brown this question: “Are you addicted to cocaine?” When Brown refused to answer the question because it is stupid question to ask, I’d publish a big headline in the Times “Brown refuses to Answer Question about cocaine addiction”. Then when Brown eventually would say he was not addicted to cocaine, I would write another headline, “Brown admits not addicted to cocaine”. The deceptive headlines over baloney stories such as the housekeeper story simply show how far Brown and his media flunkies are willing to go to avoid what really needs to be discussed in this campaign: the government employee union stranglehold on policy in Sacramento. These powerful unions are bankrupting not only the state with their huge pensions, they are also bankrupting the future of our state by producing the poorest performing generation of students in California history. While Brown and the SF Chronicle and LA Times wallow in a message about one… Read More