The 136 page ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker on Wednesday on California’s ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8, contains a number of findings of fact as well as conclusions of law. It is a ponderous document. But I’ve reviewed the substantive "conclusions of law" declaring Prop. 8 as unconstitutional, and I have have an opinion, and some experience in winning Federal civil rights cases, so here it is….

My biggest problem, and perhaps the biggest legal hole in the decision, is Judge Vaugh’s conclusion of law that Proposition 8 involves a fundamental constitutional right. The reality is, the U.S. Constitution doesn’t mention marriage anywhere, let alone gay marriage. It was certainly not a factor in the discussions of our Founding Fathers. ( I’m pretty sure Benjamin Franklin would have busted his corset if it was ever brought up.) Gay marriage has never before been found to be a constitutional right in any court in the United States. So what Vaugh has done is set the stage for ground-breaking further legal review and a final… Read More

I have to respond to Controller John Chiang’s most recent order where he is calling for transparency in local government salaries…

Once again the media has exposed massive fraud and abuse of tax dollars. This time it was the City of Bell. The pattern of the media exposing waste is becoming all too familiar. From reading about new, unused, and parked Cal Trans trucks stored under freeway overpasses to the Controller’s $100 million failure to upgrade California’s computer payroll system, the media seems to be doing John Chiang’s job. John Chiang’s order today is too late and smells political. His cries for transparency are another example of the Controller following rather than leading. His failure to exercise his greatest power – the power to audit – is costing taxpayers millions.… Read More

Guy Houston is a nice guy, at least to the extent that I have had dealings with him. Frankly, that hasn’t been much. During his six-year tenure representing the East Bay Area in the State Assembly, Republican Houston (pictured) was more or less a back-bencher. More moderate than many of his Republican colleagues (he voted for some budgets and voted to place bond measures on the ballot that would make a true-blue conservative roll their eyes), Houston was able to hold onto his office through three elections despite an increase of Democrats in the district. That said, when he retired due to term limits, the GOP did not retain that district, which is currently represented by liberal Democrat Joan Buchanan (GOPer Abram Wilson is making a spirited run to reclaim that seat this November).

I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised to receive a telephone call from… Read More

Offshore Drilling Moratorium: One of the committees on which I serve is theJoint Economic Committee. This committee is primarily tasked with studying the U.S. economy, and consider factors which affect it. Last week, we had a hearing on the subject of energy. One of the witnesses was a professor from Texas A&M University. He made a very interesting point about the Obama Administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling. Ostensibly, the purpose of this moratorium is to reduce the risk of another oil spill until such time as acceptable oil spill prevention activities are in place, if ever. Interestingly however, this professor challenged that supposition. He pointed out that if the moratorium continues, 150,000 very high paying American jobs will be lost to Brazil, India, and other places for a period of at least 2 years. But in addition to that, the US will be forced to import more oil because of the domestic oil production that will be lost. That imported oil will come into the Gulf of Mexico and other ports, in ships. The professor estimated that it will take 1,500 additional tankers full of oil (roughly equivalent… Read More

Part of the debate around proposition 23 will be about jobs. AB 32 is responsible for driving out of Californiacompanies that can’t comply or can’t afford these new regulations and higher energy costs. No worries “Green Job” will be our savior.

First you may be interested in what a “green job” is? I found out some amazing things from Jared Blumenfeld, Obama’s Regional Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Before this gig he was the Director of San Francisco’s Environmental Department.

At a regional visit in June, he talked about ‘green jobs”. Workers that install insulation=green job. Bicycle repairman, I mean bicycle repairperson = green job. I’m not kidding, he didn’t say anything about shoe store owners or cleaning people who turn off the lights, but why not? If you pick up a day laborer in front of Home Depot you are helping illegals and the environment as long as they put in insulation. That is a liberal twofer. Apparently Covina Valley Schwinn was doing green jobs my entire life. Who knew?

But it gets better. Anyone involved at all gets counted as a… Read More

I have not even had a chance to read the attached report from the Fair Political Practices Commission Subcommittee on Internet Political Activity. I wanted to post it asap. I will read through it at the same time as the rest of you..… Read More

With the state facing what is now a $19.1 billion budget shortfall, as we sit here now over a month into the fiscal year without a state spending plan, you can expect to see a lot of “creative” ideas coming out of liberal politicians who are desperately trying to close the budget gap while minimizing more cuts to state government spending. That having been said, virtually all of the one-time gimmicks and accounting tricks have already been used before reaching this point.

No one should be surprised that the latest “creative idea” to come out of the Capitol, purportedly floated by State Senate President Darrell Steinberg, is – you guessed it, another tax increase. His proposal is to raise most income tax rates for Californians, while lowering sales tax rates. The basic idea is that income taxes are deductable on itemized federal tax returns, and the swap in taxes would shift a few billion bucks from the coffers of the federal government into state government. John Myers of KQED Public Radio has an excellent summary and analysis of this proposal on his Capitol Notes Blog. I am excerpting some of it below,… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal… Jerry Brown’s Pension Punt The California Democrat won’t consider 401(k)s for state employees. The race for California Governor ought to come down to which candidate has a better chance to rein in the special-interest asylum that is the state legislature. Republican Meg Whitman is a conservative former eBay CEO but a political rookie, while former Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is a liberal but might be quirky enough to do a Nixon goes to Sacramento. Judging by his recent pension reform plan, however, Mr. Brown still has some relearning to do. This year, the Golden State is… Read More