News today of the conviction of 10 Russian spies and a CIA-KGB spy swap for 4 of our own in the Soviet Union has hit the news. But not so evident is what the spies actually did, and who they were. However, one of them has a shockingly interesting background. He received his Masters Degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University in 2000 under the false name of Donald Howard Heathfield. His real name is Andrey Bezrukov, and he spied right under Harvard’s nose in Cambridge, Mass.

How somebody pulls off a masquerade using a Boston Brahmin name like Heathfield when they really have an Eastern European cabbage patch name like Bezrukov is beyond me. I also can’t figure out the linguistics. I wonder if Andrey really mastered the New England English accent as well? So much for security features at our nation’s leading university. Beyond his academic success at Harvard, all we know about Andrey is that he met with a U.S. government employee in 2004 "to discuss nuclear weapons research." Could you imagine if this guy ended up with a big bureaucrat job in the U.S. Department of Defense?… Read More

This just in from State Senator (and soon to be Congressman) Jeff Denham… Denham has submitted this ballot argument against the "Porkulus" (as we call it), the massive water bond that is currently scheduled to appear on the November ballot. Advocates of the bond want to push the vote off to 2012 — presumably their internal polling shows that spending such vast amounts of money during a recession is not too popular with taxpayers…

Here what Denham submitted to the Secretary of State: The politicians and the special interests are at it again! Not only have they racked up a $19 billion deficit but now they are trying to con Californians into voting for a phony $11 billion water bond. Proposition 18 is a pork measure that gives billions of dollars to… Read More

MEMORANDUM

TO: Interested Parties FR: Martin Wilson, Campaign Manager, Carly for California RE: Pick up the phone…California is calling __________________________________________________

I guess it’s not a secret anymore; we’ve got ourselves a little old competitive Senate race here in California. The Field Poll shows Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina in a statistical tie, 47 percent to 44 percent. This represents a 30-point improvement for Carly since Field first matched up the two in March 2009. Most importantly, Carly has closed a 15-point gap since January 2010. Trends are stubborn things, and Barbara Boxer has found out that this trend is not her friend. Looks like Barbara Boxer has earned herself a spot on the endangered politicians list.

The political environmental assessment for Barbara Boxer is bleak. Her job performance ratings are 42 percent/48 percent approve/disapprove in this most recent poll. In previous years when she was running for re-election,… Read More

FR has covered the controversy of the competing claims of leadership of the Republican Party of Los Angeles (RPLAC) of Jane Barnett and Robert Vaughn, including the outcome of the May 26, 2010 court case. The court ruled in Barnett’s favor.

A reporter called me right before the case for a comment and I told the reporter that the outcome of a court case wouldn’t decide the future of the RPLAC, but the following weeks Central Committee elections would. I should point out I have been an elected RPLAC member for almost two decades. Yikes!. And I am a local Lincoln Club Chair.

Here is a quick look at it. I should note that RPLAC could have over 200 members. With people elected from districts that have little GOP registration to some that have a lot. Some District are very small, like the LA portion of the 61t AD. Needless to say in some districts you get whomever runs and that is it.

As I look at the winners, Barnett clearly was the winner. She had help from the LA County Lincoln Club that bought slates in the very competitive areas.

There help had a big… Read More

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

I am opposed to legalizing marijuana because encouraging the public, particularly young people, touse drugsin order to increase state revenue is reprehensible.

After listening to testimony today from RAND researchers, my resolve is strengthened: Legalizing pot is a bad idea.

The researchers put forth plenty of questions (how much money will California generate from marijuana sales? Will tax invasion on marijuana sales become a problem? Will the usage of marijuana increase dramatically?), but they were only able to offer theories instead of concrete answers.

That’s because nobody really knows the outcome of legalizing pot since it’s not been done anywhere in the world. California would be swimming in uncharted waters if Proposition 19 were to pass in November. In other words, once again California would be the great experiment for the rest of the world at the expense of public safety, community health and common sense.

One thing the RAND researchers were certain about: California would not save that much money in law enforcement costs – maybe $300 million, some of that General Fund money, some local dollars. Why the nominal savings?… Read More

Pacific Gas and Electric coming out against Prop 23 to suspend AB 32 doesn’t shock me. As a utility completely regulated by a government commissioner (the PUC) all of whose members have swallowed the Al Gore Kool-aid, did they have a choice? It seems like every July, I ponder the dysfunction of our state legislature. We had no budget – let me repeat, NO BUDGET – yet legislators are on recess instead of working collectively to get the job done. Shame on the Senate President and Assembly Speaker. Guess what? There is no way to solve the pension crisis without significantly reducing benefits for current employees of state and local government. Creating a “new tier” for new hires just won’t cut it. Any and all leverage to achieve these reductions is warranted. I don’t agree with the Fresno Bee Editorial Board all of the time. But today they ask why their local legislators aren’t in Sacramento trying to work out a budget. I agree with that. All 120 legislators should be chained to their desks, if need be – but they won’t be. My friends Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts at CalBuzz asked if FlashReport … Read More

I finally figured out that AB 32 is actually supposed to put people out of work. If you don’t drive to and from work, your carbon emissions are significantly reduced. I read an article where local “First 5” Commissions are reducing budgets because they are funded by taxes on cigarette sales, and less people are smoking. There is a lesson to be learned here – I’m still thinking about what it is. Senator Boxer is on what she calls a “jobs tour” of the state. Yet she is appearing where government spending is providing jobs. Boxer doesn’t understand that we need jobs that don’t come from deficit spending in Washington, D.C. I guess in some cases, no one is better than someone. It is very reassuring to not have Abel Maldonado in the State Senate during this coming budget show-down. Californian’s were unwise in passing a ballot measure to require that California chickens have larger cages, it means higher prices for eggs. The legislature and Governor have made it worse for consumers by applying this standard to imported eggs, too. Look for those McNuggets to get pricier! … Read More