Democrat election lawyer Bob Bauer has left private practice and now works for the taxpayers as the Obama White House Counsel, and already there are discussions on the Left-wing blogs, encouraged by Bauer’s appointment, that statements such as "ACORN stole the election" for Obama in 2008 could be considered a form of harassment and voter intimidation in and of themselves and that to restrict such mistruths from further circulation they might best be criminalized. Because, even though ACORN engaged in massive, coordinated vote illegalities in the last Presidential election, it didn’t really "steal" the election for Obama. The drift on the Left is that Obama would have won the election without all the help, legal or illegal, ACORN provided anyway, so for people to say that Obama "stole" the election is near criminal slander, and it should be suppressed. Lori Minnite, associated with Columbia University, states that tales of ACORN "stealing" the election for Obama are "ubiquitous" in the "rightwing blogosphere," and that rightwingers also believe that ACORN "stole" the election for… Read More

Today I am truly thankful for my wife and family; for my friends; for God’s blessings in my life; and to live in a great, free country that offers me and all people opportunity, civil rights, and the right to speak my mind.

Other things I am thankful for today are that: my parents didn’t name me Lester Lacy; that the Angels made it to the American League championship series and that baseball is just a few months away; that I was able to get rid of low profile tires on my car, which explode too much; that my German-born and titled 121 pound German Shepherd, Ibo Vom Steigerhof, BH, hasn’t been able to figure out how to start my car, yet; that my lemon tree hasn’t died; and that our publisher has only permanently deleted one of my posts herein in the last year. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!… Read More

This Thanksgiving morning, as I review some of the news, I find the rhetoric aroundthis little Lt. Governor replacement issue quite entertaining as well as disturbing. In the news, there is annoyance over: A) the mere existence ofan LG B) thecandidate chosen to fill the vacancy C) the "horrendous" cost ofpossible special elections to replace the domino’d open seat[s] caused by appointing a current legislator as Lt Governor

My, ahem, ‘favorite’ line may beabout the governor, by movingto fill the vacancy "has chosen politics over seniors and children." [It was uttered by someone seeking statewide office]

As a duly elected Constitutional officer, the Lt. Governor does have certain responsibilities. A key one is a vote on the State Lands Commission, which would have jurisdiction over key oil drilling policy. The bottom line should be is that if the people of California through their Constitution have provided or allowed for the existence of a Lt Guv, and thus vote one into office, then it’s the obligation of the Governor and the Legislature to appoint and confirm a replacement as a… Read More

This Thanksgiving morning, as I review some of the news, I find the rhetoric aroundthis little Lt. Governor replacement issue quite entertaining as well as disturbing. In the news, there is annoyance over: A) the mere existence ofan LG B) thecandidate chosen to fill the vacancy C) the "horrendous" cost ofpossible special elections to replace the domino’d open seat[s] caused by appointing a current legislator as Lt Governor

My, ahem, ‘favorite’ line may beabout the governor, by movingto fill the vacancy "has chosen politics over seniors and children." [It was uttered by someone seeking statewide office]

As a duly elected Constitutional officer, the Lt. Governor does have certain responsibilities. A key one is a vote on the State Lands Commission, which would have jurisdiction over key oil drilling policy. The bottom line should be is that if the people of California through their Constitution have provided or allowed for the existence of a Lt Guv, and thus vote one into office, then it’s the obligation of the Governor and the Legislature to appoint and confirm a replacement as a… Read More

The nomination by Governor Schwarzenegger of State Senator Abel Maldonado really comes as no surprise, I suppose. Oh, there were plenty of theories about potential picks of people outside of the State Legislature, but if the Governor was going to pick a sitting legislator, Maldonado is a natural. The reason for this is that this Governor is so erratic and inconsistent that it is safe to say that he has no over-arching political ideology that is guiding him through his time as the state’s Chief Executive. Instead, everyone – even those closest to him – have stopped trying to predict his behavior, knowing that to try is folly. The only areas in which the Governor has maintained some consistency is his vetoing of those few bills each year that the CalChamber identifies as “job killers” (while signing vastly more bills that cost jobs but didn’t make the list) – and he has been “channeling” Al Gore on global warming for quite a few years now. Abel Maldonado is similarly erratic and unpredictable. Both Schwarzenegger and Maldonado seem to relish in the attention that they garner – “Oh, what will they do?”

This dynamic duo of inconsistency… Read More

The nomination by Governor Schwarzenegger of State Senator Abel Maldonado really comes as no surprise, I suppose. Oh, there were plenty of theories about potential picks of people outside of the State Legislature, but if the Governor was going to pick a sitting legislator, Maldonado is a natural. The reason for this is that this Governor is so erratic and inconsistent that it is safe to say that he has no over-arching political ideology that is guiding him through his time as the state’s Chief Executive. Instead, everyone – even those closest to him – have stopped trying to predict his behavior, knowing that to try is folly. The only areas in which the Governor has maintained some consistency is his vetoing of those few bills each year that the CalChamber identifies as “job killers” (while signing vastly more bills that cost jobs but didn’t make the list) – and he has been “channeling” Al Gore on global warming for quite a few years now. Abel Maldonado is similarly erratic and unpredictable. Both Schwarzenegger and Maldonado seem to relish in the attention that they garner – “Oh, what will they do?”

This dynamic duo of inconsistency… Read More

Much will be said about the appointment of moderate State Senator Abel Maldonado to be California’s next Lt. Governor. His appointment was not a surprise. I didn’t read one article or column that pondered the Governor’s potential LG picks that didn’t prominently mention Maldonado.

That said, I only read one commentary that looked at the Governor’s LG pick that 100% "nailed it" as to the timing of the appointment.

In his November 5 column, And The Next Lt. Governor Is… (Envelope Please), Fleischman said, "One thing is certain, Arnold Schwarzenegger will make his selection soon. How soon? Doesn’t he have a scheduled appearance coming soon with Jay Leno?"

Very precient, Flash!… Read More

The California Republican Assembly, the state’s largest and most active conservative GOP volunteer organization has just released its 2009 legislative scorecard.

As always, this particular scorecard of the many out there, is the most significant and the most telling in terms of really figuring out how our elected officials are voting on the spectrum, with those endorsing a bigger, fatter and more intrusive state government scoring lower (all of the "zeroes" belong to Democrats) and those who believe in freedom, liberty and individual responsibility scoring higher (all of the "100’s" are Republicans).

Below is the release put out my CRA President Ken Mettler framing this year’s ratings, and a link to check them out online. As always, the scorecard is easy to read and well documented, with all of the bills that made up the ratings being listed and a spreadsheet being created so you can see how your representative voted. I was very pleased to see that a great many of the bills highlighted in FR’s "Top Twenty Bills To Veto" (co-authored by Senator Mimi Walters and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who both got… Read More