Quote of the week: “No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while Congress is in session” – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

The House of Representatives adjourned for the year on Wednesday night. So, as Samuel Clemens so aptly stated, your property and freedom are safe until January 12th, 2010. You all know that the Senate is still wrestling with their Health Care Bill. Thus far, the absence of the government run part is a good thing, laregely because it is therefore unlikely to lead to full-blown socialized medicine. That’s why Howard Dean and other unabashed socialized medicine advocates are now against the bill. But the bill still stinks because it will raise taxes and costs on every single American who currently has health insurance in order to create a new expensive bureaucracy in an attempt to insure the uninsured. If this bill were to pass, it would not surprise me if health insurance costs rise by about 30% on everyone because of the resulting taxes on insurance policies, new mandated coverage’s, and expanded costs. I just don’t see how the President and the Democrats believe that this will help people or… Read More

The Tony Amador for Congress campaign has actually put out a release that highlights Amador’s endorsement from the Sheriffs of Sacramento, Merced and Solano counties. While that’s fine and dandy even though none of those counties are part of the 11th Congressional District, it’s pretty amusing to see they added a scorecard on the release stating "Primary Scoreboard: Amador 3 Goehring 2." I guess it’s hard to be a good scorekeeper when one campaign is playing on the junior varsity level and being dominated in every aspect of the game by a clearly superior opponent.

Maybe it’s just me and I could be wrong here being that I’m biased and all in favor of my client Brad Goehring, but it seems to me you might not want to highlight the fact that your opponent has the support of the Sheriffs who represent the two largest counties in the district and are very popular and respected officials while your endorsements mean ZIP, ZERO and NADA in the 11th Congressional district.

Or maybe you would think of avoiding discussing endorsements when Brad Goehring has not only locked down the support of those two local Sheriffs but… Read More

As you may know, earlier this year I submitted the Vote SAFE Now initiative (which would require voters to produce photo identification at the polls) to Attorney General Brown’s office. While the California Constitution requires the Attorney General to write fair and balanced title and summaries, what Brown wrote for the Vote SAFE initiative was politically tilted and factually incorrect. As a result, I sued Brown this past fall.

Brown’s latest attempt at the title and summary for the Vote SAFE initiative is materially more accurate than the prior version. Thus, I have dropped the suit. It’s not perfect, but we believe we can move forward with the language in all but one respect.

However, I still plan to re-submit the initiative this week to the Attorney General in an effort to bring clarity to one of the initiative’s provisions – the one which would allowthe county registrar of voters 15… Read More

A very important football game will open tomorrow night a 8:00 pm at Home Depot Stadium in Carson, CA, home of the LA Galaxy Soccer Team. It is the CIF Division 1 high school football championship game between Bellarmine College Preparatory, representing northern California, and Oceanside High School.

Bellarmine, a "Jesuit institution" as Tom Fuentes would say, and my alma mater, has always had a great football tradition but this is its first trip to the CIF finals. When I was a student at Bellarmine, I was the "manager" of the freshman football team. (That means I got cut but the coaches and players liked me hanging around.) During my high school years, Bellarmine’s quarterback was Dan Pasterini, who went ontothe NFL as Houston’s first string quarterback. Bellarmine’s challenging Western Catholic Athletic League includes Serra High Schoolin San Mateo, whose football top-gun when I was at Bellarmine was a guy named Lynn Swann, who went on to USC (another alma mater of mine) before he joined the NFL Steelers(Serra was also home to current Patriot’s Q-back Tom Brady, and S.F. Giant home run… Read More

The California State Auditors office has announced it’s accepting applications to become a member of California ‘s first-ever Citizens Redistricting Commission. Created by Prop. 11 in 2008, the commission will be responsible for reapportioning legislative and board of equalization districts following the 2010 census. The application process closes Feb. 12, 2010. For more information go to www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov. Contact: Margarita Fernandez916 445 0255.… Read More

[Cross-posted from RedCounty.com]

Well, that was quick.

On November 5, I posted that Anaheim Republican Sue Perez was going to challenge Democratic Sen. Lou Correa’s re-election, with the backing of the state Senate GOPCaucus.

I heard on Sunday that she had decided not to run, after all, and additional calls confirmed that. I don’t know the official reason for her exit, but it’s my understanding she has some baggage that would prove damaging in mail pieces.

So it’s back to the drawing board.

One has to marvel at Sen. Correa good fortune thus far. He’s running for re-election in what is shaping up to be a terrible year for Democrats. Democratic voters… Read More

Former Local Elected Wants Every Penny He Is and Isn’t Entitled To

Becoming an elected official is something I am very proud of, serving my community is a decision I made with the encouragement of my family because I believed I had something to give back first toChino Hillsand now the state.

This is why I find it particularly disgusting when a representative repays his community by attempting to squeeze every possible dollar he can get out of it.

I have requested the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee, of which I am a member, to begin an investigation into the California Employment Development Department’s payment of $11,250 to a former city councilman from Rosemead, CA, John Núñez, who filed the claim after he lost a re-election bid in March of this year.

Perhaps the California Employment Development Department (EDD) should be familiar with the Unemployment Insurance Code. The law is very clear on this issue; Section 634.5 renders elected officials ineligible for unemployment benefits. Despite this fairly strait forward bit of code the EDD approved the claim over the city’s objections.

My fear is this is… Read More

Beneath the propaganda and the well-crafted sound bites thatare Sen. Harry Reid’s health care bill is the mention of "tax" 183 times. One Hundred and Eighty Three times!

As documented by Americans for Tax Reform, here are some of the tax proposals the tax-and-spend liberals have proposed for you:

– An Individual Mandate Tax (Sec. 1501/$8 billion); – An Employer Mandate Tax (Sec. 1513/$28 billion), – An Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans (Sec. 9001/$149.1 billion); – An Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 (Sec. 9002/Min$); –A Medicine Cabinet Tax (Sec. 9003/$5 billion); – An HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike (Sec. 9004/$1.3 billion); – An FSA Cap (Sec. 9005/$14.6 billion); –A Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting tax (Sec. 9006/$17.1 billion); – an Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (Sec. 9007/Min$); –A Tax on Innovator Drug Companies (Sec. 9008/$22.2 billion); –A Tax of Medical Device Manufacturers (Sec. 9009/$19.3 billion); –A Tax on Health Insurers (Sec. 9010/$60.4 billion);… Read More