From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail:

A Left Coast Bellwether

The New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races aren’t the only contests in which Democrats are feeling pressure from the growing unpopularity of President Obama’s policies. A GOP upset may also be in the making in a California House special election on November 3. Democratic Lt. Governor John Garamendi and Republican attorney David Harmer are battling for the Bay Area congressional seat vacated by Democrat Ellen Tauscher, who left to join the Obama state department. Normally a staunch Democratic seat, there is a growing chance it could swing to the GOP given the state’s latest budget collapse and the 13% approval… Read More

Death Tax: When I am home in California, I get many questions about legislation relating to the Death Tax. As many of you know, the Death Tax currently kicks in at a 45% rate for estates over $3.5 million. But under current law, the tax will go away on January 1st, 2010 for 1 year. Then, it comes back on January 1st, 2011 at a 55% rate for estates over $1 million. This strange vacillation in the tax and the exemption has occurred in order to comply with arcane House rules calling for no increase in the deficit more than 10 years out from when the reduction in the death tax was passed. Obviously, the idea that the tax would go away and then come back 12 months later at its highest level in a decade is ridiculous public policy. There is universal agreement that this has to be changed.

But that’s where the agreement ends. Most Republicans, including this one, believe that the tax should be permanently eliminated. This wealth has already been taxed at least once when it was earned. Furthermore, this is a very inefficient tax. The direct costs of collection are actually over 50% of the tax collected. And many studies show that the government… Read More

U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes is fired up about so-called "leaders" of the Ag Community who are thwarting efforts to get the water pumps turned on.… Read More

This week, scandal prone Democrat San Diego City Councilwoman came under fire yet again. This time it was for forming an “Advisory Council” and having that group meet with representatives from the Mayor’s office on two very controversial topics which Emerald supports — building a downtown library and a new City Hall (controversial because the city is about broke). Then the 20 member Advisory Council voted to support both projects, and Emerald was so ‘surprised’ by the vote by these unbiased members of the community she issued a press release crowing about it.

Then the problems started. When bloggers and the press started asking who the 20 were, Emerald wouldn’t answer. Instead, she mysteriously answered that she was talking to the City Attorney about the matter. Then, under pressure, four days later on Friday night her office released the names of a larger 34 person group. On inspection on Saturday, one of the bloggers on www.sdrostra.com found some 70% of this group were Emerald contributors. Emerald still hasn’t answered exactly which of the 20 people were at the meeting… and no doubt the legitimate community… Read More

Senate pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) had a press event last week to argue the Governor’s furlough of state workers is not saving as much as advertised.A huge number of state workers live in his district.Steinberg and a group from UC Berkeley gave compelling arguments.If they and others are successful in convincing the public and the Governor that the furloughs are not producing enough savings, the Governor’s only viable alternative is to exercise his executive power to unilaterally layoff tens of thousands of state workers with a single stroke of his pen. http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2009/10/14/steinberg-seeks-a-one-two-punch-on-furloughs/ … Read More

Republicans made a huge mistake when they kept John Boehner in the House leadership.

I’ve pasted in below a brief from John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, outlining the disastrous support of a leftist GOP candidate in a New York House race. This is exactly why the RNC and NRCC will continue to get none of my support. It was leftist Republicans like this that prevented energy, endangered species and immigration legislation from being passed when we had majorities, and led to the anger and disgust the conservative base has with the GOP presently. We are better to lose the seat than win with this RINO.

Republicans Put on a ClinicRepublicans are set to do well in the November 3 off-year elections, but a conspicuous exception may be the special House election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, a rural area bordering Canada that covers a quarter of the state’s territory. In a wild three-way race, Republican Dede Scozzafava has fallen behind Democrat Bill Owens, largely because Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is pulling 23% of the vote. The disastrous Scozzafava candidacy was… Read More

There are two new mail pieces that have dropped in the 72AD special election.

Both are attached below. Ackerman hits Norby.

Norby hits Ackerman.

Analysis will come later (I am at Western CPAC so don’t have time for that now).… Read More

I love football. It’s a great sport to watch on television, but even more fun to attend in person. As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, much of my life was spent with no close-by National Football League team, once the Rams picked up and moved East. While the absence of an NFL team for Los Angeles was unfortunate, it was significantly mitigated by some great college football teams in the area. But I do get my hopes up every time I hear that someone is thinking about bringing an NFL team back to my home town. So I have been following with some interest the efforts of billionaire Ed Roski (pictured) to construct a stadium for NFL play over in East Los Angeles, and bringing a team to Los Angeles County.

Of course it is no surprise that one of th hurdles to engaging in a major construction project in California is regulatory cost. This state is one of the leaders in the nation in the unfortunate catagory of making it much more… Read More