The other news today besides the unexpected and Claude Rains-like shocking information about an Assemblyman having sex with lobbyists in Sacramento, comes from the halls of the United States Supreme Court, where a special second oral argument was held in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case that I have written about here before. Without going into too much detail on the legal mumbo jumbo, from the questions asked of the lawyers, it looks like there is a pretty firm 5-4 majority (at least to this observer) in favor of overturning the longstanding ban on corporate contributions in Federal political campaigns. For election lawyers, reading such a decision would be a little like being an Israelite observing Moses parting the Red Sea. But it is a question squarely before the count, and Justices Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas are absolutely on board with this notion, and by their questions, it appears that Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts are on the verge of deciding that the First Amendment belongs to everybody, including people who work for corporations (and likely unions to follow). Judge Sotomayor’s… Read More

Yesterday, the Governor took a stand and demanded that the Democratic controlled legislature pull back all the bills on his desk until they get their act together and work with Republicans on key issues like water. The Democrats response: use Vietnam Veterans as a trial balloon to test the Governor. "I dare the governor to veto this bill," Assembly Democratic Majority Leader Albert Torrico childishly stated before the close of Tuesday’s session.

Everyone knows there are several issues where I don’t see eye to eye with the Governor, but I support his decision to veto this commemorative resolution 100% and Republicans should not even entertain the idea of an override for two key reasons.

First, we must use every piece of leverage available to force Democrats to give Republicans a seat at the table on major issues. What the Governor did yesterday was to send a powerful signal to Democrats – “Give us a seat at the table for a water package or expect all your bills to come back with a fat veto stamp.” (Frankly, I would love it if the Governor vetoed every single bill regardless.)

Second, we cannot allow Democrats to use a Veterans… Read More

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Jon Fleischman, Publisher of the FlashReport Website on California Politics, this morning released the following statement to the State Legislature concerning ongoing discussions to achieve a solution to our state’s water crisis that the legislature would then place before the voters of California…

"As the Governor and state legislators work earnestly with a goal of pulling together a “comprehensive water solution package” to potentially bring before the full legislature this week, we believe that the frame of mind of those… Read More

While the controversy will continue to rage about President Barack Obama’s decision to address school children.

I am stunned not by the obvious attempt to look great or indoctrinate young people. Don’t get me wrong all those things are important and clearly this is his attempt to reach young people and their voting parents with an “important message” of stay in school and work hard. As long as he is mentioning stuff, clean your room should be added to the list.

Yes, it is a waste of instructional time etc…

But what bothers me is trying to figure out this question.

Does Barack Obama believe he has the power to change the culture of students by giving a speech?

There is no doubt that Presidents can be inspirational. John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and others have proved that,.

In some cases I think a half hour from Sponge Bob (my son picked him over Obama) or a song from Adam Lambert (my daughter says he is cooll) would be more effective with dealing with a culture than a speech by a man that had to overcome graduating from such horrible schools like Columbia and Harvard or even the private schools in Hawaii or Indonesia he… Read More

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Jon Fleischman, Publisher of the FlashReport Website on California Politics, this morning released the following statement to the State Legislature concerning ongoing discussions to achieve a solution to our state’s water crisis that the legislature would then place before the voters of California…

"As the Governor and state legislators work earnestly with a goal of pulling together a “comprehensive water solution package” to potentially bring before the full legislature this week, we believe that the frame of mind of those… Read More

As we reported last week, today the Committee to Recall Anthony Adams will turn in around 40,000 signatures to registrars of voters in both Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. In order for a recall election to be called against Adams there will ultimately need to be about 36,000 valid signatures of voters from the 59th Assembly District turned in. (The media event will be this afternoon at the Los Angeles County Registrar, headed up by Recall Adams leader and former State Senator Dick Mountjoy.)

The recall against Adams is taking place over his deciding vote to increase state income, sales and car taxes by billions — actually it was the largest tax increase ever at the state level in any state in the history of America. Adams took a pledge not to raise taxes in his critical first primary… Read More

A few weeks ago, the organization California Forward sent a letter to the Governor and members of the State Legislature outlining what they believe to be a series of reforms that, if passed, would improve the condition of government here in California. You can see that letter here (h/t KQED).

Many of the reforms have merit, a few are more questionable — all deserve closer examination.

But for the purposes of this commentary, I am focused on what would be, for me, a "deal killer" when it comes to "reforms" — and that is a proposal to severely weaken California’s legislative term limits, placed into the State Constitution back in 1990. Three times now, most recently with Proposition 93, the political-class have sought to undo in some part what the voters put into place — and all three times their efforts have been rejected.

Under the "reform" proposed by California Forward, while an individual currently is limited, in their lifetime, to serving three terms in the State Assembly and two terms in the State Senate,… Read More

Until recently, Assembly Bill 402 by Mike Davis (D- Los Angeles) was called “the Michael Jackson Child Performers Workplace Protection Act.”The author amended the bill to take out Michael Jackson’s name.I guess someone finally told Davis that most people do not associate Michael Jackson’s name with protecting children. While the title was amusing, the bill is not.It would create a new $50 tax for every child who applies for an entertainment work permit.California law requires children to obtain free work permits from the Labor Commissioner to work in the entertainment industry.The proposed new tax would be collected even if the permit is denied. As usual, the proponents call this tax a “fee” even though most children will receive no benefit at all, unless being allowed to submit an application for a work permit is somehow considered a benefit.The bureaucrats are … Read More