From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary… John Fund remembers actor Ron Silver, who passed away yesterday… (We added the photo…)

Silver Was Pure Gold

Actor and liberal-turned-conservative activist Ron Silver knew how to live — and also how to deal courageously with the cancer that claimed his life yesterday at age 62.

When I last saw him at a lunch in New York a few months ago, I asked him how his health was. "Not good," he replied philosophically. "I’m probably not going to make it, but I’ll go down fighting."

Not much you can say to that, except to… Read More

There seems to be a change in public sentiment of late. Perhaps it’s the mind-boggling bailouts, the economic turmoil, the rapacious government power grab, or maybe it’s just the “final straw” in a growing disgust with government overstepping.

Fox New Channel’s Glenn Beck has tapped into this public mood with his clarion call for greater government accountability. His new TV show is garnering huge ratings, evidence that his message is resonating with a significant number of politically-aware Americans. And “tea party” taxpayer revolts are popping up all over the country. Just last weekend over 15,000 people descended upon Fullerton for KFI talk show hosts John and Ken’s tax revolt rally.

This shift in public attitude can best be summed up in The Great Communicator’s first Inaugural Address: “We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people.”

Citizens are tired of answering to government, instead of vice versa. Government has become so abusive of the power granted to it by the people… Read More

LAO’s Announced $8 Billion Shortfall Prompts a "Survey"… Some have asked if the survey question posted yesterday was really meant to solicit responses, or if it was just to make a point? You decide.

The point, of course,is that an adopted State budget is never really a budget if it’s based on faulty expectations, mixed with a puff of smoke and a few mirrors. The legislature and the Governor have proved it twice now in the last five months … same budget, two different votes to pass (the first was an unconstitutional, didn’t get to a 2/3 vote, "get out of town for the holidays" iteration), and it still doesn’tresolve the spending binges of the lastseveral years.

But, whether one wants to join me in being a smart aleck about the truth by weighing in on whether to deem the latest news more appropriate for the "Color me surprised" file or some other title of one’s choice … well, that depends on one’s initiative and… Read More

As I watched Bernie Madoff finally head to prison earlier this week after pleading guilty to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history, I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between what Madoff did to his investors and what the Governor and the State Legislature are doing to the taxpayers of this state. We were told just last week that the largest tax increase in state history was, “a comprehensive solution to the state’s $41.6 billion budget shortfall.” The non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office just announced yesterday that even if the blackmail measure, Proposition 1A, is approved by the voters in May and the state of California gets every dollar of the federal economic stimulus it hopes to get, that California will face an $8 billion deficit through June 2010. In addition, the Legislative Analyst projects continuing deficits of up to $25 billion. What makes this even worse is that the figures don’t take into account the billions more that the state is going to have to pay in the future to cover… Read More

As I watched Bernie Madoff finally head to prison earlier this week after pleading guilty to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history, I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between what Madoff did to his investors and what the Governor and the State Legislature are doing to the taxpayers of this state.

We were told just last week that the largest tax increase in state history was, “a comprehensive solution to the state’s $41.6 billion budget shortfall.” The non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office just announced yesterday that even if the blackmail measure, Proposition 1A, is approved by the voters in May and the state of California gets every dollar of the federal economic stimulus it hopes to get, that California will face an $8 billion deficit through June 2010. In addition, the Legislative Analyst projects continuing deficits of up to $25 billion. What makes this even worse is that the figures don’t take into account the billions more that the state is going to have to pay… Read More

Apparently, union bosses have now resorted to equating union membership to serving in the military. It was recently reported that mailings going out in our state and directed at Senator Dianne Feinstein say, “Americans should be able to join a union the same way we join the military…by signing our name.” This demonstrates such a profound misunderstanding of the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA) that one has to question whether the message’s advocates had any intention of making intellectually honest arguments or whether outright deception was their goal. Unfortunately, as the debate on EFCA has evolved, advocates of taking away a secret ballot from workers and mandating government arbitrators on small businesses have decided that they are not able to argue about the merits of their case. In turn, they have resorted to making comparisons that stretch both the imagination and truth. First off, the men and women that voluntary decide to join our military do so to protect every American and deserve the highest level of praise and respect. Likewise, many that join unions do so to provide for their families and better… Read More

Insurance Commissioner and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner opposes Proposition 1A, his spokesman, Kevin Spillane, assured me last night.

I felt compelled to give Kevin a call for clarification because there were conflicting statements coming out of the Poizner campaign. Yesterday longtime FR blogger Jennifer Nelson wrote about Poizner’s remarks to a Bay Area Republican group whose meeting she attended, at which, in a response from Nelson, Poizner was clear that he opposed 1A, going even further to say that he would be taking a “major role” in leading the opposition effort.

Here is the relevant excerpt from Nelson’s blog post:

Insurance Commissioner and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner opposes Proposition 1A, his spokesman, Kevin Spillane, assured me last night.

I felt compelled to give Kevin a call for clarification because there were conflicting statements coming out of the Poizner campaign. Yesterday longtime FR blogger Jennifer Nelson wrote about Poizner’s remarks to a Bay Area Republican group whose meeting she attended, at which, in a response from Nelson, Poizner was clear that he opposed 1A, going even further to say that he would be taking a “major role” in leading the opposition effort.

Here is the relevant excerpt from Nelson’s blog post: