Last week the Treasury Department finalized its $1.5 billion loan to the financial armof Chrysler (a privately held firm ). That follows a $6 billion government "investment" in General Motors lending arm, GMAC.

The money came from the $700 billion "Troubled Asset Relief Program," which even some California Republican Congressmen supported. But conservative national Congressional Republicans are upset that the money for the auto bailout is coming from "TARP," and among the reasons is the fact that it allows a sort of "shell game" to occur, where some members can claim to the public that they opposed the auto bailout (but really supported TARP, which is funding the auto bailout), or supportedthe auto bailout, (but opposed TARP). It is all a mess, because some members actually do try to play games with their votes, and try to "have it both ways." It gets confusing to a less informed, "outsidethe Beltway" public. When I worked for Howard Jarvis he would occasionally refer to the Congress as "535 clowns." Ithink that is a bit harsh, however, when I… Read More

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Michael Steele, former Benedictine Monk, county Republican chair, state chair, elected Lt Governor of very blue Maryland has won the overwhelming support of members of the California Republican Party.

The RNC chair’s race takes place this Friday. Only 168 people get to vote. After months of campaigning, with some rough campaigning [See my prior posts on the RNC race… Read More

As regular readers of this blog know, I supported the Rescue Plan (TARP program) last October and believe that this program, along with the aggressive monetary actions by the Fed, prevented a collapse of our still damaged financial system. I also support a large stimulus plan in order to hasten a bottom to this economy and hopefully save many people their jobs, homes, and businesses.

But the Democrat’s $825 billion stimulus plan now working its way through the House, is nothing short of awful. We are expected to vote on this plan on Wednesday, and in all honesty, I refuse to call it a “stimulus” plan since it contains so few stimulative characteristics. Instead, I will hereinafter refer to it as the “Big Spending” plan.

Let me explain.

The purpose of any stimulus plan is to take the recession which we are currently mired in and make it shorter and shallower. If the stimulus doesn’t do that, then it will have a negative effect since it will increase borrowing, increase deficits, and generally retard medium and longer term growth… Read More

Late last week, four legislative Republicans were quoted in two major newspapers with quotes, indicating in varying degrees that they were open to voting for tax increases as part of a solution to California’s overspending-created fiscal crisis.

Let me make this very clear – there is NO POINT AND NO “DEAL” WHERE IT MAKES ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER TO RAISE TAXES ON CALIFORNIANS. The San Diego Union Tribune has an excellent editorial today driving home this point. It is an objective reality that Californians are amongst the most taxed citizens in the entire country.

State Senator Abel Maldonado, and Assemblymen Mike Duvall, Roger Niello, and Anthony Adams were all quoted thusly:

ASSEMBLYMAN ADAMS (in the Bee): "The reforms have to be there," said Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia.… Read More

Late last week, four legislative Republicans were quoted in two major newspapers with quotes, indicating in varying degrees that they were open to voting for tax increases as part of a solution to California’s overspending-created fiscal crisis.

Let me make this very clear – there is NO POINT AND NO “DEAL” WHERE IT MAKES ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER TO RAISE TAXES ON CALIFORNIANS. The San Diego Union Tribune has an excellent editorial today driving home this point. It is an objective reality that Californians are amongst the most taxed citizens in the entire country.

State Senator Abel Maldonado, and Assemblymen Mike Duvall, Roger Niello, and Anthony Adams were all quoted thusly:

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

Here is an interesting read from Stateline.org, a political website. The story, "Strapped states eye prison savings," is a rather long piece that examines what other states are doing to mitigate prison crowding.

Unfortunately for the people of Kentucky, the governor and legislature decided that saving money was more important than protecting citizens when they passed a law to release 1,800 felons early from prison — some of them rapists, murderers and other violent criminals.

Without giving specifics the article also mentions that lawmakers in some states are using satellite tracking (GPS) to monitor less dangerous offenders like drunken drivers. GPS is a vanguard tool for law enforcement agencies. For local jails, it allows the sheriff to place less dangerous offenders on house arrest while wearing a GPS ankle bracelet, allowing the more dangerous offenders to spend their full sentence behind bars.

The governor signed a bill last year (that I authored with Democrat Senator Gloria Romero) that allows the Los Angeles sheriff to place prisoners on involuntary house… Read More

It’s never too early to start pushing out news about the goings-on for the many races shaping up for the 2010 primaries. As a matter of fact, let this be a notice to any out there who are running to be sure to keep FR looping in on your progress. We’ll report lots of stuff here that may be too “inside baseball” for other publications.

Last year, I never got around to penning an intended column noting the impressive success of Gilliard, Blanning, Wysocki & Associates in terms of seeing ALL of their clients win their races. I won’t list them all here, as that would be a bit gratuitous, though GBWA has a release up here.

That said, we always say here that every election year has two parts, the first half, which is actually the preceding year, and then the year in which the election is being held. So we are well into the 2010… Read More