Holy mackerel. Former OC Sheriff Mike Carona beat the rap — or almost all of it.

The jury acquitted him of all charges but one: witness tampering. It’s interesting that he escaped conviction on the underlying corruption charges — which was the public focus — but not the charge of trying to influence witness Don Haidl. The latter struck me as one of the weaker counts, and I’ll wager he beats that on appeal.

This is obviously good news for Debbie Carona. It’ll be tough for federal prosecutors to convict her of being part of a conspiracy of which her husband was acquitted.

This is a legal exoneration of Mike Carona, not a moral one. The legality of his conduct notwithstanding, he clearly disgraced the office, manipulated and lied to family and friends, and lived a double life. None of that is illegal, but it is real nonetheless.

Amazing.

There’s an open thread on the topic over at OC Blog, if you want to… Read More

I don’t expect much news to come out of the Governor’s State of the State Address, taking place right now. If you’re like me, you’d much rather tune in to Arnold Sings The Best of Public Domain. This is hillarious!

(h/t to MT)… Read More

This week, readers of the Sacramento Bee are being “treated” to a series of editorials where, on a day by day basis, the editorial board fixes its sights on yet another “interest group” that is playing a role in the politics surrounding the state budget crisis. Their format seems to be similar – brief praise for their target, acknowledging a legitimate role for that group, and then blasting away at the group in question. I would summarize it this way – the members of the Bee editorial board clearly feel that the solution to the overspending crisis is some sort of mega-compromise where some of the increases in spending of the last few years are cut, and (I know you will be shocked) they want taxes to go up on Californians. So they have decided to heap criticism on anyone and everyone, right or left, who opposes this scheme. The Bee Editorial Board started off by blasting “the business community” and the Chamber of Commerce most specifically for their “narrow interest” (the state’s business climate?) and their failure to adequately help the Governor to… Read More

This week, readers of the Sacramento Bee are being “treated” to a series of editorials where, on a day by day basis, the editorial board fixes its sights on yet another “interest group” that is playing a role in the politics surrounding the state budget crisis. Their format seems to be similar – brief praise for their target, acknowledging a legitimate role for that group, and then blasting away at the group in question. I would summarize it this way – the members of the Bee editorial board clearly feel that the solution to the overspending crisis is some sort of mega-compromise where some of the increases in spending of the last few years are cut, and (I know you will be shocked) they want taxes to go up on Californians. So they have decided to heap criticism on anyone and everyone, right or left, who opposes this scheme. The Bee Editorial Board started off by blasting “the business community” and the Chamber of Commerce most specifically for their “narrow interest” (the state’s business climate?) and their failure to adequately help the Governor to… Read More

As the drumbeat to further dampen our economy with new or increased taxation on the citizens of California gets louder, one has to wonder why the reforms that would help prevent us from being in this condition ever again do not receive other thanpassingpress coverage. Instead we get theconstant push to compromise more ofOPM, Other People’s Money, from their wallets into state coffers, as well as a few grudgingreductions in the rate of increase of spending…not cuts, just a reduced rate of increase,which is always distorted in the news as draconian cuts. When the latest projections of the revenue stream to the state have been further reduced by another $7 Billion, it doesn’t take an astronaut to realize that "Houston, we have a problem" in this atmosphere.

Today’s State Of The State speech by the Governor properly underlined that the entire focus of the Legislature and the Guv should be solving our budget catastrophe. Republicans have been firm during my previous 6 years and moving into this new session thatany "fix" without reform is no fix at all.Not a fake reform… Read More

This off the transom from the office of San Bernardino County District Attorney Ramos:

jurisdictions: Highland, San Bernardino, Apple Valley, Victorville, Rancho Cucamonga, and Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County. These actions are part of the District Attorney’s ongoing investigation involving Assessor Bill Postmus. During a search at his residence in Rancho Cucamonga, evidence of narcotics violations was discovered. Investigators arrested Assessor Bill Postmus and booked him on the following charges: H&S 11364 (Possession of… Read More

FR friend John Ziegler interviewed Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The video runs nearly ten minutes long, but it’s worth watching… … Read More

The Governor gave his rather short State of the Union speech today, where he cleverly said that we are in a "state of emergency" — no kidding!

That said, I was annoyed that once again those of us who feel that a crisis created by overspending should be solely resolved by reductions in spending are classified as "ideological" (not that I have trouble being called an ideologue) — but the way he says it portrays ideologues as a negative influence on the public policy process.

What is a ideologue? In my opinion, it is someone who has strong convictions and beliefs, and stands by them, especially when all of the special interests are bearing down upon you.

The Governor had no problem being an anti-tax "ideologue" when he was campaigning for election and re-election. But now that he has drank the public employee union Kool-Aid, about the need to respond to respond to overspending with overtaxing, he feels the need to paint loyal Republicans snidely as ideologues

Some things lend themselves to compromise, and some things do not. Belittling those who feel that compromising on taxes is a tragic mistake is no way… Read More