Yesterday I sat in the back of the Governor’s press conference room in the State Capitol, and listened to the Governor talk about the current status of budget negotiations. He basically said that Democrat and Republican legislators were putting more energy into disagreeing that in trying to negotiate a solution to the current fiscal crisis. He summarily announced that he would be inviting the “Big 5” to meet tomorrow to kick-start negotiations.

I have some strong advice for the Governor, relative to improving his ability to bring Republicans to the table in a meaningful way. First and foremost, the Governor KNOWS how passionate and outraged all of the Republican legislators were over the end-run on Proposition 13 when the Democrats orchestrated passing billions of dollars in new taxes in both houses on a majority vote, making some bizarre case that because of the circuitous route they took to raise the revenues, they had avoided the 2/3rds vote requirement. In fact, the Governor went into yesterday’s press… Read More

As we go into the new year, I want to be able to have more custom designed graphic art on the site. This ranges from customized small images for our main page to help delineate topic areas "Governor 2010" etc to larger more challenging graphics to go into commentary and blog posts to enhance our coverage.

Are you a graphic designer, or do you know one?

First and foremost, we’ll give exposure to you by letting our readers know, periodically, where the good works come from.

Secondly, this is not expected to be a volunteer endeavor. While we would be looking for a good break because this is work for "the cause" and there is a PR plus for you, we’re also sensitive to the fact that some of this kind of work can be time consuming.

Interested parties should drop me an e-mail!

Thanks.… Read More

It is good that the Nature Conservancy accepts that the Peripheral Canal is needed to improve the Delta’s plumbing system. However, the Conservancy and other environmentalists also need to accept that a Canal cannot be solely an irrigation system to water the Delta. Such a Canal also needs to serve as a conveyance system to divert water around the Delta for export south to help fund the Delta’s restoration.

Even though the environmentalists agree that the Peripheral Canal would be the best environmental solution, their version of water allocation would mean no water moving south of the Delta. They want "surplus" winter flows to be used to flush the Delta in an artificial version of a flood, and they want the public to pay to store some water behind Shasta and Oroville dams to use in the summer to keep the Delta waterways high. This could not happen without halting exports. In 1982 in discussions with opponents of the Canal, I suggested and offered to support putting Delta flow standards into the state constitution. Standards were designed to be median… Read More

Apparently Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg wants to limit legislators to introducing only 15 bills. The idea of limiting of reducing legislation in Sacramento is certainly appealing. But given that Steinberg has said that his reason for wanting to set this cap is so that legislators spend their time focusing on the state budget mess — perhaps Steinberg should add another proviso to his suggestion — that no legislation be introduced this year that increases state spending. Now THAT would be substantively helpful to the process. While this modest step wouldn’t solve the current overspending-driven crisis, it would be nice to try to put out this fire without more fuel being added.… Read More

As the elected Republican National Committeeman from California, I plan on sharing information over the next few weeks on the race for the Chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Who wins the RNC chairmanship will help propel Republicans or get us sidetracked intoa ditch.

The RNC Chair is only the official face and public opposition to the Democrat Hegemony.

Every time Obama, Reid and Pelosi speak, only the RNC chair was be the Republican voice. Not our guysin the House or Senate. The January 28 election for the new RNC chair is the most important vote for all 168 (3 per state plus 6 territories) RNC members. The vote will take place one week after the Obama Inaugural in Washington DC… and it’s getting mighty hot for all 168 members.

There aresix candidates. The guy who was in charge of the lastthrashingis running for re-election. He is the Bush holdover, having been hand-selected for the job by the President.Chances are you… Read More

My wife Valerie and I are reading the Federalist Papers section by section, then chatting about what we’ve read. While I’d read selections at college, I hadn’t read the whole of the papers in the past. Last night I passed through Federalist Paper Number 8 (Hamilton)and thought, for anyone who hasn’t read it in the lasteight years or so, it might be worth rubbing your eyes on.… Read More

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a leader in California’s conservative movement, continues to charge ahead in his bid for the GOP nomination to challenge ultra-liberal Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election next year.

The Devore for Senate campaign has rolled out an impressive augmentation to its already weighty list of GOP officials. 26 new endorsements from Republican elected officials include: State Senators Jeff Denham, Bob Dutton, Bob Huff and Mimi Walters and Assemblymembers Anthony Adams, Joel Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Sam Blakeslee, Connie Conway, Paul Cook, Mike Duvall, Bill Emmerson, Jean Fuller, Ted Gaines, Danny Gilmore, Curt Hagman, Kevin Jeffries, Stephen Knight, Jeff Miller, Brian Nestande, Jim Nielsen, Cameron Smyth, Audra Strickland, Van Tran, and Mike Villines, the Assembly Republican Leader.

The campaign had previously announced the endorsements of 16 Republicans, including Congressman Tom McClintock and State Board of… Read More

Now that the rescue/bail out of the big 3 automakers has been completed by President Bush, the Fed and the Treasury Department (with the support of President-Elect Obama), I would like to give you all some of my views on what has been said and is still being said, about this industry, it’s problems and it’s prospects. Because of my 25 years experience in this industry, I know a few things that many of those talking heads on TV don’t. It drives me crazy when someone pontificates with such surety about what went wrong and what is needed to go right, while their only experience with the car business is that they bought a car once. Please find my observations and comments below.

First, the Myths:

Myth #1: Domestic automakers are in trouble because they build poor quality cars – They used to. But so did the Japanese manufacturers in the 60s. But now quality in the car business is a price of admission and there is near quality parity among all manufacturers selling cars in the US market. While JD Power always ranks a first place and a last place, the difference between that first and last is much less than it used to be and in… Read More