If you turn to page 15 of the Governor’s recommendations coming from his California Performance Review that he undertook after winning the recall election in 2003 with a mandate to “blow up the boxes,” you will see that one of the Commissions that the Governor had slated for elimination was the Integrated Waste Management Board. These days, the California Performance Review and the Governor’s proposed revisions to state government that were part of its roll-out are just growing electronic dust, occasionally linked-to by an online columnist like myself. Never mind the fact that had the Governor achieved the revisions he sought, as opposed to a wholesale abandonment of the whole project, our budget deficit issues would be significantly mitigated.

Well, we’ve certainly come a long was in just five short years. There is nothing left of the Governor (1.0) who was swept into office after a recall of former Governor Gray Davis was successfully qualified after Davis outrageously hiked the state car tax.… Read More

Yesterday in their Capitol Alert blog, the Sacramento Bee reported that Chris Kahn, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Schwarzenegger and Director of Legislative Affairs will be departing his post at the end of the year. This departure is the second extremely high-profile Republican in the Governor’s inner circle to step away in just a couple of months, with former Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer having recently left as well. In the Bee’s blurb about Kahn’s departure, they mention that he was “unavailable for comment” for his story.

Well, I thought that I would try to help fill in the blanks for those wondering what Chris “would have said” had he actually spoken out on his departure. Readers should understand that I have not spoken to him about this, and that this is an editorial on my part, presuming what Chris might say (if he could):

… Read More

Yesterday in their Capitol Alert blog, the Sacramento Bee reported that Chris Kahn, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Schwarzenegger and Director of Legislative Affairs will be departing his post at the end of the year. This departure is the second extremely high-profile Republican in the Governor’s inner circle to step away in just a couple of months, with former Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer having recently left as well. In the Bee’s blurb about Kahn’s departure, they mention that he was “unavailable for comment” for his story.

Well, I thought that I would try to help fill in the blanks for those wondering what Chris “would have said” had he actually spoken out on his departure. Readers should understand that I have not spoken to him about this, and that this is an editorial on my part, presuming what Chris might say (if he could):

… Read More

Recycling is economically possible because there is a market for recyclable goods. However, a good deal of that market demand comes from Asia, and with the recent global economic downturn, recycling markets have become incredibly volatile and unpredictable, causing instability in our domestic recycling efforts. Recyclers are stockpiling recyclable materials in hopes of an upturn in the market, but if that doesn’t occur, how long before our recyclables end up in landfills? Even if you are an eco-Grinch who maliciously throws your cans and bottles in your garbage just to be a pill, the fact is that our landfills simply cannot hold the recyclables that will go into them if the market for these commodities evaporates. And that’s every taxpayers problem. The more we throw away, the more space we take up in landfills. When a landfill becomes a “landfull”, taxpayers have to build a new one. The less we throw away, the longer our landfills will last. The amount of taxpayer money we save by extending the longevity of our landfills is an important … Read More

It isn’t really clear if a candidate for Governor can suffer a “significant campaign setback” if they aren’t even a candidate yet, but that is what has happened to ersatz Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who, relatively new to the GOP, has had high profile roles with the Presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney (with whom she was once a co-worker) and Senator John McCain – with the confirmation that her top two most prominent advisors are no longer engaged professionally on Whitman’s behalf.

For most of this year, Whitman has been rumored to be looking at a run for Governor, and she moved quite a bit past the rumor stage with a series of meetings around the state with GOP stakeholders, where she made it clear that she was, indeed, contemplating a run. In fact, she reached out to bring on some pretty highly respected political operatives – perhaps some of the best – in… Read More

This just in from Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who recently announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010, for the seat currently occupied by Democrat Barbara Boxer…

I’ve opposed all the mega-billion dollar bailouts – they reward failure and bad decisions and leave us and our children to pay the trillion dollars in new debt. And, if you think this out of control spending is bad now with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barbara Boxer in Congress and President Bush in the White House, just wait until Obama is President and even more liberal Democrats run Congress.

Now we hear about the new Congressional visitor center, the one Harry Reid said would allow his colleagues to no longer have to… Read More

It isn’t really clear if a candidate for Governor can suffer a “significant campaign setback” if they aren’t even a candidate yet, but that is what has happened to ersatz Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who, relatively new to the GOP, has had high profile roles with the Presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney (with whom she was once a co-worker) and Senator John McCain – with the confirmation that her top two most prominent advisors are no longer engaged professionally on Whitman’s behalf.

For most of this year, Whitman has been rumored to be looking at a run for Governor, and she moved quite a bit past the rumor stage with a series of meetings around the state with GOP stakeholders, where she made it clear that she was, indeed, contemplating a run. In fact, she reached out to bring on some pretty highly respected political operatives – perhaps some of the best – in… Read More

FR friend Andy Roth, Political Director of the Club for Growth, has recorded a podcast interview with Congressman-Elect Tom McClintock. For those of you who know Tom, you can already anticipate a good interview. For FR readers who aren’t familiar with him, here is a great opportunity to get acquainted with McClintock. He will be a great new Congressman, and will quickly rise to leadership amongst House conservatives.

You can check out the interview at the Club for Growth blog here.… Read More