Cutbacks at the Los Angeles Times seem to be taking their toll. LAist has the story on Proposition 4 creating mortgage opportunities for Veterans. Problem is that Prop. for is a Family involvement law for teenage girls and Prop. 12 is the Veterans Bond. Ouch.

Glad I don’t make mistakes that people can read.… Read More

I am going to go out on a limb here. I’m willing to wager that there isn’t one member of the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal that wants Senator Barack Obama to be President of the United States. In fact, this group of uber-informed intellectuals understands all too well exactly how detrimental the economic policies that would be passed by the Reid/Pelosi-led Congress and signed by a President Obama would be for America.

So you have to ask yourself this question. How could Senator John McCain possibly do anything that would cause these folks to pen a column critical of McCain in any way this close to the election. Frankly, if you are John McCain, given the alternative of Obama, you should be able to expect some pretty favorable coverage on the opinion pages of the Journal. In fact, you would have to dream up some sort of absolutely outrageous policy proposal that flies in the face if free markets and individual liberty and responsibility – and takes us down a path that one would expect from Barack… Read More

LAUSD has placed a $7 billion Dollar bond on the ballot. I know there are a lot of bonds on the ballot, but this is the “worst” in California.

Los Angeles Unified has already passed four multi-billion dollar bonds in the last ten years. FOUR! The money doesn’t run out until 2012.

This bond contains billions that are not school-specific, and allows the board to spend on almost anything it wants. Lsush fund for pet projects anyone?

This is the best. According to the Daily News over the last six years, as the number of students and teachers declined, the district increased its non-teaching staff by 20%.

Less teachers, less students and more bond money. Only makes sense in LAUSD.

Cross posted at Red County.… Read More

From reading newspaper accounts this morning, Governor Schwarzenegger is seriously looking at calling a special session of the state legislature to deal with the fact that the economic downturn that is taking place is created a much larger than expected negative impact on the current fiscal year state budget. It is not surprising that state government income would take a hit at the same time that the California economy does – the real question is how will Sacramento politicians deal with this issue.

If there is a special session to deal with what is essentially an out-of-balance state budget (remember, the one that was just passed?), we will be going right back into the polarized environment which delivered us such a late budget in the first place.

There will be two schools of thought – more cuts in government spending, or increasing “revenue” (i.e… taxes or borrowing). The former position is the correct prescription for California taxpayers, already suffering the effects of the economic downturn. The latter position will be that of the public employee unions… Read More

From reading newspaper accounts this morning, Governor Schwarzenegger is seriously looking at calling a special session of the state legislature to deal with the fact that the economic downturn that is taking place is created a much larger than expected negative impact on the current fiscal year state budget. It is not surprising that state government income would take a hit at the same time that the California economy does – the real question is how will Sacramento politicians deal with this issue.

If there is a special session to deal with what is essentially an out-of-balance state budget (remember, the one that was just passed?), we will be going right back into the polarized environment which delivered us such a late budget in the first place.

There will be two schools of thought – more cuts in government spending, or increasing “revenue” (i.e… taxes or borrowing). The former position is the correct prescription for California taxpayers, already suffering the effects of the economic downturn. The latter position will be that of the… Read More

AD 15 GOP candidate Abram Wilson has released a new television spot (actually, it is two spots, as the district straddles two media markets). Below is the East Bay Area version… … Read More

The Creative Coalition a non profit based in NYC but rooted in Hollywood that basically lobbies for actors to be able to say F*#K on television has launched a campaign with lots of mid-level talent telling Americans they should vote.

I have been a fan of the Creative Coalition ever since my buddy Devin Dwyer (who is now running for Huntington Beach City Council) got me into one of their super-hip events at the 2000 GOP Convention in New York. They actually fight for First Amendments rights and arts advocacy. Their events which raise money for their cause feature everyone from big-time movie talent like Leonardo DiCaprio to your standard mobster character actor like Robert Davi who you would totally know if you saw a photo of him.

In addition to people you sorta know the video… Read More

Apparently the Prison Guards screwed up when they filed their draft Recall petition with the Secretary of State (for those just in from Mars Station, the Prison Guard Union is threatening a recall attempt on Governor Schwarzenegger — who is playing hard ball in negotiations with this public employee union).

The law requires that the rebuttal argument filed by the subject of the recall be included in the petition — but the Prison Guards left it out. Whoops.

I guess they will have to try again… Somehow I want to have as the take-away from this story that it is time to start privitizing prisons, and move guards off of the rolls of public employees. But since I am not Bob Salladay, I can’t connect the dots between unrelated items like he can.… Read More