A bit of buzz resulted last week from the news that Republican members of the Assembly wore name tags in a caucus budget discussion with the Governor. It may have been off-handedly amusing to those who devised the idea, knowing full well the Governor himself would find it as such, especially after his apparent recent admission that he has little contact with GOP legislators.

Yet, the name tag idea wouldn’t have been conceived at all, had the reality of the matter not existed. It’s likely the Governor doesn’t know all of the GOP legislators by name or by face. Or, at least, not their interests and concerns.

The episode is ironic, given this Governor’s start.

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Energy: As I have told you before, I do not expect much action on anything in Washington prior to the election unless it is something with a looming deadline. Well, the big looming deadline on the energy front is the Sept. 30th expiration of the Congressional ban on offshore oil and gas drilling. The President has already removed his executive order ban so if the Congressional one expires, offshore drilling will be allowed nationwide on October 1st.

The way things work back here is that the majority party, whichever one that happens to be, does not like to let the minority party decide the fate of major issues. After all, the benefit of having the majority is that you get to decide those things and not the other guys. But sometimes, the majority is split on an issue and the minority is united. When that happens, the majority is in trouble because a floor vote will mean that the minority party breaks the tie amongst the majority and the "losers" within the majority will be very mad that their leadership let the other side push this issue away from their desire. This happened when Republicans were in charge and it is happening now with Democrats… Read More

Years of wasteful spending finally caught up with the Sacramento Library Director—. So, what does she do? She hires a high profile public relations firm with $11,000 taxpayer dollars in order to put a positive spin on a very scandalous situation. According to the Sacramento Bee, August 14, 2008, “[w]hen reporters and grand jury members began scrutinizing Sacramento Public Library last year, it became clear that [the director’s] job could be in trouble. This was underscored when, “The Bee revealed an apparent library maintenance over-billing and kickback scheme that operated under [the director’s] watch.” “The grand jury got involved, issuing…a scathing report citing [the director’s]… Read More

So I have been told that a framework of agreement on a budget has been agreed to by the four legislative leaders. There are apparently no new taxes in this agreed-upon framework. We here at the FR are anxious to see the details.… Read More

San Diego County Board of Ed candidate Rose Urdahl on yesterday’s Union-Trib story…

Dear Friends and Supporters:

In yesterday’s Union Tribune an article " Candidate acknowledges she lacks listed credentials" can be found in the local section. I owe each and everyone of you an explanation. I have spent my entire life trying to be a good hard working honest person.

First, lets set the record straight. I have taught many seniors and children arts and crafts throughout my life-time. In the 70’s I was a GPN and worked at the local hospital in the emergency room and delivery room in a tiny town in Kansas where I grew up. The hospital gave me training and I took courses at the hospital. Upon completion of these courses I was given a certificate that enabled myself to be employed at the hospital. A license was not required. I worked in this position for three years. I attended two years of college at Kansas State at Colby Community College. I lack… Read More

I admit being a little annoyed at the unexpected ring of my doorbell a few minutes ago. My baby is napping and Oregon v. Purdue are in 2OT. I jumped off the couch so that a second ring of the doorbell wouldn't wake Baby Matthew.

It turns out that it was two volunteers from the Yes on 8: Protect Marriage campaign. They are part of a pretty large group of volunteers that are dedicating Saturdays and Sunday from now until election day to restore and protect marriage.

I returned to the couch in time to watch Oregon clitch the game.… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary:

The Sun King

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, thinks he has a partial solution to America’s dependence on high-priced foreign oil. But he says liberals and environmentalists are rejecting it.

Mr. Rohrabacher — who notes 130 pending applications for solar power projects on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management — has introduced a bill to allow the building of such plants without environmental-impact studies. He tells me that though the BLM has lifted a moratorium on new solar projects on public land that it imposed in 2005, applications are still being clogged up in a bureaucratic pipeline and no new permits have been issued to date. "We need… Read More

Charlie Gibson interviewed Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for ABC’s Nightline. I found it to be an interesting exchange, and worthy of sharing. You can see it here. Since she can pronounce "Ahmadinejad" — she’s certainly more qualified than me to serve in the White House…… Read More