In response to my commentary yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger’s office sent over a list of what they felt were "inaccuracies" in my piece. Immediately below, in burgundy, are the critiques I received. Immediately below that, in green, are my comments on their input. I appreciate the Governor’s office taking the time to respond, and hope that you will take some time to review this dialogue…

FROM THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE… **There is more – click the link**

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Who are they?

-Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO

-Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO

-Rosario Marin, CA Agency Second’y, former U.S. Treasureer

-U.S Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Platform Comm. Chairman

-State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth

-State Senator Abel Maldonado

Of course, we’ll see if the latter two go to the convention. There’s no “deal” that would get Hollingsworth’s vote — but undoubtedly Maldonado would be in the thick of one — if one comes about.… Read More

A few minutes ago, I called longtime FR friend and State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth to congratulate him on being named a speaker at the RNC Convention next week in Minneapolis. Imagine my shock when he responded by saying that my call was the first he had heard of it. I forwarded him the official agenda, and we both looked it over while on the phone. Yes, there was no doubt, he was set to speak… Of course, he had no plans to attend… Go figure. I left him undoubtedly contemplating the trip — with such an honor bestowed upon him.

The immediate thought that came to mind was whether or not there were other speakers who had no idea they were supposed to speak.

Well, just a couple of minutes after I got off of the phone with the Senator his office received a call from the RNC — profusely apologizing that his name was listed as a speaker erroneously! Doh!

What does Dennis have to say about this mix up? “They must have thought I was Jeff Denham, and when they realized I wasn’t, they pulled the plug. I guess this will be my five minutes of fame for this convention.”… Read More

SB 1407 was revised. This is Ron George’s Judicial Council and liberals trying to go around the people with a revenue bond to build more courthouses. The fees fall on those that really don’t burden the court system.They unjustly fall on motorists, which is why AAA opposes the bill.

Well, the bill got a little worse in the last session of the Assembly as Democrats ammended the bill to say that once the $10 billion in bonds are paid off the fees don’t go lower they go to on going operating costs.

That’s right it’s about dinging the little guy to finance the operations for unnecessary lawsuits and rewarding courts that aren’t even open nights and weekends.

SB 1407: More debt without voter approval, more bureaucrats without accountability. Hooray.… Read More

Much has been written about the August budget put forward by Governor Schwarzenegger last week. At his press conference announcing his plan, the Governor said that his budget plan was “a fiscally responsible compromise” and will “put our state on the road to fiscal sanity.”

In reality, after spending some time looking it over, and discussing it with state policy experts in more detail, the Governor’s proposal will do nothing of the sort. It includes more borrowing and higher taxes on hard-working Californians so the liberal majority in the Legislature can increase spending by billions of dollars. Worse for taxpayers, his plan will still leave California with a $7 billion deficit next year.

The Governor said that more borrowing in the budget is “not a wise idea and I will not do that.” This is very confusing because on the face of it — well, it’s not true. When I look over the plan, I see billions in… Read More

Anthony York of Capitol Weekly is blogging from the DNC Convention in Denver. He just let us know that Hillary blew off (due to a "scheduling conflict" her welcoming remarks to the California delegation). Keep an eye on Anthony’s blog posts here.

Oh yes, for fair and biased coverage, look for Meredith Turney’s occasional updates on the FR Blog, and longtime FR friend and former State GOP Chairman Mike Schroeder’s blogs from Colorado… Read More

I’m sure many of you have heard of the colloquial expression, “That is a false choice…”

For those who haven’t heard of the expression, a “false choice” is when you provide two options, insisting that you have to choose one of them, when there are other viable options.

A false choice is what is being presented to Californians in the current budget debate when saying that to solve the budget crisis, we either need to raise taxes, or we need to raid special funds.

The painful reality for Democrats is that the other choice — the obvious choice — are more cuts — the kind of cuts that require a serious look at eliminating state departments or agencies, eliminating bureaucracy. Serious reduction in state spending means eliminating expensive state jobs.

The false choice must be discarded, and all of the pressure in this budget debate must be placed on more shrinking of a state government that has increased in size by 40 percent in just five years.… Read More

Demonstrating a complete lack of engagement in what should be a hands-on negotiating process towards a state budget, John Laird, the Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee is partying up in Denver.

I guess Laird figures, as an ultra-liberal, that he is not going to support more cuts — I’m sure he’s ready to fly home to vote for a tax hike (don’t worry, there aren’t votes for one).

If Laird wants to avoid being booed in Denver, he’d best keep it quiet that he is, “that nut from California that wants to massively increase taxes on beer…… Read More