I’ve dropped in on the Freedom Fest conference at Bally’s in Las Vegas. Looks to be about 500 members of the VRWC (vast right wing conspiracy), gathered in a large, dark room. Steve Forbes is on a panel of other libertarians (this is primarily a free minds, free market crowd). You can tell because some other guy on the panel is railing aOf course, the first thought that crossed my mind is that I would prefer a banana daqueri poolside… But since I am here, at what is billed as “The World’s Largest Gathering of Free Minds…”

It’s a positive sign that besides Forbes, I haven’t run into anyone I know. Perhaps that means there are more of us than I thought…

Actually, I came over to catch up with my friend Steve Moore, editorial writer and editorial board member of the Wall Street Journal. There he is…. That’s it for now…… Read More

At least one California liberalseems pretty sensitive to my use of Barrack Hussein Obama’s full given name in my posts. Dan Chmielewski, the guru of The Liberal OC Blog, recently said, "someone needs to tell Jim Lacy that “Hussein” means “handsome one” or “beautful one”; I’m only suprised that he didn’t call Senator Obama “Barrack Hussein Osama.”

Excuse me, but a birth certificate is a legal document, this is still a free country governed by a Constitution that ensures my right to Free Speech, I am a lawyer, and if the guy’s name is Barrack Hussein Obama, then I can say it, without incident, no matter what implication the liberals fear is drawn from it, "handsome" or otherwise.

But I do think it is a little fun to speculate about how the press corps will be handling Obama’s name should he be elected President. For example, there is afairly long history of the pressusing initials to refer to a president, the first, middle, and last initial, in communications, especially headlines. For example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was "FDR," John F. Kennedy was… Read More

This week I’m staffing Capitol Resource Institute’s City on the Hill Youth Leadership Conference here in Sacramento. For 21 years now, City on the Hill has been teaching teenagers 14-18 about Sacramento’s legislative and political process by the best means possible: first-hand experience. During the week-long conference, these young conservative leaders become mock legislators, debating bills actually making their way through the legislature this year. They are divided into two parties and then must run for leadership. A Speaker of the Assembly is elected and then doles out committee chairmanships. If a student is able to get their bill through the committee process, they get to debate it on the floor of the legislature on Saturday. I’m a huge fan of this incredible program, not just because I staff it every year, but because I attended twice as a student. No other program taught me the legislative process (and the tough political environment it creates) like City on the Hill. In fact, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland is a graduate and former staffer. Today the students were at the state capitol where… Read More

Today we are pleased to offer this exclusive Guest Commentary from Republican Assemblyman Roger Niello. Assemblyman Niello is the Vice Chairman of the Assembly’s Budget Committee, and is the lead Republican in the Assembly on Budget issues…

Democrat Budget Increases Taxes and Spending! By Assemblyman Roger Niello

Democrats showed their true colors this week by passing a budget out of the conference committee that contains nearly $10 billion in tax increases and increases state spending by billions of dollars over last year.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

This morning there we be a press conference held by legislative Democrats, where they announce a "compromise" plan between Senate and Assembly Democrats in terms of how big of a tax increase they want to enact. FR readers will recall that Perata and his left-wing Senate colleagues were calling for around 12 billion dollars in "new revenue" (taxes) while over in the Assembly, Karen Bass and her fellow Democrats in the lower hours were looking at shy of 7 billion dollars in higher taxes. You will be "pleased" to know that after much wrangling, horse trading, and "hating" on those who create economic opportunity in California, Democrats have come to an agreement: They want taxes in California to be hiked by a staggering $9 billion + dollars. Courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune, (most of) their proposed tax hikes are broken out thusly: PROPOSED NEW TAXES

This morning there we be a press conference held by legislative Democrats, where they announce a "compromise" plan between Senate and Assembly Democrats in terms of how big of a tax increase they want to enact. FR readers will recall that Perata and his left-wing Senate colleagues were calling for around 12 billion dollars in "new revenue" (taxes) while over in the Assembly, Karen Bass and her fellow Democrats in the lower hours were looking at shy of 7 billion dollars in higher taxes. You will be "pleased" to know that after much wrangling, horse trading, and "hating" on those who create economic opportunity in California, Democrats have come to an agreement: They want taxes in California to be hiked by a staggering $9 billion + dollars. Courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune, (most of) their proposed tax hikes are broken out thusly: PROPOSED NEW TAXES

Liberal Democrat State Senator Christine Kehoe is right — well, at least about one thing. In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is a sizable article on A3 entitled, “California Ponders Who Should Pay Firefighting Bill.”

The piece talks about the rising costs to the state to battle fires (a 41 percent increase over a year ago).

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed a statewide property tax on ALL residential and business properties to raise $130 million annually. The key word in the preceding sentence is ALL.

In the article Kehoe says that people that choose to live in fire-prone areas should be paying the freight. I agree.

And so does the Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, who is quoted in the piece saying, “Because the state provides a service – fire protection – that directly benefits a particular group…it is appropriate that those beneficiaries pay for a portion of the state’s costs for fire protection. “

Put in another way, someone who chooses to live where fire risk is low should not be paying to subsidize the riskier decision of another to live in a high fire… Read More

For you night owls, the long awaited tax increase proposals are out this evening, courtesy of the Budget Conference Committee that my good colleague Assemblyman Antonin Adams posted about earlier…including rolling back [about 70%] the dependant child tax credit, a sure winner amongst families, nowwith less disposable income. Many arestaying home this summer because of skyrocketing fuel prices as well as higher costs of foodand everything else…couple that with this tax plan…yeah, lots of happy families in California this year.

Of course, we can remind that the State has already enjoyed a windfall of doubling the sales tax per gallon of fuel[worth over $1 Billion in new taxes] in the short time that gas itself has doubled, but I guess that new inflow doesn’t count because it wasn’t directly taken by legislative action.

Also in the plan, pushing up the rates of income tax on the highest income earners, also known as "the rich", "the winners of lifes lottery",… Read More