Last week, the Public Policy Institute of California released a study which piqued my curiousity because it talked about the decades-old political football — the peripheral canal. I asked the fine folks at PPIC if they would produce a blog-length intro to their study, which is below. At the bottom, there is a link to much more comprehensive information…

Peripheral canal can save ailing Delta, ensure reliable water supply Public Policy Institute of California Building a peripheral canal to carry water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the most promising strategy to balance two critical goals: reviving a threatened ecosystem and ensuring a high-quality water supply for California’s residents. That is the key conclusion of a report released this week by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). Under current policy, water is… Read More

Looks like the Governor is going to issue an Executive Order on Monday to reduce the pay of 200,000 state employees temporary down to the federal minimum wage. Once a state budget is approved, these folks will be issued back-pay for the difference. It’s all about preserving cash flow says this breaking story at the SacBee website.

This will jack up the anxiety of public employee unions who should think about this — they have very little cache with legislative Republicans since, for the most part, they work to defeat every Republican that they can. So the question is what kind of pressure can these unions bring to bear on legislative Democrats? Perhaps it’s time for the unions to roll up their sleeves and figure out how to give state government a healthy haircut — which will then allow for a budget to pass, and their members can once again get their full pay.… Read More

The Newport Beach City Council voted 5-0-2 last night to rescind their campaign ordinance that makes failure to register a campaign mailer with the city in the last 14 days of the election a crime. We have called the ordinance a violation of free speech rights. Good for them. The two absentions came from members of the city council running for reelection in November, Councilmembers Curry and Rosansky, who said they did not want to vote on the matter because of thetheir pending election campaigns. The Council will need to take some subsequent actions, but the ordinance appears on its way to oblivion.

… Read More

After reading over the Governor’s draft Executive Order to reduce the salaries of around 200,000 existing state employees to federal minimum wage (see my post below this one – also see the draft order here) — it dawned on me that perhaps the bigger news is the part that says, "take immediate action to terminate the services of the following five catagories of employees and individuals: (1) Retired Annuitants, (2) Permanent Intermittent Employees, (3) Seasonal Employees, (4) Temporary Help Workers, (5) Individuals Providing Services Under Contract…"

According to press accounts, this is nearly 20,000 people who will be terminated.

This is huge. Perhaps it is the "lemonade" of the lemon that is our state budget crisis. We always see the size of state government grow larger and larger. Seldom do we see actual reductions, Unfortunately, when the budget is approved, it is likely that most if not all of those… Read More

Tom Kaptain operates two slates. One Democratic and one Republican. The Republican slate Citizens for the Common Good included a chance for people to pick their VP candidate. There were 2146 responses out of a million pieces mailed. And the winner was Romney by a landslide.

Here are the results:

Mitt Romney 1,186 Mike Huckabee 450 Joe Lieberman 192 Bobby Jindal 86 Chris Cox 66 Kay Bailey Hutchinson 56

Thanks to Peggy Mew for counting and compiling the returns.… Read More

Know of a liberal college student needing summer work? At U.C. Santa Cruz , my daughter’s school this Fall, i found this announcement posted throughout the campus.

Wow, for helping kicking out the GOP of the White House, any student can get up to $8000 as a summer campaigner. After observing politics a while I’ve never seen such a deal. This year the Dems are swimming in money. Barak just announced his take in June was over $50 million, outdistancing McCain 2-1. Even the hapless DNC, forever broke under Chairman Dean is matching nicely against the RNC, just a few weeks after the Obama takeover of those operations.

And that money doesn’t even includethe fabulous 527s, those underground secretive money laundering operations, which are overwhelmingly in the dem camp. Strange ironies for McCain-Feingold. Billionairesfor Obama, re their donating history includesEli Broad, real estate [93% for dems], Ron Burkle, supermakets and FOB [ 98%]; Charles Kushner, real estate and felon, [98%]; George… Read More

The City of Newport Beach has one of the most threatening and unconstitutional campaign ordinances on its books I have ever seen. And by golly, they just might repeal it tonight!

I blogged about the law here last February and provided four detailed reasons why it was unconstitutional. The lawis Municipal Code section 1.30, which criminalizes all "writings," direct-mail and flyers distributed to 200 or more people in Newport Beach within 14 days of an election, unless copies are filed with the City Clerk within 2 hours of distribution, and supported by evidence of how they were distributed. The penalty is six months in jail, a $500 fine, or both.

The law is aimed atlast minute "hit pieces" and is specifically intended to force public disclosure of such mailings, and all late mailings, to give opponents the opportunity to "respond to statements" that are "untrue, or believed to be untrue." The law became an issue in the February municipal election in Newport Beach when supporters of Measure B, the successful "City Hall in the Park" initiative, which was opposed by the majority of… Read More

Know a college student needing summer work? At U.C. Santa Cruz , my daughter’s school this Fall, i found this announcement posted throughout the campus.

Wow, for helping kicking out the GOP of the White House, a student can get up to $8000 as a summer campaigner. After observing politics a while I’ve never seen such a deal. This year the Dems are swimming in money. Barak just announced his take in June was over $50 million, outdistancing McCain 2-1. Even the hapless DNC, forever broke under Chairman Dean. is matching nicely against the RNC, just a few weeks after the Obama takeover of those operations.

And that money doesn’t even includethe fabulous 527s, those underground secretive money laundering operations, which are overwhelmingly in the dem camp. Strange ironies for McCain-Feingold. Billionairesfor Obama, re their donating history includesEli Broad, real estate [93% for dems], Ron Burkle, supermakets and FOB [ 98%]; Charles Kushner, real estate and felon, [98%]; George Soros,… Read More