Ok, someone help me out here. For years, we have been watching Indian tribes all over California build, in some cases, massive gambling casinos on their tribal lands. Making the case for reservations being sovereign land, building casinos on them has become truly big business for some Indian tribes — especially for those whose ancestors were prescient enough to settle lands long ago that today are well-located for attracting gamblers.

Yesterday I read in the Fresno Bee and in the Los Angeles Times that the North Fork Tribe in Madera County in the heart of the Central Valley had reached an agreement for a gambling compact with Governor Schwarzenegger. That, in and of itself, isn’t that newsworthy — there are a lot of tribes, and a lot of compacts.

What caught my eye was that this North Fork Tribe gambling casino would be the state’s first to… Read More

If terms limits has any downside, it is that the current crop of legislators (at least in the Assembly) have little experience in dealing with budget crises. Every member of the Assembly today got elected after the budget debacle of 2001-02, and the recovery that followed. That morass, where the budget deficit grew to $48 billion (when you include the actual deficit between revenue and spending in the 2001-02 budget and the projected spending deficit in 02-03) in a $79 billion general fund budget, was solved without a tax increase. Today, legislators talk as if a $20 billion deficit on a $110 billion budget can only be solved with a tax increase (to use their cute expression the balanced approach with a ‘mix" of cuts and tax increases). The public relations effort has begun to convince the Governor of this fact and then have the Governor persuade enough legislators to get the tax increase.

That is an old strategy that worked in Pete Wilson’s first term. It failed miserably. The tax increase deepened a pending recession, causing the deficit to deepen. What is more the proposed "cuts" never occurred. Spending went up, taxes went… Read More

The Doolittle seat slugfest is profiled in Politico today, here. The print edition had pretty photos and everything, while the online version photos are pretty bland.

A key financial services bill coauthored by Rep. Royce gains news in The Hill, today here.

MoveOn moves out and launches against McCain, from The hill.

Now for a book plug. Although I haven’t read it, I did hear about some details from the author as it was being prepped. Robert Schlesinger a longtime DC writer has penned a new book on White House speech writers. I’m eager to read "White House Ghosts."

From the early reviews I’ve seen, including this in the Wall Street Journal it will be an enjoyable and informative ready. It’s on my reading list and… Read More

Over on the California Democrat Report website this morning, Steve Maviglio (Deputy Chief of Staff to Speaker Fabian “Loius Vuitton” Nunez blogs with seeming glee that FR friend, Joel Fox of the California Small Business Action Committee is working on a new blog site that he touts as “competition” to this website. Truth be known, Joel’s a great guy and we’ve been encouraging him. Last I checked, people travel to many places on the internet to follow politics. We welcome any more right-of-center blog activity on California politics! Fox’s group is “non-partisan” – but I would look for a steady stream of criticisms against Sacramento liberals who seem to want to regulate small business — out of business!… Read More

Yesterday evening conservative commentator and best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza visited the heart of liberalism: UC Berkeley. The Berkeley College Republicans hosted D’Souza’s visit, along with the Young America’s Foundation and Capitol Resource Institute. A crowd of students andothersgathered on campus to hear D’Souza deliver an address on “Christianity, Islam and the War on Terror."

In a fascinating presentation, D’Souza explained his thoughts on the “new atheism” in America and the countervailing rise of radical Islam. Many atheists have proclaimed that religion is the root of so much of international violence. D’Souza posits it is not a result of religion, but the more mundane interest of land-grabbing and power (in the name of religion) that causes this violence.

One of the points that really struck me was how the rest of the world, especially the Islamic culture, perceives America. To illustrate this point, D’Souza explained that he often has to protect his young daughter from all sorts… Read More

Last week, California College Republican leader Leigh Wolfe led a group of CR activists to the San Jose office of Democrat Assemblyman Jim Beall to protest his legislation which would hike the state’s tax on beer by a staggering 1500%!

Wolfe put together a great video of the event, the highlight of which is clearly is when Assemblyman Beall mingles amongst the protesters and gets into a dialogue with Beall.

Check out the video. I’m sure that Assemblyman Beall is excited that going forward, when you search for videos of him on You Tube will turn up this – his assault on beer drinkers, including college students.

As Wolfe, who promoted this protest using Facebook, eloquently puts it… "A 1500% increase in any tax is intolerable. These sleazy politicians think they can get away with it by taxing something other than our paychecks. Well I’ve got news for Beall: for many working-class college students, a big chunk of our paycheck is spent on beer. For them, this is highway robbery.… Read More

Last week, California College Republican leader Leigh Wolfe led a group of CR activists to the San Jose office of Democrat Assemblyman Jim Beall to protest his legislation which would hike the state’s tax on beer by a staggering 1500%!

Wolfe put together a great video of the event, the highlight of which is clearly is when Assemblyman Beall mingles amongst the protesters and gets into a dialogue with Beall.

Check out the video. I’m sure that Assemblyman Beall is excited that going forward, when you search for videos of him on You Tube will turn up this – his assault on beer drinkers, including college students.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

Robocalls: You may have signed up for the "Do Not Call list" as I have so you don’t get those annoying random sales calls at home. I was the lead co-sponsor of the California Do Not Call legislation when I was in the State Assembly (a copy of that bill signed by Governor Gray Davis is hanging on the wall in my office in DC). But now, here come those really annoying political "robocalls." These are recorded, automatically dialed calls to your house advocating one political position or candidate or another. They come at odd hours. They have the caller ID blocked so you don’t know who’s calling. They often say terrible things about a candidate without identifying who it is that is saying the terrible thing. I used them years ago when the technology was in its infancy. But now they have become so cheap that lots of abusers have entered the field.

So, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and I have introduced the Robocall Privacy Act to put some restrictions on this practice. This bill would impose significant sanctions on groups or individuals who: make political robocalls between the hours of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m.; make more… Read More