H. Walter Croksey, member of the Second District Court of Appeals, ruled today that homeschooling is not consistent with California Education Codes, subjecting parents of home schooled children to criminal penalty. Read it here. Unbelievable.… Read More

AD 80 on again – off again candidate, Lupe Ramos Watson, is out.

Tomorrow, Gary Jeandron will become the unopposed Republican nominee for Assembly.

Now, for the next three months Gary will be able to fundraise and campaign while the Democrat candidates tear each other apart. And from what I’m hearing, it’s going to be a Democrat Battle Royale.

Since the day he announced Gary has been a juggernaut. He’s a well respected former police chief of Palm Springs, current school board member and even a marriage and family counselor (what a guy).

HIs fundraising is better than all the Democrats combined and his work ethic is second to none.

Jeandron is on a roll – and clearing the Primary is just another sign of his strength.

Anyone who knows me, knows my obsession with AD 80 (my old district). I’m very comfortable Gary… Read More

"Lifted" from State Senator Tom Harman’s latest e-newsletter:

A Loophole by any other name is still the same After years of reckless spending and special-interest pandering, the liberal majority must now face their comeuppance in the form of a massive budget deficit. So they turn their focus to closing "loopholes." But there’s just one problem: The folks up in Sacramento have a very different notion of what constitutes a "loophole" than do the rest of us. The biggest "loophole" in California, according to state Legislative… Read More

Capitalism rocks. Exxon Mobil Corp. has been blasted by everyone from "progressives" to enviros to anyone in between for generating record-level profits as oil prices climb. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the company is now poised to invest record-levels (taking "capital spending to $25-30 billion per year") into "aggressively increasing exploration in politically stable countries not usually thought to be energy rich." That says to me it won’t be cheap, but will likely help lessen our dependence on Middle East and South American oil. Sounds like good work to me. (note, a subscription may be required for this article at wsj.com)

Rep. Darrell Issa earns props from NRCC Chairman Tom Cole for fundraising success, in today’s Hill. GOP Conference Chair lays down the law for members on the issue of earmarks, even threatening chairmanships.

And, the continuing saga of Airbus vs. The World marches on,… Read More

NBA Superstar and third generation Sacramentan Kevin Johnson announced today that he is challenging incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo. Fargo is running for her third term, she followed a very popular mayor — Joe Serna. For those of you not in the Sacramento area, Fargo has nowhere near the vision for the city that Serna had.

Many community leaders feel Fargo has failed to deliver leadership on managing the major issues facing the city — revitalizing downtown, a new arena for the Sacramento Kings and the city’s budget. But until Johnson, nobody was willing to step up and challenge Fargo.

Johnson is going to need to connect with voters one-on-one. Running for mayor is a much different type of race than running for US Senator or Governor, where so much emphasis is on buying television time. Mayoral elections are about meeting with voters and connecting with them emotionally — a trait that Fargo is good at.

In a low turnout June election, 30,000 votes could win… Read More

For the past few months I’ve been worried that the Democrats would wake up. They didn’t. Now that their Presidential nomination will continue to be up in the air for months I’m ready to thank them for giving Republicans a chance to keep the White House for four more years. It also means a chance at another Supreme Court Justice.

This should be a bad year for a Republican to be at the top of the ticket. Republicans did a smart thing by nominating the best candidate in the field to be able to win in November. Senator McCain brings independent voters to the table and should be able to hold the Republican base with a little work.

As for the Democrats they needed to nominate anyone but Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. They didn’t do that.

I believe that if Senator John Edwards was the nominee of the Democratic Party he would get 53% of the vote or greater and would walk into the White House. He would also have a good chance of putting North Carolina in his column.

Governor Bill Richardson would have been the darling of the media. They would have praised him to high heaven in editorials all over the country and he… Read More

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

As I suspected, the Presidential election is occupying much of the media attention now and much of the attention of members of Congress as well. Furthermore, the controlling Democrats are generally of the belief that their candidate (whoever that is) will win in November and then, if they hold Congress, they can do what they want without having to make deals with President Bush. So, I expect much action on things like energy, immigration, health care, etc to be held until at least after November and probably next year. There are a few things scheduled to expire this year, like farm subsidies, on which some action is expected. But, there is still no agreement in the House on the now expired Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which passed the Senate by a wide margin. So, even those items that are on a deadline of sorts don’t seem to be moving in this paralyzed Congress.

Federal Budget: One of the items that Congress is supposed to take up each year (but sometimes doesn’t) is a federal budget. By the Constitution, spending and tax bills must originate in the House. So, the House is beginning… Read More

Last night, the Anaheim City Council voted 3-2 to save Disney the trouble and expense of making it’s case to Anaheim voters and simply adopted the ballot-box zoning SOAR initiative as an ordinance.

From now on, lucky property owners within the Resort District will be governed by their own very special set of zoning rules. Unlike the ordinary joe who can seek a zoning change through the normal process via the Planning Commission and City Council, Resort District property owners seeking a zoning change will have to seek approval from a majority of a combined Planning Commission/City Council of 132,000 voters.

Anyone feeling adventurous enough to try it better have a big wallet and Disney on their side.

Just last week, it looked as though the SOAR initiative would actually have to be voted on by Anaheim. After all, wasn’t that what all the Disney/SOAR breast-beating last year about… Read More