"No, duh," was the reaction many California observers had when the announcement came from New York’s Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer that he had wisely decided to abandon his unilateral executive order to grant drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. After witnessing the abrupt end of the Gray Davis governorship due in significant part to Davis’ decision to award drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, Californians were not surprised to see Governor Spitzer walk away from a strikingly similar path. (By the way, Eliot Spitzer is of no relation to California’s tremendous Republican Assesmblymember Todd Spitzer.) On September 21, 2007, Governor Spitzer issued an Executive Order directing that all residents of New York be awarded drivers licenses under the normal process for licensing motorists, with one caveat – immigration status would be of no concern for state government, meaning illegal immigrants could be afforded the chance to obtain a valid form of government-issued identification cards.… Read More

Baseball, for a second… It wasn’t lost on sports fans in San Diego this week that although Padres ace Jake Peavy unanimously won the NL Cy Young Award for his "Triple Crown of Pitching" performance, an indicted Barry Bonds was getting most of the media attention. Justice must be served, of course, but one could at least hope that prosecutors might consider the timing of award announcements for the deserving — and give it a day or two — before announcing indictments of others.OK, perhaps Bonds is deserving as well. Hey Barry, have a prison sentence with that asterisk. At 30 HRs a year, A-Rod will snuff out your record in about adecade. I can’t wait.

Cal-Chamber Weighs In… Here’s the San Diego delegation’s voting record from Cal-Chamber’s 2007 Legislative Scorecard. No surprises, and it doesn’t quite strip the wheat from the chaff as much as a CRA or CRF, but it clearly exemplifies the two parties’ polar opposition on business issues. I know, I have an uncanny ability of stating the… Read More

FR friend and former University of California Regent Ward Connerly, who championed the successful Proposition 209 here in California to and racial quotas in public university admissions has been taking his cause to other states in the union, using the power of the ballot iniative to change discriminatory laws in those states.

Right now, he is working to qualify a measure in Oklahoma, and Connerly sent me over a link to an illuminating video of one of the signature gatherers for the measure being harassed in the parking lot by one of the most obnoxious people you have ever seen. It’s a bit lengthy, but you can get the idea in just a minute or two. Though watching it all allow you to see this racist black woman actually verbally assault the person with the video camera, taking him to task for being caucasian (she even references his "blue eyes"). The signature gatherer for the measure, who is black, never backs down. She’s an inspiration. … Read More

It’s already been nearly nine years since Bill Clinton was impeached and brought to trial for charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, charges describable as having"denigrated our system of justice and those who uphold it. At best, his conduct would be characterized as brazen disregard for legal rules; at worst, an untoward combination of arrogance, deception, and guile ina setting where we demand the opposite." Conviction of a perjury charge could lead to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, for obstruction, 10 years and $250,000. Pretty toughtreatment for a President, the leader of the Free World. But "ina setting where we demand the opposite" of such behaviorand deception,… Read More

It’s already been nearly nine years since Bill Clinton was impeached and brought to trial for charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, charges describable as having"denigrated our system of justice and those who uphold it. At best, his conduct would be characterized as brazen disregard for legal rules; at worst, an untoward combination of arrogance, deception, and guile ina setting where we demand the opposite." Conviction of a perjury charge could lead to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, for obstruction, 10 years and $250,000. Pretty toughtreatment for a President, the leader of the Free World. But "ina setting where we demand the opposite" of such behaviorand deception,… Read More

Just as the Federal Election Commission has begun a process of establishing rules for disclosure of expenditures for "electioneering communications" in the wake of the guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of Wisconsin Right to Life, whatare apparently push polls have just been released in both Iowa and New Hampshire attacking Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Will these attacks on Mormonism and Romney hit California anytime soon? For details on the attacks, click here. And to hear Romney’s reponse to this activity andhis support for and articulation of stateddeficiencies in the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, see here.

Thanks to my friend and sometimes co-counsel Professor Dan Lowenstein at UCLA Law School for the tip!… Read More

I just got a ‘heads up’ from Ryan Sherman who handles PR for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association — one of the biggest, most influential ($$$) public employee unions in California.

In what I would call a definate gun to the temple of big political head of Fabian Nunez, this major player in state politics just announced their official opposition to the Speaker’s term-limits extension ballot measure.

This represents yet another big plus for the opposition efforts to the "Big Lie Initiative" following the announcment last week that Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner had written a $1.5 million check to aid in opposition efforts, and that was combined with a matching contribution of another $1.5 million from the U.S. Term Limits Committee.

Before any major efforts have been launched to expose the Nunez measure as a sham for self-serving politicians like Nunez, just the "word" getting around has caused the measure to plummet 10 points in the latest statewide poll, with now less than 50% of likely voters are supportive of the measure.

Ironically, most of the support currently for 93 comes from… Read More

I have consistently made the argument that earmarks exist to serve political ends. Well, here is the latest example. Each of the conference reports for the Defense, Labor/HHS, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs spending bills have earmarks “airdropped” into them. “Airdropping” is a way of adding earmarks to a bill during the conference report process at the last possible minute, effectively shielding the earmarks from reproach due to the lack of time for review before a vote on the floor. Many times, these reports are hundreds of pages in length and Members simply cannot thoroughly examine every page in less than 24 hours. This is a deliberate tactic to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money with complete anonymity and zero accountability. I have vocally opposed this practice as have many of my colleagues on both the House and Senate side.

However, despite the outcry… Read More