5:35 pm Union-Trib Update____________

The Union-Trib stunned the San Diego political establishment this morning by not only charging City Attorney Mike Aguirre with ethics violations for taking campaign contributions from employees, but also editorializing on how one would legally go about removing him from office.

Within a matter of hours, the GOP called a press conference for 3 pm today, to announce they would carry the water in the endeavor. Voice of SD has it as follows:

GOP Seeks Removal of Aguirre

The San Diego County Republican Party just announced that it will be filing an ethics complaint against City Attorney Mike Aguirre with the intent of having him removed from office.

A press conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. outside of City Hall.

The announcement comes on the heels of this… Read More

Capitol Resource Family Impact (CRFI) released theirscorecard for the state legislature. They measured only social and family issues. Who got a perfect score? See it here. There were more Senators than Assembly members with perfect scores.… Read More

I think that one of the challenges about addressing concerns about healthcare in California as a public policy question is figuring exactly what government can do to help the situation, versus big brother getting involved in a way that will ultimately make things much worse. Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced a health care plan that would represent a radical and extreme shift in California, moving us significantly down the path towards a government-run healthcare system. There are a whole slew of problems with his proposal, but the single biggest part of it is that it defies one of the most basic, fundamental principles of our American democracy — individual responsibility. Using fancy rhetoric (courtesy of the left-wing New America Foundation), the Governor has declared that the provision of health care coverage in California is no longer an individual responsibility, it is now a "shared" responsibility. Apparently "shared" responsibility sounds better than saying "taxpayer responsibility" or, to put it in longer form, that health care is no longer YOUR responsibility. This proposal marks a radical… Read More

Yesterday, Senate President Don Perata pushed a vote on his ill-conceived water bond package. Happily, it did not get the 2/3 vote required and failed. Perhaps the only good to come of that vote was that it created a reason for Senator Tom McClintock to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and pen this floor speech:

California’s water shortage is real. The last major dam built in this state was the New Melones in 1979. In the intervening time, the population has grown from 23 million to 38 million people. California now stores less than one year’s water consumption in the entire system, which is why the prospect of even a moderate drought has become ominous.

The problem is that in the last ten years, voters have approved SIX bond measures totaling almost $17 billion that ALL promised to enhance California’s water supply.

… Read More

I think that one of the challenges about addressing concerns about healthcare in California as a public policy question is figuring exactly what government can do to help the situation, versus big brother getting involved in a way that will ultimately make things much worse. Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced a health care plan that would represent a radical and extreme shift in California, moving us significantly down the path towards a government-run healthcare system. There are a whole slew of problems with his proposal, but the single biggest part of it is that it defies one of the most basic, fundamental principles of our American democracy — individual responsibility. Using fancy rhetoric (courtesy of the left-wing New America Foundation), the Governor has declared that the provision of health care coverage in California is no longer an individual responsibility, it is now a "shared" responsibility. Apparently "shared" responsibility sounds better than saying "taxpayer responsibility" or, to put it in longer form, that health care is no longer YOUR responsibility. This proposal marks a radical… Read More

By now, just about everyone who is anyone in California politics, or who reports on the goings-on in California politics, has viewed the video clip of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez running away from an ABC News camera and reporter rather than answer questions about lavish campaign expenditures on a lifestyle that Nunez calls "middle class" but is clearly much more… (Nearly 4,000 had watched this particular YouTube clip).

The question we all would like answered is that posed by the ABC News reporter towards the end of the video — about Nunez’ bodyguard. Who is he? And perhaps more importantly, who pays for him? Is he a CHP plain clothes officer? A staffer for the Assembly? Or perhaps a hired mercenary on campaign payroll? Or perhaps he is an employee of one of the special interests that Nunez is gauging to pay for his term-limits end-run ball… Read More

Today my Republican Governor introduced a vast health care proposal that, if enacted, raises taxes, moves us away from individual responsibility for our health care in favor of making health care coverage a government (taxpayer) responsibility, and moves the consumer even further away from their appropriate role in a market-driven healthcare system.

There are a lot of great ideas, based on sound Republican principles, contained in both the State Senate and Assembly GOP proposals. The Governor’s proposal is a recipe for disaster – and would clearly make things worse.… Read More

The Orange City Council tonight will hear a report from their city attorney on "…continued viability of the Resource Center and secondary impacts of day laborer solicitation."

Several city council members have expressed concern in recent months that the "Resource Center" was nothing more than a haven for illegal aliens seeking work. Work being a noble cause, being here illegally being, well illegal.

Reports of a nearby gas station owner saying day laborers urinate on the side of his building, gambling (sounds like fun) and pitching coins which block sidewalks, customers avoiding businesses where laborers congregate and potential employers (we’ll call them John’s) causing traffic hazards as they slow and solicit for "workers" are all reasons for the review.… Read More