Today’s Commentary is guest-authored by California Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, an outstanding conservative leader here in the Golden State…

Senate Republicans Break Their Rusty Cage Imagine a friend with talking parrots. He keeps them in a cage all year covered with a drape, feeds them occasionally, cleans their cage less often, yet once a year around June 30th when the relatives come to visit he drags out the cage, pulls off the drape, and orders the parrots to talk. This is the Senate Republican Caucus. And because they have not performed on cue they are being called obstructionist, stubborn, uncooperative, and even terrorists.

The truth is that the Democrats’ changes to the Governor’s Budget have only been available since mid-June and the Republicans have been detailing their objections to that “work product”… Read More

Today’s Commentary is guest-authored by California Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, an outstanding conservative leader here in the Golden State…

Senate Republicans Break Their Rusty Cage Imagine a friend with talking parrots. He keeps them in a cage all year covered with a drape, feeds them occasionally, cleans their cage less often, yet once a year around June 30th when the relatives come to visit he drags out the cage, pulls off the drape, and orders the parrots to talk. This is the Senate Republican Caucus. And because they have not performed on cue they are being called obstructionist, stubborn, uncooperative, and even terrorists.

The truth is that the Democrats’ changes to the Governor’s Budget have only been available since mid-June and the Republicans have been detailing their objections to that “work product”… Read More

Shane Goldmacher at the Sacramento Bee reported that Sam Wakim (a GOP candidate to replace Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa) resigned from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board for posting a faux illegal-immigrant drivers license on his personal web site.

Thank goodness he had little chance to defeat former Assemblyman/State Senator Jim Nielsen (who already has the support of incumbent Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa).

The image is posted on a rather weird personal site that has a mix of items that cause me to scratch my head and wonder why a candidate and appointee would put this stuff on the internet:

1. He calls college basketball legend Bob Knight "a good friend and former boss" but then goes on to say that he was an employee at the IU ticket office. I’m sorry but "good friend and former boss" to Bob Knight is probably somebody like Coach K at Duke not the guy sitting behind the glass at the Will-Call booth.

2. He seems to have a very strange obsession for Miss Lebanon — posting almost a dozen photos of… Read More

Test of uploading audio file… Read More

Democrats have targeted Sen. Jeff Denham for a recall. Why have the Dems who were against the recall of Gray Davis doing this? Jeff won’t vote for an unbalanced budget. How should Republicans respond? Let’s recall Lou Correa. He barely won, in a district that is getting more GOP registrations. In a recall he can’t use third party campaigns like Otto Bade to distract voters. A recall of Correa would give voters a clear choice. Vote no on the recall and support ongoing unbalanced budgets or vote yes on the recall of good old Lou and send a message for balanced budgets. Is there anybody out there willing to take this on? … Read More

While the overwhelming majority of Americans are thankful for the apprehension of suspected terrorist and al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla and clearly understand his conviction by a federal jury, there are some who incredulously suggest that the real victim in Padilla’s saga are not the countless numbers of innocent American citizens Padilla wanted to maim and kill, but rather Padilla himself. According to a posting on membership-driven Daily Kos, what happened today was an outrage. No, it is not outrageous that an American citizen was planning, plotting and scheming to kill as many of his fellow citizens as possible, but it is an outrage that convicted terrorist Padilla was “subjected to this kind of ‘justice’." Read it here. Of course, it is worth noting that … Read More

Just a quick break from the excellent coverage of the California State Budget Debate of 2007:

News on a very competitive race forming in San Bernardino County’s Third Supervisorial District. The district, which includes the cities of Redlands, San Bernardino, Loma Linda, plus many rural and suburban communities. The longtime incumbent is controversial local political figure Dennis Hansberger, who has held the seat for the past twelve years (and did a stint on the board from 1972-86). Hansberger is being challenges by San Bernardino City Councilmember Neil Derry, who has vast public policy experience as an elected official and a top district staff member to then-Assemblymember Fred Aguiar of San Bernardino County.

No one else is expressing an interest to stand for this seat, meaning the race could be decided in the June 2008 primary. While the candidates are bringing their credentials to the electoral battlefield, the talent each team has lined … Read More

In response to one of the articles on the front page of the Flash Report today, I must vehemently disagree with GOP lawmakers who call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. The U.S. should not be guilty of making the games a political or diplomatic weapon. We have grown ups with big salaries who are supposed to be professionals at diplomacy. If they are so inadequate that we have to shield them with hard working, stellar young American athletes, then I say we need to clean house in the embassy.

I’m frankly aghast that GOP lawmakers would follow in the steps of President Carter. His Lilly-livered relationship with the Soviets in 1980 was a disgrace, and what we should have done was send our athletes to the Moscow games to kick some tail and break every record.

The U.S. should never shirk from being represented on the world stage the Olympics afford. Our lawmakers should insist on competent diplomats rather than sideline our young superstars.… Read More