Today, Legislators received this memo from the California State Sheriff’s Association.

——————————————————————————————- July 23, 2007

To: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger The Honorable Members of the Legislature

From: Sheriff Laurie Smith, President, California State Sheriffs’ Association

Subject: 2007-08 California State Budget

The California State Sheriffs’ Association supports the budget passed by the Assembly last week as it relates to law enforcement. Despite not addressing all of our priorities, the budget is a good budget for law enforcement. While local law enforcement receives less than 1% of the total state General Fund spending, the funds are vital to our ability to protect public safety.

In light of the above, we are not in a position to sustain any further cuts in the final version of the… Read More

Undoubtedly the ‘heat is on’ for all of those interest groups and customers of state government spending — put pressure on those darned Senate Republicans to pass a budget. Fortunately, our GOP Senators are a well grounded group of folks who have core principled beliefs, and who actually value their role as a representative of California taxpayers, who deserve, among other things, a balanced budget.

That said, FR readers should keep calling or e-mailing Senate Republicans and give them a friendly, "Hang in there! We’re with you!"

Lobbyists and special interest groups — take a number.… Read More

California’s own Congressman Dana Rohrabacher will investigate claims of abusive prosecutorial misconduct by Johnny Sutton, the US Attorney for the Western District of Texas.Specifically, he wants to know to what extent the Mexican government pressured Sutton to prosecute the two border patrol officers, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campean.

Rohrabacher (pictured), who chaired the Oversight Committee, when Republicans were in charge, will serve as ranking member. Unfortunately, Sutton has refused to testify at the July 31 hearing of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sutton has a lot of explaining to do.

Conservatives have long feared the Federal Government propensity for prosecutorial misconduct. There is hardly anything more frightening than the unlimited resources of a belligerent US Attorney.

Sutton, a friend of President Bush, and ambitious US Attorney, is charged… Read More

Brad Mitzelfelt is the newest person to joign Team Knight in the 36th AD Race. See previuos post on the race here. Mitzelfelt is a central figure to the San Bernardino County side of this two-county district, as the local County Supervisor there.

This is a solid endorsement for Knight.… Read More

[UPDATED 3:45 PM — Attached below this post is the official statement of the California Term Limits Defense Fund – worth a read…]

I note with interest that, despite the absence of a budget, Fabian Nunez has green-lighted the turning in of signatures for the ballot measure to extend his time in office by six years (and those of many of his termed-out colleagues as well). I know from personal experience that the pitch being made by paid signature gatherers at my local store was, "Sir, will you sign a petition to cut the time career politicians can spend in office?" So with that in mind, there is simply no way for proponents of the "Career Politician Term Extension Act" to argue that in turning over a million signatures, there is some level of ‘popular support’ for their measure. Not when the gatherers are misleading the signers. We all know, of course, that a huge percentage of California legislators (including the Senate President and Assembly Speaker face the term-limits axe next November, and gauging every possible… Read More

Assemblyman Rick Keene was one of nine Republicans in the lower house to cast a vote for the budget that passed out last Thursday night (or was that Friday morning)? He has submitted the following commentary to add to the discussion on the state budget:

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary…

Cindy by the Bay

I recently predicted that the independent challenge against San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi by peace activist Cindy Sheehan would cause the House Speaker no end of heartburn between now and the 2008 election. Democrats would themselves regret ever legitimizing the bombastic mother of a U.S. soldier who died in Iraq, once given a ready platform by Democrats as a way to embarrass President Bush.

It looks as if Ms. Sheehan is fulfilling that prediction. In a widely read op-ed published in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, she took a two-by-four not only to Ms. Pelosi for her failure to cut off funding for the Iraq War. Ms. Sheehan used her cudgel to whack the… Read More

Today, George Skelton opines on the budget deal passed out by the Assembly last Friday (see Skelton article here). In the article, Skelton suggests that "…it was about the time of the wine-tasting that the legislative leaders hatched their plan to roll California’s most vulnerable" adding that while his comment may be a cheap shot, it was no more so than "…picking the pockets of the poor in order to bring spending and taxes closer into balance."

Did I just wake up in bizarro world? Or does it still make perfect sense that the way to ensure that the government can provide safety-net care to the needy is to ensure that our financial house is in order?

I would be willing to bet that Mr. Skelton doesn’t make it a practice to budget more for his charitable giving than would exceed his income. It stands to reason than none would.… Read More