The CRP held its annual fundraiser at Napa this weekend. Without question, one of the best ever (according to many long-time participants). As well as the remarkable castle dinner and the day of golf and spa experiences, the greatest part of the trip was the exceptional turnout by both legislative members and donors. Kudos to Vice-Chairman Tom Del Becarro, leaders Ackerman and Villines, and the great staff that helped make the whole experience both a success and a memorable experience.… Read More

California Republican Congressman David Dreier of the 26th Congressional district (Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties) recently hailed the accomplishments of the US House Republican Conference on Capitol Hill.According to Rep. Dreier – who is serving his 14th term in Congress and is the top Republican on the crucial House Committee on Rules – new-found Republican Party unity has inspired the House GOP to lead on implementing “lobbying reform legislation stronger than the bill introduced by Democrats, a clean supplemental spending bill for our troops in harms way, and the exposure of Democratic broken promises to run a more open and honest Congress.” Dreier has specifically highlighted the poor record of the Democratic Rules Committee on their promise of a delivering a more open debate. Members have repeatedly been turned away from the Rules Committee and prevented from even offering amendments for consideration, … Read More

California Republican Congressman David Dreier of the 26th Congressional district (Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties) recently hailed the accomplishments of the US House Republican Conference on Capitol Hill.According to Rep. Dreier – who is serving his 14th term in Congress and is the top Republican on the crucial House Committee on Rules – new-found Republican Party unity has inspired the House GOP to lead on implementing “lobbying reform legislation stronger than the bill introduced by Democrats, a clean supplemental spending bill for our troops in harms way, and the exposure of Democratic broken promises to run a more open and honest Congress.” Dreier has specifically highlighted the poor record of the Democratic Rules Committee on their promise of a delivering a more open debate. Members have repeatedly been turned away from the Rules Committee and prevented from even offering amendments for consideration, … Read More

Brian Jones, Casey Gwinn in CD 52 Fray?… If you missed it, Santee City Councilman Brian Jones has filed committee paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for an open Duncan Hunter seat (see Friday’s post).

Following the Jones news, Red County/San Diego reported that former San Diego City AttorneyCasey Gwinn is also looking at the seat. Casey moved to East County a few years back (having lived in San Carlos, pretty close already, as in a couple of blocks) and some at the time were anticipating he’d be running for Jay La Suer’s termed out 77th AD seat in 2006. That clearly didn’t happen. Has enough time elapsed since his SD days?

I consider Casey a friend and a stand-up guy. I have to urge caution here,in the extreme sense. East County is not the… Read More

In an effort to emulate my colleague Duane, and post something up on this blog that has nothing to do with politics, I thought I would throw out there my new dilemma.

Recently I picked up a new LG "Chocolate" cell phone. I have only been using it for a few days, and we’ll see if it is an improvement over the RZR or not. I won’t go into any more of that for fearing of being too "Duane-like" in this post.

While monkeying around with the phone, I found out how to download ring tones from the ether — and after spending nearly an hour listening to snipets of cool music, ultimately settled on downloading "What’s Going On?" by the amazing Marvin Gaye (pictured), whom I consider to have been one of the most amazing contributors to the music industry of all time (despite his left-wing politics).

There was also some irony my phone ringing out with "What’s Going On?" when someone… Read More

After years of effort and prodding from Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Susan Peters (and a looming budget shortfall) the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors finally tackled a multi-million dollar budget problem by eliminating costly “extra” benefits for future retirees.

It’s a start — but it’s not the only budget busting pension issue: Sacramento County has nearly $950 Million in pension obligation bonds that have to be serviced from the General Fund – at the same time they’re facing significant budget cuts.

The scary thing is, Sacramento is not alone – all across California, bloated and under-funded (how did they manage to do both?) pensions have spawned a financial monster; and with few exceptions, no one is dealing with it. Public employee retiree pensions and benefits threaten to swamp already stretched budgets – throwing taxpayers into a fiscal nightmare. It’s the monster under the bridge everyone tries to… Read More

A judges decison this week to shut off the Delta pumps that 25 million Californians rely on has sent a shock wave through the water user community, [which is everyone in California]

This additionalbit of judicial policy making, was ostensibly to save the all so handy species du jour, a fish calledthe Delta Smelt.

Thankfully we Californians can draw from reservoirs, such as San Luis,that store water for when situations that affect available water supply, such as drought caused by weather or by activist judges. 50 years ago, leaders had a vision for providing for future needs with our State Water Project. The elected legislatures reaction weeks ago when this possiblejudicial action first came public?

Why, it was to vote down a bill in Senate Water Committee that would build more of the reservoirs that store water that a million Californians, new to this stateeach 2 years, will need!

Maybe we’ll luck out and have a ‘climate change’ that causes it to rain more in the summer. What was it Albert Hammond said about it back in… Read More

After years of effort and prodding from Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Susan Peters (and a looming budget shortfall) the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors finally tackled a multi-million dollar budget problem by eliminating costly “extra” benefits for future retirees.

It’s a start — but it’s not the only budget busting pension issue: Sacramento County has nearly $950 Million in pension obligation bonds that have to be serviced from the General Fund – at the same time they’re facing significant budget cuts.

The scary thing is, Sacramento is not alone – all across California, bloated and under-funded (how did they manage to do both?) pensions have spawned a financial monster; and with few exceptions, no one is dealing with it. Public employee retiree pensions and benefits threaten to swamp already stretched budgets – throwing taxpayers into a fiscal nightmare. It’s the monster under the bridge everyone tries to… Read More