In my continuing series on ballot designations, today I bring you the best one of all time. I will defend this one against anything you can put up against it…

SHAMAN!

Yes Juan Pablo Serrano-Nieblas a perennial candidate for mayor or Orange uses Shaman as his ballot designation.

According to dictionary.com a Shaman is: a person who acts as intermediary between the natural and supernatural worlds, using magic to cure illness, foretell the future, control spiritual forces, etc.

I am solidly in the camp of Carolyn Cavecche (current council member in Orange who is running for mayor) but the good people of Orange might want to hedge their bets a bit and throw a bone to Mr. Serrrano-Nieblas. After all, do you really think he would run if he didn’t already use his magical powers to to fortell the future and see that he was goiong to win?… Read More

I don’t recall evenr being in a situation where the closer Election Day gets, the less likely I am to vote for the GOP nominee.

Yet, that is where I find myself vis-a-vis Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I’m one of many conservatives who voted for Arnold in the recall despite my preference for Tom McClintock. I found the prospect of Cruz Bustamante in the governor’s office horrifying and wasn’t convinced McClintock could win. The stakes so too high I though it prudent to back the Republican with the best chance of winning, and so I cast my vote for Arnold. Like other conservatives, I comforted myself with the rumor we’d heard for years that Arnold was really a libertarian. So, although he was squishy on the social issues, at least he’d be hard core on taxes, spending and freedom issues. After all, he was a Milton Friedman fan!

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

I don’t recall even being in a situation where the closer Election Day gets, the less likely I am to vote for the GOP nominee.

Yet, that is where I find myself vis-a-vis Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I’m one of many conservatives who voted for Arnold in the recall, despite my preference for Tom McClintock. I found the prospect of Cruz Bustamante in the governor’s office horrifying and wasn’t convinced McClintock could win. The stakes so too high I though it prudent to back the Republican with the best chance of winning, and so I cast my vote for Arnold. Like other conservatives, I comforted myself with the rumor we’d heard for years that Arnold was really a libertarian. So, although he was squishy on the social issues, at least he’d be hard core on taxes, spending and freedom issues. After all, he was a Milton Friedman fan!

But ever since the Governor’s nauseating policy of apologizing for the special election of 2005, it’s been steadily more difficult to assembly a conservative Republican rationale for supporting his re-election.

He’s signed a non-aggression pact with the government employee… Read More

Even if the Governor’s team had seen this, there is no doubt they would have still signed the minimum wage bill. For a lazy weekend read, click here.

Mike… Read More

[This morning’s commentary is brought to you by FR Managing Editor Nicholas Romero.]

Some might think it odd that the top stories I’ve linked to are the eulogies for former Congressman and Olympian Bob Mathias. There isn’t going to be a political fallout in the wake of Mathias’s death. He left Congress thirty years ago as one of the many Congressional Republicans defeated by Watergate. I put Bob Mathias, the youngest US Olympic track and field team member and gold medal winner of his time, up top for a couple of reasons. (Hint: It’s certainly not for his support for Ford, a fellow collegiate football player, in 1976.)

I love the Olympic Games. Setting aside the logistical aspects (and the annoying Bob Costas telecasts), the Olympic Games are great quadrennial contests of nations. They are contests that celebrate nations. They reinvigorate our national pride, our patriotism, our focus. They have this great temporal aspect about them. There is both an individual and national significance to winning medals.

I’ve always had this attraction to the… Read More

[This morning’s commentary is brought to you by FR Managing Editor Nicholas Romero.]

Some might think it odd that the top stories I’ve linked to are the eulogies for former Congressman and Olympian Bob Mathias. There isn’t going to be a political fallout in the wake of Mathias’s death. He left Congress thirty years ago as one of the many Congressional Republicans defeated by Watergate. I put Bob Mathias, the youngest US Olympic track and field team member and gold medal winner of his time, up top for a couple of reasons. (Hint: It’s certainly not for his support for Ford, a fellow collegiate football player, in 1976.)

I love the Olympic Games. Setting aside the logistical aspects (and the annoying Bob Costas telecasts), the Olympic Games are great quadrennial contests of nations. They are contests that celebrate nations. They reinvigorate our national pride, our patriotism, our focus. There is both an individual and national significance to winning medals. They have this great temporal aspect about them.

I’ve always had this attraction to the… Read More

Jerry Brown has had a very frustrating summer. First, his disingenuous efforts to portray Oakland crime as down when it’s actually been exploding on his watch (homicides up 57% from 1999-2005) were overwhelmed by daily headlines of carnage in the city streets. Yesterday, the Oakland Tribune reported the city now has had more murders this year than all of last year. The aggressive campaign of Senator Chuck Poochigian has been relentlessly pounding on Brown’s (typical) neglect of Oakland as he campaigns full-time for AG while the city is in the grips of what can only be called a public safety crisis. Come to think of it, a public safety crisis is exactly what the Poochigian has accurately labeled the ever-worsening situation in Oakland. Now, Wednesday’s LA Times reports that a new book by an experienced investigative reporter is again raising questions about… Read More

Jerry Brown has had a very frustrating summer. First, his disingenuous efforts to portray Oakland crime as down when it’s actually been exploding on his watch (homicides up 57% from 1999-2005) were overwhelmed by daily headlines of carnage in the city streets. Yesterday, the Oakland Tribune reported the city now has had more murders this year than all of last year. The aggressive campaign of Senator Chuck Poochigian has been relentlessly pounding on Brown’s (typical) neglect of Oakland as he campaigns full-time for AG while the city is in the grips of what can only be called a public safety crisis. Come to think of it, a public safety crisis is exactly what the Poochigian has accurately labeled the ever-worsening situation in Oakland. Now, Wednesday’s LA Times reports that a new book by an experienced investigative reporter is again raising questions about… Read More