Whoops. I realized about an hour after updating the main page today that I totally skipped the treasure trove of articles that appear on Thursday’s on the Capitol Weekly website. Those articles now appear on the main page, so if you’ve been there, you may want to head back. Especially since our FR State Capitol Correspondent Karen Hanretty is featured in this weeks Capitol Weekly with a column!

While I am at it, Vanity Fair’s current issue has a lengthy piece on the trials and tribulations of disgraced former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. A couple of folks sent it to me as a .pdf file so I have attached it for those who are interested.… Read More

OK, I have had about all that I can stomach of this post-primary Abel Maldonado ‘flame out’ on Arnold Schwarzenegger. While it is true that Senator Maldonado was an ally to the Governor — both in supporting his candidacies and in authoring the Governor’s controversial mandate on businesses, requiring them to pay a higher wage to employees — it is also true that the Governor was certainly very helpful to Maldonado in return. Maldonado wrapped himself in the Governor’s image, and happily sucked up to a lot of the Governor’s big donor friends. If the Governor had formally endorsed Maldonado in his contested GOP primary against former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, I don’t think it would have brought anything more to the table for Maldonado.

But you have to ask yourself, is it really that unexpected for an incumbent Republican Governor who is seeking re-election to not endorse one candidate over another in a contested Republican primary for statewide office? After… Read More

OK, I have had about all that I can stomach of this post-primary Abel Maldonado ‘flame out’ on Arnold Schwarzenegger. While it is true that Senator Maldonado was an ally to the Governor — both in supporting his candidacies and in authoring the Governor’s controversial mandate on businesses, requiring them to pay a higher wage to employees — it is also true that the Governor was certainly very helpful to Maldonado in return. Maldonado wrapped himself in the Governor’s image, and happily sucked up to a lot of the Governor’s big donor friends. If the Governor had formally endorsed Maldonado in his contested GOP primary against former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, I don’t think it would have brought anything more to the table for Maldonado.

But you have to ask yourself, is it really that unexpected for an incumbent Republican Governor who is seeking re-election to not endorse one candidate over another in a contested Republican primary for statewide office? After… Read More

I’m sure Mr. Joe Justin won’t mind me borrowing the song title ideafor this post entry especially as a follow up to his Take Me To The River earlier…[who can name the artists of both songs without Googling the answer? a bag ofButteCountyrice in it for the first correct guess…maybe even some Sutter County peaches if you’re ‘in the building’]

I spent part of Tuesday afternoon with Governor Schwarzeneggar,DWR, Army Corps and others out on the Yolo County levee here in the 2nd Assembly District, near Knights Landing, cited in the Justin post and Bee article, viewing the rockplacement work being done there. It is a refreshing example of getting the work done now and worrying about a lot of obstructions later. The 29 most critical sights of erosion on levees are the focus of decisive action takenby the Governor,declaring a state of emergency on them. If you could have seen thebirds-eye-view of the mass volume of water up against this leveeand all over the SacramentoValley just a few months ago, from thehelicopters that a few of us legislatorstoured in, atthe Governor’s invitation, along with… Read More

Having been on the ballot twice in less than a year — once in November 2005 when it lost, and again last month when it won — the 1% sales tax increase in National City now has the opposition asking, "Would’ya go two out of three?"

Opponents of the tax are moving ahead on qualifying the rubber match for an upcoming ballot.

Officials in National City say city services will be drastically cut without the tax being at 8.75%, the highest in San Diego County. Opponents of the tax, including even a SD Union Tribune editorial, say if the city hadn’t increased pensions so significantly over the years, it wouldn’t be in this mess.

This in from SD Taxfighters:

The National City Sales Tax Increase Is Going Back on the Ballot Campaign Theme is “Two out of Three” San Diego – Last week, initial papers were filed to put the onerous National City sales tax increase back on the ballot for voter consideration. The new initiative will seek to repeal that city’s recently passed Prop D, the full 1% sales tax increase.

Starting this October,… Read More

I’m sure you all thought I was struggling to justify my exisitence as the vaunted Northern California/Sacramento guy when I posted on Levees, Katrina’s political legacy and the like.

But soooommmmmeeeebody was reading my pablum (or is it that this stuff isn’t that hard to get?). Check out today’s Bee and see the photo…and read how the Gov is making levee repairs an issue….… Read More

The Left can never resist an opportunity to exert influence over impressionable young people, exploiting their lack of cynicism for political gain.

Case in point: Gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides speaking to school children at Oscar Loya Elementary Schoolyesterday.In the middle of his speech, Angelides suggests his audience of fourth graders nag their parents to go see Al Gore’s enviro-horror flick,An Inconvenient Truth.

Happy meals at McDonalds (for the new prizes), the new American Girls store, the local trading card/comic bookshop, these motivate fourth graders Phil. An Inconvenient Truth? A movie largely featuring an irate, pudgy, older man who appears as a principal, verbally rapping our knuckles? With this sort of suggestion, I’m amazed Megan, Christina, and Arianna turned out normal enough to stump for you on television.

Here’s a partial transcriptionof the event:

"You know what movie I just saw that’s a great movie you should all go see, andI would encourage your parents to go… Read More

There was an interesting comment posted yesterday responsding to what Kate Folmar wrote on the San Jose Mercury’s blog about the gubernatorial campaign and the theme of taxes. It’s a comment I can’t stop thinking about it. It reads:

"I really wish someone (Angelides campaign? the press?) would call Schwarzenegger out on this taxes thing. What does "not raising taxes" have to do with the 7 million Californians without health insurance, or the millions more who are struggling to survive under skyrocketting housing, child care and other costs? These are the problems that need fixing, and these are the problems that should be at the center of the debate.

"Raising taxes vs. not raising taxes is such a red herring, and out [sic] state will continue to suffer if that is where the debate is focused."

Indeed, there are a great many things at stake in California aside from tax increases. I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t some truth to the idea that taxes are a red herring.

Our attention is being diverted from the ugliness of liberal corruption… Read More