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The GOP merry-go-round in San Francisco

I registered for the California state GOP convention in San Francisco this weekend, March 14-16, even though I don’t know what I’ve registered for.

I had the same feeling when I took my five-year-old granddaughter, Vera, on the merry-go-round at the Topanga Plaza Mall in Woodland Hills. Some of the animals went up and down; some stood still. Some seemed to leap forward in frozen passion; some were just frozen in time. When the merry-go-round turned, the world seemed to spin around it, oblivious to its mythic themes and intrepid explorers. Vera and I were both dizzy after the ride; the difference- she enjoyed the sensation.

Just so, when I set foot in the Hyatt Regency next Friday night, I’ll face a mysterious array of horses, some perhaps riding somewhere, some only seeming to, some not even trying- it will be difficult to tell which is which. I did not have this problem at the October convention in Anaheim because, based on my opposition to the Common Core Standards, I had been invited to the Tea Party Caucus, one of the rowdiest and most interesting political gatherings I’ve ever witnessed. Unfortunately,… Read More

The Administrative Office of the Courts is in the news once again, and again, it’s not good news.Known as the central bureaucracy for California’s courts, the AOC has a rich history of statewide controversy.

Following a promotion of the state judiciary’s top lobbyist to a specially created executive position at the Administrative Office of the Courts, Curtis Child, theAdministrative Office of the Courts Chief Operating Officer,has been billing taxpayers for travel from his home in Sacramento to the San Francisco AOC office where he works, according to Courthouse News Service and the Alliance of California Judges.

Curtis Child, the former AOC lobbyist, has been billing taxpayers for lodging, tolls, parking, and travel costs of working from Sacramento, where he lives, when the AOC office and 223 employees he manages are in San Francisco, the Alliance of California Judges and Courthouse News… Read More

Last September, I penned this column calling on CRP Vice Chair Harmeet Dhillon to drop her lawsuit against the blog known as The Munger Games:

The Munger Games asserts that the purpose of the suit (which now includes a request to Google to provide email correspondence to and from the Munger Games’ Gmail account) is really a fishing expedition to try and expose the authors of the Munger Games.

I [urge] her to drop her lawsuit against the unknown authors of the Munger Games. Not because she shouldn’t defend her rights to her photo (I’m no expert on that), but because we all lose if anonymous political speech is stifled because of the lawsuit.

Dhillon didn’t take my advice at the time, and it is too late to take it now because U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston has reviewed Dhillon’s lawsuit and found it so wanting that she didn’t bother with the… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: We are pleased to present this original commentary from Neel Kashkari, candidate for Governor of California. If you had not seen in, I conducted an interview with Kashkari not too long ago, which you can read here.– Flash]

Over the weekend, at the California Democratic Party Convention in Los Angeles, Gov. Jerry Brown echoed a familiar refrain. He said that “California is back!” and that “California is working.”

Really? Companies moving out of state and taking California jobs with them? Record-high state government spending? Hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities? 17 percent of Californians unemployed or stuck in a part-time job?

Gov. Brown may believe that the state is better than ever – but that’s far from the reality millions of Californians are living every day.

Worse still, the Governor not only ignores the enormity of the challenges facing our state today – but he continues to pursue a $67 billion legacy project that Californians don’t want and can’t afford.

Last week, I traveled around the Central… Read More

As an attorney with the Pacific Justice Institute, I have been part of the legal team seeking to assure the fair validation of signatures for the referendum on AB 1266, the “co-ed bathroom bill.” I was also heavily involved in the effort to defeat this outlandish bill in the Legislature.

So imagine my surprise and outrage when I learned recently that one of the signatures tossed out by elections officials reviewing our petitions … was my own. You read that correctly—a petition from one of the key backers of the referendum, more familiar than most with the rules, was not good enough to satisfy elections workers here in Sacramento County. So what did I do wrong? The explanation was that my signature didn’t look exactly like it had on my registration card. And you know what? They’re probably right; my signature has undoubtedly changed over the last few years as I have become totally blind and no longer able to see what I’ve written. That’s a long story that I’ll save for another day. But my disability shouldn’t prevent me from participating in such a core function of democracy as signing a referendum petition.

What’s really scary is that I… Read More

There is a disturbing trend of state and federal environmental agencies, which do end runs around state legislatures and Congress, and regulate carbon emissions themselves.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been doing this for years, as has California’s Air Resources Board. And they’ve gotten away with this thanks to activist scientists.

But when another scientist blows the whistle, look out. Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

UCLA lawsuit, Dr. James Enstrom

Dr. James E. Enstrom, Ph.D. a University of California at Los Angeles research professor who was terminated after he blew the whistle on junk environmental science and scientific misconduct at the University of California, filed… Read More

Today, I will be testifying in front of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in support of Assemblyman Roger Dickinson’s request for an audit to determine the overall costs of repairing the problem-plagued Board of Equalization headquarters building versus relocating to a new facility.

The state is currently wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on repairs, while ignoring the obvious need for a new cost-effective headquarters location. I’m confident a state audit will provide the evidence we need to move forward.

My district includes the Sacramento area, home to the BOE headquarters building and many of the employees who work there.

Dickinson’s request will be considered when JLAC meets at 2 PM in State Capitol Room 126.… Read More

For several years, bills to streamline the dismissal process for teachers accused of egregious misconduct have failed in the Legislature.

Because of the legislative impasse, EdVoice, a Sacramento based, a non-profit educational reform group, has proposed ballot measure to change this.

The name says it all: The “Stop Child Molesters, Sexual Abusers and Drug Dealers From Working In California Schools… Read More