We’ve all seen the polls showing Congress with historic low approval ratings (the most recent poll by CBS shows 11% approval, 82% disapproval). Incumbents nationwide are feeling the pressure and some seemingly-safe political giants, like Barney Frank, are calling it quits on their own terms before their constituents do it on theirs.

In the wake of the GOP route of 2010, Republicans were crowing that new majorities in state legislatures nationally would enable redistricting to further cement the congressional majorities, possibly even gaining seats. However, reality set in and setbacks in Texas, California, Ohio, Illinois, and possibly even Florida have changed that forecast.

Most troubling however is that the anti-incumbent mood is likely to have more impact on Republicans than Democrats, in spite of the fact that the issues matrix favors right-of-center policies.

First, there are more Republicans than Democrats in Congress so on the natural, Republicans have more to defend as incumbents. But that’s not the most troubling news.

I’ve sat through focus groups of Republicans and Democrats and reviewed polling in races in several states and… Read More

* So it turns out that California voters, by a near super-majority of 64%, want a revote on $9.95 billion in general obligation bond funding that would go towards a high speed rail system in California. When voters approved this funding back in 2008 (barely, by a 52.8% margin) — it turns out it was on the strength of what have turned out to be bogus numbers. Turns out that high speed rail is a heck of a lot more expensive than ballot arguments led voters to believe. In addition to wanting a re-vote, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, 37% of those who voted for the bonds last go around would vote against them if given another chance. So, two action items for the legislature: 1) Place the bonds back on the ballot next year. 2) Apparently the HSR bonds require legislative approval to sell. Don’t give it.

* In his “Willie’s World” column in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday, Willie Brown romanticizes a recent junket to Cuba. He talks… Read More

This Wednesday prosecutors and lawyers for Democrat Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi are scheduled to appear before Judge Gerardo Sandoval of San Francisco Superior Court to set a date for her preliminary hearing on felony grand theft shoplifting charges stemming from Hayashi’s departing from the Union Square Neiman-Marcus store last month with $2,450 in merchandise she did not pay for. Hayashi was excused from having to appear at the scheduling hearing on December 7, however, state law requires that she attend the preliminary hearing when it is finally scheduled, although she cannot be compelled to testify at that hearing.… Read More

Occupy and taxes explained in less than 4 minutes.

Occupy explained… Read More

Occupy & taxes explained in 4 minutes or less.

Occupy Explained… Read More

When I saw that longtime FR friend and candidate for State Assembly Phil Paule was doing a lot of work to help gather signatures to refer the so-called “Dream Act” (which is really quite a nightmare) to the voters, I asked him to give our readers an update, which is below. Find out more about Phil’s Assembly campaign here, or read a recent column he penned for the FR here — Flash

IF GIVEN A CHANCE, VOTERS WILL REJECT THE “DREAM ACT” By Phil Paule

When a new report by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office showed that California’s so-called “Dream Act” to give free college tuition to illegal immigrants would cost three times more than initially expected I knew this past weekend took on a larger importance.

When I first heard that Assemblyman Tim Donnelly had filed the referendum to repeal the Dream Act I was thrilled and wanted to help out. I called the Assemblyman up and invited him out to… Read More

The following is a floor speech I delivered on December 1st 2011:

Mr. Speaker:

In the Sierra Foothills in northeastern California lies the little town of Colfax, population 1,800, with a median household income of about $35,000.

Over the past several years, this little town has been utterly plundered by regulatory and litigatory excesses that have pushed the town to the edge of bankruptcy and ravaged families already struggling to make ends meet.

Colfax operates a small wastewater treatment plant for its residents that discharges into the Smuthers Ravine. Because it does so, it operates within the provisions of the Clean Water Act, a measure adopted in 1972 and rooted in legitimate concerns to protect our vital water resources.

The problem is that predatory environmental law firms have discovered how to take unconscionable advantage of that law to reap windfall profits at the expense of working-class families like the townspeople of Colfax.

In the case of Colfax, an environmental law firm demanded every document pertaining to the water treatment plant from the date of its inception. It then poured over those documents… Read More

Recently an article by Conrad Black looking back on the Presidency of Richard Nixon appeared on the National Review Online website. Longtime FR friends Tom Fuentes and Bruce Herschensohn both were moved by the piece. Herschensohn, who worked as a staff member in the Nixon White House once upon a time, penned a brief introduction to the Black people, and encourages you to read it…

The trouble with history is that it is written by historians.

Some of them are fine but too many contemporary historians have opinions of their own and have tried to justify their own actions and inactions during the period of time covered by their books by condemnations of those… Read More