Californians are playing the hand the smelt delt-ya, or more accurately put, living with the economic consequences of draconian environmental legislation. That’s what the Wall Street Journal writes in its lead editorial today, minus the bad pun from your humble correspondent.

I’ll come back to the Journal’s editorial page below, but first some California highlights from the DC beltway press.

Politico reports on the Garamendi-Harmer House seat race, here. The Hill reports on it, here. The paper/site also reports on Gov. Romney’s plans for the fall, here. And true to form, Wonkette marks the one-year anniversary of the McCain/Palin announcement, here.

Back to business. Another great little item caught my eye on… Read More

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article of interest in the Business section of the Los Angeles Times, which caught my eye because of its title: Telecom Companies Reject Stimulus Money.

The headline piqued my interest because, after all, isn’t in en vogue these days to take big handouts from Uncle Sam for your big business? Didn’t Congress pass, at the President’s request, a massive “stimulus” bill to move money into the economy by investing it into, among other things, infrastructure growth?

We’re seen banks take billions, as well as the auto industry – just to point out two obvious recipients of President Obama’s largesse.

So why would big telecom giants like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon (all huge players nationally, but especially here in California) be rejecting what is, in essence, free money?

As the article says, “The Obama administration made it a national priority to spread high-speed Internet access to every American home and it offered stimulus… Read More

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article of interest in the Business section of the Los Angeles Times, which caught my eye because of its title: Telecom Companies Reject Stimulus Money.

The headline piqued my interest because, after all, isn’t in en vogue these days to take big handouts from Uncle Sam for your big business? Didn’t Congress pass, at the President’s request, a massive “stimulus” bill to move money into the economy by investing it into, among other things, infrastructure growth?

We’re seen banks take billions, as well as the auto industry – just to point out two obvious recipients of President Obama’s largesse.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

I am not quite sure how to react to the information, given to me by Aaron McLear (the Governor's Press Secretary) that his boss flat out opposes taxing grocery bags — but that he would support a complete ban on plastic shopping bags.

I guess I am half-pleased and half-not. That the Governor is maintaining his anti-tax stance is awesome.

But… Banning plastic bags? That seems to me to be a big over-reach by state government. There is no doubt that limiting the selection of available options to stores for choice of bag options will end up being costly for consumers.… Read More

Yesterday a furor erupted over a pretty extensive blog post by former MSM reporter turned blogger Greg Lucas, on his California’s Capitol site entitled, Schwarzenegger Administration Floats 25-cent Fee on Single-Use Plastic and Paper Bags. Lucas is viewed as being a pretty credible writer on the goings-on of California politics.

Well, if there was a trial balloon being floated, consider it popped. We just got off of the phone with the Gov’s peeps — who confirm that the Governor has not, does not, and will not sign into law a tax on plastic grocery bags.… Read More

Most politicos don’t usually socialize with terror apologists. Generally, theyare cautious to a fault. Which is whya politicalevent today in Sacramento raisesserious questions of what were they thinking. The extremist group CAIR (Committee for American-Islamic Relations)recently issued a press releaseannouncing its6th Annual Ramadan Iftar inside the Capitol Rotunda (see the release with a full list of legislative co-hosts attached to the bottom of this post).… Read More

Most politicos don’t usually socialize with terror apologists. Generally, theyare cautious to a fault. Which is whya politicalevent today in Sacramento raisesserious questions of what were they thinking. The extremist group CAIR (Committee for American-Islamic Relations)recently issued a press releaseannouncing its6th Annual Ramadan Iftar inside the Capitol Rotunda (see the release with a full list of legislative co-hosts attached to the bottom of this post).… Read More

Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Northern California radio jocks Armstrong & Getty. The topic: California’s prison issues – specifically, the early release of 27,000 prisoners.

The conversation went well and we even took calls from listeners. My favorite call was from the wife of an incarcerated 62-year-old man who is serving 22 months for trademark infringement. The caller was not specific about her husband’s crime, but she was livid that he was serving time arguing that he is no threat to society at his age.

Joe Getty pointed out that he was a threat to society a year ago when he was 61 years old and broke the law, so therefore why wouldn’t he be a threat now, or next year?

Here’s another point: He is in prison because he did something bad and deserves to face the consequences. Furthermore, the company, the employees and the investors he violated deserve justice. We have to remember that crimes have consequences. That’s how our justice system works.… Read More