Who are these three? An order to release 25% of felons from state prisons is one of the most mind boggling judicial orders ever issued in US history. The idea is so bizarre, strange and breathtaking we need to have a look into the background of each of the judges. Are they mere cranks or serious social policy reformers?

Here’s the first clue. All were appointed by Jimmy Carter. What are the odds? If you were forced to choose who among the three is the most exotic you would have endless shouting matches. Let’s begin with Stephen Reinhardt. … Read More

With yesterday’s news that three federal judges have decided 44,000 California state inmates ought to be released, now is a good time to take a look at the facts about our state prison in this paper, "Who Is In Our State Prisons?" I’ve said it before and I will say it again: the folks at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation desperately need to focus on the rehabilitation part if we are to quit the foolish practice of sending parolees back to prison on infractions. But California does not have the crowding and health care problems that some liberals would have you believe. As a matter of fact, when it comes to prison populations, California is about in the middle when compared to other states, according to the Pew Institute — a Left leaning think tank, as you will read in my paper.… Read More

Socialized Medicine: The final committee mark-up in the House for the socialized medicine bill finished late Friday evening with the bill passing by a vote of 31-28. Five of the "Blue Dog" Democrats (Gordon, Hill, Harman, Ross, and Space) who had previously opposed the bill, voted in favor of it, with the announcement of some minor modifications. Three other "Blue Dogs" (Matheson, Barrow, Melancon) voted ‘No.’ In essence, the bill is the same as it was before. What’s interesting here is that Committee Chairman Henry Waxman called for the vote on the bill when there were still 52 amendments pending that had neither been debated nor voted upon. The Chairman provided a vague promise that those amendments would be heard in September.

So why take a vote on a bill that supposedly isn’t done yet? This is pure speculation on my part, but I suspect that those who are pushing this mess (including the President and the Speaker) want to show momentum before the August recess. That’s to be expected, but the Republicans in Congress and the majority of Americans, who oppose this increase in taxes, costs, deficit, debt,… Read More

Federal judges have just told the state of California to release 43,000 prisoners due to prison overcrowding. Lets leave aside, for the moment, that the Democrats in the Legislature have caused this overcrowding because they have not allowed the construction of any new prisons in over 15 years (the Democrats have been waiting for this order for that entire time, since they dont think that criminals should be in prison). That is the real cause of this overcrowding. But this is a time to make lemonade out of this federally imposed lemon.

For years, the federal judiciary has been pushing itself more and more into the operations of state government. Tossing out the 1994 initiative prohibiting payment of welfare to illegals (and thus resulting in California having the largest welfare roles in thenation), telling how to spend our money, forcing us to provide better medical care to prisoners than most law abiding citizens receive, dictating spending, welfare and medical policies because some left wing interest group doesnt like the policy choices the state has made. The courts have turned the principle of federalism on its ear, intruding more and more into state… Read More

A recent email from Friends of the Earth caught my eye because of its involvement with interenational trade in Southern California and proposed regulations form So Cal’s air quality regulatory agency.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently held public workshop sessions to explore the concept of a vessel speed limit as a means to address air quality and emissions from ships transiting Southern California waters to and from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. You’d join me in being surprised to learn that the "Air Resources Board" might implement its mission through vessel speed limits in offshore and near shore waters.

And, you may also have heard that reducing vessel speed limits could help "save the whales."

Not long ago, a cruise ship impaled a fin whale in Pacific Northwest waters en route to the Port of Vancouver. The ship’s bulbous bow struck the whale in the soft underbelly and carried the animal on its hull into port, where the incident was discovered. It’s not… Read More

Congratulations to David Harmer, who as one of the Republicans running in the special election in Congressional District 10 in the East Bay Area, is now the officially endorsed candidate of the California Republican Party. In special elections, the State GOP's bylaws permit a pre-primary endorsement.

Harmer is an impressive candidate, a successful attorney with a strong resume of conservative involvement. His dad is former California Lt. Governor John Harmer, a great guy.

It's very likely that if I lived in CD 10, I would vote for Harmer in the September primary. That primary, on both sides of the aisle, is loaded up with a vast number of candidates. While technically anyone getting more than half of the vote in that primary, under the rules governing special elections, would win the election outright, there is more chance of President Obama passing an income tax cut for wealth Americans than anyone winning this race in September.

It's because of the fact that this race will be decided well after the primary that I voted against a pre-primary endorsement for Harmer as an elected party officer I believe the bar must be set… Read More

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that a panel of three federal judges ruled today that California must release 44,000 prison inmates in the next two years. According to the Bee’s Kevin Yamamura, 44,000 inmates amount to more than 1/4 of the state’s entire prison population.

Apparently California’s crowded prisons are violating the "rights" of the incarcerated. In their opinion the judges ruled, "…(T)he rights of California’s prisoners have repeatedly been ignored. Where the political process has utterly failed to protect the constitutional rights of a minority, the courts can, and must, vindicate those rights." These three judges have placed the “rights” of the imprisoned above the rights of law-abiding citizens. How long before one of these prisoners commits another crime? Can we expect lawsuits from future victims of these early-release prisoners?

Obviously, with the state in such a dire financial condition, building new prisons won’t be a priority for the legislature—especially when “vital services” like welfare can’t be cut. This should… Read More

California pork highlighted in this WSJ Political Diary Post from Steve Moore…

What Are They Shoveling?

The Obama administration is defending its slow pay out of stimulus money by insisting that the agencies are making sure the money is going for useful and efficient projects. Only about 8% of the money has been spent so far, even as unemployment has climbed every month. Auditing these stimulus projects to root out waste and pork is a worthy objective, since no one wants $800 billion in earmark projects for bridges to nowhere.

But the administration has recently started posting the projects that are funded on its website… Read More