California Democratic politician Jesse Unruh’s famous description of Sacramento lobbyists rings true even today: “If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and then vote against them, you have no business being up here.”

Unruh also said, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

Remembering these cynical thoughts, California Republicans have a few people to thank this Christmas for maintaining the Unruh status quo: Senators Leland Yee, Ron Calderon, Rod Wright, Ben Hueso, outgoing Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and incoming Senate President pro TemKevin De Leon.

The Senate scandals in 2013 and 2014 were legendary, as was the gross mishandling of the aftermath.You can’t make this stuff up.

Scandals remind people of the shady underpinnings of politics, and the temptations lurking around the Capitol that some lawmakers are just incapable of resisting.

The difference usually is, when it’s Republicans caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, they are shunned, and forced to leave in shame. Democrats, on the other hand, circle the wagons, pretending its business as… Read More

The solar energy rage is all over the media. Radio and television advertisements scream “No money down!” “Turn sunshine into savings.” “Make your electricity meter run backward!”

And the common theme of, “Everyone knows that solar power is better for the environment than fossil fuels,” is bandied about as if it is gospel.

With energy prices climbing rapidly, largely because of severe alternative energy mandates imposed by state and federal governments, consumers across the country are seeking ways to save on utility costs. In doing so, many are unwittingly becoming victims of consumer fraud.

While the consumer is looking for ways to save on energy bills, solar companies found that instead of trying to hard-sell the pricey rooftop solar systems outright, leases were a much more appealing option for the homeowner, with less out-of-pocket investment.… Read More

From Lima, Peru at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Sen. President pro Tem Kevin De Leon has had very busy Tweeting fingers.

“California is a world leader in actions to address climate change,” De Leon Tweeted.

“California and Québec sign agreement on Zero-Emission Vehicles!”

“At @UN_ClimateTalk in Lima, transforming the transportation sector is a big topic of discussion.”

“California is driving the development of a green economy,” said De… Read More

Staring at a gigantic German Shepherd poop on my bedroom rug last weekend, I reached for one of those single-use grocery bags outlawed by California, for the clean up.

Thankfully, I have a small stash of extra “single-use” plastic bags… but not for long.

After eight years of failed legislative attempts to ban plastic grocery bags, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill in September to ban and tax plastic and paper grocery bags,despite the fact that all types of plastic shopping bags can be reused and recycled into new bags. The new statewide plastic bag ban is scheduled to go into effect July 15, 2015.

Immediately after the bill signing, the American Progressive Bag… Read More

On Monday, Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, and more than 20 other Republican lawmakers announced the introduction of theAffordable Gas for California Families Act,legislation to exempt transportation fuels and natural gas from the California Air Resource Board’scap-and-trade program.

“We struck a nerve!” Patterson told me. Patterson said he was surprised at the media response, and how many in the media did not know the gas tax is starting Jan. 1 – next month.

Patterson is working on issues like… Read More

California, the state obsessed with being first at everything, is aiming to add another first to its record books — Not content to be the first state in the country to tax the air we breathe, California will be the first in the nation to impose a cap and trade tax on transportation fuels.

In response, Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, and Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, and more than 20 other Republican lawmakers, announced Monday, the introduction of theAffordable Gas for California Families Act,legislation to exempt transportation fuels and natural gas from the California Air Resource Board’scap-and-trade program.

The move afoot by the radical left to strip Americans of their cars under the guise of environmentalism, knows no bounds.

With the second highest gas taxes in the country, and a flailing cap and trade program, whose only trading partner is Quebec,California is already paying the price.

While the rest of the country is currently enjoying lower gas prices, Californians will be faced with a hefty new… Read More

However little the Republicans Party offered voters in the Nov. election, the Democrats offered far worse. Democrats showed once again they are more interested in ginning up discontent and unrest in America as long as this unrest puts Democrats in office. They care nothing for governing the country or for the health and welfare of its citizens.

They’ve proven they have no interest in healthy race relationships and instead work exactly opposite in order to gain and retain political offices.

“Most Americans are put off by the ‘us versus them’ tone of current political debates, and most prefer political leaders who ‘are… Read More

The feminists’ bogus “war on women” took a beating in the November elections. That’s why they’ve been so quietly lately.

The phony war on women narrative was only ever really a war on those who believe women should have to pay for their own birth control, and those who are opposed to abortion. But the war was ginned-up with thenon-existent pay gap,and thephony campus rape crisis.

The beat-down is largely because feminism does not live up to its definition. And it does not represent most women.

Today’s feminism is victimization; it encourages blaming other people for mistakes, bad choices, and failures. The problem today is that feminists now push public policy.

Last week a feminist professor said that America should stop putting all women in jail, for any crime.

Campus Reform reported, “Patricia O’Brien, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois’s Jane Addam’s College of Social Work, contends that the majority of women in prison are merely non-violent, poorly educated, unemployed, and abused, according to her op-ed in… Read More