Here are some thoughts that came to mind as I packed this morning for my vacation:
- If I were a poor or homeless person in San Francisco, perhaps now would be the time for me to be upset with the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. After all, the Board has helped to make The City a Mecca for those seeking to live on government assistance by their extraordinary efforts to redistribute wealth. Their latest? Now they have voted to set aside $2 million to fight the effects of the potential efforts to crack-down on the nation’s criminal alien problem. What kind of a welfare state do we live in when the homeless nationals of other countries soak up all of redistributed wealth?
- Last night at the OC GOP’s Annual Flag Day Dinner, commentator Dennis Prager pointed out that one of the problems that we have is that the left in America is unprepared to call the phenomenon of Islamo-fascism evil. Prager pointed out that earth has seen no evil such as this since Hitler’s Nazi-ism in the middle of the last century. Prager lamented that the Left is more focused on George W. Bush, preferring to think of HIM has evil. Thus showing the chasm of moral clarity between liberals and conservatives in America.
- As if the $37.2 billion dollar infrastructure borrowing package approval by the legislature and Governor for this November’s ballot didn’t provide enough opportunity to use our children’s money to pay for things we could easily afford out of the state’s $100++ annual budget, the Secretary of State has announced that yet another $5.4 billion ‘water’ bond’ (to go with a ‘housing’ bond, a ‘transportation’ bond, a ‘levee’ bond, and an ‘education’ bond) will appear on the November ballot.
- Perhaps the best news to foreshadow the vote on all of the bonds this November come in the results of the statewide vote on Proposition 81, a ‘library bond’ measure on the June ballot last week. Despite a turnout that heavily favored Democrats, the electorate rejected the bonds 47% to 53%. Perhaps the public will recognize that they already send more than enough money to the politicians in Sacramento every year to pay-as-you-go on infrastructure needs. Of course, every special interest in the world will be trying to convince Californians to place their children in debt to fund their pet projects buried in the ‘Big Bonds’ package.
- Yesterday California’s newest Member of Congress, Republican Brian Bilbray, took his oath of office, crediting his hard-line stance against illegal immigration as the reason he was elected. This website devoted a lot of time to criticizing Bilbray because of the dismal record he had established on so many liberty and freedom issues when he was previously in the House from 1995-2000. Our friends said he voted so poorly before because of the marginal district he represented back then. Well, guess we’ll find out. We’ll keep an eye on Bilbray, and see if he charts a new course this go-around. IF he doesn’t, he’ll be one more liberal Republican imperiling our majority by opposing spending cuts.
- Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis has had to go out and hire an expensive law firm to look out for his interests amid swirling allegations that he was ‘too cozy’ with a lobbying firm. The sobering part of Lewis’ having to retain counsel is that, as of yet, he has been accused of no wrong-doing. It is a reminder that the accused, or even potentially accused, have a heavy price to pay when in the crosshairs of the government. I have had several friends wrongly accused by prosecutors, who were ultimately vindicated. But that did nothing to help with their legal bills. In Lewis’ case, I’m sure that all of money that ‘magically’ lines the campaign accounts of "Appropriators" (ie…those who take your tax dollars and give them to someone else) – let alone the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee – will cover the substantial bills from Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.
- At the OC GOP Flag Day dinner, Governor Schwarzenegger stole the show by canning his prepared speech, and instead improvising, and talking about his love for the American Flag. Classic was his recounting of how worried his mom was, back when he lived at home in Austria. Apparently the young Schwarzenegger had his bedroom decorated with lots of men in body-building poses, as he aspired to be a great bodybuilder himself. He laughed because, of course, most of his other friends had pictures of girls on their walls. He did tell us that amidst the wall of scantily dressed men with big biceps was a framed American Flag, as Schwarzenegger aspired to come live in America from a young age. Fortunately the Schwarzenegger family physician assured mom that her son was okay, and that it was perfectly normal for a kid his age to have posters of his heroes and role-models on his walls! Given that he went on to become Mr. Universe AND move to America, Schwarzenegger did alright for himself, and undoubtedly made mom quite proud.