I just about fell out of my chair about 10 minutes ago. This Governor signed SB 1441, a perfectly hideous bill, so out of the mainstream of social thought that one has to wonder what the calculation is, exactly. What is the political purpose? Are there minions of newly energized transvestites now going to push Arnold over the top in November? Probably not one tenth of the number of conservatives that will stay home in this election, in effect saying "to hell with it".

You can view a summary of the bill here, but I have to tell everyone bothering to read this, including the Governor’s fundraisers, to quit calling because I ain’t coming and I ain’t giving. I can understand triangulation, but this is the freaking gutter. Had you worked the minimum wage deal and this bill signing into the text of the Governor’s speech last… Read More

SB 1162 ended up passing 42-34, all Republicans voting no, plus 3 Dems along for the ride. Good veto bait for the Guv…wonder why they gave him that to tout this fall.… Read More

Once I was pulling into the parking lot of a state regulatory agency and I spotted a bumper sticker on a car that read: Visualize Industrial Collapse. I don’t know if the car belonged to an employee or to an activist-type who was visiting the agency, but the image made an impression on me in that it didn’t really matter whose sticker it was. What occurred to me was that the most extreme believers in any cause tend to have the tenacity to push harder than the rest of us, and over time that means they get results. Case in point, our infamous left wing, gerrymandered legislature and its beloved cause du jour, global warming.

Assembly Bill 32, currently being considered in the waning days of session in the State Senate (you can lookup and read the bill here), would establish caps on "greenhouse" emissions in the state. Yet if you read the legislature’s own analysis of the bill, they have no idea what the caps are going to be and what the economic impacts will be (maybe they don’t care). The bill would create a new, unaccountable state bureaucracy to… Read More

The Dems are caucusing right now, probably trying to grind out the last few votes for the ‘gutted-and amended’ drivers license for illegal immigrants, now known as SB 1162. It is ‘on call’ right now with 35 aye votes and 32 no. I reckon it might be a little warm in the members lounge right now [where the Dems caucus] I’m sure they are covering a multitude of things, maybe the LA mayor takeover of LAUSD. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosahas been around all day, he arrived in the garage same time as I, this AM. SB 1162 up until last Thursday, was a minimum wage increase bill, but ‘minor and technical amendments’made it the drivers license one now.

And an earlier highlight was Single Payer Health Care, SB 840, passing by 43-30. Look out all you Single people, you have to pay for everyone’s health care now!… Read More

The Governor signed AB 1441 minutes ago. SB 1441 extends so called anti-discrimination laws concerning sex, sexual orientation and one’s perceptions about their sexual oreintation to ANY entity that receives any amount of state funding.

Translation: Does your Christian school take any money for disabled kids? Does your Religious College takes students on Cal-Grants? Any relgious instituition that provides CALWORKS childcare or any service now must protect the jobs of any kind of sexual choice you can think of.

It should be noted THAT NOT ONE REPUBLICAN IN THE STATE SENATE OR ASSEMBLY VOTED FOR THE BILL. NOT ONE!!!! One Dem actually voted no.

And Phil would have signed the same bill. Thanks Governor for showing us the difference.… Read More

The campaign to change term limits for council members in Los Angeles is creating more opposition than they first thought. I’ve reported on the opposition of neighborhood councils to the change. Some are upset about changing term limits, some are upset about the linking to ethics reforms and others are just mad that no one asked them. See here.

More of these grassroot neighborhood council are signing on. Some voters are taking the proponents to court over their ballot statements. See here.Tomorrow you will read a newspaperarticle about the lawsuit challenging the measure over the single subject rule. Remember youread it on FR first.

A little money will stop the Measure (Measure R)in its track.… Read More

Referencing Nicholas Romero’s great post below, I am personally glad to know that my own assemblymember did not sign on to the Save Pluto bandrocket (same guy that refused to co-author a reso for Bob Dylan’s birthday a few years ago…yes, there is a connection, if you grasp at straws).

To be sure, those that did join this noble cause du-jour likely believe themselves to be "tradtional," in the sense that they grew up with planet Pluto in their science books, so what was good for them should be sacred for our kids. We’d hate for our children to be led astray by some "Anti-Pluto Agenda" in the schools, in which a lack of traditional planet values forces them into a life of universal unrest.

Or, on the other hand, if you read the Pluto reso, you may see that it is written with the same mockery of those who would be "psychologically" impacted or offended by having to drive by a latin cross everyday.

Yes, fortunately, it is the other hand….this is a joke, a nuanced jab at the Dems.

Be that as it may, if you really want to… Read More

I love space. I love stargazing. I love the planets. In the Indiana of my youth,the grade school district operated a planetarium and I grew up exposed to the wonders of the galaxy. I love stargazing so much my favorite destination in Hawaii is the cluster of Mauna Kea observatories, where onecan seemore stars than probably anywhere else on the planet. I lovespace so much that I’ve built up quite a collection of space films,including Tom Hanks’s wonderful HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Homer Hickam’s October Sky, IMAX’s Space Station, as well as many others. I was one… Read More