"I have been against the fence, I thought it’s a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "These are communities where you have a border going through them, they are not communities where you have a fence splitting them."

I beg to disagree, Nancy. Having lived on or near the border for years I would hardly consider San Diego and Tijuana a single community.… Read More

What could possibly be more egregious than a government entity using taxpayer dollars to lobby to increase taxes on those taxpayers? It happens. FR friend Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, tells the story in today’s commentary:

Our Tax Dollars Turned Against Us by Jon Coupal, President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association When the Legislature is in session, the Capitol is awash with millions of dollars worth of lobbying talent. You have never seen so many suits per square yard in your life. In Sacramento, nothing of importance happens without the involvement of lobbyists. These denizens of the… Read More

What could possibly be more egregious than a government entity using taxpayer dollars to lobby to increase taxes on those taxpayers? It happens. FR friend Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, tells the story in today’s commentary:

Our Tax Dollars Turned Against Us by Jon Coupal, President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

When the Legislature is in session, the Capitol is awash with millions of dollars worth of lobbying talent. You have never seen so many suits per square yard in your life.

In Sacramento, nothing of importance happens without the involvement of lobbyists. These denizens of the Sacramento political scene are involved in the legislative process from beginning to end. They draft legislation, find sponsors and co-authors, visit legislators and staff, build coalitions and generally… Read More

We received this commentary from Assemblywoman Audra Strickland…

A State Bureaucrat’s License to Lie“Truth in Government” measure on Governor’s desk would penalize Department Heads up to $20,000 for knowingly lying Today, State bureaucrats are not required to tell the truth to the public – unless they are giving testimony under oath in a legislative committee hearing or in a court of law. This is amazing since one of the most common type of legislation that we see in the Capitol are measure requiring state department to study an issue and report back to the Legislature on their findings.

The Governor has on his desk a “truth in government” bill that would change that if he signs it into law.

I, along with… Read More

Do you still have your tax return from 1998? How about your calendar? I don’t.

Well, Congressman John Doolittle and his staff have been hit by federal investigators with subpeonas with requests for documents going back eleven years…… Read More

A lot of folks know that I live a few blocks from the border between my own 18th AD and the 15th, and I’m frequently asked/pestered about why I’m not blogging on the race…so I’m coming clean.

I’m bored out of my mind.

I see all the press releases for the candidates, and they all basically fall into three categories: * I’m having a fundraiser * Here’s my latest bank statement * Here’s a list of my friends who say nice things about me

That’s the typical stuff that interests the lobbyists and Sacramento folks, but the community can’t even work up a full-fledged yawn over this.

Candidates, you are following a very tough act. Assemblyman Houston gained strong support each election cycle, despite his GOP registration numbers falling off the map. Yes, he had fundraisers, demonstrated a healthy bank account, and had a long list of endorsements. But to the community, his outreach was about community issues.

Folks, you’re running in a district that could go to either party. If you want to be the break out candidate, start sending out press releases that talk about what voters care about. Keep raising money, and all… Read More

Xavier Alvarez, a member of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District has been charged with…publicly saying he was a Medal of Honor Winner when he wasn’t even in the military. Oops. See Xavier, most Medal of Honor winners don’t get it while alive.See story here. Not to compare the two, but it should be a crime to run for office as a "conservative" and then vote for big bloated budgets and earmarks. But, that would cause another prison crises.

By the way Alvarez is a Democrat.… Read More

Imagine a place where bank robbery is not a crime. Where people can walk up to teller windows and take money to spend on any outrageous, egregious thing that they want, and no one stops them. That’s the problem that we have with egregious pork barrel spending on Capitol Hill. To make matters worse, the only people that can make this form of robbery a crime, are the same people who are robbing the bank! Well, then imagine that the public, who are the depositors at the bank, are becoming more and more outraged that their savings are being withdrawn "at gunpoint" to be spent on billions of pork-barrel projects. So, these robbers, who happen to be the Board of Directors of the bank, have to do something to try to mollify the concerns of their depositors. So what do they do? You would think that they would simply STOP robbing the people’s bank, and put an end to this terrible self-defeating practice? No. Instead, they have engaged in a sidebar discussion that is not about whether we ban… Read More