The CRA Held its convention over the weekend in Orange County. One of the few orders of business for the over 150 delegates was electing five Vice-Presidents.

CRA had 10 Vice-Presidents, five elected every year to two year terms.

The top vote getter was former Assemblyman and San Luis Obispo County Assessor Tom Bordonaro. Ken Mettler, a Trustee of the Kern High School District, closely followed him. Rounding out the field, the most qualified and competitive in my recent memory was Dr.Alexia Deligianni, an activist, author and YR Board Member from Orange County as well as current Vice-Presidents Pete Weber and Mike Zimmerman.… Read More

Robocalls: You may have signed up for the "Do Not Call list" as I have so you don’t get those annoying random sales calls at home. I was the lead co-sponsor of the California Do Not Call legislation when I was in the State Assembly (a copy of that bill signed by Governor Gray Davis is hanging on the wall in my office in DC). But now, here come those really annoying political "robocalls." These are recorded, automatically dialed calls to your house advocating one political position or candidate or another. They come at odd hours. They have the caller ID blocked so you don’t know who’s calling. They often say terrible things about a candidate without identifying who it is that is saying the terrible thing. I used them years ago when the technology was in its infancy. But now they have become so cheap that lots of abusers have entered the field.

So, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and I have introduced the Robocall Privacy Act to put some restrictions on this practice. This bill would impose significant sanctions on groups or individuals who: make political robocalls between the hours of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m.; make more… Read More

From the OC Register’s Total Buzz blogQuote of the day…

“I sleep with a Democrat every night. If I can do it, legislators can too. I’m not telling them to sleep together. That’s not what I’m saying, but…”… Read More

The Wall Street Journal has a brief piece on former Hewlett Packard honcho Carly Fiorina and the substantial role she has taken on in helping John McCain become the next President of the United States. There is also a piece on the San Francisco Chronicle’s Politics Blog about former E-Bay Chief Meg Whitman, who is also helping out McCain, and how she is looking at running for Governor of California. In fact, both Fiorina and Whitman have been talked about as potential GOP candidates in the future for office here in the Golden State.

Let me offer some advice to both of these ersatz California politicians – get out there and start to talk about what you believe, and why. Especially in the case of Whitman… Read More

The Wall Street Journal has a brief piece on former Hewlett Packard honcho Carly Fiorina and the substantial role she has taken on in helping John McCain become the next President of the United States. There is also a piece on the San Francisco Chronicle’s Politics Blog about former E-Bay Chief Meg Whitman, who is also helping out McCain, and how she is looking at running for Governor of California. In fact, both Fiorina and Whitman have been talked about as potential GOP candidates in the future for office here in the Golden State.

Let me offer some advice to both of these ersatz California politicians – get out there and start to talk about what you believe, and why. Especially in the case of Whitman… Read More

(If this post seems familiar, we’ve used the "Disneyland" analogy below before, as it is a favorite tactic of the left to throw out questions without putting them in realistic context and then use the answers to justify liberal policies…)

As FR contributor and public opinion pollster Adam Probolsky likes to say, a poll is only as good as what you ask, and to whom you ask it. So I was quite amused to see so much enthusiasm erupt from the liberal media and left-wing Democrats when the Field Poll released their latest survey. The source of their glee?

Their latest survey claims to show that Californians support more taxes and more government involvement in health care.

Here is the problem — the question is a "feel good" rosy one that describes the plan with out ANY mention of the negative consequences of the plan. For example, there is no mention that potentially tens of thousands… Read More

LOL – This new Mark Nuaimi video was e-mailed to me. It made me miss HBO’s The Supranos. I think the makers of it are poking at the fact that Nauimi, the Mayor of Fontana, boasts that with his strong-handed ways, he has made his city into an amazing place. These "You Tubers" founds some parts of Fontana that aren’t so swell… I’m going to see if I can use my Tivo to find an old episode now… I admit it that if myposts are inspiring others to make videos, I think it is cool! (Pretty soon I will need a Mark Nuaimi page — my first commentary on the "King of Fontana" is here, and here is my second. Also, the first YouTube video I received is here.) … Read More

I had dinner night before last with Alexandria Hildebrandt, the "Direcktor" and owner of the "Mauer Museum" a/k/a the Check Point Charlie Museum at the Check Point Charlie site in Berlin. The Mauer, or "Wall" museum is dedicated to keeping alive the stories of those who perished attempting to cross from tyranny to freedom during the Berlin Wall period. Over several floors of exhibits, one finds the actual devices people used to make their escape. Homemade airplanes. Homemade gas balloons. Secret compartments in the smallest of automobiles. Underwater getaway devices used in the Spree River, and so on. Frau Hildebrandt kindly provided a tour of the museum beforehand, and we had a long talk about freedom. I mentioned those three pillars of a free society: speech, religion, and property rights which were trampled in the East by Communism. But she added a fundamental element that hit me like a 2 by 4. Travel.

In the U.S., there is no "express right" to travel in the Constitution. But the right to travel is still a fundamental right in the U.S., as case law has determined that the right to travel is encompassed by a… Read More