If you like the TV ads with thehucksters prodding you to "But wait there’s more, act now and we’ll send you double of our very valuable product", then you’ll love Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 8 of the 2007-2008 session, known in more normal English as ACA 8.

This is yet another Capitol Trojan Horse, this one to try to fool voters into voting for "protection" from eminent domain takingsfor, in the bill,an ever-narrowing group of property owners in California. Senator Battin eloquentlyopined on this earlier, see his post too.

Some background:

June 2005, the US Supreme Court hands down it’s Kelo vs. New London CT decision, allowing thateminent domain has morphed from what the Founders had intended for the narrow and reluctant use of EmDo only for true public works projects that must go through private land,a road, a dam, etc. to upholding the use of EmDo to take any land for the development of a higher property tax or use tax base than what had been generated on that land currently, conferring that land to another private… Read More

The upcoming Assembly vote on ACA 8 illustrates the gulf between Liberals and Conservatives on basic property rights issues. The constitutional amendment Democrats are touting that"fixes" the bone-headed Kelo decision the Supreme Court inflicted on our countrywould, in fact, confuse and furtherdilute property rights protection in California. Typical, just typical.

The Fourth Amendment says "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated…"

It is a peculiar impulse among the Left to apply state power selectively, rewarding some with the benefit of protection while denying it to others. ACA 8 reflects this by deciding some are more worthy of protection, while others are not by virtue of their size, success, or profession.

One of the favorite targets of property grabbers are churches. Last year the City of Long Beach declared a Baptist Church to be a blight so the city could condemn it, and seize it, so another, private, party could build condominiums. This was not an isolated incident, and it… Read More

Last night, Brandon Powers blogged on a resolution that has been submitted by FR friend and long-time GOP strategist and consultant Phil Paul to the State GOP. The gist of the resolution: the CRP should only hire citizens (the wording of it is that all employes must be, "legally registed to vote in California as members of the Republican Party"). I have known Phil for longer than I care to admit, and would serve in a foxhole with him any day. A more loyal friend you will not find. That said, as a member of the CRP, I would be voting against Phil’s resolution as it is currently written. Phil’s resolution is clearly in response to the fact that the former COO of the party was an Austrailian citizen, and that another member of the CRP staff is a citizen of Canada. America was built by immigrants — with the exception of those of native American Indian ancestry, everyone in this country is either an immigrant, or their parents, grandparents or ancesters were from another country. I believe strongly in… Read More

Last night, Brandon Powers blogged on a resolution that has been submitted by FR friend and long-time GOP strategist and consultant Phil Paul to the State GOP. The gist of the resolution: the CRP should only hire citizens (the wording of it is that all employes must be, "legally registed to vote in California as members of the Republican Party"). I have known Phil for longer than I care to admit, and would serve in a foxhole with him any day. A more loyal friend you will not find. That said, as a member of the CRP, I would be voting against Phil’s resolution as it is currently written. Phil’s resolution is clearly in response to the fact that the former COO of the party was an Austrailian citizen, and that another member of the CRP staff is a citizen of Canada. America was built by immigrants — with the exception of those of native American Indian ancestry, everyone in this country is either an immigrant, or their parents, grandparents or ancesters were from another country. I believe strongly in… Read More

Earlier today, former FlashReport blogger Phil Paule submitted the attached proposedbylaw change to the CRP offices in Sacramento.

The proposed change seeks to require that CRP employees be registered Republican voters, essentially requiring that they be citizens.

Clearly, it is in response to the recent situation involving the CRP’s now ex-COO.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out.… Read More

Read this, and then ponder why our Governor, who is a vastly wealthy man and has raised millions for his own group, can’t seem to help the state GOP with $4.6 million in debt it incurred on his behalf? See here.I guess Bloomberg keeps his promises.… Read More

Fellow FR correspondent Adam Probolsky seemed quite concerned when I told him I might post about our trip to the Big Newport theater to see… The Transformers. Now, to be honest, this flick wasn’t Adam’s or my idea – but that of our “host” Mike Schroeder (yes, the former State GOP Chairman) who went so far as to buy tickets on Fandango for the two of us, and for Steve Baric, President of the California Republican Lawyers Association.

I think Adam’s hesitancy is because he thought it wasn’t “cool” to be seeing the Transformers movie. But there must be more to the Transformers than meets the eye. We are in the theater with hundreds of others.

Adam seemed a little more comfortable when we ran into yet another FR contributor, Congressman John Campbell, here with his wife.

Schroeder topped that, though, by pointing out that Kobe Bryant is here, too!

Ohh, the movie’s starting now – time to stop blogging!… Read More

HANG IN THERE As the weather heats up, undoubtedly so will pressure on legislative Republicans to provide needed votes to approve the massive record-setting state budget. It is fair, and reasonable for legislators to throw out a simple line in the sand on budget spending — we will not vote for a budget that spends more money than last year. True, revenues may be up because we cannot get a tax cut through the Democrat-controlled legislature. Well, let’s use any increase in funds to go ahead and end the deficit spending. After that, we can use additional revenues to pay off state borrowing. While I know our state is burdened with Proposition 98 which arbitrarily requires that a portion of revenue increases must go to education, we should work hard to figure out how to move money around in a way that allows us to achieve the goal of spending the increase in state revenues to pay our bills. If Republicans can keep this ‘line in the sand’ then we can make sure that it is very clear that we are opposed to largesse and out-of-control spending. THEY’RE… Read More