Last night, the Bay Area Chapter of CWLA (California Women’s Leadership Association) hosted Assembly Leader Mike Villines at their annual meeting in the posh Banker’s Club of San Francisco. As the sun set over the Bay, audience members were treated to a panoramic view of the most gorgeous city in the world (no bias on my part), and the Leader’s speech entitled “Straight Talk from the Capitol.” Last year, Assemblyman Villines authored the workplace flexibility bill, which would give non-union workers the same right to a four day, ten hour day work week that union members can currently negotiate. Several CWLA members, including yours truly, testified in committee alongside Cal Chamber, but not surprisingly, the Democratic legislators whose bread and butter comes from unions did not allow the bill onto the floor.

This was the Leader’s first Bay Area appearance, and from start to finish, he had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. Just before he came onstage, the annual officer election took place for… Read More

Inanother suspense filledvote, SB 113-Calderon, passes off our floor tonight on a straight party line vote, 46-29, Dems aye, Reeps no. This of course was the bill that moves up the Presidential primary in California to February, 2008…and becomes the vehicle for the term limit extension initiative to be "in time" for those who would be termed out in 2008. The cost to California counties and, ultimately taxpayers, could range as high as $88 million according to county representatives I spoke with. All for a shot at term limit extensions that have virtually no chance with fed-up voters. This without the promised redistricting reform as even a measure of balance. The Governor has indicated early on he would sign this if there was a bi-partisan effort at redistricting reform. There has not been a good faith effort at that by the majority Dems.The bill will soon be on his desk,he has 30 days to sign or veto it. Ihope heuses his leverage to extract true reforms in redistricting now that, if he chooses to sign it, we willget stuck with this multi-million dollar bill.… Read More

I would imagine that Generals fighting wars have to occasionally ‘step back’ from the individual battles they are fighting, to check on the overall progress of the total campaign against the enemy. Of course, for fiscal conservatives, the ‘enemy’ is growth in size and scope of spending of government at every level — or put another way, the goal of the war is to preserve, and in fact ‘win back’ freedom and liberty for the people. When California voters stepped up in 2003 to ceremoniously recall now-disgraced Governor Gray Davis, that effort was led by a strong coalition of people that felt that Davis and his administration were failing the people — the taxpayers. An important part of that effort were fiscal conservatives, such as myself, who were concerned that our State Budget had climbed to a record $78 billion. We were outraged that the annual growth of state spending was at an alarming 7%, and that Californian’s were saddled with a state deficit that was $6.6 billion dollars. As Tom McClintock points out in our "Golden Pen" column today, debt-service costs when Gray Davis was Governor… Read More

With local elections taking place tomorrow throughout LA County, there of course inevitablyhad to be some coverage of campaigntickery taking place.

This though is one of the more juicy campaign stories I’ve seen in a while.… Read More

In a bold move, State Senator Tom Harman has submitted legislation that would, "expand the distribution schedule described above for the additional 5% of amount wagered on satellite races received to each racing association by deleting the reference to harness racing association."

Don’t understand what the bill does? That’s OK, you are not alone…but apparently its urgently needed because Harman is hoping it gets the required 2/3 vote to take affect immediately.

This bill is a classic example of over regulation by state government. It may be the role of government to make sure the time clock is accurate at the track or that minors are not betting and drinking there. But it certainly is not the role of government to decide how the north and south zone racing associations divide their respective winnings.

And why is it important that government legislate: "…not less than eight races on the days when the association of fair is licensed to conduct racing, expect that fewer than eight live races per day may be conducted by mutual agreement of the association of fair and the organization that is responsible for… Read More

From www.insidehighered.com:

Ward Connerly, who led the successful ballot measure campaign in November to bar the use of racial preferences in Michigan, offered a few more hints in a speech Friday about which states would be next on his list of targets. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, Connerly said that his American Civil Rights Initiative would sponsor ballot initiatives in five states on election day in 2008, and that the states would be chosen by April from among a current list of nine: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nevada, South Dakota, Nebraska,… Read More

If you are not reading the California Majority Report, you are not fully informed about the insanity of the left. Last week, I commented on Al Gore, and global warming, which generated a respone on the left wing blog, the California Majority Report.You should take a look at the response to my global warming comment on that blog. If you read my comment, you will see that I was making fun of the good former Vice President, and the current debate on global warming. I find it is always easier to make a point with humor than with ranting. Historical accuracy on the details was not my goal.

I will say that I took some literary license to make the points in my article. But my point was simple, science is not a moral imperative, and when politicians try to make science a moral imperative, scientists take their life into their own hands. When Al Gore, the quintessential politician, the… Read More

From today’s SF Chronicle:

A majority of Bay Area residents believe government should guarantee health coverage for all citizens, but not through a state-run system, according to a survey scheduled for release today.

Eighty-three percent of 600 area residents polled in the nine-county region supported guaranteed coverage, according to the Bay Area Council, the business-backed policy group that commissioned the survey. The percentage dipped to 79 percent when respondents were asked if such coverage should include people living in California illegally.

When asked how the health system should be reformed, 47 percent said the existing health insurance system should be maintained and additional costs to cover the uninsured should be shared among employers, government and individuals. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a program along those lines.

Thirty-four percent said they… Read More