It’s been one year since the Supreme Court’s infamous Kelo decision, and it looks to be about one week until we have certification of the million signatures submitted in California to qualify our own November “court hearing” on the matter.

The signatures are coming in at about 79% valid, according to Assemblywoman Mimi Walters’ office, signaling a nice cushion over the nearly 600,000 needed for qualification.

Walters, of course, as a first-term Orange County legislator, had the smarts to become the honorary chair of the Protect Our Homes Initiative, California’s response to the Supreme’s astounding decision to tell all of us that government knows better than we what is best for our property. Heading up an effort, by the way, that raises $2.2 million and garners a million signers in 100 days will do something for a career, more so than the stature a few pieces of legislation will… Read More

Lots happened in DC this week. Here is a summary of some of the big things: Death Tax: Yesterday, the House voted to permanently reduce the death tax. The vote was 269-156. I, like a majority of the House, would prefer to permanently eliminate the death tax. But for 4 years straight, the Senate has not been able to assemble the requisite 60 votes to do this. (by a 57-43 vote, Senators voted for permanent repeal this year, but that is not enough under the Senate’s strange rules) So, we need to do something that will garner 60 votes in the Senate. Hopefully, this is it. The bill we passed will raise the exemption from death taxes to $5 million per person, and lower the rate of tax to the capital gains rate of 15% above that. Estates larger than $25 million per person will pay a tax of twice the capital gains rate on the amount greater than $25 million. This exemption is high enough, and the rate low enough, to get the death tax out of the way for 99.7% of Americans so they can make decisions based on what is best for their families and not what is worst for the tax man. I spoke on the floor in favor of … Read More

If the work product of the legislature really irks me all the way down here in Orange County, I can only imagine how the Governor feels.

One piece of legislation that is 1) totally unnecessary and 2) bad for America, is AB1778 Lieber (D). The law would make it extremely difficult for military recruiters to identify interested high school graduating seniors.

The law gets way more specific than the heavy hand of government ought to. It creates a new box on the emergency contact card all parents fill out at the time they enroll their kids in a school. The new box could be checked by parents who do not want the information shared with the military.

Opponents of the legislation might argue that especially in this time of tumult–the War on Terror we should not limit recruiters in this way. That is a good point.

Republican Senator Abel Maldonado was the only GOPer to support the bill, he voted for it in the Senate Education Committee. His office says he supports all efforts to give parents more control over the affairs of their children and cites other legislation that he supports such laws that require parental notification. That is a not… Read More

If the work product of the legislature really irks me all the way down here in Orange County, I can only imagine how the Governor feels.

One piece of legislation that is 1) totally unnecessary and 2) bad for America, is AB1778 Lieber (D). The law would make it extremely difficult for military recruiters to identify interested high school graduating seniors.

The law gets way more specific than the heavy hand of government ought to. It creates a new box on the emergency contact card all parents fill out at the time they enroll their kids in a school. The new box could be checked by parents who do not want the information shared with the military.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

Since the House passed our version of the immigration reform bill in December, our position has been to pass a bill that focuses on border security first. Today, as part of our efforts to communicate this position and ensure we don’t end up with a bill like the Kennedy-McCain bill that passed the Senate, the Republican Conference unveiled five principles that reflect our position. Our goal is to send a bill to the president that reflects these principles:

•Republicans strongly support initiatives to secure our borders and provide additional resources to federal and state authorities to strengthen border patrol efforts. •Republicans strongly support strengthening enforcement and stiffening penalties for illegal immigrants who break our immigration laws. •Republicans support enforcing the law on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and holding them accountable.

Looks like the newly elected auditor is doing a house cleaning after a bitter elction campaign that saw the three term incumbent defeated. As a former employee of the auditor’s office I’m sure she knew was with and against her. Hell hath no fury….. See article with other Long Beach tidbits here.See original post on this race here.… Read More

I saw on the OC Register’s Total Buzz political blog that Phil Angelides has a MySpace.com page.

Actually, it’s an unofficial page, according to the Angelides campaign — which is good thing considering who some of the 1,876 "friends" of the Angelides for Governor MySpace page are.

For example, there’s Nam, The Harlot, Devilishly Conceited, Lu Cifer — just for starters.

An interesting coalition you’re building there, Phil.… Read More

Here’s something a little different…as we countdown to the ‘next’ budget deadline.

Since I was a kid I’ve been a big fan of racing andsports cars and of driving them. Stock Car racing has been my favorite. The roots going back to these guys in the South ‘runnin shine’ has grown into the biggestone day event in sports wherever it’s held. Its fan base is huge across the country and the loyalty is fierce, just witness the #3 and #8 stickers amongthe many "W" stickersyou see on the backs of cars, pickups and trucks as you travel the highways. The loyalty to the sponsor products is very high as well. Coke drinkers don’t drinkPepsi, Pepsi drinkers don’t drinkCoke. Even men will buy Tide detergent fortheir home use if they like that driver they sponsor.

If you’re around the Capitol on Thursday, tomorrow, we have a NASCAR Festival lined up for the general public. This is to highlight stock car racing in California… Read More