I spent last night on the web, doing some research for a forthcoming column on how the left abuses the California Environmental Quality Act to promote an ardent anti-progress agenda. After an hour of browsing the web, I discovered a reason to feel very bad for Mary Kimball, Jeb Burton, Leroy Bertolero, Jeff Merwin, Don Winters, Richard Reed, and Keith Williams. Who are these seven people, you might ask? Why do I feel bad for them? I will tell you now that it really has nothing directly to do with CEQA, but with the fact that they are all victims of a CEQA abuser.

Let me back up just a little bit, and say that in reading about CEQA, I came upon this column from FR friend Lew Uhler of the National Tax Limitation Committee in the Sacramento Business Journal. In it, Lew specifically references a situation over in Yolo County of which I have been aware, but haven’t written about before. A reputable company, Clark Pacific, is trying to build a cement plant in Woodland on the site of a former sugar plant. The plan got all of its requisite approvals from local government,… Read More

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with their own money.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859)

Three Liners: OK, so ‘one-liner’ is the term we all know and are accustomed to hearing, well I can’t tell you much in one line, but here’s a group of three-liners on various subjects which may give you some information you didn’t know:

House Cafeteria: Prices in the government-run cafeterias in the basement of the House Office Buildings have gone up recently, at the alarming rate of 31% between 2007 and the end of 2008. According to House Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard, who oversees the House cafeterias; since Democrats took control of the House they have instituted requirements for organically grown food and required all workers to be union members in order to serve or cook in the cafeterias, and these steps have in turn caused the price increase. But, House staffers do not like paying for all this, so your tax dollars are being considered to subsidize this too!

Cuts: The… Read More

Today Assembly Republican Leader-Elect Sam Blakeslee will name four of his colleagues to a transition team — Nathan Fletcher, Jean Fuller, Martin Garrick and Jeff Miller. These folks will help Blakeslee figure out what changes should take place as the leadership passed from Mike Villines, who infamously resigned his post last week (effective June 1) amidst growing criticism of his orchestration of and vote for massive tax increases.… Read More

It may seem counter intuitive for me to be asking this question of Legislative Republicans, as opposed to the liberal Democrats that make up the majority of state legislators – but here it is – are you ready to make serious and deep cuts in state government spending?

I ask this question because as we can all see from the very serious funding shortfall that exists with the adopted budget, upwards of over $20 billion, there is a severe problem, and I think that it is fair to anticipate that California voters are going to reject not only new taxes, but also the various schemes on the ballot to throw more revenues at this problem. The message from the public will be clear – reduce state spending to available revenue.

I direct this commentary to Republicans because it is widely anticipated that the Governor will present a May Revision of the existing budget that includes some very tough spending cuts that will have a huge, material impact on the role and function of California government.

Republicans need to be ready to move beyond the talk, and embrace the cuts, and stand with the Governor when he is doing the right thing.

No one is saying… Read More

I’m watching "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, and they are talking about the ACLU’s insistence that photos of alleged torture of terrorists be made available to the public. The reps from the ACLU seem so sure that these photos will shock the conscience of the American public, and damn the Bush administration. But here’s what befuddles me…photos and videos and nurses’ testimonies about what happens to babies in abortion clinics has been out there for years, but that didn’t shock the conscience of the American public enough to overturn Roe v. Wade. The ACLU is counting on the same activists who will fight to the death to defend the horror of what happens in abortion clinics to be the same activists who will fight roughing up terrorists. I’m not sure you can have a bleeding heart for terrorists if you don’t have one for innocent babies. If photos are released of what happens to terrorists, then I would like to juxtapose those photos to ones from abortion procedures, and ask the ACLU to be consistent in their human rights campaigns. Perhaps California activists could write or call their local ACLU offices and ask for that.… Read More

Publisher’s Note: Both of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination for Governor next year are in the process of putting together their campaign structure to carry them through to the primary, and each campaign would tell you, through the general election. Today we are putting the spotlight on Jillian Hasner, who was recently hired as campaign operations manager by Meg Whitman’s campaign. FR readers should understand that a campaign manager is typically not a campaign “strategist” or a consultant (which is not to say that a CM wouldn’t have a seat at the campaign strategy table). This position is usually the senior staff spot on a campaign, and typically it falls to this person to ensure that all of the aspects of a campaign are being executed upon and are moving forward. Needless to say, this role with a Gubernatorial level campaign is quite complex and time consuming, and requires a top notch operative… Flash… Read More

Publisher’s Note: Both of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination for Governor next year are in the process of putting together their campaign structure to carry them through to the primary, and each campaign would tell you, through the general election. Today we are putting the spotlight on Jillian Hasner, who was recently hired as campaign operations manager by Meg Whitman’s campaign.

FR readers should understand that a campaign manager is typically not a campaign “strategist” or a consultant (which is not to say that a CM wouldn’t have a seat at the campaign strategy table). This position is usually the senior staff spot on a campaign, and typically it falls to this person to ensure that all of the aspects of a campaign are being executed upon and are moving forward. Needless to say, this role with a Gubernatorial level campaign is quite complex and time consuming, and requires a top notch operative… Flash

While the Whitman for Governor campaign has brought a Florida politico out to California, former Florida Statehouse Speaker Marco Rubio has brought a California politico to Florida, snatched from the Poizner campaign. Former Poizner political director Brian Seitchik has left the Golden State for the Sunshine State. Rubio and his new hire, Seitchik, will have a big hurdle to clear the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Mel Martinez — this morning Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced that he is running for that seat as well. Rubio will be the conservative, and Crist the moderate, in that GOP match up.… Read More