“Huh?”

That was my response when I saw that the California State Assembly, as an institution (read: Speaker John Perez), has refused to make available to the public the individual office budgets of members of the lower chamber.

Such hubris. Perhaps someone needs to remind the Speaker that the funds being spent by the legislature have been provided by California taxpayers, who should be able to understand exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.

I could understand withholding information if its release would, say, put someone in harms way (as might be the case with some funding to the Central Intelligence Agency). But this is the state legislature!

Apparently there is no legal requirement to provide the information (which was requested by the Sacramento Bee). The legislature managed to exempt its own records from the Public Records Act which is the law that requires that state and local agencies have to be transparent.

Nevertheless, even if there is no legal requirement to be forthcoming with the precise details about how the State Assembly spends every dime of its budget, there certainly is a moral one — it is the… Read More

I like to point out to people that elections have consequences. The bigger the office, the more consequences there are – and the election of Jerry Brown as Governor has already meant bad news for Californians, as he governs this state from the left. One of the Governor’s most significant powers is the authority to sign or veto legislation. Brown signing bad bills into law is not really surprising – for example, his signing of the so-dubbed “Dream Act” was something that he had promised to do on the campaign trail.

That having been said, in just the last few days, Governor Brown has used his veto powers to nuke several bills that I had assumed he would sign –terrible bills that (apparently) were so bad that Brown vetoed them – undoubtedly angering some liberal constituencies.

One such bill vetoed by the Governor was Senate Bill 168 by Senator Ellen Corbett. This bill, sent to his desk on a party line vote, would have made it illegal for petition circulators to be paid by the signature. The legislation was clearly intended to make it harder to qualify statewide ballot measures. In vetoing the bill, brown cited that the bill would favor… Read More

Editorial boards and newspaper columnists are quick to assign “greed” as the motive driving Amazon, eBay and others to oppose a new law aimed at making more out-of-state online retailers collect sales tax on behalf of the State of California. But the greediest actor in this drama isn’t Amazon —- it’s the government.

You see, online retailers didn’t pick this fight. State lawmakers did —- out of misguided lust for revenue they’ll never see.

Put aside the rhetoric and consider the facts. Under the U.S. Constitution, state lawmakers can’t compel out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax unless those retailers have a physical retail presence —- known as “nexus” —- in our state. Californians are supposed to pay use tax —- the equivalent of sales tax —- on out-of-state purchases, but few do.

It works the same way in reverse. California businesses making out-of-state sales in states where they have no brick-and-mortar retail presence don’t have to register with the tax bureaucracies in those states, collect and remit sales tax or be subject to audits. In five states where Amazon collects and remits sales tax, many California… Read More

The CRP Platform Drafting Committee drafted a platform to present to the entire platform committee thinks they have a solution for winning election.

Stand for nothing. Pretend we are Democrats and all will be well.

For at least two decades liberals in the party have wanted to water down parts of the platforms that deal with protecting innocent human life, the family and protecting the second amendment. Saturday they got their chance and adopted a platform that does that. The proposed platform deletes over 98% of all the language on those issues.

There is more said about “Defending Agriculture” then protecting marriage or the unborn.

There are some suggestions that were recommended by the committee that make this watered down platform slightly better. Think of it as the first stage of treating waste water. Would you still want to drink it?

Amendments to add in the current pro-life plank and current statement on marriage and the family only received two votes (Myself and Craig DeLuz). The committee ended debate to avoid an amendment to keep the current Right to Keep and Bear Arms Section.

In the debate about the marriage issue, it… Read More

Bring back the 2006 version of Barack Obama!

On 16 March, 2006 on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Obama made the following solid speech — a speech he would ridicule today:

Mr. [U.S. Senate] President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.

Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion…

Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops… Read More

As I have said before, I have changed my mind, after experience has taught me the lessons, on several issues. Term limits is one. I read Jon Fleischman’s column yesterday, and thought a response was necessary. Jon has been a great asset over the years to the conservative movement, and he makes his living from politics. That is a good thing, in my estimation, because we need people like him in doing that kind of work.

He makes the point that term limits is popular because “people don’t trust politicians.” Not trusting politicians is about as American as apple pie. We in this country have always had a healthy distrust of government and those who run it. That is a good thing as well. Government and power are corrupting influences, we should always view government, and the people in power, with a jaded eye. People are people, and if they are not held accountable, they will, in many cases, turn their power to their advantage. That doesn’t hurt in the private sector, because in the private sector people always have a choice, they can go somewhere else for the services or goods they desire. In government, the abuse of power is… Read More

The Citizens Redistricting Commission that resulted from the passage of Propositions 11 and 20 is close to completing their work. Yesterday they released a set of maps for Congress, State Senate, State Assembly and Board of Equalization that they are likely to vote in favor of putting out for official review later today.

To view the proposed maps please go to Meridian Pacific’s website at www.mpimaps.com FR friend Chandra Sharma has set up a wonderful website that allows all of us to see the districts, key cities, and past election outcomes.

The Commission is likely to spend a good portion of the today patting themselves on the back for a job well done. They certainly do deserve credit for spending as much time as they did on this project over the past eight months, and it does appear that their just is, well, just about done. However, the process was not a smooth one at all.

First, it is clear that some of the Commissioners focused on their own personal agendas. Why is it that San Joaquin County is whole in a Senate (SD 5) and Congressional District (SD 9)? That would be because Stockton was lucky enough to… Read More

You all know how the limbo dance works, right? The bar keeps going lower and lower until the eventual winner wins by passing under it at a heighth that no one else can. Contrary to the beliefs of many in the Republican Party, our position in this debt limit fight is mostly over how low we can set the bar for ourselves. Insiders look at the “Boehner” plan and see a great compromise. “At least they didn’t raise taxes” becomes our self congratulatory mantra. Instead, because I guess we’ve lost all ability to remember an election that happened less than a year ago, we’ve become so clueless we cannot even do basic math. The Boehner plan gives the Democrats 90% of what they want even as they protest that it’s somehow unfair.

So here’s the deal. Obama and the Democrats, when they had the entire government, raised the annual federal spending baseline over a trilion dollars. Over a ten year period, that is $10 trillion. What happened after that was the greatest mid term election defeat in modern history, a historic loss of House seats by the same Democrats responsible for the pillage. The Tea Party… Read More