A few random thoughts for your Tuesday amusement…

One has to wonder when observing the "Christopher Columbus Myth Free Zone" signs when entering Berkeley if there are any normal people left in that city, which has become a petri dish of left-wing experimentation. Tonight the City Council will consider a resolution that more or less heaps exalted status on Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is suspected of providing WikiLeaks with over a quarter-million confidential military documents, a new city policy concerning radioactivity from cell phones, and receive a staff report letting them know that their decision to create two "parking meter holidays" in December will cost the city $52,000 bucks. All in a nights work in whacky-town. This week State Senator Mark Leno, who hails from San Francisco, introduced legislation that would require that public school classroom textbooks be re-written with historical details about the gay movement, and to highlight GLBT people who have played a significant role in our country’s history. GLBT stands for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual. According to … Read More

There are two recounts in progress in OC.

One was initiated by a Fullerton planning commissioner Doug Chaffee, a Democrat who was down 90 votes in the certified results. After today, he is now down 91 votes. Maybe he’ll give tomorrow a try again, but with loosing a vote, I can’t imagine he’d want to keep paying to loose ground.

The other recount was started by Constantine “Dean” Zarkos, appointed Los Alamitos Councilmember who is down 20 votes. Not much to report there. I wish Zarkos had won. But it is very hard to make big swings in votes on recounts – especially in such a well run shop as OC Registrar Neal Kelley runs.

Political attorney Steve Baric is working for both McKinley, who is ahead of Chaffee in Fullerton and for Zarkos. Also on hand today at the Registrar were McKinley consultant Dave Ellis and GOP staffer George Andrews.… Read More

This just in from Mark Standriff, Communications Director over at the California Republican Party…

(Alternative working title: There’s nothing very funny about THIS Leno) During last summer’s budget debate on the state Senate floor, it was particularly disturbing to hear Senate Budget Chairwoman Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego) attempt to equate tax cuts with spending increases. I suppose from a balancing-the-books-on-a-squeaky-unicycle point of view, it makes some sense to look at tax cuts and government spending increases in the same light. Setting aside the fact that tax cuts actually spur economic growth while spending increases only increase spending, each makes it difficult to immediately balance a complex budget. That’s the problem with confusing the never was with the already has. But our lawmakers are supposed to be fiscally savvy. They are our public servants. When… Read More

The new Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway just announced the members of her leadership team:

Assembly Republican Caucus Chair:Brian Nestande Assistant Republican Floor Leader:Curt Hagman Assistant Republican Leaders: Steve Knight andCameron Smyth Chief Republican Whips: Bill Berryhill andDan Logue Republican Whips: Nathan Fletcher, Kristin Olsen Deputy Floor Manager:Brian Jones

Read the press release here.Republicans willface huge challenges this year, especially considering Democrats dominate the legislature and hold every statewide office. This leadership team will be taxpayers’ advocates as Governor Brown and his legislative cohorts try to raise taxes to cover the $25+ billion dollar deficit. Congrats to all nine of these lawmakers who will be serving in leadership–taxpayers are counting on you to hold the line and represent our interests in a very hostile environment.… Read More

Senate President Darrell Steinberg has been pushing the idea that as part of a retooling of our government. Specifically, he would like to offload some current responsibilities of state government onto local governments — presumably counties and cities. Needless to say, taxpayers should be very wary of Steinberg’s plan, because on its face it looks like a rather naked attempt to take more money out of your pocket to feed the always-hungry appetite of government.

Hmmm. It’s time to play a new game, "Are you smarter than a State Senate President?"

If the state offloads to local governments things for which it is currently responsible for paying, but does not also move revenue streams from state government to local governments to pay for them, who will pay that bill? Well, the answer to this is pretty straightforward. Part of Steinberg’s plan, as he will tell you, is to conjointly saddle local governments with new mandates, and also lower the vote threshold needed for local governments to raise taxes.

Or to put it more simply, Steinberg would like to balance the state’s budget… Read More

Unless aliens abducted you to their planet this week, you are probably aware of the "deal" struck between the President and Congressional Republicans and Democrats to extend the 2001/2003 tax cuts for 2 years for everyone. However, it is not just an agreement to extend current tax rates. The plan pegs the death tax (currently at zero) at 35% for estates over $5 million. It also includes a one year reduction in the employee’s share of the social security tax by 2%; a 13 month renewal of unemployment benefits, which maintains the 99 week total cap; a 2 year extension of most of the tax provisions from the 2009 stimulus bill, including the earned income tax credit which gives people a "tax rebate" when they have not paid any taxes; and various other provisions, like a 100% write-off for business equipment for one year.

As I write this, the bill to reflect this agreement has just come out. But, of course, no one has read it yet. So, all analysis of this bill must necessarily be an estimate. It appears, though, that the "cost" of this bill will be close to $1 trillion over the next 2 years. Some of this is the "cost" of letting… Read More

The recent "budget forum" of Governor-elect Brown (speaking of fodder for a Monty Python skit, didn’t they do one about him in the 1970’s?) reminded me of that famous line from the old Monty Python television show, when they could think of no easy way to transition from one skit to another, they just punted with the line "And now-for something completely different" and of course, it wasn’t.

So looking for a way to distinguish himself from Governor Schwarzenegger, Brown held a summit, like that hasn’t been done before, about budget issues, as if no one has ever had a discussion about that before, where he suggested that voters should choose between higher taxes or less services, like no one has ever used that line before. It was the same ol’, same ol’, packaged by the old packager who created most of these problems when he was Governor the first time around.

Did you know that 80% of California residents could afford a median priced home in 1974? That number down to 17% by 1982 (after the once and future Governor was done with his first two terms), and has stayed there ever since. Do you… Read More

Since the late 1980’s Kevin McCarthy has been involved in California GOP youth politics. Even with his election to the Assembly, and now to Congress, his interest in trying to maintain control over a California Young Republicans group could be characterized as an obsession. McCarthy (pictured, right), rather notoriously strong-armed State GOP Chairman Ron Nehring with a threatening phone call during the last state party convention, unhappy with a decision of the CRP Rules Committee on an obscure YR issue.

To the surprise of many observers, the handpicked leaders of the McCarthy/Abernathy (Mark Abernathy is a Bakersfield-based political consultant who, along with McCarthy, continues to be very engaged in YR politics) operation — Jenniffer Rodriguez and Rohit Joy — rebelled against them. The new California Young Republican leaders supported someone other than the McCarthy/Abernathy pick for the national chair… Read More