From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary:

The Sun King

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, thinks he has a partial solution to America’s dependence on high-priced foreign oil. But he says liberals and environmentalists are rejecting it.

Mr. Rohrabacher — who notes 130 pending applications for solar power projects on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management — has introduced a bill to allow the building of such plants without environmental-impact studies. He tells me that though the BLM has lifted a moratorium on new solar projects on public land that it imposed in 2005, applications are still being clogged up in a bureaucratic pipeline and no new permits have been issued to date. "We need… Read More

Cloudspace Blog Process's test 3 —

=BD =BE… Read More

If anyone wants to share with us what is in the water that Republican State Senator Roy Ashburn is drinking these days, please share it with us. For years now, a longtime FR friend (with a healthy dislike of the “Bill Thomas Machine” in the greater Kern County area), Ashburn has been a reliable conservative in the legislature, and a team player.

Lately, however, he seems to have “senioritis” – and this ailment is causing him to act in a peculiar and most unfortunate manner. Right now, more so than at any point than I can recollect, legislative Republicans have unified around a common line in the sand – that our state’s fiscal woes have been directly caused by year after year of massive spending increases (40% growth in less than 4 years) – and that California taxpayers should not be punished by the legislature’s overspending with the imposition of new or higher taxes.

Only one… Read More

If anyone wants to share with us what is in the water that Republican State Senator Roy Ashburn is drinking these days, please share it with us. For years now, a longtime FR friend (with a healthy dislike of the “Bill Thomas Machine” in the greater Kern County area), Ashburn has been a reliable conservative in the legislature, and a team player.

Lately, however, he seems to have “senioritis” – and this ailment is causing him to act in a peculiar and most unfortunate manner. Right now, more so than at any point than I can recollect, legislative Republicans have unified around a common line in the sand – that our state’s fiscal woes have been directly caused by year after year of massive spending increases (40% growth in less than 4 years) – and that California taxpayers should not be punished by the legislature’s overspending with the imposition of new or higher taxes.

Only one… Read More

California’s 10th Assembly District was one of the top three Republican ‘defense’ seats during the 2002 legislative elections. But, after handily carrying the district, incumbent Alan Nakanishi has had little problem holding the seat in subsequent elections.

That is all likely to change this year. The Democrats have moved the 10th Assembly District near the top of their wish-list, and for good reason. First, the seat is open, which always makes for a more interesting contest. Second, a once six-point Republican partisan voter registration advantage has shrunk to just two points.

The 10th District is located in the San Joaquin Valley, split over four counties — El Dorado, Amador, Sacramento and San Joaquin. Compounding matters for Republican strategists, not only was there a pretty brutal GOP primary contest back in June, but this seat… Read More

California’s 10th Assembly District was one of the top three Republican ‘defense’ seats during the 2002 legislative elections. But, after handily carrying the district, incumbent Alan Nakanishi has had little problem holding the seat in subsequent elections.

That is all likely to change this year. The Democrats have moved the 10th Assembly District near the top of their wish-list, and for good reason. First, the seat is open, which always makes for a more interesting contest. Second, a once six-point Republican partisan voter registration advantage has shrunk to just two points.

The 10th District is located in the San Joaquin Valley, split over four counties — El Dorado, Amador, Sacramento and San Joaquin. Compounding matters for Republican strategists, not only was there a pretty brutal GOP primary contest back in June, but this seat… Read More

Since the convention ended I’ve had probably 40 calls for McCain Palin gear. So I went to www.ShopMcCain.com and got some stuff for Yolo County. It came right away.

They sent me enough McCain/Palin bumper stickers for anyone in Yolo County that is willing to put one on their car.

My constituents are e-mailing me and I am sending out the stuff.

McCain/Palin may not win the People’s Republic of Davis but we should do the right thing in Woodland.… Read More

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met yesterday with legislative Republicans. When he went to go speak to a closed meeting of Assembly GOPers, they were all wearing name tags, with Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines pointing out to the Sacramento Bee (I read it on the Capitol Alert e-mail) that some of his caucus members had yet to meet their Republican Governor.

Well, this played right into a quote that the Governor gave in an interview to a German magazine, where he talked about how he barely ever talks to Republican leaders in California. These legislators are our leaders, and it is unfortunate that the Governor was dismissive of them in that interview.… Read More