contributor
opinion inside CaliforniaRepublic.org
|
RECALL
FOLLIES
Governor
Croupier
Bustamante: putting a casino pit boss in the Governorship
[Shawn
Steel] 9/12/03 | I
hope I'm not the only Californian dismayed at cascade of cash the casino
Indian tribes are pumping into Cruz Bustamante's recall candidacy.
As it stands, California's single most powerful special interest group
has furnished 60% of Bustamante's campaign funds. If Bustamante wins
the replacement election, we will not only have a new governor - the
casino tribes will have installed their own pit boss in the governor's
mansion. | Does
any reasonable person think a Governor Bustamante will be able to "take
on" - as the Lieutenant Governor is fond of saying -- the powerful
casino tribes who put him there? The casino tribes never lose in the
Legislature - now they will add the governor's office to their list
of politically sacred sites in Sacramento. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE
Torturing
Taxpayers with the Three Rs
Progressive political agenda pummels the public
[Jon Coupal] 9/12/03 | There's
an old joke about the window washer who slipped off his scaffold at the 80th
floor. As he passed the 30th floor, he thought to himself, "so far, so
good." Indeed, when you stop to think about it, very few people get hurt
falling. They get hurt landing. | Well,
this is the last week of the California legislative session. For hardworking
California families and businesses, this week promises to be a brutal landing.
A perfect storm of hardcore partisan politics, an ultra-left-leaning legislative
majority and a governor pandering for every possible vote has virtually guaranteed
that Californians will be taxed more, regulated more, and be subject to a further
erosion of our civilized and moral society. | How
did we get here? Let's just call it the harmonic convergence of the Three Rs:
Reapportionment, Recall and Revenge. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
CAPITOL
REPORT
In
the Middle of a Bad Week of Bad Laws
Progressive panic has the Legislature in its grip
[John Campbell] 09/12/03 | Quick
Update: The Assembly was in session for over 12 hours Wednesday
and so many bad bills were passed that I cannot even describe examples
in a single column. I will have to update in the next few weeks. | But
you ain't seen nothin' yet. | This
completely out of control legislature is likely today to pass SB796
(Dunn--Orange County). This bill will order a fine of $200 per employee
per pay period for even the most minor of labor code violations. The
labor code is 3 books thick. Everyone probably messes up on something.
If Aerojet General in Huntington Beach were to post their employee
notices in the wrong font size for a year, for example, they would
be subject to a penalty of $31,200,000. If that isn't bad enough, they
could not contest the amount of the penalty and the plaintiff's attorneys
would get $7,800,000 of this. This may be one of the worst bills of
the year. It is a trial lawyers dream, brought to you by Senator Dunn,
who is himself a trial lawyer. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
RECALL
FOLLIES
Integrity
or Celebrity?
The so-called "unity-pledge/pact"
[Joe
Armendariz] 9/12/03 | Recently,
we've been hearing a lot about the need for "unity" among
California Republicans -- so much, in fact, that it's time to figure
out exactly what everyone's been talking about. So let's be clear. | "Unity" does
not require uniformity or unanimity. Disagreement within a political
party isn't a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength. And the only
constructive debate going on in the country today is inside the Republican
Party. Debating over how much or how little political bribery money
is going into our candidate's campaign account isn't a debate, it is
a disgrace. | That
Republicans are having an honest debate over the future of California
and what it means to be a good citizen, parent, teacher, business-owner,
is something we can and should all be proud of, not embarrassed at
or frustrated by. Remember, the only thing that unites the Democrats
in this state is the need to protect the status quo. And if that is
what it means to be "united," I want nothing to do with it.
After all, the purpose of a Great Party isn't to just beat the other
Party, it is to offer the people superior leadership. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
RECALL
FOLLIES
Murder-Suicide
in Sacramento
Anger and paranoia in the Capitol
[Ray
Haynes] 9/11/03 | We’ve
all seen tragic murder-suicide headlines and stories over the years. Somebody
who is angry, depressed and sees no hope for the future either at home
or in the workplace decides not only to take his own life, but to lash
out at those around him, as a last desperate gesture to get back at the
people who made him miserable. | The
signs of a political murder-suicide are now present in Sacramento. We have
an angry, depressed, paranoid man in the Governor’s office who is
reading the polls and likely losing all hope of surviving the upcoming
recall election. Despite a whole career in which he never took positions
on legislation before it reached his desk, he’s had a sudden personality
change and is now talking about all the things he’s going to do to
taxpayers and businesses in this state as he contemplates his own demise.
Not content to go out quietly, he’s now planning to go out in a blaze
of glory, leaving a path of destruction in his wake, leaving citizens and
employers in this state behind
to pick up the mess he leaves. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE
Folie
de Petrol
[K. Lloyd Billingsley] 9/11/03 | The
price of gasoline spiked sharply over the Labor Day weekend and prices
remain high. Cruz Bustamante, the Lieutenant Governor who aspires to
be Governor, wants to slap government price controls on gasoline. An
intriguing response to this notion came in "Bustamante's Folly:
Gas Price Controls Would Bring Back Lines," an August 30 editorial
in the liberal Sacramento Bee. | "In
a gubernatorial election contest with 135 candidates on the ballot,
the competition for who can come up with the dumbest idea is bound
to be fierce," said the Bee, " But Lt. Gov. Cruz
Bustamante's call Thursday for state price controls on gasoline makes
him the clear front-runner." | The Bee noted
that "as in any market gasoline prices rise and fall," but
observed that politicians only sound off on oil company "gouging" when
prices jump. When prices are low - in the late 1990s they were as low
as at any time during the past 50 years - nobody gives the companies
any credit. The "real explanation," the Bee said, lies in "the
balance between supply and demand, and the structure of the state's
gasoline market." | Demand
for gasoline has soared, but there has not been a similar drop-off
in demand. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
CAPITOL
REPORT
Legislation
By Panic
Hiding a brew of bad law from public view
[John
Campbell] 09/11/03 | The
rules of the legislature require that all bills be introduced by February.
Then they must pass out of their "policy" committee by April.
They must pass a "fiscal" committee, if necessary, by May.
And they must pass the house (Senate or Assembly) where they were introduced
by June. Then they have a similar set of deadlines to go through the
second house in the months of July, August and September. This process
is designed to insure that plenty of opportunity is given for public
scrutiny of all bills and so that members of the legislature and their
staffs have time to thoroughly review and study the legislation. But,
the rules can be waived at any time by a majority vote of the legislature.
And that is exactly what is happening repeatedly now as Democrats scramble
to pass bad laws before the recall. | Tuesday,
there were 153 bills on the Assembly file. Only 7 were authored by Republicans
as Democrats waive the rules only for their own agenda. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
CLASHING
CULTURE
Mr.
Disney’s Park
Or Why No Winner of a Major Event Will Ever Say, “I am Going
to California Adventure!”
[John
Mark Reynolds] 9/11/03 | Growing
up in the seventies, the worst thing about going to church
on Sunday night was missing the Wonderful World of Disney.
I enjoyed church, but it sometimes seemed like there was a
conspiracy on the part of the television networks to put my
favorite show at a time when I could not watch it. As a result,
it took on a special allure. | Sometimes
Disney ran boring nature shows only a step up from PBS, but
it also ran vintage cartoons and clips from the classic movies.
Children raised in the age of the Disney Channel and the DVD
player cannot imagine the excitement of being able to see cartoons
at a time other than Saturday morning. And there were always
the shots of Disneyland. . . and the castle. . . and fireworks.
. . Upstate New York was a long, long way from Southern California,
so there was no chance I was going to get to say with the winners
of the Super Bowl, “I am going to Disneyland.” | Some
things just are not as good as you imagine they will be --
like a stage kiss that looks cool, but in reality turns out
to be a big let down, especially if the leading lady is a smoker
and the lights are too hot on a community theater costume laundered
too few times. So when I finally got to Disneyland as a thirty-something
arriving in California to teach philosophy, I expected very
little. After all, I was not a kid anymore, so it seemed best
to just take my little ones and make the best of my missed
chance. I would get my stage kiss from the
park and go home. | I
was wrong. Disneyland
was special. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
FABULOUS
BUDGET
Mugging
California Taxpayers
Assault on Prop 13
[M.
David Stirling] 09/10/03 | All
points bulletin: assault in progress. Location? California. The perpetrators?
A gang of tax-and-spend legislators, fronted by a coalition of public
employee
unions, local governments officials, and other recipients and "want-to-be" recipients
of taxpayer-paid services and benefits. The weapon? An initiative measure deceptively-named "The
Budget Accountability Act." The victim? California's taxpayers. | Most
people recognize Proposition 13 for its major impact on reducing and limiting
increases in their property taxes. In the primary election of June 6, 1978, nearly
66 percent of California's voters embraced Howard Jarvis' "I'm mad as hell
and I'm not going to take it anymore" campaign to reduce property tax rates.
Since 1978, millions of California property owners - even those who purchased
years after the measure's enactment - have benefited from the limitations it
placed on tax rate increases and annual valuation growth. In 1979, property owners
statewide paid $57 million less in property taxes than they did the year before,
with cumulative property tax savings over 25 years estimated at over $200 billion.
The gang of big-taxers believes that because Prop 13's property-tax limitation
feature overshadows its other major tax-limiting provision, the latter is currently
vulnerable to an assault. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
CAPITOL
REPORT
The
Bad Beat Goes On...
The bad legislation dogpile...
[John Campbell] 09/10/03 | More
examples of what Democrats stand for these days
that have passed the legislature in the last couple
of days...[more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
RECALL
FOLLIES
Puke
Politics
Smearing, lying...it's an election and the Progressive agenda must be preserved...
[Hugh Hewitt] 09/10/03 | The
chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, has to be paid
at least in part by Republicans. His buffoonery never stops, and he never appears
on national television without the GOP gaining ground in the public opinion
wars. | Now
he has an understudy, California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres. Together,
these two have set a level of performance for party hacks so low as to make
all future occupants of their offices appear skilled beyond belief. | On
Sunday's "Meet the Press" appearance, McAuliffe first admitted to
routinely lying whenever he makes electoral predictions. His job is to say
the Democrats are going to win, he said, no matter what the facts are in any
particular race. This wonderful moment of candor for McAuliffe establishes
what everyone has known for a long time – this Clinton-trained, Clinton-appointed
talking head is a liar, and he's not even ashamed to admit it. Give him credit
for telling the truth just this once. It will be a useful clip to save and
play the next time he unleashes a parade of falsehoods. | McAuliffe
followed up this stunning admission with a description of Arnold Schwarzenegger
as pro-choice, pro-homosexual and anti-gun. Now why would a practiced partisan
like McAuliffe bother to describe Arnold this way? Because he's counting on
the Tombots to throw the California recall to Cruz Bustamante. Terry McAuliffe
is counting on the die-hard McClintockistas to deliver the day to Cruz and
the way left politics that Cruz represents. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE
Domestic
Partner Benefits Will Push More Businesses
Out of State
There
are lots of Progressive ways to get around Prop 22...
[Chuck
DeVore] 9/10/03 | It's
more than likely that soon-to-be-terminated Governor Davis
will be signing a domestic partner benefits bill authored
by left-wing Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles.
Among the bill's provisions scheduled to take effect on January
1, 2005, is another job-killing, free lunch, feel-good measure:
a mandate that businesses that offer health insurance must
provide coverage to domestic partners. | Aside
from the obvious arguments about this bill being an end-run
around Proposition 22's protection of traditional marriage,
which its supporters deny (unconvincingly), this bill is
further poison for California businesses battered by silly
leftist utopian fantasies from Sacramento. How? Higher costs. | Domestic
partner benefit supporters cite a recent Field Poll that
found that 72 percent of California voters surveyed support
expanded rights for same-sex couples. But one wonders what
the results would have been had Field asked, "Do you
support mandated insurance benefits for same-sex couples
if it would mean higher costs for you?" Probably not. | In
fact, a recent study of small employers in California found
that insurance costs for same-sex couples were over 17 percent
higher than for opposite-sex couples. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
RECALL
FOLLIES
The
Lying Liars of the Left
Blame George Bush for California’s Recall (and why that makes
Californians Laugh)
[Melanie
Morgan] 09/09/03 | As
I toil daily over a hot microphone—waiting anxiously
for California to fall into the ocean---I wonder how nearly
every political pundit in America got our recall effort wrong. | “Circus,” they
cried. | “Too
much direct democracy,” they opined. | The
national media were outright hostile. Newsweek’s Howard
Fineman and Karen Breslau cover story blasted “So this
is California: in thrall, at least for the moment to an earnest
crank and in the grip of what can only be described as a civic
crack-up.” | Even
my esteemed colleagues on the right thought Californians should
suck it up and live with the failed leadership of Governor
Gray Davis. After all, a weakened Gray Davis, they claimed,
makes George Bush look good going into the 2003-04 election
cycle. | Some,
like George Will, went further: | “Truly
conservative Californians—you few know who you are---will
vote against the recall to protest the plebiscitary cynicism.” | Whatever. | But
what really annoys those of us who support limited government,
smaller taxes and fiscal responsibility is that the newly recruited
left-wing supporters of Gray Davis keep repeating the mantra
that George W. Bush is behind the recall. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
CAPITOL
REPORT
Bad
Bill Parade
The legislation just keeps getting worse...
[John
Campbell] 09/09/03 | Over
100 pieces of legislation were passed by the Assembly between Wednesday
and Friday last week. Only 2 bills actually failed. Did anything good
pass? A few things. But most of them are narrow or industry specific.
Another statistic that might interest you is that on a day when 225
bills were on the "file" to be taken up, only 12 of them
were authored by Republicans. The rest were Democrat authored bills.
That is proof that in Sacramento, the majority does rule. Here is a
partial list of some of the bad stuff that passed and where it now
lies in the process of becoming law...[more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
RECALL
FOLLIES
At
Least He Doesn't Pronounce it "Aztlán"
In the waning moments, the Governor is desperate to prove he really
is unfit to serve...
[Xrlq] 09/09/03 | Up
until now, I've been trying to keep an open mind about the
recall, and entertain the arguments about why Gray/Gris/Joe/José Davis
should not be recalled. This is so even though, as far as
I'm concerned, all debate about the merits of the recall
among Republicans ended when the election itself was certified. | There's
an old saying: "if you strike at a king, you must kill
him." Fortunately, our "king" doesn't have
to be killed literally. Even so, having struck at him through
an unprecedented recall, we'd best finish the job in political
terms, or else face 3 1/2 years of an even angrier, more
vindictive version of Gray Davis than we've faced in the
past. | Until
now, however, the Democrats' "he's not that bad" counter-argument
remained a valid one, if not convincing to me. All that changed
on Friday, when Joe Davis renamed himself "Gris" and
signed SB 60. SB 60 is the bill which, if not subjected to
a referendum, will soon allow illegal aliens to obtain driver
licenses that falsely imply they are legal residents. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE
Rodney
King: Once a Bum, Always a Bum
[David Horowitz] 09/09/03 | If
you’re not a news junkie you probably didn’t notice that Rodney
King was arrested again. He was speeding at 100 miles an hour, high on
PCP, when he ran a red light in Rialto, California on August 27. It is
just a matter of luck that King hasn’t killed someone yet. This was
his fifth arrest since a kangaroo court awarded him $3.8 million some years
ago because the LAPD had “violated his civil rights.” Or perhaps
it was because the court was afraid that rejecting King’s claim would
spark another riot that would kill 58 people and cost the city $16 billion
in destroyed homes
and stores. | One
of King’s post-riot arrests was for beating his wife, just in case you
thought he was a nice
guy harassed by police simply because he was black. | Apparently,
in addition to going to jail again, Rodney King is now broke. Which is one of
the reasons you haven’t heard much about his latest bust. Because the post-riot
life of Rodney King gives the lie to virtually every liberal nostrum for improving
society, eradicating poverty and making us all equal. | How
can you go broke on $3.8 million? Let’s say, for the sake of this example,
King had to pay his lawyers a million dollars in legal fees. If he had put the
remaining money in the bank in a long-term savings account it would have netted
him a six-figure income for the rest of his life -- without requiring a stitch
of work to get it. But if you give money to a self-destructive lout like Rodney
King, all you are going to get for your money is trouble. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
FROM
PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION
Teaching
Berkeley Schools about Respect for Law and
Equal Rights
A school choice sham...
[Cynthia
D. Cook] 9/8/03 | If
you like oxymorons—dry ice, jumbo shrimp, airplane food—the
bureaucrats at the Berkeley Unified School District have come
up with one to savor: “controlled choice.” That’s
their Orwellian name for their policy of assigning students to
schools based not on parents’ preferences but on children’s
skin color. | The “controlled
choice” system requires parents to tell the district the
race of each of their elementary-school children. Parents may
designate three schools as their top choices, but the decision
on where their kids go is ultimately a formulaic process that
is much more about control than choice. An informational form
explains: “The computer system will assign students based
on space available and other criteria, which may include socio-economics
and ethnicity...| ”The
mention of “ethnicity” sounds like an afterthought,
but race is actually at the core of the program. The district
categorizes each elementary student as “black,” “white,” or “other” and
then attempts to balance each school’s racial makeup to
within 5% of the overall district population. If parents refuse
to identify the race of a child, the school district will do
it for them. When assignments are made, a family’s “choice” goes
out the window if the student’s color doesn’t fit
the preferred racial mix for a particular school. | The
policy is obnoxious on so many levels. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
CAPITOL
REPORT
Last
Days and Licenses
Going from bad legislation to very bad...
[John Campbell] 09/06/03 | Three
critical dates are approaching. These dates are impacting everything
going on in Sacramento right now. September 12th is the last day for
bills to be passed by the legislature until January of next year. October
7th is the recall election. And October 12th is the last day for the
Governor (and it will likely still be Governor Davis, because the Secretary
of State has up to 28 days to certify the election) to sign or veto all
bills passed this year. So, the Democrat controlled legislature is scrambling
to pass all kinds of terrible stuff while they still have a Democrat
Governor to sign it. | These
next 7 days are likely to be chaotic and the mood up here is already
testy as Democrats craft last minute legislation and amendments to beat
the clock, as Republicans use the limited power of the minority to block
them. I will be sending you updates as frequently as daily during this
period to keep you informed of just how much worse this one party junta
can make Californians' lives...... until the hope for change on October
7th. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
MEXIFORNIA
Illegal
Aliens, Illegal Indians
A Lesson in Lawlessness
[Ken Masugi] 09/06/03 | The
dust-up over Lt. Governor Bustamante’s acceptance
of upward of $3 million from Indian tribes opens up an ugly side
to American treatment of Indians. I refer not to the betrayal of treaties
and so on but rather to the exception within American society that
Indian leaders wish to carve out for themselves: On the one hand, they
want to retain tribal government (which does not recognize many of
the protections of the U.S. Constitution, federal law, or state and
local law), on the other hand, they want the benefits of being American.
As an example of the latter, The
San Jose Mercury notes a bill passed by the legislature giving “unprecedented
power to halt developments near sacred tribal land.” The Indian
gambling casinos are of course a notorious example of the former. | When
I worked for then-Chairmen Clarence Thomas and Evan Kemp of the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, I noted that Indian rights
advocates at the EEOC would seek to shrink the scope of the Civil Rights
Act so it would cover fewer Indians. This is of course contrary to
the bureaucratic imperative to expand control over as much of society
as possible. But the enemies of bureaucracy should not cheer. The “Indian
rights” advocates sought to leave as much power to the tribes
as possible and decrease Indian individuals’ rights under and
obligations to America. [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org]
