Will The Donald Govern Like Arnold?
They’re both iconic figures in American culture who are known by their first names. California’s former governor is Arnold. The GOP presidential front-runner is The Donald. We Californians, who lived through Arnold’s two terms in the governor’s office, have watched The Donald’s presidential campaign unfold with a sense of deja vu. Donald Trump starred in the […]
San Francisco: Sanctuary City for Whom?
Did San Francisco’s sanctuary city ordinance contribute to the senseless shooting death of Kathryn Steinle, 32, as she was out for an evening stroll on Pier 14 last week? This is a national story, because the federal government released accused shooter Francisco Sanchez to a San Francisco jail in March and the jail released Sanchez […]
Can California Say ‘Yes’ To Everyone?
“There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally,” President Obama proclaimed in a 2009 speech to Congress. It was a memorable event in part because Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted, “You […]
Whom do you trust: ‘Shrimp Boy,’ the FBI or neither?
Observers have likened the federal case against state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, and 25 others to the film “American Hustle,” about an FBI Abscam-like sting that used a small-time con man to win corruption convictions against public officials. I hope it is not like another Hollywood film, “The Departed,” about a well connected FBI informant […]
Liberal Plutocrats and Their Personal Campaigns
Originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle. Chronicle readers, beware. At a recent confab at a billionaire’s ranch, an elite gathering of business titans agreed to spend $100 million – thanks to legal loopholes that allow them to skirt federal campaign contribution limits – to elect like-minded politicians who will help them halt the wheels […]
Same-Sex Marriage Needs Voters’ Stamp
As a conservative with gay friends, nothing would make me happier than to watch Californians pass an initiative to legalize same-sex marriage – preferably with protections for religious objectors. Polls suggest it would pass today. Then the issue would be settled and Californians – not a court in Washington – would have determined their own […]
Save the Death Penalty
Crossposted on San Francisco Chronicle Recently, Editorial Page Editor John Diaz asked Mark Klaas if he expects to feel closure if California executes Richard Allen Davis , the man who kidnapped, toyed with and then killed Klaas’ 12-year-old daughter, Polly, in 1993. A jury found Davis guilty and sentenced him to death in 1996. From […]
Occupy Movement – The Root of All Oakland
Crossposted at SFGate The morning after Occupy Oakland’s midweek violent protests, the take in the Bay Area was that it was a dirty, rotten shame that a few bad-egg anarchists hijacked a mostly peaceful protest and made an otherwise good cause look bad. That is so delusional. From the start, troublemakers have advocated violent protest […]
Oakland Drowning in Social Justice
Crossposted at SF Chronicle Occupy Oakland has scheduled a general strike throughout Oakland for Wednesday. What does that mean? “No work. No school. Occupy everywhere,” the group’s website explains. “Shut down the city.” And: “All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we shall march on them.” “Blockade everything.” Occupy Oakland activists […]
Death Penalty Foes’ Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle
State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, is pushing legislation to end California’s death penalty. "Capital punishment is an expensive failure and an example of the dysfunction of our prisons," she explained in a statement. "California’s Death Row is the largest and most costly in the United States. It is not helping to protect our state; it is helping to bankrupt us."
You have to hand this to death-penalty opponents: For decades, capital punishment opponents have tried to thwart California’s 1978 death-penalty law with frivolous appeals that clog courts, delay punishment and burn through taxpayers’ dollars. They now have been so successful that they can argue that California’s death penalty doesn’t work and costs too much.
Hancock is right about the dysfunction. Since 1978, California has executed 13 inmates, even though juries have sent close to 800 to Death Row. California’s lethal-injection protocol has been on hold since February 2006 when U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel stayed the execution of convicted rapist/murderer Michael Morales lest Morales suffer any pain.