Crossposted on FoxNews.com Political conventions used to mean something. Many times in the old days  conventions actually decided who the nominee would be. Today they are nothing more than coronations since the outcome is known months before. But the party leaders and delegates still like to have a big party with overflowing buffets and free [...]

Super Bowl Week
kicks off this weekend as NFL all-stars gather in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl game
on Sunday.  But there is another all-star
game of sorts happening near Palm Springs this weekend.  This one is not about football. But it is about
America’s other great passion-politics.

According to news
accounts in the New York Times, Politico and the Desert Sun, Koch Industries is
hosting its annual conference that has been dubbed by a representative of the
liberal Courage Campaign of California, a vehement opponent of the conference,
as "insidious." 

Now I have heard of
Koch Industries and the two brothers who run this highly successful
multi-faceted company but to be honest I hadn’t heard of their conference
before this year. From the sounds of things they do attract an all-star line-up
of speakers that includes leaders from government, academia and industry many
of them conservatives and libertarians. Sounds like a good conference from what
I have read.

Dave Jones is the Democratic candidate for Insurance Commissioner.

Dave Jones is running around California telling anyone who will listen that he is not taking campaign contributions from the insurance industry.

But whenever you hear a politician make a virtue out of who they are not taking campaign contributions from you should look at who they are taking contributions from.

As far as fundraising goes, the battle over Prop 21 the car tax increase disguised as a "save the parks" initiative has been a classic David vs. Goliath struggle.

In this case, the part of Goliath is being played by the "yes" side, in that as of this writing they have raised over $6.5 million to get out their message. David, being played by the "no" side, has raised a paltry $74,000. But just as in the ancient tale, David has a little something extra besides his sling and a small bag of stones-the support of the already overtaxed citizens of California.

I heard a story once about a rookie NFL quarterback who in his first game was blindsided by a wily veteran defensive end. As he lay on the ground the veteran reached out his hand and helped the rookie to his feet, and said to him "Welcome to the NFL, kid."

This week promising political rookie Meg Whitman got blindsided by wily veteran political operatives. They are not likely to help her to her feet but the message is the same. "Welcome to the NFL, kid."

There is only one way to beat this bunch of special interests that will do anything to cling to their power the public be damned.

For
years, the California Legislature, Governor Schwarzenegger and
environmentalists have been pushing for California’s investor-owned
utilities to get more of the power they generate and sell to their
customers from renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass.

On paper, the efforts have produced great fanfare in the media but on the ground they are falling short.

In
2002, the legislature passed a bill requiring the investor-owned
utilities to produce 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources
by 2017. In 2003, the California Energy Commission moved it to 20
percent by 2010.

Every year for what seems like forever, when the Legislature tackles the budget our legislators wake up and say, "How did I get into this hole and what is my favorite shovel doing here?"

Well, your shovel is there Mr. and Ms. Legislator because you are the ones who dug the hole. So as a first step, how about stop digging.

California’s decaying and crumbling state parks and the circumstances that have brought them to this point offer a textbook example of why California chronically finds itself in this self-created budget hole year in and year out.

Originally appeared on Politico.com

President
Obama is neither "pro-business" nor "anti-business". He is "pro-Obama"
and he will do anything to sell and protect his brand.

In a nation of narcissists he is unchallenged for the number one spot even if the brand is losing some of its luster.

Obama’s problem is that he has absolutely no knowledge of how business
works particularly small business, which is the backbone of the
economy.

"Our 11^th Commandment is perhaps more profound than we realize.  "Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican."  To do so means we are inhibited in the support we can give that Republican if he should become the nominee of our party.  Certainly
our task is harder if we must challenge and refute charges made by our
opponents if those charges were first uttered by us…."

"Fight
as hard in the coming primary as you can for your candidate, but be
against only those we must defeat in November of 1968.  Let
no opposition candidate quote your words in the general election to
advance statism or the philosophy of those who have lost confidence in
man’s capacity for self-rule."

Ronald Reagan in a Speech to the California Republican Assembly, April 1967

For those of us who live in California or as we like to call it "Athens-on-the-Pacific", things have never looked bleaker.

Last week, Governor Schwarzenegger released what will be his last budget to the
Legislature and the people. It projects a deficit of $19.1 billion and
will make drastic cuts in social spending.

Right
on cue the Democrats who have had a death grip on the Legislature for
decades began their whining and caterwauling about the destruction of
the safety net and that the "rich" weren’t paying enough and business
needs to pay more.