Supreme Court Finally Fixes the Voting Rights Act
On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court finally tossed out the antiquated formula that brought a number of states and counties, including four here in California, under the federal Voting Rights Act. The outcry from the usual suspects has been ferocious, that the Court decimated minority voting rights by finding that Section 4 of the Voting […]
A Bad Choice for Secretary of State
Derek Cressman wants to be Secretary of State. His announcement June 18 shows exactly why he should not be elected. Like too many Secretaries of State across the country, he would corrupt this office were he to win. Cressman is a self proclaimed “political reformer,” formerly with Common Cause. In his announcement he said his […]
Building the Bay Bridge the Right Way (We’ve Done it Before)
So now the new eastern section of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge may not open on time because it is not safe. Even Gov. Jerry Brown finally admits there is a safety problem; guess he does not want the bridge falling into the bay on his watch. The Federal Highway Administration has opened a […]
Does Energy Policy Give Republicans A Road to Relevancy?
There is an issue that could bring California Republicans back in 2014 and it is called energy, specifically the extraction of oil and gas from the Monterey Shale that runs from Orange to Santa Barbara Counties, along the coast and includes Kern County and much of the Central Valley. No one knows how much oil […]
Why Gun Control is Falling Flat
The gun control debate has evolved into liberal activists talking to liberal activists, liberal columnists writing for liberal newspapers, liberal taking heads talking to other liberals, and all united in the belief that the solution to gun violence in America is taking bad looking guns away from rural rednecks, the very people least likely to […]
Tom Steyer’s Political Blackmail
In an act that gives political thuggery a bad name, hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, whose 2012 ballot measure raised California business taxes by a billion dollars, has decided his next cause is to blackmail a candidate for the US Senate in Massachusetts. Californians will remember Steyer for his Proposition 39 on the November ballot […]
Of Curds and Whey and Spiders and Legislators
“Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider, who sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away.” Well, Miss Muffet has a new problem today because a California legislator has decided to spin his own spider’s web with a bill setting the price for curds and […]
What Immigration Reform will Look Like
Slowly but surely the biggest political story of 2013 is taking shape: passage of comprehensive immigration reform. A visit to Sacramento last week by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), the third ranking House Republican, told us a lot about what the final product will look like. Immigration reform has five working parts, and getting them all […]
It’s Time to Get Rid of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
The US Supreme Court seems poised to declare Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, at least according to Wednesday’s oral arguments. Good riddance; this law has created ridiculous and unnecessary districts in California for four decades and it is time for it to go. Two sections of the Voting Rights Act impact […]
Immigration and the Republican Base: A Response
John Seiler, an Orange County writer, takes issue, at least in part, with my recent Fox and Hounds post that Republicans need to get behind immigration reform. He argues that even if they do so Latinos will not vote for them, and to support immigration “amnesty” will rile up the Republican base. He may be […]