Bottom of the Ninth, Bases Loaded
Depending upon which poll you read, the races for statewide offices and ballot initiatives are in statistical dead heats today. Which means it’s anyone’s game.
Speaking of games, the Giants clenched the World Series last night. Sure, seems natural now that they’ve done it. But let’s rewind a few days, even weeks.
When the Giants went to the playoffs against the Atlanta Braves a few weeks ago, experts said they wouldn’t make it. They said the Braves were a well-organized, establishment team that would be hard to beat. But we did it anyway.
When the Giants proceeded to the semi-finals against the Phillies, sports pundits said the Phillies had the spunk and the talent to whoop the Giants. Even Giants fans took pause, saying we could never beat the Phillies at home. We beat them anyway.
Yes “Oui” Can
You may not know it with all the activity in California leading up to Election Day, but a storm has been brewing across the pond.
Weeks of protests have led to overturned cars and fires burning on the outskirts of Paris. Nearly half of France’s gas stations are bone dry – stranding motorists and bringing commerce to a standstill. According to the Associated Press, protestors have blocked hundreds of ships at the crucial Mediterranean port of Marseille, cutting off access to the nation’s main oil terminal. And they have shut down train service and access to major highways – virtually holding the nation hostage. Even the fearless Lady Gaga has cancelled multiple shows there, fearing for her safety and the safe passage of trucks carrying her stage and lighting equipment. (Listen, you know it’s serious if Gaga is afraid.) Nevertheless, the incidents are a serious matter, and they are becoming increasingly violent by the day as they move into the neighborhoods of Paris. These radical protesters make the Tea Parties look like Mothers’ Day Out.
Rasmussen Reported
Over the weekend, I attended the annual Western CPAC gathering of California’s conservatives, and had the privilege to hear national independent pollster Scott Rasmussen speak about the upcoming 2010 Elections.
With just two weeks to go until an historic Election Day, his comments were more interesting than ever.
The Great Big Green Lie
The San Francisco Chronicle has uncovered a scathing error at the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The newspaper has just published that the California Air Resources Board has “grossly miscalculated pollution levels” that were being used to further crack down on the state’s air standards.
The California Air Resources Board didn’t miss the mark slightly. They miscalculated California’s air pollution levels by a stunning 340 percent. That’s 340%.
The Chronicle reports that the stark errors in the Air Resources Board’s research “raise questions about the performance of the agency as it is in the midst of implementing the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 – or AB 32 as it is commonly called.”
This error comes after the Air Resources Board vastly overinflated the number of diesel-related deaths in 2009, suggesting that 18,000 Californians had died prematurely when the number was actually a fraction of that.
If we can’t trust the state’s most powerful environmental board to calculate basic statistics correctly, what can we trust them to do?
Candidates Could Text Their Way to a Win in November
The Candidate as Your New BFF? Don’t LOL, it could happen.
The New York Times reported this week that the text craze
has arrived on the gilded doorstep of the prestigious world of the symphony.
Both the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic have introduced
new audience texting participation programs, through which audience members can
now text their favorite song to be played during the encore.
Which got me wondering: if it’s good enough for the
Philharmonic, isn’t it good enough to engage more folks in the democratic
process?
The Steinbrenner Connection: Sports & Politics
As the world of baseball mourned the death and celebrated
the life of legendary New York Yankees owner and manager George Steinbrenner
last week, I couldn’t help but think of the strong connection that exists
between sports and politics.
Especially in Steinbrenner’s case.
Some baseball fans may not know that George Steinbrenner was
a lifelong Republican. He contributed generously to the campaigns of Rudy
Giuliani, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush over his
lifetime.
State of the Union(s)
On Wednesday, the SEIU converged on the lawn of the State
Capitol for a massive protest in their trademark purple shirts — screaming,
shouting and chanting about a State budget mess that they, in large part, have
gotten us into.
You can bet your bottom dollar (it is your dollar, after
all) that this is only a preview of what is to come during the Fall campaign’s
crazy season. After all, it is a terribly kept secret around town that
every Union is lying in wait to attack Gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman and
any number of the other Republicans and fiscal conservatives on the November
ballot.
Therefore, as we enter the battlefield for the General
Election I think it’s worth pausing to ask the question: "What
is the current State of the Union(s)?"
A Day Late and a Few Pesos Short
California State Senator Gil Cedillo (along with the California
Latino Legislative Caucus) proposed a Resolution on Wednesday that would force
California to boycott the state of Arizona in light of that state’s tough
crackdown on illegal immigrants.
I could be wrong, but wasn’t that last month’s story? Seems to me our
buddy Gil Cedillo is a day late and a few pesos short of a sound idea.
To be sure, this is right up Cedillo’s alley. He is, after all, the State
Senator who has continued pushing for Driver’s Licenses for illegal
immigrants. But calling for a boycott against one of our fellow
southwestern states and trying to strip them of the 2011 All-Star MLB
game seems silly at this point when there are so many other pressing
matters facing OUR State.
HJTA & CA Pension Reform Win Another One for Taxpayers
As campaigns were busy heading
into their final GOTV weekend on Friday, the ever-vigilant watchdogs –
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) and California Pension
Reform – were winning another one for the gipper.
HJTA and CA Pension Reform struck pay dirt on Friday in the battle
against out-of-control pensions, as a Judge ordered the Orange County
Employee Retirement System (OCERS) to turn over public records
detailing lavish government employee pensions. As a result, the O.C.
retirement system must release the names, gross pension amounts (and
believe me, they are gross), and the last employing agency from which
the worker retired.
HJTA’s crack attorney Tim Bittle represented Marcia Fritz in the case.
Many know Marcia from her tireless work on behalf of Taxpayers to shed
light on California’s runaway pension crisis over the past year.
L.A. GOP Scores a Major Victory
You may not have felt it, but the earth shifted this week while
candidates up and down the state were busy with their final push toward
Election Day.
The epicenter of that shift? L.A.
The Republican Party of Los Angeles County (RPLAC) scored a major
victory this week as a Judge ruled in the organization’s favor –
throwing out a frivolous lawsuit brought by a wily group of Ron Paul
activists that claimed they had legal rights to run the Party, even
though they handily lost their Board elections last year.