California – Page 12

Will Gov. Moonbeam have a Ronnie Raygun moment? #OWS

Title chosen with malice aforethought. The OWS is not exactly known for liking the Gipper.

You gotta wonder whether Governor Moonbeam (known mundanely as Jerry Brown) is going to intervene in the current situation in Oakland. Short version: the city of Oakland is tired of the rat-infested squatting being done by the Occupiers, and wants them gone. Well, the city wants them to stop camping overnight. This is a fairly reasonable request, which means that I expect that the Occupiers are going to fight it, tooth and dirty nail. Possibly literally: you just don’t know how that crowd is going to react, once they realize that they’re spinning their wheels and the movement gets distilled down to the fanatics.

The reason that I wonder whether Gov. Brown is going to intervene is that he used to be the mayor of Oakland. And do you know how he dealt with rioters, back in the day? Continue reading Will Gov. Moonbeam have a Ronnie Raygun moment? #OWS

Tom McClintock warns: the future of America is California.

ack when REAGAN was governor, that verb would have been ‘promises.’

I originally blogged about this speech by Rep. Tom McClintock (R, CA) to the Council for National Policy over at AoSHQ*, but it is simply too good not to share. Tom’s in full Post-Apocalypse Survival mode in this speech, and you will not find a dull word in it:

I want to welcome this groundbreaking scientific expedition to the savage lands of the Left Coast. You are here in California to answer an important theoretical question and now you have your answer.

Yes, this is what Barack Obama’s second term would look like.

Study it. Fear it. And then go home and make sure that it never happens to the rest of the country.

And that’s just the intro. The rest of the three-page speech is just like the above.
Continue reading Tom McClintock warns: the future of America is California.

DSCC inadvertently reveals its 2012 battleground?

Not that, if they did, they intended to do that, mind you: they were probably just intending to scare their donors into giving them money (link via @MattCover) by screaming about how us awful, awful Republicans are so insistent that you should show have to show a picture ID when you vote. Well, they’re Democrats. Screaming about Republicans is what they do – besides, these days they don’t precisely have a plethora of other options that are what you’d call viable when it comes to winning elections.

But that’s not what interests me. No, what interests me is this sentence:

More than 5 million voters could be affected in states including Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, Virginia and California…

Hmm. Let’s look at those states. Assessments of each one is based on the latest Cook ratings for the Electoral College and the Senate. Continue reading DSCC inadvertently reveals its 2012 battleground?

California gun-grabber bill on Jerry Brown’s (D, CA) desk.

Your move, Governor Moonbeam.

The measure, aimed at an increasingly popular tactic used by 2nd Amendment activists, would make California the first state since 1987 to outlaw the controversial practice of publicly displaying a weapon.

The governor — a gun owner — has not taken an official position on the bill, passed by the Legislature last week. He has argued both sides of gun control issues in the past.

…because he’s going to have to make a choice now. California law currently permits the open wearing of unloaded firearms; this bill would eliminate such practices, despite the fact that an unloaded gun is pretty much by definition not a threat to anybody. But it does serve notice that there is someone out there who is prepared to respond to a threat, if necessary… and if people are worried that carrying guns might lead to gun violence: oddly enough, violent crime has gone down as firearms carry generally has gone up. Which should surprise nobody, but apparently still does. That’d be mostly people for whom guns are some sort of scary evil magical item, mind you. Continue reading California gun-grabber bill on Jerry Brown’s (D, CA) desk.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D, CA) Rotten Week.

These things usually come in threes.

First and foremost is the highly embarrassing – and possibly expensive – Kinde Durkee affair. For those not following along with that story: Durkee was a Californian accountant used by numerous Democratic campaigns on the federal, state, and local level. Said campaigns are all now freaking out, because Durkee was just recently arrested on multiple accounts of mail fraud involving various politicians’ campaign funds*. Sen. Feinstein was one of the politicians who used Durkee; and aside from an at-the-time comment made to Politico about her being ‘wiped out,’ Feinstein is keeping mum about how much of her 5.2 million dollar war chest is still accessible to the campaign.
Next up: this Field Poll about Senator Feinstein (via Andrew Malcolm**) give some pretty bad numbers, here. 41/39 approval/disapproval (a severe drop from her normal approval ratings) and she’s underwater (41/44) on her re-election numbers (also a severe drop). If you’re wondering whether this is a big deal, well, Reuters primly notes “A spokesman for Feinstein, who was first elected to the Senate in 1992 after a long career as San Francisco’s mayor, could not be reached for comment.” Also: Feinstein’s polling has been steadily getting worse since 2006.
Finally, here’s an interesting rumor: former talk radio host and hard-line conservative Michael Reagan (adopted son of Ronald Reagan is apparently contemplating a 2012 Senate run. While the Feinstein campaign might argue that this is good news – Michael Reagan has never held public office, and the California of 2012 is not the California of 1966 – it remains true that Sen. Feinstein has not yet committed to running for re-election in 2012. The woman is 78 years old, has been in the Senate for almost two decades***, and it is considered unlikely that she will be the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee after next year’s elections.

Continue reading Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D, CA) Rotten Week.

California caves on Amazon tax. For now.

The can has been kicked for another year.

Lawmakers on Friday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a compromise bill that delays California’s effort to force online retailers such as Amazon.com to collect the state’s sales taxes while retailers lobby Congress for national rules governing online sales taxes.

Essentially, California legislators passed a bill earlier this year that ‘exploited’ a loophole in federal case law that would have required Amazon.com (and others) to collect sales tax on purchases made by California residents. Amazon.com (and others) promptly ended the affiliate program that provided the loophole. California legislators blinked with surprise, because apparently they completely missed noticing that Amazon.com always does this (except in New York, where they’re fighting the law in court). Shockingly, California legislators have now apparently gotten a rush of oxygen to the brain and delayed ‘implementation’ of the tax until September of 2012; this time is supposedly to allow Amazon.com and other online retailers to petition Congress to straighten out national sales tax guidelines (something that Amazon.com has been pushing for, actually). Assuming that Governor Brown signs off on this – and, given that the original bill has pretty conclusively been already shown to be wildly if not insanely optimistic in its estimated revenue*, he’d have to be extremely dumb not to** – Amazon.com will turn its affiliate program back on. Continue reading California caves on Amazon tax. For now.

#rsrh Elections Have Consequences Watch: California edition.

Via Instapundit comes this piece by Joel Kotkin narrating how the state of California is slowly but determinedly collapsing. Indeed, the method that its political masters is using to effect said collapse is almost laudable, as it replicates every aspect of the traditional disaster scenario of California sinking into the sea, without actually having the earthquake. It’s sort of like a neutron strike, in other words: it’s mostly affecting people and not the precious natural resources that a later, wiser* generation will be able to resume exploiting properly.

Oh, I’m sorry: am I not feeling their pain? Guess what: take a look at the roster. Continue reading #rsrh Elections Have Consequences Watch: California edition.

#rsrh CA Dem campaign treasurer arrested* for mail fraud.

Well, this sounds interesting:

A prominent Democratic campaign treasurer who works for federal, state and O.C. lawmakers including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Rep. Loretta Sanchez and state Assemblymen Lou Correa and Jose Solorio has been arrested by the FBI on suspicion of mail fraud, The Orange County Register has learned.

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thom Mrozek confirmed Saturday afternoon that Kinde Durkee of Burbank-based Durkee and Associates, was arrested by the FBI on a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento. Special Agent Steve Dupre of the bureau’s Sacramento office said she was arrested in connection with her position as a campaign treasurer.

Continue reading #rsrh CA Dem campaign treasurer arrested* for mail fraud.

And they wonder why South California wants to secede…

…from the Sacramento regime:

Under AB 889, household “employers” (aka “parents”) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.

Failure to abide by any of these provisions may result in a legal cause of action against the employer including cumulative penalties, attorneys’ fees, legal costs and expenses associated with hiring expert witnesses, an unprecedented measure of legal recourse provided no other class of workers – from agricultural laborers to garment manufacturers.

Via Vodkapundit (H/T AoSHQ). I have a suggestion for anybody in California who, upon reading this bit of nonsense – or any of the other six billion reasons why one might decide that California was more trouble than it’s worth – decides to move: voting with your feet is, in fact, a fine old American tradition. But do whatever red state that you end up moving to a favor, OK?

REMEMBER WHY YOU LEFT CALIFORNIA IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Arizona may not look that bad to Californians, at that.

I note that friend and RedState colleague Dan McLaughlin has noted Moonbeam Brown’s minion’s response to the suggestion by certain South Californians (as opposed to Southern Californians, if you get that distinction) that they’re tired of dealing with the dysfunctional state government in Sacramento:

“If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there’s a place called Arizona,” Brown spokesman Gil Duran said.

Just some minor points about that. Riffing off of Dan’s points about California: Continue reading Arizona may not look that bad to Californians, at that.