Redstate

Posted at 10:45pm on May 3, 2008 Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse in California [Updated]

My view: Yes on 98, No on 99

By Neil Stevens

The fight continues to protect Californians from the abuses of civil liberties authorized by the Supreme Court in Kelo v. New London. Proponents of our civil rights against theft of property have placed on the June ballot Proposition 98. Unlike the last Proposition 98, which began our disastrous budget problems by placing hard lower limits on school spending growth, this one is from the good guys. The new Proposition 98 is a proposed state Constitutional amendment that would place sweeping restrictions on eminent domain abuse statewide, and ensure that "just compensation" is provided even when the takings occur.

However, the forces of big government are not quick to give up. Corrupt city and county governments have in turn put on the ballot Proposition 99, another proposed amendment. Masquerading as an anti-eminent domain law, Proposition 99 would not even have helped in the Kelo case, so narrow are the limits on government set.

Read on... Updated below the fold

Posted in Arnold Schwarzenegger | California | Eminent Domain | girly man | Kelo v. New London | State Politics — Comments (11)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:03pm on Mar. 27, 2008 The Girly Man Stops Trying

By Neil Stevens

Once upon a time, California Republicans would appoint great members to the Board of UC Regents, and men like Ward Connerly would fight radical leftism from there.

Not now though. Governor Schwarzeneegger is now appointing left-wing Democrats to the body, making his administration all the more indistinguishable from what Phil Angelides's would have been.

I blame the recall, and the progressives who created it. Down with progressivism in all forms. Up with closed political primaries and caucuses. Never again must we let a man like this be our nominee.

Posted at 9:01pm on Jan. 28, 2008 California Medical Care: AB 1X1 dies in committee

By Neil Stevens

Governor Schwarzenegger invested much effort into trying to get 'universal coverage' here in California, but his tax and spend and probably illegal medical care plan he concocted with Assembly Speaker Núñez isn't going anywhere. The relevant Senate committee killed it on a 10-1 vote today. The Republicans voted 4-0 against it, the Democrats 6-1 against.

Says the Sacramento Bee:

Opponents, citing a report released last week by the Legislative Analyst's Office that concluded the plan might be underfunded by billions of dollars, said they were concerned about adding to the state's projected $14.5 billion deficit.

"It doesn't matter how many good things are in the bill if there isn't money to pay for them," said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica and chairwoman of the committee.

Ha ha. About the only bad thing about this is that it now won't go to court, and set a precedent for getting MassCare thrown out as well.

Posted at 3:36pm on Jan. 19, 2008 UC Bureaucrats try the Washington Monument play

By Neil Stevens

In response to Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts across the board, University of California bureaucrats are threatening to turn away applicants despite the system's pledge to accept every qualified California student.

This is just the old Washington Monument play: when an agency is threatened with budget cuts, it responds by threatening to cut the agency's most popular service in a way that will get people emotional. The hope is that weak politicians will back down rather than firing the administrators and replacing them with competent managers who know how to make sensible cuts.

And well, given that Govenor Schwarzenegger is in a bit of an apologetic mood, the UC people just might beat the girly man with this trick.

Posted at 2:00am on Jan. 19, 2008 Arnold Schwarzenegger apologizes for being a Republican

The Risk of a "Glamour Pick" for Office

By Jeff Emanuel

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R? Yes, but apologetically) sat down with the L.A. Times yesterday and apologized -- deeply and from the bottom of his heart -- for being a Republican, citing "political inexperience" as his excuse for having espoused semiconservative ideals and principles during his first campaign and in the early years of his Governorship.

The man who rode into the Governor's mansion four years ago on a wave of dissatisfaction with former Governor Gray Davis and the budget crisis he wrought was, by all accounts, sober in his reflection on the last few years in office, telling Times writers and editors "that he now regrets a number of the policies he championed in his early days in office and acknowledges his own rhetoric was at times overheated and naive."

Now, after enough time as a member of the Establishment, the man who once championed himself as the antidote to the woes brought on California by that Establishment is showing the effects of a hard-earned lesson in politics and governance -- that it's easier to go along and to get along than it is to stick to principle and to fight for change -- and has accordingly dropped almost all of the conservative, change-centered, state-saving rhetoric and stated principle that inspired Californians to twice elect him to the state's highest office.

Please do read on.

Posted in bipartisanship | California | girly man | Republicans | RINOs | Schwarzenegger | Spineless cowards | Trojan Horse — Comments (80)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:08am on Jan. 19, 2008 California 4: DCCC not giving up

I'll kick it this time, I know it!

By Neil Stevens

The DCCC is not giving up on California's 4th district despite the fact John Doolittle already dropped out. Now that it's an open seat, the Democrats are naming it one of their ten targetted open seats, where national money will be spent trying to put Democratic repeat challenger Charlie Brown over the top.

Read On...

Posted in 2008 | California | California 4 | Charlie Brown | Eric Egland | football | girly man | Lucy Van Pelt — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:05pm on Dec. 21, 2007 Schwarzenegger Considering Release of 12% of California's Prison Population

Good thing we're getting free health care for the future victims of those 22,000 criminals

By Neil Stevens

After California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fought Republicans for months over their pesky demands that we cut spending to prevent a disastrous budget deficit, it turns out that gee, we're facing a disastrous budget deficit after all! The conservatives were right.

So how does the Governor want to go about saving some money that we can't afford to spend? He's weighing the early release of 22,000 of the state's 172,000 prison inmates in order to save a few hundred million dollars we would spend keeping society safer.

Read on...

Posted in Arnold Schwarzenegger | Budget | California | Crime | girly man | Policy | Republicans | Spending — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »