A Quick Look at How Truly Awful the Budget Is Going To Be

Recently, representatives of the Schwarzenegger administration told Wall Street investors that, absent corrective action, California’s budget would have a $3 billion gap between revenues and spending commitments by June 30, 2009. 

That estimate was ridiculously low. The governor acknowledged as much after a meeting with legislative leaders on October 27. Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata, D-Alameda, said afterward this year’s gap is closer to $10 billion.     Read more »

More

Something Old That’s New in Capitol Park

There’s something old that’s new in Capitol Park.

Walk out the rear doors of California’s Capitol and head toward the pathway that runs straight through the park to 15th Street. On the left, just before the trout pond, is a sign — a replica of the sorts of signs that stood on the corners of Sacramento streets in around 1910.    Read more »

More

Confessions of a Women’s Conference Escort

I was a Governor and First Lady’s Women’s Conference escort. 

Like Las Vegas, some conference sights, sounds and experiences stay at the Long Beach Convention Center. 

But there are some wonderful moments that can be shared. One would be standing within easy earshot of Gloria Steinem and Billie Jean King discussing Sarah Pallin’s vice presidential candidacy.     Read more »

More

Predictable Proposition 2 Campaign

It was inevitable. 

A doleful, cute-as-a-button piglet stares out from the cover of the direct mail piece paid for by the Humane Society in favor of Proposition 2, the initiative the Humane Society placed on November’s ballot to ban what it considers inhuman treatment of calves, pigs and chickens. 

Above the piglet voters are exhorted to remember “You Are Their Only Voice.”    Read more »

More

A Couple Things Senators McCain and Obama Have In Common

One recent Wednesday morning, Sen. John Sidney McCain III of Arizona wrote a one-page letter. It arrived in an envelope that said in red: “EMERGENCY NOTICE.” 

Sen. McCain begins: 

“We’ve reached a critical juncture in the campaign. The Obama Democrats and their left-wing special interest allies have come together in a united front, combining their enormous fund-raising arsenal.    Read more »

More

Septic Snafu

California’s Water Resources Control Board is trying to adopt regulations aimed at cleaning up the state’s 1.2 million septic tanks.  

It has been trying to adopt the regulations since the fall of 2000. 

Even after eight years, realtors, rural homeowners and local officials continue to complain that the regulations are costly and too cookie-cutter to appreciate local or regional differences.      Read more »

More

The Greening of Napa Valley

Mrs. Lucas and I recently spent the night at the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa. The hotel is the world’s first and, to date, only LEED Gold-certified hotel. 

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is a set of environmentally friendly, so-called green building standards created by the aptly named United States Green Building Council.    Read more »

More

A Couple Paul Newman Classics

in the 1989 movie, “Blaze,” Paul Newman plays Earl K. Long the governor of Louisiana who is also the subject of a wonderful book by the brilliant A. J. Liebling called, aptly enough, The Earl of Louisiana.

The movie is centered on Long’s love affair with the stripper Blaze Starr, played by Loita Davidovich.    Read more »

More

California’s Real Budget Victims

It is common in the world of politics, for attention to be focused on the absolutely dead wrong thing. 

Sometimes that is done by intent – “Look over there, say isn’t that Elvis?” – to low-ball some greasy piece of legislation or fly some unpopular regulatory or policy change under the public’s radar.     Read more »

More

Gov. Palin’s Speech and Harry Truman

(Editor’s Note: Gov. Sarah Palin’s invoking of Harry Truman has stirred up plenty of banter on the Internet. Truman was more than a failed haberdasher, some of the comments say. And a Democrat, others rather unnecessarily inform. He was, among other things, initially refered to by colleagues in the U.S. Senate as the “Senator from Pendergast,” the political machine that fostered Truman’s political career.    Read more »

More