California: Ca 45

November 5, 2009 - 12:12 am

Once again, sorry about the technical woes ...

... this is the first time I've been able to log in since Monday night. But soon this will be fixed and I'll be back to the usual whining. Joel Anderson, I haven't forgotten that you're in your second month...

November 3, 2009 - 12:01 am

Sorry about technical woes keeping site down -- regular blogging resumes tomorrow

Thanks for the e-mails of concern. My blog lives on. Though pretty soon after a format change it's gonna be known as America's Finest blog, not America's Finest Blog. Nice conflict of interest, Al Gore. Maybe this explains why you...

October 30, 2009 - 06:33 pm

What drove Gavin out? Let speculation begin

Sac Bee: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom made a surprise announcement Friday afternoon that he was dropping out of the gubernatorial race, leaving the Democrats with no declared candidate for the top statewide office. There's got to be a 50-50...

October 30, 2009 - 04:18 pm

The most idiotic jury verdict of all time

http://www.helenair.com/news/article_17304d04-c44f-11de-b8fa-001cc4c0328... Brandon Patch would be embarrassed by what his parents have done. Montana's state motto is "Oro y plata" -- "Gold and silver." Is should by "estúpido y estúpido." More here....

October 30, 2009 - 12:59 pm

AG's spokesman told me surreptitious taping was illegal. Was he taping me when he told me that?

The last time I spoke with Scott Gerber, spokesman for AG Jerry Brown, was about a month ago. I asked him why the AG's office was investigating not just ACORN but the fake pimp and fake prostitute who went to...

October 29, 2009 - 05:02 pm

Prediction: Conventional wisdom on proposed state constitutional convention will be that delegate selection process is insane

I laughed several times just reading Joe Mathews' explanation at Fox & Hounds of how the delegates will be chosen: Hold onto your hats. And take a deep breath. This is going to make your head hurt. There isn't one...

October 29, 2009 - 02:59 pm

'School quality is a function of school spending': Graphic proof this is a myth

To those who say, well, this is misleading, federal spending may be going up, but local and state spending isn't: Wrong. Inflation-adjusted per-pupil spending in the U.S. is up at least 60 percent since the 1983 release of the...

October 29, 2009 - 01:57 pm

Gov race: Will Jerry Brown 'peak' the day he becomes a formal candidate?

I had an interesting interview on KOGO 600 AM with Dan Weintraub the other day about the 2010 governor's race. (I'm now a multimedia blowhard, FYI.) He pushed back in his low-key way at my presumption that Jerry Brown was...

October 28, 2009 - 02:47 pm

Mortgage insanity continues -- one-third of homes bought with no money down

So the single biggest factor behind the U.S. economic meltdown, it is generally agreed, was the housing bubble and the financial industry's insane rush to lend hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who were poor credit risks. Incredibly enough,...

October 28, 2009 - 02:28 pm

Orange County vote dredges up past that one RINO assemblyman would rather ignore

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to ban the use of union-only project labor agreements. Before the vote, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction noted the significance of this: Orange County, in January of 2000, by a...