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CalWatchdog Staff
Reflecting on lost freedoms on July 4
JULY 1, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT This morning the Armstrong and Getty talk-show hosts were reporting on proposed new California legislation — opposed by many of the usual law-and-order types — that would overturn the current state of affairs, in
Read MoreYes! Split California in Two
John Seiler: Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone advocates something I long have backed: Split California in two. Let Gov. Jerry “Jobs Killer” Brown, the nutty Democratic Legislature, the government employee unions and others following the North Korean political philosophy have
Read MoreCop and Fire Pensions Tick Off Public
Note: This first appeared in City Journal California. JULY 1, 2011 TOM GRAY Motherhood, the flag, and firemen — they pretty much go together in the pantheon of political symbolism. Except maybe in Alameda. In that city of 74,000, just
Read MoreGovt. Stockholm Syndrome Strikes
John Seiler: You’ve probably heard of Stockholm Syndrome, where hostage victims end up identifying with the hostage takers. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition: In psychology, Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a real paradoxical psychologicalphenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their
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Victims of 'Amazon Tax' Cry Out
Note: If you were fired as an Amazon affiliate, please email me your story to be included in a future article: [email protected] JULY 1, 2011 By JOHN SEILER “I was fired today,” my friend Gary Metz wrote me just after
Read MoreCap and Trade Shootout Looms
JULY 1, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Proposition 23 lives. On the ballot last November, it would have suspended AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, until state unemployment dropped to 5.5 percent for a year. Currently, state unemployment is
Read MoreHonest, Painful Budget Finalized
Katy Grimes: By lunch time today, Gov. Jerry Brown finished signing the rest of the budget bills reducing state spending by an additional $15 billion, and creating a $500,000 million reserve. Without a news conference or any pomp and circumstance,
Read MoreHemp pilot bill passes Senate
Ali Meyer: On June 29, the Senate passed Sen. Mark Leno’s bill SB 676, which authorizes a pilot project for growing industrial hemp, a marjuana-related plant that provides useful products without the psychoactive properties of marijuana. The bill defines “industrial
Read MoreRex Hime paves way for split rolls
Steven Greenhut: Rex Hime is president of the California Business Properties Association, a trade group representing commercial property owners, and someone who is adamantly opposed to the split-rolls tax, which would remove Prop. 13 protections from commercial property owners. Yet
Read MoreBrown Signs Punitive Amazon Tax
(This is an updated Washington Examiner story from June 29.) JUNE 30, 2011 By KATY GRIMES With the California legislature having just passed a flawed budget full of accounting tricks, budget gimmicks and money grabs, one area of small business
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