Publicity Hounds And Hot Air 

This week, Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced that he is going to sue automakers in order to get them to pay for the damage caused by global warming. Here is the line of his argument: Cars emit carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases cause global warming, global warming will turn the entire California coast, from San Diego to Yreka, into an underwater farming community, so therefore, the automakers should pay the California government money. He called automobiles "a public nuisance" because people drive them to work to feed their families, and because people drive them from all over the United States to vacation at Disneyland or Sea World, and because, while all these people are doing all of these heinous things, the world is getting warmer.

Let’s leave the debate over whether global warming is actually occurring aside. We won’t even discuss the idea that,..........

even if it is occurring, it may not be occurring because of human activity. (You remember the dinosaurs. The whole world was pretty warm then, and there wasn’t one single automobile, airplane, or politician spewing hot air anywhere). Let’s get into what is really happening here.

Not too long ago, the Public Policy Institute issued a poll which showed that somewhere around 60% of the people in California think that global warming is actually occurring (all the more reason to send this article to people, it just shows that we haven’t been doing our jobs). This poll was done in July, one of the hottest months on record, and released in August, one of the coolest August months ever. This summer proves that you can never count on the weather to prove or disprove political positions.

Due to the hot weather in July, the Capitol building in Sacramento was treated to the emission of tons of greenhouses gases in August, as politicians spewed out their tripe about the importance of doing something about global warming. Governor Schwarzenegger got into the act, and ultimately signed AB 32, which will usher in one huge new "clean air" bureaucracy. AB 32 was simply a bad idea that I believe many will come to despise over time, but it is the law now.

I adamantly disagree with the Governor on the issue, but I cannot fault his process. He followed the constitutionally mandated way of dealing with the issue, and, as flawed as the legislation is, it at least followed the appropriate procedure as it passed through the Legislature. I suppose that the real remedy for the passage of AB 32 would be to get a new Legislature.

What Attorney General Lockyer is doing, however, is a pure publicity stunt. He read the poll, and, not to be outdone by the Governor, decided to get in on the political action. He drafts up this questionable lawsuit, spends your tax dollars on the lawyers to go after the automakers, holds a big press conference to show that he is "fighting" global warming, and hopes that you will vote for him for State Treasurer. He claims that the "public nuisance" law allows him to do this (it doesn’t, but hey, it’s worth a try), but he is really making a mockery of the law, the state, and the judicial system by filing this lawsuit.

Cars perform an important function in California, and their benefits to society outweigh any costs. Think about the emissions that occurred in the horse and buggy days. I prefer global warming to horse manure on Main Street, to be sure. To use our legal system and our tax dollars to claim otherwise is simply an abuse of our legal processes, and a publicity stunt that deserves condemnation. Attorney General Lockyer should go catch bad guys and put them in jail. Leave the automakers alone.

******************************

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4377714

09-22-06

The House voted Thursday to support three measures cracking down on illegal immigrants, including a bill to criminalize the financing and construction of border tunnels between the U.S. and Mexico. The widely popular legislation, based on a measure introduced in May by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is almost certain to be signed into law this year.

******************************

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/election/article_1277185.php

09-18-06

Along with all the confusing and contentious initiative choices that voters will face Nov. 7, there is one initiative that should not take too much energy, thought or time. That's Proposition 83, which would put into effect in California what is known as Jessica's Law. Named after a 9-year-old girl from Florida who was kidnapped from her bedroom, assaulted by a predator and then buried alive, the law would tighten up our state's laws for dealing with sexual predators.

******************************

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_1276021.php

09-18-06

Some year I wish a California governor would announce that he won't sign any bills passed by the Legislature after June 15, the day the California constitution says the state budget is supposed to be passed (but seldom is). He would veto any bills passed after that date. Such a promise – and keeping it – would effectively give California a part-time Legislature and would cut down the number of bills passed to a manageable number, concentrating on those that really are needed.

******************************

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/24948.html

09-18-06

Elvis Presley was a young man when bureaucrats and politicians began talking about two large projects to control and use the water that seasonal rain and snow storms dump on Northern California. Building a high dam on the American River near Auburn, water engineers reasoned, would hold more of the seasonal flows for later use while protecting the Sacramento area from flooding.

******************************

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-recall20sep20,1,2253513.story?coll=la-headlines-california

09-20-06

Recall petitions need to be printed only in English, even when some voters are not proficient in the language, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The federal Voting Rights Act requires ballots and other government-produced election material to be published in other languages if more than 5% of the voters speak a different language.

******************************

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-immig21sep21,1,4661201.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

09-21-06

Republicans pushing for tougher means to stem illegal immigration got a boost Wednesday when the Senate agreed to consider a bill that would build a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and the House approved a measure that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls. Republicans in both chambers said the steps were necessary to protect the United States from illegal immigrants entering the country or trying to corrupt the voting process.

******************************

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/editorial2/20060921-9999-lz1ed21bottom.html

09-21-06

Few initiatives have made as aggressive a claim to saintliness as Proposition 89, the "California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act." The measure – which would set up an elaborate system of public financing for elections, paid for with higher corporate taxes – is billed as a sure-fire way to "stop political corruption and make elections about ideas, not money." Press releases from proposition backers are marked by the sort of unctuous self-regard worthy of a French waiter. To be fair to the California Nurses Association – the initiative's prime advocates – the measure had won enmity from both Republicans and Democrats, and from both big business and some big unions. Yet admirers of Proposition 89 have never been able to offer a coherent justification for its biggest loophole: the provision limiting corporate, but not union, contributions to initiative campaigns. Don't the public employee unions that dominate Sacramento qualify as special interests? Now those who suspected the worst have had their worst suspicions confirmed: Forget all the noble talk – Proposition 89 is first and foremost a fraudulently packaged measure designed to clear the way for a state government takeover of health care.

******************************

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4377289

09-22-06

Year after year, a tidal wave of freshmen not quite ready for college washes up on California State University campuses. It's a problem that forces the schools to provide remedial instruction to get them prepared for college-level work. Results of the Early Assessment Program tests, which are administered by the state university system, show that only one-quarter of California 11th graders who took the exam in spring 2006 had the skills needed to take university-level English classes.

******************************

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Daily_D_drivers19.3a49b64.html

09-19-06

Legislative attempts to toughen licensing standards for older drivers in California have yielded few changes despite public outcry that arose three years ago after an elderly man drove through a bustling Santa Monica farmers market, killing 10 people. Gov. Schwarzenegger on Thursday signed legislation that requires the state Department of Motor Vehicles to study whether a more extensive testing system for license renewals that reviews drivers' vision and physical abilities would root out "functionally impaired" drivers.

******************************

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/25421.html

09-19-06

California prisoners have revealed the dangers of letting inmates get access to other people's Social Security numbers, federal investigators warn. In 13 states, prisoners can do data entry, document scanning and other work that potentially provides them with the personal identification numbers. A security breach at a California prison shows what can happen next.

******************************

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm