I guess I’m a real political junkie. I just love political commercials. I know it sounds weird, but I actually change channels during the news programs during an election season, just to see the commercials. Who’s running them, what they say, what they think the issues are, and who are they trying to talk to. Call Republicans racists in the last three weeks of a campaign, and African Americans will forget the bad things that Democrats have done over the last two years, and vote straight Democrat. Talk about raising taxes, and Republicans will vote against it. Talk about protecting the environment and improving education, and Democrats will vote for it. Quite frankly, the messaging becomes so important that the substance of the message is often lost in the words of the message.

Take the No on 90 campaign. They are trying to have it both ways. The "taxpayer trap" words are trying to get Republicans and the "environment" language is trying to get Democrats. They are wrong on both counts, but that is why they are doing it. Messaging.

We see the same thing in the Yes on 86, 87, 88, and 89 campaigns. These initiatives are tax increases. When the Yes on 86 campaign says they want to tax big oil, they don’t say "We are going to tax Big Oil, and give the money to ‘Big Government.’" They say, Big Oil is destroying the world, and we want to stop big oil, and create alternative fuels. You don’t like Big Oil, so you want to stop them, too.

Or, Big Tobacco. Big Tobacco is killing your kids, and they want to kill you. We are going to stop Big Tobacco.

I don’t give money to Big Tobacco. I don’t give money to Big Oil. I pay for gasoline because I like my SUV, and that darn thing needs gas to go. But you can rest assured I will never buy a Prius, or some other low emission vehicle. I hate them. I want to make Big Oil rich with my car. I really dislike cigarettes, so I will never make Big Tobacco rich. However, in both cases, it is my choice. The point is that Big Oil and Big Tobacco make big money because we give it to them for gasoline and cigarettes. If we don’t buy cigarettes, or if we buy a sissy, prissy Prius, they make less money. That is fair.

Big Government, however, makes money by taking it from us. If I don’t like Shell, but I like Chevron, Chevron makes money. If I don’t like the gas tax, but I don’t care about the cigarette tax, I still have to pay Big Government. Big Government doesn’t care about my likes, dislikes, desires, or satisfaction, it just takes the money. The subtext of each of the campaigns for the initiatives to raise taxes is "We don’t like ‘X" industry or group, so take their money, and give it to ‘Big Government.’"

Big Government, not Big Oil or Big Tobacco or special interests or rich people, is the problem. Big Government takes our money, and spends it on what they want to spend it on. My choice is to pay or get shot.

The real evil in society is Big Government. Big Oil and Big Tobacco will leave us alone if we don’t want their stuff. Big Government will search for ways to harass us. As long as we keep giving it money, it will continue to ask for more, and those who make money off of Big Government will continue to pay for the laws to take more. If we vote for Big Government, I guess we get what we deserve.

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http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19645

The typical American this year worked until July 12 to earn enough gross income to pay his or her share of spending and regulatory burdens imposed by federal, state, and local governments, according to the annual Cost of Government Day (COGD) report issued by Americans for Tax Reform. "The Cost of Government Day report has become a true measure of whether the conservative movement is achieving its goal of shrinking the size of government," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, upon the report's release July 12. "And this year's report demonstrates that there is a lot more work to do at the federal, state, and local levels to prevent government from growing out of control."

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http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/editorials/article_1329028.php

10-25-06

A fundamental American freedom is being able to spend – or not spend – one's own money on political campaigns, for persons or initiatives. Money forcibly taken from a person to support a candidate or initiative that the person opposes is a form of tyranny. In early November the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearings on one of the most important cases in this area, Washington vs. Washington Education Association.

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http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19753

A report released this summer by The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis (CDA) demonstrates a strong relationship between state regulation and the rising cost of individual health insurance plans. Insurance premiums are $80 per month higher in states that require more than the national average of 26 benefits, mandate direct access to specialists, make employers liable for damages because of health plans, or prevent insurers from terminating contracts with medical providers, than in states without those regulations. "Differences in health care costs are due to insurance regulation," said author Michael New, Ph.D., a political scientist at the University of Alabama. "In fact, regulation in some states makes it almost impossible to offer individual health insurance plans."

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dna24oct24,1,710411.story?coll=la-headlines-california

10-24-06

With state officials 14 months behind in putting DNA evidence into a database, Los Angeles police detectives are having a tougher time identifying suspects in hundreds of violent crimes, including five that apparently involve serial killers, officials said Monday.

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http://californian.com/articles/2006/10/25/news/top_stories/1_04_4910_24_06.txt

10-24-06

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/26/BUGHQLVSTH1.DTL

10-26-06

National housing prices took a record fall in September as the pace of sales skidded for the sixth consecutive month. The median price for an existing home nationwide -- including single-family houses, condos and co-ops -- dropped 2.2 percent to $220,000 from $225,000 a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. It was the biggest drop on an annual basis in monthly housing prices on record.

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http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/editorials/article_1330494.php

10-26-06

California may be back on its way to becoming Taxifornia – and that's before voters give their verdicts on Propositions 86 (cigarette tax), 87 (oil tax), 88 (property tax) and 89 (corporation tax). California was rated as having the 45th-worst tax climate among the 50 states in 2007, down from 42nd in 2005, according to the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index, released this week.

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http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4557582

10-27-06

Los Angeles Unified opened 20 charter schools this fall - roughly one-third the total launched statewide - with most of them modeled after existing programs, the California Charter Schools Association announced Thursday. The opening this fall of 65 public charters in California brings the total to more than 600 campuses, with some 220,000 students enrolled. With that surge, one in 15 public schools statewide is a charter.

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http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19733

America's entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are passing up a chance to earn billions of dollars by investing in technologies to reduce California's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The only way to overcome business people's stubborn refusal to get rich is for California policymakers to adopt mandatory GHG controls. That's the conclusion of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Climate Action Team, according to an April report to the governor, and of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley Climate Change Center in an August report, "Economic Growth and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in California." The UC-Berkeley experts claim meeting the governor's GHG reduction target--a 25 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 when compared with a "business-as-usual" projection--would increase California's economic output by $74 billion per year, or more than $1,700 per person. If that's true, then reducing GHGs would create tremendous wealth in and of itself, and society should be eager to do so regardless of how concerned we are about human-induced climate change.

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http://www.tmz.com/2006/10/18/celebs-who-claim-theyre-green-but-guzzle-gas

10-18-06

Hybrid cars are all the rage in Hollywood. Celebrities drive them like they're a badge of honor. You save a few gallons of gas, you save the planet. Right? Well, not when you hop on a private jet and burn enough fuel to propel NASCAR through 2050. Of course, the stars need to go here and there. The location shoots, the fabulous vacations, etc. But that's why God created United Airlines. G-IV's, on the other hand, were created in the image of precious celebs.

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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

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