Late news from California in the L.A. Times:

"Lawmakers reject budget fix; state could begin issuing IOUs next week
The core piece of a Democrat-backed package designed to fill the $24-billion gap flops. Last-ditch talks between party leaders and Schwarzenegger expected."

The inability of the California legislature to stop spending other peoples money is something the whole country should be watching. Even facing the prospect of the state's bills being paid by IOUs as early as ne… Continue

Lost amid the clamoring about discrimination in the fire service is a very important fact: Fire Departments don't exist to redress historical claims of bias or unfairness. They exist to save lives.

People of color can correctly point to the predominance of Irish Americans in our fire services. Yes it is true. And in full disclosure I admit that I am Irish.

In a different time Irish Americans were shunned by society and signs in business windows actually read "We don't serve dogs or Irish… Continue

Stop the presses!

Climb back down from the barricades, if only for a moment to get the latest news.

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, after stumbling in the dark for eight or so years, has found the Aladdin’s lamp of Mid East politics. He is undergoing a metamorphis that will surely cost him friends at the cocktail parties where media elites meet on the Upper East side to compare notes and agree that all things liberal are good and all things conservative are by definition bad.

Fr… Continue

Many of you out there are still basking in the afterglow of gathering with thousands of like-minded Amercans to express your displeasure with the direction in which our nation is heading.

America's core values have served us well for 233 years; but we are being asked to abandon them in the name of "fairness".

It is not fair that some people have more money than me. (Actually a lot of people have more money than me.)

It is not fair that some people live in better homes than me.

It is not fair… Continue

What follows is the text of my remarks at Orlando's Tea Party gathering at City Hall on April 15, 2009
***

There is a disconnect between our government and the people. It has been growing for more than the past 100 days… so it cannot all be laid at the feet of the current administration…

… and anger alone won’t get it done…

This is not a Republican / Democrat issue. This is an issue that should cut across party lines.

You will hear the argument that taxes have been higher in the past … and w… Continue