People are howling about John McCain's new ad featuring Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, making fun of Barack Obama's "celebrity" and questioning his readiness to lead.

What do you guys think about it? A fair attack? Below the belt? Nonsensical?

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This Washington Post story about John McCain goes on about how his aides aggressively map out his campaign's message of the day, while McCain dutifuly delivers the message then goes wildly off-topic and talks about whatever he thinks is important.

Somehow the story makes me like him. As far as helping his chances in November though, well that's another matter.

The story can be found here.

 — Andrew Mockett

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Can't believe we didn't get this in our coverage of McCain's visit to Bakersfield Monday!

The presidential contender is wearing a pair of $520 Italian shoes.

There's photos at Meadows Field to prove it!

KHSD Trustee and pastor Chad Vegas would support a religious requirement for public office, he said in a radio appearance Monday. (An excerpt has been posted by a blogger here.)

In an interview with the Californian on Tuesday, he backtracked, saying it wouldn’t be appropriate for California.

His main point, he insisted, is that atheists should not claim that he can’t uphold his oath of office. It’s atheists who couldn’t uphold the constitution, he said.

“I think it’s impossible for an atheist to support and defend the Constitution of the State of California and so maybe we should have a religious test,” he said on Inga Barks’ show on KERN Radio. “An atheist can’t even believe the preamble to our Constitution of the State of California.”

The preamble to the state constitution reads: “We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure and perpetuate its blessings, do establish this Constitution.”

Barks gave him an opening to say he’s not really supporting a religious test for public office, but he instead said he absolutely would — not for federal office, because the U.S. Constitution prohibits a religious test.

“They can’t actually say they’re thankful of the Almighty God. They can’t,” he said Tuesday in an interview.

But he said he’s not pushing for such a test to be enacted here.

“I would support the right of states to have one, sure. But that’s the call of a particular state,” he said. “I don’t think it would work in California.”

He also said the short comments were taken out of context.

The controversy over Vegas’ allegiance to the law of God vs. the laws of man started when he told the Kern County Supervisors that his oath of office doesn’t require him to violate the laws of God. He was encouraging the supervisors to pass an ordinance against gay marriage, which would have been in defiance of the state Supreme Court.
 

Michael Rubio used to work for Dean Florez. Now, he wants to be Dean Florez.

Well, not really. He just wants Florez's job in two years when Florez is termed out.

The question is, who'll be the Republican running against him? (Don't say Nicole Parra.)

The other question is, can he defeat Sarah Reyes?

And maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but if he wins, who will the remaining Supes appoint to take over for him?

-- James Geluso

It was first reported by the National Enquirer, but the mainstream media wouldn't touch it.

Now Sen. John Edwards alleged late-night encounter with Enquirer reporters in a Beverly Hills hotel has been confirmed by FOXNews.

Read the story here.

Here's what the Enquirer is reporting.

Sorry, if you're a blogger with the L.A. Times, you're not allowed to comment on this blog.

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After speaking in front of 200,000 cheering fans in Berlin, presidential hopeful Barack Obama is meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy this morning. Then he's off to London to meet with PM Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair.

There's no denying his rock-star billing and the love (from the media and the people) during his trip, but he's been criticized for acting like the president (and not the contender) and for not giving any details during his Berlin speech.

I imagine your take on this trip (it's a bit early to ask whether it's a success, seeing as it's not over yet) depends on which party you support.

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So presdiential hopeful John McCain is coming to Bakersfield Monday.

We don't know too much yet about his itinerary yet but we do know he'll be at a fundraiser. Posted here is a photo from when McCain came here in 2000.

If you got a chance to talk to McCain, what would you ask him?

Didn't know about Sen. John Edwards' alleged love child and the late-night visit he allegedly paid to see the child and mother in a Beverly Hills hotel Monday?

That's no surprise. The mainstream media is not interested. If it was Larry Craig in an airport restroom, well, another matter entirely.

Slate.com asks why.

Read its explanation here.

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that state employees will see their salaries slashed to the federal minimum wage until the state budget is passed. They'd be paid back their full salary when the budget stalemate is over.

Read the story here.

Congressman Kevin McCarthy was on Fox News Tuesday afternoon discussing the "All of the Above" American Energy Tour he's been on.

McCarthy just got back from a trip with other congress members to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic coastal plain to learn about solutions to achieve energy independence and lower gas price prices.
 

Watch the appearance here.

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Is Dean Florez all talk? No, says Jim Boren up at the Fresno Bee.

He talks about all kinds of legislation Florez has carried in the wake of farmworker fatalities, air pollution reports and the state's bungling of a software contract.

Sure Florez calls a lot of press conferences and ruffles a lot of feathers, Boren writes, but he also gets a lot done and could be a good lieutenant governor candidate after all.

Read and see if you agree!

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Obama has traveled to Afghanistan and is expected to go to Iraq. He is also scheduled to visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England.

And the media's heavy hitters will be there every step of the way.

Is Obama's trip getting a disproportionate amount of news coverage, or is this to be expected since his inexperience in world affairs is so much an issue in the race for president?

Dean Florez offered up a legal opinion today saying the California State Lottery can offer merchandise — he's thinking free gasoline — as a lottery prize. (Opinion attached).

The opinion is from the state non-partisan Legislative Counsel, which Florez asked to weigh in.  Lottery Director Joan Borucki has said California can't afford to award free gasoline because state law restricts how much lottery money can go toward prizes.

“I’ve received a very positive response from many folks who are ready to play a lottery game for a gas prize.  People keep asking me ‘Where can I buy my ticket?’ ever since I announced the concept," Florez said in a news release today.

What do you think of the idea? Would you buy more lottery tickets?

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A majority of Central Valley voters support a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage but they may not get their way in November because statewide, more folks oppose it.

That’s according to a Field Poll released Friday that found 51 percent of likely voters statewide say they’ll vote against Proposition 8 compared to 42 percent who say they’ll vote yes.

In the Central Valley, the poll showed, the measure is winning 54 percent to 39 percent, with 7 percent undecided.

Proposition supporters hope to block a May ruling by the California Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage.

The Field Research Corp. talked to a random sample of 672 likely voters from July 8-14. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

 

What a great story from ocregister.com:

When more than 19,000 Fountain Valley residents picked up their PennySaver last week, they got more than just the usual apartment and job listings.

They got an advertisement on the back page in which Ocean View School District Trustee John Briscoe urged them to tell the Fountain Valley School District to display the national motto, "In God We Trust,'' in the district board room.

In the advertisement released to the entire city, Briscoe chides the district for not pursuing the motto, calling it "dangerous and distracting", not honoring Flag Day, not honoring Veterans Day, not singing the American patriotic song and being generally unpatriotic.

Read the whole story here.

Apparently the school board and Briscoe have disagreed before.

According to Briscoe, he purchased the $500 ad with his own money in response to the district's unanimous June 12 decision not to pursue a display of "In God We Trust" in the board room. During the meeting, trustees had also refused to join him when he asked them to sing two verses of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."

I went looking through the campaign finance reports of Democrat Fran Florez and Republican Danny Gilmore the other day. What stood out most to me was the $4,600 Florez has taken from payday lenders — $3,600 from Advance America, and $1,000 from Check Into Cash of California (based in Cleveland, Tenn.).

Florez told me she didn't solicit the money from the industry specifically; she has held two fundraisers in Sacramento and invited the usual suspects.

“I don’t have anything against somebody who’s in business to make a profit," she said. “I wouldn’t want to tell anybody what is fair and unfair.”

She said they're like mortgage lenders — some are good and some are bad, and they should be judged as individuals.

The entire industry has been under fire from poverty advocates, who say the fees charged amount to APRs of hundreds of percents, and point to stories of people who take out one payday loan but have to get another, then another, The industry responds that taking out a payday loan and paying that fee is cheaper than paying the bounced check fees that banks will charge.

— James Geluso

John McCain and Barack Obama are neck-and-neck in the Central Valley, though many are undecided or like someone else, according to Field Poll  results out Wednesday.

If the election were held now, 39.6 percent would vote for McCain while 38.8 percent would choose Obama, the early-July polling showed. Eight percent chose “other” while 13.6 percent said “don’t know.”

It showed statewide, though, Obama trouncing McCain 53.5 percent to 30.3 percent.
Other valley tidbits:

• 18 percent of McCain voters are “very enthusiastic” about the Arizona senator’s candidacy while 49 percent of Obama backers feel that way about the Illinois senator.

• 47 percent of registered Democrats or non-partisans think Obama should choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate while 43 percent think he shouldn’t. Statewide, more people think Obama shouldn’t choose Clinton.

• Among likely voters, McCain has better image ratings: 53 percent favorable, 30 percent unfavorable. Obama’s are 42 percent favorable, 36 percent unfavorable. 

The findings came from talking to 672 likely voters statewide in English and Spanish from July 8 to 14. The maximum sampling error for that many likely voters is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points, Field Poll said.

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One would imagine that most readers of the New Yorker magazine are intelligent enough to understand satire, but most viewers of cable TV are probably not.

That's my take on the latest issue of the magazine which depicts Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a black radical (with automatic rifle and afro).

There's also a picture of Osama bin Laden over the fireplace and an American flag burning underneath it!

— Andrew Mockett

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County Supervisor Michael Rubio is floating the idea of requiring parents or guardians  to put life vests on their kids at any public waterway like the Kern RIver.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood likes the idea of keeping kids safe but wonders how to enforce it. We found some locals who hate the idea.

You can read our story here.

What do you think of Rubio's idea?

Kern County's top administrator, Ron Errea, has done his own cost analysis of what ending civil marriages in the county clerk's office saves taxpayers: $171 a year.

That's a far cry from the $18,000 County Clerk Ann Barnett projected when she stopped office-performed weddings after the California Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.

Here's our story. What do you think?

Anybody else STILL seeing campaign signs from the June 3 primary up around town?

They're supposed to be down within 10 days of the election, but we've seen one at the Marie Callender's East Hills entrance (we're not sure it's still there, though) and along Seventh Standard Road coming back from the coast.

Kern County elections chief Sandy Brockman said her office sometimes gets complaints but she hasn't gotten any lately. She said she has noticed signs still up, too. She refers complainers to the District Attorney's office or state Department of Transportation.

Anybody see some up lately? Tell us when and where or even better, snap a photo and send it our way.

Obama said today he's consider refining his Iraq timeline after he visits Iraq and talks to commanders over there.

(read the New York Times piece here)

Much of Obama's popularity was built on his stance against the Iraq war and his timetable for withdrawal.

I imagine his detractors will be shouting "flip-flopper" from the rooftops, while his supporters will say this is just more evidence of his willingness to listen to the experts and work with others for the best solution.

Either way, there's bound to be some discussion.

Why not start here!