I had dinner night before last with Alexandria Hildebrandt, the "Direcktor" and owner of the "Mauer Museum" a/k/a the Check Point Charlie Museum at the Check Point Charlie site in Berlin. The Mauer, or "Wall" museum is dedicated to keeping alive the stories of those who perished attempting to cross from tyranny to freedom during the Berlin Wall period. Over several floors of exhibits, one finds the actual devices people used to make their escape. Homemade airplanes. Homemade gas balloons. Secret compartments in the smallest of automobiles. Underwater getaway devices used in the Spree River, and so on. Frau Hildebrandt kindly provided a tour of the museum beforehand, and we had a long talk about freedom. I mentioned those three pillars of a free society: speech, religion, and property rights which were trampled in the East by Communism. But she added a fundamental element that hit me like a 2 by 4. Travel.

In the U.S., there is no "express right" to travel in the Constitution. But the right to travel is still a fundamental right in the U.S., as case law has determined that the right to travel is encompassed by a… Read More

Priceless? No, only $3.99… SD Mayor Jerry Sanders was accused last week by opponent Steve Francis of tossing an F-bomb at him (see Jon Fleischman’s Thursday post). Sanders responded to a resulting media inquiry with a clarification, saying no, he didn’t say, "F you, Francis," but instead, "F you, Steve."

It’s good to see the two are on a first name basis.

Sanders’ "Yeah, so what?" approach effectively put an end to the matter (not counting how Francis will no doubt use it in mailers and TV ads — here’s a press release, in fact). As frustrated as he may be with the million dollar campaign against him, I doubt Sanders meant to pop off to Francis. Yet, it was refreshing to hear him own up to it immediately, especially given a spokesman was denying the… Read More

I don’t believe in "channeling" per se, but I wish at times I could be RNC Committeeman for a day.

I would have weighed in on the entire North Carolina GOP ad controversy, where they correctly depicted Barack Obama’s close spiritual advisor, The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, as an America blaming bigot and full blow racist.

The outcry from the RNC and the McCain campaign against the North Carolina GOP is indicative of many troubling signs for the Republican Party, to wit:

The RNC still doesn’t understand why their donors are hanging up on their telemarketers every day;

The RNC doesn’t understand that we want a Party that fights Democrats, takes it right to them, gets in their faces and kicks there a**es;

In the daily onslaught against Republicans by Democrat leaders, we want a Party that hits back;

We are so desperate for an agenda that thousands of Republicans, unsolicited, are sending money to the North Carolina GOP while at the same time hanging up on RNC fundraisers;

Finally, I would have, if National Committeeman for one day, held a press conference for the express purpose of telling the RNC… Read More

Today we are pleased to present a Guest Commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association… IT’S A FULL MOON AND THE GOVERNOR’S TRANSFORMATION IS COMPLETE by Jon Coupal

We are all familiar with those scary movies where the seemingly nice guy morphs into a threatening monster over a very short time. Excuse me if I now find myself thinking of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his real life role as California Governor.

With his announcing yesterday that he would oppose Proposition 98, which would protect property owners from eminent domain abuse and provide additional property rights… Read More

Today we are pleased to present a Guest Commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…

IT’S A FULL MOON AND THE GOVERNOR’S TRANSFORMATION IS COMPLETE by Jon Coupal

We are all familiar with those scary movies where the seemingly nice guy morphs into a threatening monster over a very short time. Excuse me if I now find myself thinking of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his real life role as California Governor.

With his announcing yesterday that he would oppose Proposition 98, which would protect property owners from eminent domain abuse and provide additional… Read More

I’m off to the Capitol City this morning for a Board of Directors Meeting for the California Republican Party. Also on my Southwest Flight are CRP Secretary Steve Baric (we carpooled), RNC Delegation Executive Director Kathy Tavoularis and also David Cordero, a longtime GOP activist who does government affairs for one of Orange County’s myriad of water districts. Wheels up!… Read More

The arguments being made by some that Proposition 98 would somehow inhibit infrastructure (such as water conveyance) construction in California have been debunked as being without merit. Still, using this faux argument, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has once again, like he did with Prop. 90, sided with the redevelopment lobby against property owners in announcing his opposition to Proposition 98. Once again the Governor and "his" political party are on opposite sides of this issue of meaningful reforms of eminent domain abuse — with the Governor again supporting the status quo. I think the Governor should change his middle name to "Disappointment" – sigh.… Read More

It seems like this morning on the main FR page, we did a "disservice" of sorts to our friend Malcolm Maclachlan, an ace reporter over at the Capitol Weekly. This morning’s Cap Weekly featured an interview that Malcolm conducted with "well traveled" pornographic film star Nina Hartley (see the cover of one of Hartley’s "publications" to the right).

However, we incorrectly attributed the interview to Shane Goldmacher, who used to work for CapWeekly and is now over with the Sacramento Bee.

Sorry for the mixup. Shane, to be sure, when you have a chance to interview a porn star, we’ll endeavor to get it right. In the meantime, it’s Malcolm whom FR Capitol readers can pester for the parts of the interview that didn’t make it past CW’s Editor, John Howard.… Read More