You Will Be a Lot Less Safe on Saturday: A debate has been raging here in Washington for over a year now over the parameters by which our intelligence officers and military personnel can monitor phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists. At question is whether a foreign to foreign phone call that is routed through a switching station in the US is subject to US privacy laws even though both the caller and receiver are in foreign countries. Also at issue is US officials must get a warrant before listening if one of the persons is a known terrorist and the threat is perceived to be imminent.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill by a vote of 68-29 which was an agreed upon compromise supported by the President, all Republicans in both houses and, obviously, a substantial bi-partisan majority of the members of the Senate. This bill would extend and modify the so-called Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Only the most liberal Senators opposed it. Senators Obama and Clinton interestingly did not vote on this bill. If it had been put on the House floor, it would have passed easily with support from all Republicans and many moderate Democrats.… Read More

(In the interests of providing a fair and balanced opportunity for debate here on the FR Blog, I’ve posted this submission from Kelly McCarty, in response to this post by our Riverside County Correspondent Barry Nestande.) FROM KELLY MCCARTY:

Assemblyman John Benoit’s Chief of Staff Barry Nestande has posted on this site that it was outrageous for me to have considered running against his employer in the Republican primary if Proposition 93 would have passed.

First, Nestande does not disclose that his brother Brian is one of my opponents for the Republican nomination in Assembly District 64. That would seem to be an important disclosure for an author to… Read More

Longtime FR readers know my rule – that if one flies to or from Sacramento on a weekday, you’re going to know someone on the plane. Today’s lucky passengers (oh to be singled out) – Mark Gaughan from SDGE, and Susie Duvall, the bride of Assemblyman Mike Duvall. My bride is the Assemblyman’s District Director.

Most of my meetings in the Capitol City wouldn’t interest you. And some of my meetings that would interest you a lot are things on which I may not blog. But, we’ll try to post a bit from the center of government growth.

Wheel’s up!… Read More

Don’t believe what they tell you — Republicans have a lot of passion for the issue of education. We have good ideas and great interest in making sure that future generations of Californians have a top-notch education.

As a matter of fact, politican animal that I am, I devoted over a year of my life exclusively to the politics of education. I was the Campaign Coordinator for the successful Proposition 227 campaign to put an end to the use of bilingual education programs that were ineffective at helping schools kids to learn English. I was also the Campaign Manager back in 1998 for Gloria Matta Tuchman, the Republican challenger to Delaine Eastin, the lefty Democrat incumbent in the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. We lost by a few points that year, unfortunately.

One great thing about have a Republican Governor is that we have (or should have) a Republican State Board of Education, to offset the liberalism of current Superintendent Jack O’Connell.

So, it was with much dismay, in reviewing the Governor’s appointments today, to see that he made three appointments to the important State Board of Education,… Read More

Not too long ago, the incoming Senate President Pro-tem, Darrell Steinberg, proclaimed that there was not a lick of difference between himself and current Pro-tem Don Perata. When that went around, it was received with a chuckle. Perhaps not ideologically, but in terms of style and temperment, they are polar opposited. While Steinberg is a pretty mellow fellow, Perata is famous for his temper, and temper-tantrums.

State Senator Joe Simitian was reminded of Perata’s petulant ways as he wasd just FIRED as the Chairman of a key State Senate committee.

His crime? He upset Perata, of course.

Perhaps it is time to for Don’s buddies to gracefully (or not so) show him the door. With Steinberg on the way in, Perata is yesterdays news anyway. And if he wants to be rude to the end, the end should be…now.… Read More

Incumbent Members of Congress don’t lose, right? Certainly not their own party’s nomination, right? Well Rep. Wayne Gilchrist of Maryland, who was registered to vote as a Republican, liked to vote with House Democrats so much that he garnered a primary opponent in Andy Harris, a strong conservative. This primary challenge to Erlich was backed by, among others, former Maryland Governor Bob Erlich. The conservative Club for Growth weighed in heavily as well (to the tune of over $500,000!) — check out the ad below. Well to make a long story short, last night Maryland Republicans in Gilchrist’s district spoke loud and clear — tossing the liberal Republican out on his ear, and handing the GOP nomination to Harris.

This is a very positive thing because it shows that at the local level, Republicans want to send Representatives back to Washington who will stop the liberal agenda of Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts, not ones who will seek to work with her towards her goals.

For the most part, we have lived in a "weak party" system here in America. After all, take a country… Read More

[Update: How is this for bizarre? Given Mike Der Manouel’s post below, and the "Steel Watch 3" anonymous e-mail he has reprinted… I just got an email from the Steel campaign, with a cascade of Congressional endorsements… among them… JERRY LEWIS. You seriously can’t make this stuff up – Flash]

I have not endorsed either Tim Morgan or Shawn Steel in the race for California National Committeeman for the Republican National Committee, but whoever is putting out Steelwatch is actually hurting the Morgan Campaign. Here is the latest Steelwatch":

SHAWN STEEL – BIG GAME HUNTER

Shawn Steel wants to be California’s Republican National Committeeman.

But there’s one problem (ok – there’s more than one problem – but we’re only going to talk about one… Read More

Incumbent Members of Congress don’t lose, right? Certainly not their own party’s nomination, right? Well Rep. Wayne Gilchrist of Maryland, who was registered to vote as a Republican, liked to vote with House Democrats so much that he garnered a primary opponent in Andy Harris, a strong conservative. This primary challenge to Erlich was backed by, among others, former Maryland Governor Bob Erlich. The conservative Club for Growth weighed in heavily as well — check out the ad below. Well to make a long story short, last night Maryland Republicans in Gilchrist’s district spoke loud and clear — tossing the liberal Republican out on his ear, and handing the GOP nomination to Harris.

This is a very positive thing because it shows that at the local level, Republicans want to send Representatives back to Washington who will stop the liberal agenda of Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts, not ones who will seek to work with her towards her goals.

For the most part, we have lived in a "weak party" system here in America. After all, take a country like Great Britain. There,… Read More