FR friend Peter Robinson (pictured) , the former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, is a fellow over at Hoover at Stanford. He is the host of the Institution’s video program, Uncommon Knowledge. Robinson’s most recent interview is a lengthy one with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. It’s outstanding and worth a chunk of your time this weekend. We encourage you to check it out here.

Hoover describes Bush thusly:

A referendum to invalidate a bill just passed and signed this fall, SB 777, launched yesteday morning at a press conference on the north steps of the State Capitol. Legislators attending Friday are Co-Chairs for the campaign including Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Bob Huff, Assemblyman Joel Anderson and myself. Co-chairs Senator George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner had a press conference to launch it down south as well. Capitol Resource Institute, led by executive director, Karen Englandformed thenewly affiliated [c]4 arm Capitol Resource Family Impact to wage this campaign. Thanks to Karen and CRFI directors and staff for putting together the pressevent and importantly, of course, this campaign.

You’ll recall that SB 777 was the bill by Senator Kuehl that set off a shock wave that would require change to school policy and curriculum that could be seenby some to "promote a discriminatory bias" [btw, we already have more than adequateprotectionsin thelaw] and turn every policy that could be interpreted to have an impact on gender or individual sexuality into a legal nightmare.

Already scaredy-cat… Read More

The biggest smile in the room tonight at the Riverside County GOP’s Annual Liberty Dinner is that of Party Chairman Jeff Miller. Hundreds of party faithful, including many VIPS, are gathered here at the Morongo Casino Resort. I am here as the Vice, Chairman, South for the State GOP. Also here representing the CRP is Chairman Ron Nehring.

Trying to mention all of the notables here is challenging, since I will undoubtedly miss someone. U.S. Representative Ken Calvert, a former County GOP Chairman, is the outstanding Master of Ceremonies. Also on hand are State Senators Bob Dutton and Dennis Hollingsworth, as well as Assemblymembers John Benoit, Kevin Jeffries (another former County GOP Chairman), Assemblywoman Mimi Walters (who isn’t from out here, but has a lot of support in the desert for her own Senate run), and retired State Legislators Ray Haynes and Russ Bogh (the latter hoping to return). FR correspondent Senator Jim Battin is ably represented by his long-time aide Kim Glassman.

Topping a list of many local officeholders present are Supervisors Jeff Stone and Marion Ashley.

There are a ton of candidates for the legislature… Read More

As I head out to talk to voters on the last weekend before Tuesday’s election, this article in the Daily Breeze caught my eye. Hermosa Beach bar owners have people talk to patrons about who they should vote for in local elections.

I don’t know if it will work, but I know it would be easier to recruit volunteers.

Hermosa Beach voters are targeted at bars Drive seeks to influence patrons to vote for candidates who are seen as "friendly" to the business. By Andrea Woodhouse Staff Writer

The patrons at Hermosa Beach bars got more than wasted these past few weeks.

They’ve also been schooled on the local political scene from workers recruited by bar owners to register voters and collect contact information so they can be steered… Read More

Fox News called and told me that our school district was the only school district in Los Angeles and maybe California that used Homeland Security’s E-Verify Program to insure that we were hiring those legally allowed to work in the United States.

After one year here are the results:

Four classified people had unverified results. After having the employees go to the Social security administration, all 4 were cleared. Some of the problems were obvious. (A different middle initial on their Social Security Card and their I-9 Employment Verification Form).

Two certificated employees had problems. One cleared immediately and the second employee did not have a valid work permit and was terminated.

While the last employee was here legally, the person didn’t have a valid work permit. The sad news is that the terminated employee could have gone next door to another school district and been hired.

Fox News found only 9 governmental agencies that used the Free E-Verify system. Why can’t government make sure only people that can work legally work for the government?… Read More

There is a report in the Sacramento Bee today that Art Torres, Chair of the California Democratic Party, is claiming that the "California Counts" initiative, which would reform California’s apportionment of electoral college votes to recognize regional diversity and make our state relevant again in Presidential elections, is unconstitutional. That position is a bunch of baloney.

Long established U.S. Supreme Court case law (see Smiley v. Holm, 285 U.S. 355 (1931) and Davis v. Hildebrant, 241 U.S. 565 (1911) ) provide strong logic and support for the initiative. Those cases establish rock-solid support for the proposition that the word "legislature" in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, dealing with apportionment of Congressional districts for election purposes, includes the lawmaking process in the state as determined by its particular "polity." In these cases, "legislature" in Article 1 was interpreted to include not only the state legislature itself, but the full lawmaking process, including the Governor’s veto, and the people’s power of referendum.

In… Read More

We’ve all been reading about the negative impacts all around the United States as a tremendous number of people are going into default on their sub-prime home loans, and they say that the situation is likely to get worse. Millions of American families seem to have overextended themselves, getting into interest-only variable rate loans that are now coming back to bite them as their short-term low rate is now adjusting to a higher one. Clearly many of these folks taking out these sub=prime loans were the victims of predatory lending practices by the "used car salesman" class of mortgage brokers, and many others still are regreting their efforts to ‘game the system’ as rates go up. California being the largest state in the nation, we are the most-impacted by this situation.

Believe it or not, some are advocating a taxpayer bailout for all of these subprime lending companies, and for those who took risks on this loans. Of course, such a bailouot would mean that all Americans are paying the price for the imprudent decisions made by some. Completely unfair.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore recently published a column in the Orange County… Read More

It would seem that the more that a microscope is applied to the dealings of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, the more it shows a pattern — that absolute power does corrupt absolutely. One can probably figure that at some point Nunez was, well, like the rest of us. You know, work hard and don’t take anything for granted? But at some point, or maybe slowly over time, the big gavel of being the Assembly Speaker has gone to the man’s head.

CHARITY-GATE Just after weeks of articles and investigative reports into the lavish and expensive expenditures from Nunez’ campaign coffers that appear to be supporting a lifestyle otherwise unattainable for a public servant, now the Los Angeles Times has revealed a startling and disturbing pattern… Read More