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Jon Fleischman

Today’s Commentary: The Radical Left Will Use”Any Means Necessary” To Stop Proposed LNG Facility off of the Malibu Coast

Whenever the political left wants to inspire its troops, it never takes long before they reach back to the glory days of the 1960s for one of its favorite rallying cries: "By any means necessary."

Back then, the words meant grit, determination and a willingness to endeavor against difficult odds for causes such as racial equality. For today’s left – particularly environmentalists – "any means necessary" means something entirely different.

We can all think of examples of this kind of environmental ‘extremist’ – such as “tree spiking” — but there much more pervasive level in which environmental radicalism is running rampant – through the use of political action to deceive, delay, and “game the system” for their extreme ideological and political agenda.

**There is more – click the link**

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Jon Fleischman

State GOP Names New COO, Finance Chairman

As FR readers know, I am not partial to reprinted press releases up on this blog. That said, this morning the California Republican Party issued a release chock-full of new appointments that are all worth sharing, and I have no desire to virtually re-write what they’ve put out… So here it is:

The California Republican Party today announced the following nominations and appointments have taken place since the election of a new Chairman and Board of Directors at its February convention. CRP Chairman Ron Nehring announced the nomination of Steven Francis, Chairman of AMN Healthcare, to serve as the California Republican Party’s new Finance Chairman. Mr. Francis is a successful business leader in Southern California and a board member of The New Majority donor group, the Lincoln Club, plus numerous charitable and civic organizations including Father Joe Villages, the Chamber of Commerce, and the YMCA. This positionRead More

Shawn Steel

Should the Republican Party Stay Republican?

"I’m concerned about not building into the general election a whole block of voters, that by that rule, we’ve isolated," said Tim Morgan, National committeeman.

San Jose Mercury News, March 14, 2007

Currently our rules provide that only the votes of registered Republican will be used to determine the outcome of the Republican Presidential Primary in California. A change to this rule may be debated and voted on this September 9th at the CRP fall convention in Palm Desert. The Party may be asked to permit some 3,000,000 Decline-To-State [DTS] voters to be able to vote in the Republican primary to select the GOP nominee for President.

While its true we permit DTS to vote in our legislative primaries presently, changes our current rule would erode the very function of our national Republican identity. Essentially, we would be following Arnold’s mistaken and hilariousvision of… Read More

Shawn Steel

Today’s Commentary: Should the Republican Party Stay Republican?

"I’m concerned about not building into the general election a whole block of voters, that by that rule, we’ve isolated," said Tim Morgan, National committeeman.

San Jose Mercury News, March 14, 2007

Currently our rules provide that only the votes of registered Republican will be used to determine the outcome of the Republican Presidential Primary in California. A change to this rule may be debated and voted on this September 9th at the CRP fall convention in Palm Desert. The Party may be asked to permit some 3,000,000 Decline-To-State [DTS] voters to be able to vote in the Republican primary to select the GOP nominee for President.

While its true we permit DTS to vote in our legislative primaries presently, changes our current rule would erode the very function of our national Republican identity. Essentially, we would be following Arnold’s mistaken and hilariousvision of… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Roll Call: New GOP Primary Rules Could Empower Members

David Drucker pens an outstanding analysis today of some of the impacts of the California Republican Winner-Take-All-By-District Presidential Primary:

California Schemin’ New GOP Primary Rules Could Empower Members

By David M. Drucker, Roll Call Staff

California House Republicans could wield unprecedented influence over the outcome of their state’s Feb. 5 presidential primary, thanks to a move by the state GOP to scrap the traditional winner-take-all system in favor of awarding delegates by Congressional district. Member endorsements generally have limited utility in White House primaries. But in the race for California’s 173 RepublicanRead More

Barry Jantz

Anderson’s Iran Divestment Bill Has Legs

How does a Republican get a bill passed in California? Get the Dems and the unions on board, as a start (maybe even a finish).

Proving that sometimes even GOP-authored legislation can’t be ignored, the following are in support of Joel Anderson’s AB 221, which would divest CalPERS and CalSTRS of investments in businesses with ties to Iran. Note the list even includes former Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi, who — I’m guessing — is neither a union member nor a Democrat:

17 Bi-Partisan Co-AuthorsMajority Whip Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco)Public Safety Committee Chairman Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim)Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-West Read More

Mike Spence

Let a Thousand Snitch Lines Blossom

As reported in the LA Times, State Sen. Maldanado has proposed a "snitch" line for carpool violations. See here.(it was on the FR Front page). This vital piece of legislation should just be a start. California should also have the following snitch lines:

Conservatives may want these:

People that use food stamps to buy Nachos at 7-11 (I’ve seen this)

People that use food stamps for food and then with cash buy Whiskey and a TV Guide. (Seen that too. I hang out in all the right places.)

Liberals may want these:

Parents who give foods with Trans Fat to their children.

People driving while using a cell phone.

People laugh at the Sienfeld episode that uses "Not. that there anything wrong with that." as a punchline.

Personally, I think we need a snitch line for GOP politicians that pretend to be fiscally conservative then vote for budgets that aren’t.

Let all the snitch lines happen, except for a line to reportBloggers that can’t spell. That would be very very… Read More

Congressman John Campbell

War Funding

War Funding Bill: So, the Democrats in the House have passed their “Defeat with Pork” resolution. The Senate is unlikely to support a final version of this critical war funding legislation that has the withdrawal provisions or the pork included in the House version. Even if they do, and it comes out of a conference committee and is passed again by both houses, the President will veto it.

So now what? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reportedly be running out of money in mid-April. That means our troops will run out of supplies, replacements, and be placed in a very precarious position. The military commanders will probably do whatever they can to keep things moving forward. They may defer purchase of new ships or planes or whatever to get the money to keep the effort moving forward in the war.

But they will run out eventually. The $95.5 billion for the war that was in the supplemental appropriations bill is roughly 17% of this year’s military budget. So, they are unlikely to be able to work around this.

What we may have is a very consequential game of chicken like the one between President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich in the… Read More