If you can hear the thunder in the background, it is the sound of the Sacramento Bee attempting to change the current paradigm of how major newspapers deal with politics and the internet.

The Bee was on the front end of internet blogging, providing a forum and support for columnist Dan Weintraub as he attempted to pull together the first real blog on California politics with no road map to follow. From our end of things, how would it look? How often would he write? What would be the kinds of things he would write about? From the ‘back side’ — how do you integrate the real-time efforts of a blog with the idea that editors like to review what goes up on the website? Anyways, Dan plowed through all of the challenges, and the Sacramento Bee lead what has been large cadre of journalists who now blog for their newspapers, radio stations, and even some television stations.

Now, of course, with trends showing that all print newspapers are declining in circulation as more and more readers look to the internet to get their news (blogs, podcasts, websites and more) — the Sacramento Bee is now looking to see how they can make their… Read More

Today is the deadline for our esteemed legislators to submit bills. I finally found my thinking cap and put it on and came up with some bills that should be introduced. They probably won’t be, but I welcome your suggestions. Here two of my picks.

First bill: It should be illegal to impersonate an illegal alien and gain state benefits. I’m sure that some poor US citizen in Arizona may want a tuition break at California schools or someone may want access to health care illegals get. It has to be stopped! these US citizens are feeding off tax dollars meant for hard working illegal aliens.

Second Bill. There should be a 48-hour waiting period before someone can buy pornography at an adult bookstore. This will allow the owners to do a background check to insure that no registered sex offender has access to these types of material. Just like guns there should be some type of “cooling off” period.

There were other options like laws banning spanking, letting men marry men,eliminating all transfat and raising taxesfora socialistichealth care system,but apparently those aren’t jokes.

Any other suggestions?… Read More

I was reading the Union-Tribune the other day and stumbled on a column by Ruben Navarette, who envisions a ‘cafeteria style’ system, wherein voters pick and chose from amongst various parties and candidates based on each voters preference. In theory, that’s a wonderful system. I dream columnists and professors love to discuss at length. And I have no doubt that among some small subgroups of the population this is and has nearly always been the case. But it simply isn’t the case todayand unless we undergo a cultural revolution, isn’t going to be the case for the lion’s share of the population tomorrow. While some Americans may follow politics day to day at every level in their jurisdiction, most voters follow politics as a ‘background’ to their day to day lives. Political parties offer the invaluable service of offering the majority of the voting population a shortcut of figuring what candidate best represents their basic political philosophy. After all, particularly with the long ballot, how many people are really going to research six dozen or more candidates and measures? Not many Ruben, not many…… Read More

If you can hear the thunder in the background, it is the sound of the Sacramento Bee attempting to change the current paradigm of how major newspapers deal with politics and the internet.

The Bee was on the front end of internet blogging, providing a forum and support for columnist Dan Weintraub as he attempted to pull together the first real blog on California politics with no road map to follow. From our end of things, how would it look? How often would he write? What would be the kinds of things he would write about? From the ‘back side’ — how do you integrate the real-time efforts of a blog with the idea that editors like to review what goes up on the website? Anyways, Dan plowed through all of the challenges, and the Sacramento Bee lead what has been large cadre of journalists who now blog for their newspapers, radio stations, and even some television stations.

Now, of course, with trends showing that all print newspapers are declining in circulation as more and more readers look to the internet to get their news (blogs, podcasts, websites and more) — the Sacramento Bee is now looking to see how they can make their… Read More

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer is termed out in 2008 and by all accounts will run for OC District Attorney.

Phil Paule posts about the field of potential candidates over at Red County/Riverside.

You can also catch a funny post there by Jeff Greene — chief of staff to Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries — about his retaliatory strike against Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez for misspelling Jeffries name.… Read More

Today we feature columns from the two candidates who are running to head up the organization of California’s 58 Republican County Chairmen, aptly called the Republican County Chairman’s Association. I asked the current President of the CCA, Tom Del Becarro of Contra Costa County, to give FR readers a quick description of the group. In Tom’s own style, he penned this:

Today we feature columns from the two candidates who are running to head up the organization of California’s 58 Republican County Chairmen, aptly called the Republican County Chairman’s Association. I asked the current President of the CCA, Tom Del Becarro of Contra Costa County, to give FR readers a quick description of the group. In Tom’s own style, he penned this:

The County Chairman’s Association (“CCA”) is the association of all of our County Chairs. At its best, it provides ongoing training to incoming Chairs and communicates our successes and areas for opportunities to each Chair so that they may benefit from the collective wisdom of its… Read More

Just a few minutes ago, I got off of the phone with a very excited Julie Soderlund. Those in the media, and anyone who followed the Gubernatorial Campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger know that Julie (pictured to the right) served as the Governor’s Press Secretary for his re-election effort. In that capacity, I got to deal with Julie quite a bit. I can assure all FR readers that she is a really great communicator, and a consumate professional. Julie was sharing the news that she has decided to take the leap into the private sector, becoming the managing director of Wilson-Miller Communications. The "Wilson" is Marty Wilson, who is a chief political advisor and fundraising coordinator for Governor Schwarzenegger (he played a similar role with former Governor Pete Wilson), and the "Miller" is Beth Miller, whom I have know for many years, and who has a long history of working for GOP candidates and causus.… Read More