RALLIES ON IMMIGRATION REFORM Tens of thousands of protesters, in what was clearly a coordinated statewide effort, held rallies to protest what they consider to be unacceptable solutions to the country’s illegal immigation problem. This is a national debate, and while the FR is a California-centered publication, there is probably no other state that is as negatively impacted by the failure of the federal government to address this problem than ours. Mike Der Manouel has a commentary on the main page on this issue — but it seems to me that you can divide the issue into two parts. The first part — the easy part — is border control. Congress needs to put up a security barrier between Mexico and the United States, and take seriously the role of tracking who is coming into this country. Pursuant to this is an obligation to exclude from entry anyone… Read More

RALLIES ON IMMIGRATION REFORM Tens of thousands of protesters, in what was clearly a coordinated statewide effort, held rallies to protest what they consider to be unacceptable solutions to the country’s illegal immigation problem. This is a national debate, and while the FR is a California-centered publication, there is probably no other state that is as negatively impacted by the failure of the federal government to address this problem than ours. Mike Der Manouel has a commentary on the main page on this issue — but it seems to me that you can divide the issue into two parts. The first part — the easy part — is border control. Congress needs to put up a security barrier between Mexico and the United States, and take seriously the role of tracking who is coming into this country. Pursuant to this is an obligation to exclude from entry anyone… Read More

Yesterday I wrote about Steve Schmidt, who is now closing in on two months as the campaign manager for Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election. There was a story in the Capitol Weekly that was focused on Schmidt’s first three paychecks, which were pretty large. As I said in my piece, Schmidt not only got a hiring bonus (remember, he relocated his family to California from a pretty sweet-gig in the Administration in D.C.) but also may be the best investment that the campaign makes for the discipline and organizational skills he will bring to the campaign. This will pay off the most dividends if Schmidt can introduce some ‘consulting reform’ to the statewide campaign. A look back at traditional statewide campaigns and ballot measure efforts, most definately including the Governor’s past campaigns in both regards, show that a small group of consultants walk away with… Read More

Yesterday I wrote about Steve Schmidt, who is now closing in on two months as the campaign manager for Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election. There was a story in the Capitol Weekly that was focused on Schmidt’s first three paychecks, which were pretty large. As I said in my piece, Schmidt not only got a hiring bonus (remember, he relocated his family to California from a pretty sweet-gig in the Administration in D.C.) but also may be the best investment that the campaign makes for the discipline and organizational skills he will bring to the campaign. This will pay off the most dividends if Schmidt can introduce some ‘consulting reform’ to the statewide campaign. A look back at traditional statewide campaigns and ballot measure efforts, most definately including the Governor’s past campaigns in both regards, show that a small group of consultants walk away with… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger is making a bad call in saying that he will not appoint a new Chairman to the California Prop 10 Commission, which would have the effect of terminating Rob Reiner, who was appointed by Gray Davis, and who’s term has expired (apparently you serve ‘until replaced’). In today’s San Diego Union Tribune, the paper editorializes against this unfortunate decision. The piece can be found here.

The Governor should reconsider this decision. And, oh yes, he should also come out publicly against Reiner’s tax-increase measure right away.… Read More

We continue to highlight the appointments made by Governor Schwarzenegger — late last week, the Governor made two important appointments, Republican Lynn Jacobs as director of the Department of Housing and Community Development and George Valverde as director of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Here is more information about them:

GEORGE VALVERDE Valverde has served the State of California for thirty years, much if it in managerial roles, with a focus on operations and budget issues. He has served the State and Consumer Services Agency (SCSA) as undersecretary since 2004. Valverde was previously deputy secretary for fiscal operations from 1995 to 2003. Prior to his tenure with State and Consumer Services, he served in the Department of Finance as an assistant program budget manager of the Capitol Outlay Unit from 1990 to 1995, principal program budget analyst from 1985 to 1990 and budget analyst from 1981 to 1985.… Read More

Police estimate the a half a million people showed up for a rally against some anti illegallegislation in Congress. Here is the story.Of course some of them were illegal, but many weren’t. This rally shows what happens when a nation refuses to enforce our laws for two decades. Of course many want the system to stay broken. They have two decades of exploiting it.

Or maybe this was a commercial for buying land in Idaho.… Read More

The outrageous claims and behavior of those protesting proposed immigration legislation this past week are a direct result of a "deer in the headlights Congress" and White House that have effectively traded border and national security for an increase in political support from Hispanics. End of story.

In the four plus years since the terrorist attacks Congress has squandered an opportunity to fix immigration for national security reasons – and won’t have the opportunity again until America is attacked by terrorists for the second time. Its hard to play the race card against national security but Americans are already forgetting 9-11, so the race card is out again.

Liberals and Mexican activists in effect want America to turn a blind eye toward those whose first act in entering the US is to break the law. Employers want the labor supply, so they paralyze GOP members of Congress. The situation is a crisis and a mess. Inaction will only heighten the problem and tensions in society are sure to rise with these protests.

We must utilize technology to fix our system of tracking immigrants before we establish a guest worker… Read More