Yesterday I penned a column making the case for why Meg Whitman should endorse Proposition 23, the California Jobs Initiative that would suspend former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulatory Bill until such a time as California’s economy is doing a heck of a lot better than it is today.

Thanks to a lot of help from FR strategic partners (thanks, all!) that piece also went out via email to well over 100,000 people! I took the liberty of sending it out as an email myself to over 30,000 Republicans.

I can tell you that I was stunned by the response. There is no doubt that Proposition 23 is not only popular with Republican activists — its a major motivating factor for this November’s elections. I received countless e-mails from GOP grassroots leaders, donors (big and small), legislators, county supervisors, city councilmembers and many others.

Two things were obvious to me from all of the responses — the first is that a broad group of people are knowledgeable and… Read More

Just in from John Eastman… Please read it – and act! Acting Governor Maldonado: File the Appeal Today! Today is a huge deadline in the fight over traditional marriage. Last month, Judge Vaughn Walker, Chief Judge of the federal district court in San Francisco, ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. It was a truly amazing decision by a lower court judge, because it not only failed to distinguish but did not even bother citing binding precedent of both the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States itself, both of which have previously held that limiting marriage to opposite-sex unions is a perfectly rational and legitimate governmental purpose.

The Proponents of the Initiative immediately filed an appeal, of course, but here’s the rub, and one last card of mischievousness up Judge Walker’s sleeve. Denying the Proponents motion to put the ruling on hold until it could be… Read More

Over the course of the past year, there has been a narrative developing… Everyone makes light of the fact that "you never know what Jerry Brown is going to say" — which is certainly true. But as his eccentric behavior exhibits itself more and more often, and his campaign theme starts to become "Tales of the Bizarre" — I think that more and more serious people are going to question Brown’s core competency. I was in elementary school when Brown was last Governor, so I don’t know if these "behavior issues" were pervasive then as well (were they?). Whether comparing Meg Whitman to former Nazi propaganda chief and genocidal maniac Joseph Goebbels, or now beating the rhetorical snot out of long-time ex-President Bill Clinton…

Oh well, it does make for good blogging.

So the Whitman campaign releases this commercial, which includes great clips from the 1992 Democrat Presidential debate, where Clinton takes off the proverbial gloves on his then fellow Presidential aspirant Brown…

… Read More

The Steel(e) showwas front and center in Los Angeles Thursday night at the Jonathan Club for the LA County Lincoln Club ‘ s 13th annual Spirit of Lincoln award dinner. After an Invocation byBoard of Equalization Member Michelle Steel, Republican National Committeeman and Lincoln Clubs Secretary Shawn Steel introduced Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for a upbeat talk on how we are going to kick (donkey) in the November 2nd elections. Steele said… Read More

Emotion regarding social issues is clouding the political judgment of political observers and the local press in the race for the 5th Assembly District between Republican Small Business Owner Andy Pugno, Democrat Community Physician/Educator Richard Pan, and Peace and Freedom College Student Elizabeth Martinez. So the Pugno campaign will attempt to provide some facts for people to consider about the race, the district and the candidates. Pugno Fact #2 In 2008, Peace & Freedom candidate Karen Martinez won 8% of the vote for Assembly District 5 in a 3-way race. This year it is again a 3-way race with Peace & Freedom candidate Elizabeth Martinez (her daughter) on the ballot. Polling shows the third-party candidate pulling 10% of the vote, almost totally from liberal voters. Pugno Fact #1 In the June primary election more than 42,000 votes were cast for Republican candidates compared to just 35,000 for Democrats. 7,000 votes is a substantial difference.

Note: I am the general… Read More

As I mentioned earlier, the greater challenge for energy policy going forward is in mobile source energy, meaning planes, trains, and automobiles. This is where the most urgent economic and foreign policy need arises, but where the technological barriers are also the most severe.

Weaning ourselves from foreign oil is an objective shared by almost everyone, albeit for different reasons. Some want to stop sending trillions of dollars to countries who don’t like us or our way of life. Some decry the economic harm caused by our trade deficit, of which oil imports are a major part. Others want to see those energy jobs here and not in Saudi Arabia or Indonesia. And, still others want to find less polluting alternatives. All of these are valid points. So, let’s just stipulate that eliminating American imports of oil sourced from outside North America is a worthy goal.

So how do we use our oil? Less than 1% of oil is used to produce electrical energy. About 30% is used in industrial processes, such as the making of plastics. That is obviously a significant amount. It is beyond the scope of this piece to get into detail about that, but suffice it to say that… Read More

In this column I will seek to spend a few minutes making the case for why Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman should endorse Proposition 23, the Jobs Initiative, appearing on this November’s ballot. This is the measure that would suspend AB 32 until the recession in California is fully in the rear view mirror. For those looking for a good general write up on Prop. 23 – the policy and the politics – let me point you towards this piece by Katy Grimes over at PRI’s CalWatchDog website. I apologize that this is a bit longer than what I would normally write – but I wanted this to be a comprehensive approach to an important issue.

In the meantime, it is my hope that Meg Whitman reads this column and that as you read it, you will carry its message to those people with whom you interact that can give input into Whitman and her campaign. PHILOSOPHY AND METHODOLOGY OF AB 32 EMBRACES THE TENETS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

The type of… Read More

A couple of otherwise mostly-missing-from-the-mainstream missives from the San Diego area (and other places)…

Do 9/11 Responders Continue to Die?… A Fox News story indicates that about 900 emergency and rescue responders have died since 9/11, at least implying many of the deaths are a result of illnesses related to response conditions. Missing from the article is any reference to how this compares to death rates among emergency responders in general. Yet, on the surface, the numbers alone would seem to be staggering. Some may say suspect, lacking any context. What do you think?

9 Years Later, Nearly 900 9/11 Responders Have Died, Survivors Fight for Compensation Nine years have passed since Al Qaeda orchestrated the deadliest attack ever on U.S. soil, claiming nearly 3,000 lives.

But reports from the New York State Health Department suggest the carnage may not have ended that day.

More than 800 responders to the World Trade Center ruins have died — some, advocates say, from illnesses related to their heroic… Read More