Demonstrating a level of responsibility lower than that of a teenage mother who leaves an infant on the steps of a church, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will soon be depositing unsupervised felons in neighborhoods near you.

As part of an unrelenting effort to reduce criminal sentences, eliminate parole supervision and shift its responsibilities to county law enforcement, Corrections will today commence granting early release credits (without any requirement that they be earned) and designate tens of thousands of inmates for release without parole supervision.

The unsupervised release of prisoners also absolves Corrections from any responsibility to provide parolees with training or medical care or even bus passes. From the myopic perspective of Corrections, ignoring parolees saves money. Yet ignoring offenders who have the greatest rehabilitation potential simply increases the likelihood they will fail.

Indeed, this very administration abandoned its prior policy of ignoring parole violations in 2005 when the Sacramento Bee published an in-depth article that documented a dramatic increase of new felonies among parolees whose… Read More

Quote of the Week: Don’t worry I didn’t forget a quote of the week this week, but it is really long…but it’s very good, so I decided to put it at the bottom on this missive, so scroll down!

We’re Baaaack: Last Wednesday, both Houses of Congress returned to Washington for the second session of the 111th Congress. So, your life, liberty, and property are once again in jeopardy. You haven’t heard from me for a while over the holidays, but I will make up for that soon. This is the first of 4blogs I willpublish over the course of the next week. Today I want to give you a little flavor of what people in California have been telling and asking me during the roughly 4 weeks that I was home. Tomorrow, I’ll do a quick review of where many pending issues are right now. On Wednesday, the President will give his first State of the Union address (although it is his 3rd address to a joint session of Congress in 12 months) and I’ll provide you with the insider’s view the next day. Then on Friday, Republican House members (including this one) will be at our annual retreat, which is in Baltimore, Maryland this year. The… Read More

As Jon Fleischman hi-lited on the main FR page Saturday, the Union-Trib editorialized on the selection of Martin Garrick as the new Assembly minority leader, praising the decision, while asking a question in the headline:

Will he be the latest GOP leader to cave on taxes? Clearly, the UT gets it, or the editorial board wouldn’t be asking the question. They get the power of the GOP to hold the line on increased taxes and bad budgets, as long as Republicans stick together. They get the travesty of past budget votes, in which just enough Republicans were somehow enticed into a "compromise," thus leaving insignificant and meaningless the unifying clout of the rest of their fellow Senate and Assembly caucus members.

Even more clearly, the UT question is not meant as a question. It is meant as a challenge … to Garrick, hoping the result will be that the 74th District… Read More

Over the weekend the Whitman for Governor campaign sent out a "campaign update" from Campaign Manager (and FR friend) Jillian Hasner. These broader campaign updates are released by both campaigns periodically and we try to put them up here on the FR Blog.

In this email, Hasner says that the campaign will be announcing an endorsement from former Secretary of State Bruce McPherson early this week. Actually, I suppose the email was the announcement, eh?

McPherson is controversial these days in GOP circles for his support of the so-called "open primary" — a measure which is a direct assault on the Republican Party. It is important that everyone understand that unlike previous "open primary" measures, this one would take away from the Republican Party the right to have a candidate on general election ballots. So literally huge swaths of California would have no GOP standard bearer every November.

That said, I’ll vouch for one immutable fact, McPherson is one of the nicest and most genuine people I’ve had a chance to work with in politics.

WHITMAN CAMPAIGN UPDATE… Read More

These are some observations I have thought about writing down for quite some time. It is by no means a complete listing of all the truths I have observed, but they are true, as far as they go.

Truth No. 1

Democrats win power by making promises to grow government, then alienate voters by keeping those promises. Republicans win power by making promises to cut government, then alienate voters by breaking those promises. So it doesn’t matter who gets power, government always grows.

Truth No. 2

Democrats are intensely partisan when they enforce the law, and prove that partisanship by only prosecuting Republicans. Republicans want to prove they are nonpartisan when they enforce the law, and prove that nonpartisanship by only prosecuting Republicans. So it doesn’t matter who gains control of the law enforcement mechanism, only Republicans get prosecuted.

Truth No. 3

Democrats are intensely partisan when it comes to drawing political lines during redistricting, and they prove… Read More

I think its curious when State and local elected officials go to Washington DC to ask for money. Frankly, they seem to me quite like the sad blokes standing in the median of a busy street corner holding a cardboard sign.

Many State and local governments just haven’t done their job correctly in handling taxpayer dollars. They’ve negotiated stupid contracts with their employees, overpay for everything, and seemed genuinely stunned that there is a business cycle, you know, that period of time when tax revenues actually fall.

There may be nobody in America that has abdicated his responsibility worse than California’s Governor. Oh, he took a stab at reform, once, in 2005. After a crushing defeat, he never tried again. He is now a pathetic figure, flying back to Washington to beg for money, asking the feds to borrow from China and give it to California after laundering it through the bureaucracy.

This is all an attempt to get Washington to subsidize the poor performance of a Governor who should know better, and a psychotic Legislature, that even in the face of ANOTHER $20 billion deficit was STILL voting for single payer health care… Read More

This may come as a surprise to some, but perhaps not to all — but State Senator Abel Maldonado, while fairly well known by Republicans, is not well liked by Republicans. Gee, I wonder why? Could it be his deciding vote to smack every Californian with higher income, sales and car taxes?

I have just reviewed a statewide survey for the Lt. Governor GOP primary taken by Smith Johnson Research, of 500 likely Republican primary voters and on a first ballot test, the results are pretty clear. When those surveyed were asked for whom they would vote for Lt. Governor, they responded: FIRST BALLOT Aanestad 20.4 Maldonado … Read More

Andy Pugno is the legal counsel for ProtectMarriage.com and is the lead attorney defending Proposition 8 in Federal Court. Below is a column from Pugno worth a read… Pugno is blogging on the trial here. What First Amendment? By Andy Pugno, General Counsel, ProtectMarriage.com Over the last couple of days, we have been treated by the plaintiffs to astonishing intrusions into areas supposedly protected by the First Amendment, including religious freedoms and the political rights of… Read More