Q: Mirror, mirror on the wall – who is the most hypocritical group of all? A: The California Teachers Association, of course.

The California Teachers Association (CTA) has just launched television ads attacking Governor Schwarzenegger for his proposal to suspend the Proposition 98 spending guarantee on education. Let’s remember that education consumes the largest portion of the state’s general fund, which is out of what by like 25%. Of course you have to cut funding to education if you don’t have it.

But the CTA running this ad is total hypocracy because the public employee union is not about "better education" — hardly. The goals of the CTA, like all public employee unions, are two-fold: (1) Increase the salary and… Read More

The internet is a great tool – it distributes information, helps us organize…and occasionally its spreads false information quickly, without the benefit of accuracy.

That’s what’s happening now regarding SB 572 – the Leno bill to create “Harvey Milk” day.

An email alert from CRA and a post on Flashreport lists a number of Republican Assembly members as possibly supporting the bill.

The problem is – it’s not true. At least its not true in regards to the Assemblyman from the 65th District – Col. Paul Cook.

Colonel Cook voted against a similar bill last year (AB 2567) and remains opposed to the current version.

I’m frankly confused as to what led anyone to believe Col. Cook changed his position. There has been no statement, no release – in fact, no information of any kind that even the most cursory investigation would imply that Col. Cook has changed his position.

I can’t speak on behalf of… Read More

Republican turned Democrat Long Beach City Councilman Robert Garcia is happy to tell you what to do. After his election to the city council he immediately got down to business to squash all those scofflaws smoking at bus stops.

Now Garcia has a new personal crusade. According to LBReport.com, he wants Long Beach to coerce businesses doing business with the city to give benefits to domestic partnerships. Garcia, who is gay, not that there is anything wrong with that, believes that this is more important the contracting with the qualified lowest bidder.

Of course, taxpayers will pay for the benefits as companies that do business with the city charge more to cover their costs. Other cities that have done this like San Francisco and LA aren’t shining examples of fiscal responsibility.

These ordinances aren’t about the money, they are about forcing their view about homosexuality on business OR making sure people of faith don’t have opportunity to bid on government contracts.

The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce is neutral. They have to be or else. If the issue was forcing businesses to… Read More

What if I told you that there is an effect underway by Democrats inside of the State Capitol to make it more difficult and expensive to qualify ballot measures? Would you be shocked? Would it really surprise you that a legislature that has its own ability to place measures on the ballot (like the taxes that were rejected by voters last May) doesn’t want the people to have that same power?

Senate Bill 34 actually makes it a crime to hire signature gatherers to circulate petitions and pay those gatherers for every signature that they obtain. That is very poor public policy. Understand that what petition gatherers do is create opportunities to sign petitions if they want to… Of course voters can elect not to sign a petition. Make no bones about it — there is only one reason why the Democrats have pushed this legislation out the Senate on a party-line vote, and into the Assembly where they will likely try to do the same — to stifle citizen-qualified ballot measures.

Longtime FlashReport friend Paul Jacob, President of Citizens In Charge, and one of the signors on a letter (below) to the State Legislature, had this to say:… Read More

Question: What do Republican Assembly candidate Andy Pugno and a Mucielago Lamborghini racing car have in common? Answer: Both have set records for speed.

Pugno’s campaign announced today that in just three weeks between the date he announced his candidacy for Assembly in the Sacramento-based 5th District in the second week in June, and the end of the month which was the cut-off for the reporting period, Pugno raised a staggered quarter-million dollars. Especially impressive was that he raised over $60,000 of that through online contributions!

We don’t have video of Pugno’s lighting fast fundraising efforts, but we do have a video of the impressive Mucielago Lamborghini going from 0 to 60 MPH in just 3.3 seconds! … Read More

There is something particularly offensive about charitable foundations established by those who made billions of dollars through their success in the private sector, when they then use that money to fund efforts to make it harder and harder for other people to own or use lands. In essence, they fund efforts to either expand government ownership or restrictions on land, or to create quasi-governmental “land trusts” for the purpose of taking lands and place them out of the realm of private ownership. When you look at a map of the United States, it’s stunning the percentage of raw land in our nation that is government owned, or is partially or totally restricted in its use by… people.

This background is important because it puts into context a power-play by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation to advance their agenda of restricting people-use of lands – or in this case, actually, the ocean. The Packard Foundation has invested countless millions of dollars into promoting the creation of “marine reserves” off the California coastline. The Packard Foundation… Read More

There is something particularly offensive about charitable foundations established by those who made billions of dollars through their success in the private sector, when they then use that money to fund efforts to make it harder and harder for other people to own or use lands. In essence, they fund efforts to either expand government ownership or restrictions on land, or to create quasi-governmental “land trusts” for the purpose of taking lands and place them out of the realm of private ownership. When you look at a map of the United States, it’s stunning the percentage of raw land in our nation that is government owned, or is partially or totally restricted in its use by… people.

This background is important because it puts into context a power-play by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation to advance their agenda of restricting people-use of lands – or in this case, actually, the ocean. The Packard Foundation has invested countless millions of dollars into promoting the creation of “marine reserves” off the California coastline. The Packard Foundation… Read More

It’s amazing to me that it has been over fifteen years since I along with hundreds of conservative Republican activists left the internecine battles of California Young Republicans, and formed an activist-based organization for young Republicans, the Young Republican Federation of the California.

Since leaving the CYRs all of those years ago, I never regretted the decision. For many years now, the YRFC has continually proven themselves as a conservative group focused on sending Republicans into local, state and federal office that understand the principles of our founding fathers. I can’t keep track of the scores of YRFC activists who have gone on to public office or taken on other prominent leadership roles in state or national politics.

Occasional glances through the looking glass have quickly confirmed and reconfirmed to me that the CYR’s as an organization continues to be diminutive and fraught with inner-organizational battles that always end the same way – which is that the organization of former Congressman and Bill Thomas and his protégé-now-Congressman Kevin McCarthy, under the iron fist of Bakersfield political consultant Mark Abernathy,… Read More