Today I am quite pleased to present this special guest commentary from long-long time FR friend Christopher Lauer… Flash The "Liberal"-tarian Party of Death By Chris Lauer

Recently, I had an interesting political discussion with an old friend who is a proud, card-carrying member of the Libertarian Party. He was urging me with great enthusiasm to vote Libertarian in this year’s presidential election.

I explained to him that while I have sympathy for the Libertarian Party (and consider myself somewhat of a libertarian); I could not associate… Read More

Opponents of Proposition 8 like to style themselves sunny defenders of tolerance heroically facing down the dark forces of bigotry and intolerance. "Hate" is a word they are especially fond of throwing at Prop. 8 supporters. But they’re liberals, so it’s OK for them.

You can read about all that anti-Prop. 8 tolerance and love in action in this Modesto Bee article:

In a violent display of intolerance, an opponent of Proposition 8 attacked and seriously injured a man who was volunteering on Sunday for the initiative to define marriage as between and a man and a woman.

Prop. 8 supporter, Jose Nunez, 37, was brutally assaulted while waiting to distribute yard signs to other supporters of the initiative after church services at the St. Stanislaus Parish in Modesto.

The assailant grabbed about 75 signs and yelled at Nunez accusingly, "What do you have against gays!" Although Nunez replied that he had nothing against gays, he was attacked anyway.

Today I am quite pleased to present this special guest commentary from long-long time FR friend Christopher Lauer… Flash

The "Liberal"-tarian Party of Death By Chris Lauer

Recently, I had an interesting political discussion with an old friend who is a proud, card-carrying member of the Libertarian Party. He was urging me with great enthusiasm to vote Libertarian in this year’s presidential election.

I explained to him that while I have sympathy for the Libertarian Party (and consider myself somewhat of a libertarian); I could not… Read More

For those who haven’t heard the news, look who has endorsed Prop. 11…

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association today announced the endorsement of Proposition 11 to stop the conflict of interest of lawmakers drawing their own districts and choosing the voters they want to help ensure their reelection. “The current system fixes elections so that fewer than five percent of state representatives face a challenge to their reelection,” said HJTA president Jon Coupal. “This has resulted in a climate where lawmakers do not have… Read More

With less than three weeks remaining in the election, John McCain isn’t quite political toast yet, but he’s under the broiler, there’s smoke around his edges and people are beginning to arrange the butter and jam.

McCain had his best debate performance of the election last night, and arguably might have won it. But that may be a bit like this year’s final tournament of the Fed Ex Cup golf playoffs. Vijay Singh had built such a lead by the time the final post-season tournament came around, all he had to do was complete it alive to win the $10 million Cup prize. Obama emerged from the debate on the defensive, with some bruises, but very much alive. That may be all he needed to do.

The daily national polls the media loves to tout are meaningless. To understand the condition of the presidential race, you have to look at the contest state by state. Right now, it looks very blue.

According to Real Clear Politics, Barack Obama has a clear lead in states with 249 of the 270 electoral votes necessary to win. He has a lead in states with another 37 electoral votes. John McCain has a solid lead… Read More

If you struggled through the Presidential debate last night like I did, you knew two things would come from it. The first is that the McCain Campaign would start to use "Joe the Plumber" in their messaging. The second is a skit on Saturday Night Live featuring Joe. Well, check out the ad below from the McCain for President campaign… One down… … Read More

Sorry if my blogging has been on the light side — I’m actually in Sacramento for a couple of days. And while you might intuitively think that would lead to MORE blogging, not less, most of the meetings and conversations that I have up here are "off the record" as I continue to nurture the relationships that let me bring you breaking news, and accurate "intel" on the inner-workings of the Sacramento political scene.

Today I have a meeting of the California Republican Party Board of Directors that will take most of the day, as we go over and approve the final stages of the State GOP Victory Program.

I have to run right now — but I will try to blog later. Oh, and for those who have asked about my chat with Senate President Don Perata yesterday at the Hyatt (word moves around this town), that conversation was way off the record — but very entertaining.… Read More

I always say that public employee unions exist really to accomplish two goals, and that anything else that they do is ancillary to these goals. First and foremost to increase salary and benefits for their union members, and second to pursue any state policies that would increase the number of members of their union.

Pretty simple, right? This is why public employee unions are so insidious.

Well, apparently there is an exception to my theory. Apparently yesterday the California Teachers Association donated a staggering $1,000,000.00 (a cool million bucks) to the No on 8 Campaign. Proposition 8 is the Protect Marriage Act.

So you have to start scratching your head, and wonder why the state union that looks out for the salary and benefits of teachers is spending its member-dollars on a ballot measure that is about defining marriage in California?

One has to conclude that the decision making body of the CTA PAC is not only filled with union-hacks (as you would expect)… Read More