UC students denied the right to hear from Clinton, Henry Waxman, Gen. Wesley Clark and Fabian Nunez . What calamity could cause this educational crisis? It’s the government unions. Union boss Lakesha Harrison , of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, demanded that prominent democrats to cancel commencement speeches because she wants a 25% pay raise.

UCLA no democrat speakers.

Of course, Harrison wants only a 25% increase given that California budget is nearly 20 billion in the red.… Read More

Earlier this week I was alerted to the fact that the CTA was promoting a “community call-in day” to pressure lawmakers to not cut education spending. The CTA provided a toll-free number for their members to call legislators and tell them to raise taxes to fix the budget crisis. So we at CRI decided to help out the CTA with their plan to disperse the toll-free number far and wide. After we sent out our email last night to our supporters, the Sac Bee picked up the story… (h/t to Steve Frank)

Conservative jiu-jitsu

The Capitol Resource Institute, which lobbies Sacramento on conservative social policies, has blasted an e-mail to its statewide network of supporters urging them to call their local legislator — on their opponent’s dime.

"Use Teacher Union’s Money to Call Legislators!" blared the subject line of the e-mail.

Today is a "community call-in" day for members of the California Teachers Association.

Here’s the CRI’s not-so-secret plan:… Read More

First and foremost, my apologies for the little lull here on the FR blog. It’s a busy season for most, but for me I have been swamped helping to prepare for the Orange County Republican Party’s big Flag Day fundraising Gala, with special guest Florida Governor Charlie Crist. The event will have nearly a thousand attendees and will raise a huge amount of the funds that this county needs to maintain its operations and fund some of our GOTV efforts.

That said, I was sad to read about the sudden passing of NBC’s Tim Russert, who had a heart attack.

As I was contemplating what I would say about it, I got this statement from John McCain in my inbox:

Yesterday Senate President Don Perata introduced a budget plan on behalf of State Senate Democrats that would propose foisting another $11.5 billion in new taxes on Californians.

I think that Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill should hold a press conference, and call for $11.5 billion in tax relief for Californians.

Then we can get past the unrealistic press events and focus on balancing our state budget by reducing overspending. Punishing tax-paying Californians for obscene overspending is ludicrous.

Earth to the Sacramento political community: Republicans are not going to raise taxes. This includes not being drawn into some sort of faux-compromise between not raising taxes and imposing billions in new taxes.

California does not, I repeat does not have an income problem. State government is suffering from an overspending problem. End of story.… Read More

With summer budget battles looming, the liberal drumbeat for tax increases is starting to pound its way through the halls of the state capitol. The constant barrage of union and media attacks leaves Republicans committed to a balanced budget feeling isolated and beleaguered. But yesterday, reinforcements marched on Sacramento and their message was clear: hold the line and don’t tax California!

During this “Taxpayer Action Day,” hundreds of citizens from every corner of the Golden State descended on our state capitol to deliver thousands of petitions representing citizen opposition to “solving” the budget crisis through raising taxes. Sponsored by a coalition of California taxpayer advocates, including Americans for Prosperity and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, the event sent a strong message to state lawmakers that citizens are drawing a hard line against tax increases.

The gathering at the capitol was the culmination of a… Read More

With summer budget battles looming, the liberal drumbeat for tax increases is starting to pound its way through the halls of the state capitol. The constant barrage of union and media attacks leaves Republicans committed to a balanced budget feeling isolated and beleaguered. But yesterday, reinforcements marched on Sacramento and their message was clear: hold the line and don’t tax California!

During this “Taxpayer Action Day,” hundreds of citizens from every corner of the Golden State descended on our state capitol to deliver thousands of petitions representing citizen opposition to “solving” the budget crisis through raising taxes. Sponsored by a coalition of California taxpayer advocates, including Americans for Prosperity and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, the event sent a strong message to state lawmakers that citizens are drawing a hard line against tax increases.

The gathering at the capitol was the culmination of a… Read More

Good technology helpis hard to come by. If you look at the Secretary of State website you will see the difference in votes is under 150 in this hotly contested 15th Assembly District Race. If you look at the four counties that have portions of the district anmd their UPDATED numbers you will see that the count is Wilson 11469, Rao 10968.

Clearly, an update hasn’t been made.… Read More

To liberal Democrats, increasing the size of state government — taking more and more money out of the private sector and putting it into the public domain, with politicians then making decisions about where that ever-increasing pot of money is spent — is like a religion. So much so that when they hear criticisms that government doesn’t tax people enough, or that too much money is being spent by government, their reaction is similar to what you would expect if you overtly questioned the very existence of God when talking to a priest, a minister or a rabbi.

It is that kind of idoletry of a vast role for government in society that leaves the liberal ideologues that control the state legislature completely unable to even understand or comprehend the mindset of those who believe that this country, America, is founded on the principle of limited government. The principles being espoused by conservatives in the legislature in putting the brakes on massive spending increases for California, and in fact calling for government in California to shrink back to a level that can be supported by the current amount of taxes, is foreign to them — and is… Read More