Politics and Elections

CA budget: State’s unions tell poor they’re on their own
Friday, May 17th, 2013
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May 17, 2013 By Chris Reed Nothing brings clarity to the absurdity of unions' claims that they defend the poor and champion social justice than the annual fights over the state budget. Advocates of social services for the poor and needy are up in arms that Gov. Jerry Brown's revised 2013-2014 ...

Obama IRS enemies list targeted Hispanic Republicans
Thursday, May 16th, 2013

May 17, 2013 By John Seiler As I pointed out in an earlier post, the Obama IRS enemies list against conservatives and libertarians discredits his so-called 2012 election "victory." And remember how we were told, ceaselessly, that Republicans had to do more to win Hispanic votes, because Oba...

Republican and Latinos agree on education reforms
Monday, May 6th, 2013

May 6, 2013 By Katy Grimes Politics makes strange bedfellows. This we know to be true, but Latinos and Republicans should not be. Many demographers predict Republicans will steadily pick up Latino voters as Latino assimilation increases, and Latinos succeed economically. But one area is ...

Bad and good advice for the GOP on Latinos
Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

May 2, 2013 By John Seiler Obviously, the Republican Party needs to do more to attract Latino voters. But it's getting bad advice from many quarters on what to do. I have some good advice at the end of the article The latest bad advice is in The Atlantic on line by Gerald L. Cadava, "a prof...

Amusing liberal plan to split America
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013
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May 1, 2013 By John Seiler Whatever America's many problems, liberals continue to amuse us. The latest is a diatribe in the liberal news site The Daily Beast/Newsweek, "Memo to the South: Go Ahead, Secede Already!" by Lee Siegel, who is described as, "the author of Harvard Is Burning, which h...

Has Dem supermajority ushered in incivility?
Thursday, April 25th, 2013

April 25, 2013 By Katy Grimes Since the Democratic supermajority was ushered in after the 2012 elections, I've observed an interesting shift at the Capitol. Democratic leaders promised they would "restrain" themselves on the ability to increase taxes. That hasn't worked out so well given al...

Steinberg pondering run for Sacto DA
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
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April 22, 2013 By Katy Grimes The current buzz around the Capitol City is Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, will run for Sacramento District Attorney in 2014. Steinberg, 53, has worked as an Employee Rights Attorney for the California State Employees Association prior to ...

In coming CA fracking war, will unions be Oxy’s surprise ally?
Sunday, April 21st, 2013

April 21, 2013 By Chris Reed The coming battle over fracking in California is going to be a doozy. There's too much money to be made in the "brown energy" revolution for monied interests to not pursue the reserves in the Monterey Shale. Soon to be the face of evil in California: Occidental ...

Juvenile justice: The latest from San Diego Mayor Bob Filner
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

April 16, 2013 By Chris Reed Newly elected San Diego Mayor Bob Filner basically owes his political career to the courage he showed as a Freedom Rider in the early 1960s. It's the card he plays to cast himself in a better light whenever anyone notices all the different ways he shows he's a bull...

State schools chief: President Obama is a corporate stooge
Monday, April 15th, 2013
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April 15, 2013 By Chris Reed UC Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff's blueprint for Democrats from a decade ago continues to reverberate. Lakoff stressed the emphasis of framing issues with the proper language and spoke of the power of metaphors. And so now we always hear government s...