In light of recent Hezbollah attacks on Israel, Arnold Schwarzenegger recently sat down with representatives of the Jewish community to express his sympathy and his support.

After this meeting, an Islamic extremist by the name of Shakeel Syed complained that the Governor should also mee with him.

Governor Schwarzenegger was absolutely right to decline a meeting with Shakeel Syed.

Syed is the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, and he demanded to meet with the Governor, then when he didn’t get an immediate response took his complaint to the media. He threatened that there would be "political" consequences if he didn’t get an audience with the Governor.

I can think of a few good reasons why Governor Schwarzenegger should never honor Syed by meeting with him.

Syed was quoted in a story in the LA Times earlier this month referring to Hezbollah as the "militia of Lebanon." Untrue. Hezbollah is a terrorist group, plain and simple. Let’s not forget that Hezbollah was responsible for the deaths of 241 American service members in 1983. It’s disturbing that as a … Read More

Sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you don’t.

I heard from Chris Anderson, the CEO over at the Orange County Register.

The last line of his note to me more or less summed up his take on those parts of my column yesterday that referenced the Orange County Register and Freedom Communications: "So basically you didn’t get anything right except the spelling of the editorial staff’s names."

This was in reference to my pointed comments about how the Orange County Register has been silent on the issue of the KOCE sale.

He pointed out that their paper has, in fact, covered the sale, and that there is no deal as of yet with KOCE to lease them space, due to the fact that KOCE’s status is in limbo, but that if they were to come over, they would be charged below-market rates. Anderson told me that, in fact, the space is not currently sitting vacant, but is being used. Lastly, Anderson said that he has never given any direction to the Editorial Staff to not write on this issue.

So,… Read More

Once I was pulling into the parking lot of a state regulatory agency and I spotted a bumper sticker on a car that read: Visualize Industrial Collapse. I don’t know if the car belonged to an employee or to an activist-type who was visiting the agency, but the image made an impression on me in that it didn’t really matter whose sticker it was. What occurred to me was that the most extreme believers in any cause tend to have the tenacity to push harder than the rest of us, and over time that means they get results. Case in point, our infamous left wing, gerrymandered legislature and its beloved cause du jour, global warming.

Assembly Bill 32, currently being considered in the waning days of session in the State Senate (you can lookup and read the bill here), would establish caps on "greenhouse" emissions in the state. Yet if you read the legislature’s own analysis of the bill, they have no idea what the caps are going to be and what the economic impacts will be (maybe they don’t care). The bill would create a new, unaccountable state bureaucracy to… Read More

When I received a call today, letting me know that the Governor had signed SB 1441, I was stunned. I don’t think that I could have summed up my feeling better than what Mike Der Manouel says below.

I called Karen England with the Capitol Resource Institute, who has been a point person for conservatives, keeping an eye on this legislation. I asked Karen if she would pen something for FR readers to help everyone understand exactly what Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law.

Mike Spence’s note below, where he talks about how every single GOPer in the State Assembly (conservative and moderate alike) voted against this bill, was very sobering. I cannot express my disappointment in this bill-signing…

Here’s Karen’s piece… What the Founding Fathers Gave, Arnold Takes Away…… Read More

**Update 9:40am — I received a voicemail from Senator Tom Harmon’s District Director who informed me that the Senator is not a co-author of the bill, and does NOT support it. So my earlier intel was not correct, and I want to get this out there. Maybe someone out there can send me an official list of legislators authoring/co-authoring AB 523 and we can get that information out there, too.

THE 2006 LEGISLATIVE GOLDEN TRASHCAN AWARD GOES TO… The final days of the 2006 legislative session are upon us, with hundreds of pieces of questionable legislation being negotiated and bartered about as the days turn to hours before no more bills can be passed on to the Governor. This year, the FlashReport is awarding its Golden TrashCan Award to Assembly Bill 523, that would change California State Law to allow… Read More

Referencing Nicholas Romero’s great post below, I am personally glad to know that my own assemblymember did not sign on to the Save Pluto bandrocket (same guy that refused to co-author a reso for Bob Dylan’s birthday a few years ago…yes, there is a connection, if you grasp at straws).

To be sure, those that did join this noble cause du-jour likely believe themselves to be "tradtional," in the sense that they grew up with planet Pluto in their science books, so what was good for them should be sacred for our kids. We’d hate for our children to be led astray by some "Anti-Pluto Agenda" in the schools, in which a lack of traditional planet values forces them into a life of universal unrest.

Or, on the other hand, if you read the Pluto reso, you may see that it is written with the same mockery of those who would be "psychologically" impacted or offended by having to drive by a latin cross everyday.

Yes, fortunately, it is the other hand….this is a joke, a nuanced jab at the Dems.

Be that as it may, if you really want to… Read More

Check out this SF Chronicle article on Park Day School, a private school here in Oakland. They are changing school procedures to cater more to “gender-fluid” kids. These are kids who want to act and/or dress as if they were the opposite sex. After hiring a consultant to help them cater to these children’s needs, Park Day is not asking the kids to line up in boys and girls lines anymore, they allow kids to play either gender in class skits and they have a unisex bathroom.

Educators, counselors and some parents point to society as the reason that these children feel that they are abnormal. The… Read More

We’re in the homestretch of making top quality legislation for this 2 year session. Much scurrying about with last minute gut-and-amends, rule waivers being sought, bills with no committee hearings…a very perilous time for any topic you may be interested in that is still in play legislatively. It seems that no bill is dead, even when pronounced so by Big 4 folks because it changes the next day and is back on the table. With all the negotiations going on in the back rooms on various topics, we need everyone to stay on top of this legislature to not give away the store on some really bad ideas at the minute before midnight,and then run for cover in our respective districts until January. Indeed, as bad as the wheeling and dealing appears on some very critical issues,when the Legislature adjourns this Thursday 12AM, sine die, or "without day", the constitutional term for "GO HOME", it will be a good thing for freedom loving Californians.… Read More