If you read my Commentary today, you’d know that I am wondering aloud at the appointment by Arnold Schwarzenegger of the California Teachers Association’s chief political strategist Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education. Nunez was appointed previously by the now-disgraced and recalled Governor Gray Davis but his term is expiring. Nunez is also the Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California (ABC) , the umbrulla group formed by all people anti-Schwarzenegger. If you don’t believe me, check out their website.

FR friend Dan Weintraub, a great columnist at the Sacramento Bee, penned an entry on this in his weblog today. Most of his piece is actually about the fact that the ABC has filed an FPPC complaint against Schwarzenegger after an appeals court ruling came down that notifications were not made in a timely fashion by the Governor’s committees formed to advocate the passage of Propositions 74, 75, 76 and 77 last year. Here is an excerpt from the end of his post (… Read More

It may not be a shock to find out that there is bias in the school system on the issue of immigration. Onthis hallowed Cesar Chavez Day it may be worthy to look beyond stupid school tricks like sending buses to pick up protesting students.

Lets look at the curriculum being advocated here in Los Angeles by LA County School Superintendent Darlene Robles. Robles is co-chair of the Villagarosia Education Committee and of course has a Doctorate from USC.

Her office has put together a 90 page help for teachers. The intro claims that they are to “seek to understand and listen to all sides equally.” Page 10 then calls for teaching that is "culturally sensitive" and "anit-bias and pro-justice". However the next page starts the material from the Cesar E Chavez Foundation. Which includes giving time for students to plan protests or action plans. Page 19 has a comparison sheet for "support and resistance" to immigration reform with Government, Business, churches and workers on one side and no one listed on the other.

The other material all discuss social justice from a liberal or leftist perspective. Material from the ACLU is there.… Read More

So Fabian Nunez thinks the illegal immigration issue is dangerous for Republicans. How thoughtful it is for him to want to help us avoid the electoral pitfalls of border enforcement (read it here.)

Nunez joins the ranks of media-appointed experts from across the political spectrum who warn that Republican officeholders who dare to support enhanced border security measures will be punished by a loss of support from Hispanic-American voters. But this isn’t such an easy issue for Democrats either.

Perhaps Speaker Nunez should ask Phil Angelides and Steve Westly why they weren’t giving speeches at last weekend’s protest rally in Los Angeles to half a million potential primary voters. Maybe he should ask them to explain the political calculations behind their decisions to not even attend. And he should definitely ask them when they will run television ads bragging about their support for drivers licenses for… Read More

Certainly the most intreguing news in California politics surrounds Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reappointment of Joe Nuñez to the State Board of Education earlier this week. You see, Nuñez is a State VP with the California Teachers Association — and according to the CTA’s President Barbara Kerr, Nuñez is actually in charge of their union’s legislative and political activities. Yes, this would include the massive assault on Governor Schwarzenegger and his reform agenda on last year’s special election ballot. Even better — Nuñez is actually the Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California, which is the actual front-group formed by the unions to fight the Governor. It has been postulated in at least one newspaper that Schwarzenegger may have re-appointed Nuñez in order to shepherd through the confirmation vote on his former State Education Secretary Alan Bersin, whom Schwarzenegger also appointed to the State Board of Education last year. Once appointed, you can serve up to a year without Senate confirmation, which Bersin has yet to get. As a matter of fact, his one-year is coming up soon. I… Read More

A lot is happening in Orange County these days — and I have been remiss in keeping FR Blog readers up-to-date.

I’ll start with the most important news: the Wal-Mart near my house is now open 24 hours a day. OK, I admit that has zero impact on the lives of 99% of FR readers — but for a parent like me who is wont to forget until 11:00 o’clock at night that he’s supposed to bring 30 juice boxes to his daughter’s kindergarten class the next morning, it’s a very significant development. On to other news. This is the most litigious OC election season in my political memory. Tom Umberg unsuccessfully sued to have Lou Correa thrown off the 34th SD primary ballot. The Umberg camp felt they had maybe a 1 in 5 shot at winning the suit (based on the reluctance of judges to throw candidates off the ballot) — but you … Read More

Teachers unions on both sides of the Bay Bridge are threatening to strike. Yesterday, an Oakland Teachers Association representative said the union shortly would be announcing their “scheduled work action” plans while San Francisco teachers gave a big thumbs up to the union’s plans to strike if the district does not go along with their pay demands. The SF union representatives said that a strike could happen by mid-April if negotiations don’t go their way. Rumors in Oakland have been flying about a possible strike as early as next week, although parents and teachers have been working on plans to run “strike schools” for quite some time.

The big disagreement in … Read More

The rush to judgment on the Kaloogian photo is so absurd, it’s laughable. So, let’s laugh. Forwarded by Jack Orr, on the supposed Howard "controversy"….

"I received the following forwarded message today from Tom Hanscom,obviously a person of wit and good humor. Finally, a truly funnymoment in an otherwise deadly serious campaign":

I’m assuming (since you’re giving the 50th race so much attention)that you’ll probably address the Kaloogian-photo-of-Baghdad"controversy."

Before you give Howard too hard a time, please consider that he hascorrected the mistake, replacing the photo from Istanbul with a realone from the Iraqi capitol. As you’ll note in the verified photo, the streets are packed with unworried, unhurriedIraqis. The sidewalks are lined with flowers (probably sprouted fromthe bouquets thrown at our soldiers three years ago); Americanpresence is strong (note the U.S.-held building at left); andbuildings are hardly the bombed-out shells we see exclusively on TVnews reports (note one of Saddam’s palaces, intact, in… Read More

Naturally when I am out of the country on vacation, we have one of the busiest days in California political news in a long, long time. It took me a long time to put together the main page this morning, which means less time to write up a commentary on the news. We’ll try it in bullet-point format today:

The lead column today is by California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson. Today marks the one-year anniversary of his appointment to this post by Governor Schwarzenegger, filling the vacancy left by the resignation of Democrat Kevin Shelley. Shelley had been elected to the post in 2002, but was forced out of office due to scandals. McPherson has really been doing a great job with the office – and has thoroughly ‘cleaned house’ from the previous administration. The culture of corruption has been replaced with a culture of hard work, and desire to bring the principles of representative government to every Californian. Please take a few minutes to read his column! Yesterday Rob Reiner finally called it quits from the Prop. 10 commission. In doing so, he may be attempted to shift the limelight away from the boatload of … Read More