At San Francisco’s big gala Oscar Party/AIDS fundraiser last night, the crowd was horrified when “Crash” beat out “Brokeback Mountain” for Best Picture last night (here’s the full story in the San Francisco Chronicle). I’m sorry, but I am so glad that the Oscars are over, just so we can be done with the whole “Brokeback” hoopla.

If you listen to the folks at the SF party last night, “Brokeback Mountain” all at once “brought Americans together over issues of homophobia” and yet when it didn’t win, it was “an… Read More

This weekend, a couple hundred delegates are gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield for the biennial endorsing convention of the California Republican Assembly. The CRA is California’s oldest and most conservative Republican volunteer organization, with traditions that go back to its founding in the 1930’s. The CRA has been a pivotal force in California politics, a key player because of its direct influence on politics as well as the training grounds it provides for many who go on to seek elective office or otherwise get involved in the process. Speaking in the first-person, I spent a decade of ‘intense’ involvement with the CRA starting from being a club member and rising through the ranks to an eventual two-year term as State President from 1995-1997. Being elected CRA President was one of the greatest honors of my life. The things I learned, the perspective gained, the challenges met and overcome continue to provide me with guidance in the things I do today. I am… Read More

This weekend, a couple hundred delegates are gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield for the biennial endorsing convention of the California Republican Assembly. The CRA is California’s oldest and most conservative Republican volunteer organization, with traditions that go back to its founding in the 1930’s. The CRA has been a pivotal force in California politics, a key player because of its direct influence on politics as well as the training grounds it provides for many who go on to seek elective office or otherwise get involved in the process. Speaking in the first-person, I spent a decade of ‘intense’ involvement with the CRA starting from being a club member and rising through the ranks to an eventual two-year term as State President from 1995-1997. Being elected CRA President was one of the greatest honors of my life. The things I learned, the perspective gained, the challenges met and overcome continue to provide me with guidance in the things I do today. I am… Read More

ENDORSED… Lt. Gov: McClintock SoS: McPherson Treas: Parrish AG: Poochigian Ins. Comm: Poizner Controller: Strickland SPI: Diane Lenning BOE 2: Leonard BOE 4: Forsch

NOT ENDORSED… The CRA did not endorse the Governor, nor did they endorse between Ray Haynes or Michelle Steel in BOE 3.

Word is that there was a move to co-endorse Arnold/Tom/Dick that fell just short of the 2/3.… Read More

The San Bernardino County Republican Party is encouraging the District Attorney’s Office and Registrar of Voters to aggressively investigate a recent rash of apparent voter-registration fraud the party alleges may have been committed by paid petition circulators in San Bernardino County. Similar allegations are also being investigated in the City of Rialto and the County of Orange.

Staff from the County Republican Party Central Committee were informed Thursday by the Registrar of Voters that registrations gathered by associates of the firm owned by the party’s recently retained voter-registration consultant, John Burkett of Riverside, may have included more than 3,000 instances of potential registration fraud over the past two months. A number of those alleged fraudulent registrations have been referred to the District Attorney’s Office.

County Republican Party Chairman Bill Postmus last week ordered a halt to the party’s paid voter registration program and ordered that no invoices for registrations submitted this year be paid until the County’s investigations are complete and all registrations to be paid for by the… Read More

It took the British publication “The Economist” to finally point out the fact that “The Daily Show” has replaced “Saturday Night Live” as the standard of American political satire. I was cooking dinner for Valerie, Ella and I when I read this in the column “Lexington” and sort of skimmed past this comment. But since the Simpsons were replaced by the dreary Oscars my mind kept sort of going back to this point. For most of us, for most of our ‘adult’ lives, Saturday Night Live has set the pace. In my memory, that usually revolved around Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton… after which I sort of dropped out of the club. Thinking about why I rarely watch SNL anymore tonight I first attributed it to age (“never trust anyone over 30”) but that didn’t really work the more I mulled it over.

I’m going to cross the Rubicon here: I don’t watch SNL very often any more because their skits drag. Particularly their political skits. They repeat the same joke over and over for like 10 minutes. They beat the point into your skull until you just want to throw a brick at the screen. Horatio and his… Read More

A good question for a Saturday morning… Why is Rob Reiner still the Chairman of California’s Children and Families Commission? Its been a couple of weeks now since the FR suggested that the Governor replace Reiner. Starting with the revelation by FR friend Hugh Hewitt that Reiner’s term on this influential commission actually is long-expired and that he can be replaced at will by the Governor, everyone I know is asking the question: why isn’t he being replaced? Our reasons for believing that Reiner should be "terminated" from this spot exist on multiple levels. First and foremost, his socialistic mentality of increasing taxes on those who are responsible for job creation in the California economy, and then providing questionable government-run services that he has invented is loonacy. He is so far off of even the liberal main-stream that he is an embarrassment to the Golden State. That… Read More

A good question for a Saturday morning… Why is Rob Reiner still the Chairman of California’s Children and Families Commission? Its been a couple of weeks now since the FR suggested that the Governor replace Reiner. Starting with the revelation by FR friend Hugh Hewitt that Reiner’s term on this influential commission actually is long-expired and that he can be replaced at will by the Governor, everyone I know is asking the question: why isn’t he being replaced? Our reasons for believing that Reiner should be "terminated" from this spot exist on multiple levels. First and foremost, his socialistic mentality of increasing taxes on those who are responsible for job creation in the California economy, and then providing questionable government-run services that he has invented is loonacy. He is so far off of even the liberal main-stream that he is an embarrassment to the Golden State. That… Read More