FR readers will recall that recently there was some controversy over an idea floated by the California Air Resources Board to actually put into place regulations requiring that your car tire pressure be checked to make sure they are at a state-mandate pressure.

FR friend and San Diego U-T Editorial writer Chris Reed wrote about the regulation’s proposal,and withdrawal.

Conservative cartoonist Eric Eishammer drew this cartoon. We hope you enjoy it! Look for more great cartoons from Eric soon!… Read More

Later this morning the Fiorina for U.S. Senate campaign will announce the formation of 17 new coalition groups in support of her campaign. Those new groups, and their leaders, are listed below. Fiorina will announce that she has tapped Gayle Pacheco, Chuck McDougald and Evie Coss to lead her grassroots leadership team.

Pacheco is currently president and owner of Western Hardware Company, an industrial hardware manufacturer and distributor. In addition to serving on the Walnut Valley Unified School District Personnel Commission, Pacheco also sits on the State Rehabilitation Council and is vice chair of the Governor’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. Pacheco was previously an elected member of the Mt. San Antonio College Board of Trustees and has served as an appointee to the California Workforce Investment Board. Pacheco’s husband, Bob, served in the California legislature. McDougald, a Vietnam War veteran, served… Read More

… Read More

It is clear the voters are engaged and angry. I say one thing they pine for is more humility from elected representatives. The atmosphere calls out for political leaders who are well grounded in reality. Independents who are coming back to the GOP are doing so because the Democrats are topping the collective baloney meter. America considers itself under assault by those who hold the reins of power and they are rallying to the idea that the whole enterprise of government is a cancerous lesion that hurts more than it helps.

I suggest Republicans engage the angry voters by modifying their rhetoric to be more humble and to acknowledge that America’s greatness is entirely owed to the freedom of its citizens. I cringe when I hear electeds of either party say that government needs to create jobs. Even the imperial, "we must create jobs" does not sit well. Why? Because the voters know that elected officials do not create any jobs except government jobs. When elected officials, all of whom have a job, engage in the claim they are the font and source of jobs it is off-putting to people who do not have a job. Face it: if the government could,… Read More

Demonstrating a level of responsibility lower than that of a teenage mother who leaves an infant on the steps of a church, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will soon be depositing unsupervised felons in neighborhoods near you.

As part of an unrelenting effort to reduce criminal sentences, eliminate parole supervision and shift its responsibilities to county law enforcement, Corrections will today commence granting early release credits (without any requirement that they be earned) and designate tens of thousands of inmates for release without parole supervision.

The unsupervised release of prisoners also absolves Corrections from any responsibility to provide parolees with training or medical care or even bus passes. From the myopic perspective of Corrections, ignoring parolees saves money. Yet ignoring offenders who have the greatest rehabilitation potential simply increases the likelihood they will fail.

Indeed, this very administration abandoned its prior policy of ignoring parole violations in 2005 when the Sacramento Bee published an in-depth article that documented a dramatic increase of new felonies among parolees whose… Read More

As Jon Fleischman hi-lited on the main FR page Saturday, the Union-Trib editorialized on the selection of Martin Garrick as the new Assembly minority leader, praising the decision, while asking a question in the headline:

Will he be the latest GOP leader to cave on taxes? Clearly, the UT gets it, or the editorial board wouldn’t be asking the question. They get the power of the GOP to hold the line on increased taxes and bad budgets, as long as Republicans stick together. They get the travesty of past budget votes, in which just enough Republicans were somehow enticed into a "compromise," thus leaving insignificant and meaningless the unifying clout of the rest of their fellow Senate and Assembly caucus members.

Even more clearly, the UT question is not meant as a question. It is meant as a challenge … to Garrick, hoping the result will be that the 74th District… Read More

Over the weekend the Whitman for Governor campaign sent out a "campaign update" from Campaign Manager (and FR friend) Jillian Hasner. These broader campaign updates are released by both campaigns periodically and we try to put them up here on the FR Blog.

In this email, Hasner says that the campaign will be announcing an endorsement from former Secretary of State Bruce McPherson early this week. Actually, I suppose the email was the announcement, eh?

McPherson is controversial these days in GOP circles for his support of the so-called "open primary" — a measure which is a direct assault on the Republican Party. It is important that everyone understand that unlike previous "open primary" measures, this one would take away from the Republican Party the right to have a candidate on general election ballots. So literally huge swaths of California would have no GOP standard bearer every November.

That said, I’ll vouch for one immutable fact, McPherson is one of the nicest and most genuine people I’ve had a chance to work with in politics.

WHITMAN CAMPAIGN UPDATE… Read More

These are some observations I have thought about writing down for quite some time. It is by no means a complete listing of all the truths I have observed, but they are true, as far as they go.

Truth No. 1

Democrats win power by making promises to grow government, then alienate voters by keeping those promises. Republicans win power by making promises to cut government, then alienate voters by breaking those promises. So it doesn’t matter who gets power, government always grows.

Truth No. 2

Democrats are intensely partisan when they enforce the law, and prove that partisanship by only prosecuting Republicans. Republicans want to prove they are nonpartisan when they enforce the law, and prove that nonpartisanship by only prosecuting Republicans. So it doesn’t matter who gains control of the law enforcement mechanism, only Republicans get prosecuted.

Truth No. 3

Democrats are intensely partisan when it comes to drawing political lines during redistricting, and they prove… Read More