Free Republic

Shortly after Barack Obama won reelection in November, New Jersey governor Chris Christie pointed out that Republicans’ cloudy political prospects had a bright silver lining. “One of the reasons you have 30 Republican governors in America, and why we’re the only organization to add Republican strength,” Christie said, “is because people see us getting things done.” Christie’s stance countered most of the elite postelection commentary, which gleefully pronounced the Republican Party’s political irrelevance. But the governor was right. Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states,...

Brown says public still confident in Bay BridgeGov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that he believes the public still has confidence in the safety of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge despite concerns about construction of the $6.4 billion span that is scheduled to open later this year. State transportation officials recently disclosed that nearly three dozen seismic safety bolts on the eastern span of the bridge had broken. But Brown says people generally understand there will be construction problems on major infrastructure projects. "Don't know if it's a setback. I mean, look, sh&# happens. That's all I can say,'' Brown...

Gov. Jerry Brown put the state’s early wildfire season in global terms Monday, saying the state would have to grow accustomed to more forest fires as a consequence of climate change.

the California High-Speed Rail System will saddle taxpayers with losses between $124 million to $373 million a year. Exaggerated ridership estimates and slower-than-promised trip speeds make the California bullet train project a big financial loser for taxpayers... ... The [California High-Speed Rail Authority’s] financing assertions are virtual fantasy

In 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law California Assembly Bill 109, a piece of legislation designed to relieve overcrowded prisons in accordance with a Supreme Court decision. AB 109 enshrined “realignment” into law – a plan to place supposedly “non-violent, non-serious, and non-sex offenders” in county jails rather than state prisons. In other words, local governments were handed the problem of prisoners the state didn’t want to hold. On January 8, 2013, Brown said, “we’ve gone from serious constitutional problems to one of the finest prison systems in the United States.”

A panel of federal judges Thursday threatened to hold Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials in contempt of court if they do not quickly produce a plan to remove thousands of convicts from California's packed prisons. In a blistering 71-page ruling, the jurists rejected Brown's bid to end restrictions they imposed on crowding in the lockups. The state cannot maintain inmate numbers that violate orders intended to eliminate dangerous conditions behind bars, they said. Brown and other officials "will not be allowed to continue to violate the requirements of the Constitution of the United States," the judges wrote... The...

While Governor Jerry Brown is in China touting the state’s rebound and recovery, many Californians are busy packing their bags for a move to Texas, Nevada or Arizona. Why? Because it appears that the once-Golden State may finally be overpriced, underperforming and ungovernable. Is it possible that one state has managed to top every 50-state category on the following shameful list? Highest taxes (gasoline, sales and top bracket of income taxes) Lowest bond rating Highest poverty rate (at 23.5%, the home of 1/3 of those in poverty in U.S.) Highest unemployment rate (tied with Mississippi and Nevada at 9.6%) Highest...

As Gov. Jerry Brown seeks to build California’s own high-speed rail system, he’s pointed to the example set by China, where 5,000 miles of track have been laid in recent years. … But one day before Brown steps aboard, an embarrassing episode involving the railroad is being shoved back into the spotlight in China. The man who led construction of the country’s high-speed rail system is facing corruption charges, the Associated Press reported. …

BEIJING - Gov. Jerry Brown arrived in Beijing on Tuesday evening for his week-long trade mission to China, marveling at the pace of construction under China's one-party rule and suggesting - however wistfully - it is a lesson he could apply in California. "Boy, you've done a lot of building," the Democratic governor said. "When I get back to California, the bulldozers are going to roll." Brown last visited China in 1986. He has praised China for its construction of more than 5,000 miles of high-speed rail infrastructure in recent years, while he has spent decades calling for a...

At end of the week, California's State Auditor released its annual financial report for the state. The report, compiled by Auditor Elaine Howle, found the state has a net worth of -$127.2 billion. If the state were a business, it would be a candidate for liquidation. CA's financial situation deteriorated this year, largely because the state spent $1.7 Billion more than it collected in revenue. This over-spending worsened the state's debt picture. "Expenses that exceeded revenues and increased long-term obligations resulted in an 81.4 percent decrease in the total net assets for governmental and business-type activities from the 20-10-11 fiscal...

<p>On his Friday podcast, comedian and top-rated Carolla Digital podcaster Adam Carolla delivered a stern rebuke to all the “hypocritical pussies” out there, in reaction to a March 5 story from Huffington Post-San Francisco’s Robin Wilkey that portrayed his exchange earlier this month with Democratic California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom as racist.</p>

One advantage of being in politics for more than 40 years is that Gov. Jerry Brown knows someone with a spare bedroom almost everywhere he goes. In Washington this weekend for a conference of the National Governors Association, Brown and first lady Anne Gust Brown will stay at the home of Lucie Gikovich, a former aide. "I don't like hotels," the 74-year-old, third-term governor said while waiting for a tram at Washington Dulles International Airport. He mentioned that his wife likes them, though, and she said, "You can see who gets their way." The conference is at a respectable hotel,...

Texas governor Rick Perry knows how to start a rumble. Last week, he spent a mere $24,000 on radio ads in California, urging firms there to move to Texas, with its “zero state income tax, low overall tax burden, sensible regulations, and fair legal system.” The ad goaded Governor Jerry Brown into telling reporters that Perry’s effort wasn’t news. “It’s not a burp,” he sneered. “It’s barely a fart.” But his insult generated dozens of stories about the differences between Texas and California, playing into Perry’s hands. He begins a four-day barnstorming tour of California today, touting Texas’s virtues to...

What could be more fun than a throwdown between Governor Goodhair and Governor Moonbeam? Rick Perry is on a four-day “business recruitment trip” to California, escalating his raids on Jerry Brown’s economy and getting enough attention to, maybe, get some businesses to think about moving. With new taxes that were imposed by California and Congress at the end of 2012, Californians — including decision-making executives — are among those who pay the highest taxes in the country. Mr. Perry recently spent a pittance — $24,000 for a radio advertisement in a state like California has a smaller audience than a...

Guess What? I'm not a genius. Let's get that subjectivity out of the way. I was never a good math student back in the 70's, but, I struggled through, sometimes surprising myself with successful comprehension. I have great respect levened with healthy envy for those who are fluent in 'The Maths'. I loved, and still do love words or visual art when used to express, speculate or elucidate. With that disclaimer, I must now express concern over the further lowered standards now being set into place by the 'Honorable(?) Gov. Jerry Brown in Ca. The legislative tool is Senate Bill...

I love federalism. Which is to say, really, that I love competition. When states, like businesses, compete for their desired goals in a free-market scenario, everybody wins in the long run, because the policies that really work and appeal to the most people will come out on top.Texas and California are often compared as polar opposites in terms of their business-friendly policies; i.e., Texas is reliably ranked number one and California usually comes in around dead last. There are plenty of traditional and cultural factors that keep California an attractive place for venture capital investment, but an incoming raft of...

California Gov. Jerry Brown is considering whether to grant parole to a convicted murderer who followed notorious killer Charles Manson, a spokeswoman for the governor said. Brown's office received a formal recommendation from the state board parole Friday to release Bruce Davis, 70, who would be the first Manson "family" member to secure freedom solely for good behavior. Brown has 30 days -- or until March 3 -- to either modify, affirm or reverse the parole board's recommendation, a corrections spokeswoman said. In 2010, Davis secured his first formal recommendation for parole by the state board, but then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...

California’s Democratic Governor Jerry Brown compared efforts by the California state government to build the first-ever high speed rail project in the United States to the popular children’s story “The Little Engine That Could.” … Earlier in his remarks, Brown cited high-speed rail projects in countries such as China, Spain, and Morocco as part of the justification for the project in California. …

What is the difference between Barack Obama and Ignatius Loyola? Not a hell of a lot. I’m thumbing through a copy of The Ten Commandments of Propaganda, a book by my academic buddy Brian Patrick. Aside from being a well-rounded review of the dark art, Brain illustrates historical cornerstones of propaganda, which includes Ignatius. The Roman church originated modern techniques for thought control with their Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, known in Latin as “Congregatio de Propaganda Fide” and hence the modern perversion of the word ‘propaganda’.  In its purest form, ‘propaganda’ means to propagate information. It took...

For golf legend Phil Mickelson, the low 60s makes for a great score on the links — and a lousy tax rate in his home state of California. Mickelson said “drastic changes” are ahead for him due to federal and California state tax increases that have pushed his tax rate to what he figures adds up to “62, 63 percent.” The left-hander will talk more about his plans — possibly moving out of California or even retiring altogether — before his hometown Farmers Insurance Open, the San Diego-area event that begins Thursday at Torrey Pines.

Now that the Democrats have gained total control of California we are beginning to see what they want to do to all of us should they ever get total control of America. In San Francisco mentally malformed adults stand naked in the streets next to children while they claim a right to be naked in public. The State of California plans to tax the “wealthy” at a 52% rate and the bizarre character in the Statehouse Jerry Brown signs anti America anti -family and anti -Christian bills as fast as he can. Here are some of the assaults on Christianity...

Saving the planet isn’t easy — or cheap —especially in California. The state’s anti-global-warming cap-and-trade program is the latest gimmick to leave it with yet another big hole to fill in its budget. The Golden State’s new carbon-trading program is the world’s second largest, after the European Union’s. The stated goal is to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and another 80 percent by 2050. But California held its very first “carbon credit” auction last month — and it was a big disappointment. Under cap-and-trade, regulators set a limit on how much carbon dioxide a business or utility...

Votes supporting a ballot measure to fund education backed by Gov. Jerry Brown outpolled "no" votes, with 100 percent of precincts reporting. Refresh this page for the latest updates.

California voters may have just handed Democrats unbridled control over taxes as well as policy, but party leaders from Gov. Jerry Brown on down immediately pledged to exercise restraint. Although final tallies are not official, it appears Democrats will hold at least a two-thirds supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate. That gives them the ability to pass taxes and fees, and place initiatives — such as same-sex marriage and bonds — on the ballot without securing a single Republican vote.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Californians approved a measure Tuesday that raises taxes on the wealthy and hikes the state sales tax. It is expected to bring in $6 billion a year, on average, over five years. Proposition 30, which Governor Jerry Brown has lobbied heavily for, captured 54% of the vote. Its approval prevents massive budget cuts to the state's public schools and universities. Brown built the tax hike into his budget so its passage was critical. Among the hardest hit by the Great Recession, California has had to slash billions of dollars from its budget in recent years to...

FIELD POLL: Tax measure support drops below 50 percent SACRAMENTO – A new Field Poll shows that support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax-increase ballot measure has dipped below 50 percent for the first time this year, with the initiative’s fate hinging on supporters’ ability to win over undecided voters. Today’s Field Poll shows that 48 percent of voters support Prop. 30 and 38 percent oppose it. Fourteen percent of voters are undecided. In mid-September, 51 percent of voters backed Prop. 30 and 36 percent opposed it, with 13 percent undecided. The survey found a sharp decline in support for Prop....

Johnson, female, black, is no stranger to financial schemes. For the past 8 years, she has been quietly serving as the president of an entity with a misleading name (California Consumer Protection Foundation AKA "CCPF"). This entity absorbed close to $30 million in class action cy pres awards, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the California Public Utilities Commission on utility companies. CCPF forwarded those funds to mostly questionable ACORN-like entities in South Los Angeles or to an entity headed by Michael Shames known as UCAN -- presently under federal grand jury investigation in San Diego.

Superintendents Paint Dire Picture If California's Prop. 30 Fails As Gov. Jerry Brown's revenue-raising proposition loses support, school superintendents say class sizes could grow, cherished programs could die and jobs will be lost. What we face is the biggest challenge in public education since the state of California was founded," said state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times October 26 As children peered at them through an elementary school fence in Cerritos on Friday, about a dozen school superintendents explained the consequences they will face if California voters fail to approve Proposition 30. In...

Gov. Jerry Brown’s initiative that would raise taxes to help pay for schools and local public safety programs continues to lose ground among likely voters, slipping below the all-important majority approval mark for the first time in a new poll. The survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California released Wednesday night found that support for Brown’s Proposition 30 stands at 48 percent, posing a challenge for the governor to win over a majority of voters with less than two weeks before they go to the polls Nov. 6. Forty-four percent are opposed.

Gov. Jerry Brown ordered state smog regulators Sunday to allow winter-blend gasoline to be sold in California earlier than usual to help drive prices down. Winter-blend gas typically isn’t sold until after October 31. Few refineries outside the state are currently making summer-blend gas, putting the pressure on already-taxed California manufacturers. In some locations, fuming motorists paid $5 or more per gallon while station owners had to shut down pumps in others.

Governor Brown: I use to be able to buy things like diapers and pet food online for cheaper than retail. But now that you have forced through an illegal internet tax not passed by the state legislature by 2/3rds as required by the constitution, I am having to pay the same for these things online as retail for the most part. I am middle class and work hard to make ends meet in this ridiculously expensive state to live in. Governor Brown, your tax hike on people like me has made my life more difficult, more expensive and more complicated...

California Democratic party chair John Burton compared Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to Nazi Joseph Goebbels this morning in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here's video: Via the San Francisco Chronicle: Greetings from the California delegation breakfast at the DNC where before he had a cup of coffee Democratic Party Chair John Burton – much like his ol’ palGuv Jerry Brown once did – just compared the Republicans to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, for “telling the big lie,” a reference to several falsehoods GOP VP nominee Paul Ryan recently told.

It’s been another busy day at the California Capitol, as lawmakers voted on dozens of bills ahead of the end-of-session deadline. Lawmakers have given final approval to a wide array of bills. Some faced strong opposition, like a ban on regulating Voice-over-Internet-Protocol phone service; and a bill that would penalize parents if their children openly display a BB gun in public. Others passed more easily, like a fee on lobbyists that would pay for improving the state's campaign finance website. Those measures now head to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown. Other bills that moved forward still face one last...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Jerry Brown, visiting a school this morning to promote his November ballot initiative to raise taxes, stepped inside for a moment before the media with a sixth-grade math and science class. It was first period, so the Democratic governor asked the students what they'd learned the previous day. "We learned about, like, some poems and stuff," one student said. "Poems?" Brown said. "I thought this was math." "Yeah," the student said.

If the experts agree on the existence and causes of climate change, why do some public opinion polls find that only about half or less than half of the American public is convinced that emissions from human activities bear responsibility? A small but vocal group has aggressively spread misinformation about the science, aiming to cast doubt on well-established findings and conclusions. Their goal is to create confusion and uncertainty, thereby preventing meaningful action to remedy the problem. The same strategy was used cynically for decades by the tobacco industry after research showed that cigarettes caused cancer. In fact, some of...

The California Nurses Association, which antagonized Republican Meg Whitman with its relentless "Queen Meg" parody during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, is back for a second act - this time poking fun at wealthy people opposing Gov. Jerry Brown's November ballot initiative to raise taxes. The influential union, in a campaign to paint tax opponents as "bungling billionaires," will stage a skit on Tuesday at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. The union promised reporters a "colorful event," with visuals including life rings and a model yacht.

California Democrats joined Jerry Brown in passing an illegal fire fee for every habitable structure found on each land owner's property. Most Californians were under the belief that fire protection was a basic government service. Well, not if you are a Democrat. The unusual fire charge for rural areas, was pushed through by Gov. Jerry Brown, and styled as a fee and not a tax to avoid a ballot measure requiring a two-thirds vote of approval. Called "The State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Benefit Fee," it was signed into law last year. The law requires homeowners in designated fire-prone...

Fox just ran a live event of Romney/Ryan at a High Point, North Carolina furniture factory... Twice in his speech, Romney warned that the nation cannot become like CALIFORNIA. Wasn't it Peggy Noonan who just recently wrote a column urging Romney to make that comparison, because most American voters certainly know what THAT means---as opposed to the allure of Europe?

California Democrats joined Jerry Brown in passing an illegal fire fee for every habitable structure found on a land owners property. Most Californians were under the belief that fire protection was a basic government service? Well, not if you are a Democrat. The unusual fire charge for rural areas, was pushed through by Gov. Jerry Brown, and styled as a fee and not a tax to avoid a ballot measure requiring a two-thirds vote of approval. Called "The State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Benefit Fee", it was signed into law last year. The law requires homeowners in designated fire-prone...

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a rare political public appearance today, with his schedule opening up to join Gov. Jerry Brown in San Diego at the groundbreaking and dedication of the Sunrise Powerlink — a large transmission line project that will run from the Imperial Valley to San Diego. Schwarzenegger promoted and supported that project more than four years ago.

(Reuters) - California's largest community college, the City College of San Francisco, will be forced to close next year if it fails to address a raft of longstanding problems that the school blames on state budget cuts. The two-year college that serves 90,000 students risks becoming the first in California to lose its accreditation since 2006, triggering funding cuts that could shutter the school. The threatened loss of accreditation for the school, which would occur in June 2013, comes as California's heralded system of public universities and colleges groans under the pressure of reduced government funding and curtailed school budgets....

The poorly run City College of San Francisco has eight months to prove it should stay in business, yet must "make preparations for closure," evaluators ordered Tuesday. The stunning verdict by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges could result in the closure of California's largest college and a fixture of higher education in one of the nation's wealthiest cities. It has 90,000 students. Only accredited colleges can receive public funding under state law. But City College's failure to fix serious, long-standing problems of leadership and fiscal planning means that the accrediting commission could vote as early as next...

The Global warming Scam was obviously created by a group of people who had something to gain. A LOT of money has been made by certain people in the right positions.Our own Governor,  Jerry  Moonbeam Brown has a personal vested interest in Global warming.  You see, Moonbeams  family owns rights to a patent on catalytic converters.  Uncle Jerry and his family have made a LOT of money off of this Global Warming scam, dating clear back to the early 1970's. The main function of a catalytic converter is to "convert"  CO,  (carbon MON-oxide),  into  CO2, ( Carbon DI-oxide) . Here's ...

Vice President Joe Biden was in town this afternoon. Here's The Bee's pool report from the event: Vice President Joe Biden arrived before 3 p.m. - a bit earlier than expected - at a fundraiser at the Sutter Club, near the state Capitol in downtown Sacramento. Pool was ushered into the hall about 3:17 p.m., just in time to hear Gov. Jerry Brown at the podium ahead of Biden. Biden started speaking about three minutes later to a crowd of about 130 people. "Nothing has changed," Biden said of Brown, who was governor before from 1975 to 1983. Biden said...

Democratic lawmakers have vowed all spring to fight spending cuts to programs that serve the poorest Californians, including welfare-to-work and Cal Grant scholarships. In a Capitol where fiscal maneuvers have flourished in recent years, Gov. Jerry Brown says he wants real cuts to health and welfare programs because the state cannot afford what it provides. Facing a Friday deadline to pass a balanced budget, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg are meeting with Brown behind closed doors to find middle ground. Deal or no deal, it is nearly certain that lawmakers will send the...

As the Capitol churns toward Friday's deadline for a new state budget, the macro-issues are well known, such as whether health, welfare and child care services should be slashed by billions of dollars to close the deficit. There are, however, other aspects of the annual budget wrangle that go largely unnoticed, such as the march into secrecy – or, more accurately, sneakiness. For decades, a few key legislators drafted the entire budget in secrecy with virtually no public exposure or input, but about 40 years ago, there was an internal revolt because one powerful senator had loaded up the budget...

Even as Sonoma County faces tremendous demand for government-subsidized apartments, affordable housing proponents say the money to pay for new projects is drying up. Housing groups expect to lose $1 billion a year in redevelopment funds as a result of recent cutbacks. Other state and federal funds have been reduced or eliminated. "The funding has just been decimated," said Matt Schwartz, president and CEO of the California Housing Partnership Corporation in San Francisco. Schwartz was in Santa Rosa on Monday to speak to an annual breakfast gathering of the Sonoma County Housing Coalition, a consortium of housing groups and advocates....

California's fiscal and governance crisis careens from bad to worse. The latest blow: a 70% increase in the state's projected budget deficit in Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget, to $16 billion from $9 billion. Meanwhile, S&P warns of a downgrade to the state's bond rating, already the lowest of any state, and the latest CEO survey ranks California's business climate dead last. Caught in the symbiotic financial embrace of special interests—teacher and other public-employee unions, trial lawyers and environmental extremists—Mr. Brown and the state legislature repeatedly nibble around the edges of the budget broken by costly, ineffective programs, financed by...

LOS ANGELES — A new poll finds California voters are experiencing buyers' remorse over a proposed $68 billion bullet train project, as the number of lawsuits against the rail system grows. ....In Southern California, 67 percent of voters said they would reject issuing high-speed rail bonds if they could vote again. If the bullet train system is built, 69 percent said they would never or hardly ever ride it. No respondents — zero percent — said they would use it more than once a week. Just 33 percent of respondents said they would prefer a bullet train over an airplane...

As San Francisco and other Bay Area cities prepare for gay pride celebrations this month, Gov. Jerry Brown issued a proclamation Saturday declaring June 2012 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. In a statement issued Saturday, the governor called June 28, 1969 a “historic turning point” — a day when LGBT citizens in New York City resisted police harassment stemming from discriminatory laws during the Stonewall Riots. He noted that “California has been a leader in advancing the rights of its LGBT citizens”, including a San Francisco federal appeals court’s February ruling that found Prop 8, California’s ban on...