Free Republic

How not to? By borrowing more money. Bloomberg reports: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers came up with a compromise to close a $19.1 billion deficit and give the state a budget, ending a record three-month impasse with a vote expected next week on the spending plan. The accord doesn’t raise taxes, as sought by Democrats, nor does it dismantle the state’s welfare system, proposed by Republicans, the leaders said yesterday. Schwarzenegger and the Democratic and Republican heads of the Senate and the Assembly, known as the Big Five, came to the agreement after a final five- hour negotiating...

A man found naked at a casino claimed he was a Terminator sent from the future. 19-year-old Sean Stanley Smith was arrested on the Nevada border after he was spotted by a motorist wandering around the highway nude. He was ordered by police to stop but proceeded into a nearby casino - where he was then tasered in front of a group of children.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an exuberant cheerleader for his policies to fight global warming. At times, unfortunately, his exuberance gets the best of him. A recent example is a May 18 speech he delivered to the International Low Carbon Fuel Symposium at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. During the speech, Schwarzenegger claimed that development of ethanol and other biofuels could help reduce gas prices, which now average about $3.45 a gallon in California. "The Low Carbon Fuel Standard is our best weapon against rising oil prices and gas prices because a vibrant market in alternative fuels and alternative vehicles, alternative...

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Joined by Governor Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines, business leaders from the newly formed Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform (CAHR) today called for passage of market-based healthcare reforms to fix California and the nation's broken healthcare system. The group of business leaders said now is the time to bring all stakeholders together to achieve meaningful results that not only solve the cost and coverage problem, but build a healthier California. Launched at a press conference on Capitol Hill earlier this week, CAHR...

WASHINGTON – With his status growing as a national leader against global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday said in a major speech that those who refuse to address climate change are “fanatics.” Schwarzenegger, the subject of recent environmental cover stories in Newsweek, Fortune and Outside magazines, said the movement to combat global warming has gone mainstream and those who oppose it are now on the fringes. “So who are the fanatics now?” Schwarzenegger asked during his address at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall, which was packed with young adults who twice gave him standing ovations. “They are the ones who are...

In the script Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recited this week during his trip to Washington, D.C., California is a nirvana where political parties have put aside their differences for the good of the people. "We reformed prescription drug costs, passed the world's most comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and began rebuilding the state's infrastructure," the Republican governor told a rapt audience of jaded political reporters at the National Press Club while he was in town for the National Governors Association Conference. "We did this working together." By following California's "post-partisan" model, Schwarzenegger said, President Bush and Congress could stop bickering...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls him "Acky" in public and private. And Sen. Dick Ackerman, the leader of a small but hardy band of Republicans in the state Senate, hosted the governor at his riverfront home one night last week for a surf and turf dinner and a chat with his fellow Republicans. On a personal level, the governor and the senator are getting along just fine. But when it comes to policy, Schwarzenegger is finding himself increasingly estranged from the Republicans who serve in the Legislature, including Ackerman. When Schwarzenegger called earlier this month for an era of "post-partisanship" in...

In his victory speech Tuesday night to a confetti-swamped crowd at the Beverly Hilton, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a message for the rest of the Republican Party after its worst defeat in decades. Follow "the California way," he said. "We are proving to the nation that there is another way to go, a better path to solve problems." Schwarzenegger's landslide victory in a largely Democratic state illustrates the growing power of moderate candidates and the electoral appeal of bipartisanship, and it could contain important lessons for Republicans and Democrats as they seek to position themselves in the future, analysts and...

State Sen. Tom McClintock, the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, is generally the darling of the conservative "hot talk" radio crowd, but he's been taking his lumps lately for daring to defend Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his erstwhile running mate. Tuesday night, for example, McClintock joined the governor for a Schwarzenegger fund-raiser in Pasadena, then made his way over to the KFI radio studio, where talk show host John Ziegler spent an hour trying to get him to trash the governor. Having Angelides as governor "would hurt like the dickens and hurt (the state) for years to come," he said. "I...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger flushed a bill requiring waterless urinals and even lower-flush toilets down the veto tube Saturday, but he signed a bill allowing domestic partners to file joint state tax returns. At the deadline for acting on measures approved by legislators, the governor also signed measures increasing card-club game stakes, relaxing control over siting of cell phone towers and banning the new and deadly teenager practice of riding in the trunk of cars to sidestep driving laws.

This was the seventh time in seven years that Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, had tried to pass the measure, which would establish a special license for the state's more than 2 million undocumented immigrants who, according to estimates, are driving. His most recent efforts have been passed by the Legislature only to be vetoed by Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis. This time, the bill was shot down by a Democratic-controlled committee. Political insiders suggested the measure was perhaps too controversial for an election year. The bill is opposed by Republicans -- and a majority of voters -- who...

Democratic challenger Phil Angelides, facing the governor's rebound in the polls, tries to cast himself as a Clinton populist Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has built his re-election campaign on a platform of "protecting the California dream." But this week his challenger, Democratic State Treasurer Phil Angelides, laid out his own dream theme, with a populist bent. Trailing Schwarzenegger in the latest statewide Field poll by 8 points, Angelides signaled in a speech Wednesday that his strategy for catching up will include attacking the incumbent's record, tying Schwarzenegger to George W. Bush and positioning himself as a champion of the beleaguered middle...

The who's who of the successful Indo American community of Silicon Valley came together at a fund raising dinner recently for Governor Arnold Schwarznegger's reelection campaign. The Gubernatorial elections for California in which Governor Schwarzenegger is locking horns with Democratic candidate Phil Angelide are scheduled for November 7 this year. Complementing the 'hard working' Indian community, Schwarznegger hinted of taking a trade delegation of 60 to 100 business leaders to India in 2007, if reelected. "We have opened a business portal to facilitate information exchange. I will see how California can increase trade with India and how India can manufacture...

It's good to have friends in high places. Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger. The California governor, a Republican, has been endorsed in his re-election bid by three of Hollywood's biggest political forces -- all of whom are noted for their big-wallet donations to the Democratic Party. According to the Los Angeles Times, Schwarzeneger has received the backing of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and media mogul Haim Saban. Such party defections will hurt Schwarzenegger's opponent, state Treasurer Phil Angelides. "It starts with a personal relationship. They are friends," Andy Spahn, a spokesman for both Spielberg and Katzenberg, told the Times. According to...

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - California labor leaders announced a campaign on Monday to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election bid, calling the former film star anti-worker and beholden to big business. The announcement touches off what could be a fierce re-election fight for Schwarzenegger, who took office after toppling Gray Davis, a Democratic governor with close ties to union leaders. Unions played an important role in the defeat of a series of initiatives last year that Schwarzenegger cast as reforms and workers groups saw as attempts to gut their power. "We will find a suitable candidate and mobilize our people to...

Top California Republicans are wondering if Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is moving left politically following his appointment to chief of staff of Susan Kennedy – a leading liberal activist and former aide to Democrat Gov. Gray Davis. "We're not moving anywhere," Schwarzenegger says, insisting that he is continuing to go "in the same direction." Some of his Republican colleagues wonder what direction that may be. "I'm getting more e-mails off of this [the Kennedy appointment] than I do for Viagra," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly, in an interview with the L.A. Times newspaper. "Since the special election,...

SACRAMENTO – California first lady Maria Shriver may be the only top political adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to emerge from the special election with her popularity and credibility enhanced. Her secret? Silence. During his "year of reform," Schwarzenegger and his campaign advisers made wildly optimistic claims of victory and inaccurate assessments of the popularity of his four ballot measures. Shriver never spoke about his initiatives. Now, that conspicuous silence may become her greatest asset, paving the way for her to play an influential role in Schwarzenegger's effort to create and communicate a more bipartisan approach to governing as he...

This column, and the world, have been very serious lately. Let's take a not-too-solemn look at postelection players. Warren Beatty has been all over the news as the leader of the anti-Schwarzenegger forces in California. He has emerged, and good for him. He's been making heavily covered speeches and shadowing GOP rallies along with his wife, Annette Bening, a truly great actress. But Wednesday Beatty told reporters, "I don't want to run for governor." Which left me scratching my head. This is politics, not showbiz. It has nothing to do with what you want.

Whatever else you think about Arnold "The Oak" Schwarznegger you have to hand it to him. The man has a sense of style. This mornig as I was driving west on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, I looked up to see a shining new billboard, on which was the beaming face of Arnold Schwarznegger, wearing a "Bear Flag Republic" T-Shirt, his brawny arms folded across his brawny chest, underneath of which was the message: California Wants Your Business. That's cool!On Monday, he will address the nation at the Republican national convention. Whatever you might thing about his policy positions...

Dale Griffin wrote this column about the Govenators comments. It's a good read. Politically Correct Is Wrong Shut your mouth. Do yourself and everyone you know a favor and never speak again. What you are about to say may, infact, offend someone. And if it does God help you.