An ongoing school board turf battle between two powerful labor unions, the California Teachers Association (CTA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has partially played out on the legal front in recent weeks, with the AFT’s lawsuits to benefit its candidates being slapped down in court. The legal maneuvers by AFT have moved into the realm of the absurd. It …
The Republicans Have Yet To Make Their Case On Taxes
Guest Commentary by Thomas Del Beccaro Obama Campaign Co-Chair Eva Longoria speaks to the audience at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 6, 2012 on the final day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Is Eva Longoria right on tax policy? The very fact that she was given a prime time speaking slot at the …
Notes from The Republican Convention
Guest Commentary by Randy Berholtz I attended my first Republican Convention in Tampa last week as part of the California delegation and I’d like to share my thoughts on the event. The positives for the event: First, the event was a bit like Disneyland for Conservative Republicans such as myself. I saw many of our older Republican leaders like former …
Superior Court Budget Cuts Require a Judge with Experience in all Aspects of the Law
Guest Commentary by Daniel Brainard The San Diego Superior Court announced in June that it will face historical budget cuts for the upcoming Fiscal Years. The tentative plan in place for FY 2012-13 will see the largest reduction and restructuring of services in the court’s history. This reduction will eliminate hundreds of positions including twenty-five courtroom clerks, seven staff attorneys, …
My first Republican National Convention
Guest Commentary by Arkan Somo I was very excited when I received my invitation to attend the RNC 2012 in Tampa, Florida. On the way to Tampa I didn’t know exactly what to expect. Monday was cancelled due to the weather, which caused Tuesday to be an action packed day. Tens of thousands of loyal and faithful to the core …
The state legislature’s pension “reform”
Guest Commentary by Jan Goldsmith In adopting AB 340, the pension reform measure, rather than using San Diego’s Proposition B as a model for real reform, the Legislature and Governor seem to have used San Diego’s Proposition D as the model. That was the proposed sales tax increase accompanied by hollow promises of reform. The difference is that voters scrutinized …
Final Day from RNC: Nehring on Eastwood and Rubio, Holloway analyzes the Romney bounce and shares her Occupy Tampa swag
A pretty-much-says-it tweet from former State Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring last night: “If Clint Eastwood wants to talk to a chair, he gets to talk to a chair.” Also, Nehring writes on his blog, “Sen. Rubio’s powerful words about America, immigrants and why people come here”… To me, the most powerful words spoken at the Republican National Convention came …
From the RNC: Wednesday Night’s Take, Single GOP Women becoming a Force?, Condi for Governor
First, a tweet from comedian Dennis Miller after the VP nominee’s speech last night: “After Ryan’s speech, Biden’s sphincter is twitchier than a college kid who drank tap water in Mexico on spring break.” From Mike Cully, our Rostra guest correspondent, attending the Republican National Convention as part of the California delegation… RNC Convention Day 2: The theme of the …
Tuesday Night from RNC and more: Update at bottom — Yahoo Correspondent Fired after Romney comment
From Mike Cully, Tuesday 10:30 pm Florida time… Thunderous applause and a standing ovation that lasted several minutes…Ann Romney took the stage at 10:10 pm to a crowd in the Tampa Bay Times Forum. From the outset, Ann Romney set the tone, detouring from the rousing political speeches that punctuated the night and grounding the crowd by speaking, she said, …
Day 2 from RNC
From Mike Cully, Tuesday 11 am Florida time… After a well-executed breakfast moderated by conservative radio talk-show hosts Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt and featuring an appearance by Speaker of the House John Boehner and Congressman Darrell Issa, delegates and alternates were told to prepare for a very long — possibly 12-hour-plus day. Since the cancellation of the session Monday, …
Day 1 from RNC
Over the next few days, SD Rostra will bring you some exclusive thoughts from a few San Diegans in Tampa for the Republican National Convention, mostly “on the fly” as they tell us what they’re doing, what’s going on with the California delegation, or anything else that happens to be on their minds. Here’s a missive from Mike Cully, Monday …
Mark Powell on SD Unified’s Financial Plan, or lack thereof
Mark Powell, November run-off election candidate for San Diego Unified School Board speaks out on the School District’s Financial Plan Guest Commentary by Mark Powell Thanks to the great investigative reporting by Will Carless at the Voice of San Diego, “the cat is out of the bag” and the voters are clear that San Diego Unified School Board president John …
DeMaio: “We’re on a roll, my friends.” Filner: “Republicans are racists.”
Guest Commentary by Brian Brady I attended the first “mano a mano” Mayoral debate between Republican Carl DeMaio and Democrat Bob Filner Thursday night at the Institute of the Americas at UCSD. The topic was relations with Mexico. Ten years ago, I thought The San Diego/Tijuana region was a megalopolis with untapped potential but after the murder of Rosarito’s mayor, I …
Chick-fil-A and Public Education
Guest Commentary by Eric Anderson I could be wrong but me thinks that the same folks who wish harm to Chick-fil-A . . . Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and their statist friends are the same intolerant left wing ideologues who support state “education.” These folks and their teacher unions have …
Instead of real reform, a sham budget
Guest Commentary by Tom Del Beccaro Another California budget cycle has come and gone. As with each of the budgets from the past decade or so, questions abound. Is it really balanced? Are the revenue estimates real? Will there need to be revisions in the months ahead? The short answers to those questions are that it is not really balanced …
La Mesa: New watchdog group formed
by Kevin George I would like to announce the formation of a new watchdog organization, La Mesa Citizen Oversight Group. We announced yesterday at the La Mesa City Council meeting to make it official. This started as a very loosely knit group of long time La Mesa residents and business owners, concerned about the political landscape in La Mesa. It …
The Power to Mandate – Why You Should Deplore Roberts’ Decision
Guest Commentary by Thomas Del Beccaro from PoliticalVanguard.com The United States was a nation of laws. Unlike any other Country, we began with a Constitution that set firm boundaries – not for us – but for government. Sadly, and actually, the Supreme Court decision on ObamaCare has changed all of that. In its wake, we are a changed Nation. At …
The Supreme Court Got it Right in Upholding Key Provision of SB 1070
Guest Commentary by Rhonda Deniston In a 5-3 decision the Supreme Court upheld a key provision of Arizona’s immigration Law, SB 1070. Law enforcement can constitutionally inquire about immigration status during stops when there is reasonable suspicion to believe an individual is undocumented. The Supreme Court got it right. Law enforcement at a local, state and federal level have always had broad …
The fiction of majority vote
Guest Commentary by Fred Schnaubelt Who Speaks For You? – Who Speaks For The American People? The “American people” want compromise says the New York Times. The “American people” want a balanced budget say the Republicans. The “American people” want free medical care, free college tuitions, free contraceptives, free food stamps, free mass transit, free immigration, and free or partly …
Marty Block Needs to Lead on Statewide Pension Reform
Guest Commentary by George Plescia The budget deadline is today. And yet this morning’s Sacramento Bee headline says it all, “California lawmakers race to pass a budget with little time to read it.” So much for transparency. Nobody would want to read exactly how the state proposes to spend $91 billion dollars before they vote on it. All this so …
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