Low-Tax Texas Beats Big-Government California

by Michael Barone at Townhall.com

“Stop messing with Texas!” That was the message Gov. Rick Perry bellowed on election night as he celebrated his victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor. In his reference to Texas’ anti-littering slogan, Perry was making a point applicable to national as well as Texas politics and addressed to Democratic politicians as well as Republicans.

His point was that the big government policies of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders are resented and fiercely opposed not just because of their dire fiscal effects but also as an intrusion on voters’ independence and ability to make decisions for themselves.

No one would include Perry on a list of serious presidential candidates, including himself, even in the flush of victory. But in his 10 years as governor, the longest in the state’s history, Texas has been teaching some lessons to which the rest of the nation should pay heed.

They are lessons that are particularly vivid when you contrast Texas, the nation’s second most populous state, with the most populous, California. Both were once Mexican territory, secured for the United States in the 1840s. Both have grown prodigiously over the past half-century. Both have populations that today are about one-third Hispanic.

But they differ vividly in public policy and in their economic progress — or lack of it — over the last decade. California has gone in for big government in a big way. Democrats hold large margins in the legislature largely because affluent voters in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area favor their liberal positions on cultural issues.

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Teacher wins major victory for God in school

Judge scolds district for trying to scrub America’s Christian heritage

by Drew Zahn at World Net Daily

A federal judge in California has handed down a scathing ruling against a school that required one of its teachers to remove signs celebrating the role of God in American history from his classroom walls.

As WND reported, math teacher Bradley Johnson had banners hanging in his classroom at Westview High School in San Diego, Calif., for more than 17 years with phrases like “In God We Trust” and “All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed by Their Creator,” only to have the principal order them torn down during the 2007 school year.

But Johnson filed a lawsuit alleging the order a violation of his constitutional rights, and the teacher has now been rewarded with a court victory and a powerfully-worded ruling.

“May a school district censor a high school teacher’s expression because it refers to Judeo-Christian views, while allowing other teachers to express views on a number of controversial subjects, including religion and anti-religion?” posited U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez in his judgment. “On undisputed evidence, this court holds that it may not.”

He continued, “That God places prominently in our nation’s history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson’s public high school classroom walls. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God.”

The judge further reprimanded the school, stating that while teachers at the district “encourage students to celebrate diversity and value thinking for one’s self, [they] apparently fear their students are incapable of dealing with diverse viewpoints that include God’s place in American history and culture.”

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And Then There Were None

By Debra J. Saunders at Townhall.com

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell announced Thursday that he is dropping out of the California GOP gubernatorial primary and instead will run against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom bowed out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary, leaving former governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown as the only Democrat in the race — and he has yet to announce that he is running.

Come to think of it, former Lt. Gov. John Garamendi also dropped out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary to run for (and win) Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s vacated seat. The governor’s race is starting to look like an Agatha Christie story, where all the characters get bumped off one by one. Call it: “And Then There Were None.”

Campbell knows that some supporters are disappointed that he won’t remain in the governor’s race. Some had this fantasy that he would best the two moneybags in the race, much as Gray Davis beat Democrat richies Al Checchi and Jane Harman in 1998.

Sorry, Campbell explained, he was “not within hailing distance” of winning because he raised only about $1 million last year. By contrast, the two gazillionaires each tossed $19 million into their campaign coffers as if it were tip money.

As Democratic political guru Darry Sragow noted, people forget “in the telling of the story, Gray did have enough money to make his presence felt.” Campbell wasn’t in Davis’ fundraising league.

There is also a nostalgia element to the switch. In 1992, Campbell lost the GOP primary to Bruce Herschensohn, who then lost the general election to Boxer. According to conventional lore, if the more moderate Campbell had won the primary, Boxer never would have won her Senate seat.

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Who pays their protesters?

The dishonesty that permeates the Democratic party is beyond belief! They accuse ordinary concerned citizens who practice their first amendment rights of being sponsored by special interest groups and the Republican party…with no proof.  There’s absolutely no evidence that conservatives complaining to their representatives at town halls across the country have been paid or bussed in, but Democrats have no qualms of making things up.  They lie without hesitation.  But what about their side?

They also try to lead you to believe their side really is a grassroots movement, springing from citizens wronged by the current system.  Never do they hint their “activists” are bought and paid for.  But we do have proof.

They’re so conceited, believing you are so ignorant that you won’t recognize their hypocrisy and absolute dishonesty.  Here’s the ad they took out to hire “activists” to campaign for Obamacare.

****ACTIVIST JOBS to Promote OBAMA’s HEALTH CARE PLAN!!! $10-15/hr**** (berkeley) YOUR CHANCE TO CURE THE HEALTHCARE CRISIS! The Problem: Rising Healthcare Premiums Healthcare costs in the US have doubled in the last 10 years, and they are projected to double again in the next 8 years, unless we pass reform through Congress this summer. Families and businesses are scraping to afford coverage, and many are being dropped by their provider after they get sick. The Solution: A Public Health Insurance Option President Obama’s public option would allow millions of Americans to afford the coverage they seek. The option would create a more competitive market and drive down the cost of health insurance for everyone. Big insurance companies know this, and they are working adamantly to stop us. So we are going out and building a grassroots campaign that will bring the power back to the people and not corporate CEOs. The Strategy: People Power Over the past 30 years CALPIRG has stood up to powerful interest groups. Corporate insurance companies have far too much influence over Congress, so CALPIRG is pushing back to reduce rising healthcare costs. The Fund for the Public Interest has organized grassroots campaigns for more than 25 years. We have defended human rights, protected the environment, and fought for the average consumer. Our partnership with CALPIRG is an exciting campaign that aims to bring the power back to the people, and away from the wallets of corporate CEOs. We need people like you to become involved with healthcare reform and make some money in the process. Joining this campaign will allow you to work with some of the most motivated people in the region. Together, we can make change happen. Earn $400-600 per week! To apply for a job, visit our website—www.JobsThatMatter.org—or call Charles at 510-644-3454

Who’s paying their protesters?!?!

Will everyone please call Charles at 510-644-3454 and shut down his phone line?

My Nobel Prize for Economics

by Rich Galen on Townhall.com

How much do Members of the U.S. House and Senate make? Are they suffering as are regular people? Do they feel the pain of tax increases and new regulations?

In reverse order: No. No. And $174,000 per year.

In addition Members of Congress get a tax break on their housing, have health care completely paid for by you and me, and have a pretty good retirement system although the other benefits are so good you can’t get them to retire much before their 113th birthday, on average.

That $174,000 is for the rank-and-file, show-up-for-work four-days-a-week members of the House and Senate. You want to be really aggravated? The Speaker of the House, who happens to be Nancy Pelosi, and who happens to be one of the wealthiest members of Congress, makes $223,500.

And she gets to fly home on an Air Force jet which the rank-and-file, show-up-for-work four-days-a-week members of the House and Senate do not get to do.

I do not mention this because I am particularly angry with Members of the House and Senate – at least not any more than usual. I mention all this because of California.

The California fiscal year ended at midnight last night, June 30. They ain’t got no money.

California – the state which is held in such high regard by the Obama Administration that they just shoved through a global warming bill which is largely based on California standards – is more than in fiscal distress. It is bankrupt. Bust. Broke. Penniless. Insolvent.

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The California Albatross

by Meredith Turney on Townhall.com

Within a matter of weeks, the great state of California will be out of money. For months state leaders have warned of the yawning $24 billion budget deficit; even exploiting the deficit they created in a failed attempt to scare voters into increasing their taxes in the May special election. The proposed tax increases and budget gimmickry were soundly rejected by voters, sending a clear message to Sacramento that Californians will no longer finance the bloated, inefficient government’s insatiable appetite for more tax dollars. Now the day of reckoning is upon California, and how the Golden State resolves this massive problem will impact the entire nation. … The fate of the world’s 10th largest economy is inextricably linked to America’s overall economic fate. Could America’s already fragile economy absorb California’s debt? With the federal government already trillions in debt, what’s another $24 billion? The problem is not the amount of debt, but the precedent it will set if the federal government is forced to bailout one of the country’s largest states. …More

Obama’s Undemocratic Plan to Tax Everything You Do and Send the Money to Kuwaiti Millionaires

from The Foundry

Despite the 5,800 miles between them, events yesterday in Poznan, Poland, and Sacramento, Calif., shed a frightening light on the direction President-elect Barack Obama’s administration wants to take our country on energy policy. First in Poznan, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) promised delegates at an international climate conference that “Congress and the president-elect are committed to movement on mandatory goals as rapidly as possible.” According to Obama’s transition website, the preferred enforcement mechanism for these mandatory goals would be a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, which any honest economist will tell you is really just a energy tax dressed up in drag. Meanwhile, in Sacramento, the unelected California Air Resources Board approved “the nation’s most sweeping plan to reduce global warming by curbing emissions.” Like Obama’s plan, California’s plan features “an elaborate cap-and-trade program” at its core.

What makes California’s cap-and-trade plan so scary is that voters never had, and never will have, an opportunity to debate and vote on its implementation. The plan is being implemented entirely through the administrative process. None of the members of California board have ever had to, or ever will, face the voters. They are appointed by the governor.

…(Read full article)