Tearfang

Rick Santorum on abortion

2011-01-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

Harmer looses the recount by a very slim margin (final results)

2010-11-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

Ballot Measures November 2, 2010 General Election

2010-06-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

Initial post, this is a work in progress. I'll probably split each prop into its own post as there are so many and just have a vote guide section summarizing everything including Candidates.
Legislative Analysts Office (LAO) information not up on their website yet for these. Will linkify the text when it becomes available. These are taken from the list of qualified initiatives.

Prop 18 ??? (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: 11b bond for things they won't do
It looks like this is one where I may break with the main body of the big government California Republican party establishment. And have strange allies. We can't afford it and it contains lots of wasteful spending. Maybe I should try and get something at least partially useful before California files for bankruptcy...
Supporters: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Abel Maldonado http://www.waterforca.com/
Opponents: Chuck Devore, Sierra Club there are a lot of Democrats on opponent list http://nowaterbond.com/

Prop 19 ??? (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: Legalize Marijuana.
Maybe I should make the potheads a deal they can grow your own pot if I can get my allergy meds over the counter... Not sure on this one if it is better to continue our quazi-find-a-corrupt-doc legalization or just go full hog.
Supporters: NAACP, http://www.taxcannabis2010.org/
Opponents: http://www.publicsafetyfirst.net/

Prop 20 Yes (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: Include congressional districts in the independent districting purview
explanation
Supporters: http://www.votersfirstact.org
Opponents: Nancy Pelosi and crew; see prop 27

Prop 21 No (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: Yet another new tax on cars.
explanation
Supporters: Sierra Club, CA Federation of Teachers, CA Teachers Association, Boy Scouts of America, NAACP, CA Young and College Democrats http://www.yesforstateparks.com/

Prop 22 ??? (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: Prohibits the State from Taking Funds Used for Transportation or Local Government
explanation
Supporters: Teamsters, Transit Unions, various cities http://savelocalservices.com/

Prop 23 Yes (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: Delay CO2 tax (AB32) until unemployment at 5.5%
explanation
Supporters: http://www.suspendab32.org/
Opponents: AARP, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Teamsters, League of Women Voter, Blue Shield, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dianne Feinstein http://www.stopdirtyenergyprop.com/index.php

Prop 24 No (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: increase your taxes by taxing businesses.
explanation
Supporters: http://www.paytheirfairshare.com/
Opponents: California Taxpayers’ Association, http://stopthejobstax.org/

Prop 25 No (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: budget to majority from 2/3rds
explanation

Prop 26 Yes (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: fix the 2/3rd tax loophole
explanation
Supporters: http://www.nomorehiddentaxes.com/
Opponents:

Prop 27 No (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
One line summary: Allows legislature to draw their own districts lines
explanation
Supporters: Nancy Pelosi and crew
Opponents: see prop 20

CA Primary election results

2010-06-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

So the biggest change is the passage or prop14. The primary process, and third parties by the way are officially dead in California. Meg Whitman won the republican primary, I'm considering going third party because I don't see a win for Meg doing us much good. A liberal republican as governor while the dem controlled senate continues its borrow and spend ways is a recipe for conservatives to get blamed for the natural consequences of liberalism- running out of other people's money. Back to prop 14 though I've been looking in vein to find out what the the parties response will be. They are challenging in court, but think they should and expect them to loose. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/28/MNN11E1LJA.DTL&type=politics. Obviously, I expect them to move to some type of endorsement system... but the big question is how will they choose who to endorse. The biggest benefit I had of being registered republican was voicing my opinion on who should represent the party. Now I don't know if I'll even get a say. I've posted on various sites and sent a lot of emails. So far the only response I got was from Chuck Devore saying he expected the Republican to move to an endorsement system... not too helpful when you are asking what the ideas out there are for how it should work.

About that off shore dilling ban

2010-06-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

There is a 6 month ban on drilling in deep waters at the moment which Obama put in place after getting advice from a panel of experts. The problem is that the panel of experts advised a different course.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/10/experts-say-obama-misrepresented-views-justify-offshore-drilling-ban/
Now 'expert' panels can make good and bad recommendations and it is ok to commission a panel get their advice and not do everything they advise. However, there needs to be honesty about the fact that this is what is being done which doesn't seems to have happened in this case. Furthermore, there should be good reasons for ignoring a panel of experts you choose, which in this case there doesn't seem to be... We didn't ground air planes for 6 months after 9-11 and that turned out ok. As bad as this accident is, as far as I can tell it wouldn't have happened it people had been following the rules already in place.

Gun Control and mass killings

2010-06-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

came across this interesting link: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/06/10/john-lott-america-gun-ban-murders-multiple-victim-public-shootings-europe/

June 8 2010 Primary Statewide Summary

2010-05-20T20:26:00.001-07:00

Senate

Contenders: Carly Fiorina (won the primary), Chuck DeVore, Tom Campbell

Carly Fiorina is the best candidate. She is strongly pro life and low taxes which won Sarah Palin's endorsement. Campbell is the worst pick of the three. He is a pro-abortion, refuses to sign a pledge not to raise taxes even higher, and generally closer to libertarian than republican values. DeVore just isn't a real contender in the race.

Details in Senate post.

Governor

Contenders Steve Poizner, Meg Whitman (won the primary)

Poizner is the best candidate. Poizner is for abortion, but Meg is more pro-abortion; she wants to use tax money to fund abortions. Poizner in the past supported a few liberal policies, but Meg currently supports a number of big liberal policies.

Details in Govenor post.

Propositions

13 YES It prohibits extra taxes on seismically retrofitting. (passed)

14 NO It eliminates primary elections. (passed)

15 NO It protects the jobs of bad politicians with your money. (rejected)

16 YES It requires 2/3 vote for gov takeover of power utilities. (rejected)

17 YES It allow auto insurance competition. (rejected)

Details in propositions post.

California Ballot Initiatives worth Supporting

2010-03-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Makes is illegal to deduct public employee wages for political activities pdf website
didn't make it to the ballot: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/21/2693481/unions-elections.html
Delay CO2 tax (AB32) until unemployment at 5.5% pdf website
made it to the ballot: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/04/drive-to-suspen.html
(hopefully more to come)

Signature Collection is now Done.
Important:
1. You must be registered to vote in California to sign
2. Your current address must match the address you are registered under (you can register/re-register at the same time you sign the petition)
3. All signatures on any single petition must be from people registered to vote in the SAME county. The vote collector does not need to be registered to vote in the same county.
4. For the place of signing field put the city they were collected in.

Propositions June 8 2010 Primary Election

2010-03-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Prop 13 Yes (bill pdf),  (LAO Official Summary)
It prohibits extra taxes on seismically retrofitting.
Currently property is taxed at its value at time of purchase and then adjusted for inflation. If a building is seismically retrofitted because some law or building code is passed that requires the upgrade the building is considered new for property tax purposes after 15 years and the rate jumps to the value at that time. This proposition makes eliminates that unfair tax increase.

Prop 14 No  (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
It eliminates primary elections.
It says, it is about making open primaries.That is not what it will do. In reality, it will eliminate primaries. This is why. It takes the top 2 candidates who got the most votes from the 'open primary' and they runoff against each other in the real election. The more candidates your party runs the less votes any one of your candidates will get. Lets say the republicans run 3 candidates and the dems run 2. In that scenario, it is likely that the major party running 2 candidates (in this example the dems) advances both of them to the runoff election because the dem's votes are only split 2 ways. Now, in practice, this won't happen because the political parties are not that stupid. No political party in their right mind will run more than 1 candidate in this so called open primary.
Parties, having been denied the primary process to pick their candidate to represent them, will have to find some other way to choose. The likely other ways which would get picked are caucusing or back room deals at state and national conventions. Both of these are worse ways to choose a candidate. Each party could hold their own separate members only votes, but this is unlikely due the the expense of every party holding separate private statewide elections.

Prop 15 No (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
It protects the jobs of bad politicians with your money
This is a horrible bill. It walks all over free speech. The worst part about it is that  if you start a private group that spends money saying some 'qualified' candidate is a bad choice, the very person you are opposing gets to use tax dollars equal to whatever you spend to 'balance' the effects of your speech. So a corrupt politicization gets to spend money, taken from the pockets of the very people trying to get expose him. If this isn't bad enough, what it takes to be a 'qualified' politician is different for different for people belonging to different political parties. In addition this rule of matching funds given to politicians like the 'qualifications' is also different for different political parties. The different rules give the big parties unfair advantages over smaller parties, which reduces competition in the market place for ideas insulating the politician's jobs. What else does it do? It taxes lobbyist speech to pay for politician's speech. Why should politician's get a free megaphone for their voices built off of other people's money not voluntarily given?  Lobbyists as a group are often vilified and that sometimes they deserve it. Who are lobbyists though, and what do they do? They are essentially people who talk to elected representatives on behalf of others. So really, this tax is a tax on talking to elected representatives.

Prop 16 Yes (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
2/3 vote required for gov takeover of power utilities
Government takeovers of major industries is a big deal and should have a high bar of agreement to pass. You are paying the bill you should get a say in who you are paying. Once governments take over anything they seldom give it back. Do you really want to some city counsel to decide for you that you are now the not so proud owner and bill payer payer and bail-outer when it fails of a power utility company.

Prop 17 Yes (bill pdf), (LAO Official Summary)
Allow auto insurance competition.
Currently insurance companies are allowed to give discounts to long term customers, but are not allowed to give discounts to customers who have maintained coverage but are switching. This is anti-competitive. A new insurance company wouldn't be able to offer that discount to anyone, and thus would have a harder time making its offers competitive against established companies than it should. This proposition levels the playing field allowing auto insurance companies to give you better deals when your looking to switch.

How can Moonbeam Jerry Bown consider a 3rd term if we have limits of 2 terms?

2010-03-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

If you had this question as well I've found the answer. Apparently the law is written: "Not have served two terms in the office sought since November 6, 1990." http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/gov-qual.pdf
So Moonbeam has found his loophole.

Govenor June 8 2010 Primary

2010-01-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

The 2 Republicans running are Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner. Both are liberal republicans not all that different from Schwarzenegger. Neither one are particularly good candidates. Poizner seems to be the better candidate for a number of reasons but the biggest 2 for me are:
(1) Abortion: Both are anti-life but Meg is for public funding of abortions.
(2) Global warming energy taxes: Meg thinks that AB32 which amounts to energy taxation is a good idea for a little later (1 year) among other things.

My big issue with Poizner's (besides him being anti-life) is that he donated $200k towards prop39 which sought to remove the 2/3rds majority rule for increasing property taxes.He says he's changed his mind now and is no longer a RINO (Republican In Name Only), but that is a hard past to live down. He certainly doesn't sound like a RINO at the moment, see his website or the Whitman-Poizner debate hosted by The New Majority, but apparently the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer association endorsed Meg Whitman which is a good endorsement to get.

Meg Whitman is the front runner by a lot ~(52% to 19%), wikipedia is a good place to start for polling information.

Steve Poizner website
Poizner 2004 vs now (highlights below) from CalBuz
* Cal watchdog interview.
* Hugh Hewitt interview.

Democratic contributions
* Like our Govenator Poizner is married to a life long Democrat
* Poizner’s $10k contribution to the Democratic National Committee in 2000 and $1k to Democrat Al Gore in 2000,” Poizner has acknowledged writing the two checks in support of the Democrat’s 2000 presidential efforts, plus a later $10k check backing Gore’s efforts in the Florida recount, but says he did so on behalf of his wife, who is a Democrat.

Taxes and Spending
* claims to have shrunk CA insurance commission by 15%
* signed tax payer pledge to not raise taxes (Americans For Taxpayer Reform)
* Says he wants to cut both taxes and spending 10% in CA across the board
* In 2000, Poizner funded prop 39's passage with $200k which reduced the requirement for increasing property taxes, from 2/3 to 55 percent (Fox and Hound, FresnoBee).
* He also supported local sales tax increases for several transportation projects
more on his history increasing taxes from RedCounty

Water

* Allow CA farmers to use water again

Abortion
* In his first foray into politics, Poizner highlighted his pro-choice credentials, to the extent that he won the endorsement of Planned Parenthood over a Democratic opponent.
* Though according to FlashReport he opposes public funding of abortions.
* Against late term abortions and for parental notification (Hugh Hewitt)

Prop 8
* voted for prop 8 fine with domestic partnerships (Hugh Hewitt)

Meg Whitman website

* FoxNews interview

* FoxRadio interview.

* Hugh Hewitt interview.

* For what it is worth Mitt Romney is campaigning for her, apparently they worked together in the corporate world many years ago and have a personal friendship she also apparently helped with his presidential campaign. (Meg's website)

* campaigned for Romney and then McCain in the 2008 election (Reuters)

* and against prop 187 (prop 187 wanted to only pay benefits for people legally here)

* Van Jones: For a short time he was Obama's Green Zar before he was forced to resign. A year ago before he was Obama's Green Zar Meg was caught saying she got to know him very well and praising him youTube , Meg's responce, who Van Jones is.

Democratic contributions

* Donated $4k to Barbara Boxer’s 2004 re-election campaign. In the past Meg also gave $25k to various campaigns of Democrat Steve Westly, her former colleague at eBay,

Taxes and Spending

* signed tax payer pledge to not raise taxes (Americans For Taxpayer Reform)

* cut business taxes (website)

* thinks spending is too high, wants to cut 40k state workers, sell unused land and eliminate waste (website)

Global Warming

* supports CO2 taxation AB32, but wants to delay it only 1 year (FoxNews, The New Majority Debate)

* Whitman also called herself a champion of the environment. But she voiced qualms about California's efforts against global warming, mainly the attempt under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to force car makers to adopt emission standards tougher than the federal government's.

"I would have said, 'Hey listen, let's keep one standard for the country as a whole today; if the economy gets better then let's give those rights to states,' " she said. (LA Times)

also see FlashReport

* Thinks we need a more reliable power transmission grid (website) my understanding of this is that this is code for more expensive energy e.g. subsidies for alternative energy and out-sourcing power generation to other states.

Water

* Doesn't mention CA's most immediate water problem on her website water page, but in Hugh Hewitt interview says she would turn the water on.

Abortion

* Supports PUBLIC (your money) funding of abortions (SF Chronicle, FlashReport). against later term, and partial birth abortion. For parental notification under 16.

Prop 8

* voted for prop 8. Supports civil unions AND the legal recognition of non-man-woman marriages performed in between the court ruling and prop 8 (LA Times)

Guns

* Thinks California's gun laws are right for California.

Uncommited on (which probably means against):

* off shore drilling

* school vouchers (La Times)

(Post updated as I get more info)

Senate California June 8 2010 Primary

2010-01-30T12:26:00.000-08:00

Republicans are looking for who should run against Boxer for our Senate seat. The three candidates we have are DeVore, Fiorina, and Campbell who switched from the Governors race. Fiorina is who I'm voting for. Campbell is definitely better than Boxer but he is essentially a libertarian running as a republican which means we have no agreement on social/cultural/religious issues, only spending levels and taxation.

According to the Spectator Fiorina and DeVore are both self described as pro-life. Tom Campbell is libertarian pro-choice. They are all running on small government platforms, though many have questioned Campbell's record.

Campbell and Fiorina are the leaders in the polls. The wikipedia post on this is a good place to *start* looking for poll numbers. Devore has been stuck in the low teens the entire race. Check out the polls, don't waste your vote on him; this race is between Campbell and Fiornina.

Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore debate on Hannity from the Regan Library
1st three way radio debate hosted by KTKZ Sacramento video is here.

Carly Fiorina website
* endorsed by Sarah Palin (facebook post, video), Condoleezza Rice, John McCain

* signed tax payer pledge to not raise taxes (Americans For Taxpayer Reform)

* Red County short interview
* RealClearPolitics interview

* Glen Beck interview

* Hugh Hewitt interview.
* former CEO of HP (1999-2005) fought for and accomplished the visionary merger of HP and Compaq Computer which TechCrunch now labels in hindsight "the most successful merger in high-tech history". This is in their bio of her and this from a politically very liberal tech blog. It is also important to understand that back in 2005 when the merger took place, it was very controversial and unpopular. In fact, it was so unpopular that the board to replaced her a little afterwards. Now, many years later history has vindicated her vision.

* Her campaign puts out entertaining ads like Demon Sheep and Boxer Blimp

Chuck DeVore website
* signed tax payer pledge to not raise taxes (Americans For Taxpayer Reform)
* Ace of Spades interview
* endorsed by McClintock(video), Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, CRA (California Republican Assembly), Huckabee (video), Mark Levin (audio), the newly combined (California Young Republicans/Young Republican Federation of California)
* Glen Beck interview
* Reason TV interview

Tom Campbell website

* RedCounty Radio interview

* Has NOT signed the American for Tax Reform pledge (KTKZ Sacramento debate)

(Post updated as I get more info)

Bush's Speech Today

2005-12-18T23:52:00.000-08:00

Good summary of Bush’s speech today
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004104.htm

Iraq Reporting Perspective

2005-09-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

For a great perspective on the media coverage of the war in Iraq read the following article.

For a taste of the article I quote the following: “Headlines read: "Two Marines killed by roadside bomb." Rarely do the accompanying stories -- let alone the headlines that are all that most people read -- explain where the Marines were going, or why; what strategic objective they and their comrades were pursuing, and how successful they were in achieving it; or how many terrorists were also killed.”

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-insinscasualties11091105sep11,0,1654686.story

Surveys on Christian Beliefs

2005-08-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Found some interesting Surveys on Christian Beliefs, Supposedly with error margins around +/- 3-5%, they all have the stuff at the bottom, but notice that most of the sample sizes are around 1000 people, not sure how much weight I’d give them, but these were interesting

2000 State of churches
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=49

Pastors who believe the bible or the lack thereof
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=156

denomination matters
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=92

faith and lack of resulting action (contradictions)
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=128

believing the bible makes a difference in life choices who’d a thought
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=154

Christian beliefs over time 1995-2004
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=160

on Christian media usage
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=184

Update: I bought the book State of the Church 2005 which has some interesting graphs of Christian practice in the USA from about 1990 forward. I may scan a couple in. also there is a very good statistics aggregation site which has statistics from all sorts of pollsters and such nicely organized check out their religion section:
http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm

Military recruitment up

2005-08-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

All branches of the military are exceeding their recruitment goals for the year. Why do so few people know about this The MSM reported when they weren't meeting their goals, you'd think basic follow up rules would demand that they report now that the military has exceeded their goals. Evidence of the liberal slant of the MSM.
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/52321.htm

Narnia

2005-08-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

You can download the Narnia trailer here
http://www.barnapreview.com/

Bush Elections Stollen?

2005-08-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

This post is a work in progress. I didn't have this blog when these events were happening, but since people still don't seem to have their facts straight I'll start posting articles about the recounts and discrepancies as I come across them.

A good summary to start and what inspired me to write this article
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011407.php

and so it has begun

2005-07-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Dems have started what has become their usual practice amount Bush's judicial picks which is to make unreasonable demands for documents and then try to blame the Bush administration. I'll add some historical links of this practice here:

What are they doing now?
Bush has recently released ?70,000? (can this be right) documents Roberts wrote while working for Regan. The Dems also want the documents Roberts wrote while a solicitor general for the 1st Bush administration. Every living solicitor general has signed a letter saying that the documents shouldn't be released as it would chill frank internal discussions in the executive branch about what it should do and what it has the power to do.
Sorry I don't have any links here I'll add them soon.

Also part of their plan is to lots of questions that historically have not been answered by judges.
To see what sort of questions Clinton appointee Ruth Ginsburg answered, or rather didn't answer:
http://www.fed-soc.org/Publications/rbgjudnomconduct.pdf

To see what questions Sen. Charles Schumer wants to ask:
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2005/PR41775.Roberts%20Mtg.072105.pf.html

support Roberts

2005-07-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

It is my opinion that Roberts is an excellent choice. It has taken me a while to come to this conclusion. He is certainly unquestionably qualified with lots of relevant experience awesome academics and almost universally high peer evaluations. He understands the constitution believes in states rights judicial restrain and from what I can tell he holds an originalist interpretive view of the constitution most closely aligned with Thomas and Scalia. He was nominated by Bush who most admires Thomas and Scalia on the bench. He is a devout Christian, and married a devout Christian who strongly opposes abortion. He has chosen to work for conservatives. He has been involved in the Federalist society and socializes with those folk. His memos reveal a strict constructionalist and a conservative.

Federalist Society
The Courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed
to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequences would be the
substitution of their pleasure for that of the legislative body.”
The Federalist No. 78

contact your government representatives:
http://www.calpoly.edu/~jdewey/govContact.html

http://judgeroberts.com/
Support Roberts then sign the petition:
http://www.confirmjudgeroberts.com/petition.html

Roberts nominated getting to know him

2005-07-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Roberts worked in the Reagan White House counsel’s office from 1982-1986. Roberts also was principal deputy solicitor general in the administration of the first President Bush.

Very cool exchange:
In 1983, the Supreme Court struck down laws that contained provisions for Congress to veto actions taken by executive departments and agencies. Levitas wanted to meet with Reagan to determine "the manner of power sharing and accountability within in the federal government." This is Robert's response:

"There already has, of course, been a 'Conference on Power Sharing,' " Roberts wrote, sarcastically referring to the convention at which the Constitution was drafted. "It took place in Philadelphia's Constitution Hall in 1787, and someone should tell Levitas about it and the 'report' it issued."

Sandra Day O'Connor, the justice he would replace, called him a "fabulous" choice.

Robert's opinions from the couple years he has been a high judge:
http://www.sctnomination.com/blog/archives/2005/07/selected_opinio.html
To look up a previous Supreme Court ruling: http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html

website of the church Roberts attends
http://www.emmcreative.com/

Robert's kids adopted
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5517756.html

Robert's wife is an abortion foe
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wife21jul21,1,7196704,print.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

These guys argue that Roberts wife isn't that strong of a conservative indicator I somewhat disagree
http://independentsources.com/2005/07/21/wife-of-nominee-holds-strong-antiabortion-views-la-times/

check out her organization for yourself

feminist for life mission:
http://www.feministsforlife.org/who/joinus.htm

Robert's wife's service with feminists for life
http://www.feministsforlife.org/news/jsroberts.htm

feminists for life's add campaigns pay special attention to the exceptions ones:
http://www.feministsforlife.org/ads/index.htm#WDBads

The stance of the Catholic church is that the death penalty is only justified in very rare circumstances:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm

have you now or have you ever been (Roberts for states rights and has integrity)
very interesting letter by a former Robert's clerk
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011106.php

roundup of conservatives who don't like the Robert's nomination (because they view him as an unknown)
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011114.php

more on Robert's Judicial Philosophy (textualist, caution / judicial restrain (AKA not deciding more than required by the current case), deference to government AKA states rights and also general dislike of ruling laws unconstitutional
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011130.php

Roberts and memos
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072101782_pf.html

Roberts and documents has interesting quotes, but definitely slanted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072602070_pf.html

documents from the New York Times slanted as well, but has interesting quotes
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/politics/politicsspecial1/27records.html?ei=5094&en=fc843157b76024c3&hp=&ex=1122436800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

Roberts didn't advocate court stripping read for a good perspective on why the above news stories are slanted
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050727-112659-7088r

Roberts was involved (though does not recall being a member of the Federalist Society) take a look at them
http://www.fed-soc.org/

Interesting Biographical Article about Roberts time in college
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/897apaaf.asp

Cases scheduled to be heard next term

2005-07-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

Assisted Suicide
No. 04-623, Oregon v. Ashcroft
Does the federal government have the right to revoke the license of doctors who assist in suicides?

Equal Protection and Homosexuality
No. 04-1152, Rumsfeld v. FAIR
Can universities prohibite military representatives from recruiting on campus claiming that the military’s don't ask don't tell policy regarding homosexuality constitutes a violation of diversity regulations.

Abortion
No. 04-1144, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood
Is it constitutional to require parental notification of abortions for minors?

Free Speech and Abortion
No. 04-1244, Scheidler v. NOW
What can abortion protesters do? (relates to many questions surrounding this)...
this case is 20 years old and other aspects of it have appeared before the supreme court before!

For a more complete list of the Court's schedule for next term:
http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2005/07/argument_calend.html

I listed these cases because they are important for defining America's morality and culture. All of these cases are likely to have a different outcome with Roberts as a supreme court justice.

what won't change

2005-07-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

rulings that won't change:
Romer v. Evans (1996) -- state constitutional ban on gay rights ordinances held unconstitutional (6-3)

Lawrence and Garner v. Texas
Decided | June 26, 2003
Voted | With majority
Decision | 6-3
The court struck down Texas law that made sodomy illegal.

Kelo v. New London (2005) -- local government may take private property for economic development (5-4, O'Connor in dissent)

Roper v. Simmons (2005) -- Constitution prohibits execution of juveniles (5-4, O'Connor in dissent)
Decided | March 1, 2005
Voted | With minority
Decision | 5-4
O'Connor dissented from the court's ruling that the death penalty couldn't be applied to cases where the accused was a minor when the crime was committed.

Lee v. Weisman (1992) continued the tradition of government neutrality toward religion, finding that government-sponsored prayer is unacceptable at graduations and other public school events;

Wallace v. Jaffree (6/4/1985)
O'Connor concurs in the court's judgment that moments of silence in public schools are in and of themselves constitutional, but may not "characterize prayer as a favored practice."
# Findlaw Case Documents

Lynch v. Donnelly
Decided | March 5, 1984
Voted | With majority
Decision | 5-4
The court ruled that the Pawtucket, R.I., government didn't violate the separation of church and state by sponsoring a Christmas display in a shopping district.

significant decision
Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004)
Decided | June 28, 2004
Voted | With majority
Decision | 6-3
In a case brought by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, O'Connor voted with the majority that non US detainees held at the U.S. military base could appeal their detentions because the courts have the jurisdiction to hear complaints by non US people outside of the US about the US.

The impact of o'conner leaving

2005-07-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

In addition, if the case were reheard today, it seems quite certain that Justice O'Connor's vote would not be decisive in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which declined to overrule Roe v. Wade. Although the case was decided 5-4 at the time, with O'Connor in the majority, the replacement of Justices White and Blackmun with Justices Ginsburg and Breyer makes it very likely that replacing Justice O'Connor would not, in itself, lead to the over-ruling of Case or Roe.

Complete list of supreme court writing (note I think this only includes decisions where she actually wrote the decision i.e. it probably excludes decisions she added her signature to, but didn't write)
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/author.php?o\'connor

focus on the family article on O-Conner decision
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037101.cfm

good place to find information about specific court cases
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage

Supreme Court website
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/

DECISIONS:

Freedom of Speech:

Dec. 10, 2003: McConnell v. FEC
The ruling, which O'Connor co-authored with Justice John Paul Stevens, declares the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law constitutional.
# Findlaw Case Documents
# Post: Justices Uphold Campaign Finance Law

Morse v. Republican Party of Virginia (1996) said key anti-discrimination provisions of the Voting Rights Act apply to political conventions that choose party candidates;

Affirmative Action / Discrimination:

June 23, 2003: Grutter v. Bollinger, Gratz v. Bollinger
Decided | June 23, 2003
Voted | With majority
Decision | 5-4
O'Connor joined the majority in saying that the Michigan School of Law didn't violate any laws by using race as a factor in admission to that school.
Affirmative action for diversity upheld

Easley v. Cromartie (2001) -- race-based redistricting
affirmed the right of state legislators to take race into account to secure minority voting rights in redistricting;

Religious Freedom:

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002) -- Justice O'Connor joined the court's opinion upholding an educational choice program for the Cleveland City School District. The program provided tuition assistance for students to attend the public or private school of their parent's choosing, including private religious schools. The Court held that the program did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because it provided aid to families, rather than to parochial schools themselves and allowed the families an unfettered choice in whether or not to attend a religious school.

Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of University of Va. (1995) -- state university policy prohibiting disbursement of student activity fees to student-run Christian newspaper violates First Amendment, and violation not excused by Establishment Clause

McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005) -- Ten Commandments can't be displayed in the courtroom

Regulation of Abortion:

June 28, 2000: Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska v. Carhart
# Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska v. Carhart Findlaw Case Documents
# Post Article: Supreme Court Upholds Two Key Abortion Rights
overturned a state ban on partial birth abortion

MISC:

Gov must release criminals slated to be deported if country of origin refuses to take them back
Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) told the government it could not indefinitely detain an immigrant who was under final order of removal even if no other country would accept that person;

California Special Election

2005-06-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

November 8, 2005 Statewide Special Election Information
official information about it: http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/statewidespecial.htm

state constitutional amendment
adds a 48 hour waiting period and parental notification for abortions
http://www.calvoter.org/voter/elections/2005/special/prop73.html

website for voterID act:
http://voteridact.com/

petition for downloading:

2 signatures
standard 8.5 x 11 form:
http://voteridact.com/voteridact.pdf

10 signature
legal 8 1/2 x 14 inch paper form:
side 1: http://voteridact.com/voterIDact-petition-L2SF.pdf
side 2: http://voteridact.com/voterIDact-petition-L2SB.pdf

Prop 77 challenged in court taken off the ballot...
What should have happened is that the initiative voters signed should be submitted. Given the context, you'll have to read the whole thing the differences were not significant.
The California Supreme Court puts the initiative back on the ballot:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/20/AR2005082000990.html

differences
copy submitted to the attorney general, on his web site.
http://ag.ca.gov/initiatives/pdf/sa2004rf0037_amdt_1_ns.pdf

copy circulated to voters, from the Fair Districts Now website.
http://www.fairdistricts.com/Initiative_Text.asp

Alternative icon pic, but I think I like the other one better

Karl Rove Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame A Big Nothing

2005-06-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

Read them all in this order to get a feeling for just how BAD
the MSM (Main Stream Media reporting has been on this issue) This is a small
sampling of what is out there, but it is the best stuff I came across but by no
means comprehensive.

main 3:
1. background
2. Why didn't the MSM tell me this
3. Aww the MSM doesn't like Bush I see
4+ Lets see how far their willing to walk on air

1. Did Iraq never seek to buy yellowcake, or was Wilson discredited?
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011068.php

2. Rove was told Plame's identity by a reporter (includes NY Times misleading
headline reference)
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003017.htm

3. Has Bush changed his standards for dealing with leaks?
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011076.php

4. After you know this stuff check out:
http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy/mccarthy200507180801.asp

5. and another case of media untruths on this issue:
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011062.php

My official icon pic