Free Republic

A friend and I were away for the weekend and we left to come home on Sunday. Traffic was moving slow & a car in front of us had an Obama bumper sticker on it. It read: "Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8". His bible was lying on the dash board & he got it & opened it up to the scripture & read it. He started laughing & laughing. Then he read it to me. I couldn't believe what it said. I had a good laugh, too. Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his office....

Hollywood director Rob Reiner stars in the only broadcast ad specifically opposing Propositions 1D and 1E.The two items on Tuesday's special election ballot would temporarily shift funds to the state from local children's and mental-health programs, which voters approved in past years.Reiner is involved in the campaign because in 1998 he spearheaded Proposition 10, which created the children's programs and the tobacco tax to finance them. Proposition 10 proponents have merged efforts with those seeking to protect Proposition 63, the 2004 measure that imposed a "millionaire's tax" to fund mental health programs.Following is the text of the radio ad and...

Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says it's possible he could endorse a Democrat to succeed him. According to The New York Times, Schwarzenegger was asked Friday in Los Angeles if he could envision supporting a Democratic successor, and he replied: “It could happen, yes.” Schwarzenegger, however, declined to name any Democrats he might support. The governor offered no specifics on any particular candidate he might support, but he did rule out following in Sen. Arlen Specter's footsteps and switching parties. “I’m not going to become a Democrat,” he said. “I think the Kennedy family has enough Democrats.” Democrats likely to...

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- Director Rob Reiner is back on the campaign trail — and he's not happy about it. Reiner told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he has joined forces with children's advocates to defeat a measure on next month's special election ballot. Proposition 1D would steer money away from a childhood development program Reiner championed a decade ago. The "When Harry Met Sally" filmmaker criticized Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California lawmakers for their management of state finances. "They failed miserably," he said. "So now what are they going to do? The thing that they always do. They try...

Among the special election propositions that Californians will consider as part of the 2009-10 budget plan is a measure that puts at odds the needs and interests of two groups responsible for providing much of the preschool education offered in San Joaquin County. Voters in 1998 approved the 50-cent-per-pack tobacco tax that sends millions of dollars to First 5 commissions throughout the state to pay for health and education programs focused on children 5 and younger. Proposition 1D, which will appear on the May 19 ballot, seeks to help fill California's gaping budget hole by sending much of that tobacco-tax...

Enjoy.

Golf course owners and some of their customers are teed off at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. So are veterinarians, auto mechanics and amusement park operators. Their anger is directed at the Republican governor's proposal to extend the state sales tax to cover more services, an idea that has surfaced in other states as they race to plug crippling budget deficits. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research clearinghouse, predicts such deficits nationwide could reach $350 billion by 2011. In California, Schwarzenegger wants to help close a nearly $42 billion budget deficit by taxing rounds of golf, auto repairs, veterinary...

Sex, Lies and Watergate Tapes by: Malcolm A. Kline, December 04, 2007 Only an academic would comb the Watergate tapes looking for Richard Nixon’s views on homosexuality. As it turns out, the 37th president’s observations on the subject were extensive and fairly well-defined. “On May 13, 1971, the president, responding to the television sitcom All in the Family, whose Meathead character (Archie Bunker’s son-in-law) Nixon decided ‘apparently goes both ways,’ sputtered in a secretly recorded conversation about homosexuality to his nearly mute aides,” Northwestern University professor Michael S. Sherry writes in the September 7, 2007 issue of the Chronicle of...

Dear Friend, When I received Hillary's email asking for volunteers, I did what any other Hollywood director would do. Made a movie. Starring myself and a great supporting cast of Hillary volunteers from all over town. You can see it right here: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/teamhillary Hey, I wasn't the only one who answered Hillary's call. We've received an overwhelming response, with supporters from across the country pledging over 300,000 volunteer hours. And that was just three hours after Hillary's email went out! We hit 500,000 volunteer hours later that day. So now there's a new goal. Ready? One million volunteer hours. So...

Film director Reiner endorses Clinton The Associated Press Article Launched: 09/27/2007 04:48:19 AM PDT LOS ANGELES—Director Rob Reiner has endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. "Every one of the Democratic candidates is strong, but Hillary is head and shoulders above the rest," Reiner said Wednesday

Paul the apostate Jul 19th 2007 | LAKE JACKSON, TEXASFrom The Economist print editionIs this would-be president brave or crazy? RON PAUL, a libertarian Republican congressman from Texas, likes to say what he thinks. And among the things he thinks is that the census is a violation of privacy. He has opted out of the congressional pension programme. He claims never to have voted for a tax increase, or for an unbalanced budget, or for a congressional pay rise and never to have gone on a congressional junket. He wants to return to the gold standard. Most notably, he strongly...

November, 7th, 2006 5 Good Reasons to Vote Today 1. IT'S A NATIONAL REFERENDUM. Although candidates' names will be on the ballot today, this election is NOT about this candidate or that candidate. Make no mistake about it: This election is nothing less than a National Referendum on George W. Bush and his War. Don't waste your time trying to learn about who the schlump is that's running for office. You know they're all pretty much the same, a few are better than others, but... please. They is who they is. THIS election is not about them. It's a simple...

SACRAMENTO - State mishandling of voter-approved, tax-increase funds for a children's program has pumped powerful, 11th-hour ammunition into close, expensive battles over two similar cigarette and oil-tax boosting measures on Tuesday's ballot. After an audit revealed multimillion-dollar improprieties in the use of Proposition 10 preschool funding, foes of Props. 86 and 87 attacked the two new tax measures Wednesday as creating the same type of bureaucracies -- except with loopholes ripe for exploitation. "The audit confirms what many have been saying all along about tax initiatives creating reckless, out-of-control spending of tax dollars through unaccountable government agencies," said Larry McCarthy,...

A taxpayer-funded commission headed by Hollywood producer Rob Reiner awarded media contracts totaling more than $77 million without sufficiently reviewing their costs and was lax in overseeing its deals, California's state auditor reported Tuesday. Poor oversight of its bills also led the California Children and Families Commission, or First 5, to pay $673,000 in fees and expenses that were prohibited under its own contract and make "questionable payments to contractors for items such as laptop computers valued at $10,000, food catering costs, and monthly parking fees," the report found. But the auditor concluded the commission did not violate state law...

state commission chaired by Hollywood entertainer Rob Reiner suffered from lapses in its contracting, failed to properly award millions of dollars and did not adequately justify many of its payments, according to a state audit released today. The nonpartisan California Bureau of State Audits found that the California Children and Families Commission, also known as the California First 5 Commission, used tax money to overpay for some services and failed to follow state rules when it awarded some contracts. Among its findings, the audit said the commission: Did not follow state policy when it used a competitive process to award...

Mexico City, Sep 7 (EFE).- Conservative President-elect Felipe Calderon said here Thursday that he was willing to embrace some of the ideas supported by the more than one-third of voters who cast ballots for his leftist rival in Mexico's closest election ever. "I will make my own the reasons and grounds whereby the voters voted for other candidates and I'll respond to their expectations," he said in his first session with foreign reporters since Tuesday's certification of his narrow victory over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The 44-year-old lawyer and former energy secretary, insisting on his willingness to engage in dialogue...

Another possibility is that Western feminists fail to confront Muslim immigration for ideological reasons. Many of them are silent on Islamic oppression of women because they have also embraced “Third-Worldism” and anti-Western sentiments. I see some evidence in support of this thesis. American writer Phyllis Chesler has sharply criticized her sisters in books such as The Death of Feminism. She feels that too many feminists have abandoned their commitment to freedom and “become cowardly herd animals and grim totalitarian thinkers,” thus failing to confront Islamic terrorism. She paints a portrait of current U.S. University campuses as steeped in “a new...

Reiner: Gibson, Come Clean on `Passion' LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mel Gibson's apology for making drunken anti-Semitic remarks isn't enough to redeem him, actor-producer Rob Reiner said. The actor also must acknowledge that "his work reflects anti-Semitism," particularly the 2004 hit movie "The Passion of the Christ," Reiner told Associated Press Radio. "When he comes to the understanding that he has done that, and can come out and say, you know, 'My views have been reflected in my work and I feel bad that I've done that,' then that will be the beginning of some reconciliation for him," Reiner said....

(AP) Mel Gibson's apology for making drunken anti-Semitic remarks isn't enough to redeem him, actor-producer Rob Reiner said. The actor also must acknowledge that "his work reflects anti-Semitism," particularly the 2004 hit movie "The Passion of the Christ," Reiner told Associated Press Radio.

In her 11 years as Sacramento County district attorney, Jan Scully has cultivated a reputation as a no-nonsense law-and-order type. California taxpayers are about to find out if it's a reputation she deserves. In March, Attorney General Bill Lockyer – citing a conflict of interest – turned to Scully and asked her to review the First 5 California Children and Families Commission's use of $23 million for TV ads promoting “preschool for all” at the same time a “preschool for all” initiative was seeking placement on the ballot and voter support. State law makes it a felony to use public...

I see so many people asking to be put on the 'ping list', what does that mean? I also see that you can be 'pinged' if something you are interested in is posted. Are you notified someway? Thanks

One look at you tells me all I need to know about you. I am so tired of liberals that think they are so brilliant. You are such a stupid jackass. You are so stupid you probably believe that the Bush administration orchestrated the attacks on 9/11. Every time you go on the internet, every time you make a bank transaction, or pay a bill, every time you try to email a congressman or senator they are getting so much information off of you. Of course it is all a conspiracy by the Bush administration. I have screwed around by...

Here's something for you to ponder over... http://distressedamerican.cf.huffingtonpost.com/ Any thoughts?

Despite Prop. 82's loss, director-activist says he'll continue to back liberal causes. LOS ANGELES -- After shutting himself off from the public for nearly three months, movie director and actor Rob Reiner stepped back into the spotlight election night and declared he wasn't leaving the political stage. Voters had just handed a resounding defeat to Proposition 82, the universal preschool initiative he'd championed. Reiner had been forced to step down from the chairmanship of the First 5 California commission because of criticism about its $23 million taxpayer-financed preschool advertising campaign. He'd gone into a self-imposed exile from the media in...

SACRAMENTO — A Santa Monica advertising firm that produced a tax-funded $23-million ad program touting the benefits of preschool settled a suit after one of its subcontractors made $2.5 million in payments, the firms have announced. GMMB Inc. alleged in a suit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in April that the subcontractor, Durazo Communications, failed to pay some television stations that aired the commercials, which were funded by the First 5 California Children and Families Commission. (snip) The suit attracted attention when Hector Ramirez, the commission's chairman, called on the Los Angeles Police Department and the state Bureau...

The Nays Have It by Steve Voeller June 9, 2006 Preschool tax fails in California Every one has a breaking point when it comes to tax hikes. Tuesday, Californians soundly defeated a tax increase to pay for universal preschool. According to San Diego television station KFMB: "Proposition 82, the universal preschool measure, was also defeated, as 61 percent voted no compared to 39 percent that approved the measure. Proposition 82 would have spent $2.1 billion during the first year, increasing to $2.6 billion by 2010. The measure, conceived by actor Rob Reiner, would have provided hundreds of millions of dollars...

Universal preschool advocates vow to continue effortsBy Dana Hull Mercury News Advocates of universal preschool vowed today to continue their fight despite the crushing defeat of Proposition 82 in Tuesday's election. According to the final tally of ballots cast, 60.9 percent of voters statewide opposed Prop. 82 while just 39.1 percent supported it. The initiative, which needed a simple majority to pass, narrowly prevailed in just three of California's 58 counties: Alameda, Imperial, and San Francisco. In conservative Orange County, 73 percent of voters came out against it. ``It was a tough environment for initiatives,'' said Prop. 82 spokesman Nathan...

California voters soundly rejected Proposition 82 on Tuesday, crushing the hopes of early-childhood education advocates who hoped to make universal preschool public policy in the nation's most populous state. ``Prop. 82 sounded really good, but the more I looked at it, the more I realized it was subject to shenanigans,'' said David Yomtov of San Jose, who said he voted against it. ``Kids should go to preschool, but it didn't sound like Prop. 82 would help the families who most needed the help.'' Proposition 82 enjoyed support in staunchly liberal enclaves like San Francisco, but it was overwhelmingly rejected in...

California voters soundly rejected Proposition 82 Tuesday, crushing the hopes of early childhood education advocates who hoped to make universal preschool public policy in the nation's most populous state. Throughout much of the evening, returns showed that 60 percent of voters statewide opposed Prop. 82 while just 40 percent supported it, making it nearly impossible for the measure to ever get the simple majority it needed to pass. ``It doesn't look good,'' admitted Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who spoke to about 200 supporters at a Los Angeles hotel ballroom shortly after 10 p.m... (see more at link)

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

Preschool measure tumbles in poll By Dana Hull Mercury News Support for Proposition 82, California's Preschool for All Act, has plummeted, according to a Field Poll released Friday, and political analysts say the measure appears extremely vulnerable in the final days of the fiercely fought campaign. Forty-six percent of likely voters plan to vote against the initiative, while 41 percent favor it, found the poll, which was taken May 23-31. That's a significant plunge from polls conducted in February and April, when supporters held double-digit leads over opponents. With momentum building behind a ``No'' campaign fueled by concerns about the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Provide free preschool for all California children, tax the rich to pay for it, and get a famous Hollywood director to sell it. A measure on Tuesday's ballot to create universal preschool in the nation's most populous state seemed like a can't-miss idea in heavily Democratic California. But the $2.4 billion-a-year plan has been a tough sell. The Preschool for All initiative's best-known supporter, "When Harry Met Sally" director Rob Reiner, ducked out of the campaign spotlight this spring after a state education commission he headed was accused of improperly using taxpayer money to run TV commercials...

Ballot measure would expand programs by taxing richest Attending preschool for free would become a constitutional right for every 4-year-old in California if voters approve a June ballot initiative that could dramatically reshape the state's public education system. Called a key to improving the state's lagging schools by proponents and a colossal waste of money by opponents, passage of Proposition 82 would place the state in the forefront of a national movement toward standardizing pre-kindergarten education. Illinois, Georgia and Oklahoma already have implemented or are considering universal preschool programs. Most of California's half-million 4-year-olds attend some form of preschool or...

YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO rich or too thin, the saying goes, and it certainly holds true for California's June 6 primary. State Controller Steve Westly, a former eBay executive and Democratic candidate for governor, has spent $34.5 million of his own fortune in hopes of earning the right to face Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this fall. The other Democrat in the race, State Treasurer Phil Angelides, would certainly be out of the running by now but for a wealthy friend who spent $6 million on an "independent" expenditure to prop up his flagging campaign. As for the Governator, he's not...

SACRAMENTO – An initiative on the June 6 ballot that would give all 4-year-olds the right to attend preschool is casting California once again in the role of possible national trendsetter. A drive to give all children the chance to begin school a year before kindergarten, with the aim of helping them become better readers and learners later on, has begun in Oklahoma, Georgia and Florida. But Proposition 82 is much more ambitious and likely more controversial – not only because the program would be funded by $2 billion a year raised through increased taxes on upper-income Californians. The measure,...

Actor-director Rob Reiner on Thursday wrote a $1.65 million check to boost the closing campaign for Proposition 82, his initiative to tax wealthy residents to pay for free preschool. Reiner's donation pushes his total contributions to the campaign to $2.8 million. His wife, photographer Michelle Singer Reiner, has donated $1.3 million to the initiative, and his father, writer-comedian Carl Reiner, has contributed $500,000. Meanwhile, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Steve Westly and Phil Angelides are both opening their wallets to give their campaigns new infusions of cash, according to announcements by the campaigns and reports filed with the secretary of state's office....

With polls showing that his Prop. 82 universal preschool measure is carrying a narrow lead into the final days before the June 6 election, actor/director Rob Reiner put another $1.65 million of his own money into the campaign today. So far this year, Reiner already had spent better than $1.15 million on the campaign, which has also collected about $1.3 million from his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, and $500,000 from his father, comedian Carl Reiner. Prop. 82, which would hike taxes on wealthy California residents to provide free preschool for all the state's 4-year-olds, had a 50 percent to 43...

Not quite 5 years old, Aniyah Slocum has plenty to report about her experience at the Richmond College Prep Preschool."I learned how to do the months of the year," she offers, clutching the turquoise marker she has been using to practice writing numerals. "I learned how to do puzzles, I learned my numbers and I learned my ABCs so my great-grandma can be proud of me."At programs like this one, serving one of the city's most impoverished flatland neighborhoods, teachers don't have to be convinced of preschool's role as an academic equalizer.From the slew of storybooks to the college banners...

Employing a new political tactic, two large labor unions are using the threat of a consumer boycott to try to curb corporate contributions to groups opposing the universal preschool initiative on the June ballot. The Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sent a letter last week threatening a national boycott of all of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores. They said they would launch the boycott if the Gap, its affiliates or any members of the family that founded the Gap donated to groups opposing actor and director Rob Reiner's...

Amanda Riccetti supports universal preschool, but she plans to vote against Proposition 82. Director of Big City Montessori School in San Francisco's Bayview district, Riccetti fears the June ballot initiative to provide free preschool to all California 4-year-olds is so restrictive that schools like hers will be shut out. "The initiative puts in very precise directions, making it more difficult for programs to be individualized and for parent choice," said Riccetti, who runs a school for 100 children founded by her mother in 1972. It has been turned down as a site for San Francisco's fledgling universal preschool program, though...

Prop. 82's margin has fallen in past few months, even among Democrats - A ballot initiative that would raise income taxes on the wealthy to provide free preschool for every 4-year-old in California remains ahead in a new statewide poll, but the lead is shrinking. Fifty-two percent of likely voters say they will support Proposition 82 on the June ballot, while 39 percent oppose the measure and 9 percent are undecided, according to a Field Poll released today. The new numbers show the proposition is losing support and the June result is likely to be very close, said Field Poll...

More preschools oppose initiative offering early education; critics say it could compromise their teaching methods. It sounds like a no-brainer for advocates of early childhood education: a state ballot initiative that would offer preschool to every 4-year-old in California, free of charge to parents. What preschool wouldn't be all for that? But as the June 6 election approaches, an increasingly vocal number of preschools are lining up against it.Some Montessori schools fear Proposition 82, dubbed the Preschool for All Act, would lead to new state standards that could compromise their unique teaching methods and mixed-age classrooms. Faith-based preschools say they...

SAN FRANCISCO Prop. 82 backers picket Gap store Backers of Proposition 82, which would offer free preschool to all California 4-year-olds, called for a boycott of Gap Inc. because of its owners' opposition to the June ballot measure. About two dozen Prop. 82 supporters set up a boisterous but peaceful picket outside the Gap's San Francisco flagship store at Powell and Market streets on Thursday. John Fisher, whose father is Gap founder Don Fisher and who manages the family's multibillion-dollar investment portfolio, gave $25,000 to the campaign opposed to Prop. 82. Family members also have contributed to business groups campaigning...

State contractor sues subcontractor; police and auditor notified. Sacramento -- Nearly $3 million in public money earmarked for pro-preschool commercials is missing, marking a weird twist in the controversy surrounding a move by a state commission headed until recently by director Rob Reiner to air the commercials while Reiner was working to get a preschool initiative on the ballot. The new head of the First 5 California Children and Families Commission and the commission's lead advertising firm acknowledged Thursday that $2.8 million owed to Spanish-language television stations for commercials aired last fall is unaccounted for. The firm, GMMB Inc., filed...

California's First 5 commission is investigating the apparent disappearance of nearly $3 million in tax money owed to television stations that aired its recent preschool ads, the commission chairman said today. Hector Ramirez, First 5 California Children and Families Commission chairman, also called on the Los Angeles Police Department and California Bureau of State Audits to find out what became of $2.8 million given to the Los Angeles public relations and advertising firm Durazo Communications. The firm was supposed to use the money to pay the TV stations. "What we're going to be doing is just conducting a full investigation...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is opposing a June ballot initiative promoted by director Rob Reiner that would raise income taxes on the rich to pay for universal preschool, his campaign team said Wednesday. "Put simply, the governor does not support tax increases and is opposed to Proposition 82 because it will raise taxes," said his communications director, Katie Levinson. Until now, Schwarzenegger has avoided definitive statements on Proposition 82, an initiative that is similar to an after-school measure he spearheaded in 2002 for after-school programs. Voters approved that measure and it is set to be funded for the first...

The contentious relationship between supporters of Proposition 82 and the June state ballot measure's opponents played out Tuesday when campaign backers crashed a press conference organized by a UC Berkeley think tank. Policy Analysis for California Education called the teleconference to explain its new study of the proposal to tax the wealthiest Californians to provide free preschool for all 4-year-olds. The study questions whether the plan will put existing schools out of business and benefit more families that can already afford to pay for preschool. UC Berkeley Professor Bruce Fuller, who leads the think tank, has become a lightning rod...

There are some among us who seem hell-bent determined to destroy what's left of California's eggshell economy. This group of meatheads insists on attaching state tax increases to any cause it finds attractive. One such group is led by Rob Reiner of "Meathead" fame in the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family." Reiner has led a group of Hollywood liberals whose sole purpose in life is to raise our taxes. In the 1990s, he helped to pass a 50-cent-per-pack increase in the state's tobacco tax, ostensibly to pay for children's healthcare. Last year, he sponsored a ballot initiative that imposed...

New PPIC Survey: Prop. 82 Sinking Fast in Latest Poll In what can only be interpreted as very bad news for the Yes on 82 camp, a new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) survey shows voter support for the measure has plummeted 14 percent since the last PPIC poll in January, while opposition grew 10 percent. According to the poll, 52 percent currently support the measure and 41 oppose. It’s clear that once educated with the facts, voters understand that Prop. 82 is not a vote for or against preschool. It’s a vote about whether Prop. 82 is the...

Sacramento -- Film director Rob Reiner resigned Wednesday as chairman of the state children's commission he helped create, and a Democratic lawmaker said he would ask state auditors to broaden an investigation to look at what he called "a potential pattern of coordination between a political agenda and the commission's work.'' Reiner and the First 5 California Children and Families Commission are under scrutiny for a publicly funded advertising campaign last year touting the benefits of preschool that partially coincided with Reiner's effort to gather signatures for a June ballot measure that would provide free preschool to all 4-year-olds. Lawmakers...