Free Republic

(CNN) – The Republican mayor of San Diego has announced plans to air an ad advocating for same-sex marriage rights during next week's Republican National Convention in Tampa. The spot, titled "Family and Freedom," comes after the Republican Party developed its official plank on gay marriage, which pushes for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marriage. The platform is expected to be officially confirmed at the convention next week. The Human Rights Campaign and Freedom to Marry said they will run the spot from Monday through Thursday next week in a $30,000 television ad buy in the Tampa...

LOS ANGELES — This would seem a moment of great opportunity for California Republicans. The state has become a national symbol of fiscal turmoil and dysfunction, the Legislature is nearly as unpopular as Congress and Democrats control every branch of government. But instead, the state party — once a symbol of Republican hope and geographical reach and which gave the nation Ronald Reagan (and Richard M. Nixon) — is caught in a cycle of relentless decline, and appears in danger of shrinking to the rank of a minor party. “We are at a lower point than we’ve ever been,” said...

AFTER weeks of squabbling, California’s politicians managed to get a budget approved this week. Their dispute had followed a familiar pattern. One side, spooked by yawning budget deficits, wanted to make deeper cuts to welfare payments. The other, fearful of the effects on California’s army of unemployed, sought to find savings elsewhere. It sounds like a classic Republican-Democrat ding-dong. In fact, the row pitted one Democratic force (the governor, Jerry Brown) against another (the state legislature). Shut out of the talks, the state’s opposition Republican legislators were reduced to boycotting budget hearings and issuing sulky statements. ..California gave America two...