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RE-LITIGATING PROPOSITION 209 IN CALIFORNIA: Twenty-four years ago, California voters adopted Proposition 209 by a margin of 55% to 45%. I am proud to have co-chaired that campaign. Its operative clause, which is now part of the California Constitution, reads as follows: “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” Proposition 209 thus outlaws race-preferential admissions policies, race- and sex-preferential hiring, and preferences for minority- or women-owned businesses. The California Legislature...

In 2016, Nevada was one of four states facing Michael Bloomberg funded attacks on Second Amendment rights.  As with most such attacks, deceit and misdirection were the focus.  Outright lies were repeated endlessly.  Much was made of bogus “studies” that  were carried out by activists behind the flimsiest of academic cover.  Second Amendment defenders in Nevada were outspent 3 to 1 in cash outlays, 19.7 million dollars to 6.6 million from Second Amendment supporters, primarily the NRA.The key to the proposition was what it was being marketed as doing, compared to what it would really do. On that question,...

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A Democrat-backed measure that would give California the nation’s toughest restrictions on ammunition and allow the seizure of magazines exceeding 10 rounds has qualified for the state ballot. The California Secretary of State’s office announced Thursday that the Safety for All initiative, championed by Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, had gathered the petition signatures necessary for a slot on the Nov. 8 ballot. “Enough massacres, death, tears, and hate – it’s time to take action and save lives,” Mr. Newsom said in the Sacramento Bee. “The Safety for All initiative gives California voters the opportunity to keep guns and ammo...

Brendan Eich was the CEO at Mozilla until it was discovered that he donated $1,000 to support Prop 8 in California. You’ll recall Prop 8 outlawed homosexual marriage in that state. It won of course, a majority of Californians supported outlawing such “marriages.” The progressive left however will not tolerate any dissent on this issue. As such they utilized classic Saul Alinsky tactics against Eich, threatening Mozilla with protests and boycotts. The fear of the negative publicity the progressives can drum up was enough for the company to send Eich on his way. In America today silence is enforced through...

Let's start with the dull stuff, because pragmatism. The word "because," in standard English usage, is a subordinating conjunction, which means that it connects two parts of a sentence in which one (the subordinate) explains the other. In that capacity, "because" has two distinct forms. It can be followed either by a finite clause (I'm reading this because [I saw it on the web]) or by a prepositional phrase (I'm reading this because [of the web]). These two forms are, traditionally, the only ones to which "because" lends itself. I mention all that ... because language. Because evolution. Because there...

The US Supreme Court issued a mealy mouth ruling today on California's Constitutional Amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Californians voted twice to protect traditional marriage. First on Mar 7, 2000 and then again on Nov. 4, 2008 with Proposition 8 which after its passage became a part of the California Constitution - § 7.5 to Article I. Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/06/the_supreme_courts_punt_on_prop_8.html#ixzz2XQSKUJrr Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

November 2012 Statewide Ballot Measures Proposition 30 Initiative Constitutional Amendment 1578. (12-0009) - Final Random Sample Update - 06/20/12 Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Qualified: 06/20/12 Proponent: Thomas A. Willis c/o Karen Getman (510) 346-6200 Increases personal income tax on annual earnings over $250,000 for seven years. Increases sales and use tax by ¼ cent for four years. Allocates temporary tax revenues 89 percent to K-12 schools and 11 percent to community colleges. Bars use of funds for administrative costs, but provides local school governing boards discretion to decide, in open meetings...

New Speaker Vows to Share Power—a Tricky PropositionJANUARY 4, 2011 By NAFTALI BENDAVID And PATRICK O'CONNOR When John Boehner takes over one of the most powerful jobs in Washington this week, he says his first order of business is to make himself less powerful. On Wednesday the new speaker of the House of Representatives plans to offer a package of rule changes that, he says, will give minority-party members more of a say and decentralize power. In short, Ohio Republican Mr. Boehner is promising he'll be a different figure from many speakers throughout history—from Republican Joseph Cannon a century ago...

When the founders considered the form of government to replace the English monarchy, two examples of government led the lists: democracy and republicanism. Reasoning a representative republic led by informed citizens would be more stable than a direct democracy subject to volatile emotions of a public fired up over issues du jour, they opted for the republican form of government. California, in its state constitution, allows for changes to its constitution via the ballot process, allowing propositions to be placed before the public for approval in a general election. California flirts with direct democracy, and, as the founders feared, finds...

It's the land of hippies, Humboldt County and Cheech and Chong. But in the state more closely associated with marijuana than any other, the ballot measure to legalize pot has exposed California's conflicted relationship with the drug. Pot growers have opposed it. Some police have favored it. Polls show the public is deeply divided. Only politicians have lined up as expected: Nearly all major party candidates oppose the measure. Meanwhile, hanging over the whole debate: the federal law banning marijuana, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled still applies regardless of how Californians vote. As the Nov. 2 election nears,...

At the Heritage Foundation’s Bloggers Briefing this week,Scott Stanzel, former Deputy Press Secretary under President George W. Bush, released a study on a new tax initiative from the state of Washington. The Initiative 1098 tax reform proposal promises to provide: * Donation of 2 billion dollars per year to the funding of educational programs and health care reform; * State property tax cuts of 20 percent; * Elimination of the Business and Occupation (B&O) small business tax; and, * A guarantee that the wealthiest 1.2 percent of the state’s “high earners” experience an increase Stanzel claimed that, in the proposal,...

Explaining Proposition CBy Floyd Jernigan Posted Aug 03, 2010 @ 06:05 PM Proposition C and the legislation that spawned it, the new healthcare package, are a mixed bag, according to local health care officials. Missouri Health Care Freedom, Proposition C will appear on today's statewide ballot as a legislatively referred state statute. The Missouri State Senate voted 26-8 to place the measure on the ballot. The House approved it 108-47. The proposal aims to block the federal government from requiring people to buy health insurance and would "prohibit any person, employer, or health care provider from being compelled to participate...

(This article is taken directly from the Wiki entry on the FAIRWiki website, a non-profit group that defends the Mormon church) We hope that now and in the future all parties involved in this issue will be well informed and act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility toward those with a different position. No one on any side of the question should be vilified, intimidated, harassed or subject to erroneous information... Before it accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions for the amendments, the Church knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position....

SALT LAKE CITY14 November 2008 Five months ago, the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a letter to members of the Church in California, encouraging them to join the millions of other Californians from many religious denominations, ethnic groups and political persuasions in a broad coalition to defend marriage as it has been defined for millennia. During the election campaign, both sides of the argument on Proposition 8 had ample opportunities to express their viewpoint. The result was conclusively in favor of traditional marriage. More than 40 states in the United States have now...

Click here for video. There is simply no explanation for this kind of intolerance. For a group of people who claim to be fighting to expand their rights, they sure are willing to strip conservatives of theirs. There is a brief ad bumper at the beginning of the video. Courtesy KPSP CBS 2 Palm Springs.

It has been an interesting week. The Chinese homily, “May you live in interesting times,” has its roots in a curse, not a blessing. As I said, it has been an interesting week. The controversy in California regarding Proposition 8 (the proposed amendment to the California constitution defining marriage to be strictly between a man and a woman) built to a frenzy in the days leading up to Tuesday's election and then exploded into anger and violence in the aftermath of Prop 8's slim passage into law. I am a Los Angeles Police Department detective supervisor running a sex crimes...

The defeat next month of the state proposition that seeks to prohibit same sex marriages could mean hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars in personal, business and government revenue from same-sex weddings over the next three years in Sonoma County, according to a study released today. The report was prepared by Sonoma State University’s Center for Regional Economic Analysis and was paid for by a grant from the Horizons Foundation, a philanthropic social justice organization serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in the Bay Area. Details of the report were highlighted by Robert Eyler, Chair of Sonoma...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― A new CBS 5 poll finds that California's Proposition 8 has picked up support in the wake of a television ad campaign that features footage of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaiming same-sex marriage is here to stay "whether you like it or not." The poll conducted for CBS 5 by SurveyUSA indicates that support for the measure to ban gay marriage has grown among voters in the state over an eleven day period — most especially among young voters. According to the poll, likely California voters overall now favor passage of Proposition 8 by...

In 2003, California held a statewide circus known as the Gubernatorial Recall election. That election actually considered two questions … Yes or No, should their sitting Governor, Gray Davis, be recalled? … And, if Yes, who of the 154 candidates should replace him? The slate of candidates included Actors, a Lieutenant Governor, a State Senator, Business People, a Porn Star, a Comedian, etc., etc. In the lead-up to this election, it seemed likely that Davis would be recalled. This gave the Republicans the opportunity to capture the Governorship of the nation’s most populous State from the Democrats. In my opinion,...