At this Thanksgiving time we should be thankful for our families and our country. Many have forgotten what Thanksgiving is all about. David Barton has a short, excellent description. Click here to see it. If you have children or grandchildren. An excellent resource can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley is one tough guy. Now in the midst of Hollywood's and the Nation of Islam's campaign to spare the life of Crips gang founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Cooley has issued a 57 page response to suggestions that "Tookie" is as innocent as a little lamb.

Graphic details about the four murders he was convicted of, the witnesses, the evidence etc..

Much better than Law & Order. At the same time a chilling look at some who doesn't deserve clemency.

You can read the whole report by clicking here.

Yesterday, I was in Sacramento and Eric Hogue, a talk show host in Sacramento was lamenting the lack of turnout in conservative parts of California. You can read his blog here.

Below are some hints at motivating conservatives. Feel free to pass the on to whatever consultants the Governor is still listening too. It is clear to me they and others don't know how to motivate conservatives.

Before I start, CRA and myself were committed to the four initiatives. I went out an debated 74, 76 wherever I could. That said. Here is the primer:

1. Fight. Conservatives love to fight. They will follow people who fight. Conservatives supported big spending, amnesty wanting Bush in 2004 because he was fighting the left.
The Gov. didn't start fighting for these Propositions until September. Months after the war had begun. Nothing demoralizes conservatives than seeing someone get beat up and not willing to fight.

Another strain of this thought is that conservatives don't like talk of compromise or negotiations. Clear through August there was talk of making a deal. Why get revved up so some politicians can make a deal? Especially, as in the case of the Gov., it has happened several times before.

2. Fight for something real. That's right real. Let's be honest small changes to tenure rules isn't the big kill. Prop. 77 divided some conservatives. Prop. 76 was only a little better than what we have now. Conservatives wanted a hard and real cap of state spending. John Campbell had introduced and promoted such a measure. Which, by the way would have been easier to explain. And would have been a fight over principle and ideas .Prop. 75 was real and the Gov. didn't endorse it until September. So was Prop. 73 while endorsed in September received scant attention by the Gov. and his machine.

And yet surprise 73 and 75 did better than the 74, 76 and 77. Also adding an initiative on issues like illegals would have energized conservatives. See my post on that here.

3. Embrace conservatives. Quick name the conservative consultant that is helping the Governor? Finally at the end they started using McClintock on the budget stuff. I know from personal experience that some of Arnold's people would not return phone calls about helping to get a CRA newspaper to 1 million households. In one trip to a local area, the staff set it up at a local house and told the CRA leader in the area they weren't welcome and either was the local conservative Assemblyman. BTW that CRA leader was one of the organizers of the regular GOP headquarters in the area.

To their credit, Duf and the CRP did try to energize voters over Prop.73 but again it didn't get going until way late in the game.

Fight. Fight for something real. Embrace us. It isn't that hard.

This November Election is either the beginning of the end for liberals dominating the state of California or it is a sign that not enough people care about the very real threat liberals pose in our society.

Two years ago, voters ousted Gray Davis and elected Governor Schwarzenegger who promised reform. For two years Californians have had pretty much more of the same. Big spending, licenses for illegals, the assault on the family and other plans of the radical left continue. Sometimes the Governor stands in the way, sometimes not.

The reality is, this November there are four initiatives that really matter and can change California. True conservatives will do all they can to support these initiatives.

Prop. 73: The Parents’ Right to Know Initiative will overturn a State Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the state parental consent law before a minor can get an abortion. Prop. 73 will require notification before an unemancipated minor can get an abortion. The legislature just passed a law signed by the Governor to require parental consent for minors before they can get their nose or other body parts pierced. You would think the emotional and physical complications caused by abortions would qualify for some parental involvement.

Passage of such an initiative will show that California is not the extreme pro-abortion state Planned Parenthood thinks it is. This would be a big victory.

Prop. 75: The Paycheck Protection Initiative will require public employee unions to get permission before they take dues from members. Unions are spending their millions to ensure their ability to force employees to pay.

Passage will force union bosses to listen to members and limit their ability to funnel money to liberal lawmakers.

Prop. 76: The Live Within Your Means Initiative will change the way the state budgets money. Since 1999, the state has run budget deficits in the several billions of dollars. This will help end that and give some authority to the Governor that governors in 31 other states already have.

Prop. 77: The Fair Redistricting Initiative will change the way legislative and congressional seats are drawn. This will end the incumbent protection scheme both parties participate in. It will give the people a fighting chance to choose representatives rather than lawmakers choosing which people they want in a district.

None of these initiatives are perfect. No law ever is. The novelist Flaubert once said, “Perfection is the enemy of the good”. These initiatives are better than good. Four yes votes on 73, 75, 76 and 77 will change California.

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MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM
By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
November 7, 2005

The Unarmed Gladiator

The despotic Gray Davis managed to run up a $34 billion dollar deficit, tripled the car tax and signed a bill into law that would have granted drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Californians then took the first step towards reform by recalling Davis and electing Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Under Schwarzenegger’s leadership, the deficit has been remarkably reduced, drivers’ licenses for illegal aliens was repealed, and subsequent attempts vetoed, the illegal car tax was repealed and workers compensation laws were changed to encourage businesses to stay in the state. Although he was empowered with a mandate by the people, he was not given adequate tools to accomplish needed reforms. His Propositions will give him tools to aid his reform effort.

A friend and I were talking about the special election, and my friend was recounting the problems with the initiatives. Take Proposition 74, my friend said it didn’t do enough. It wasn’t the end-all solution. It wasn’t perfect.

OK—so it isn’t perfect, I said, but it is something. We both agreed that the school system is broken. We both agreed that significant changes were needed. We just couldn’t agree on every aspect of a solution. Then it hit me. Any change has strengths and weaknesses. Of course, when the defenders of the status quo have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, they can point out the weakness, and there is no one to point out the strengths. I think people understand that something is wrong, and that there is something right about reforming tenure. They are just not sure that this is the right reform.

Well – we’ve got to do something. If we let “perfect” become the standard in this election, we will hand the defenders of the status quo a victory from which we will never recover.

Yes—there are flaws in Proposition 74, but it is a step in the right direction. Making teachers wait three more years before they get a permanent lifetime job is not a bad thing. Making them prove that they are competent won’t fix the entire problem, but it is a start.

The same is true with the other initiatives. My right-to-work friends don’t like Proposition 75 because it only affects the dues portion of the payments that government employees are forced to pay unions. That is only about two or three dollars a month. The other $30 to $40 a month, what is known as the agency fee, is required to be paid, and no one can get out of that. The state should eliminate the whole thing, my friends say. In fact, the big lie being told by the unions in the anti-75 campaign is that employees who quit the union still have to pay that union 90% of what they would have to pay if they were members of the union. Some just believe it is stupid not to join.

Well, yes, we should get rid of the agency fee as well, but let’s start somewhere. Requiring some permission to use dues for political purposes is a good start, and we’ve got to do something if we are going to break the power of the unions in Sacramento.

Proposition 76 suffers from the same criticism. I personally want a hard spending cap. Proposition 76 doesn’t have a hard spending cap. But it has spending limits and controls. That is something, and it is certainly better than what is in place today. And no—it doesn’t give too much power to the Governor. It just requires the Legislature to act, to do its job. That is a good thing. The Legislature got us into our fiscal problem. They need to act to get us out.

Proposition 77 has flaws too. Will retired judges be subject to political pressure when drawing the lines for the Legislature and Congress? Of course, but they won’t be drawing the lines that determine their own money and power. The current system allows those who benefit from the system to draw the lines for their advantage. At least the judges are one step removed.

Two years ago, California was drowning in debt. The People of California elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to fix California. But, he was sent to Sacramento without the tools needed to fix the problems. Even actor Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” was given a sword to fend off his foes. Give Schwarzenegger the ability to start reforming California. Are the Propositions perfect? No – but they are better, and Sacramento needs better.

Commentary
Reason.orgNovember 3, 2005

California Ballot Initiatives Can Jumpstart ReformsTeacher tenure, paycheck protection needed to improve system By Lisa Snell

California has more than 1,700 schools failing to make adequately yearly progress according to No Child Left Behind Act standards. And the U.S. Department of Education just delivered more bad news to California students and parents. The newly-released 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which reports on reading and math achievement scores in every state, shows California fourth graders scored an average of just 207 out of 500 in reading, with eighth graders scoring 250 out of 500. Only students in Mississippi and Washington, D.C. scored worse.
The state's poor academic performances and the large number of struggling schools demonstrate our failure to implement reforms and may be the best argument for two ballot initiatives – teacher tenure (Proposition 74) and paycheck protection (Proposition 75).
Over the long haul, Prop. 75, which would prohibit unions from spending member dues on political contributions without explicit consent from individual members, could turn out to be a deciding factor in whether or not we can stop wasting education money on bureaucracy and red tape, and get more money flowing into classrooms. In recent years, the teachers' union has shown a troubling tendency to put union power and financial interests ahead of students and educational interests.

Why does a 2002 state law say that a catering company can't provide school lunches and a local cleaning company can't clean classrooms?

Simple, the union only wants dues-paying union employees in those jobs – even if it costs more and thus takes money out of classrooms.

They used their political war chests to lobby for, and pass, a law prohibiting California schools from hiring private firms for food, transportation, janitorial and landscaping services. Meanwhile, studies show that school districts in other states are saving 20 to 40 percent by outsourcing these very services. If California saved 40 percent on the more than $13 billion spends on these types of school services, we'd be looking at around $5 billion that could go to books, computers, or even more teachers each year.

Most good teachers wouldn't care who cuts their school's grass especially if it meant they'd actually have the books and computers they need inside their classrooms. And if the union has to justify and explain what causes it spends money on to rank-and-file teachers – and the tradeoffs - we might actually lay the groundwork for some real education reform.
Increasing the requirement for teacher tenure is also likely to spur improvements. Prop. 74 would extend the time it takes for teachers to become permanent public employees to five years. Current teacher tenure laws give teachers lifetime employment guarantees after just two years, making it difficult for principals to hold teachers accountable for student achievement.
A new study by researchers from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and EdSource, a nonpartisan education organization, interviewed over 5,500 teachers and 257 principals, and found that the schools with high test scores are "more likely to have teachers that report school-wide alignment and consistency in curriculum" and provide "instruction that is closely based upon state academic standards."

Many principals are doing their best to analyze test results and identify teachers who need help and additional training, but they have little or no recourse if the teachers do not improve. New tenure rules would give principals the added ability to ensure that teachers who receive multiple years of negative evaluations and low test scores can be replaced with more effective teachers.
If principals have more control over the quality of their teachers maybe California will no longer find itself at the bottom of the nation's student achievement rankings.

Tenure reform and paycheck protection are the first steps in leveling the playing field between policymakers who are focused on improving student achievement and those who support labor interests over student interests.

Lisa Snell is director of education and child welfare at Reason Foundation.

A great piece that explains Prop. 76 in relation to education spending. Read it here.

Two up-coming State senate races are causing conservatives heartburn.

The 34th Senate district is held by termed out Democrat Joe Dunn. This will be the top target for the GOP in 2006.

The 35th District is held by John Campbell comes up for grabs assuming he wins the special election in December for Congress.

Now the leadership seems to be looking at two candidates for these offices that would be harmful to the movement.

In the 34th District they are trying to convince Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, a moderate republican to run. One other possible candidate is Assemblyman Van Tran, a conservative assembly and the first Vietnamese immigrant elected to the legislature. The district contains portions of Garden Grove and Westminster that have large Vietnamese populations.

In the 35th. Assemblyman Tom Harman has announced. He hails from Huntington Beach and while his voting record is getting better, he too is a moderate.

Both Harman and Daucher shouldn't even be in the Assembly. Both lost GOP Primaries, but were nominated by Democrats that crossed into Republican primaries during the failed experiment in "Open Primaries". These types of primaries were thrown out by the US Supreme Court. But we were stuck with the nominees.

Now our fearless GOP leaders in Sacramento are pushing these Open Primary babies on to us in the Senate. When will they wake up and realize this a conservative party and should be represented by conservatives.