Munson Campaign Updates

Posted on December 25, 2011 by mmunson

Here are some new articles I wrote for my official campaign website.

http://munsoncampaign.org/2011/12/25/real-priorities-first/

Create jobs, and end the big wedge against California’s diverse population.

http://munsoncampaign.org/2011/12/24/on-illegal-immigration-and-education/

Even if we wanted to give aid to undocumented college students, they will not be able to get jobs as biologists and architects without the proper immigration status. So we are just throwing money away that we can not afford to lose.

My blog has links to the recent Munson for State Assembly articles for your convenience on the right side of the blog.

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Occupy The Republican Party

Posted on December 23, 2011 by mmunson
Some inspiration to make the switch.

Do you not like who is running for office for the Republican Party? become a Republican. Tired of statists like Newt Gingrich or double speaking candidates like Mitt Romney, become a Republican.

Candidates such as Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman and Buddy Roemer would appreciate your support.

Fortunately in California you would be able to sign my nomination petition for State Assembly as a Democratic Party member or a Decline to State voter due to the new Prop 14 Open primaries, but if you want to vote to decide who will be the Republican nominee you have to make the switch as soon as you can. And a month later Election Day in June 2012 if you don’t like us, you can wash off those Republican cooties as soon as you can.

Here is some information on voter registration for California.

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TESCO and Fresh and Easy and Unions

Posted on December 21, 2011 by mmunson

Tesco is the UK company that owns the American mini-market company Fresh and Easy that is based in the Western United States namely Nevada, California and Arizona.

Tesco does have attractive products they brought over or developed to their stores and these stores they have in our neighborhoods are inviting and decent places to shop.

However Tesco is double faced like many multinationals who cheerfully allow for labor unions in their home countries, but love to be non union in the United States such as T-Mobile. I could support the right for a company to be non-union, but they should be non-union entirely. If Tesco can work under labor unions in the United Kingdom they should do the same in the United States.

I am also wondering why UFCW Local 770 has not targeted Trader Joes or even Superior Markets and saved most of their rancor on Tesco. Maybe because Tesco is a wealthy multinational and that is why they are a prime target. However Trader Joes is owned by a huge multinational as well, Aldi in Germany.

Also, our very left winged state legislature knee capped Fresh and Easy to make it where a full service checker needs to serve the alcohol purchase from start to finish, which was designed to cripple Fresh and Easy.

I know we want more jobs that provide affordable health care since we do not have universal health care in our nation and jobs that provide living wages. However unions are not doing this for free either. Unions want the union dues from the employees at Fresh and Easy. I wish there was a neutral arbitrator that would conduct the elections free from bias from the corporation and the union. National Labor Relations Board is not neutral at all, if a Republican runs it its management owned and if a Democratic administration runs it is labor owned.

I do shop the union represented Stater Brothers. Maybe if the other companies that are represented by UFCW were ran like Stater Brothers maybe we would not have much a problem.

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Think of this song when flying home.

Posted on December 20, 2011 by mmunson
From Reason Magazine

Wonder why grandma never came to your house on Christmas Day?

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A Status Update

Posted on December 19, 2011 by mmunson

I wrote to the Los Angeles Times reporter who wrote about the euthanasia malpractice at the Los Angeles City Animal Control center and encouraged him to investigate the issue at Devore which San Bernardino County mismanages.

School was average, got a A- or B+ in Geography class about world regions and a B- in World History after 1500, last class this Spring so I can transfer to Western Governor’s University. Also I am hoping there will be a tutoring vacancy at Chaffey College’s success center so I can help students on Political Science.

I donated some money to Ron Paul’s campaign. I may not agree with him entirely, but he is one of the best front runners, I was warm to Jon Huntsman, but he was for intervention in Iran and that removed him from primary consideration.

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Christmas Music Playlist

Posted on December 8, 2011 by mmunson

In the spirit of the holidays as demonstrated on fellow blog iepolitics.com page, I am also linking to my favorite Christmas season oriented songs.

You will need an account on rdio.com, they do give some free access if you are interested.

Here is one of the songs, its from the band Sparks.

Sparks Live – 2009

Merry Christmas readers!

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Road Runner becomes Pricey

Posted on December 6, 2011 by mmunson

New price increases for the January bill in effect, your communications and entertainment will cost MORE money. I did write previous articles since 2008 about this issue and you can see some of them here.

Expect Road Runner Standard in the Los Angeles area to cost us now $52.99 from $50.99, when will these price increases end? We cant absorb this much longer. However if they don’t cap data for the time being to a fair use standard then the price suggested for their service is still a good deal.

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Student Loan Default Protest Counter Productive

Posted on December 6, 2011 by mmunson

The people involved in the occupy movement are working on a misguided effort to sink the credit ratings of those who participate in this protest. However there is one way we could share the message to the colleges and governments about the increasing costs of education and how they pass the buck with student loans. Do not enroll for a semester. If we make the schools empty, then that would also spread a message.

I think the best solution is personal responsibility, if you can not pay the loans off in a reasonable fashion or at least pay half of the cost back you should reconsider the program you enroll for.

Borrowing 100,000 for a BA degree is silly if you are not going to have the ability or future potential to pay the fees. Yes, we need to reasonably fund our state universities. Fees went up 125% since I last went to UC Riverside. Yes, I believe we should not give free rides entirely. However fees should go back to 7 or 8 thousand instead of 12 thousand for the University of California as an example.

Basically all I am asking for is people to borrow what they can reasonably pay off. I know student loan debt is a crippling burden and the legal rules stating that students can not declare bankruptcy makes it hard for students to write off this debt. I think limiting how much students can borrow in exchange for being allowed to declare bankruptcy after all avenues are exhausted would be a good idea.

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Attention Educators

Posted on December 1, 2011 by mmunson

I do understand this economy is rough on many of us, with school districts not offering raises and positions being cut I would like to ask for a big favor from many of you in the field. Just like many school districts do not have money for supplies, many of our parents of your students do not have the money either.

I have written a column on this previously on my blog, but I would like to reemphasize this issue.

School projects should not cost an arm and a leg and there should be a mandate that there should be projects that cost less than 5 dollars for students with families who do not have much money. Families should not need to do a James Cameron production for their book report or atom model project.

Also, there should be a fiscal limit of how much a teacher can mandate in how much can be spent for a school project on the parents. Unfunded mandates are indeed a burden.

Extra credit assignments should not require having to visit the store to build a thirty dollar contraption either. If educators have more empathy on their students parents, then the relationship will greatly improve.

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Letter to the Los Angeles Times

Posted on November 30, 2011 by mmunson

Re: Privacy vs. an open Internet (November 25, 2011)

Senator Feinstein should reconsider her support of the Protect IP bill; this bill claims to protect the intellectual property rights of the owners of creative work. However Protect IP will do more collateral damage to the technology industry at the same time which helps to employ countless Californians from Facebook, Google and Twitter to name a few.

Destroying the Internet by giving the recording, movie and pharmaceutical industry veto power will not create jobs or help our economy particularly in California. Less entrepreneurs willing to take a risk online this means less jobs and opportunity to recover from the recession.

Matthew Munson

Ontario, California

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