I may not be living in an utopia like the far left folk who want free rides, but fees going upto 20k a year does frustrate us all. 

From prior experiences for the last five years, I think the best idea might be web conferences. No matter what campus the UC Regents meet, it should be done via teleconference because demonstrations are going to happen until we get back to stable fees that the average Californian can afford.

It might mean we might have to pare down the layers of administration, maybe have a 30% Online, 70% in campus degree program to save on costs. It might mean begging the state legislators to be pro-business so we can bring forth the revenue to make UC affordable instead of taxing our way to salvation.

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.

If you liked Proposition 19 and you are disappointed that it did not pass in 2010, find out about this new ballot measure that is coming our way. This ballot measure does more things than what Proposition 19 and the medical legalization initiative Proposition 215.

The prohibition of marijuana would be eliminated for adults, allows for hemp agriculture and products which bill was vetoed by Governor Brown recently. This measure does not change laws about use by minors, medical use, workplace use or impairment while using marijuana.

The same infrastructure that is used to regulate beer and wine would be the same infrastructure to regulate marijuana.

Prevents the state and local agencies from cooperating with the federal government in dealing with marijuana issues.

Allows for reasonable number of plants  12 outdoors or 24 indoors to be grown in a household for personal use not for sale. Also, these plants must be cultivated in an area not visible to the general public.

The current war on drugs has failed, we are stuffing people into prisons and drug cartels are causing problems due to our prohibition of marijuana just like gangsters plagued our cities during the days of alcohol prohibition. We spend too much money on this drug war on marijuana, but can not afford to do other police activities in our cities such as dealing with the rapists and murderers that exist in society.

Help our economy, reduce crime, and prevent access to the drug for our youth. Visit the official site and sign a petition as soon as possible.

Earlier this year my family had to pay for a hernia repair for my sister’s puppy and get him neutered at the same time and that rang up to 1800 dollars. If we had the Think Long proposal passed, that would add another 90 dollars to the bill. Not all of us are made of money, but we should not have to tax anything that moves to get the funding our state needs. Even though health care and education may be excluded, I don’t know of animal health care will be taxed as part of this program.

I hope all the providers of services in California work together to defeat the Think Long sponsored proposal. It is basically socking the fiscal obligations of the state to the people that cannot easily afford these tax increases. These billionaires are trying to increase their net worth on the backs of the people earning less even though they have plenty of money to go around.

Maybe the best solution is to make do with the money we have now, cap the maximum amount an individual can have for a public pension so college football coaches and city managers would no longer earn 500,000 a year upon retirement while making sure the low and mid range of public employees would still be protected at the same time.

Be careful what ballot measures you sign in the front of shopping centers and read the fine print so it does not cost you hard in the long run.

Say no to the misguided billionaires.

The police brutality in Fullerton California has led towards greater awareness of the issue of police brutality, it has helped lead towards more people being wary of our law enforcement. Police brutality on the UC system is not just an issue with the Occupy protesters, but it is a systematic problem that has happened from the fee hike protests of recent years.

Since the UC system is having fiscal difficulties due to our state budget crisis, it would be in great interest for the chancellors, UC President and the UC Regents to learn how to work with the students better instead of losing money from lawsuits and alumni closing their wallets due to these incidents.

If students were using clubs and throwing grenades to the police then yes, I could understand a violent response. However these individuals were using the same methods of Martin Luther King and Gandhi to demonstrate for the issues they care about. Just as how the police in the southern states used fire hydrants on the black civil rights protesters, it is only going to radicalize and increase the number of supporters for the Occupy movement.

Sadly I thought we were the United States, but more and more we are becoming a carbon copy of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Crony corporatism, the lack of freedom of expression such as how opposition candidates and gay rights advocates get the same abuse as the Occupy protesters makes the comparison all so real.

For 2012, those who are concerned about the issues of the day should get mobilized in the ballot box so we could change the establishment for the better by running for office or teaming up with someone else who is so we can make the government work for the common people.

If the UC Regents and its chancellors fail to change tactics on non-violent resisters then it is up to the state legislature to write policy for them.

The website is called Donorschoose.org, feel free to visit the site and read the sad, yet needed requests from many educators in our communities.

An educator in Ontario wrote:

My students deserve the best I can provide! Unfortunately, I was recently changed from Kindergarten to 2nd grade. In this transition, I found that the specific materials I have for my new students, such as lined paper and crayons, are specifically for Kinder aged students and not 2nd grade.

I feel horrible that this transition is not the students’ fault. In addition to having inappropriate materials for my students, the budget crisis in the state of California is getting worse and worse. This year, we were only given a fourth of what we usually get to purchase supplies for students. This means the majority of the supplies came from my pocket or extremely kind donations! My students truly deserve the best I can offer them! They are so excited to be 2nd graders and are so eager to learn. I do not want a budget crisis to interfere in any way with their opportunity to learn. I also would hate to have to eliminate any special projects encouraging further understanding because we are limited on supplies. Please help me keep these students motivated and un-phased by the budget.

Find a school near you and make the lives of children better.

Kathy, the Republican agenda may be a winning agenda economically. However as a gay man Id be scared big time if many in the establishment got in power in Sacramento. I do not want Bob Huff, Joel Anderson and their friends to write legislation attacking LGBT people which is another form of big government.

I do want industry to return to California, I do want people and businesses to uturn from Texas and Florida. Democrats fail to understand without private industry we have no public services.

The goal for the party is to stop using the wedge issues of bashing gays and Latinos and work on solving the real issues that we need to worry about. I do want us to “run to win”, I also agree that we need to “play to win”. Not all parts of California are receptive to the agenda of the Republican Party, but expecting a politician  Sharon Runner, Bob Huff, Joel Anderson’s caliber to be elected in Burbank, Chino, Paso Robles or Pasadena, I would like to have some of the drugs you might be taking.

We are not in Oklahoma or Utah and that is what the California Republican establishment fails to recognize. We have to make our own special blend of Republican Politics. I do agree that we should not give away the store to big business and labor unions that grease the palms of politicians with donations.

I do agree that we are being taxed enough and we are not getting enough in return. We do need to chew the fat of government off to make it efficient. As what I said to Ingra Barks, the 2008 platform is fine it just needs to remove just a little bit of content and I think we can reach out to more people better. It would not be a total revision compared to Munger’s draft, but its more reasonable.

A platform that is vague and opaque will do nothing with the base that knocks on doors and staffs the phone banks, but we also need to make sure we can reach out to certain districts that have been alienated by certain facets of the Republican Party such as the Latinos and the LGBT community. Yet we should give the moderates who typically fund our party the confidence to continue funding our party with an agenda that does not turn off hearts and minds.

Yes, I am a supporter of the Munger faction. However we need to go after the ideas that win universally with all Republicans, yet decentralize on certain issues where certain regions of our state might love the gays and some regions may want to hide them under lock and key in the closet.

I agree with Governor Schwarzenegger that we are failing in the box office (Election Day) with 2008 and 2010 to name two elections that the Republican Party has tanked hard in trying to strike new ground.

Most of us can agree with Ingra Barks, a Bakersfield area radio talk show host/commentator on the issues she mentions such as:  seniors of a certain income level should not be taxed their way into poverty, our agriculture industry should be protected from heavy regulation when we are the breadbasket of the nation, that we need a water system that would keep people employed instead of sending half their people into poverty in the Central Valley and beyond, Crime victims should be given our fullest support compared to the Democrats in the state legislature judiciary committee, people should be protected from government seizing their properties for the benefit for another property owner, the second amendment should reign supreme where cancelled carry and self defense should not be compromised.

Aside from these issues, there are some albatrosses that hang around the neck of our party. Cultural and social issues do honestly divide our party and inhibit its growth in our state. If we want California to remain any semblance of its prime we need to have a comeback in the box office so we can bring some sanity to Sacramento.

Immigration may be the issue that will cause us more problems than views on abortion and the gays. With a growing Latino population, we can not afford to maintain a minuteman philosophy even though the undocumented population has been a severe unfunded mandate on local, county and state budgets. Latinos are known to be hard workers and they help drive the American society. Deporting 14m illegals of all nations from Europe, Asia, Canada and south of the border would honestly be impractical. We are going to have to integrate this population so they can be part of our society, but we need to avoid the mistakes of Ronald Reagan and punish employers who do hire undocumented workers, and then we need to undo Plyler v. Doe to make it where we are not obligated to educate the undocumented for free. Also we need to require that 1 parent of the couple who makes a child in our nation must have legal status from a green card or citizenship to make their child an American.  We will need to have a great immigration compromise if we ever want meaningful reform to happen.

On the two cultural wedge issues I have some solutions on the two issues that cause us to fail in the costal communities, abortion should be left to the individual and should only be paid for by non-government funds. Legislators should be free to their conscious to vote on LGBT issues. LGBT issue support or opposition is determined by religion, what region of our state people are from and the age of the legislator. Aside from that we should keep the existing platform with abortion and LGBT opposition stripped out.

We can not afford to be vapid like Mr.Munger, but we still need to be inclusive where Ms.Barks and the Republican establishment uses Latinos and LGBT people as raw meat on the balcony for their base. Existing platform does not need to be torched, but it needs less cuts than expected.

However Republican activists on the far right think that the same philosophy that has reined supreme which lost elections in California is the way to go. Mike Spence and Jon Fleischman believe if we keep our strident views on abortion, opposition to anything gay and an immigration policy that is strictly about deporting all the illegals at any cost we will regain the state house.

Unfortunately California Republicans have been just as competitive as the Kansas City Royals where we have lost seats instead of gaining representation in Sacramento and Washington. Even if we do not gain the majority in Sacramento, gaining our representation back with mainstream legislators will help prevent some of the most bizarre legislation from passing in committees when committee representation gradually increases each election. If the fringe of our party remains as the powerbrokers expect us to lose our 1/3rds veto and more insane legislation to pass.

The dogmatic approach to politics where the fringe of our party believes it should be their way or the highway has done little to help our party. We have lost AD 5, 15, 78, 80 in the last two elections while we lost all statewide offices in 2010. Our former chairman Ron Nehring may believe that conservative red meat platforms like the national 2000 and 2004 ones may be winning platforms that helped Bush win, but Bush lost California.

If we want young voters, if we want Latinos, if we want the independents and decline to states to come back home we need to change our strategy. Our strategy should stay away from the big wedge of telling people to fear people different than themselves and actually come up with solutions so we can make our state and nation a better place. Problem is we cannot win the hearts and souls of all Californian voters, but we should have a platform that is welcoming yet stays the course. As Republicans we need to be realistic about our goals and aspirations, expecting Californians to embrace our agenda that the conservative establishment wants is like expecting Lindsay Lohan to stay away from trouble.

It is not 1984 when Reagan won California anymore; California is different due to its changing demographics. The same people who helped give Ronald Reagan his victory and us winning statewide offices are dying and moving away where we need to find new blood to make California work.

Hearing the rhetoric that led to 97.5% of the Republican caucus to vote no on SB 48 and AB 9 makes me embarrassed to be a Republican. SB 48 and AB 9 is not about indoctrination of our children, it is about making safe and affirming learning environments so our children can learn. Is that too much to ask for, Mike Morrell and Jean Fuller? When I thought the only major hostile legislators were Joel Anderson and Bob Huff, learning that most of the caucus does not care about the marginalized in our school house walls makes me fight harder despite the odds.

When students are in fear of being beaten up and harassed where they take their lives in the instance of Seth Walsh who lived in Jean Fuller’s district or the ongoing harassment by students and staff in Bill Emmerson’s district in Menifee you know that these laws are absolutely needed where a school district failed to provide equal access to a gay straight alliance for gay history month when they allowed the black students association to do a presentation for black history month.

It is absurd when in response to AB 9, Senator Fuller exclaims that, “schools are burdened already with too many “one-size-fits-all” state laws, and local districts should be making the calls.”That’s why we have school boards and superintendents”. However Jean when school districts fail to follow their responsibilities that is when we need new laws to help mandate the school districts to do their job to help provide a safe learning environment so students can actually learn. It is just like in the civil rights movement for the African American community, we pass one round of laws then the states and municipalities flout the laws then we pass another round of laws that have force so those groups would be required to provide fairness and equality to all. Even though we passed school safety laws for LGBT students in our state in the last ten years, unfortunately school districts have flouted the regulations and just left them under the door mat.

If school districts want to avoid lawsuits, their basic responsibility is to do the job they were supposed to do. Protect students from harassment and intimidation and protect the students the right to free expression. If we want to reduce the need for new legislation, we all have to work together to make sure schools are safe no matter what ethnicity, religion or sexuality you may be.