2010 California Election Forum

Veteran memorial in jeopardy

Please pray for the upcoming Supreme Court decision on this historic cross.

Longtime readers will remember the cross was erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) to honor fallen soldiers. Because the cross is on public property, a few people and the ACLU objected.

Two years ago, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the memorial, calling it a “governmental endorsement of religion.” The 9th Circuit Court is the most overturned court in the nation.

More investment losses may be added to the taxpayers’ tab

The City of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy last year. Is your city next?

Many cities have overextended themselves with frivolous spending, growing bureaucracy and overly generous government union contracts. And the taxpayer is left holding the bag.

Now, under the radar, another city crisis is brewing!

California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is now letting cities in California know that their investment fund for 1.6 million workers lost about 25% (close to $300 billion) due to stock losses and highly leveraged and irresponsible real estate speculation.

Taxpayers may have to cover these losses for city employees’ guaranteed government benefits.

If your city is in trouble, email me at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Reaching out to those in need is a Christian duty and delight

At the National Pastors Convention, I heard Shane Claiborne speak. I was already familiar with his book Irresistible Revolution. My wife had read it and was deeply moved. One of my kids was moved to reach out to the homeless because of it.

Click here to order from ChristianBook.com.

Shane speaks with passion that is infectious. In his talk, he makes a few key points.

We often cry out to God: “Why don’t you do something?” And God says “I did…so you do something.” God wants to change the world with us.

When the church of Jesus Christ acts boldly in love and compassion—without government, guilt or coercion—the result looks a lot like the early Church.

Famous atheist calls religion a “neurological disorder”

Click the photo to watch an interesting exchange between Mike Huckabee and Bill Maher. It’s about 10 minutes.

“I don’t know why more people don’t give themselves a break. You don’t have to worship something. There are enough problems in the world.”—Bill Maher

What do you think? Email me at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

What’s missing from these objectives?

President Obama established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a group of religious leaders to advise on faith-based initiatives.

That’s a good thing, right? Or is it…

The Office’s 15 members ostensibly represent a wide array of religious views: secular nonprofits, Judaic, Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical.

Liberal Evangelicals are well represented by the likes of Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine, while the nominal “conservative” Evangelical on the team, Joel Hunter, appears to have an agenda closer to his liberal colleagues.

Click the photo for Hunter’s interview by the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Guess who’s not seeing Christianity clearly?

Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is infamous for suing the United States to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, along with a long list of other anti-Christian legal challenges.

His statements on Larry King Live exemplify the utter disregard of liberal churches for the authority of Scripture.

“Many of us do not have a literal belief in the words of the not-God-written-and-produced but man-produced Holy Bible for Christians….Many of us, particularly in more liberal Protestant denominations, believe God is still speaking…and some people believe that God doesn’t speak and never did speak.”

This two-minute clip between Dr. John MacArthur and Lynn on Larry King Live gives you a glimpse into Lynn’s distorted view of Scripture and Christianity.

Click here to see the video:

There are two choices…

Every church must either accept homosexuality or accept God’s word on homosexuality.

Here is an interesting video clip with J.I. Packer I thought you’d find interesting.

Click here to see the video:

Thoughts? Email me at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Eliminates residency requirement for pregnant women

Another liberal Superior Court Judge, Patrick Mahoney, has struck down a state law he doesn’t like, resulting in well over $1 million a year in extra taxes.

The law, which was passed in 1991, requires low-income women to live in California for 6 months to qualify for state-funded pregnancy and post-delivery care. Judge Mahoney did away with the residency requirement.

Just last year, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed another bill that would have eliminated the 6-month rule because of the great cost to taxpayers.

Many pregnant women moved to California for these benefits.

Just how deep do they expect our pockets to be?

The Governor, liberal state legislatures and a handful of moderate Republicans want to now extend the tax increase and tax you more.

In the last Reality Alert Update, I provided a calculator to show you how much your tax increase will be, beginning April 1. Click here to see it.

The historic tax hike is taking money out of your pocket and putting it into the hands of a bloated, special interest driven bureaucracy (spending is up 40% in just 5 years!).

Surprise. We now find out it is not enough. The deficit that needs to be covered is now going to be another $8 billion.

The solution is to cut the runaway spending spree back at least to 2003 levels, adjusting for inflation. This should be minimum, just the start of trimming waste, duplication and unnecessary programs.

The liberal politicians spent a total of $78 million in the 2002–2003 state budget fiscal year. The state spent a total of $105 million in 2007–2008.

This is how they planned to shrink the bureaucracy?

All of these taxpayer rip-offs are really adding up

The California state government’s waste boggles the mind. Here is a putrid example:

Governor Schwarzenegger created the California Performance Review with “the ultimate goal…to restructure, reorganize and reform state government to make it more responsive to the needs of its citizens and business community.”

Great idea, unless you ignore their suggestions…

The CPR recommends cutting 88 state boards and commissions that are unnecessary and inefficient. They meet once or twice a month and pay the political appointee over $100,000.

The aptly-named “waste board” (the Integrated Waste Management Board) is an example of a taxpayer rip-off to the tune of $2 million per year… It shouldn’t be hard to cut a committee whose name describes its worth!

But rather than taking his own committee’s advice in the midst of our budget deficit, the governor keeps appointing ex-politician friends to cozy jobs at our expense. For example, after Senator Carole Midgen lost reelection, the Governator appointed her to the waste board at $132,000. Nice consolation prize!

It’s time to cut waste, not increase taxes.