1. DOWNLOAD THE PETITION! HERE - Please review the instructions at the download page...both sides of the 8.5"x11" document must be EXACT

WHAT IS THE FIRST STEP in getting
California back on track?

Before we can fix our schools, get spending back under control, and reform how Sacramento operates, FIRST we have to level the political playing field. It’s time to unplug the Public Employee Unions from automatic payroll deductions that fund political activity. They need to fundraise the way everyone else does. It’s time to put tax payers on an equal footing of influence with lawmakers again.

JOIN THE “CITIZEN POWER CAMPAIGN” to do just that by putting an initiative on the November 2010 ballot! We must gather over a million signatures between December and April to make this happen.

New technology set to revolutionaize the initiative process, Citizen Power Campaign rolls out a game changer...Citizen Power Campaign Update 1.5.2010

Hello California! We have some exciting news about the Citizen Power Campaign, today we created a press release you can find below to tell everyone about the new technology we are using with this signature gathering effort.

This is a huge boon for our campaign. We are one of the first to use this capability and it is creating a lot of buzz for our effort here!


Citizen Power Campaign
http://unplugthepoliticalmachine.ning.com/

If you haven’t come to the community to sign up as a member please do so now. We want to keep you “plugged” into our comings and goings. And you may sing up there to help us get signatures. Send the link out and get your friends and family plugged in too and everyone from other states so we can show SAC who pays their salaries, WE DO!
www.unplugthepoliticalmachine.ning.com

Republicans on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee have released a new report leveling fresh allegations and evidence of corruption against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
Entitled “Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies,” the report presents information gleaned from committee investigations into hundreds of bank accounts, shell organizations incorporated under myriad sections of the internal revenue code, even an ACORN-directed accounting firm, Citizens Consulting Inc., charged with obscuring the trail and use of funding streams pouring into ACORN from taxpayers and charitable contributions alike.

The report includes a blistering executive summary of four crucial findings:

1. ACORN and SEIU entered into illegal agreements that constitute a criminal conspiracy.

Investigators found that ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, Executive Director Steven Kest, and Political Operations Director Zach Polett have actual or apparent authority over ACORN’s activities and then identified a pattern of alleged criminal acts.

2. ACORN and SEIU are substantially intertwined using a “Muscle for the Money” component

According to the new report, a combination of electioneering, intimidation and threats of litigation have been refined into an art form to force private corporations and government officials alike into deals and political compromises at the expense of taxpayers.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35696

The latest on California politics and government
February 5, 2010
CTA seeking to repeal corporate tax benefits via initiative
The California Teachers Association plans to begin gathering signatures as soon as today for an initiative to repeal corporate tax benefits that lawmakers approved in the past two years, according to CTA political consultant Gale Kaufman.
The tax changes are worth an estimated $1.7 billion annually and scheduled to begin in 2011-12. Republicans said the tax measures would help stimulate the economy and advocated for their inclusion during budget deals struck in 2008 and 2009. The laws give companies more flexibility to apply operating losses to their tax liability and allow firms to calculate their California taxes based on a percentage of in-state sales rather than property and payroll. http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/02/cta-seeking-to.html

Teachers Unions to OPPOSE More $$$ for Education
Written by CA Political News on February 04, 2010, 12:08 PM
Teachers' resistance could keep districts from cashing in on Race to the Top

By James Rufus Koren, San Bernardino Sun, 2/4/10


One battle over a federal education grant program ended last month in Sacramento. Another will begin this spring in hundreds of school districts up and down the state.

Lawmakers in January passed legislation to make California eligible for a chunk of the more than $4 billion Race to the Top grant program. But if local districts want to see any of that money, they'll have to reach an agreement with local teachers unions to start judging teachers based, in part, on student test scores.

Teachers' unions have historically opposed any move to link teacher evaluations to student performance, and observers are pessimistic that many unions will go along this time.
http://capoliticalnews.com/blog_post/show/4267

Union Caught Hiding Connection to Recall Funds
Written by CA Political News on February 04, 2010, 12:10 PM
OCEANSIDE: Political commission raps pro-recall groups for campaign reporting error

By RAY HUARD, North County Times, 2/4/10

Two groups that worked on a failed drive to recall Oceanside City Councilman Jerry Kern violated state campaign laws by not properly reporting their connection to the Oceanside Firefighters Association, the state Fair Political Practices Commission reported.

The groups ---- Citizens to Recall Kern for Fair and Balanced Government and Citizens for the Preservation of Parks and Beaches ---- were sent warning letters in December by the FPPC. The letters said that since the groups eventually corrected the violation by amending campaign reports filed with the city clerk, no enforcement action would be taken against them.
http://capoliticalnews.com/blog_post/show/4268

Paycheck Protection is Back By Lewis K. Uhler
President of the National Tax Limitation Committee
Mon, January 11th, 2010
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical."

This sentiment, written over two centuries ago by Thomas Jefferson, is more applicable than ever today in the case of public -sector unions which collect mandatory dues from their membership to engage in liberal, big-spending, highly partisan politics antipathetical to many of their members who foot the bill.

In 2005 we spearheaded Proposition 75, the "Paycheck Protection Initiative," to require written consent of public employee union members before union dues could be taken from their salaries for political purposes. The unions outspent us 10-1 and only narrowly defeated Proposition 75.
In 2010 the outcome can be different -- for several reasons:

•The "Paycheck Protection Initiative" currently gathering signatures is crafted differently. It prohibits the government employer (state or local) from acting as the agent for the public employee union in collecting political dues from public employees. I think it is stronger protection than Proposition 75.
•During the intervening years public-employee unions have grown more arrogant and politically demanding and have taken positions on issues and ballot measures with which many of their own members disagree (such as the California Teachers Association's endorsement and funding of opposition to Proposition 8 -- the marriage initiative.)
•Polling data reveals that public support for protecting public employees from forced union political dues has grown significantly since the Proposition 75 vote.

READ  MORE HERE http://foxandhoundsdaily.com/blog/lewis-k-uhler/6202-paycheck-protection-measure-back

California Teachers Union in rare legislative loss 
Buzz up!By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 - 8:13 am
The California Teachers Association is used to getting its way. The union that represents 340,000 public school teachers has traditionally been one of the most powerful forces in the Capitol. In the past decade, it spent $38 million on lobbying – more than anyone else in the state.

So it was an unusual loss for the CTA when the Legislature last week approved the Race to the Top education bills that the union and its allies opposed. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a veiled reference to the union's influence when he signed the bills Thursday at a Los Angeles middle school.

"I know it was very tough for the Legislature, because you can imagine all those special interest groups up there pulling and pushing and … more interested in what's good for the grownups rather than what's good for the children," he said. "But they focused and they stayed focused and they made the right decision, so here we are today."
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2452085.html

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN  HELP:

1. DOWNLOAD THE PETITION! HERE - Please review the instructions at the download page...both sides of the 8.5"x11" document must be EXACT

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Judge rules Schwarzenegger can't furlough 3 unions
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Buzz up!By Andrew McIntosh
amcintosh@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jan. 1, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Friday, Jan. 1, 2010 - 12:09 am
An Alameda Superior Court judge has ordered the Schwarzenegger administration to stop furloughing thousands of state workers who are members of three big public sector unions, including Service Employees International Union Local 1000, offering them a huge legal victory as 2010 begins.

In three rulings released late Thursday, Judge Frank Roesch said the governor's reliance on the state's Emergency Services Act to order three furlough days a month, triggering pays cuts of almost 15 percent, was flawed and illegal. READ MORE...
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2431574.html

Campaign targets city labor guarantees
By Helen Gao
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at midnight
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/nov/24/campaign-targets-city-labor-guarantees/

Hot Seat: Dawn Wildman
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.

Dawn Wildman, a San Diego activist who is co-coordinator of the California Tea Party Patriots movement, is teaming with fellow activists and with Robert Loewen and Mark Bucher of the wealthy Lincoln Club of Orange County to lead a statewide petition campaign for a ballot measure meant to limit the power of public employee unions. She was recently interviewed by Union-Tribune editorial writer Chris Reed on KOGO 600 AM. These are edited excerpts.

QUESTION: What is the goal of your ballot measure?

ANSWER: The goal is to make it unlawful for the government to hand over taxpayer dollars in the form of wages from the public employees to the war chests of public employee unions. So the government can no longer directly put the money in the political committees of these unions. It puts the power back in the hands of the actual wage earner.

QUESTION: You need to gather more than 750,000 signatures by mid-April to qualify for the ballot. Is this going to be difficult?

ANSWER: The enthusiasm among the Tea Party Patriots has been there from the start, ever since we heard they were drafting the ballot language. We were excited. After the May state ballot initiatives, where everything was about raising our taxes, it really awakened everyone in California. We have 157 tea party groups from Humboldt County to Imperial County. Not one said they didn’t want to be involved. Gathering the signatures has never been done at the grass-roots level. Usually there are paid signature gatherers.

QUESTION: Some of the media put down Tea Party activists as disaffected conservatives or even as nuts. What do you say to those who try to dismiss your movement as a fringe, crazy thing?

ANSWER: I appreciate the fact they keep talking about us. There’s no such thing as bad press. But it’s astonishing that our critics think we’re not effecting change. It started before the May election, when Sacramento tried to keep the public from really knowing about the tax hikes. We’re organized now, and we’re going to make more of a difference from now on. There’s too much at stake.

There was a time when citizens were far more a part of the process. That sort of went away. We left matters up to political parties, to established groups, to hand-feed us what we’re supposed to do. Now we’ve awakened to the fact that we’ve lost control of the whole process.

QUESTION: In 2005, there was a special election with four ballot reform measures that included a “paycheck protection” measure meant to prevent the automatic deduction of union dues from union members to fund union political activities. The measures started off with a head of steam but ended up losing. One theory why is that activists tried to do too much at one time. Next year, we may see measures to suspend AB 32, the state’s anti-global warming law, to curb government pensions, to impose a hard spending cap as well as other reforms. Will the Tea Party movement back all these measures? Or is it worried about reform efforts being spread too thin?

ANSWER: We certainly support suspending or repealing AB 32. We’re just hemorrhaging jobs. We’re an example for the rest of the nation, but not in a good way. But right now our focus is our Citizen Power campaign and unplugthepoliticalmachine.org.

QUESTION: If reform groups teamed up on signature-gathering campaigns, it seems likely there would be a lot of overlap among voters who would like “paycheck protection” as well as spending and pension caps, etc.

ANSWER: We think so, too. The last year, we’ve had many people that come to our events to do signature gathering on other measures. If it stands in line with our principles, the more the merrier. It doesn’t have to be the California Tea Party Patriots who take on everything. There are so many other great organizations out there that are working hard to get their measures qualified, too.