I write this as someone raised in a mixed household – Roman Catholic and Congregationalist Protestant; with cherished friends and acquaintances in both – particularly among Catholics, among them a Cardinal and a former U.S ambassador to the Holy See. In my own life I was called to a path that is not in harmony with either tradition, yet I retain the greatest respect and sense of awe for both of these great Christian traditions. This has been an emotional day.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger could not have been a better selection for Throne of Saint Peter. By taking the name Benedict XVI he has selected both the legacy of Saint Benedict, the patron saint of Europe, and that of the last Pope of that name who is distinguished by his efforts to end the War to End All Wars….World War I which tore Europe, and the world apart.

At the same time he is the inheritor of the office of Grand Inquisitor, and a German of the Nazi era. In both cases he serves as an icon of change. He, and his family denied the fascism of Hitler, his Holy office was one of clarifying doctrine and leading the stray sheep, in defiance of its medieval heritage. He is the very face of change spanning a millennium, yet one which speaks to the continuity of a rock of morality and tradition in a world awash in anything but.

As a non-Christian my prayer is that God – whatever or whomever you believe him, her or it to be - cast blessings to the Holy Father, and protect and guide his servant, his church and its mission. The Princes of the Church have chosen well, they will soon be attacked by the forces of evil, and they will need our help no matter our faith.

Blessed be Benedict XVI, you have our prayers, may you be wise.

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Listen to 1530 AM KFBK weeknights from 7-10 PM for details on how you may join in me banging pots and pans for immigration reform in the very belly of the beast, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. this April 23-28!

Mark Williams is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. His work appears in this publication, on Fox News Channel and nightly on Sacramento’s 1530 AM KFBK radio. For more on Mark and his background visit his web site.

About 50-60 African American pastors and their congregants gathered outside the State Capitol Building to protest the Democrat's attempt to legalize same sex marriage. And to let the California NAACP know that they do not speak for all Blacks.

The Sacramento Bee quotes:

"We understand marriage very well - she's the one that's confused if she thinks homosexual marriage is OK," said Brenda Bennett, president of the Sacramento Alliance for Civil Rights.

The Rev. Alfred Walker, a pastor at Calvary Christian Center in Sacramento, said the proposed bill conflicts with Proposition 22. Overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2000, the initiative restricts marriage in California to a man and a woman.

"The people in California have clearly indicated what their preference is concerning this issue," Walker said. "It should not be an issue that judges, legislators and other people try to override."

Unfortunately, the Bee, as did much of the media in attendance seemed make every attempt to downplay the success of the event. They report only about “two dozen” in attendance.

Well thank God there were much more!

Click Here for the Real Story on the event and to find out how you can support the Sacramento Alliance for Civil Rights!


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Craig DeLuz

Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense…
www.craigdeluz.com

If what I saw and heard today holds then our future is in good hands.

It was my pleasure and honor to address the several hundred attendees to the State Convention of the several California College Republican Clubs being held at the downtown Sheraton Grand. Both Holly and I were happy to spend the day with these fresh young faces here in the old cow town for a weekend of learning, strategizing and schmoozing. They came from the Southland, the Bay Area, NorCal and all points in between. They heard speakers such as David Horowitz, Mason Weaver and various leaders of break-out, vibrant republican organizations.

For my part, I was there to speak on behalf of the common sense, conservative wing of the party from my perch as a seasoned opinion journalist and free thinker predisposed to correct thinking…which, as I told the students, just happens to be both republican and conservative most of the time. The organizers wisely (and correctly) thought that it would be valuable for these future leaders to understand the challenges that they will face in dealing with guys like me – the media; most of the media being liberal thus hostile, and the few like me who are honest brokers of information and opinion and who will not shill or distort, but will be receptive. By understanding how the media works (opinion journalism in particular) they will be better able to structure and target their message. These young people know enough that they want to understand this; it is a constant frustration that their elders have rarely (if ever) given pause to mull it over.

Quite frankly I was surprised at the numbers of them, from all over the state, who listen to my program on KFBK (1530 AM) and share my concern for the creeping incrementaism which infects the party like a political HIV, both state and national, and how that has so stunningly compromised the principles of both conservativism and republicanism here in Sacramento, and in Washington DC in an amazingly short period of time. Their questions were thoughful, and they were open to the answers. Two more points that they have over those currently driving the California GOP boat into the rocks.

I encouraged them to stand for principle and fight the fight than needs to be fought, rather than fight only the fight that can be won for the sake of winning – for that is not a win at all, not if you abandon or compromise principle. They were curious about how the Recall of Gray Davis had evolved from an idea on the Melanie Morgan Show on KSFO (San Francisco) to the point where Ted Costa, egged on by my listeners decided to not wait for the rest but decided in January 2003 to jump in and just do it, and my dual role as both a driving force behind the Recall as well as its all too often needed reality check during and since. Many expressed support for Arnold, tempered by a sense of hurt and budding cynicism in that he has not fulfilled his promises. Some are concerned to the extent that they fear Arnold versus the democrats in '06 is six of one, half a dozen of the other. I took the opportunity to point out that a Kennedy by any other name is still a Kennedy and that we should work with Arnold for - and hope for the best while trying to guide (force) him to follow through, but to also to take this as a life lesson on the consequences of trading priciple for a notch in the win column. They all look to the party for leadership and direction, most expressed disappointment in finding that lacking…yet they cling to, and believe in their principles, and believe that the party really does share those principles and are determined to transform their passion into action.

That is encouraging

From there we marched to the west steps of the Capitol where I emceed a media event at which Senator Bill Morrow of South Orange County/North County San Diego announced SB 5: the Student Bill of Rights designed to protect free speech on campus and protect students from retaliation for holding and expressing opinions contrary to those of the liberal establishment.

There were several in the crowd who are budding young opinion journalists in their own right, mostly in the so-called “new media”…. What we now call the “blogosphere” used to be the “Internet” and “blogs” used to be called (when they debuted 15 or so years ago): “bbs”, “interest groups”, “bill boards”, “news groups”, and “message boards” among other boring titles. What has changed is that we have slapped a cool new name on it, access is universal, and old guys (like me) have embraced the new language to make ourselves sound hipper, but these kids are putting it to way better use than our generation ever did.

In any event, I came away feeling much better about the future of the party. Sadly though there was a near total absence of party elected leadership present. That is a shame. These kids are our future, they crave leadership and are full of hope. Yet even the Peoples' governor's office could not be bothered to send so much as an underling gofer to talk to these future leaders for even a moment.

Unless those who compromise principal for the sake of power pollute these young people, or the indifference with which their passion was met by the elected leadership discourages them then great things will arise from that group. My hope arises from the fact that neither prospect seems like it will gain a foothold among the awesome young people with whom my wife and I spent our Saturday.

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Listen to 1530 AM KFBK weeknights from 7-10 PM for details on how you may join in me banging pots and pans for immigration reform in the very belly of the beast, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. this April 23-28!

Mark Williams is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. His work appears in this publication, on Fox News Channel and nightly on Sacramento’s 1530 AM KFBK radio. For more on Mark and his background visit his web site.

The Parental notification Initiative looks to be on it’s way to qualifying for the next statewide ballot. The media and pro-abortion activists are doing everything possible to make this issue about abortion. But isn’t it really about a parent’s right to raise their children?

The San Francisco Chronicle article entitled “Abortion initiative shifts vote climate:Special election would no longer belong to governor”, starts off:

A fight over the ever-divisive abortion issue threatens to pull the spotlight from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to put measures to change state government on a special election ballot in November.

Why do liberals persist in attacking this matter as an abortion issue? Because they know when it is couched as a matter of Parental Rights, they lose. Even liberal politicians cannot justify usurping parents’ rights by allowing abortions on their children without their knowledge.

Last January, for example, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., told a crowd at a rally marking the 32nd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion, that she supported a parental notification law that would include exceptions for teenagers estranged from their families.

A few days later, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who touted his pro-choice credentials during the 2004 presidential campaign, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that "I am for parental notification.''

Does this mean that Hillary Clinton and John Kerry support parents’ rights? Not necessarily. More likely, it means that they can read poles.

A May 2002 Field Poll showed that while 63 percent of the state's registered voters supported abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy, a nearly identical 62 percent backed a strict law that would require teenagers younger than 18 to get their parents' consent before obtaining an abortion.

With such overwhelming support for parental consent, it should be no problems passing parental notification. But it won’t be approved without a fight.

Groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have vowed to fight the measure if it makes the ballot.

The initiative is political overkill, said Justine Sarver, vice president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California…

With the abortion industry on the unpopular side of this issue, it will be interesting to see the angle they take in opposing this initiative. I can see their slogan now:

Give us your babies, so that we can kill their babies!

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Craig DeLuz

Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense…
www.craigdeluz.com

Why has the “People’s governor”, the great bi-partisan unifier become the great divider, swiftly descending into political irrelevancy?

Here is a clue.

“You can present all the evidence you want, you will not change my mind on these issues." Writes Placer County Republican Assembly President and Arnold waterboy Aaron Park, in a rant on his blog explaining why he deleted the responses of fellow bloggers who disagreed with him.

That pretty much sums up what I have repeatedly pointed out to be the very source of Arnold’s problems. Park is not a member of The Grin’s inner circle, but with that sentence he presents us with the purest expression of Michael Moore/George Soros left-wing dogma that I have ever encountered, and a telling glimpse into the denial in which Arnold's Army lives. They have adopted the blindness of extreme liberalism in order to maintain the fiction that The Grin is a Republican, not the liberal Kennedy-democrat that he in fact is!

The philosophy of the party, as explained face-to-face to me by party leaders, and illustrated by Park, is that if it has an “R” after its name then it must be elected at all costs, even if that "R" is as phony as a dollar-bill with Hillary Clinton's face on it. If this delusion wasn’t so tragic would be hysterically funny. The muscleman swaggering around with his henchmen like a bunch of school yard bullies listening to nobody but themselves, spouting off threats. Evidence? We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence! Evidence might interfere with dogma. Why be open to discussion when you can just kick some nurse butt. Oh, wait. He caved in on that one. Well, why entertain facts when you can just go to the people and stampede them into…. Oh wait, that’s collapsed too.

Well, never mind. I might present evidence.

It is funny because it is the exact strategy used so successfully by MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, and the other wack jobs of the left for whom the mantra is: Dude, don’t confuse my dogma with the facts man!

That The Grin needs to get out more and spend less time with the lips of sycophants affixed to his gluteus maximus is exactly what I have been warning right along.

Don‘t listen to me; listen to one of the guys who helped bring down Gray Davis.

Democrat consultant Pat Caddell was one of the early architects of the Recall (together with former State GOP leader Shawn Steel, Ted Costa, Howard Kaloogian and Melanie Morgan. Here is what he tells opinion journalist Jill Stewart in this week's Sacramento News & Review: “Arnold’s strength does not derive from these teams of political advisers and strategists he has surrounded himself with, who have him acting in full campaign mode and grubbing for dollars. He’s on a disastrous and divisive path if he continues to force ideas without bothering to engage Californians and find out first what the people actually want and what people actually fear.”

That's what makes it tragic.

For the sake of all of us may that travel from Caddell's lips to The Grin's ear. Maybe when all those other lips attached elsewere on the Grin see that, then perhaps they too will migrate and ideas shall then spring forth. Maybe even Park himself will experience an idea born of .... gasp ... evidence!

Naw.

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Listen to 1530 AM KFBK weeknights from 7-10 PM for details on how you may join in me banging pots and pans for immigration reform in the very belly of the beast, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. this April 23-28!

Mark Williams is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. His work appears in this publication, on Fox News Channel and nightly on Sacramento’s 1530 AM KFBK radio. For more on Mark and his background visit his web site.