As a Jewish Republican, it’s kind of novel to be singled out by Governor Schwarzenegger in Yiddish, which is what happened a couple of days ago when the Governor participated in a video-conference interview with the editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune.   But I must admit to being honored to have two outstanding called-out ”colleagues" – KFI radio talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou – great Americans.  Longtime FR friend Chris Reed is a member of the U-T’s Editorial Board and blogged about a quip made by the Governor:

BONUS TIDBIT: The governor made clear he’s paying close attention to the media in the budget battle, and not just mainstream heavyweights like the Sac Bee and the L.A. Times. He said he hoped his recently aggressive push to sell his compromise budget as a "way out of the problem, solving it once and for all" would make Republican lawmakers more comfortable with his plan. If he gets them aboard, "then maybe there’s only out there John & Ken and Fleischman to do their little spiel, and maybe it’s not enough" to stop passage of a budget.

John & Ken being KFI 640 AM’s afternoon talk-show hosts, and Fleischman being Jon Fleischman, publisher of the FlashReport online news site.

(You can see Chris Reed’s full blog post here.  The definition of the Yiddish word Spiel can be found here.)

All day long yesterday and starting early this morning, I’ve been inundated with e-mails and calls about this ‘notoriety’ as Reed’s piece has circulated around the blog-o-sphere.  This amped up considerably in the afternoon when the John & Ken Show went live — as they were pretty fired up about the whole thing.  Actually, you can check out some of that by listening to their 6pm segment from yesterday here.

As FR readers know, we have devoted (and will continue to do so) a considerable amount of our content here on the FlashReport opposing first the proposal by legislative Democrats to raise taxes in response to their years of massive over-spending, and ever since Governor "No New Taxes" Schwarzenegger proposed a massive increase in the state sales tax in what he calls a "compromise budget" — we’ve been extremely critical.

In listening to John and Ken, they make a very good point.  The Governor, in singling us out, isn’t really concerned about us — he is concerned about the reaction that the taxpayers and others who read this website, or who listen to the John and Ken, will have on stopping a budget from passing (read: outrage at the combination of being punished with a tax increase for liberal overspending in Sacramento combined with anger at having to deal with a Governor who ran on a pledge to not raise taxes and has done a complete 180 on the issue).

John and Ken have put up the Governor’s various regional office phone numbers on their website, and have been encouraging their listeners to call the Governor and give him a piece of their minds.  This is a great idea.  You can go to that page on John and Ken’s website, for those numbers, here.  Of course you can e-mail the Governor (well, fill out a form) here.  But you’re likely to make more of an impact by calling.  The numbers:

Governor’s Office:
State Capitol Building
Phone: 916-445-2841

District Offices:
Fresno Office
Phone: 559-445-5295

Los Angeles Office
Phone: 213-897-0322

Riverside Office
Phone: 951-680-6860

San Diego Office
Phone: 619-525-4641

San Francisco Office
Phone: 415-703-2218

Washington D.C. Office
Phone: 202-624-5270

You may also want to call your closest GOP legislator to say THANK YOU for holding the line against higher taxes.

Courtesy of John and Ken, here is a link to the Tax Foundation.  Did you know that Californians pay the highest income tax in America?  The highest gas tax?  The highest sales tax?  And the highest business tax in the West?  Share this with the Governor’s staff.  Tell them you want the Governor to drop this tax plan, and join with legislative Republicans and demand billions more in cuts from Democrats.  Remember that in just a few short years, state spending has increased a staggering 40%.

If the Tax Foundation information isn’t enough, go here to our Columns Library where you can read a whole lot more.

Take the time and contact the Governor.  The terrible news in all of this is that the Governor has violated his pledge to the voters to oppose new taxes.  The good news is that Republicans in the legislature are holding the line, and thanks to them, and a requirement for a 2/3 vote to pass a budget or to increase taxes, we are holding off the forces of government expansion.

You may also want to tune into the John & Ken Show (3 – 7pm on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles or live online here or via archives podcast here) — they are quite compelling, and entertaining on this subject.  I have some specific memories of being at an Arnold rally in Arcadia right before the election, and John and Ken emceeing the event.  I’m sure they remember it too.  How infuriating…

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.