On the June Ballot, most local measures are designed to raise taxes or pass bonds. No so in Tulare County .Porterville votersare going to decide if they want to amend the City Charter to add "In God We Trust" as theCity Motto.

No word on what happens to Porterville if the measure fails.… Read More

A few weeks ago I wrote about AB 624, legislation that will require all private, corporate or public operating foundations and nonprofits incorporated in California, with assets over $250 million, to collect gender and racial data on their board and staff. It also requires these groups to report the number of grant dollars going to ethnic minorities, the disabled, low-income communities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender recipients. After the data is collected, it must be posted on the foundation’s web site under a section labeled “DIVERSITY.” Of course, all of this is done in the name of “transparency” and forcing greater aid for “minorities.”

This is a patently bad bill; requiring philanthropic organizations to report on their board, staff and grant beneficiaries raises all sorts of questions about privacy and unconstitutionality. In addition, the government has no business in the donations of private citizens to their favorite charities.

Last week the bill was heard in the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development… Read More

Yesterday I received an e-mail from longtime FR friend Jeff Greene. Jeff and I are both alumni of Young Americans for Freedom (the conservative youth organization founded by William F. Buckley, Jr. that played an instrumental role in the development of the modern conservative movement) — in fact we each served as Chairman of California YAF at one point in our lives. I had the honor of voting for Jeff in the Republican primary for Governor in 1990 — though most people didn’t realize there was a primary, since Jeff didn’t get too many votes compared to his primary opponent, incumbent U.S. Senator Pete Wilson! (You have to love the moxie of YAFers!).

Anyways, I digress. The e-mail that Jeff sent was in response to this article by Carla Marinucci that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle over the weekend, in which the Governor, again, makes the case that if Republicans want to win in California, we need to "cross over the center" (his words) — and I guess be more like Democrats… I suggest you click through and read the article… Read More

Yesterday I received an e-mail from longtime FR friend Jeff Greene. Jeff and I are both alumni of Young Americans for Freedom (the conservative youth organization founded by William F. Buckley, Jr. that played an instrumental role in the development of the modern conservative movement) — in fact we each served as Chairman of California YAF at one point in our lives. I had the honor of voting for Jeff in the Republican primary for Governor in 1990 — though most people didn’t realize there was a primary, since Jeff didn’t get too many votes compared to his primary opponent, incumbent U.S. Senator Pete Wilson! (You have to love the moxie of YAFers!).

Anyways, I digress. The e-mail that Jeff sent was in response to this article by Carla Marinucci that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle over the weekend, in which the Governor, again, makes the case that if Republicans want to win in California, we need to "cross over the center" (his words) — and I guess be more like Democrats… I suggest you click through and read the article… Read More

Joe Mathews, a center-left-leaning moderate who recently left his job as a great writer with the L.A. Times for a gig with the liberal New America Foundation (you remember them – the invented the term “hidden tax” to justify heaping more unhidden taxes on Californians) is blogging over at Fox & Hounds, and today has a mostly hilarious (a partially disconcerting) post up about what he learned from reading the Governor‘s mind this morning. Check it out!

David Dayen, one of the bloggers over at socialism central, Calitics, writes that local Democrats on the Central Coast are working to place a Democrat on the ballot against Republican State Senator Abel Maldonado. Readers will recall that after Maldonado rather infamously bolted from his Republican Senate colleagues and joined with Arnold and the Dems on the state budget, Senate Prez Don Perata showered him with praise, and some felt Perata gave Maldo a “pass” in the… Read More

Now that I am in the private sector, I have learned an important lesson. Last month, I was in Costa Rica on behalf of a company that I have been doing some work for. We found that one of our distributors had been taking our product and diluting it. It still worked, just not as well, and our customers were blaming us. To protect the brand, and the quality of our product, we got rid of the distributor. The company had spent a lot of time and money developing the brand, and had developed a market share based on that brand. This distributor was trying to take that brand, and sell an inferior product, trying to make a short term profit at the expense of long term confidence in the quality of the product. Our distributor still claims he was making the product better. We thought he was sacrificing quality. We just couldn’t let that happen.

You don’t need to rebrand a successful brand, but you do need to ensure the quality of that brand.The most successful brand of Republicanism in the last 50 years has been the Reagan, "conservative" brand of Republicanism. Even Schwarzenegger took advantage of that brand in 2003, runningas… Read More

FlashReport readers are probably starting to become more familiar with the group Americans for Prosperity. Earlier this year they kicked off their California chapter (I had the honor of introducing Hugh Hewitt at that event) and they have been charging hard since then. I would like to share more with FR readers about AFP’s current big project here in the Golden State — and an important one…

AFP has started the Already Taxed to the Max (ATM) Statewide tour, with a kickoff event last week at the State Capitol and then an trip up to Chico in the North State. The tour, featuring conservative leaders and a huge 12-foot inflatable ATM machine will send a message to Lawmakers that California Taxpayers are not their personal ATM machine. Their next stop: The liberal bastion of San Francisco tomorrow.

… Read More

As Californians continue to feel the effects of the state’s $14 billion free-fall deficit, it seems the state’s student loan underwriter, EdFund, has created a soft landing for its own senior executives worth millions of dollars.

According to the Sacramento Bee (May 13, 2008, “EdFund executives seek at least $3 million in severance”), “Seven members of EdFund’s executive staff could each receive two years’ worth of salaries, bonuses and medical coverage.” The high-ranking officials “would be entitled to as much as $20,000 each to help them find new jobs. EdFund would also be on the hook for any “golden parachute tax” the lucky few “would have to pay the state and federal governments.” EdFund’s golden parachutes will undoubtedly undermine Governor Schwarzenegger’s attempt to sell the nonprofit agency for cash to decrease California’s multi-billion dollar budget deficit. Currently, the plan is to “sell the… Read More