Today we are pleased to present a Guest Commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…

IT’S A FULL MOON AND THE GOVERNOR’S TRANSFORMATION IS COMPLETE by Jon Coupal

We are all familiar with those scary movies where the seemingly nice guy morphs into a threatening monster over a very short time. Excuse me if I now find myself thinking of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his real life role as California Governor.

With his announcing yesterday that he would oppose Proposition 98, which would protect property owners from eminent domain abuse and provide additional… Read More

I’m off to the Capitol City this morning for a Board of Directors Meeting for the California Republican Party. Also on my Southwest Flight are CRP Secretary Steve Baric (we carpooled), RNC Delegation Executive Director Kathy Tavoularis and also David Cordero, a longtime GOP activist who does government affairs for one of Orange County’s myriad of water districts. Wheels up!… Read More

The arguments being made by some that Proposition 98 would somehow inhibit infrastructure (such as water conveyance) construction in California have been debunked as being without merit. Still, using this faux argument, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has once again, like he did with Prop. 90, sided with the redevelopment lobby against property owners in announcing his opposition to Proposition 98. Once again the Governor and "his" political party are on opposite sides of this issue of meaningful reforms of eminent domain abuse — with the Governor again supporting the status quo. I think the Governor should change his middle name to "Disappointment" – sigh.… Read More

It seems like this morning on the main FR page, we did a "disservice" of sorts to our friend Malcolm Maclachlan, an ace reporter over at the Capitol Weekly. This morning’s Cap Weekly featured an interview that Malcolm conducted with "well traveled" pornographic film star Nina Hartley (see the cover of one of Hartley’s "publications" to the right).

However, we incorrectly attributed the interview to Shane Goldmacher, who used to work for CapWeekly and is now over with the Sacramento Bee.

Sorry for the mixup. Shane, to be sure, when you have a chance to interview a porn star, we’ll endeavor to get it right. In the meantime, it’s Malcolm whom FR Capitol readers can pester for the parts of the interview that didn’t make it past CW’s Editor, John Howard.… Read More

As California and its citizens worry about the bad economy and massive budget deficit facing the state, the University of California continues to run an island paradise for a few students and professors, subsidized with taxes and student tuition.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, (April 14, 2008, “Amid state budget crunch, UC runs island paradise”), “The University of California has created a little-known South Pacific station it calls research “paradise” on what some travelers consider the most beautiful island in the world.” It must be nice, “[s]urrounded by clear waters lapping white-sand beaches, and covered by forests topped by jagged peaks, it’s ‘UC Berkeley’s best-kept secret,’ declares the Berkeley Science Review. Real estate agents call it ‘Fantasy Island.’”… Read More

I’ve penned two commentaries (the first, the second) on the irrepressible Mark Nuaimi, who we call the "King of Fontana" because of his "my way or the highway" style of leadership. I still am getting stuff e-mailed to me on the guy, and since someone got this creative, I thought I would share this videos! You really have to have grated on someone for them to go through the trouble to produce this… … Read More

I am just arrived in Berlin todayfor a round of meetings to advance Mike Reagan’s trip here in early July. Mike will bebroadcasting his daily radio talk show from here. I am also on a secret mission,working on a project for Mike,which, if successful, will also be announced by him on his trip here.

The history of Berlin, particularly the more contemporary history, is both fascinating and heart-breaking. And Berliners really care about it. On a short walk this morning from Potsdamer Platz to Pariser Platz, the enormity of the confrontation between East and West that resulted in the creation in 1961 and destruction in 1989, of the Berlin Wall, is literally pushed into your face.Good for Berlin!

The street I walked along connecting the two traffic circles was itself literally ground zero of the Berlin Wall. At Potsdamer Bahnhof, where I started my walk, amidst a beautiful open-air shopping area, I encountered about 20 yards of the real wall, reconstructed as a monument to that grim time, for all to see. The Berlin Senate includes discriptive signs along with the pieces of the wall, and stories and pictures of its… Read More

Berlin has one sort-of Las Vegas style casino, named "Speilbank Berlin." It is on the Marlene-Deitrich Platz across the street from the newish Grand Hyatt Hotel. Both these enterprisesand the surrounding buildings and shops were developed by Daimler-Benz and Sony Corporation out of the rubble of the "no man’s land" that existed between East and West Berlin during the Wall period. People trying to escape Communism used to get shot at and chased by tommy-gun armed East German "Vopos" and their German Shepherds in this area. And now, since the early 1990s development boom,amongst other new development still buzzing in the area, and in old east Berlin, there is Der Speilbank.A monument to freedom. Acasino.

Purely for investigative purposes I visited Der Speilbank late last night after a plateof schnitzel and white asparagras (in season here and a local delicacy) at my hotel. The contrasts to Vegas,or one of our Indian casinos,were most interesting.

First, unlike Vegas, you need to pay 2 Euros (a little less than $4) just to enter this casino. Not a lot of money, but it seems the Germans… Read More