In politics, it seems like people like to put "labels" on things to make them appear to be other than what they are… The latest attempt to "linquistically twist" reality is one that is commonly used by the left, and was recently used by the state’s Legislative Analyst, and now, apparently, by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The phrase that is being used is "closing a tax loophole" — but when put through the free translation services available to anyone who understands English, that translates to "raise taxes."

In her proposed "alternative budget" the Legislative Analyst, Elizabeth Hill, proposes increasingly the amount of money that taxpayers are forced to pay into the coffers of state government by BILLIONS of dollars. But never once is this called a tax increase, instead the language "closing tax loopholes" is used.

What Hill refers to as a "loophole" was a specific decision by California lawmakers to either not tax a certain area, or perhaps to give a tax credit in a certain area. Using the phrase "loophole" makes it sound like some sort of technical error… Read More

Over a year ago I wrote about the "Assault" that took place at a city council meeting in Carson. A recall proponent of the mayor swiped some papers at an opponent and shazaam there is an assault case. Now this is going to trial. The youtube Video says it all and the winner is….… Read More

Sources in Placer County are reporting that early this morning Tom McClintock pulled papers for the 4th congressional race. An official announcement from the McClintock for Congress campaign will probably come next week. This congressional race is just starting…… Read More

In what is the clearest sign yet that conservative icon and FR friend State Senator Tom McClintock is just days away from formally declaring a candidates for the United States House of Representatives, District 4, the Senator has sent out an e-mail to his sizable list of supporters, entitled "Potential Campaign for Congress" in which he shares with his team that he is "seriously considering runng" for the seat, announces the formation of an official Congressional Exploratory Committee, and urge folks to make contributions.

My intel gathering tells me that when Tom McClintock gets IN to the race for Congress, that his fellow conservative, Rico Oller, gets OUT (as does also-ran Eric Egland, who has been campaigning for the better part of a year but has failed to gain traction).

The real question will be whether or not wealthy Sacramento business tycoon Doug Ose, a moderate Republican who has announced his candidacy for the same seat, would stay in the race. Recent polling data released shows it would be a long, uphill battle for Ose — especially when you consider that McClintock will be able to raise a considerable amount of money here… Read More

In what is the clearest sign yet that conservative icon and FR friend State Senator Tom McClintock is just days away from formally declaring a candidates for the United States House of Representatives, District 4, the Senator has sent out an e-mail to his sizable list of supporters, entitled "Potential Campaign for Congress" in which he shares with his team that he is "seriously considering runng" for the seat, announces the formation of an official Congressional Exploratory Committee, and urge folks to make contributions.

My intel gathering tells me that when Tom McClintock gets IN to the race for Congress, that his fellow conservative, Rico Oller, gets OUT (as does also-ran Eric Egland, who has been campaigning for the better part of a year but has failed to gain traction).

The real question will be whether or not wealthy Sacramento business tycoon Doug Ose, a moderate Republican who has announced his candidacy for the same seat, would stay in the race. Recent polling data released shows it would be a long, uphill battle for Ose — especially when you consider that McClintock will be able to raise a considerable amount of money here… Read More

You remember Chuck Quackenbush, right? He was the California State Insurance Commissioner who resigned his office amidst a developing scandal in his office (one that sent folks to jail). After his resignation, Quackenbush, a wealthy man from his wife’s success in business. Anyways, the Quackenbush family moved first to Honolulu, and then to Florida where, believe it or not, Quackenbush is a Deputy Sheriff. Although, right now, it would be more accurate to say that he is a Deputy Sheriff on administrative leave after shooting a suspect…with an investigation underway. Check out the story in the local Florida paper here.

(H/T to Capitol Alert on this one, and they have more to add.)… Read More

A lot of things come across the transom here at the FlashReport, but when I saw this release, I thought it was worth a mention.

You will all be happy to know that Dianne Feinstein is so anxious to protect our children that she now wants to ban certain chemicals that are used in the making of toys. Specifically, it’s a chemical used to make toys flexible. Apparently she wants all toys to be — inflexible. What a kill-joy.

Of course she is doing this because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has said This chemical is dangerous, right? WRONG. Actually, it’s the opposite. They actually spent four years studying the chemical and found "no demonstrated health risk" from its use in toys and "no justification" for banning its use.

The Consumers for Competitive Choice, the organization that put out the release, makes the point that… Read More

Newsweek reports: "There are ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only ten years from now." The article goes onwith impressivequotes fromNOAA scientists, Columbia University professors and climatologists – all giving dire warnings about the impending climate crisis.

Ending with – "The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality." Grim indeed. These words arefrom the infamous 1975 Newsweek article titled "The Cooling World" (for your reading pleasure, the entire article is attached on the bottom of this post).

Newsweek was on the global cooling scare bandwagon back then and the article points to all of the recent weather disasters then… Read More