Arnold Schwarzenegger, you ran for Governor as a strong supporter of term limits and an opponent of career politicians who are too often disconnected from their constituents. Time is running out for you to stand by his words of support for term limits and oppose the deceitful scam known as Proposition 93. The closer to election day you come out against 93, the less impactful your opposition will be…

You made a very clear case – that there needed to be a package deal. That you could support term limits reform of some sort, but only if it was tied to the legislature placing a fair redistricting measure on the ballot along with it. Of course, they did no such thing.

I know that you care a lot about what newspaper editorial boards think about major policy matters – so I am sure that you know that 14 newspapers – including the San Jose Mercury News, the Sacramento Bee, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Fresno Bee, the Riverside Press Enterprise, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Modesto Bee, the Bakersfield Californian, the Orange County Register, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and the San Bernardino County Sun have already… Read More

In an email to me Duane DiChiara expressed some passing interest in my last post on the Orange County election reform legislation that referenced election "reform" restrictions in ancient Rome. His email inspired me to jot down a few more items herein that might cause political reformers to think some of their ideas may not be so new.

Take, for example, the Freedom of Information Act, or as it is known more appropriately in California, the Public Records Act. Reformers passed these laws in the post-Watergate era to try to make government more transparent, of course, to help the public gain access to government writings.

Government writings, chronicling of events, and public access to them, however, are nothing new.The keeping of official records was an early feature of the Roman state, over 2,000 years ago.Butdo you know why they kept these records? Because the Governmentcould take no formal action without first formally ascertaining the will of the gods, which required the keeping of records. Thus, government records were a matter that also involved religious authorities, who kept an annual register ofgovernment… Read More

Arnold Schwarzenegger, you ran for Governor as a strong supporter of term limits and an opponent of career politicians who are too often disconnected from their constituents. Time is running out for you to stand by his words of support for term limits and oppose the deceitful scam known as Proposition 93. The closer to election day you come out against 93, the less impactful your opposition will be…

You made a very clear case – that there needed to be a package deal. That you could support term limits reform of some sort, but only if it was tied to the legislature placing a fair redistricting measure on the ballot along with it. Of course, they did no such thing.

I know that you care a lot about what newspaper editorial boards think about major policy matters – so I am sure that you know that 14 newspapers – including the San Jose Mercury News, the Sacramento Bee, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Fresno Bee, the Riverside Press Enterprise, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Modesto Bee, the Bakersfield Californian, the Orange County Register, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and the San Bernardino County Sun have already… Read More

Okay, so I was one of the idiots that thought Arnold Schwarzenegger would be the answer to the State’s problems. I confess my transgression, and beg forgiveness. After riding a historic recall wave in 2003, fueled largely by support from the State Republican Party, we went along with the "refinancing" of the Davis mess with a $15 billion bond. Then the Governor signed historic Workers’ Compensation Reform, his only significant public policy achievement. Then he gave a great speech at the Republican National Convention but it was clear by then that he was his own entity, not the head of the State Republican Party.

His failed 2005 ballot initiatives were courageous and necessary, but his conduct since that defeat has been political cowardice at best as he himself has become a "girly man". He’s allowed state spending to rise faster than it did under Gray Davis. He was re-elected against a weak candidate in 2006 and put the State GOP millions in debt to finance his landslide, all while ignoring down ballot candidates. He was rude and dismissive of the Republican leadership in 2006 and signed some of the most insulting… Read More

This was recently post over at The Corner (maintained by National Review Online):

Cutting Taxes Is Critical [Victor Davis Hanson] The candidates haven’t had much discussion about why they should cut taxes as much as possible. The Bush tax cuts created more, not less, revenue. They were slurred only because spending during the first term vastly outpaced the rate of inflation — in part due to the wars, the dislocations from 9/11, and new entitlements (e.g., prescription drugs, No Child Left Behind, etc) that led to rising deficits. Tax cuts have to be coupled with either spending restraint or cuts, or the additional revenue gained is forgotten when sums far vaster are spent.… Read More

FlashReport readers need to hold onto your desk chairs as we share with you some disturbing and terrible news. We have learned from VERY reliable sources that the Governor is about to ENDORSE Proposition 93, the Fabian Nunez "Big Lie" Term Limits Weakening Initiative. Yes you read that correctly — counter to the many commitments that he has publicly made to the opposite effect, the Governor is about to bail on his apparently untruthful position in support of California’s existing term limits laws.

I think that perhaps the worst part about the Governor doing this (worse than going back on his word, and worse than opposing the official position of his own party) is that according to my same VERY reliable sources, this endorsement has nothing to with the underlying policy issue of term limits. Rather, that the Governor is endorsing Nunez’ self-serving measure in return for Nunez’ support on the health care/tax hike package. Actually, my sources tell me that the Governor actually wants Nunez to stay in place in order to have his help to raise money and campaign next year for the health care/tax hike plan. This may sound… Read More

Xavier Alvarez, the water board member on trial for lying about earning the Medal of Honor has never watched an episode of Law & Order. He may face another charge of lying about being a Medal of Honor winner, because he was taped about it get this at an endorsement hearing of the Pomona Police Officers Association.

As I’ve pointed out before most Medal of Honor winners are awarded the honor posthumously. And those thatare still aliveleft many heroes behind so they never brag about it.

Alvarez should resign in shame. What you do say can be used against… Read More

Red County 2.0… The Red County network has upgraded, with a new format and new locations for the regional blog sites. Something dubbed 2.0. Ok, I’ll buy that. It also means a new URL for the local SD site. Take a look…when not posting there myself, it’s my second choice every day for the latest insider political news…after FR of course! You can check out Red County SD and its localized content here

Sheriff La Suer?… Is the former “number two” at the Sheriff’s Department eying the seat? Jay La Suer, also the immediate past 77th AD assemblyman and prior to that a 10-year member of the La Mesa City Council, is said to be doing just that. Once considered a possible contender for Duncan Hunter’s open congressional seat, La Suer has endorsed Hunter son Duncan D. for the spot. Short of waiting for an open senate seat from a termed-out Dennis Hollingsworth, the one-time undersheriff has few prospects if interested in another office.

Roger Hedgecock… Read More