On this quiet Saturday, enjoy some of the top stories on the main page, including a FRONT PAGE profile of the FlashReport in the San Jose Mercury News, great news about the State GOP alleviating itself of a $3 million debt, and a profile in the LA Times on State Senate Republicans in this budget impasse.

If you have a few minutes, below you can listen to a great speech given by Ronald Reagan, before he was elected President, speaking out against socialized medicine. … Read More

On this quiet Saturday, enjoy some of the top stories on the main page, including a FRONT PAGE profile of the FlashReport in the San Jose Mercury News, great news about the State GOP alleviating itself of a $3 million debt, and a profile in the LA Times on State Senate Republicans in this budget impasse.

If you have a few minutes, below you can listen to a great speech given by Ronald Reagan, before he was elected President, speaking out against socialized medicine.

Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?

Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.… Read More

Today’s Commentary is guest-authored by California Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, an outstanding conservative leader here in the Golden State…

Senate Republicans Break Their Rusty Cage Imagine a friend with talking parrots. He keeps them in a cage all year covered with a drape, feeds them occasionally, cleans their cage less often, yet once a year around June 30th when the relatives come to visit he drags out the cage, pulls off the drape, and orders the parrots to talk. This is the Senate Republican Caucus. And because they have not performed on cue they are being called obstructionist, stubborn, uncooperative, and even terrorists.

The truth is that the Democrats’ changes to the Governor’s Budget have only been available since mid-June and the Republicans have been detailing their objections to that “work product”… Read More

Andrea Hoch serves as Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She has sent us an update on the Governor’s filing a motion yesterday to join efforts to keep an artificial cap being placed on the population of California prisons, leading to the early release of dangerous felons…

As the Vice Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party, I can tell you that I am very excited by the following news. The ‘infamous’ $3,000,000 loan that the state GOP has on the books from last years election… is going bye bye.

The California Republican Party has released the following statement to the press, so I feel it is okay to now share it on the FlashReport (I have a fidiciary obligation as a party officer that requires that I do things a certain way)… The California Republican Party has obtained commitments to retire its $3,000,000 loan obligation from Larry Dodge and Paul Folino and their affiliates on or before February 15, 2008. The CRP sincerely appreciates the generosity of these two pillars of our party and their faith and commitment to the CRP and Republican principles. The CRP also wants to thank Governor Arnold… Read More

Today’s Commentary is guest-authored by California Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, an outstanding conservative leader here in the Golden State…

Senate Republicans Break Their Rusty Cage Imagine a friend with talking parrots. He keeps them in a cage all year covered with a drape, feeds them occasionally, cleans their cage less often, yet once a year around June 30th when the relatives come to visit he drags out the cage, pulls off the drape, and orders the parrots to talk. This is the Senate Republican Caucus. And because they have not performed on cue they are being called obstructionist, stubborn, uncooperative, and even terrorists.

The truth is that the Democrats’ changes to the Governor’s Budget have only been available since mid-June and the Republicans have been detailing their objections to that “work product”… Read More

Democrats have targeted Sen. Jeff Denham for a recall. Why have the Dems who were against the recall of Gray Davis doing this? Jeff won’t vote for an unbalanced budget. How should Republicans respond? Let’s recall Lou Correa. He barely won, in a district that is getting more GOP registrations. In a recall he can’t use third party campaigns like Otto Bade to distract voters. A recall of Correa would give voters a clear choice. Vote no on the recall and support ongoing unbalanced budgets or vote yes on the recall of good old Lou and send a message for balanced budgets. Is there anybody out there willing to take this on? … Read More

Credibility is really important in our elected officials. After all, when they run for election (or re-election) much weight is placed on what they tell us they will do in office. I must tell you, as someone who endorsed, supported and encouraged others to do the same for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the recall election of 2003, and his re-election in 2006, I am starting to feel like a chump. It’s not that I am mad at him, it’s more like I am hurt. I feel like he made a promise to all of us, and now he’s not keeping his word.

Arnold’s embrace of a large tax increase as part of a big state-government foray into the healthcare marketplace the size of which would make Milton Friedman cry was so unbelievable that I still am in shock. Worse yet was the ‘justification’ used — that raising actual taxes is somehow netted out by a reduction in a so-called "hidden tax" that Californians already pay. Combine that terrible method of justification with any liberal spending program and I guess you can justify tax hikes all day long. But it doesn’t make it right, and this is not the policy agenda of a… Read More