Porkbusters has ID’d 1776 individual earmarks in the latest Defense Appropriation bill.

We’ll give you three guesses as to which Californian has the most (38, making him third over all in Congress)…

What? You think you already know the answer?

Well, click here to verify your hunch.

Apparently Jerry Lewis (oh! I gave it away) is enough of an expert in these items to champion their funding requests — Center for Innovative Geospatial Technology, GeoSAR System Enhancements, Geospatial Intelligence Analysis Education, Joint Training Experimentation Program (JTEP), Homeland Defense Operational Planning System (HOPS), Lewis Center for Education Research, Norton AFB Infrastructure Improvements, MAGTGTC Range Transformation Initiative, Magneto Inductive Remote Activation Munition Systems MI-RAMS, Warrior Block 0 All-Weather, Hi-Fidelity Sensor Upgrades, MAGTFTC Range Transformation Initiative, Mobile Optical Sensor Suite (MOSS), Praetorian, Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT), Cyber Threat Analytics, Integrated Information Technology… Read More

We’re not sure what it means, but apparently cattle-call is on for Democrat Senators to return to the Capitol, possibly indicating that a budget might be in the offing. Apparently Democrat Senators have been arriving in numbers this afternoon, zipping into the garage in their cars (well, I’m sure someone else was driving Migden’s car for her.) What does it mean? Who knows? Though my sources say there is no deal yet.

Also, apparently the Governor is speechifying in his press conference room. I am thinking that he is not commending Senate Republicans for their determination to pass a budget that spends less than that passed by the Assembly, which spends less than the one he introduced. Then again, one can hope…… Read More

This afternoon, Governor Schwarzenegger spent about 15 minutes taking Q & A on the state budget stalemate.

That said, what was the upshot? The Governor wants a budget now. How does he propose we get there? Well, he didn’t quite say.

But if you want to listen to him not say much yourself, you can listen to the press event here.

I am sure that the same economic conservative leaders who stood with you in your election would be happy to appear at another press conference with you, demanding that Democrats tighten the state’s belt just a litte bit more.… Read More

This just in from Republican State Senator Sam Aanestad, on the current budget situation…

They’re Not Listening, But I Am by Senator Sam Aanestad I find it confusing that the Majority Party is suddenly angered over Senate Republican demands for a truly balanced budget. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We have been repeating the same line as a unified caucus since we passed the previous budget. … Read More

Filing for the many seats up in Los Angeles County still has two weeks before it finishes. Earlier I mentioned that former Democratic Assemblyman Ed Chavez is running for Mt Sac. Community College. See here.

That latest filings have a Gary W. Lawson taking out papers to run for the same office. But wait, He also took out papers for Walnut Valley Unified School District Board. But wait he took out papers to run for Walnut Valley Water District.

Pick an office already! See latest filing here… Read More

The main page (www.flashreport.org) will be updated around 8:30am, but I wanted to give the early morning blog readers early access to our lead column this morning, which is my State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, Senate Republicans Meet the Budget Challenge. It goes over the proposal coming from Senate Republicans this morning.… Read More

I had an interesting interview today. After the reporter and I covered my views on the current budget standoff we started talking about the impact the internet is having on campaigns and public policy making.

YouTube, blogs, insta-web sites, email campaigns – –– it’s a whole new day.

I, for one, am all for it. The internet brings instant communication. Instant impact. And – apparently – it can instantly set some off. Case in point is today’s interview KCRA-TV had with Senate Pro Tem Don Perata. Watch it and you’ll find Senator Perata is rather put out by the Senate Republican Caucus. He calls our unwillingness to vote for an unbalanced budget "guerrilla tactics" and seems to especially be annoyed that we "blog each other and other right wing whackos" (ouch). He says we are "terrorizing" California by standing firm (it’s interesting to note the word "terrorize" was first used in a left wing whacko blog the other day – maybe Don’s been reading them – hmmm…..something to… Read More

It’s 9:14am and the Senate Chambers are a ghost town. The much awaited introduction of the Senate Republican budget reforms were not brought up this morning. Senate President Perata made some announcement about the State Department of Finance needing to review this or that (blah, blah), and "presto!" — the Senate is rececessed for 24 hours.

How many times have the Democrats brought up items and the Republicans have no time to respond? Well, I guess with the majority comes the ability to do this — get the info from your political opponents and then delay so you can have time to prepare your response.

I guess I don’t blame Perata, but it is a bit anti-climactic.… Read More