As I ventured toward my mailbox yesterday, I was consumed by thoughts of what might be there waiting for me inside. Many questions swirled in my head as I opened the small metal door. Would today be that day where I would find something different? Would today finally be the day that would be forever etched on my mind when the phrase "Good Mail Day" is bandied about?

Despite this unbearable pressure I moved forward. Slowly I opened the door, the tension rising as the possibilities of a Mail Day approached that could end up in the highest highs or the lowest lows. As I worked through the handful of mail, I came across something that I never see: a fundraising mailer from Barack Obama for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee addressed specifically to yours truly. I must commend the crew over at the DSCC for picking me out as a likely donor to Chuck Schumer’s smear shop. The only thing more ridiculous would have been a request from the horrid Barbara Boxer. Maybe the Senate campaigns I have given to over the years tipped them off to my inner leftist liberal hidden deep down inside my cold cold heart. Here they are:

Rick… Read More

The FlashReport hasn’t taken any kind of a formal position on whether the State Assembly should ratify a group of gaming compacts negotiated between Governor Schwarzenegger and Indian Tribes with gaming casinos. These compacts have already been approved by the State Senate, so the Assembly is all that stands between these tribes and approval to add 5500 new slot machines to their casinos. Primary opposition to approving this compact (several other compacts have already been approved) comes from unions who object to the fact that tribal casinos are not union endeavors. Anyway, delving into a public policy debate about tribal gaming is an interesting idea, but not one for today’s commentary. But I do want to draw the attention of readers to an Associated Press article by Aaron Davis in which the accusation is made by Democrats that the Morongo Tribe (they are the ones with that big casino and hotel about twenty minutes this side of Palm Springs) is threatening to put money into the effort to thwart Speaker Nunez job-extending term-limits weakening measure that will appear on the February… Read More

Imagine Ron Nehring standing up at a CRP Convention and giving an award to some Evangelical denomination for their service to the community. Howls of protests would ensue. Today the Democratic Party in San Diego will give the first annualFather Robert Drinan Award for Social Justice to the California Council of Churches and their public policy arm CA Church Impact. The CA Council of Churches claim to represent over 1.5 million churchgoers in the state. Don’t get me wrong the Council is very deserving of such an award. They believe in fighting for people to be dishonest and come here illegally. They are for confiscating money from working people and giving to people they have judged worthy and they oppose any attempt to save lives and preserve freedom through armed conflict or use of weapons. The point is that The GOP … Read More

The FlashReport hasn’t taken any kind of a formal position on whether the State Assembly should ratify a group of gaming compacts negotiated between Governor Schwarzenegger and Indian Tribes with gaming casinos. These compacts have already been approved by the State Senate, so the Assembly is all that stands between these tribes and approval to add 5500 new slot machines to their casinos. Primary opposition to approving this compact (several other compacts have already been approved) comes from unions who object to the fact that tribal casinos are not union endeavors. Anyway, delving into a public policy debate about tribal gaming is an interesting idea, but not one for today’s commentary. But I do want to draw the attention of readers to an Associated Press article by Aaron Davis in which the accusation is made by Democrats that the Morongo Tribe (they are the ones with that big casino and hotel about twenty minutes this side of Palm Springs) is threatening to put money into the effort to thwart Speaker Nunez job-extending term-limits weakening measure that will appear on the February… Read More

Well, I take it from Mr. Fleischman’s ongoing posts on the topic of Senator Harman’s SB 1000, a that ended its life in committee recently, that he is itching for a debate on the topic. I somehow think that Jon would be less zealous in his position if it were his property value being quashed, but all the same here we go…

Many inaccuracies concerning sober living homes (SLH’s) come from the misconception that a SLH is anything with six beds or under. This is not the case. A SLH has nothing to do with the number of beds but rather with the services offered. A SLH is a SLH if it has 10 people in it – not just “six and under.”

By way of explanation, there are three types of facilities: treatment, maintenance and sober living homes. Treatment and maintenance facilities offer detoxification, educational counseling, individual or group counseling sessions and treatment or recovery planning. These facilities, unlike SLH’s, are authorized to receive public funds. A SLH offers none of these services and are basically the “last stop” before a person who has gone through successful treatment and maintenance successfully… Read More

I am catching-up on my reading this morning and just read the story from Tuesday’s New York Times covering the life of Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically-elected President of Russia. One of the high points in Yeltsin’s life was helping to turn-back a USSR Communist Central Committee plot to overthough Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Times ran a big five column landscape picture of Yeltsin atop one of the tanks sent by the Communists, imploring the people against the "coup."

But the Times refers to the "coup" as a "right-wing coup." Twice. In a summary of events it refers to it as a "hard-line coup," which is way more accurate. The "coup" was hardly right-wing — it was being carried out by the most Communist of Communist leaders in the Soviet Union, whom Gorbachev was pushing away from. If anything, it was a "left-wing coup!"

I’ve seen the MSM use this "right-wing coup" language before in reference to what are really communists. Are any folks out there as irked as I am about this confusion of symbolism, and do… Read More

AB 900, pulled together after months of discussions among the 4 leaders and many others, passes today by a vote of 70-1. This was a "between a rock and a hard place" decision for all of us under the ultimatespecter of unacceptablewholesaleearly releases of criminals by the federal judge because of the courts’ view of overcrowding. Thiscarried the most weight for Republicans, as our caucus believes that public safety is our duty and first obligation to the people of California. It provides for, via $7.4 billion in bonds, the building of 53,000 new spaces and for the expansion of the "pipeline" to train the personnel needed to staff the currently understaffed spaces andnew spaces to be built. Much will need to be done in the coming months to make this work with regard to recruiting the staff and building the new spaces needed in correlation with each other.

As our population increases by a million in this state every 2 years,many of us have realized for yearsthat we’ve needed to keep up with theseprison space needs. Instead, unfortunately, our reality is crisis-management instead oflong-term planning… Read More

With a narrow margin in the Senate, AB 900 also passed out of the Senate today, 27-10, with 3 abstentionsand will now go to the Governor. The vote was on call for awhile with 22 "aye" votes before reaching the required 2/3vote of 27.

**UPDATE (from Jon Fleischman)**

Here is information on who the GOPers were who voted against the bonds:

State Senate GOP Noes: Aanestad, Cogdill, Denham, McClintock Not Voting: Battin, Maldonado

This passed the Senate with the bare minimum 2/3 – Final Vote: 27 ayes, 10 noes, 3 not votings Assembly GOP Noes: Strickland Not Voting: Garcia, Houston Absent: Devore, Anderson Final Vote: 70 ayes, 1 no, 8 not voting, 1 vacancy… Read More