Every week, some unknown and wildly uncourageous penman over at the Capitol Weekly writes the "Ask Big Daddy" column — throwing around advice like it is going out of sale. His column this week was proof of one thing: Big Daddy Loves Big Government. The column is just one more nasty column aimed at those darned conservatives, by those who don’t understand that state government has grown too much, and is too large. The anonymous penman suggests a number of punative measures that should be taken against Republican legislators who don’t swallow the grow-government kool-aid. So, I would offer this:

It is really not hard to figure out why virtually every Republican legislator is opposed to the type of ‘bipartisan progress’ being offered up by liberal Democrats Fabian Nunez and Don Perata — because they do not represent any kind of compromise on the part of liberal… Read More

Tonight, FR’s former State Capitol Correspondent, Karen Hanretty, with be guest-hosting for Sean Hannity on the Hannity and Colmes political show. You won’t want to miss this! The details: Foxs News Channel, 6 p.m. California time. If you miss it, or want to watch Karen twice, it will play again at 11 p.m. Karen has appeared on the program before, but this is a pretty big deal, to guest host a show. Congratulations Karen!

Before her ‘starring role’ with us here on the FR, Karen worked on Governor Schwarzenegger’s campaign in the recall election in ’03 and also served as Communications Director for the California Republican Party.

Actually, you can Tivo the show, and mass produce it onto video-tapes as stocking-stuffers for all of your friends.… Read More

This column by Governor Schwarzenegger ran today in the L.A. Daily News:

TIME FOR A CHANGE ON HEALTH COVERAGE By Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger One of the most serious problems facing California and our nation is the large number of people without medical insurance. In California, 6.5 million people – more than any other state – have no medical insurance for all or part of the year. Nationally the number is a staggering 47 million. But this is not just a problem for the… Read More

As Presidential politics heads up nationally, of course it means that all of the candidates will be looking to California as they put together their national plans — especially on the financial side of things. For the Republican candidates especially, California has traditionally been considered an "ATM Stop" as there is a lot of fertile ground here for raising political funds — that they are traditionally spend in other states. FR Los Angeles County Correspondent Shawn Steel already posted about how some of the fundraising consultants are lining up in the GOP primary, but it is also notable to see that three California major finance players are taking the lead roles in the fundraising operations of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Who are they? Stepping up early for retiring Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s California efforts is highly… Read More

As Presidential politics heads up nationally, of course it means that all of the candidates will be looking to California as they put together their national plans — especially on the financial side of things. For the Republican candidates especially, California has traditionally been considered an "ATM Stop" as there is a lot of fertile ground here for raising political funds — that they are traditionally spend in other states. FR Los Angeles County Correspondent Shawn Steel already posted about how some of the fundraising consultants are lining up in the GOP primary, but it is also notable to see that three California major finance players are taking the lead roles in the fundraising operations of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Who are they? Stepping up early for retiring Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s California efforts is highly… Read More

Should California expand the power of recall to include our Congressional delegation?

This could make an interesting prospect for a new ballot initiative. An amendment to the California Constitution that expanded the current law to include "all" elected officials, and which, as a safety value legally, encouraged candidates for Congress to voluntarily submit to the recall process by printing "Voluntarily Agrees to Recall Process" next to their names on the ballot, might make the 2008 election season even more interesting!

California has played a leading historical role in the empowerment of the people through the direct-democracy devices of initiative, referendum, and recall. It was California that was among the first state to enact these tools in 1911. While until the 1980s, California was best known for the initiative process, the use of the recall tool made a big jump forward in the aftermath of the Prop. 13 landslide, and became more than just a local device, when California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird was successfully recalled. Yet there continued to be many other unsuccessful recall efforts of statewide officers —… Read More

In case you missed it, Time magazine’s annual "Person of the Year" was bestowed on YOU, "citizens of the new digital democracy." According to the Associated Press, "the winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web."

Of all the YOUs in this fair land, I can’t think of anyone better thanJon Fleischman and FR, the stable of bloggers and the many readers…the onesinstrumental in the last year for using and creating content on the WWW that helped drive the digital democracy in California.

Congratulations to all of YOU, but especially to Jon and the FlashReport. Next stop for FR….the cover of The Nation and Mother Jones. That’s when we’ll know we’ve really gone legit.

In the meantime, directly from AP online:

NEW YORK (AP)… Read More

Republican Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard has been fostering an ongoing discussion about the California Republican Party’s Victory Program (Get-Out-The-Vote). He posts over on his blog here, but gives me leave to post his stuff over here, too. So his latest thoughts are below, and a few blog posts down, Brandon Powers has posted a memo from the CRP Board of Directors on some of these issues… FROM BILL LEONARD In my November 20th newsletter I asked for a financial and performance audit of the California Republican Party’s 2006 campaign effort. While I have learned a lot since then thanks to conversations with key party and Schwarzenegger campaign officials, it is still important that we look at what happened, what worked, and what did not work and why. … Read More