Conventional wisdom suggests that politics at the upper echelons, is a rich man’s game. And you can find plenty of examples including our own governor.

However, having money does not necessarily mean you have political acumen. Warren Buffett is a fine example of this. Back in 2003 during the heat of the Recall Election battle, Schwarzenegger announced that Billionaire Warren Buffett would be a key economic adviser.

Buffett’s first act as adviser: tell the media that taxes were too low in California.

Flash forward to September 25th, 2006 and the Governor has pulled Buffet into a day-long fund raising effort starting in San Francisco, in LA for lunch and Orange County for an evening reception.

I hope the Join Arnold folks haven’t forgotten that Buffett is so rich that he tends to say things that us little people just don’t understand and that perhaps he should keep he public… Read More

Today in USA Today, the newspaper has a pretty hard-hitting and right-on column blistering Congress for their serious earmarking/pork addiction. Newly re-minted United States Congressman Brian Bilbray has a short column (reprinted below by Duane Dichiara as well) in which he praises the action taken late last week by the House of Representitives to start shining light on the ‘earmarking’ process:

Last week, the House of Representatives took the first step in changing the culture that has left so many Americans disillusioned with their government. With the public demanding reform, the House adopted rule changes to the practice of… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger issued a joint announcement of an "Agreement on Ocean Health" with the Democratic Governors of Washington and Oregon — Governor Ted Kulongoski and Governor Chris Gregoire (lefty Gregoire won office in 2004 by 129 votes statewide over GOPer Dino Rossi).

Because of the featured column today from Congressman Richard Pombo on his DOER Act, I wanted to bring attention to one clause in this agreement that Schwarzenegger signed with these two liberal Governors: Send a joint message to the President and Congress reinforcing our opposition to oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development off our coasts. In light of the fact that the DOER legislation proposed by Congress would take California (and Oregon and Washington) out of the business of lobbying President and the Congress on this issue, and instead place the issue under the control of each state, why… Read More

You have to love the internet and the creative team over at the California Republican Party.

We all know that the major defining issue between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phil Angelides is that Republican Schwarzenegger has made a strong a firm commitment against raising taxes or fees on Californians while Democrat Angelides has already pledged to raise over $18 billion in new taxes as Governor (and that number is probably low).

So now you have to check THIS out. There is a new perfect "mascot" for Phil Angelides!

No, mascot isn’t the correct term. What they have come up with is Phil Angelides’ alter-ego: The Tax Man!

He’s a caped crusader out there fighting "the dark forces of low taxes," as it says on his Myspace page (add him as your friend on Myspace).

This is one of those silly and fun things that pop up during… Read More

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Nick Inzunza, whose once near-lock on Juan Vargas’ 79th AD seat, or even simply another term as mayor of National City, were both dashed with last December’s SDUT report of His Slumlordness, is making a liberal splash for himself on the way out.

In the wake of cities like Escondido considering rental laws against illegal aliens and Vista adopting restrictions on the hiring of day laborers, Mayor Nick is doing the exact opposite…proposing National City as a sanctuary for illegals, or whathe is calling "immigrants"(see story). Notwithstanding his claim that this is simply an announcement of the city’s current policies, a few National City residents and some of his council colleagues are a tad surprised by the brazenness of proclaiming support for illegality, including that local law enforcement will turn a blind eye to any knowledge of “undocumented” denizens of the area.

Is Inzunza trying to… Read More

TODAY’S SUNDAY COMMENTARY IS "GUEST HOSTED" BY LONGTIME FLASHREPORT FRIEND SHAWN STEEL. STEEL, A PROMINENT LOS ANGELES COUNTY ATTORNEY, IS A FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND HAS PENNED THIS BOOK REVIEW… Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mathews’ new book, “The People’s Machine: Arnold and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy” is quite the rage in Sacramento and for California political junkies. Mathews recounts the political formation of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the origins of the 2003 Gray Davis Recall that dethroned a sitting governor for the first time in 80 years – and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. That time now seems like eons ago, but we should remember the California Republican Party was on… Read More

TODAY’S SUNDAY COMMENTARY IS "GUEST HOSTED" BY LONGTIME FLASHREPORT FRIEND SHAWN STEEL. STEEL, A PROMINENT LOS ANGELES COUNTY ATTORNEY, IS A FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND HAS PENNED THIS BOOK REVIEW…

Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mathews’ new book, “The People’s Machine: Arnold and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy” is quite the rage in Sacramento and for California political junkies. Mathews recounts the political formation of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the origins of the 2003 Gray Davis Recall that dethroned a sitting governor for the first time in 80 years – and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place.

That time now seems like eons ago, but we should remember the California Republican Party was on its back following the November 2002 election disaster in which all but one statewide GOP candidate went down to… Read More