In a federal government "taking" that even a conservative can support, President Bush today signed the legislation to save the Mt. Soledad War Memorial and its hilltop cross. This may not be news to most readers, but thought you might want to see the photo, compliments of Congressman Brian Bilbray’s office…..

L to R, William Kellogg, Phil Thalheimer, Brian Bilbray, Darrell Issa, GW, Duncan Hunter, Charles LiMandri. (Attached below is the larger photo….great shot!) Here ismy weekend post on the bill signing, if you missed it.

Below is Pastor Chris Clark’s 2:54 pm email:

Greetings!

Just a few minutes ago, President Bush signed into a law the bill that officially makes the Mount Soledad National War Memorial property of the federal government!

From the efforts nearly two years ago to make Soledad a… Read More

There is a lot of interesting reading linked to the main page of the FlashReport this morning. A quick summary of the highlights:

The LA Times has Republican Congressman Gary Miller in their crosshairs. In addition to being a Member of Congress, Miller is a very successful businessman, apparently owning a lot of property. At issue in the LAT piece today are a serious of land transactions where Miller made millions of dollars in profits, but did not pay capitol gains taxes because he claimed that these property sales were forced due to eminent domain decisions by local governments. The Times says that, upon closer investigation, these sales were not compelled by local governments. I will ask you this question: If the government condemns your land, or just says, "if you don’t sell it to us, we will condemn it" — isn’t that the same thing? Carla Marinucci is a veteran political reporter and analyst at the San Francisco Chronicle. Today she pens an interesting piece on the turnabout in political fortunes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, focusing on a four-person team of … Read More

There is a lot of interesting reading linked to the main page of the FlashReport this morning. A quick summary of the highlights:

The LA Times has Republican Congressman Gary Miller in their crosshairs. In addition to being a Member of Congress, Miller is a very successful businessman, apparently owning a lot of property. At issue in the LAT piece today are a serious of land transactions where Miller made millions of dollars in profits, but did not pay capitol gains taxes because he claimed that these property sales were forced due to eminent domain decisions by local governments. The Times says that, upon closer investigation, these sales were not compelled by local governments. I will ask you this question: If the government condemns your land, or just says, "if you don’t sell it to us, we will condemn it" — isn’t that the same thing? Carla Marinucci is a veteran political reporter and analyst at the San Francisco Chronicle. Today she pens an interesting piece on the turnabout in political fortunes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, focusing on a four-person team of … Read More

LiMandri, Thalheimer, Kellogg Invited to Soledad Signing… Cheers to Duncan Hunter for his obvious involvement in arranging invites for Chuck LiMandri and Phil Thalheimer to tomorrow’s Presidential bill signing of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Protection Act. Several pleas, including my blog poston Chuck,were made to include one or both of these champions on the issue…and Duncan clearly knew they were deserving. Rick Terrazas, Hunter’s district chief, called me a couple of days after my post to let me know that the invites had been extended.

On a side note, the word is that William Kellogg of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association has also been invited. Interesting in that the MSMA a couple of years back agreed to a settlement that called for removal of the cross in exchange for the Association gaining clear ownership of the property, which… Read More

On this quiet Saturday morning in the middle of the summer, one is left to try and contemplate the general election strategy of Phil Angelides as the weeks go by, and the general election comes closer. Right now, Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly the front-runner in this race. Over the past few months (coincidentally right around the time that Team Schmidt came onboard) the Schwarzenegger campaign has been able to successfully define Angelides weak campaign for him — Angelides is the guy who wants to raise every form of taxes known to mankind. Of course, while this is true, Angelides has been unable to shift the debate to another subject. He keeps trying, but every time he does, the attempt lasts about a week, then peters out. Then Phil seems to get with his gurus and with the new week comes a new theme. One thing is certain, though, from readily available polling data… And that is that the most liberal voters are the only ones that Angelides has solidly in his corner, while Schwarzenegger has the right (bolstered by his no new taxes or fees pledge – as well as fear of Angelides) but also Arnold, right now, is the King of the middle… Read More

On this quiet Saturday morning in the middle of the summer, one is left to try and contemplate the general election strategy of Phil Angelides as the weeks go by, and the general election comes closer. Right now, Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly the front-runner in this race. Over the past few months (coincidentally right around the time that Team Schmidt came onboard) the Schwarzenegger campaign has been able to successfully define Angelides weak campaign for him — Angelides is the guy who wants to raise every form of taxes known to mankind. Of course, while this is true, Angelides has been unable to shift the debate to another subject. He keeps trying, but every time he does, the attempt lasts about a week, then peters out. Then Phil seems to get with his gurus and with the new week comes a new theme. One thing is certain, though, from readily available polling data… And that is that the most liberal voters are the only ones that Angelides has solidly in his corner, while Schwarzenegger has the right (bolstered by his no new taxes or fees pledge – as well as fear of Angelides) but also Arnold, right now, is the King of the middle… Read More

Today over lunch, in a conversation over the Middle East and the powder keg that is the world we live into today, my young brother Chuck (pictured to the right) uttered yet another reason to open up ANWR for oil and gas exploration – National Defense and Homeland Security.

The world is one nuclear strike away from all out chaos and despair and the rogue regimes in the Middle East that control the world’s oil production have too much control over our economy and over our defense capabilities. Our defense machinery runs on oil and gas, from tank fuel to jet fuel and our reliability for supply is tenuous at best.

So, again, we call upon the President to exercise his constitutional authority and SIGN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER authorizing the exploration and development of our own oil and gas resources in the ANWR region of Alaska – for the express purpose of ensuring adequate supplies for our national security needs first and economic… Read More

This week it was announced that Assembly Republicans are mobilizing on the issue of illegal immigration by forming an Illegal Immigration Task Force, which will hold a series of hearings up and down the Golden State. In the words of Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (pictured to the left), who was tapped by the Assembly Republican Caucus to head up this taskforce, “[It] will quantify the impact that illegal immigration has on California and propose real solutions to this devastating problem.”

Assemblywoman Audra Strickland also be heading up these hearings with DeVore. We’ll anxiously await to see which other Assembly GOPers sign up for this taskforce. Forming this task force was a brilliant idea. In the latest statewide poll of such things, it was… Read More