President Vicente Fox is going to Sacramento where he will address the State Legislature, and he will dine with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor has a real opportunity here to make a point, privately and publicly, with President Fox that the United States, and California specifically resents the Mexican President’s steadfast opposition to our efforts to secure our borders. President Fox has called the proposed wall ‘shameful’ and has drawn analogies to a U.S./Mexico border wall to the Berlin wall – which makes no sense. But if you wanted to take his analogy and run with it, instead of Fox decrying a wall, why doesn’t he ask why so many of his citizens want to sneak into our country? Perhaps Fox and his fellow public policy leaders want to look into a mirror, they can ask themselves why they aren’t taking the actions to create a thriving economy in their own nation. That having been said, my personal opinion is that the Governor should just cancel his meeting… Read More

My Assemblyman, Chuck DeVore, has told me that he will be “elsewhere” tomorrow night, but NOT honoring ‘El Presidente de Mexico’ when he is in Sacramento.

Will others be joining in this silent protest of Fox?

If you hear of other legislators who won’t be there tonight, let me know or post a comment!

[Update: I have been told that Senator Tom McClintock will also be ABSENT from the Vincente Fox Speech… ]… Read More

Yesterday, the Hercules City Council voted to use its eminent domain powers to force Wal-Mart to sell property that the retailer intends to build a 100,000 square foot store.

Why? Because the residents of Hercules don’t want Wal-Mart’s type of customer (read “low-income”) coming to their community to shop. They see their city as the East Bay’s Sausalito or Tiburon (most East Bay residents are now saying, “Hercules?? Are you kidding me?”).

Here’s what the city’s vice mayor said just before the vote (as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle): "The city of… Read More

Looks like the dukes have come off in the regular primary election in the 50th Congressional District as conservative businessman Bill Hauf turns on the ‘contrast campaign’ — with this instructive mail piece to Republican voters, reminding them that Bilbray does not support 2nd Amendment rights.

You can be sure that the next couple of weeks will see a slew of this kind of mail, and conservatives are reminded that there IS someone about whom they can get excited about who is actively campaigning for the two-year seat.

I’m sure this kind of mail will be challenging for Bilbray, who would probably prefer to spend this time campaigning to Democrats about how he is as good on many of their issues as his Democratic opponent, Francine Busby. But instead, Bilbray will have to try and defend his not-so-conservative record to Republicans – good… Read More

The race between incumbent San Diego Supervisor Bill Horn and the local media elite has really heated up again over the last week. In the last couple days local TV stations ‘broke’ the news that Bill Horn, an avocado rancher, had some of his employees living on the property in what sounded like a rather comfortable trailer. Well, I can honestly write now that every rumor I’ve ever heard from Horn detractors who’ve whispered for years ‘the story is going to break’ or ‘the paper is investigating’ has now been given more than its share of public light. When and if Horn pulls this off at least we’ll all be spared the endless rumors and speculation from the downtown types about when ‘the big story is gonna break.”

That being said, I haven’t seen much from the Thompson campaign, and I don’t think a string of what appear to be petty scandals is going to take down a conservative Republican San Diego Supervisor in a conservative Republican district. On the other hand, I have seen recent, well done Horn mailers. One issue in particular from those mailings is going to sting Thompson pretty hard: his… Read More

Until just a few minutes ago, there was a lengthy post in this spot, entitled "Free Amy" that was themed around the idea that our (now former) Central Coast FR Correspondent, Amy Thoma, took a position with the Assembly Republican Caucus, and in that role, under the current leader, she was not being allowed to post.

It turns out that it is the official position of the Assembly Republican Caucus that none of their staff members may write for publications under their own names (whether that be the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, or (alas!) The FlashReport.

I have preserved the original comment string from the "Free Amy" post — but encourage others as we move the dialogue away from poor Amy and her having to ‘retire’ as our Central Coast Correspondent, and maybe focus on the bigger question – which is whether or not it is a good idea or a bad idea for employees of the Assembly Republican Caucus to not have permission to get out there and pen some works under their own names?

My feeling on this (which are different than my good friend… Read More

Could someone who released criminals early, had jail riots, gave badges to supporters, wants to raise taxesand is more concerned about the homeless than catching criminals be re-elected Sheriff? Of couse! After Mayor Nagins re-election in New orleans what isn’t possible. That is what is happening in Los Angeles County whith Lee Baca. The Daily Breeze has a great rundown of the issues here.You can see another post on Baca here.… Read More

Recently I was asked by the Orange County Republican Party to submit a column for their revamped website.Of course I was happy to oblige, penning a piece entitled, "The Internet: The New Political Frontier." In it, I talk about the importance of the internet, and, of course, my involvement with the FlashReport. Below are the first two paragraphs of my column followed by a link so you can read it on the OCGOP.org:

If you had the opportunity to influence the opinions of millions of people, do you think would you use it? With the Internet you do. And this new way of communicating is reshaping the way politics and campaigns work. I am excited to see the Orange County Republican