There is absolutely nothing I can add to this "MUST READ":

May 15, 2006

President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC 20500

Subject: Petition to Make Mt. Soledad a Federal Veteran’s Memorial

Dear Mr. President:

My wife and I would like to express our support for the effort initiated by Representative Duncan Hunter of California and the Mayor of San Diego to save the cross at Mt Soledad wherein theFederal Government would take the property by eminent domain as a veteran’s memorial.

Our son Captain Michael D. Martino, USMC, was killed in action in Iraq on November 2, 2005, when his Cobra Helicopter was shot down by a SA 16. This past week our son’s Camp Pendleton unit, which had just recently returned from Iraq, dedicated plaques at Mt. Soledad to honor him and his fellow pilot Major Gerry Bloomfield for their heroic service. There is no better place to honor our fallen heroes than under that… Read More

Note to Bill Hauf: The FEC wants to know how much, but they also want the decimal point in the right place… 50th CD candidate Bill Hauf, who remains in the race against Brian Bilbray, on one side of the ballot anyway, filed a couple of Federal Election Commission-required notices during the week. Under FEC rules, a federal candidate must fax a notice to his opponents when he donates to his campaign.

Hauf’s first such notice of the week showed personal contributions of $100,000 on 5/11 and $900,000 on 5/18 to his primary campaign. Let’s call that report the "Bilbray being in for a $1 million surprise". However, the second Hauf notice corrected the first, indicating his campaign had filed in error…the second loan was $90,000 (not $900,000), meaning he had only put in $190,000, not the originally-reported $1 million. Let’s call that one "Ooops". U-T Endorses Thompson Over Horn… Whether due to it being an election year, or his own actions… Read More

It seems Jeremy Baca, candidate for the 62nd Assembly District, gave a little speech Friday. As is usually the case whenever a member of the Baca clan is the subject of a Democratic Party meeting, shortly after Baca’s talk the audience erupted into a shouting match over the subject of endorsements.

According to a report yesterday by Andrew Edwards of the San Bernardino County Sun, the son of U.S. Rep. Joe Baca and brother of Assemblyman Joe Baca Jr. told the San Bernardino Democratic Luncheon Club – which apparently argues about everything up to and including what to have for lunch – that he believes students should be allowed to take the California High School Exit Exam in languages other than English. “Students perform at a certain level when a comfort zone is created,” he was quoted as saying.

Sounds great, except of course for the fact that a key component of the test is proving 9th grade level competency in English. If only this guy had been voting on California public education policy when I was taking my second year of high school Spanish. I would have loved… Read More

It’s a beautiful Sunday, and I am going to go visit my parents today. So we’ll dispense with a Sunday Commentary. What? You want a little something? Well, here are some factoids to mull over, when you think about WHY conservatives are disallusioned with GOP ‘progress’ in Washington, D.C. It will also set the state for a discussion about whether a California based "What can government do for you with your tax dollars" campaign centered around bond measures will further depress conservative turnout in the Golden State:

Total federal spending has grown 67 percent since the Republican revolution of 1994 — from $1.5 trillion in 1995 to almost $2.5 trillion last year. Over the last 10 years discretionary spending — the 40 percent of the budget the Congress and the president control — has increased 65 percent. Since Mr. Bush became president, it has jumped 49 percent. Even excluding spending related to Katrina, defense and homeland security, discretionary expenditures jumped 22 percent. Pork-barrel projects in the federal budget grew from 1,439 in fiscal … Read More

Based on his albeit spotty record, the Governor deserves re-election, but his unwillingness to frontally assault the public employee unions and define them before they define him is a fatal weakness in his campaign strategy. The other weakness is simply out of his control – President Bush has betrayed conservatives and they are a madder than hell about it and not about to reward a Governor who isn’t fighting for a conservative fiscal agenda. Witness the defeat of fourteen GOP incumbant Pennsylvania legislators this week at the hands of conservative primary challengers – a historic, and underreported event in political history. The tea is being delivered to the harbor and Republicans better get their act together or they will be fending off primary challengers all over the country in 2008. Frankly, I can hardly wait! Below is the text of an great op – ed piece from today’s Washington Post. It is a must read for all Flashreport readers.… Read More

It’s a beautiful Sunday, and I am going to go visit my parents today. So we’ll dispense with a Sunday Commentary. What? You want a little something? Well, here are some factoids to mull over, when you think about WHY conservatives are disallusioned with GOP ‘progress’ in Washington, D.C. It will also set the state for a discussion about whether a California based "What can government do for you with your tax dollars" campaign centered around bond measures will further depress conservative turnout in the Golden State:

Total federal spending has grown 67 percent since the Republican revolution of 1994 — from $1.5 trillion in 1995 to almost $2.5 trillion last year. Over the last 10 years discretionary spending — the 40 percent of the budget the Congress and the president control — has increased 65 percent. Since Mr. Bush became president, it has jumped 49 percent. Even excluding spending related to Katrina, defense and homeland security, discretionary expenditures jumped 22 percent. Pork-barrel projects in the federal budget grew from 1,439 in fiscal … Read More

Yesterday, the House Republican Study Committee conservatives were successful in removing half a billion dollars inspending that exceeded the budget threshold in the budget just passed on wednesday night. This $507 million was disguised as emergency war spending but was actually for standard construction projects most of which were in the United States. The White House agreed that the money should be removed. Democrats admitted it was a "budget gimmick". I’m not sure we would have won this fight a year ago. This success reflects growing support in Congress for the idea that we are spending too much and also reflects the increased willingness of conservatives to make a stand.

Congratulations and thanks go out to Rep. Mike Pence (R-In), John Shadegg (R-Az) and Jeb Hensarling (R-Tx) who led the fight to save taxpayers a half a billion.… Read More

Today’s guest commentary is authored by Flash Report contributor Adam Probolsky. The top story today is the Governor’s appointment of Democrat Linda Adams as Cal EPA chief. I will let others make the ‘fox in the hen house’ analogies.

But this appointment is a further evidence that the Republicans need to develop some credibility on environmental issues and change the bellwethers on which the public judges whether someone cares about the environment.

Republicans need to change the conversation by totally debunking the idea that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska is bad for the environment, promote all the local Republican-lead initiatives (backed by developers) that preserve natural open space and habitat and improve water quality and yes, even acknowledge that Global Warming could, could be something we should at least look into.

Caring about the environment is not part of the exclusive domain of the Democratic party.

Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?

Just… Read More