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

There is much that I love about living in the Bay Area. On a warm September day, I don’t think there is any place that is more beautiful than the San Francisco Bay. If you consider yourself a “foodie” there is no area that offers quite as many eating and shopping options. Those who count people by race and ethnicity love to point to the area’s diversity as a bonus feature of the region. But diversity stops at political thought. As a Republican, I’m a fish out of water in the Bay Area. Take the race for Assembly District 16 that the San Francisco Chronicle profiles today. I live in AD16, but but my vote really doesn’t matter at all in this district. The race for this open seat is between four liberal Democrats and one Peace and Freedom candidate. Three of the Democrats have said that they want to raise taxes on businesses to help send more money to…you… Read More

The Institute for Justice in Washington, DC is one of the best non-profit organizations in the nation. With a motto “litigating for liberty,” this public interest law firm has taken on some of the most interest legal fights ever, including defending school choice, economic liberties and private property rights. Wal-Mart should be calling the Institute for Justice today.

Tomorrow, the Hercules city council will consider a proposal to use the city’s eminent domain powers to take private property owned by Wal-Mart as a way to stop the retail giant from developing the land. Hercules is in the East Bay and, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, city leaders envision it becoming the East… Read More

Once upon a time, as a member of the California Republican Party State Central Committee, I would enjoy spending time at the hospitality suite of the California Teachers Association at State GOP Conventions. Why? Because they always hosted the most sumptious of tasty treats – an ice-cream sundae bar with all of the fixins. All convention-goers know that the most popular suites are the ones with the best taste treats!

One day though, I along with many, many others woke up to the fact that while we were eating this particular union’s ice cream, they were spending over 95% of their political dollars to elect DEMOCRATS. Suddenly those of us who had partaken of their high-calorie give-aways became resentful of this group that would come into state GOP conventions and feed our faces, yet were fundamentally opposed to our party and its candidates and causes. Their liberal giving policy was especially aggregious since they would market themselves at conventions by talking about how something like 40% of… 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

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