One of the great Republicans of San Diego County has been appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to serve on the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Commission. 49 Mark? I never would have guessed. The release:

Mark McMillin, 49, of El Cajon, has been appointed to the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Commission. He has served as co-chairman and chief executive officer of The Corky McMillin Companies, a home building and real estate development business, since 1979. McMillin is past president of the Building Industry Association of San Diego County and has served on the Board of Directors for the National Association on Homebuilders. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $50 per diem. McMillin is a Republican.… Read More

It is certainly exciting news to have two elected officials on the blog team, but let me be the first to warn Congressman Campbell and Assemblyman LaMalfa – any spin will be met with an avalanche of pain.

You see, the GOP base out here has about had it. We are tired of the spending, seeing airhead Democrats win policy debates, the failure to secure our borders, and the lack of willingness to fight our political adversaries. So…….. this may be not much of a welcome, but to the extent you can demonstrate to your readers exactly what you are doing to change the culture in Washington and Sacramento, respectively, you have a great opportunity here to pick up a lot of support.

As a grumpy old veteran of California politics the first thing I do is check rhetoric against actions, like the actual introduction of legislation or votes on key issues.

Give us the unvarnished truth – good or bad, and you will soon be loved more than you already are.

I look forward to the dialog.… Read More

A hearty welcome to U. S. Representative John Campbell to the role of Flashreport contributor.

I am particularly proud to have him aboard for two reasons, first, he is my Member of Congress. And second, it really gives me some peace of mind knowing that my Congressman knows how to use a computer and email and even the back-end system that controls the Flashreport.

If you think about it, there are probably a huge percentage of the 535 Members of Congress who haven’t a clue how to check the weather in NYC let alone add their two cents (in the case of John Campbell his two silver dollars) by posting their thoughts on the web.… Read More

I was struggling about what to discuss in my first blog to the FlashReport. And then Jon Fleischman ran the as the “golden pen” a column by Arnold’s former budget Director Tom Campbell (no relation). Jon, you handed me an issue on a golden platter.

Tom Campbell wrote about how we should let the state taxing authority (the franchise tax board (FTB)) fill out our tax returns on line. I could not disagree more.

I fought this issue while in the state legislature and am now fighting it in Washington with the IRS. As a taxpayer, you want to pay the lowest possible amount of tax that is legal. That is not the IRS’s goal. There are many gray areas in the tax law. The IRS will not interpret them to your advantage. It’s a conflict of interest. It’s like letting another player play your poker hand.

There are various commercial services (like Turbo tax) that have free online tax preparation programs if you want to save a buck on preparation. They have a motivation to help you find the lowest legal tax. But… Read More

It is being reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that negotiations among the legislative leaders and Governor Schwarzenegger on an infrastructure bond measure for the November ballot are coming close to a compromise agreement. The article says that there is a goal of trying to get something placed on the ballot before the heavy negotiations begin on the state’s budget. This approaching self-imposed deadline seems to really be turning up the heat to ‘make a deal’ — and so I would caution negotiators that the only reason that there is any steam coming out of the hot kettle is because you have all created a convenient, but… Read More

Howdy there FR gang, this is my first post in Bloggerdom so go easy please. I’ve greatly enjoyed viewing this siteand really appreciate Jon inviting me to be your Nor Cal ‘correspondent’, it’s a great site to participate in.So let’s have some fun.

Last Thursday on the Assembly floor was "take your child to work day". At the end of session we were informed that Monday would be a "Check-In"only day, instead of a regular session where we could process the 40 or so bills that are on the file at that point. We were aware that the so called Great American Boycott was coming up Monday, [personally I don’t see anything Great or American about it but hey….]and we were not ‘informed’why there would be no session. The fearless Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (pictured) stood up and cut to the chase on the issue, [those exploits you can find on the FR in previous posts] and… Read More

This week, I am pleased that we will be welcoming two great to correspondents to our acclaimed FlashReport Weblog on California politics. As you know, the blog is where over fifteen different contributors each from different parts of the state (or with different ‘beats’ such as "State Capitol" or "Political Law") all post their thoughts, observations and analysis of current political events in California. Today we welcome to the blog longtime FR friend Doug LaMalfa. Doug will be our new northern California correspondent, which really means Sacramento to the Oregon border. He actually asks that we call him the ‘North California’ correspondent, probably because it sounds like its own separate state! Doug is a fine conservative who is a rice-farmer from Butte County. He and his wife, Jill, are the proud parents of four kids. Doug will be bringing us some great news and insights… Read More

Nothing captures the ire of citizens that are against illegal immigration more than LAPD’s Special Order 40. Police officers inLA are prohibited by this order from questioning anyone about immigration status. Thanks Chief Gates! Conservative gadfly group Judicial Watch has filed a suit to overturn this order. See article here.… Read More