I’m in LA today and have seen the Governor’s first ads, all positive, and very well done.

It’s a good start.

These are easy ads to produce, and its an appropriate time of the year to run them.

The real test will be how to respond to the union onslaught.

We will then see how much political talent there is in the shop.… Read More

So Rob Reiner decided to do Arnold Schwarzenegger a favor.

While it’s too early to tell how much damage the First 5 controversy has caused to Reiner’s campaign for Proposition 82, it is clear that it was causing Schwarzenegger all sorts of political problems within his own Republican party.

Now that Reiner has departed, the next step for the governor is to move to the forefront and aggressively lead the investigation into First 5’s activities.

If Reiner is correct and there was nothing illegal or inappropriate going on, Schwarzenegger still gets points for making sure that was the case. If there were improprieties, better for the governor to be the one leading the charge to uncover them.

Either way, it’s one big headache that Arnold doesn’t have to deal with anymore. But there’s still a terrific opportunity here for him to be the political outsider who promised to clean up the mess in Sacramento when he first ran for governor.… Read More

The good news is Rob Reiner has finally done the right thing and resigned as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, colloquially known as the First 5 Commission. It would have been nice if Reiner was resigning because he knows it is wrong to use tax dollars to promote his universal government pre-school ballot initative, but the world is an imperfect place. We’ll have to content ourselves with a resignation letter equal parts self-pity, self-congratulation and moral obliviousness (probably penned by Reiner’s new smashmouth PR guru, Mark Fabiani).

The bad news is our Governor has replaced Reiner with a political clone (of Reiner, not Schwarzenegger) named Hector Ramirez, head Para Los Ninos (Spanish for — what else? — For The… Read More

While there is always lots of interesting political goings on in the Bay Area, I can’t help to read the daily stories on the Polk murder trial. While it doesn’t have the celebrity status of the OJ trial, the Polk trial is the most interesting legal drama in the country today. I’m sure that the writers for "Law and Order" and other TV legal shows have already got copy-cat scripts in the works.

The courtroom happenings are fascinating. For example, this week, the defendant—on trial for murdering her husband and who is acting as her own attorney—objected to something the prosecution said on the grounds of….hyperbole.

First, for some background. For those of you not familiar with the East Bay, Orinda is a small, affluent town on the other side of the Caldecott Tunnel from North Oakland. For many “crunchy” Berkeley/Oakland residents, they simply cannot stand to… Read More

Since I always like to call these things before they happen, La Mesa-Spring Valley School trustees tonight will appoint Emma Turner to the vacant seat on the board.

The vacancy was created by Sharon Jones’ appointment to the SD County Board of Education, which I covered here pretty extensively. You may remember that two of the Republicans on the County Board, Susan Hartley and John Witt, sided with Nick Aguilar to appoint Democrat Jones to a clear GOP seat, which had been Republican Ernie Dronenburg’s. This was despite the fact that highly qualified folks like Arkan Somo and Rick Winet had also applied. Such is the nature of politics, like it or not.

However, this leaves Republicans Bill Baber, Bob Duff, Penny Halgren, and Winet himself on the La Mesa-Spring Valley Board, with a vacancy to fill. Four GOPers applied for the seat, and one subsequently withdrew.

How do I know that Emma Turner, a retired naval officer, member of the Spring Valley Community… Read More

Students are still coming out against "getting tough" on illegals.Read update hereI guess we should understand. LAPD isn’t writing alot of truancy tickets and in LAUSD some teachers are with the students. LAUSD is a place you can’t buy a soda, but you can leave for politically correct protests at anytime. Good show.… Read More

Today I am pleased to announce a new addition to the FlashReport Team — Nicholas Romero! For those of you who don’t know Nick (pictured to the right) , he is currently a Field Representative for Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, and has been a leader in youth politics – most notably with Young Americans for Freedom (I am an alumni of YAF myself, having served as State Chairman from 1990-93 and on YAF’s National Board from 1992-95). Nick is a fine conservative — and a smart guy with a keen eye! Recently I reached out to Nick to ask him if, from time to time, he would like to serve as the FlashReport’s first Guest Editor! I am happy to say that Nick not only said yes, but was quite enthusiastic! Now, "What is a… Read More

Today I am pleased to announce a new addition to the FlashReport Team — Nicholas Romero! For those of you who don’t know Nick (pictured to the right) , he is currently a Field Representative for Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, and has been a leader in youth politics – most notably with Young Americans for Freedom (I am an alumni of YAF myself, having served as State Chairman from 1990-93 and on YAF’s National Board from 1992-95). Nick is a fine conservative — and a smart guy with a keen eye! Recently I reached out to Nick to ask him if, from time to time, he would like to serve as the FlashReport’s first Guest Editor! I am happy to say that Nick not only said yes, but was quite enthusiastic!

Now, "What is a Guest Editor," you ask?

Every morning, there is a ton of work done on the FR website, culling through literally dozens of websites in order to then… Read More