Does this guy (who is an Irish citizen) even pay US taxes?

Bono pushes to increase aid to poor By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Thursday, February 2, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) – Quoting from Islamic, Jewish and Christian texts, rock star Bono called Thursday for the government to give an additional 1 percent of the federal budget to the world’s poor.

Speaking to President Bush and members of Congress at the National Prayer Breakfast, the U2 front man said it’s unjust to keep… Read More

Yesterday I got an interesting “don’t quote me” email with some news in the June race for the heavily Republican San Diego County 5th District Supervisorial race between incumbent Bill Horn and former Assemblyman Bruce Thompson. The Horn campaign, as expected, is cash rich with only more to come. On the other hand, if the information I got is accurate, Thompson’s campaign finances are really lacking. My information says the Thompson campaign will show 31k raised and 14k cash on hand. Unless Thompson has a really hefty checkbook, or newly resurgent county labor unions decide to play, this spells real trouble for his campaign. This showing is worse when you consider Thompson has the endorsement of Congressman Issa, State Senator Hollingsworth and some other notable local officials. This sort of support should translate into campaign funds, but apparently hasn’t.… Read More

Looks like a new entry in the 50th Congressional… V. Eric Roach of E-Trade fame. Large cable and broadcast buy scheduled to start Monday February 6. I hear he’s a Vietnam vet… but lots of rumors are flying around North San Diego County right now… red hot phones…

[From Forbes.com: Mr. Roach has served as a director of Altiris, Inc. since February 2002. Mr. Roach served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of eLance, a professional services marketplace, from May 2000 to October 2001, and he is currently a member of the board of directors of eLance. Prior to joining eLance, Mr. Roach served from September 1997 to January 2000 as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Direct Business division of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, an investment bank. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Mr. Roach founded Lombard Brokerage, a brokerage company, and served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from May 1992 to September 1997. – Flash]… Read More

This culled from a SDUT graphic. I left the smart allecky "fun facts" in, just for…well…fun, even though most of them are lame….

Brian Bilbray Contributions: * $5,420 Money spent: $14,878 Cash on hand: $190,531 (Bilbray started his campaign with $199,334 from his 2000 campaign.) Fun fact: He paid Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler, who considered a run for the seat herself, $2,000 for a poll.

Francine Busby Contributions: $519,606 Money spent: $187,936 Cash on hand: $371,161 Fun fact: After retirees and homemakers, attorney was the most often listed occupation of her contributors.

Richard EarnestContributions: $39,114 Money spent: $38,335 Cash on hand: $200,778 (includes personal loan of $200,000) Fun fact: He paid $5,000 for a polling consultant in December.

Howard Kaloogian Contributions: $170,527 Money spent: $17,418 Cash on hand: $153,108 Fun fact: His first fundraiser with expenses was held in Michigan.

Bill Morrow… Read More

Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Russ Bogh (R-Yucaipa) has endorsed Anthony Adams (pictured left) in the 59th Assembly District Republican primary. And by way of further update on the contest for this equally divided L.A. County/San Bernardino County seat, I want to provide some additional thoughts on the heels of Mike Spence’s excellent post yesterday. Read it here. (Mike doesn’t have a dog in this fight. I do — It’s Adams.)

The two candidates with six figures cash-on-hand are Chris Lancaster ($150,000), from LaVerne in L.A. County (pictured right),and Adams ($108,000), from the high desert in San… Read More

The 67th Assembly District campaign has been pretty sleepy with OC Supervisor Jim Silva as the presumed winner. Diane Harman (wife of sitting Assemblyman Tom Harman) is also in the race as is Cypress city councilman Mike McGill.

The OC Blog reports that McGill was the strongest fund raiser this period. This is a big surprise since Silva is a sitting county supervisor with the ability to raise BIG money, but apparently hasn’t.

Silva does have more than double the cash on hand of either one of his opponents.

Silva has excellent name ID having served on the city council in Huntington Beach (the largest city in the District) and now on the Board of Supervisors for more than 10 years. Diane Harman has never stood for office and I have never seen her at anything GOP in Orange County, she is trading largely on her husbands name. McGill has been on the Cypress council since 1998. He gained some notoriety for voting with the majority to, well I will let Steve Greenhut of the OC Register explain:

(from back in June 2002) On Tuesday night, in a… Read More

Yesterday morning, in the State Capitol, Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured) approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, furiously waving a printout of the Assemblyman column which was featured yesterday in the FlashReport…he uttered profanities at Spitzer, telling him he had gone to far. The issue brought to the fore in Spitzer’s column was that the Democratic majority on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, hand picked by Speaker Nunez, is "pro-criminal" – regularly voting down common-sense tough-on-crime measures on a party-line vote. Of course, the Speaker has stacked this committee with some of the most left-wing members of his caucus! This confrontation was a precurser to the Assembly floor session later where the lower house of the legislature was debating the passage of a crime bill package (Assembly Bill 50) that represented a significant watering down of the tough-on-crime elements introduced as… Read More

Yesterday morning, in the State Capitol, Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured) approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, furiously waving a printout of the Assemblyman column which was featured yesterday in the FlashReport…he uttered profanities at Spitzer, telling him he had gone to far. The issue brought to the fore in Spitzer’s column was that the Democratic majority on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, hand picked by Speaker Nunez, is "pro-criminal" – regularly voting down common-sense tough-on-crime measures on a party-line vote. Of course, the Speaker has stacked this committee with some of the most left-wing members of his caucus! This confrontation was a precurser to the Assembly floor session later where the lower house of the legislature was debating the passage of a crime bill package (Assembly Bill 50) that represented a significant watering down of the tough-on-crime elements introduced as… Read More