I know how difficult it is for California Republican Legislators in these dark days. They are in the minority, a difficult position in any circumstance, and they are close to falling below holding one-third of the legislative seats, a threshold that would make them irrelevant to all decisions in the Legislature. They have just been through their first year with a new Democrat Governor, one who paid little attention to them, and redistricting is a seeming disaster ready to sink them into irrelevancy for the next ten years. I have seen this situation, I understand their feelings, I know what is going through their minds.

The first instinct is to whine. That was our first instinct in 1999. “Democrats don’t treat us fair, they don’t pass our bills, they break the rules to pass their own bills.” Guess what? They’re the majority. The majority rules. Time to stop whining.

The next instinct is to capitulate. “The only way to get a seat at the table is to give them what they want and to eat the crumbs.” Well, they are going to get the best, because they are the majority, and if our Republican Legislators take a seat at… Read More

As regular readers of this missive know, I am a lifelong Republican. Accordingly, I have never been to a Democrat campaign rally. That is to say at least until last week. Last Thursday, I attended one…..on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. President Obama made a special request to speak to a Joint Session of Congress and I assumed it would be a major policy address. Far from it. It was a campaign speech. There was scarcely little serious policy content present. The first indicator of this was when Obama asked us to “pass this right away”, a line which appears on the first page of an 8 page speech, before saying what was in his plan. That’s like demanding that someone buy something inside a box without telling them what is in the box. Another indicator of lack of substance was his repeated assertions that the $450 billion one-year cost of the bill would be “paid for”. He also made this assertion on the first page of his address. Three pages later he says, “It will be paid for. And here’s how: The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years.… Read More

George Skelton of the infamous Times, today seems critical of the Howard Jarvis, Inc. headed by Jon Coupal. Gov Brown attempted a last ditch tax increase but couldn’t get any senate Republicans to come on board. Seems these republicans wanted Coupal’s ‘endorsement’—good idea.

The Gov met with Coupal and your wallet is safe. No deal. Couple simply could not justify a good reason for a tax increase.

Sadly, two assembly republicans broke from the conservatives and voted for the Brown tax. Said tax increase passed the assembly. That made Skelton happy. But Brown could not peel off any republican senators. That tax bill died—and properly so. Congratulations to the senators, the folks at Jarvis and to Jon Coupal.… Read More

Since I am in the business of aggregating relevant California political news and opinion, I spend more time that any sane person should scanning the opinion pages of California’s major daily newspapers. As it does on every day that I am putting together the links for the FlashReport’s main page, yesterday I found myself reading the editorial page of the San Diego Union Tribune. To be honest, I have been disappointed to see what I would consider a significant move to the political center, and sometimes behind, from a paper that was one reliably center-right, and on some issues, even more so to the right… With no further lead-in, here is a column I have penned in response to the lead editorial in the Union Tribune that ran yesterday, on the 10th Anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks on our nation…

The lead editorial in the San Diego Union Tribune yesterday, entitled The Tragedy After 9/11, was a lamentation piece expressing sorrow for the increased partisan divide in America over the last 25 years,… Read More

Upon visiting the Drudge Report today, I was shocked and appalled to read this headline: “Man Ticketed For Directing Traffic At Backed Up Intersection During Outage.” Without even knowing where this absurd story took place, I had a sneaking suspicion it was in California. Sure enough, it occurred in Pasadena this last week. Apparently the traffic light at a major intersection malfunctioned and traffic was backed up for more than a mile, with drivers waiting 30 minutes to get through. So local citizen Alan Ehrlich jumped into action and began directing traffic. According to an eyewitness, within 10 minutes, he had cleared up the traffic jam.

This seems like the responsible thing for a citizen to do. See a problem in your community and take action to resolve it, right? Well, in Commie-fornia, responsible citizens cannot be tolerated and when police arrived, they TICKETED Ehrlich.

As the news article… Read More

As we remember the immense loss we suffered in the early hours of September 11, 2001, it is fitting to take time to reflect on how these attacks impacted—and continue to impact—our nation.

Ten years later we are reminded of the selflessness of the American spirit as citizens from every walk of life came together to help one another from the rubble of the collapsed towers and the Pentagon.

We are reminded of the courageous fortitude of the American soul as passengers aboard Flight 93 sacrificed themselves to avoid even greater loss of life.

We are reminded what it means to stand united for our freedoms against a common enemy.

Despite the pain caused by terrorists that fateful morning, we stand as proof that the people of the United States of America will stand united when under attack.

May we never forget the great courage of firefighters, police officers and other first responders who paid the ultimate sacrifice. May our thoughts and prayers be with the many families who lost loved ones. And may we continue to support our troops who continue to put themselves in harm’s way to defend us against future attacks.

God bless… Read More

Any of you of my generation or older remembers where you were and what you were doing when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot. I think all of us, including two younger generations now, will always remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard about the attacks on 9/11/01. I was not yet in Congress, but was in my first year as a freshman Assemblyman in the California Legislature. I was at my home in Sacramento that morning reading the paper and quietly doing e-mails and preparing to write one of these missives, which I had already been regularly writing for a year to that point. My then Chief-of Staff called me at home to ask if I was watching the news. “No”, I replied. He said, “A plane crashed into the world Trade Center in New York”. “You mean like a Cessna or something?” I asked. “No”, he responded, “a big plane. You should turn on the TV”. I did. The State Capitol was closed that day as they assessed attack risks there. My house was under the flight pattern for Sacramento Airport and it was eerily quiet as all planes stopped flying for several days. When we went into the State Capitol the next day, I, along with a Democratic… Read More

AB 155, as proposed to be amended, will retroactively repeal the “Amazon Tax” for a year or longer, allowing time for impacted parties to seek a federal solution to the dispute.

This is far from a perfect plan, but politics is the art of compromise. It’s a good thing when competing interests are able to come together on a contentious issue.

The deal provides at least a one year reprieve for affiliate businesses whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the dispute. It allows time for impacted parties to seek a federal solution to this issue. Congress has always been the right venue for this conversation.

However, I’m disappointed that this deal provides no certainty for thousands of affiliates who partner with out-of-state online retailers other than Amazon. The uncertainty will discourage these companies from creating new jobs and investing in our state.

Furthermore, the Legislature refused to include a pathway to immediately bring Amazon jobs to California. I’ll be working with Amazon and legislators to find a way to expedite their presence in order to bring thousands of new jobs to our state as soon as possible.

Throughout the year… Read More