We have exhaustively covered the annual attempt by the enviro-whack community to assault the freedom grocery store owners and their customers (us!) to use plastic bags to take home our groceries. This notion is so extreme and impactful on people that it has never become law. That said, this year the legislation (contained in AB 1998) got further than it has in the past.

To be honest, that has been due to the greed of the California Grocers Association and its members. Under the current legislation that has been passed in the Assembly, but not the Senate, in addition to banning plastic grocery bags, there would also be a state-imposed free of at least five cents a bag (if you did the math, this turns into the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars annually) — but that money doesn’t go into some enviro-whack state program, it goes right into the pocket of grocery store owners (predominantly massive outfits such as Safeway Foods). It a very bad… Read More

FlashReport readers anxiously awaiting my post-convention write up will need to wait until tomorrow’s issue. As is often the case, because I am not only writing about the GOP confab, but was a participant in it, I get home not only totally spent (both emotionally and physically) – but I also had to get up in the wee hours to pull together our main page for today.

I will take a moment to share some broader observations about this event. First and foremost is that in talking to the delegates on hand, there is resolve in working to ensure that the GOP tide that is clearly sweeping the nation crash straight into California and sweep a lot of Democrats into the ocean. Meg Whitman delivered a great speech to enthusiastic delegates on Friday night and Carly Fiorina dazzled a large lunchtime crowd with her excoriation of Barbara Boxer. I had the handy FlashFlipCam at the lunch, so here is a great clip of Carly on fire….

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In the San Francisco Chronicle this morning, there was a headline that caught my eye — Whitman softens stance on U.S. Healthcare Law.

What? Whitman is warming up to Obamacare? NO WAY.

Here is a section of the article where you can see the distinction that the reporter is trying to draw between the then vs. now answer:

Several of our FR bloggers attended this weekends CA GOP confab in San Diego, California. Look for some post-script notes in the coming days. For my part I’ll start working on a comprehensive post-convention write-up, to run tomorrow or Tuesday. I’ll also work on trying to upload some video I took of some of our great candidates.

Later this week we will also be publishing our much-beloved "Winners and Losers of the Convention" column!

So, here is your chance for input. If you went to convention, drop me a note. What were your favorite parts? Who did you think had a particularly stellar weekend? Or maybe the opposite? Nominations for winners? losers? All of your input is confidential and you will not be mentioned. If you are uber-paranoid in the upper right hand corner of the site is a button to send us information anonymously.

Jon… Read More

It seems that Jerry Brown and his campaign just cannot get away from the issue of state-owned airplanes. Whether it is constant and ongoing references to a state plane that he supposedly sold back in when he was Governor — which he never did — or the more recent revelations that as our Attorney General, he has been using a state plane to see lobbyists and donors.

Well, the latest in the saga of Jerry Brown and planes is brought to you courtesy of our Spanish speaking elves here at the FlashReport. Last week in an interview on Radio Bilingue, Brown campaign spokesman Frank Torres bragged that Brown had saved the state billions (with a b) by selling both the Governor’s mansion and jet. Good grief.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, you can check it out for yourself below — whether you speak Spanish or not.

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Today every member of the State Assembly will have a choice between freedom and big government. Today is the last day to vote on amendments for the regular session of the State Assembly. SB 810 is Senator Leno’s gigantic single payer health system that dismantles private insurance and gives control over you health to the State. It is worse than what was passed by Congress and will drive jobs and businesses out of state with new taxes.

Today I will propose an amendment that would replace this socialized health care scheme with language that would protect our freedom from Washington D.C. ’s health care plan the language is similar to Virginia ’s that is working its way through the… Read More

Continuing to show an impressive level of support from Republican elected officials, CRP Vice Chairman candidate Steve Baric was endorsed yesterday by most Republican State Senators. Steve was also endorsed by twenty Assembly Republicans (see those names here).

While not all Senators were around when a letter was circulated on Baric’s behind by longtime FR friend Senator Tony Strickland, most Senators were… Signing on with Baric were incoming Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton, George Runner, Jeff Denham, Tom Harma, Mark Wyland, Bob Huff, Bill Emmerson, and Sam Aanestad. Of course Strickland signed first…

Steve is still tracking down the other Senators to try and get all of their support. When I spoke with Steve this morning, he was already down at the Manchester Hyatt in San Diego, ready for a great convention. No doubt he will be spending most… Read More

I personally believe that the bigger liar to Congress is California’s Henry Waxman, and not former pitching ace Roger Clemens. The churlish California Congressman has told some real whoppers in the Capitol, such as the time he took George W, Bush to task for lying to Congress about the justification for the war in Iraq. Waxman made media hay out of the so-called “16 words” of a Bush State of the Union speech that said British intelligence had reported Saddam Hussein was looking for some uranium. The statement was true at the time it was made, but Waxman’s mode of operation in that case was to lie about what he said was a lie to promote his anti-war agenda. Are you following me? Clemens may have taken steroids – I don’t know. Like Barry Bonds, at the time he might have taken them, they were legal. Clemens problem was responding to a Waxman subpoena. Regardless, if the requirement to get indicted in Washington is to tell lie to Congress, I’m sure the only member of Congress who wouldn’t be in jail today would be Ron Paul, who wouldn’t have the needed mental capacity.… Read More