The soon-to-close winter Olympics have been fun to watch, though CPAC diverted my attention for a few days. I saw today that a Polish female skier won that nation’s first cross-country gold. It got me thinking……..

When I was a kid, it was fairly common for the grown-ups, especially when speaking to emigre in-laws, to refer to Europe as "the Old Country." This thinking was pervasive enough that it was not uncommon to see restaurants named "Old Europe." I think there was even a small chain with this name with a couple places in West L.A. I recall the great pea soup….

My grandfather was an emigre to California. He was born in Grodno, Poland, two centuries ago, when it was under Russian control. (It still is, though it has been tossed back-and-forth like Alsace-Lorraine). A Russian speaking, Russian citizen of ethnic Polish blood, and a Catholic, he moved to the Siberian maritime province when he was a teenager with his family, at a time in Russia when making that move was akin to "Go West, Young Man," in the U.S. He went to college at a Jesuit school in Shanghai, China. Then… Read More

Sunil Sharan, former director of the Smart Grid Initiative at GE, writes about the green job myth today in the Washington Post asking the question: “How valid is the assumption that a ‘clean-energy’ economy will generate enough jobs to mitigate today’s high level of unemployment – new jobless claims were up 22,000 this week – and to meet the needs of future generations?”

“The facts challenge the prevailing thinking among some policymakers and officials that green jobs are a principal reason for transforming the economy,” Sharan continues.

Sharan, who has worked in the clean-energy industry for a decade, uses the installation of “smart meters” as one example of green jobs that don’t amount to much.

“Although a surge of new digital meters will be produced, the manufacturing process is highly automated. And with much of it accomplished overseas, net creation in domestic manufacturing jobs is expected to be only in the hundreds,” Sharan says.

Finally, Sharan says something Conservatives have been saying for a few years now: “For the purpose of creating jobs …a… Read More

Quote of the week: "Is there any chance that the Camry Hybrid will be recalled…I just want to find out if you expect it ever to be on the recall list, for any reason." – Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) questioning Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda and COO Yoshimi Inaba in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Toyota: The staged "health care summit" is going on as you read this missive, but until that, the biggest thing going on in D.C. has been the Toyota hearings. As most regular readers of theFlashreportknow, I was in the car dealer business for 25 years before I lost my mind and went into politics. Before I get into my thoughts on this, let me make it clear that I have never worked for, or had a Toyota, Lexus, or Scion dealership. In fact, Toyota was the "enemy" since most of the cars I sold were in direct competition against Toyota vehicles. Unfortunately, Toyota generally won that competition since they are now the largest car manufacturer in the world. So, I have no loyalty to, nor any ties with Toyota. And, truth be told, I actually don’t personally… Read More

Yesterday, I posted my very strongly held belief that to get anything done in California, a political candidate must be willing to be hated.Meg Whitman refusing to support pension reform and flat out running away from the unions does not qualify.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed – last night on KFI AM 640, John and Ken took Whitman to task for buckling under union pressure the very first time she had the opportunity to take them on. In fact, organizer Marcia Fritz flat out states that Whitman, “…just didnt want it on the ballot, I was told that from a lot of her supporters.."… Read More

This morning, I was joined in the State Capitol by John Coupal from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and John Graham, Director of Healthcare studies at the Pacific Research Institute to introduce Senate Constitutional Amendment 29. This Amendment, known as the "California Healthcare Protection Act" will give California voters veto power over potentially restrictive state and federal healthcare legislation.

SCA 29 would require voter approval of any state or federal measure implementing a healthcare program mandating individuals to obtain healthcare coverage, guarantee issuance of health care coverage, creates a "pay or play" system for employers, creates a government entity to compete with private plans or creates a single-payer healthcare system. Voter approval would be required for any program containing at least one of these five provisions.

Ensuring that voters maintain control of their personal healthcare choices and allowing them to be heard is critically important. California families have a right to affect changes that would take personal decisions like choosing a family doctor, out of their hands and into the control of… Read More

Last night, after watching the Olympics, I happened to see the local evening news and was infuriated by a story they reported about actress Eva La Rue. La Rue is an actress on hit television series ‘CSI Miami’ and resides in Glendale. Three years ago she built a gate on her property to add protection from a stalker. A beautiful, famous actress with an 8 year-old daughter, La Rue was concerned about her family’s safety. Apparently her neighbors didn’t like the new deterrent and complained to the city. La Rue was cited by city code enforcement for building the gate around her front yard. She appealed the decision and was granted a variance. But her neighbors still weren’t happy and appealed to the city council, who sided last night 4-1 with the neighbors. … Read More

Memo to Meg Whitman and any other candidate for anything. Listen up. We’re backed into a corner in every area of America right now. We have no money in Washington, we are borrowing trillions. We are flat as broke in Sacramento, and we cannot borrow, and our counties, cities and school districts are all cratering under the weight of past stupidity and a bad economy. It isn’t going to get better anytime soon.

If you are running for office, and you don’t plan on attacking these problems, then just do us all a favor and freaking quit wasting our time. Because to attack these problems means you must educate the public about them and the reaction to that is going to be hatred. Yes. Hatred.

Entrenched spending lobbies will protest you, go on strike, attack your family, and lie about everything. You might even need personal security. If you can’t take that, then don’t run.

I hear today that Meg Whitman, like our feckless and ineffective Governor, is backing away from pension reform. Meg, why don’t you spend $100 million in the next couple of months educating the public as to why we need to dramatically fix… Read More

The FlashReport is pleased to present this latest creation from our in-house cartoonist Eric Eisenhammer. FR readers undoubtedly remember the confirmation votes that took place in the State Senate and State Assembly for Governor Schwarzenegger’s nominee to fill the vacant Lt. Governor position, liberal GOPer Abel Maldonado.

I know that there has been a lot of head scratching as to why so many Republicans would vote for a scoundrel like Maldonado, who broke his no taxes pledge, extorted legislators for his own interests, and who seems to navigate through Sacramento with no guiding compass other than how to promote himself.

One reason given by many GOPers — let the Democrats take political heat for opposing a hispanic nominee. Another reason given is the focus of this cartoon — get him out of the Senate where he can then no longer vote for bad legislation, like tax increases, and replace him with a more mainstream Republican.

Eisenhammer’s cartoon is entitled,… Read More