[Cross-posted from RedCounty.com]

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s gubernatorial campaign spent much of last year rubbing up against conservative opinion leaders, trying to shed the skin of his earlier political incarnation as a center-left Republican and convince the rank-and-file that the metamorphosis is genuine.

And doing a pretty good job of it. For example, he’s put forward solid budget and economic proposals that would, if adopted, put California on a path to economic growth and stable, balanced budgets.

Unfortunately for Poizner, the past isn’t so easily banished: Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell is calling for passage of state Sen. Joe Simitian’s state constitutional amendment to lower the threshold for passing parcel taxes from two-thirds to just 55%.

This is exactly the same proposal Poizner pushed as a leader of Taxpayers for School… Read More

Miscellaneous (short) Ramblings: A lot is going in DC right now and a lot has gone on since I sent you my first missive of the year yesterday. Here is a quick rundown of my thoughts on many things in no particular order:

The way the Obama Administration has handled the so-called “underwear bomber” on Christmas Day is atrocious. This guy was a foreign national operating as part of an inter-connected worldwide organization with the intent to kill United States citizens and further a process of bringing down our government and destroying our way of life. He should have been immediately declared an enemy combatant, interrogated, and tried in a military tribunal, as has been done in similar incidents for more than a century. He was injured and his mission had failed. There was significant potential to garner intelligence about his network and connections in order to prevent future attacks, and save lives. Yet he has been treated as though he was caught smoking or tampering with the smoke detector in the airplane lavatory. He was read his Miranda rights, assigned an attorney, and told NOT to say anything. Unbelievable. This … Read More

This in from longtime FR friend Andrew Pugno, who serves as General Counsel for ProtectMarriage.com…

A Vigorous Defense for Traditional Marriage By Andy Pugno, General Counsel, ProtectMarriage.com

As lawyers for the plaintiffs challenging Prop 8 neared the conclusion of their arguments and prepared to “rest their case” today, the court next turned its attention to the defense case put on by the Prop 8 Legal Team.

As lawyers for the plaintiffs challenging Prop 8 neared the conclusion of their arguments and prepared to “rest their case” today, the court next turned its attention to the defense case put on by the Prop 8 Legal Team.

But that doesn’t mean our legal defense team, while waiting our turn to present the official… Read More

This in from longtime FR friend Andrew Pugno, who serves as General Counsel for ProtectMarriage.com… A Vigorous Defense for Traditional Marriage By Andy Pugno, General Counsel, ProtectMarriage.com

As lawyers for the plaintiffs challenging Prop 8 neared the conclusion of their arguments and prepared to “rest their case” today, the court next turned its attention to the defense case put on by the Prop 8 Legal Team.

But that doesn’t mean our legal defense team, while waiting our turn to present the official defense, hasn’t been vigorously fighting to uphold Prop 8 during the plaintiffs’ case-in-chief. In fact, when the courtroom came to order this morning the time clock tells me that while plaintiffs have logged 28 hours in presenting their case, the defense team… Read More

If anyone out there had any confusion as to why we here at the FlashReport feel that labor union leaders are totally out of touch with reality, you need look no further than a recent blog post over at the ultra-leftist California Progress Report penned by Wille Pelote, Sr,, a big wheel with the California chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. We would take the time to counter Pelote’s totally crazy assertions — but we couldn’t possibly do so in a more informed and articulate manner than longtime FR friend John Kabetack, Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business, California…

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT … Read More

Meg Whitman has apparently written her own book, published just in time for the election season (order it here). Her GOP primary opponent, Steve Poizner, also has a book due out shortly.

Poizner’s campaign has read Whitman’s book, and has put out their "review" in the form of the hard-hitting release below. We’ll look forward to publishing Whitman’s review of Poizner’s book when it is released.

The Poizner "critique" is fun reading for those who love the "contact sport" of politics…

MEG-A-TALES … Read More

In a report released today, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office called on the California Legislature to reject the Governor’s proposed constitutional amendment that would restrict the state’s spending decisions on universities and prisons.

The LAO nixed the proposal because:

1. (it) would unwisely constrain the state’s ability to allocate funding where it is most needed each year;

2. is unnecessary, as the state already had the ability to shift funding among programs without this constitutional amendment.

Read the LAO report here.

I agree with the LAO for the reasons stated and because the Governor conveniently omitted the billions of dollars California taxpayers spend on community colleges (read my blog post from Jan. 6) in an effort to skew the argument.

Even though the Legislature should reject the Governor’s proposal, that doesn’t mean we should walk away from our responsibility to trim unnecessary… Read More

Quote of the Week: Don’t worry I didn’t forget a quote of the week this week, but it is really long…but it’s very good, so I decided to put it at the bottom on this missive, so scroll down!

We’re Baaaack: Last Wednesday, both Houses of Congress returned to Washington for the second session of the 111th Congress. So, your life, liberty, and property are once again in jeopardy. You haven’t heard from me for a while over the holidays, but I will make up for that soon. This is the first of 4blogs I willpublish over the course of the next week. Today I want to give you a little flavor of what people in California have been telling and asking me during the roughly 4 weeks that I was home. Tomorrow, I’ll do a quick review of where many pending issues are right now. On Wednesday, the President will give his first State of the Union address (although it is his 3rd address to a joint session of Congress in 12 months) and I’ll provide you with the insider’s view the next day. Then on Friday, Republican House members (including this one) will be at our annual retreat, which is in Baltimore, Maryland this year. The… Read More