After last night’s AD 72 Republican candidate debate, there was some question as to whether or not Linda Ackerman, in response to a question about the Adams Recall, came out in support of the recall. Much like in a contested sporting event, we’ve gone back (along with Red County Editor Matt Cunningham) and reviewed the video. After review and discussion, it is pretty clear that anyone listening to Linda’s response to the question would have to conclude that she does, in fact, support Anthony’s ouster.

But you can be your own judge, as the actual video of Ackerman’s response to the question is now up on the Red County site here.… Read More

When was the last time you read that a President appointed a "devout" Jew or a "devout" Christian to any government post?

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Doesn’t the "I threaten to veto all bills unless" approach get a little old, especially if after the stated threat, one always comes up with a few "except that one" bills that are "too important" to have been lumped in with the rest of the lot?

Just a question.

If, in fact, we could really count on a veto of all pending bills, including the twenty or so terrible ones that Jon Fleischman has been tracking on these pages, perhaps we should actually support a no deal on water for the time being.

Just a thought.… Read More

I will have to admit – I’m tired of posers. What we need are principled fiscal conservatives leading California’s Government. I would love to go for the old "outreach template" in the Governor’s race, but its never produced an effective leader.

This morning over at the Capitol Weekly, they have a short item where they list those legislators who have authored the most bills that currently are sitting on Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk, awaiting either his signature, his veto, or his non-action (which would result in them becoming law).

Sixteen legislators together have 210 bills out of the 700 or so on the Governor’s desk.

FlashReport readers are welcome to take a guess here — how many of those sixteen legislators are Republican?

If you answered ZERO you would be correct.

We once again express our hope that the Governor will just veto all of the bills on his desk. Sure, there are a few bills that are okay, but by and large California would be better off if the entire final product of this legislature session was torpedoed.

We support nuking the package based on the substance of the bills themselves. But we are okay if he votoes them for the very fair reason that he doesn’t have time to review them while he is busy trying to get Capitol Democrats to agree to a reasonable water solution for the state — one that gets water to people and businesses to solve… Read More

Dan Walters, columnist for the Sacramento Bee,wrote on Monday about California’s crumbling roads, highways and streets. Anyone with a car and a driver’s license knows Walters is right; our roads are a mess! And when compared to other states (which Walters did, having just returned from a road trip in the Northwestern states) the condition of our roads is inexcusable.

But I disagree with Walters’ assertion that our transportation infrastructure is in shambles because drivers don’t pay enough gas taxes.

With heavy use, the system needs, but is not getting, an extremely high level of maintenance to stave off deterioration. The gasoline tax, levied on gallonage, hasn’t been changed for many years. And because of greater fuel efficiency, the amount of gas being consumed has increased very little even as travel has increased sharply. Moreover, this flat revenue is being eroded by inflation.

Also on Monday, the California Taxpayers’ Association reported that the Board of Equalization released a report showing… Read More

Last week I had a chance to sit down with Gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman for the better part of an hour. Our interview covered a number of policy areas including global warming/AB32, eminent domain, gun control, abortion, and philosophy about government. Because we had the handy FlashReport digital recorder along, we’ll be able to bring you some direct excerpts from the interview. THIS IS THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF THIS INTERVIEW. YOU CAN READ PART ONE (ON THE ENVIRONMENT, GLOBAL WARMING, AND AB 32) CLICK HERE… Read More

Last week I had a chance to sit down with Gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman for the better part of an hour. Our interview covered a number of policy areas including global warming/AB32, eminent domain, gun control, abortion, and philosophy about government. Because we had the handy FlashReport digital recorder along, we’ll be able to bring you some direct excerpts from the interview.

THIS IS THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF THIS INTERVIEW. YOU CAN READ PART ONE (ON THE ENVIRONMENT, GLOBAL WARMING, AND AB 32) CLICK HERE.

Because of the location at which we met in Menlo Park on the San Francisco Peninsula,… Read More