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. Because of the location at which we met in Menlo Park on the San Francisco Peninsula, we’ll call these "Excerpts From The Peet’s Coffee Interview" — and here is a segment where we discuss the environment, global warming, and the implementation of AB32, California’s legislation that requires strict reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of all sorts… Enjoy! Flash.… Read More

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Carla Marinucci looks at Meg Whitman’s 2004 endorsement of Barbara Boxer.Whitman not only endorsed Boxer and donated the maximum $4,000 to the junior California senator’s 2004 re-election campaign, but the former eBay CEO also served on an exclusive committee of Technology Leaders for Boxer in her re-election battle against Republican California Secretary of State Bill Jones, according to election records obtained by The Chronicle.

Umm……. this is like endorsing Harry Reid or Al Franken. Same deal. So, she’s now the second coming of Reagan? We have a RINO in Sacramento already and we’ve seen how that has worked out.

So Meg doesn’t vote before 2002 and she makes her debut in the political world by not only supporting Barbara Boxer, but being heavily involved in her campaign.… Read More

Today, longtime generally center-left columnist George Skelton at the Los Angeles Times penned a lengthy missive that was no less than a full-fletched smack-down of GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. Skelton’s major assault on Whitman comes from his belief that she is out of line in how she characterizes the massive size of state government and an ever-growing unsustainable state workforce. You can hear Skelton fuming as he types, “Whitman didn’t call them civil servants, of course. She used the time-tested conservative, red meat pejoratives ‘bureaucrats’ and bureaucracy.’”

Skelton assaults Whitman as if she is literally attacking every single state government employee as terrible and evil. The reality is that it is pretty clear, from reading Whitman’s remarks (the whole speech to which Skelton refers can be read here), that she is making a generalization about the vast size of the state’s work force, and when Whitman says, “…And a… Read More

Are you signed up yet for the upcoming Western Conservative Political Action Conference? Let me tell you that this is one event you will not want to miss. It will be held in Orange County on Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17. Rather than me trying to lobby you, as a Co-Chairman of the event, to attend — let me just direct you to the Western CPAC website where you can check out the fantastic agenda and pre-register for this must-attend conference.

For those following the GOP primary for Governor, it is of note that both Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman will be appearing at this event (while I know Western CPAC Chairman Jim Lacy will have tried to get them both into a mud pit, I think they are both scheduled to speak at a reception).… Read More

According to Capitol Weekly, Governor Schwarzenegger has all but said that without a comprehensive water deal coming together, he is prepared to nuke all of the hundreds of bills sitting on his desk.

We here at the FlashReport have said solving the state’s water problems in a fiscally responsible way should be a top priority of the legislature and Governor.

That said, I think that it would be tremendous bonus, at this point, if the process of reaching an accord on a solution to the water problems could take just long enough to allow the Governor to veto every bill on his desk.

This would save the taxpayers vast amounts of money, and kill tons of new fees and regulations that Capitol Democrats sent to his desk despite the sour state of the economy.

As former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown basically says in… Read More

Testimony of then 14-year-old female victim against alleged 49-year-old perpetrator:

– She said he plied her with alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance.

– "After that, he proceeded to rape me.”

– “Anything I showed resistance or hesitation to, he would say, ‘…you have to experience the lowest form of humanity…’”

– She said he was motivated by sex and used his supposed position to get what he wanted.

Testimony of then 13-year-old female victim against admitted 43-year-old perpetrator:

– She said he plied her with alcohol and drugs.

– She said he then performed oral, vaginal and anal rape on her.

– She told him she wanted to go home. "I was ready to cry. I was going, ‘No. Come on. Stop it.’” – She said that after he found out she was not using birth control, he anally raped her.

It doesn’t really matter which of the two testimonies is from the… Read More

Today, the Wall Street did a story on recent all night sessions of the legislature. While not a new occurrence, there has been an increased frequency of sleep deprived legislators being asked to vote on legislation that few have had a chance to review. It isn’t a good trend. Legislators, their staff, the public, and the press have a right to be involved in the legislative process. Next year, I’ll be introducing legislation to require all bills to be in print and online for 72 hours before they can be voted on. It will include a prevision for a natural disaster or unforeseeable situation that would require quicker action. But in my 11 months in the legislature, I can’t remember a single vote that could not have waited a few hours for the proper sunshine.

Check out this link to read the entire… Read More