The other news today besides the unexpected and Claude Rains-like shocking information about an Assemblyman having sex with lobbyists in Sacramento, comes from the halls of the United States Supreme Court, where a special second oral argument was held in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case that I have written about here before. Without going into too much detail on the legal mumbo jumbo, from the questions asked of the lawyers, it looks like there is a pretty firm 5-4 majority (at least to this observer) in favor of overturning the longstanding ban on corporate contributions in Federal political campaigns. For election lawyers, reading such a decision would be a little like being an Israelite observing Moses parting the Red Sea. But it is a question squarely before the count, and Justices Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas are absolutely on board with this notion, and by their questions, it appears that Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts are on the verge of deciding that the First Amendment belongs to everybody, including people who work for corporations (and likely unions to follow). Judge Sotomayor’s… Read More

Statement from Assemblyman Mike Duvall regarding his resignation from office today:

“I am deeply saddened that my inappropriate comments have become a major distraction for my colleagues in the Assembly, who are working hard on the very serious problems facing our state. I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or to my friends on both sides of the aisle to remain in office. Therefore, I have decided to resign my office, effective immediately, so that the Assembly can get back to work."

The statement is now available on Mike Duvall’s website here. We don’t do this often, but we thought we would toot our horn as we broke this resignation before any main stream media source — television, newspaper, radio… YEAH!

UPDATE: A funny aside, right after Duvall resigned, I got an email from Ken Mettler, President of the California Republican Assembly, calling on Duvall… Read More

Yesterday, the Governor took a stand and demanded that the Democratic controlled legislature pull back all the bills on his desk until they get their act together and work with Republicans on key issues like water. The Democrats response: use Vietnam Veterans as a trial balloon to test the Governor. "I dare the governor to veto this bill," Assembly Democratic Majority Leader Albert Torrico childishly stated before the close of Tuesday’s session.

Everyone knows there are several issues where I don’t see eye to eye with the Governor, but I support his decision to veto this commemorative resolution 100% and Republicans should not even entertain the idea of an override for two key reasons.

First, we must use every piece of leverage available to force Democrats to give Republicans a seat at the table on major issues. What the Governor did yesterday was to send a powerful signal to Democrats – “Give us a seat at the table for a water package or expect all your bills to come back with a fat veto stamp.” (Frankly, I would love it if the Governor vetoed every single bill regardless.)

Second, we cannot allow Democrats to use a Veterans… Read More

***BREAKING NEWS*** (UPDATED – WE WILL ADD LINKS AS MORE ARE AVAILABLE)

KCAL/KCBS television just ran a story live on the 10pm news that 2nd term Assemblyman Mike Duvall (pictured) a Republican from Orange County, has been having extra-marital affairs with two women, one of them a lobbyist for a major utility — Duvall is the Vice Chairman of the influential Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. The report appears on KCBS/KCAL, and also featured on the Orange County Weekly website contains a startling video and audio that appears to be from a legislative committee room, where the Assemblyman was caught on a live microphone that he was not aware was on…

Here is the link to the KCBS/KCAL story… Here is the … Read More

While the controversy will continue to rage about President Barack Obama’s decision to address school children.

I am stunned not by the obvious attempt to look great or indoctrinate young people. Don’t get me wrong all those things are important and clearly this is his attempt to reach young people and their voting parents with an “important message” of stay in school and work hard. As long as he is mentioning stuff, clean your room should be added to the list.

Yes, it is a waste of instructional time etc…

But what bothers me is trying to figure out this question.

Does Barack Obama believe he has the power to change the culture of students by giving a speech?

There is no doubt that Presidents can be inspirational. John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and others have proved that,.

In some cases I think a half hour from Sponge Bob (my son picked him over Obama) or a song from Adam Lambert (my daughter says he is cooll) would be more effective with dealing with a culture than a speech by a man that had to overcome graduating from such horrible schools like Columbia and Harvard or even the private schools in Hawaii or Indonesia he… Read More

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Jon Fleischman, Publisher of the FlashReport Website on California Politics, this morning released the following statement to the State Legislature concerning ongoing discussions to achieve a solution to our state’s water crisis that the legislature would then place before the voters of California…

"As the Governor and state legislators work earnestly with a goal of pulling together a “comprehensive water solution package” to potentially bring before the full legislature this week, we believe that the frame of mind of those… Read More

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Jon Fleischman, Publisher of the FlashReport Website on California Politics, this morning released the following statement to the State Legislature concerning ongoing discussions to achieve a solution to our state’s water crisis that the legislature would then place before the voters of California…

"As the Governor and state legislators work earnestly with a goal of pulling together a “comprehensive water solution package” to potentially bring before the full legislature this week, we believe that the frame of mind of those… Read More

As we reported last week, today the Committee to Recall Anthony Adams will turn in around 40,000 signatures to registrars of voters in both Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. In order for a recall election to be called against Adams there will ultimately need to be about 36,000 valid signatures of voters from the 59th Assembly District turned in. (The media event will be this afternoon at the Los Angeles County Registrar, headed up by Recall Adams leader and former State Senator Dick Mountjoy.)

The recall against Adams is taking place over his deciding vote to increase state income, sales and car taxes by billions — actually it was the largest tax increase ever at the state level in any state in the history of America. Adams took a pledge not to raise taxes in his critical first primary… Read More