As the ‘post mortems’ have been written about the massive defeat of all of the substantive measures on Tuesday’s special election ballot, most credible observers of California politics have concluded that a large part of the reason that the measures lost is that to the electorate, they represented the results of a consummate “insiders game.” There is no doubt in my mind that these measures, which were more or less designed to try, as best as possible, to maintain the status quo in Sacramento by patching together a number of disparate and, frankly, ill-conceived policy ideas that seemed to have as their one common theme the appeasement of the interest groups that dominate the politic scene (and political financial giving) in state politics.

Voters should be aware of the fact that while they have dispatched most of the terrible ballot measures produced by last February’s ill-fated budget deal, that resulted in massive tax increases but did nothing to solve the state’s structural budget troubles, that there is one more “gift” from Capitol insiders – it is commonly referred to by its proponents and by the main stream media as an “open… Read More

This morning the office of Assembly Republican Leader-Elect Sam Blakeslee announced that his first official leadership team member is north state Assemblyman, and former State Senator, Jim Nielsen (pictured right). Nielson, who has been serving as the GOP’s point person on the Appropriations Committee will now occupy a positionthat Blakeslee is calling the "Chairman of Ways and Means" for Assembly Republicans — and in addition to being the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Nielsen will also serve as Vice Chairman of the Budget Committee.

Not mentioned in Blakeslee’s release (he’s ever so tactful) is the significant shift of pulling out of Roger Niello from his coveted Budget Committee slot, in order to give it to Nielson. Niello, who is quite unapologetic about his decision to hit Californians with over $14 billion in higher taxes (and his attempt, with his support of 1A, to actually boost that figure… Read More

Yesterday, I offered an amendment on the House floor to the bill that funds all Federal Aviation Administration activities for the next 4 years. The amendment, in the obtuse world of Congressional parlance, is called a “motion to recommit.” Rather than tell you about it, I will let the roughly 8 minutes of debate speak for itself, and I have included the clip below.

The amendment failed by a vote of 263-154. Waste and corruption are alive and well in Washington.

But you already knew that.… Read More

Longtime FR friend Andrew Pugno, from the Yes on Prop. 8 Committee, just notified us that the California Supreme Court has indicated that they will announce their ruling on the case before them – filed by opponents of the measure, to attempt to have it overturned — this coming Tuesday at 10 a.m.… Read More

The transvestite that is fulfilling KFI’s John and Ken’s commercial ratings driven wish to recall solid conservative Assemblyman Jeff Miller is apparently breaking the law. No, not a law about transvestitism; rather, he/she/it appears to be violating (perhaps among other violations of life’s more fundamental laws) the California Elections Code.

You see, we learned yesterday from a post byAdam Probolsky that John and Ken’s trany*, according to the most recent data available from the County Registrar of Voters, is not registered to vote in Miller’s 71st Assembly District. Adam alluded to a potential violation of law by the tranyproponent of the Miller recall as a result ofa failure to be a registered voter in the specific district where the recall petition is being circulated. I’ll fill in the gap: Section 11005 of the Elections Codestates very simply: The proponents of a recall must be registered voters of the electoral jurisdiction of the officer they seek to recall. Therefore, according to the latest data from theRegistrar, Blaine Jenks would be illegally collecting signatures for… Read More

The 11th district’s congressman, Jerry McNerney has raised serious questions today about his commitment to renewable energy and his ethics with his vote against an amendment to include more clean energy sources… Read More

Well, the human face of the purported recall of Assemblyman Jeff Miller has finally been revealed to the public. It’s an interesting young man, accented not only by a bare-shouldered party dress, but also complete with carefully applied lipstick, mascara and eye liner. That all of these quality accessories and cosmetics are adorning the face of a man may strike some as unusual, but no matter your views on people who dress in drag, all of this only contributes to the further absurdity of a shameful farce.

Blaine Jenks is 22 years old, a recent graduate of Orange County’s Vanguard University and still lists his mother’s home as his address. But rather than inquiring if he/she should move out of mom’s place, let’s focus on the actual address for a moment. Blaine’s voter registration card still lists his mom’s Placentia address as his home. And for those outside of Orange County, Placentia is well outside the lines of the 71st Assembly District.… Read More

Welcome to the second part of our two-part feature on the FlashReport “Winners & Losers of the May 19 Special Election.” Yesterday we presented the winners. Today we introduce to you the losers – those people or groups who, from our perspective, suffered in their stature, standing and reputation as a result of the outcome of Tuesday’s vote. It’s always more challenging to call out losers than winners, and occasionally (but not usually) someone takes it personally. We understand if you do — but to you we’d say, suck it up. This whole stupid special election didn’t need to happen, but it did, and you tried to raise my taxes, and… Read More