Just the other day, I won an auction on eBay, purchasing the Lil’ Lion Elite costume for my son, Matthew, who will be celebrating his second Halloween this year.

As I was completing this transaction on the world’s largest internet auction site, I had three thoughts. The first was that I was thrilled that someone didn’t come along in the final seconds of the auction and beat my offer. The second was that my wife would be thrilled that I "got" the costume. And lastly, it made me realize I hadn’t really given much coverage here on the FlashReport to the rising GOP phenomenon of Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who now has such a high profile within the GOP that the party’s nominee for President, Senator McCain, mentioned her specifically as a potential pick to serve as Treasury Secretary should he be… Read More

Just the other day, I won an auction on eBay, purchasing the Lil’ Lion Elite costume for my son, Matthew, who will be celebrating his second Halloween this year.

As I was completing this transaction on the world’s largest internet auction site, I had three thoughts. The first was that I was thrilled that someone didn’t come along in the final seconds of the auction and beat my offer. The second was that my wife would be thrilled that I "got" the costume. And lastly, it made me realize I hadn’t really given much coverage here on the FlashReport to the rising GOP phenomenon of Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who now has such a high profile within the GOP that the party’s nominee for President, Senator McCain, mentioned her specifically as a potential pick to serve as Treasury Secretary should he be… Read More

A John McCann TV spot, up heavily on broadcast and cable….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NFQc1gjdCw… Read More

Today I am quite pleased to present this special guest commentary from long-long time FR friend Christopher Lauer… Flash The "Liberal"-tarian Party of Death By Chris Lauer

Recently, I had an interesting political discussion with an old friend who is a proud, card-carrying member of the Libertarian Party. He was urging me with great enthusiasm to vote Libertarian in this year’s presidential election.

I explained to him that while I have sympathy for the Libertarian Party (and consider myself somewhat of a libertarian); I could not associate… Read More

Opponents of Proposition 8 like to style themselves sunny defenders of tolerance heroically facing down the dark forces of bigotry and intolerance. "Hate" is a word they are especially fond of throwing at Prop. 8 supporters. But they’re liberals, so it’s OK for them.

You can read about all that anti-Prop. 8 tolerance and love in action in this Modesto Bee article:

In a violent display of intolerance, an opponent of Proposition 8 attacked and seriously injured a man who was volunteering on Sunday for the initiative to define marriage as between and a man and a woman.

Prop. 8 supporter, Jose Nunez, 37, was brutally assaulted while waiting to distribute yard signs to other supporters of the initiative after church services at the St. Stanislaus Parish in Modesto.

The assailant grabbed about 75 signs and yelled at Nunez accusingly, "What do you have against gays!" Although Nunez replied that he had nothing against gays, he was attacked anyway.

Today I am quite pleased to present this special guest commentary from long-long time FR friend Christopher Lauer… Flash

The "Liberal"-tarian Party of Death By Chris Lauer

Recently, I had an interesting political discussion with an old friend who is a proud, card-carrying member of the Libertarian Party. He was urging me with great enthusiasm to vote Libertarian in this year’s presidential election.

I explained to him that while I have sympathy for the Libertarian Party (and consider myself somewhat of a libertarian); I could not… Read More

When I served as the Mayor of Woodland I attempted to get an ordinance passed that would have prevented "public education" campaigns with city funds for any issue pending on the ballot during the sixty days prior to the election. I could not even get a second for my motion.

What happens is that a government entity really wants a bond, parcel tax or other revenue increase to pass a vote of the electorate. In an attempt to "educate" the electorate they send out mail, e-mails, do forums or other things to tell the electorate all the good things that will happen if the measure passes.

I think this is wrong. It is legal but wrong. All of these efforts don’t directly advocate for the passage or defeat of the measure — they just provide information.

Today I got an e-mail from the High Speed Rail Commission. Here is the link so you can get all the good information too. It does not advocate for the passage of Prop 1A or even mention it but it certainly tells me all the good things that come with high speed rail.

As we… Read More

Sorry if my blogging has been on the light side — I’m actually in Sacramento for a couple of days. And while you might intuitively think that would lead to MORE blogging, not less, most of the meetings and conversations that I have up here are "off the record" as I continue to nurture the relationships that let me bring you breaking news, and accurate "intel" on the inner-workings of the Sacramento political scene.

Today I have a meeting of the California Republican Party Board of Directors that will take most of the day, as we go over and approve the final stages of the State GOP Victory Program.

I have to run right now — but I will try to blog later. Oh, and for those who have asked about my chat with Senate President Don Perata yesterday at the Hyatt (word moves around this town), that conversation was way off the record — but very entertaining.… Read More