Anthony York of Capitol Weekly is blogging from the DNC Convention in Denver. He just let us know that Hillary blew off (due to a "scheduling conflict" her welcoming remarks to the California delegation). Keep an eye on Anthony’s blog posts here.

Oh yes, for fair and biased coverage, look for Meredith Turney’s occasional updates on the FR Blog, and longtime FR friend and former State GOP Chairman Mike Schroeder’s blogs from Colorado… Read More

I’m sure many of you have heard of the colloquial expression, “That is a false choice…”

For those who haven’t heard of the expression, a “false choice” is when you provide two options, insisting that you have to choose one of them, when there are other viable options.

A false choice is what is being presented to Californians in the current budget debate when saying that to solve the budget crisis, we either need to raise taxes, or we need to raid special funds.

The painful reality for Democrats is that the other choice — the obvious choice — are more cuts — the kind of cuts that require a serious look at eliminating state departments or agencies, eliminating bureaucracy. Serious reduction in state spending means eliminating expensive state jobs.

The false choice must be discarded, and all of the pressure in this budget debate must be placed on more shrinking of a state government that has increased in size by 40 percent in just five years.… Read More

Demonstrating a complete lack of engagement in what should be a hands-on negotiating process towards a state budget, John Laird, the Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee is partying up in Denver.

I guess Laird figures, as an ultra-liberal, that he is not going to support more cuts — I’m sure he’s ready to fly home to vote for a tax hike (don’t worry, there aren’t votes for one).

If Laird wants to avoid being booed in Denver, he’d best keep it quiet that he is, “that nut from California that wants to massively increase taxes on beer…… Read More

As a staunch conservative, attending the largest Democratic Party event has been quite an experience. There’s the obvious hostility towards John McCain and all Republicans. But there’s also a shocking amount of ignorance about important issues like national security. It’s actually quite sad to engage in discussions with people so close-minded that even broaching issues perceived as conservative or Republican elicits vitriolic reactions.

But apart from the clash of worldviews, there are many lighthearted, humorous occasions that accompany every political convention. For instance, running into the “Nader’s Raiders” in front of the capitol and being invited to their party this week. Nader for President sponsored the huge liberty bell balloon advertising his plea to be included in the upcoming presidential debates.

No political convention would be complete without a vast variety of paraphernalia, many very clever and funny.… Read More

Steve Poizner continues his momentum toward becoming our next Governor today when the highly regarded and consistenly conservative Weekly Standard featured him on their website in the article "What Happens After Arnold?".

I’ve know Steve for years and agree – if Steve runs –he’ll beastrong candidate.

We – that’d be us Republicans – have a huge job ahead of us in 2010. We have to find the strongest candidate for Governor and do everything we possibly can to elect him.

It’s bad enough with the kooky liberal Democrat majority in the legislature – that hasn’t seen a nutty idea that they’re not willing to pass into law. But can you imagine if they have a like minded leftist in the horseshoe signing those goofy ideas into really bad laws? Yikes – it makes me… Read More

Garrick:Get to Work… No question that if GOP legislators took a convention holiday without first having finalized a state budget, the outcry would be loud, prolonged and furious.So, why has the criticism leveled at Democrats for hauling off to their convention bash with work still undone been largely limited to the blogs? Please answer me that. In the meantime, this from Assemblyman Martin Garrick, posted Friday at Red County SD:

Skip the Convention and Get to Work The California State Assembly adjourned shortly after 1pm today, choosing to take the weekend off — even though the state budget has still not been passed. The Assembly will reconvene on Monday at 1pm for floor session, but will take a three day break on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so Legislative Democrats can attend their national convention in Denver.

Yes, you read that right, a three day vacation right in the middle of a budget stalemate.

Unfortunately, common sense often does not prevail… Read More

Another local elected official in Woodland just sent me an e-mail asking why I was not listed as someone endorsing Proposition 8 (Marriage Protection). I did not have a good answer for that — except that I had not been asked for my official support of the measure until now.

Many local elected officials read this blog. You can add your name to the growing list of people supporting marriage as being defined as between one man and one woman by clicking here.

Just click on "Endorse Us Today" and add your information. I just did.

If you look at the endorsement list it already includes FlashReport bloggers Senator George Runner, Senator Jim Battin, Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa, West Covina School Board Member Mike Spence, and former Assemblyman Ray Haynes,… Read More

As the Republican National Convention approaches (I fly out in one week – to provide FR readers with live updated from the ground throughout the big event), I am starting to get excited about a week in Minneapolis with thousands of fellow Republicans, unifying around our nominee, and celebrating a political party, that for over a century and a half has stood for freedom, limited government, and family values. I’m excited to be a member of the California delegation!

As a strong conservative, I have to admit that I was more than a little bummed earlier in the week when I received a press release from the outstanding free-market group, The Club for Growth, in which they were expressing their disappointment that a whole host of real taxfighting leaders nationally for the GOP do not appear on the convention program. Among those singled out by the Club for their absence are Senators Coburn and DeMint, the clear leaders for fiscal sanity in the upper chamber. There… Read More