The FlashReport gets a “shout out” in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail, read by many thousands of politicos around the country. The subject of this entry, from FR friend John Fund, is Attorney General Jerry Brown and the Protect Marriage Act…

JERRY RIGGED California Attorney General Jerry Brown is stepping outside his law enforcement role and playing politics with a November ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Backers of the measure collected some one million signatures this spring under a title approved by Mr. Brown’s office that made it clear the measure would “provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid.” Since the signatures were collected, the state Supreme Court has ruled same-sex marriage constitutional but also allowed the ballot measure to go before voters. Mr. Brown, a candidate for governor in 2010, has apparently decided to make a play for liberal Democratic primary voters by changing his own office’s description of the measure. It now reads that the ballot initiative seeks “to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to… Read More

On Wednesday, Governor Schwarzenegger said that he thinks legislators should not be paid when the budget is late. Actually, many people have expressed that sentiment. This session, Republican Senator Jeff Denham carried legislation to do just that (it was soundly defeated in committee).

I actually disagree with the Governor, Senator Denham, and others who advocate this policy. The reason is that it seems to support the notion that any budget, whether good or bad, is better than no budget.

From the perspective of protecting taxpayers, like in this budget year, I don’t want conservative legislators who may not be able to afford skipping paychecks to be forced to choose between paying their mortgage, or voting for a bad budget with a tax increase.

If a proposed budget is bad enough, better to have no budget, I say. Fortunately, our legislators are being paid, so they can keep voting against tax increases until Christmas, if need be.… Read More

Much has been written about the Governor’s radical shift in abandoning his dual pledges to “blow up the boxes” and “tear up the credit cards.”

We believed Arnold Schwarzenegger then: electing him twice and passing Propositions 57 & 58 – giving him $15 billion to fix the budget and supposedly put a lid on state over-spending.

And, when running for his first re-election, Schwarzenegger called for support from voters, saying "Help Governor Schwarzenegger protect the California dream – with no new taxes!"

But the “dream” is quickly turning into a fiscal nightmare.

People are struggling with the multiple crises of dramatically increased energy and food costs, the housing slump, and the real risk of recession. Meanwhile, the Governor is now proposing raising the sales tax and Legislative Democrats are pushing to eliminate the child… Read More

Much has been written about the Governor’s radical shift in abandoning his dual pledges to “blow up the boxes” and “tear up the credit cards.”

We believed Arnold Schwarzenegger then: electing him twice and passing Propositions 57 & 58 – giving him $15 billion to fix the budget and supposedly put a lid on state over-spending.

And, when running for his first re-election, Schwarzenegger called for support from voters, saying "Help Governor Schwarzenegger protect the California dream – with no new taxes!"

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

This year’s state budget is going to increase taxes. I say that neither as a good or a bad thing, merely as a statement of fact. But the only questions to be answered at this point are which taxes will be raised, by how much, and what Republican legislators will get in return for putting up the necessary votes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, wants to raise the sales tax, at least for awhile. But GOP legislative leaders have previously indicated a willingness to close tax “loopholes”. All have sworn they will only agree to these concession s in exchange for a cap on state spending and other structural budget reforms that will make it easier for the state to avoid the boom-and-bust cycles that have characterized the last two decades of California’s economic and… Read More

This year’s state budget is going to increase taxes. I say that neither as a good or a bad thing, merely as a statement of fact. But the only questions to be answered at this point are which taxes will be raised, by how much, and what Republican legislators will get in return for putting up the necessary votes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, wants to raise the sales tax, at least for awhile. But GOP legislative leaders have previously indicated a willingness to close tax “loopholes”. All have sworn they will only agree to these concession s in exchange for a cap on state spending and other structural budget reforms that will make it easier for the state to avoid the boom-and-bust cycles that have characterized the last two decades of California’s economic and… Read More

Last weekend one of the world’s most persuasive spokesmen for freedom passed away. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, communist dissident and prolific writer, gave voice to the silent anguish of his countrymen and millions of others suffering under communist regimes. For his bravery in exposing to international scrutiny an extremely dark and evil government, Solzhenitsyn should be honored.

Solzhenitsyn’s criticism of communism was not some intellectual’s theoretical analysis of a government system; his eight years in a Soviet Gulag gave him the experience and authority to graphically detail the horror and misery of a "utopian government".

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the very week Solzhenitsyn passed away, and three Americans were arrested in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square for protesting Communist China’s brutal human rights abuses, the California legislature passed SB 1322.

This unbelievably foolish measure would strike from current state law a public school’s ability to fire a Communist teacher. It would also allow Communists to use public school property for meetings. I can… Read More

Jose Medellin, an illegal alien from Mexico, along with five accomplices, in 1993 raped and murdered two Texas girls, ages 14 and 16. For his crimes, Medellin was put to death by the State of Texas last night after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a reprieve.

The late Mr. Medellin had hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would force a retrial based on an International Court’s attempted intervention, or that en executive order would commute the sentence. President Bush had stepped in and requested that the State of Texas adhere to an International Court decision recommending retrial. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that without Congressional action, the International Court’s decision could not be enforced.

An August 4 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times vigorously defended the idea of allowing the 51 Mexicans on death row to be tried only after consulting with the consulate of the accuseds’ home country. The author, Jeffrey Davidow, argued that the International Court of Justice should be able to decide what is… Read More