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I’m off to the Capitol City this morning for a Board of Directors Meeting for the California Republican Party. Also on my Southwest Flight are CRP Secretary Steve Baric (we carpooled), RNC Delegation Executive Director Kathy Tavoularis and also David Cordero, a longtime GOP activist who does government affairs for one of Orange County’s myriad of water districts. Wheels up!… Read More
I’ve penned two commentaries (the first, the second) on the irrepressible Mark Nuaimi, who we call the "King of Fontana" because of his "my way or the highway" style of leadership. I still am getting stuff e-mailed to me on the guy, and since someone got this creative, I thought I would share this videos! You really have to have grated on someone for them to go through the trouble to produce this… … Read More
With just over five weeks to go, Bob Watkins is out a consultant and a fundraiser in the GOP race to replace Congressman Duncan Hunter.Both Sacramento-based JohnsonClark Associates and a local fundraiser confirmed with me that they ended their respective relationships with the Watkins campaign earlier in the month.
Media consultant Jennifer Kerns issued a statement in response to my resulting inquiry:
Bob Watkins’ campaign has confirmed they have concluded their contract with JohnsonClark Associates. Over the last seven months, JohnsonClark has created a strategic framework for the Congressional campaign; now during the final five weeks of the campaign, their execution plan will be carried out on the grassroots level. JohnsonClark remains available to the Watkins campaign as consultants, and will be assisting the campaign for the general election.What this means for the Watkins effort may be open to some conjecture. Yet, it won’t be lost on political watchers that the loss of one of the state’s most capable consulting firms at such a late date is significant.
Watkins, currently the… Read More
Berlin has one sort-of Las Vegas style casino, named "Speilbank Berlin." It is on the Marlene-Deitrich Platz across the street from the newish Grand Hyatt Hotel. Both these enterprisesand the surrounding buildings and shops were developed by Daimler-Benz and Sony Corporation out of the rubble of the "no man’s land" that existed between East and West Berlin during the Wall period. People trying to escape Communism used to get shot at and chased by tommy-gun armed East German "Vopos" and their German Shepherds in this area. And now, since the early 1990s development boom,amongst other new development still buzzing in the area, and in old east Berlin, there is Der Speilbank.A monument to freedom. Acasino.
Purely for investigative purposes I visited Der Speilbank late last night after a plateof schnitzel and white asparagras (in season here and a local delicacy) at my hotel. The contrasts to Vegas,or one of our Indian casinos,were most interesting.
First, unlike Vegas, you need to pay 2 Euros (a little less than $4) just to enter this casino. Not a lot of money, but it seems the Germans… Read More
As California and its citizens worry about the bad economy and massive budget deficit facing the state, the University of California continues to run an island paradise for a few students and professors, subsidized with taxes and student tuition.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, (April 14, 2008, “Amid state budget crunch, UC runs island paradise”), “The University of California has created a little-known South Pacific station it calls research “paradise” on what some travelers consider the most beautiful island in the world.” It must be nice, “[s]urrounded by clear waters lapping white-sand beaches, and covered by forests topped by jagged peaks, it’s ‘UC Berkeley’s best-kept secret,’ declares the Berkeley Science Review. Real estate agents call it ‘Fantasy Island.’”… Read More
It seems like this morning on the main FR page, we did a "disservice" of sorts to our friend Malcolm Maclachlan, an ace reporter over at the Capitol Weekly. This morning’s Cap Weekly featured an interview that Malcolm conducted with "well traveled" pornographic film star Nina Hartley (see the cover of one of Hartley’s "publications" to the right).
However, we incorrectly attributed the interview to Shane Goldmacher, who used to work for CapWeekly and is now over with the Sacramento Bee.
Sorry for the mixup. Shane, to be sure, when you have a chance to interview a porn star, we’ll endeavor to get it right. In the meantime, it’s Malcolm whom FR Capitol readers can pester for the parts of the interview that didn’t make it past CW’s Editor, John Howard.… Read More
It would appear that San Diego Major Jerry Sanders has reached his boiling point when it comes to dealing with challenger Steve Francis. At a recent gathering, Francis apparently reached out to shake the Mayor’s hand, and instead Sanders dropped the "F" Bomb on his opponent. I guess when you buy as much television time as Francis has done, it has gotten "under the skin" of Sanders. Check out the San Diego U-T’s blog post on this here.
I can’t figure out Steve Francis, by the way. I was pretty excited by his candidacy early on. But he keeps campaigning like an Arnold, Jr. For Earth Day, he sent out an e-mail in which he embraced the whole global warming alarmist agenda, leading one to wonder what new types of regulatory burdens he would place on the people of San Diego.
To be honest, I was pretty displeased with the way that the San Diego County GOP endorsed the incumbent, Sanders, with no notice and opportunity for Francis to make his… Read More