I will tell you that it is really awesome to have Ray Haynes as a contributor to the FlashReport. His columns are thoughtful, and usually “nail it” when it comes to politics and policy here in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, Ray had a column that ran in the D.C. Examiner, Big Companies Use Earth Day Camoflage To Greenwash Profits, which fascinated me — enough to share it with FR readers.

The piece (fully reprinted below) talks about the hypocrisy of big companies that “greenwash”, which is defined over on Wikopediaas, "…the act of misleading… Read More

I will be making presentations on 527s, Independent Expenditures, Issue Advocacy, and Tax-Exempt Organizations and Politicial Activity, at an Election Law Seminar to be held onApril 16 in Santa Monica at the DoubleTree at 1707 4th St. in Santa Monica.

The day-long event will include presentations on California and Federal election law, voting systems and voting procedures, initiatives and referenda, and a practicum on regulation of political advertising and voter persuasion.

Confirmed speakers include Chuck Bell, senior partner of Bell, Hiltachk, LLP and general counsel of the California Republican Party; Daniel Lowenstein, a tenured Professor of Election law at UCLA Law School, one of the co-authors of the California Political Reform Act, and the first Chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission; Robert Stern, another co-author of the California Political Reform Act, principal drafter of the City of Los Angeles’ ethics and public campaign finance laws and President of the Center for Government Studies; and political consultant Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book. The moderator of and another presenter at the event is Janice… Read More

I will tell you that it is really awesome to have Ray Haynes as a contributor to the FlashReport. His columns are thoughtful, and usually “nail it” when it comes to politics and policy here in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, Ray had a column that ran in the D.C. Examiner, Big Companies Use Earth Day Camoflage To Greenwash Profits, which fascinated me — enough to share it with FR readers.

The piece (fully reprinted below) talks about the hypocrisy of big companies that “greenwash”, which is defined over on Wikopediaas, "…the act of misleading… Read More

Shortly after I was born, my father retired from the Air-force, he served 20 years as a fighter pilot, including a number of tours in the Vietnam war. Unlike my older siblings, I never experienced the fear of my dad not returning or the horror of a friend’s dad becoming a prisoner of war.

I guess it was a curiosity for what this must have felt like that drove me to read the pale blue book on my parents bookshelf at an early age. They Wouldn’t Let us Die, was written in 1973 by war critic Stephen A. Rowan, who set out to tell the story of the prisoners of the Vietnam War. My parents had the book because the best man at their wedding, Bob Craner was profiled in the book (to this day my dad has yet to read the book) and lived 18 inches and a wall away from John McCain for more than 2 years.

It was this book that introduced John McCain’s story to me, more than 25 years ago and personalizes his presidential campaign for me today.

McCain wasn’t your… Read More

The size of California State government is ENORMOUS. All of the debate that we hear about is focused directly on the 100 BILLION++ general fund of the state budget. But if you want to look at the big picture, you need to add to this number TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in additional state spending that is not included in this discussion – in “special funds” where funds come in from taxes that are not called taxes (they call them by a pseudonym, “fees” and say they take only a majority, not a 2/3 vote to enact) and these taxes go to specific programs, and then they are “moved off-budget” into this other (ignored in the current debate) corner, out of sight. Let us also not forget the BILLIONS OF BILLIONS of already authorized bonded indebtedness that occurred and will continue to occur, without so much as another vote of the people (or in the case of those scandalous “prison bonds” – without a vote of the people). All of this adds up to just a VAST and MASSIVE amount of money that California taxpayers, present and future are going to be coercively paying (or in the case… Read More

The size of California State government is ENORMOUS. All of the debate that we hear about is focused directly on the 100 BILLION++ general fund of the state budget. But if you want to look at the big picture, you need to add to this number TENS OF BILLIONS in additional state spending that is not included in this discussion – in “special funds” where funds come in from taxes that are not called taxes (they call them by a pseudonym, “fees” and say they take only a majority, not a 2/3 vote to enact) and these taxes go to specific programs, and then they are “moved off-budget” into this other (ignored in the current debate) corner, out of sight. Let us also not forget the BILLIONS OF BILLIONS of already authorized bonded indebtedness that occurred and will continue to occur, without so much as another vote of the people (or in the case of those scandalous “prison bonds” – without a vote of the people). All of this adds up to just a VAST and MASSIVE amount of money that California taxpayers, present and future are going to be coercively paying (or in the case of the… Read More

DeMaio Council Bid Has the Unions a Tad Scared… Never repeat the negative, they say. But, I can’t pass up the efforts to which some will go in attempts to kill the San Diego City Council candidacy of government watchdog Carl DeMaio. To many, he would be the Tom McClintock of the San Diego City Council. To some, that is good, to others, well…they just can’t stomach someone on the council that is willing to stand up so honestly and strongly to the back-scratching foolishness, complete failure of fiduciary duty and outrageous lack of concern for our tax monies that caused the city’s fiscal mess in the first place.

An anti-Carl website was launched last week, which I would ignore if it weren’t so amusingly inept. Perhaps the best way to cover the "effort" is to repeat San Diego Tax Fighters Chairman Richard Rider’s reaction:

If you want to see just how much Carl DeMaio scares the crap out of the labor unions (both public and private labor unions), go to this amazing, LITERALLY slimy… Read More

Today we are pleased to present a Guest Commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…

Ordinary Citizens Are Slaves to Their Public Masters By Jon Coupal

Had a raise in pay lately? For many Californians the answer is "no." Their major concern in these uncertain economic times is just hanging on to their jobs.

However, when it comes to pay increases, some of our citizens are faring much better than others. These are workers employed by the state of… Read More