11th district Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Berkeley) has become a co-sponsor of H.R. 508 in the House of Representatives. What you may ask does the language of H.R. 508 contain that would inspire me to enlighten the readers of this fine blog? Put simply, the language calls for a withdrawal of American forces in 6 months from Iraq (what else can the democrat party talk about) but the real devil is in the details. Reading this legislation is a crystal clear glimpse into the true meaning of what McNerney believes when he says we need (his words) "a tougher, smarter approach to the global war on terror." Here is just a sampling of the finer points of H.R. 508:

Jobs Program for Iraqi Hippies: McNerney and his fellow leftist lunatics (weirdo Dennis Kucinich along with such leaders in strategic and military thought as Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters are fellow co-sponsors) believe that forming a non-profit "Institute of Peace" in Iraq and spending $25 million in tax dollars a year is the way to go to. In the words of HR 508, it’s mission includes providing… Read More

Today, a quiet Sunday of a holiday weekend, is a good day for me to take some time off. So there is no Commentary today, though the main page has been updated with all of today’s news (check out what Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, had to say). I will take this opportunity to make one last request for anyone with suggestions for our upcoming ‘Winners and Losers of the CRP Convention’ column. Because I was busy running for Party office much of the weekend, I may have missed to great awardees! Have a great Sunday!… Read More

Red County/San Diego Debuts… As Matt Cunningham posted Thursday, San Diego in now the third GOP county in the state with a Red County blogsite. I am honored to join a "blogpen" including some great folks like Congressman Brian Bilbray, Senator Mark Wyland, Assemblyman Martin Garrick, Jennifer Jacobs of Coronado Communications, John Nienstedt of Competitive Edge Research & Communication, Encinitas Councilman Jerome Stocks and Jimmy Valentine, the producer of the Roger Hedgecock radio show.A few other anonymous "pseudonymed" bloggers as well (bawwwk, bawk, bawk, bawk).

A mutual synergy exists in both the FlashReport and Red Countyproviding links to the news and offering right-leaning perspective, as well aslinking toeach other. The current Red County sites in Orange County, Riverside and SD are able to offer some narrowed, localized news and comment. One of the masterminds (if not the mastermind) behind Red County is… Read More

FR readers benefit from my borderline-obsessive need to know what is going on in California politics (okay, not so borderline). But only my closest friends know that I keep almost as much of an eye on politics in Florida as I do ours here in the Golden State. Actually, the developers who created the FlashReport website are in Florida, and this site is a spin off of programming they did for the Florida news-portal site of my friend, Justin Sayfie.

As you may know, Florida is also looking seriously at moving up their Presidential primary. There were several articles yesterday about how their move might cause Florida Republicans to lose as many as half of their delegates to the Republican National Convention next summer. I was curious if we are in a similar state of risk, given our plans here to move up the primary. Fortunately the Treasurer of the Republican National Committee, Tim Morgan, is a Californian. So I spoke with him, and he provided the following insight, to reassure us all:… Read More

Apparently it is hard to fathom for many politicians in Sacramento that when a majority of Californians voted for Proposition 140 back in 1990, they actually liked the idea that there would be turn-over in legislative seats fairly frequently. Survey after survey have revealed that voters in the Golden State do not want to repeal term-limits, nor do they want to weaken them. They want a legislature where their representatives leave from the private sector for a time, and then return back to a regular job. One of the major reasons that people I know voted for Proposition 140 was to end the era of the ‘career politician’ who would serve decades in office. It is somewhere between laughable and tragic that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (who faces an end to his legislature tenure next year after serving three two-year terms in the state house) actually has the nerve to say that the measure that he has submitted for approval to pursue signature gathering somehow ‘strengthens’ term limits. The current law on term limits says that you can only serve in the Senate for eight years, and the Assembly for six. One of the major ideas… Read More

Apparently it is hard to fathom for many politicians in Sacramento that when a majority of Californians voted for Proposition 140 back in 1990, they actually liked the idea that there would be turn-over in legislative seats fairly frequently. Survey after survey have revealed that voters in the Golden State do not want to repeal term-limits, nor do they want to weaken them. They want a legislature where their representatives leave from the private sector for a time, and then return back to a regular job. One of the major reasons that people I know voted for Proposition 140 was to end the era of the ‘career politician’ who would serve decades in office. It is somewhere between laughable and tragic that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (who faces an end to his legislature tenure next year after serving three two-year terms in the state house) actually has the nerve to say that the measure that he has submitted for approval to pursue signature gathering somehow ‘strengthens’ term limits. The current law on term limits says that you can only serve in the Senate for eight years, and the Assembly for six. One of the major ideas… Read More

"The only poll that counts is the one taken on election day." Not quite, there’s the pole day atDaytona. It’s racing season, yessssss!

Amidst all the talk of legislators getting others to do their term limit extension dirty work for them, while they allow Federal courts to do their dirty work of shortening terms for imprisoned criminals, and proposals for new Kevorkian Jr’s are being spawned to end terms of the living, let’s talk about something fun.

At the risk of incurring an ‘electronic towel snap’ from our FR chief, for talking about non-political stuff, I’ll mention what’s up this weekend in Florida. [I think Jon is out of town anyway, maybe he won’t notice]

Speedweeks at Daytona culminates with the running ofNASCAR’s Daytona 500 tomorrow… Read More

The big news in the Sacramento area in John Garamendi. Not the Lt. Governor..but his son. John Garamendi, Jr.

He has just recently closed escrow on a home in the 5th Senate District. This means he will likely challenge Assemblywoman Lois Wolk for the Democratic party nomination in June 2008.

Here are the facts–

Garamendi has a ton of name ID without spending a cent. That is a given.

He has been a great fundraiser for the UC Merced. He came to UC Merced after being the director of corporate giving at UC Berkeley.

When it comes to fundraising, this is a guy that can close the deal.

He and his wife served in the Peace Corps. That is a pretty good story for a Democratic primary.

Garamendi, Jr. helped build the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. That is a pretty good story for the people in Wolk’s base city of Davis.

While Wolk was thinking of what Republican she would face with Assemblymen Nakanishi and Aghazarian as possibilities, the real battle… Read More