Among the achievements of which California Republicans can be proud, certainly in addition to the re-election of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the victory of every legislative GOP incumbent, is the strong win posted by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Poiziner in his campaign for the crucial office of Insurance Commissioner. Today, Mr. Poizner will be inaugurated as the state’s third directly-elected insurance commissioner, and his swearing-in is good news, not just for Golden State Republicans – but every ratepayer, taxpayer and California citizen determined to have ethics, integrity and honesty in a public office that essentially is the watchdog overseeing how the insurance industry operates in California.

Rather than a stoic event in Sacramento, Steve Poizner will accept the oath of office before 500 technology leaders in the Silicon Valley, which has been his home for 30 years. Accompanying Poizner as he accepts the challenge of serving as California’s new Insurance Commissioner will be his wife Carol and their 15-year old daughter… Read More

In the Sunday FR was an article featured also on Sunday from the San Diego UT, concerning water storage. Democrat leadership pronouncing DOAany funding for new water storage in California had me more than a little dismayed. The Governor hasn’t even delivered yethis State of the State speech where he may well outline a proposal for one or two new water storage projects as part of the much needed infrastructure overhaul and augmentation this state desperately needs. Yet already, this prepronounced negativity. This on the heels of all the talk on the Assembly floor of working in a "bi-partisan way" [evidently meaning Republican principles being excluded in all or part in negotiations] and the enthusiastic embrace of "post-partisanship" from the Governor’s Inaugural day. I wouldcall the statement that "Democrats don’t support water storage" a wet blanket on the "new spirit" down in Sacramento, but you need water to dampen the #@&% blanket.

But that statement isn’t completely true. Governor Schwarzenegger in last years state of the state speech listed new water… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger will introduce what has been described as a major proposal to deal with the challenge of millions of Californians not having health insurance.

That said, Governor Schwarzenegger made it clear that he does not think the solution to this challenge is to require that businesses pay more. Specifically, the Governor said, "I want everyone to have healthcare, but we have to make sure that the businesses in California stay competitive compared to Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico. As you know, the Governors come into our state and are hustling business into their states because it’s cheaper to do business. We want to make sure it’s cheap and keep it under control and stimulate the economy and get everyone to work."

This is a direct quote from an interview that the Governor had with former Presidential Chief-of-Staff Leon Panetta in an interview for Panetta’s lecture series on October 18th of 2004. At the time, Californians were being asked to vote on Proposition 72, a… Read More

The group of GOP volunteers that are suing the state to have Jerry Brown’s election overturned because he was officially on "inactive status" as a lawyer for a short time while Mayor of Oakland has had a few developments. According to the Plaintiffs, on January 4 the case was assigned to Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian in Dept. 11, and apparently the Court has asked the parties to agree to a hearing date on the merits by January 12.

Readers of FlashReport will know I am a critic of this lawsuit and see it as a sure loser and even anembarrassment for the Republican Party. Brown has been a lawyer in California for 40 years, has served as Secretary of State and Governor, and is surely qualified to be the state’s Attorney General. Simply because he changed his statusas a lawyer for a few years while serving as Oakland’s Mayor, to take advantage of the lower cost dues structure for inactive attorneys,shouldnot be a basis to overturn a vote of the people wherebyBrown waselected with an overwhelming majority and received an 18 point lead over his opponent in the race. By the way, I voted for his opponent.

On… Read More

Most of the glowing mainstream media news about California’s Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House, and her Congressional Democrats, is centered on their "100 hour" agenda and reforms they intend to implement, including raising the minimum wage, "ethics" reforms to restrict receipt of gifts of travel, and a new "earmarking" reform that would require indentification of the Member of Congress pushing a last minute earmark to fund that highway to nowhere.

But one item the MSM has missed, is research published by the Capital Research Center, that demonstrates that 70 far-left Democrats in the Congress, members of the "Congressional Progressive Caucus," ("CPC") seven of whom will chair powerful committees in the new Congress, will be using a charitable fundraising arm named the "American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation" to raise funds from lobbyists to help them advance anti-war and far left-oriented public policies in the new Congress. Leaders of this effort include California Congressmembers Lynn Woolsey (Marin and Sonoma Counties) and Barbara Lee (Berkeley and Oakland), who are co-chairs of this… Read More

Today’s Guest Commentary is penned by Jeff Miller, the Chairman of the Riverside County Republican Party. Miller flew up to Sacramento on Friday and attended the inauguration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has written this piece, after reflected on the Governor’s remarks…

Remember the Californian Dream that needed so much protecting just three months ago?

That dream where solitary visionaries, like Disney, DeMille, Hewlett and Packard, and Jobs & Wozniak, could work through the night in a garage and create sensational things that could best be summed up by B.C. Forbes who long ago stated, “The purpose of capitalism is not to create a pile of wealth, but a pile of happiness.”… Read More

Today’s Guest Commentary is penned by Jeff Miller, the Chairman of the Riverside County Republican Party. Miller flew up to Sacramento on Friday and attended the inauguration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has written this piece, after reflected on the Governor’s remarks…

Remember the Californian Dream that needed so much protecting just three months ago? That dream where solitary visionaries, like Disney, DeMille, Hewlett and Packard, and Jobs & Wozniak, could work through the night in a garage and create sensational things that could best be summed up by B.C. Forbes who long ago stated, “The purpose of capitalism is… Read More

When a newspaper makes an error that causes you heartburn, your resulting choice is really not much of one,is it? If the reporter or editor concurs that a mistake has indeed been made, and thus agrees to run a printed correction or retraction, you know that it will not get nearly the "play" the original offering did, with only the most avid news readers actually seeing such apologetic tidbits.

Alternatively, you could write a letter-to-the-editor, correcting the mistake in greater detail and noting the actual facts. Other than making you feel better, perhaps, this too has its shortcomings. By appearance anything other than the paper’s admission of error will simply look like your differing opinion. As well, how many readers of the original piece will actually get to the letters section of the editorial page?

You could sue. Uh-huh. Moving on, then…

It’s a catch-22, with the print news media in most cases in a much stronger position than those they cover.

So, it’s nice to see a newspaper, even after a fairly egregious and blatant error, taking action to own up, retract and apologize, while displaying the… Read More