The City of Santa Cruz has filed a lawsuit with a federal court in San Jose asking it to grant the city permission to distribute medical marijuana to patients through its “Office of Compassionate Use.” Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the United States government can prosecute users of medical marijuana, the City of Santa Cruz and the ACLU (yes, I am also shocked that the ACLU is advocating that the government distribute illegal drugs) are pushing an appeal which would force the government to honor Prop 215 which was passed in 1996.

Pot smoking and Santa Cruz go together like peanut butter and jelly (or in Santa Cruz like pot brownies and milk) but I believe the “Office of Compassionate Choice” oversteps what local government is intended to do. I don’t know of any other municipalities in California that have offices with the sole purpose of distributing a particular drug and I believe the tax revenue the office will use could be put to more productive uses such as fixing roads, educating kids or mending the precarious Pajaro river… Read More

Senator Dianne Feinstein has reported $5.7 million cash-on-hand as of the end of last year. In the last reporting period, she raised the better part of a million bucks. Of course, this says nothing for her vast personal wealth.

On the GOP side, conservative former State Senator Dick Mountjoy had not entered the race before the 12/31/05 cut-off. Mountjoy, popular among the GOP right, has a strong grassroots network, but is not known for his fundraising prowess.

If there is a political handicapper anywhere in the country who doesn’t have at least 100-1 odds on a reelect for DiFi, I would be surprised.

It’s too bad, given that Feinstein (despite her lack of ‘stridency’ compared to her colleague, Barbara Boxer) is easily to the left of most California voters.… Read More

I had been meaning to draw the attention of FlashReport readers to a post by FR friend Matt Rexroad over at the Cal-Races website. I thought it an interesting analysis couched in terms of Congressman Richard Pombo’s re-election challenge, but is really Matt’s assessment that those on the right who are attacking the Governor for his recent shift from a "Live Within Our Means" theme to a "Bond it, build it" theme.

Matt’s post begins like this:

Cindy Sheehan is a publicity seeking fool who has become a tool of the radical lefts propaganda machine. She is a sad figure who suffered a tragic loss and has let her grief become a sideshow for the liberal news media and gray haired flower children of the 60’s. With that said, I don’t think she should have been hauled out of the State of the Union speech by the Capitol Hill Police last night for wearing a tee-shirt with an anti-war slogan on it. She was an invited guest of a Member of Congress, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), and was not a threat to the safety of anyone. I don’t agree with Rep. Woolsey on anything, but I do respect that she is an elected Member of the House of Representatives and who sheoffered to invite to the speech to is a political decision that she will be held accountable for with her constituents.

I would have preferred to have allotted Mrs. Sheehan the opportunity to stay, and show everyone in the world that we do have free and open political debate in this country where the President and one of his most animate opponents can sit in the same chamber. At the very least, they should have… Read More

Yesterday morning, in the State Capitol, Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured) approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, furiously waving a printout of the Assemblyman column which was featured yesterday in the FlashReport…he uttered profanities at Spitzer, telling him he had gone to far. The issue brought to the fore in Spitzer’s column was that the Democratic majority on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, hand picked by Speaker Nunez, is "pro-criminal" – regularly voting down common-sense tough-on-crime measures on a party-line vote. Of course, the Speaker has stacked this committee with some of the most left-wing members of his caucus! This confrontation was a precurser to the Assembly floor session later where the lower house of the legislature was debating the passage of a crime bill package (Assembly Bill 50) that represented a significant watering down of the tough-on-crime elements introduced as… Read More

Yesterday morning, in the State Capitol, Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured) approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, furiously waving a printout of the Assemblyman column which was featured yesterday in the FlashReport…he uttered profanities at Spitzer, telling him he had gone to far. The issue brought to the fore in Spitzer’s column was that the Democratic majority on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, hand picked by Speaker Nunez, is "pro-criminal" – regularly voting down common-sense tough-on-crime measures on a party-line vote. Of course, the Speaker has stacked this committee with some of the most left-wing members of his caucus! This confrontation was a precurser to the Assembly floor session later where the lower house of the legislature was debating the passage of a crime bill package (Assembly Bill 50) that represented a significant watering down of the tough-on-crime elements introduced as… Read More

There they were. My guys. Congressmen George Radanovich and Devin Nunes. Our Central Valley dream team. On TV, State of the Union. The President has just said this: “We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy – even though this economy could not function without them”, and my two Congressmen were on their feet, standing and clapping.

Don’t get me wrong. I love these guys. You’ll see my name on their FEC reports. But I realized at that moment how badly big ag is beating them up. I mean, I’ve not ever heard any complaint about immigrants. So I don’t know what the heck the President was talking about. But illegal immigrants are a different story. The GOP base as well as the rest of America have a legitimate complaint about this issue, for reasons of Homeland Security alone. And what the farmers really don’t want to happen is the flow of illegal immigrants to stop because labor shortages are MURDER right now in the ag industry. So, George and Devin, if the issue is illegal, not legal, immigration, exactly what were you clapping about anyway?… Read More

Gotta love this line of work…you wake up with your opponent thinking that they got over on you…and that was me today…but rather than hurt my client….theirdirty work backfired…today I had an opponet not only help me…but they helped me raise money…solidy my support….ugh…what a life…thank you…thank you…oh thank you myold friend…a flood of outpouring support ….and speaking of floods….

You know I was all alone in my evangelizing about the levee thing….well…. Mr. Dan Walters…a real reporter…columnist…or whatever he is….is hanging with me…that levee politics is still with us Post Katrina….… Read More