With the commenting system now live on the FlashReport (see Jon’s entry below), thus making the electronic democracy of ideas even more…well, democratic…as well as yesterday’s reference to Steve Greenhut’s OC Register piece, "It’s a brave new media world," this morning’s SD Union-Tribune blurb is also appropriate…

Although political hacks may have missed it because it ran in the U-T’s "Personal Tech" section, the wire story says that 2005 was the year that blogs took off, with nine percent of adult web surfers writing them and 27% doing the reading:

2005 was the year of the blog How big have blogs become?

Bigger than Jesus. Bigger than sex.

More than twice as big as sex, actually, the CEO of Blogpulse found when he typed the words "blog" and "sex" into the Google search engine. That big. References, as well, to… Read More

There is a lot of great stuff to which I want to draw your attention to on the main page today.

COMMENTING SYSTEM LIVE! But first let me start by announcing that the guest-comment feature on the FlashReport is finally up and running! As this site has been custom built, adding complex features takes time, unlike if we had gone with an ‘off the shelf’ blog program for that part of things. Nevertheless, the feature is up and running, so when you are over on the blog, you can now press on the comment link below any post to read comments, or make one of your own!

The only catch is that the first time you try to post, you will have to register with this site and give a username and password. We’ll get you approved quickly, and then you can make the FlashReport an interactive experience!

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

What do you do when you can’t get what you want from government? Answer: Buy the domains names of the politicians involved. Set up a web site and put pornographic images on it with vulgar comments about them. Now that is redressing our grievances toward government.

That is what David Grant did after he didn’t get satisfaction from Los Angeles Unified School District over an injury he suffered. He reserved the domain name of LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer – royromer.com – and domain names of the workers’ compensation attorney an others he didn’t get satisfaction from.

Now they are settling for $360,000 if the internet issues are resolved as well. See the story here.

LA Unified is on dangerous ground. What if parents did something along this line to get better test scores or teachers to get pay increases?

I know what some of you are thinking and MikeSpence.com is already reserved. Is yours?… Read More

There is a lot of great stuff to which I want to draw your attention to on the main page today.

COMMENTING SYSTEM LIVE! But first let me start by announcing that the guest-comment feature on the FlashReport is finally up and running! As this site has been custom built, adding complex features takes time, unlike if we had gone with an ‘off the shelf’ blog program for that part of things. Nevertheless, the feature is up and running, so when you are over on the blog, you can now press on the comment link below any post to read comments, or make one of your own!

The only catch is that the first time you try to post, you will have to register with this site and give a username and password. We’ll get you approved quickly, and then you can make the FlashReport an interactive experience!

Great reading today (all stories on the main page): TAX OR FEE? … Read More

At the recent meeting of the Republican National Committee a debate between two resolutions on immigration created a controversy. California Republican National Committeewoman Barbara Alby (pictured right) co-sponsored the tough on illegal alien resolution sponsored by Arizona Committeeman Randy Pullen. You can see FR Publisher Jon Fleischman’s commentary on it here.

The Bushies had another resolution that endorsed his guest worker program along with some illegal alien enforcement provisions. Dick Cheney and other big guns came to the defense of the President. Pullen withdrew his resolution and by a voice vote the Bush version passed. See the Human Events article here. … Read More

Last Monday Corona Mayor Jeff Miller was elected Chiarman of the Riverside County Republican Party. I had a chance to do a quick interview with him recently for the FlashReport . Paule: Jeff congratulations of your election as Chairman ofthe Riverside County Republican Party. Thank you forsitting down with the FlashReport for thisinterview.

Miller: Thanks, happy to do it. The FlashReport is reallycatching on here in Riverside County. It was really great to see Jon Fleischman, the Publisher of the FlashReport, at ourcommittee meeting last week.

Paule: Jeff you won the election by a good margin. You havesupport across all factions of our Party. How areyou going use your Chairmanship to move the Riverside Party forward?

Miller:Well first of all I am a grassroots campaign worker. I began my political activism by walking precinctsand I credit my election to the Corona City Councilto… Read More

I just wanted to write a headline like that because it seems more like a plot line from the Soprano’s than an actual news/political law item. (Read it here.) After several years of legal wrangling, former Orange trash hauler Jeffrey Hambarian has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for siphoning $4.3 million out of the City of Orange through shady, and as it turns out illegal, practices. He has also been ordered to pay millions in restitution and fines.

Hambarian was represented by celebrity attorney Mark “Asparagos” Garagos (you have to listen to KFI’s John and Ken to get that reference). I guess we put another “L” next the Garagos’ name for this one. Orange received special counsel representation from Layne Melzer of Rutan & Tucker (this blog author’s law firm).

This is yet one more instance that emphasizes the need of local governments to be vigilant about protecting their coffers (and ultimately the taxpayers’ money) from those… Read More

One of the first people I ever met in my early days of the political game, back in the late 1980’s was a flamboyant land developer from Newport Beach by the name of Buck Johns. Blessed with a high-octane personality and an Arkansas accent that sounds a bit like Ross Perot, Buck is a hard charger — in business, as a dad, and in politics. He’s been a leader in GOP politics in Orange County for a generation, still serving on the board of the Lincoln Club. Most Orange County politicians can point to Buck’s support as critical to their efforts. And there are a bunch of people running around "The OC" who didn’t quite make it into Buck’s good graces, or into public office.

As a pretty conservative fellow, Buck is prepared to cut the Governor a lot of slack, as evidenced by an interview he gave to Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parson.

Parsons’ column begins:… Read More