Yesterday, I wrote about the continuing problem of special funds, and how the bureaucracy has used them basically as a slush fund. The scandal surrounding the Department of Parks and Recreation is only the tip of the iceberg. Those funds now constitute close to $50 billion in state spending, and they, by and large, escape legislative scrutiny, because legislators are told these funds pay the “cost” of providing direct government service to people taking advantage of those services. They don’t, but legislators don’t look.

We now find out that, through the Parks scandal, that there are funds that are hidden and manipulated. Two political appointees resign “in disgrace,” and everyone announces how upset they are about these deceptive practices. But the question is, who did it? These funds have accumulated over the years. Did two recent appointees of Governor Brown really cause this problem?

Of course not. What goes unreported, and what the real problem in state government is the permanent bureaucracy. The folks who year… Read More

The rumors about Democrat Bob Filner signing Republican political consultant Tom Shepard to run his San Diego mayoral campaign became reality on Wednesday.

The U-T San Diego posted astoryabout the move last night. A blog post went up on San Diego Rostra about the same time. And there was Tony Krvaric’s email blast. The chair of local GOP didn’t mince words. His subject line: “BREAKING: Tom Shepard betrays our reform effort and signs on with Bob Filner!”

Krvaric closed by saying: “PS. The Republican Party of San Diego County will not do business with him ever again as long as I remain chairman. Elephants don’t forget – and principles matter.”

Shepard is a friend and a mentor. We’ve worked together. I admire and respect him. He took the loss in the June primary hard — he represented Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who finished third behind DeMaio… Read More

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In the statewide election that took place earlier this month, something happened in a race for the State Assembly that should matter to every reader of this column, whether you live in Butte County to the north, or San Diego to the South, whether you live on the Central Coast or in the Central Valley. An attempt was made, using the new “top-two” election system created by Proposition 14, to knock off a conservative, incumbent member of the State Assembly whose only crime was that he was, literally, too conservative. Here is what happened…

As you know, after the decennial census process was complete, all of the political boundaries for California legislative districts were redrawn (with the passage of Propositions 11 and 20, this was now done by a so-called “independent” California Citizens Commission. This didn’t turn out so well for the GOP, but that I have written about elsewhere. In the heart of Orange County, freshman Assemblyman Allan Mansoor saw his current 68th District carved up quite a bit. Mansoor, of course, chose to run in the new 74th District, where he lived, which contains the city of Costa Mesa, where he served… Read More

I was very pleased to see my friend and a blogger on this site, Shawn Steel, make the Wall Street Journal. This is a big deal. Because there is a pay wall over at WSJ.com, I took the liberty of reprinting the piece below. Congratulations, Shawn!

… Read More

In the famous movie, Casablanca, Captain Louis Renault announced:

I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here. [A casino worker gives Renault a wad of money.] Casino Worker: Your winnings, sir.

Over this last week, we have seen many in the Governor’s office and the Democrat Leadership announced that they are “shocked” that the California Department of Parks and Recreation had hidden money while they were attempting to extort more money out of the taxpayers by threatening to close down parks. “How could they be so deceptive?” our liberal friends in politics and the media cried, “They lied to us.”

Oh, give me a break. This deception has been going on for years, aided by the full time budget staff at the Legislature, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the “Career Executive Assignment” (CEA) staff in the various state agencies and departments, and the leaders of the various government unions. Who lost their job over this? A couple of political appointees, either too lazy, too stupid or too trusting to inquire from these career… Read More

This just in from San Diego City Councilman, candidate for Mayor, and long-time pension reform advocate Carl DeMaio..

This morning you will be reading about an important court ruling that protects efforts to bring meaningful pension reform to San Diego. I wanted to provide a little analysis for what this means going forward.

After Comprehensive Pension Reform was supported 66% of San Diego citizens in June, the local Municipal Employee Union and representatives of the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) asked the Superior Court for a restraining order against the City of San Diego. The Unions and their allies at PERB wanted the Court to stop San Diego from doing the work necessary to implement Proposition B until PERB makes a decision on a frivolous union claim. That decision could take six months or longer.

The Court chose to allow San Diego to meet its obligations under the City’s charter and work toward making pension reform a reality. In his ruling, Judge Vargas noted “The court finds traditional equitable considerations now weigh in favor of the voters, the City of San Diego and of a proper and… Read More

San Diego Politics & Media Mashup

Republican Carl DeMaio has hired a Democrat and Democrat Bob Filner is on board with pension reform.

Who spiked the water in San Diego?

Relax. There’s no need to panic. The water is clean…I mean drinkable. So why are we seeing New Carl and New Bob popping up in stories?

Here’s the thing — election season is nearly in full swing and DeMaio and Filner, the two men running to become San Diego’s next mayor, have to figure out how to appeal to the middle in order to come out on top in November. In San Diego, 40 percent of registered voters are Democrats and 28 percent are registered Republican.

Math is leading both candidates to stray from their core philosophies and make decisions they never would have made leading up to the June… Read More

I am honored to be a new contributor to the FR blog. My CalWatchdognew stories and columns appear in the FlashReport, and now I will be a blogger as well. Sometimes I will cross post with CalWatchdog, and sometimes the posts will be exclusive to the FR blog – Katy Grimes, 7/31/2012

As free marketeers celebrate famed Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman’s 100 birthday today, revisiting Friedman’s 1979 interview with Phil Donahue, where Friedman schooled Donahue, a 1970′s liberal television talk show host, on capitalism. This is an important reminder of why we fight for the free market.

Friedman, born July 31, 1912, and died November 16, 2006, easily dispelled the… Read More