City elections in San Diego are regulated by the San Diego Ethics Commission. Considered an unnecessarily aggressive local agency by most election lawyers, the Ethics Commission heavily regulates politics in the City. San Diego has added additional rules to the statewide requirements under the Fair Political Practices Commission, which are enforced by the Ethics Commission, and both agencies usually end up having simultaneous jurisdiction over election campaign issues there, sometimes causing legal fees to skyrocket. Unique to San Diego and in addition to the state election requirements of disclosure of contributions and expenditures, and criminal rules administered by the District Attorney and Attorney General, are rules that regulate the use of personal funds, imposition of personal responsibility for campaign debt, limit campaign contributions to just $500, outlaw contributions from “business entities”, allow the Commission to conduct its own “audits,” and regulates all independent expenditures of $1,000 or more. The San Diego law is so oppressive of expressive rights protected by the First Amendment that some of the provisions of the law have… Read More

We will all miss Andrew Breitbart.

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There’s a very important day this week — a day even more significant than when your taxes are due. In the state of California, Tax Freedom Day finally arrives on April 20.

Calculated annually by the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day is the day on which the average Californian has finished earning enough money to pay all of his or her federal, state and local taxes this year.

So, congratulations. Just a mere 110 days into the year (not counting Feb. 29), you can finally start working for yourself instead of the government.

But before you break out the champagne, note the following:

Tax Freedom Day is four days later than last year. It would have been even later had the Governor and Legislature succeeded in their efforts to raise car taxes, income taxes and sales taxes. Californians must work longer for the government than residents of other states. The average American achieves tax freedom three days earlier than the average Californian. That’s one reason many workers leave our state as soon as they retire. If taxes were raised high enough to pay for all government spending, California’s Tax Freedom Day … Read More

Florida Congressman Allen West has taken a lot of heat for suggesting that members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are “members of the Communist Party.” Well there are Members, and there are members. With help from Arie Dana, we thought we should look at the California congressional delegation to see how many Marxists populate the “Progressive Caucus”.

In 1952, Whittaker Chambers explained to the world in “Witness,” that there is a type of fellow traveller, “so far within the fold that his not being a Communist would be a mistake on both sides.”

For decades, Progressives in Congress have made it all but impossible for Americans to avoid making that mistake. Let’s take a look at California’s own traveling band.

In 1983, when the U.S. Invaded Grenada, one of their government documents the Americans seized detailed an unusual government meeting: “Barbara Lee is here presently and has brought with her a report on the international airport done by [Congressman] Ron Dellums. They have requested that we look at the document and suggest any changes… Read More

Today is the deadline for Americans to file their taxes. A day that is no doubt full of anxiety and trepidation for all too many families and businesses.

Do you know how much money you owe? What income bracket you are in? What percentage of your income goes to the government each paycheck? Which tax credits and deductions you are eligible to claim? Is your family or business able to manage the overwhelming process of filing without the help of an outside source? 1099, W2, 1040, W4, 3903, 2106—the forms can seem endless.

Each year, families and businesses across the country forge through mountains of forms and receipts, attempting to properly navigate their tax returns. “Tax Day” is the day where we are all made keenly aware of how complicated and broken our tax system is.

At over 72,500 pages, our tax code has become a broken maze of complexity, bureaucracy and political favoritism, and it has to be fixed. We need a tax code that is simple and… Read More

Back in 2010 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed an ill-advised ban on plastic grocery bags in incorporated parts of the the county. It was a bad idea for sure, but don’t take my word for it. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich penned a column for the FlashReport at the time, explaining why he voted against the ban.

As part of the county ordinance banning plastic bags all-together at grocery stores, the county also mandated that stores collect a fee from shoppers every time they sold them a paper bag. The goal from the big-government social engineers is straight forward — to restrict the liberty of Americans in Los Angeles County to use they bags that they prefer to use, and instead force them into using recyclable bags (which can be very gross).

A lawsuit was filed against Los Angeles County against the ordinance because of the de facto tax on paper bags. Californian’s recently passed Proposition 26 which requires that such a tax must be approved by… Read More

Congressman Bob Filner has been in Washington too long, and it’s impacting his ability to wage a serious campaign for San Diego mayor.

Facing the serious threat of losing his House seat in another challenge from State Senator Juan Vargas (D), Filner created his own political retirement plan in the form of a race for San Diego Mayor. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time: the City of San Diego has 76,000+ more Democrats than Republicans, and he would probably be the only Democrat in the race. Piece of cake, right?

It turns out that running for mayor is different than running for re-election in your bulletproof-Democrat House district. First there’s the more competitive nature of the race itself. Additionally, running for an executive office is different than running to be a legislator: voters expect from would-be executives a vision and plans, not just statements of how one would vote on certain issues, with some ideological red meat thrown in the mix.

Filner talks a good game – he’s well practiced in all of the typical left-wing talking points on a whole host of issues. That’s par for the course for someone… Read More

April 17 may be the deadline of another tax filing season, but it’s just the start of Democrats’ 2012 tax initiative season. In fact, in less than 60 days, voters must take a stand against and defeat the first round of this year’s tax hike measures: Proposition 29.

Prop. 29, like many other tax increases in recent years, seeks to target an unpopular activity, smoking, and increase taxes to combat something of universal concern, in this case cancer research.

Cut from the same cloth as previous taxpayer-funded ballot-box boondoggles like high-speed rail, the stem-cell research initiative and First 5, Prop. 29 is a $735 million annual tax increase that creates a brand new bureaucracy overseen by unelected political appointees who have unchecked authority to spend billions of taxpayer dollars.

At a time when Democrats are threatening more devastating cuts to education and public safety if voters refuse to approve Governor Brown’s tax measure in November, Prop. 29 raises nearly $1 billion in taxes a year, yet fails to do anything to solve our massive budget deficit or require that Sacramento control its wasteful spending habits.

What advocates for… Read More