Governor Jerry Brown and his closest advisers must be rolling their eyes, and wringing their hands in frustration. After all, this year Brown is going to try to do what many think is an impossible task — which is getting the state’s voters, in the midst of a recession, to raise taxes on themselves. One thing that Brown knows is that if he is to have a reasonable shot at this endeavor, the public must be convinced that these higher taxes are absolutely necessary. Certainly a critical part of Brown’s efforts include convincing the voters that he and the leaders of the State Legislature will be good stewards of their tax dollars. So when he watched yesterday as Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez held a press conference to publicly announce a lawsuit against Controller John Chiang (a fellow Democrat) because they were unhappy that Chiang wouldn’t let them pass an unbalanced budget, Brown undoubtedly saw this action as detrimental to his plans.… Read More

The following is a speech from the floor that I delivered January 23, 2011, and wanted to share it with FlashReport readers…

Madam Speaker:

Long ago, Jefferson warned, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” The exceptions to that rule have been few and far between recently, and ought to be celebrated when they occur.

One did this past week with the announcement that supporters of the so-called “Stop On-Line Privacy Act” and the “Protect Intellectual Property Act” have indefinitely postponed their measures after an unprecedented protest across the Internet.

SOPA and PIPA pose a crippling danger to the Internet because they use the legitimate concern over copy-right infringement as an excuse for government to intrude upon and regulate the very essence of the Internet – the unrestricted and absolutely free association that links site to site, providing infinite pathways for commerce, discourse and learning.

It is not the Internet per se that has set the stage for the next quantum leap in human knowledge and advancement – but… Read More

Next week the state’s redevelopment agencies are set to go out of existence — forever. Sure, some other lesser-incarnation of them may return, but if they do, they will be with much less influence, a lot less public funding, and (if I have anything to say about it) property rights protections placed on them so that no longer can eminent domain be used to take someone’s private property against their will so that local politicians can play a scary real version of “Sim City.”

There are a lot of reasons why RDA’s being abolished are a good thing — but this short commentary addresses just one today — which is that for some reason, RDA’s make Republicans act poorly. In theory, Republicans (whether in local office, or in partisan office) should be united around the principles of freedom, liberty, and the free market. Yet the entire way that RDA’s do business is counter to all of that. RDA’s take money using the force of the power of government, accumulate it, and then local government ministers start to spend those tax dollars to warp and influence the economic marketplace, changing the factors of supply… Read More

Yeah, it’s true — I DO fiendishly enjoy beating a dead iron horse — in this case, our California HSR choo-choo. But bear with me. New stuff! Three solid articles, as a matter of fact. At this point, it’s hard to imagine we Californians will continue with this HSR madness, but never underestimate the bull-headed stupidity of Democrat politicians — both state and national. Fortunately there now is a new stake (a silver spike?) that’s been driven through the putrid heart that sustains this beast. As an educational aside, let me suggest that this singleexample of government running amok at the behest of special interests — in this case, HSR train lovers, green religionists, labor unions and big rail business profiteers — a project justified by obviously fraudulent “facts” — could and should constitute an entire college political science course on how government REALLY works. Of course, it won’t make the course list (or even be mentioned as an aside in the classrooms), but collegiate pro-socialist bias (with the … Read More

Given my strong desire to see that President Barack Obama is returned to the private sector after only one term — it is pretty alarming to me how dispassionate, or non-interested I am in this new battle for the Republican nomination between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. While I had endorsed Texas Governor Rick Perry early on, and still feel strongly that of all of the contenders he would have made the best President, unfortunately he did not make the best candidate.

I could pen two entire columns (or more) on Romney and Gingrich, and the particular aspects of each that have them fall significantly short of where I need a candidate to be to get excited and motivated. I presume that as we get into the summer, and the throw-down with Obama becomes more imminent, that my need to get Obama the heck out of the White House will trump my current malaise about our Republican offerings, and inspire motivation and activism from this party leader. I sure hope so.

I will say that I did wake up with some clarity this morning, relative to the South Carolina victory of Gingrich last night. While I am not pro-Romney or pro-Gingrich (to be sure), I was very… Read More

In a partial rebuke to the City of San Diego that will likely have broader implications, a federal court today declared unconstitutional a city-hoped for $1,000 limit on the amount political parties can donate to local candidates, while further striking down the existing prohibition on candidates spending personal money 12 months in advance of an election.

In a summary judgement on nine separate cross-motions in the case of Thalheimer vs. City of San Diego, Chief Judge Irma Gonzalez of the U.S. District Court’s Southern California division ruled in favor of some of the plaintiff’s motions, while denying others, as follows:

City prohibition on candidates spending their own money prior to the twelve-month period — GRANTED for Plaintiffs. City barring the making and accepting contributions prior to the twelve-month period — GRANTED for the City. City imposing a $500 limit on individual contributions to candidates — GRANTED for the City. City ban on contributions to candidates by political parties — GRANTED for … Read More

I am very pleased to announce that we have a new addition to the FlashReport Blog Roll — our good friend Mark Standriff. Most FR readers will know Mark for his most recent professional sojourn as Communications Director for the California Republican Party — a position from which he is departing this week. With the election year upon us, Mark is engaging in a lot of fun new activities, which I am sure we will hear about as Mark is none too subtle about his actions and projects. Actually, one of the reasons I invited Mark to write for us is because, like me, he believes that politics is a contact sport!

Hailing from Toledo, Ohio, and being blessed with a face for radio (but fortunately a voice for radio as well), Mark has been a successful on-air radio personality. He is a talented media relations pro, and coach on public speaking. He’ll be a fine addition to this page.

Because we are trying to butter up the new guy, we’ve inserted a great photo of him (circa 2007). As things go, if it gets rocky, we’ll pull out some of our more recent photos that may not be as flattering…… Read More

I have joked that Jerry Brown is That 70’s Governor, but I was wrong. We have put a medieval doctor in charge of our sick economy.

What do I mean? Simple. Prior to the advent of modern medicine, doctors believed that the way to cure a disease, any disease, was to bleed the patient. Stick some blood sucking reptile on the patient, slit their wrists, or use some other rather gruesome blood sucking device on the patient and bleed them until they were cured. More likely than not, the patient was so sapped of nutrients and strength, that the blood sucking killed the patient, and not the disease.

California’s economy is seriously ill. As one who moved from the blood sucking side of the economy to the nutrient side, trust me, our economy is dying.

And what is our Governor/doctor’s solution? Slit our wrists, and bleed the disease out of us.

Except it is the blood suckers that are killing us. Whether it is the government unions, or the ecoterrorists, or the massive bureaucracies, or any number of other people who make money off of the government, these blood sucking ticks (as the old joke says about the meaning of the word… Read More