Quote of the week: “No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while Congress is in session” – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

The House of Representatives adjourned for the year on Wednesday night. So, as Samuel Clemens so aptly stated, your property and freedom are safe until January 12th, 2010. You all know that the Senate is still wrestling with their Health Care Bill. Thus far, the absence of the government run part is a good thing, laregely because it is therefore unlikely to lead to full-blown socialized medicine. That’s why Howard Dean and other unabashed socialized medicine advocates are now against the bill. But the bill still stinks because it will raise taxes and costs on every single American who currently has health insurance in order to create a new expensive bureaucracy in an attempt to insure the uninsured. If this bill were to pass, it would not surprise me if health insurance costs rise by about 30% on everyone because of the resulting taxes on insurance policies, new mandated coverage’s, and expanded costs. I just don’t see how the President and the Democrats believe that this will help people or… Read More

This is a remind that today is the last day of publication of the FlashReport’s main news link page for the year. As has been our tradition since we went online in 2005, we gives the "elves" the weeks of Christmas and New Years off in order to recuperate and get ready for the busy new year.

The main page returns on Monday, January 4, 2009. We’ll include a look back at some of the major stories (if any) that took place during the brief hiatus.

The FR Blog page will be up and running during the holiday season, and look for action there — especially if there is breaking news.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

I just read a rather insightful and witty column over at the Fox & Hounds Daily website. You should check it out here. Oh yeah — the author is…me! ;-)

The column is a bunch of random thoughts — here are a few (see the whole version through the link above.)

It is ironic that Courage Campaign is out there trying to compare Meg Whitman to Sarah Palin – I really don’t see where the two of them really have anything in common — the intellectual New England woman, with a penchant for over-analysis, versus the free-spirited “frontier girl” from Wasilla Alaska with a tendency to shoot from the hip.

People keep asking me which of the myriad of reforms coming our way next year via the ballot box will help put California back on the right… Read More

As you may know, earlier this year I submitted the Vote SAFE Now initiative (which would require voters to produce photo identification at the polls) to Attorney General Brown’s office. While the California Constitution requires the Attorney General to write fair and balanced title and summaries, what Brown wrote for the Vote SAFE initiative was politically tilted and factually incorrect. As a result, I sued Brown this past fall.

Brown’s latest attempt at the title and summary for the Vote SAFE initiative is materially more accurate than the prior version. Thus, I have dropped the suit. It’s not perfect, but we believe we can move forward with the language in all but one respect.

However, I still plan to re-submit the initiative this week to the Attorney General in an effort to bring clarity to one of the initiative’s provisions – the one which would allowthe county registrar of voters 15… Read More

This is a remind that today is the last day of publication of the FlashReport’s main news link page for the year. As has been our tradition since we went online in 2005, we gives the "elves" the weeks of Christmas and New Years off in order to recuperate and get ready for the busy new year.

The main page returns on Monday, January 4, 2009. We’ll include a look back at some of the major stories (if any) that took place during the brief hiatus.

The FR Blog page will be up and running during the holiday season, and look for action there — especially if there is breaking news.

During our break, the main page will featured exclusive columns from GOP Gubernatorial candidates Tom Campbell, Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman — and U.S. Senate contenders Chuck DeVore and Carly Fiorina. We’ll also have a special feature column from GOP consultant Dave Gilliard on why the so-called "open primary" that was birthed during the horrible February budget deal earlier this year is bad, bad news for Californians.

As always, your feedback is welcome.

Jon Fleischman, Publisher

… Read More

The Tony Amador for Congress campaign has actually put out a release that highlights Amador’s endorsement from the Sheriffs of Sacramento, Merced and Solano counties. While that’s fine and dandy even though none of those counties are part of the 11th Congressional District, it’s pretty amusing to see they added a scorecard on the release stating "Primary Scoreboard: Amador 3 Goehring 2." I guess it’s hard to be a good scorekeeper when one campaign is playing on the junior varsity level and being dominated in every aspect of the game by a clearly superior opponent.

Maybe it’s just me and I could be wrong here being that I’m biased and all in favor of my client Brad Goehring, but it seems to me you might not want to highlight the fact that your opponent has the support of the Sheriffs who represent the two largest counties in the district and are very popular and respected officials while your endorsements mean ZIP, ZERO and NADA in the 11th Congressional district.

Or maybe you would think of avoiding discussing endorsements when Brad Goehring has not only locked down the support of those two local Sheriffs but… Read More

The Lieutenant Governors race is sure different than just a few months ago. Back in that day Sen. Jeff Denham had been campaigning for over a year. His successful defeat of a recall aimed at his “no” vote on a bloated unbalanced budget allowed him to raise money and develop contacts statewide. Sen. Aanestad had jumped in and need to raise money quick.

Today, Denham is running for Assembly, Aanestad still needs to raise money (he can win if he can get his message out)and the Governor has vaulted Sen. Abel Maldonado into the LG race. Whether he is confirmed or not, Maldonado is in the LG race to stay.

It is no secret that with a little money a candidate can beat Maldonado in the GOP Primary. It is difficult to choose which betrayal of mainstream GOP and Californian voters to list as a reason to reject his candidacy, but I hope someone does an ad about his signing the no new tax pledge and then voting for huge tax increases. (His consistent betrayal of the GOP core principles and his ability to break his word does explain why he is good fit for the Governor as LG.)

So now that the field has changed, does Bill Simon say yes to running for LG?

There… Read More

A very important football game will open tomorrow night a 8:00 pm at Home Depot Stadium in Carson, CA, home of the LA Galaxy Soccer Team. It is the CIF Division 1 high school football championship game between Bellarmine College Preparatory, representing northern California, and Oceanside High School.

Bellarmine, a "Jesuit institution" as Tom Fuentes would say, and my alma mater, has always had a great football tradition but this is its first trip to the CIF finals. When I was a student at Bellarmine, I was the "manager" of the freshman football team. (That means I got cut but the coaches and players liked me hanging around.) During my high school years, Bellarmine’s quarterback was Dan Pasterini, who went ontothe NFL as Houston’s first string quarterback. Bellarmine’s challenging Western Catholic Athletic League includes Serra High Schoolin San Mateo, whose football top-gun when I was at Bellarmine was a guy named Lynn Swann, who went on to USC (another alma mater of mine) before he joined the NFL Steelers(Serra was also home to current Patriot’s Q-back Tom Brady, and S.F. Giant home run… Read More