Some rumblings and grumbling, as the President’s visit to Stanford is a few hours away.

1) Good article in this morning’s Chronicle _http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/21/BUGGKICDG41.DTL_ (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/21/BUGGKICDG41.DTL) on the various tech programs floating around in Congress. Watch and see if Reeps and Dems can come together and hammer out a deal that includes more federal spending for math and science, visas for foreign tech workers, and making permanent the federal R&D tax credit.

2) Such a deal underscores an urgent White House need: the President calling a meeting with congressional leaders and delivering a lecture that falls somewhere between Robert DeNiro swinging a baseball bat Moe Howard slapping around Larry and Curly. The clock’s ticking at the both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to get something before the midterm elections and the topic’s are stacking up: tax cuts, immigration reform. The President shouldn’t let tech fall between the cracks.

3) The President is at Cisco in a short while. Last month, Treasury… Read More

Just when folks thought the recall of the pro Wal-Mart was finally over the Ninth Circuit may decide in one way to bring it out. As FR readers recall (get it?) the a panel had ruled the recall petitions needed to be in various languages. A judge then stopped the recall election from taking place using this case has his reason. This casemay also effect initiatives. See last post on this hereand you can see FR’s own political law expert Mike Houston’s take here. Now that case is going to be heard by an en banc panel off 11 judges. See the article here.… Read More

The following from Ken Moser, a perfect voter in CD 50. This, of course, addresses nothing about the quaility of the pieces or the mail universe, but it does (except perhaps for Kaloogian) reflect somewhat of a correlation between the numberof pieces and outcomes….that’s probably a "DUH," but it is interesting to see the numbers:

I just went through the pile of mail I had gotten for the election to do a count and here it is:

Bilbray – 20 pieces of which two were in letter format one of which was from Mayor Sanders

Roach – 19 pieces of which six were in letter format two from his wife and one from former Congressman Packard

Uke – 10 pieces of which two were in letter format

Morrow – 9 pieces of which two were repeats of the same mailer and one letter format from his mom

Kaloogian – 4 pieces

Hauf – 4 pieces

Earnest – 3 pieces

CRA – 3 pieces hitting Bilbray

NRP – 1 piece asking GOP voters to… Read More

First a quick thank you to FlashReport publisher and friend Jon Fleischman for allowing me to be the guest commentator for today.

In today’s news… Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials conducted raids throughout the country rounding up 1,187 illegal aliens from the workplace including two locations in CA (Bakersfield and San Bernardino). The announcement yesterday was hailed by some and condemned by others.

I am unimpressed.

The Department of Homeland Security is playing games–shucking and jiving–to make it look like they are doing something when they are falling down on the job. I can walk into the kitchen of… Read More

**While the main page today has been Guest-Edited by Nicholas Romero, the FlashReport is pleased to welcome as today’s Guest Commentary Author Adam Probolsky. A regular FR contributor as an Orange County correspondent for the FR Weblog, Adam is penning today’s Commentary as Jon Fleischman, the site’s publisher and regular author of this column, is out of town.**

In today’s news… Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials conducted raids throughout the country rounding up 1,187 illegal aliens from the workplace including two locations in CA (Bakersfield and San Bernardino). The announcement yesterday was hailed by some and condemned by others.

I am unimpressed.… Read More

I just reviewed the SF Chronicle’s photo gallery of the President’s visit. Most of it is sadly predictable for a paper that’s rarely kind to Republicans: lots of protestor shots; Bush making a goofy gesture.

But one photo in particular — drew my attention. It’s an allegedly disaffected Republican holding up a sign saying he’s given up on the GOP.

In fact, the photo is almost too cliche to be believable, which made me immediately suspicious. So I did a little Internet sleuthing, and here’s what I found . . .

Turns out the sore "Republican" — a Palo Altan named Jeb Eddy — is in fact a regular at anti-Bush protests, as reported in this post.

It get worse. Mr. Eddy likes to give money to Democrats.

Perhaps worst of all: the Chronicle fell for Mr. Eddy’s act during its coverage… Read More

In LA County the Republican Governor’s appointments to LA Superior Courtrun 2 to 1 in favor of the Democrats. Today he announced three appointments. Ray Jurado, Steve Blades and… Read More

Some thoughts on the President’s Friday visit to Silicon Valley, which includes a stop at Stanford University and the Hoover Institution, my neck of the woods.

1) Like most Bush visits to California, it’s amazing how the local media manage to whip themselves into a frenzy over what amounts to so little. The last time I checked, the President is going to talk about education, workforce preparedness and economic competition at Cisco Systems. Bush couldn’t be on safer nonpartisan ground. That’s followed by a skull session with the big brains at Hoover. Yet the press can’t get enough about the Dubya-Arnold rapport, or lack thereof. And this afternoon’s addition of the Hoover stop had reporters trying to add all sorts of intrigue to what otherwise would be a run-of-the-mill presidential visit were it not for the big guy with the Austrian accent who’s bumming a ride from the San Jose airport.

2) What does the President get out of this trip, aside from the satisfaction of once again snubbing the 415 area code? Maybe a road trip/road test. Look at what’s on the President’s California… Read More