I read this heartwarming article in the Los Angeles Times yesterday: "Route For New Tollway Goes Through Sacramento, D.C."

And why is an article about building a tollway "heartwarming"? Because it details how OC’s Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) — and more specifically, TCA General Counsel Robert D. Thornton — have consistently defeated the efforts of environmentalist Luddites to halt the expansion of Orange County’s transportation infrastructure.

It has long been my considered opinion, based on observation, that compromising with environmental extremists isn’t an option. They must be defeated, not accomodated — politically. legally and rhetorically.

… Read More

A January 10 San Diego City Council Special Election will determine whether reformers or machine types control the council. The reformer is businessman Kevin Faulconer (disclosure: he is a Coronado Communications client) and the machine type is Bustamonte aide Lorena Gonzalez. Today’s Union Tribune editorial:

“Faulconer is a public relations executive who has pledged to support most elements of Sanders’ recovery plan, including a pay freeze for non-public safety workers, increases in worker contributions to the retirement system and contracting out of more municipal services. And, like Sanders, he rejects any tax hike to pay for the oversized pensions of city workers.

Faulconer’s opponent, Lorena Gonzalez, is backed by labor unions that oppose the mayor’s program. An attorney who works for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Gonzalez is bright and articulate. But we fear she would be a consistent vote to stymie San Diego’s financial recovery effort, which is precisely why she has the backing of organized labor. She will not commit to support any aspect of Sanders’ agenda and even refused to respond to his questionnaire probing… Read More

Arnold Schwarzenegger made a very poor decision when he hired Susan Kennedy to be his Chief of Staff. He did so knowing full well that her leadership role in the administration of recalled Governor Gray Davis (Kennedy is pictured, to the right, with Governor Schwarzenegger in the background), as well as her extremely partisan credentials (former Executive Director of the State Democrat Party and the California Abortion Rights Action League, as well as time spent as a senior aide to Democrat U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein) would not sit well with grassroots Republican activists and donors throughout the state. I am not saying that a less-partisan Democrat would have been more readily accepted, but with this pick, the Governor reached for someone with the most patisan resume of Democrat activism possible. Perhaps the Governor felt that everyone would simply understand that he still runs state government, and not to be concerned. This… Read More

The 38th Assembly District takes in huge stretches of Los Angeles County before going into Simi Valley. The stretch includes Sunland-Tujunga, Santa Clarita, Valencia and parts of the San Fernando Valley. Republican registration is at 43% several points higher than the Democrats. In other words very safe GOP District. The GOP primary winner is the winner of this seat.

Liberal Republican Keith Richman is term limited and running statewide.

The race features two Republicans.

Cameron Smyth is the mayor of Santa Clarita and has the endorsements of the Runners, Tom McClintock and almost every politico in the district. He has raised decent money and is conservative enough not to draw an ideological opponent. Smyth is a former staffer for the late Sen. Pete Knight.

So far only one opponent has surfaced. Mary Barrientos has raised very little money—Like really very little. She does sport the endorsement of LA County Sheriff Lee Baca. But he endorsed Smyth as well. She has somecontacts in the San Gabriel Valley- Which is not in this district!

Done Deal. Smyth to Sacramento.… Read More

At o’dark thirty, when I was compiling news stories, for some reason I couldn’t get onto the Sacramento Bee website. There is an article and two columns there that I would have put on the main page (I won’t bother since 2/3 of FR readers have read that page already. Though i will include both of the columns tomorrow. Anyways, here are the three links that should have been on the main site this morning:

DAN WALTERS COLUMN: Governor miscalculated, fumbled as he declared his war. Dan is penning a ten-column series critical of the Governor’s performance.

DAN WEINTRAUB COLUMN: If Arnold could just get ‘er done, he’d be fine.

If you really want to get angry, you can read about the latest chapter in big-government social engineering: Solar plan resurrected by PUC.… Read More

Polish dissident and Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa is said to have inspired U2 to pen the song “New Years Day” back in 1983. I’m sad to say my first exposure to this song was not through hanging out with hip kids, but through their dramatic video showing them as Kossaks riding through the snow.

I was inspired to write this drivel because I was forwarded a web address to a left leaning website that blew me away in its scope and content. It’s called the Daily Kos and my tie in here is that its readers call themselves Kossaks. While I’m sure these Kossaks would be sleeping much better if Walesa had failed, their website is clearly flourishing and we should take note.… Read More

There is no commentary today, as I am out of town enjoying some R & R. However, I encourage you to read this weeks past Commentaries here, and there are great new entries on the FlashReport weblog here. BE PREPARED TO TAKE A VACATION – WE ARE! So that you start to prepare in advance, the FlashReport website will be ‘on vacation for the holidays’ – our last day of publication for 2005 will be on December 24. The site will return on Tuesday, January 3 (that Monday, January 1, is the observed work holiday for NY, which falls on a weekend). During this time, some of the FR bloggers may continue to post, but the main news page not be updated.

We will still publish all of this coming week.

Jon

PS: Please sent all comments and input to me here.… Read More

Last week, I wrote about how the pro Wal-Mart majority of the Rosemead City Council used a liberal ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to undue the scheduled recall against two ofthe majority’smembers. See it here.

Oops again. One memberof that majority (of courseshe is the one not being recalled)changed her mind after the federal government said they wouldn’t punish the city for violating the law. So now the recall is on. See the article here.

Some words of caution for Rosemead voters. In the early 1990’s, I was involved in a successful recall of all five council members in Covina after they voted for a utility tax. Well, guess what? The tax is still there. I’m sure we can all think of examples of recall elections that didn’t work out as well as hoped.… Read More