You Will Be a Lot Less Safe on Saturday: A debate has been raging here in Washington for over a year now over the parameters by which our intelligence officers and military personnel can monitor phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists. At question is whether a foreign to foreign phone call that is routed through a switching station in the US is subject to US privacy laws even though both the caller and receiver are in foreign countries. Also at issue is US officials must get a warrant before listening if one of the persons is a known terrorist and the threat is perceived to be imminent.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill by a vote of 68-29 which was an agreed upon compromise supported by the President, all Republicans in both houses and, obviously, a substantial bi-partisan majority of the members of the Senate. This bill would extend and modify the so-called Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Only the most liberal Senators opposed it. Senators Obama and Clinton interestingly did not vote on this bill. If it had been put on the House floor, it would have passed easily with support from all Republicans and many moderate Democrats.… Read More

President Calderon of Mexico is about to address the California State Legislature. The Office of Speaker Fabian Nunez has just sent out notification that President Calderon will give his speech in Spanish (non-Spanish speaking legislators will be able to listen, U.N. style, with headsets and the use of a traslator).

I would totally understand and appreciate this if President Calderon did not speak English. But he speaks perfect English (see the video below).

So exactly what point is it that he is making today with this decision?

It would be great if somone could explain it to me. I have no doubt that if Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke Spanish fluently, and he were giving an address to Mexican government officials, in Mexico, he would give it in Spanish.

His predecessor, Vincente Fox, spoke in English when he addressed the California Legislature…

… Read More

There is not even one vote in the Assembly Republican Caucus to raise taxes. Period.

I keep reading, on occasion, that every Republican in the State Assembly but one has pledged not to raise taxes. And while that is true, it doesn’t do justice to Republican Assemblyman Roger Niello. I have spoken with this man, and I think it is more likely that I will register as a Democrat than he will support a tax increase.

The confusion, if you want to call it that, stems from the fact that last year when all of Niello’s colleagues signed the Americans for Tax Reform "No New Taxes" pledge, in which each signer commits that they will oppose any attempts to raise taxes on their constituents. Everyone signed it but Niello.

But Niello’s decision not to sign was not because he ever envisions supporting a tax increase, but due to a philosophy about taking "pledges" — he just doesn’t think he should sign them.

But he is not alone. There are a lot of politicians who, for one reason or another don’t want to sign pledges. For the purposes of this blog post, I will simply use California GOP Congressman… Read More

Update: Apparently President Calderon is giving his address as I write this, in English! Good for him. That said, below is the text of the memo that was e-mailed from the Speaker’s office to Assembly offices, stating that Calderon’s address would be in Spanish (hence my post below this one).

DATE: February 13, 2008 TO: Assembly and Senate Offices FROM: Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez SUBJECT: Distribution of Headsets for President Calderón’s Address – February 13… Read More

On behalf of the FlashReport, I participate in a weekly conference call with conservative bloggers from around the country. It would be more accurate to say that those conservative bloggers in D.C. get together once a week, and many of us in the 50 call into those meetings.

Yesterday the featured guest was our own FR blogger, Congressman John Campbell.

Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation took video, and has uploaded a bevy of videos of highlights of Campbells remarks. I will put one below, but see them all here.

Aren’t we lucky to have John Campbell in Congress? YES!!!

JOHN CAMPBELL ON EARMARKING AS A ‘GATEWAY DRUG’ TO HIGHER SPENDING… … Read More

State Senator Tom McClintock is so popular with California Republicans that a lot of people, joking around, say that he could win a primary for any Republican office anywhere in the Golden State. Well, if we needed some proof that this very well may be the case, you need look no further than a survey, released today, that shows Tom McClintock RUNNING AWAY with the GOP nomination for Congress in the 4th District, where incumbent John Doolittle is retiring. The survey, commissioned by Ted Costa and long-time McClintock confidant John Stoos over at Constitutional Advocates, and conducted by the very reputable Moore Information public opinion research firm, shows some pretty powerful numbers for the termed-out State Senator. The survey of 300 registered Republicans in this conservative Republican district that is east and north of Sacramento was conducted Monday and Tuesday, and showed that McClintock with 43% of the primary vote followed distantly by Doug Ose at 11% and Rico Oller with 6%. [The memo on the survey results, and the questions asked, are attached… Read More

When government agencies or programs provide help or services to children, for some unexplained reason, they are magically bestowed extra credence and autonomy.As a result, those programs are often given unrestrained freedom in spending money and running their programs. Generally, the programs have very little oversight. However, some agencies have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in funding programs that have benefited children very little…and may have even endangered them. This situation below provides a chilling example.

According to the Los Angeles Times (February 7, 2008), “More than 50 people have been charged in a massive childcare fraud ring operated in part by a federal prison inmate and his wife….”The prisoner-led group was able to do major damage as it “bilked taxpayers out of at least $3 million.”

The clever couple… Read More

Incumbent Members of Congress don’t lose, right? Certainly not their own party’s nomination, right? Well Rep. Wayne Gilchrist of Maryland, who was registered to vote as a Republican, liked to vote with House Democrats so much that he garnered a primary opponent in Andy Harris, a strong conservative. This primary challenge to Erlich was backed by, among others, former Maryland Governor Bob Erlich. The conservative Club for Growth weighed in heavily as well (to the tune of over $500,000!) — check out the ad below. Well to make a long story short, last night Maryland Republicans in Gilchrist’s district spoke loud and clear — tossing the liberal Republican out on his ear, and handing the GOP nomination to Harris.

This is a very positive thing because it shows that at the local level, Republicans want to send Representatives back to Washington who will stop the liberal agenda of Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts, not ones who will seek to work with her towards her goals.

For the most part, we have lived in a "weak party" system here in America. After all, take a country… Read More