Over the past decade, I have really gotten to know and develop a friendship with former Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez. I spent years working closely with his wife, Elaine, and can tell you they are great people. Don’t let Gaddi’s unique talent for working for agencies and organizations that we here at the FlashReport think should be abolished, keep you from admiring the man, and his dedication to public service. After President Bush was elected to office in 2000, Gaddi was appointed as the Director of the United States Peace Corps. You know, that place where American tax dollars, taken coercively from taxpayers, are they used as a "forced charity" to help other developing nations. (I’m sure Gaddi loves my editorializing in this introduction – not.). Nevertheless, in his time with the Corps, Gaddi brought the institution to new levels, and literally traveled the world over for years, as a good will Ambassador of the United States. Now, Gaddi is… Read More

From today’s WSJ Political Diary E-mail:

Subprime Workout

The retirement wave hasn’t been all bad news for House Republicans. More than a dozen Republicans will be leaving Congress after 2008, but several of them are handing over much of their campaign accounts to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has been struggling all year to get out of debt and catch up with its free-spending Democratic counterpart.

Departing Louisiana Rep. Jim McCrery gave $200,000 at a fundraising meeting held by the House Republican Conference two days ago to retire the NRCC’s debt. New Jersey’s Jim Saxton, sitting on a war chest larger than $1 million, is expected to… Read More

Perhaps one way that Arnold Schwarzenegger can untangle the Environmental Protection Agencies denial of a waver for California so it can set its own emissions standards would be to actual become the Director of the Federal EPA… There is one candidate for President who is talking about having Arnold his his cabinet, and he’s not eRepublican…

(h/t to TK)… Read More

Today it was announced that the California Chamber of Commerce has officially come out against what we call the “Fabian Nunez Career Politician Term Limits Loosening Initiative” aka “The Big Lie” measure.

The Chamber’s opposition is a clear sign that the business community has had its fill of the hubris of Fabian Nunez.

I’m sure we’ll have more on this later on…… Read More

After Friday, the FR main page will be on haitus until we return in full-force starting Wednesday, January 2nd (we’ll still have plenty of good reading on this blog page). On the 2nd, we’ll be announcing the FlashReport 2007 Legislators of the Year. We will be singling out for honors one member of the State Senate, one member of the State Assembly, and one member of the California Delegation to Congress.

The FlashReport team will be huddled over the holidays looking at everything from voting records, to effectiveness, to support of the conservative cause.

As an FR reader, we invite you to make your suggestions to us, along with your reasoning. If you send in an e-mail, your name will be held in confidence, but we’ll give you direct feedback. Or you can send in your suggestion anonymously.

Thanks for your input… Read More

Yesterday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, former chief over at Goldman Sachs, appeared in Stockton yesterday to talk about the challenges facing many who took out subprime loans. The question you have to ask Secretary Paulson is whether he plans on playing the part of the Grinch, stealing Christmas from all of those who did not decide to engage in riskly loan taking. Because that seems to be what he and other advocates of taxpayer support/bailouts of those adults to decided to take out sub prime loans for whom that decision is not working out. Government intervention into the mortgage lending marketplace will result in two things. The first is that it will artificially keep home prices higher, keeping a whole group of non-risk takers who have been waiting for the market to come down from being able to buy or upgrade their homes. The… Read More

After twelve years of misrule by arch Leftists in South Korea, Koreans repudiated the pro North Korean anti American government by electing conservative Myung Bak Lee, President by capturing more votes that all 9 of his opponents combined.

Korean Americans in California are vitally interested in the US having good relations with their mother country. With over 500,000 Korean Americans living in California, many now reliable voters, the hope that the left wing government would be removed was rewarded last night. Many of the… Read More

The impending Christmas holiday, which cannot be waived even with a 2/3rds vote of Congress, has motivated lots of deal making, and Congress will adjourn for the year sometime tonight. Here are some of the things, in addition to the energy bill and the budget which I told you about yesterday, that are on their way to the President’s desk:

•TRIA: A 7 year extension with some positive modifications to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act which was put in place after the attacks of 9/11. This provides federal government reinsurance so that the private market can profitably offer terrorism risk insurance on major commercial properties around the country. This compromise was more than the no extension that some wanted and less than the subsidies that others wanted. •SCHIP: After a year long and often bitter fight over whether to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan to cover adults and middle class children (basically a step to socialized medicine), the Democratic leadership backed down and relented to a 16 month extension of the current program with some program revisions. This bill passed with a vote of 411-3. The floor speeches from… Read More