Feinstein Knows Best… As for the much ballyhooed Dianne Feinstein “hearing” in San Diego on Tuesday, during which she lectured local officials on how to properly prepare for and ultimately fight fires …you know, she may be right about some of her charges, but mostly for the wrong reasons.

Anyone actually believing that having the title of U.S. Senator means one knows more about firefighting than local officials (or firefighters), I sure would like to hear your position on all firefighting services being administered at the Federal level. Now, there’s a proposal that would ensure more efficient delivery of public safety services.

Before anyone follows Di-Fi’s lead and raises taxes for more firefighting capabilities, please do tell where all our Prop 172 funds are currently going.

Additionally, the phrase often missing in these post wildfire debates is “defensible space.” Once again, just as in 2003, a direct link exists between defensible space around a home and whether the structure survived. It’s not… Read More

[The following is a guest commentary penned by former FlashReport Managing Editor and Fred Thompson supporter Nicholas Romero who attended the Thompson rally yesterday. – Flash]

Yesterday morning I had the great pleasure of attending a rally of roughly seven hundred experienced conservative activists who all came together in the City of Laguna Woods to listen to and support former United States Senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson. What a great event. Don’t believe me? Check out the Orange County Register’s write-up or the Los Angeles Times’s piece.

Former KFI radio host, now documentarian John Ziegler emceed and began the proceedings with a couple of zingers. (He, of course,… Read More

On Friday I took the opportunity to critique the CNN/YouTube GOP Presidential Debate — where I candidly expressed my disappointment of the video questions that were selected for that event. I figured that I would swing back and take a moment to highlight what I felt was the low-point of the affair…

GOP Presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani were asked about whether they support taxpayer subsidies for American farmers… Both of them gave answers that were extraordinairily disappointing…. Romney and Giuliani both know better, and so I would catagorize this as political pandering at its best to corn-belt voters in Iowa and thereabouts. Check out this segment… : There are several basic… Read More

On Friday I took the opportunity to critique the CNN/YouTube GOP Presidential Debate — where I candidly expressed my disappointment of the video questions that were selected for that event. I figured that I would swing back and take a moment to highlight what I felt was the low-point of the affair…

GOP Presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani were asked about whether they support taxpayer subsidies for American farmers… Both of them gave answers that were extraordinairily disappointing…. Romney and Giuliani both know better, and so I would catagorize this as political pandering at its best to corn-belt voters in Iowa and thereabouts. Check out this segment… : There are several basic… Read More

Not wanting to be contrarian to all the recent voices for the Governor to call a fiscalemergency special session to deal with California’s critical budget crisis – but if he does – nothing will happen.

Sure – a "Fiscal Emergency Special Session" sounds great, and it would be great if Prop 58 (which created this authority) had any teeth in it. But Prop 58 was written as window dressing for Prop 57(the $15 Billion Deficit Bond) that the governor and the Democrats really, really wanted to bail us out of the Gray Davis deficit crisis.

Prop 57’s basic concept was for California to go into more long-term debt to pay off itsshort-termdeficit – which without Prop 58 to make it look like "real reform" would never ever have made it past the voters. (consumer warning: don’t attempt this at home – you will go bankrupt)

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

UPDATE: Incident OVER.

While not neccessarily a CA story, it is an incredible story.

We all have campaign "war stories" — but I’ve never seen anything like this:

Campaigns & Elections Update Friday Nov. 30, 2007 Man Takes Hostages at Clinton N.H. Campaign Office; Senator Cancels DNC Speech

Just thirty minutes before U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was scheduled to address the crowd at the Democratic National Committee’s fall meeting in Vienna, Va., her speech was canceled. Hundreds of her supporters filed out as news spread of a hostage situation at the senator’s Rochester, N.H. campaign office. Early reports of the situation have a man taking at least one hostage in the office. WMUR-TV in New Hampshire is… Read More

Not wanting to be contrarian to all the recent voices for the Governor to call a fiscalemergency special session to deal with California’s critical budget crisis – but if he does – nothing will happen.

Sure – a "Fiscal Emergency Special Session" sounds great, and it would be great if Prop 58 (which created this authority) had any teeth in it. But Prop 58 was written as window dressing for Prop 57 (the $15 Billion Deficit Bond) that the governor and the Democrats really, really wanted to bail us out of the Gray Davis deficit crisis.(update: please see Steve Maviglio’s comment below – I had orginally misnumbered the Props and he was kind enough to point that out – in his heartfelt way) Prop 57’s basic concept was for California to go into more long-term debt to pay off itsshort-termdeficit – which without Prop 58 to make it look like "real reform" would never ever have made it past the voters. (consumer warning: don’t attempt this at home – you will go bankrupt)

Prop 58 is rife with loopholes. It sounds awesome… Read More

The editorial below ran in the Riverside Press-Enterprise today.

Budget Denial

As deficits ramp up, Democrats need to quit ducking touch choices By SENATOR JIM BATTIN

I know in polite society we aren’t supposed to say "I told you so," but listening to the latest budget news out of Sacramento, I couldn’t help but think it.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst, Elizabeth Hill, announced this month that California’s budget situation has "deteriorated" by almost $6 billion since the budget was signed in late August. As a result, next year’s budget deficit is conservatively estimated at $10 billion, up from about $3 billion this year. I say conservatively because state revenues are in a tailspin and the deficit could easily be billions of dollars more.

If this sounds like a broken record, here’s why:… Read More