There are a lot of reasons why the massive state government expansion into California’s health care marketplace is a bad idea. But there is a very good chance the the proposals by the Governor and Democrats violate the Federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. FR friend and San Diego Union Tribune editorial writer Chris Reed has been the loudest trumpet on this issue, but now six Assembly Republicans have signed a letter to Democrat Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, Chairman of the Health Committee, formally requesting a hearing to examine how ERISA might impact proposed plans… The signers were all five GOPers on the Health Committee, along with the Assembly Republican Leader: Dr. Alan Nakaniski, Dr. Bill Emmerson, Ted Gaines, Bob Huff, Audra Strickland, and Mike Villines. The letter is thoughtfully written, and worth a looksee. It’s linked below.

I’m not sure that actual legitimate policy concerns matter much to the Nunez machine, on their endless quest to expand the size and scope of state government… But I am proud that Assembly… Read More

Well, I don’t there is such a caucus, but there is no doubt that if there was one, it’s Chairman would be none other than Orange County’s Assemblyman Mike Duvall.

I get LOTS of e-mail newsletters from state legislators (if I am not on your list, you should add jon@flashreport.org), and today I received Duvall’s Dispatch. I ‘lifted’ this cool photo of the Assemblyman straight from it…

Did you know that Mike Duvall was born on Flag Day? See what you can find out by reading legislative newsletters? Of course, Duvall does not mention that he shares a birthday with none other than Donald Trump!

Perhaps when ill-fated attempt to extend term-limits fails next February, Duvall can go up to Fabian Nunez, and say,… Read More

I don’t have a problem with what Ann Coulter has to say. That’s her right. Her "side show" is all about making herself a pile of money, selling books, and getting obscene speakingfees. But I do have a problem with her doing what she does at the expense of the credibility of the conservative movement. Conservatives and conservative organizations need to rethink continuing to empower her by paying her speaking fees and providing crediblefora forher self-serving antics.

Ann of course is known as the journalist who at the national Conservative Political Action Conference last March sullied the reputation of former Senator John Edwards by callinghim outas a "faggot." Now she is at it again against Edwards. "So I’ve learned my lesson," she said ona recentABC program. "If I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

When Coulter appeared Tuesday on MSNBC’s "Hardball," Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the former Senator,called in to ask Coulter to stop making personal… Read More

As the drama regarding the resignation of Michael Kamburowski has been unfolding, I had been hoping that I could get someone on the CRP Board to shoot me straight, explain what actually went on, and tell me how this, let’s call it a “diversion” from Ron Nehring’s ‘Strategic Plan,’ happened in the first place.

But as I woke up yesterday, I never thought it would be as easy as clicking onto the San Francisco Chronicle’s website and reading it straight from the mouth, or I guess rather the keyboard, of the CRP’s National Committeeman, Tim Morgan.

Tim wrote about what a “sad day” it was for the CRP. And in one respect, he was correct. It is a sad day when a CRP Board member goes to arguably the least Republican friendly newspaper in the state to try to air the Party’s dirty laundry and attempt to distance himself from an unfolding controversy.

Beyond the fact that his own piece highlights Tim’s irrelevance on the CRP Board – that not a single other… Read More

Last Wednesday I featured a guest commentary is this space from State Senator Tom McClintock. Entitled Ethanol Economics, McClintock made the case against a recent decision by the California Air Resources Board to mandate that by 2010, every gallon of gasoline sold must be made up of at least 10% ethanol.

Bonus link: What is ethonal? The Wikopedia entry is here.

Today I am pleased to feature a ‘rebuttal piece’ penned by former California Secretary of State Bill . Jones, the Republican Party’s nominee for U.S. Senate a few years back, is now the Chairman of the Board of Pacific Ethanol:

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

This morning, I went through my usual routine of getting up, turning on ‘The Higglytown Heros’ for Ella, putting a pot of coffee on to boil, and reading the news. Near the top was the latest installment from the San Francisco Chronicle, entitled “State GOP Chief Flayed Over Scandal”.

Now I grew up in a small country town of fewer than 900 souls. I’ve seen a hog bled, boiled, and flayed. It’s not a pretty sight. And unless you have dogs around, there usually there is considerable clean-up involved. So the Chronicle painted a pretty ugly picture in my head of what they were about to do to Chairman Ron Nehring.

But then I actually had to laugh out loud. Literally. The best quote the Chronicle could get ‘flaying’ Nehring was from San Diego’s own pro-illegal immigration activist and all around gadfly Raoul Lowery Contreras. Specifically:

"I have talked to a number of money people, and they have told me as long as Nehring stays chairman, they will not give a dime," said Raoul Lowery Contreras, a Southern California GOP activist who writes the CalNews.com blog and has called for Nehring’s resignation.… Read More

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Last week, I had an opportunity at the invitation of the California Chamber of Commerce to participate on a couple of panels at a meeting of their advocacy council at the Chamber’s amazing offices a block from the State Capitol. Right before lunch, as a panelist, I got to take on 3-1 odds going up against three proponents of weakening term-limits, Rob Stutzman, Tim Hodson, and the iniative’s chief flack Gale Kaufman. The lunchtime speaker at the event was none other than conservative syndicated columnist Bob Novak. Below is an article that Novak penned, inspired by his recent visit to the Golden State…

As I read it, I tried to remember the Governor, in all of his recent lobbying of Congress to take on the battle against global warming, just once call for making permanent the tax cuts passed a few years back…… Read More