I have not even had a chance to read the attached report from the Fair Political Practices Commission Subcommittee on Internet Political Activity. I wanted to post it asap. I will read through it at the same time as the rest of you..… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal… Jerry Brown’s Pension Punt The California Democrat won’t consider 401(k)s for state employees. The race for California Governor ought to come down to which candidate has a better chance to rein in the special-interest asylum that is the state legislature. Republican Meg Whitman is a conservative former eBay CEO but a political rookie, while former Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is a liberal but might be quirky enough to do a Nixon goes to Sacramento. Judging by his recent pension reform plan, however, Mr. Brown still has some relearning to do. This year, the Golden State is… Read More

With the state facing what is now a $19.1 billion budget shortfall, as we sit here now over a month into the fiscal year without a state spending plan, you can expect to see a lot of “creative” ideas coming out of liberal politicians who are desperately trying to close the budget gap while minimizing more cuts to state government spending. That having been said, virtually all of the one-time gimmicks and accounting tricks have already been used before reaching this point.

No one should be surprised that the latest “creative idea” to come out of the Capitol, purportedly floated by State Senate President Darrell Steinberg, is – you guessed it, another tax increase. His proposal is to raise most income tax rates for Californians, while lowering sales tax rates. The basic idea is that income taxes are deductable on itemized federal tax returns, and the swap in taxes would shift a few billion bucks from the coffers of the federal government into state government. John Myers of KQED Public Radio has an excellent summary and analysis of this proposal on his Capitol Notes Blog. I am excerpting some of it below,… Read More

With the state facing what is now a $19.1 billion budget shortfall, as we sit here now over a month into the fiscal year without a state spending plan, you can expect to see a lot of “creative” ideas coming out of liberal politicians who are desperately trying to close the budget gap while minimizing more cuts to state government spending. That having been said, virtually all of the one-time gimmicks and accounting tricks have already been used before reaching this point.

No one should be surprised that the latest “creative idea” to come out of the Capitol, purportedly floated by State Senate President Darrell Steinberg, is – you guessed it, another tax increase. His proposal is to raise most income tax rates for Californians, while lowering sales tax rates. The basic idea is that income taxes are deductable on itemized federal tax returns, and the swap in taxes would shift a few billion bucks from the coffers of the federal government into state government. John Myers of KQED Public Radio has an excellent summary and analysis of this proposal on his Capitol Notes Blog. I am excerpting some of it below,… Read More

This morning the Carly Fiorina for United States Senate campaign is announcing an extensive and impressive group of grassroots leaders from up and down the Golden State who will be leading Fiorina’s ground campaign. We here at the FlashReport are pleased to be the first to bring you this list, which includes many of the best and brightest activists in the country. It is clear, from looking over this list, that Fiorina has quickly put her primary behind her, unifying all Republicans behind her bid to retire incumbent ultra-liberal Senator Barbara Boxer.

“As a political outsider running against an entrenched career politician who has been in Washington for nearly three decades, I need a robust coalition of Californians standing with me calling for new leadership and new ideas in the U.S. Senate,” said candidate Carly Fiorina about the announcement of this great of grassroots leaders..… Read More

Offshore Drilling Moratorium: One of the committees on which I serve is theJoint Economic Committee. This committee is primarily tasked with studying the U.S. economy, and consider factors which affect it. Last week, we had a hearing on the subject of energy. One of the witnesses was a professor from Texas A&M University. He made a very interesting point about the Obama Administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling. Ostensibly, the purpose of this moratorium is to reduce the risk of another oil spill until such time as acceptable oil spill prevention activities are in place, if ever. Interestingly however, this professor challenged that supposition. He pointed out that if the moratorium continues, 150,000 very high paying American jobs will be lost to Brazil, India, and other places for a period of at least 2 years. But in addition to that, the US will be forced to import more oil because of the domestic oil production that will be lost. That imported oil will come into the Gulf of Mexico and other ports, in ships. The professor estimated that it will take 1,500 additional tankers full of oil (roughly equivalent… Read More

Congressman Maxine Waters lovesdictator Castro, accused President Bush as a racist, hates white people and generallydespisesall things American. She is nowthe newest poster gal for what’s wrong with Congress.

The bi-partisan House Ethics Committee is ready to accuse her for major inside bankjobin which her husband is a major stockholder. Last year, One United Bank,a largeminority owned bank, received $12 million in bailout funds. According to the LA Times the funding came after Walters arranged meetings between the bank and the Treasury Department. Three months later the bank got your money.

Today the Flashreport headlines feature that Maxine would rather have a trial than admit fault.

This is good.

80 year old Charles Rangel, formerly chair of the Ways and Means Committee, responsible for tax laws, is accused of not paying his taxes, thus breaking his own laws. He may face trial in September, just a cool 50 days before the November elections.

… Read More

Senators Dean Florez and Darrell Steinberg are high on their soapboxes this week, slamming Governor Schwarzenegger for not signing SB 1121, a bill that would have extended the state’s overtime labor laws to California farmworkers, who currently do not fall squarely under the standard system due to the seasonal nature of their work.

As Schwarzenegger spelled out in his veto message, Florez’s bill would have been bad for both businesses and farmworkers. Since other states do not have these wage requirements, the businesses here in California would just have made more crews work shorter shifts, which would have resulted in lower pay for everyone. And let’s also recognize that California, unlike other states, currently does provide for overtime benefits for farmworkers once they hit 10 hour days or 60 hour weeks.

According to Florez and Steinberg (or more likely the flacks who write their press releases), the Governor’s decision was an act of “sid[ing] with the shameful” or maintaining “discrimination.” Yet before these two finish crucifying Arnold, they should save a few nails for themselves.… Read More