I thought FlashReport readers would get a kick out of my friend Grover Norquist’s (Americans for Tax Reform) letter to President Bush late last month about all the bailouts, auto, bank, and otherwise. Grover’s letter is extremely short, encapsulates the "true conservative" view, and is attached!!!… Read More

California’s new legislative analyst issued a report yesterday in which he suggested that legislators might want to place a tax increase on the ballot. Quickly the idea has been embraced by some as some sort of epiphany – a breakthrough on how to get past the political impasse on how to solve the state’s overspending-induced financial crisis.

Not so fast. The legislative analyst (the one who, along with his predecessor, has joined in the “we need new taxes” chorus) seems to be drawing the most bizarre of trivial distinctions – the difference between voting to raise taxes, and casting your vote to place a tax increase on the ballot. That may seem like a huge difference to some liberal with a razor sharp focus on what is always the goal – increasing the size of government. But from where I sit on the conservative – libertarian side of the isle, they are one and the same.

We live in a democratic (small d) republic, we the citizenry select, through elections, people to represent them in office, and make decisions.… Read More

Yesterday I sat in the back of the Governor’s press conference room in the State Capitol, and listened to the Governor talk about the current status of budget negotiations. He basically said that Democrat and Republican legislators were putting more energy into disagreeing that in trying to negotiate a solution to the current fiscal crisis. He summarily announced that he would be inviting the “Big 5” to meet tomorrow to kick-start negotiations.

I have some strong advice for the Governor, relative to improving his ability to bring Republicans to the table in a meaningful way. First and foremost, the Governor KNOWS how passionate and outraged all of the Republican legislators were over the end-run on Proposition 13 when the Democrats orchestrated passing billions of dollars in new taxes in both houses on a majority vote, making some bizarre case that because of the circuitous route they took to raise the revenues, they had avoided the 2/3rds vote requirement. In fact, the Governor went into yesterday’s press… Read More

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner has brought onboard one of the nation’s most successful political strategy and media firms to help guide his campaign. Stuart Stevens and Russ Shriefer (Stevens is pictured below left, Shriefer below right) have amassed a pretty impressive record of taking Republican Gubernatorial candidates successfully through primaries and then into Governor’s mansions across the country. Some of their wins included the election (and re-election) of Governor George Bush in Texas, Florida Governor Charie Crist, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich, and Massachussets Governors Bill Weld and Paul… Read More

Yesterday I sat in the back of the Governor’s press conference room in the State Capitol, and listened to the Governor talk about the current status of budget negotiations. He basically said that Democrat and Republican legislators were putting more energy into disagreeing that in trying to negotiate a solution to the current fiscal crisis. He summarily announced that he would be inviting the “Big 5” to meet tomorrow to kick-start negotiations.

I have some strong advice for the Governor, relative to improving his ability to bring Republicans to the table in a meaningful way. First and foremost, the Governor KNOWS how passionate and outraged all of the Republican legislators were over the end-run on Proposition 13 when the Democrats orchestrated passing billions of dollars in new taxes in both houses on a majority vote, making some bizarre case that because of the circuitous route they took to raise the revenues, they had avoided the 2/3rds vote requirement. In fact, the Governor went into yesterday’s press… Read More

As we go into the new year, I want to be able to have more custom designed graphic art on the site. This ranges from customized small images for our main page to help delineate topic areas "Governor 2010" etc to larger more challenging graphics to go into commentary and blog posts to enhance our coverage.

Are you a graphic designer, or do you know one?

First and foremost, we’ll give exposure to you by letting our readers know, periodically, where the good works come from.

Secondly, this is not expected to be a volunteer endeavor. While we would be looking for a good break because this is work for "the cause" and there is a PR plus for you, we’re also sensitive to the fact that some of this kind of work can be time consuming.

Interested parties should drop me an e-mail!

Thanks.… Read More

Apparently Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg wants to limit legislators to introducing only 15 bills. The idea of limiting of reducing legislation in Sacramento is certainly appealing. But given that Steinberg has said that his reason for wanting to set this cap is so that legislators spend their time focusing on the state budget mess — perhaps Steinberg should add another proviso to his suggestion — that no legislation be introduced this year that increases state spending. Now THAT would be substantively helpful to the process. While this modest step wouldn’t solve the current overspending-driven crisis, it would be nice to try to put out this fire without more fuel being added.… Read More

It is good that the Nature Conservancy accepts that the Peripheral Canal is needed to improve the Delta’s plumbing system. However, the Conservancy and other environmentalists also need to accept that a Canal cannot be solely an irrigation system to water the Delta. Such a Canal also needs to serve as a conveyance system to divert water around the Delta for export south to help fund the Delta’s restoration.

Even though the environmentalists agree that the Peripheral Canal would be the best environmental solution, their version of water allocation would mean no water moving south of the Delta. They want "surplus" winter flows to be used to flush the Delta in an artificial version of a flood, and they want the public to pay to store some water behind Shasta and Oroville dams to use in the summer to keep the Delta waterways high. This could not happen without halting exports. In 1982 in discussions with opponents of the Canal, I suggested and offered to support putting Delta flow standards into the state constitution. Standards were designed to be median… Read More