As you have seen over the past couple of weeks, we are very actively ‘enhancing and retooling’ the FlashReport Weblog Contributor Pool.

I am very excited that we have a great team of folks…

From the ‘north state’ (above Sacramento) we have Doug LaMalfa. From the Bay Area, Bill Whalen and Jennifer Nelson. From the Sacramento Area, Tom Ross and Joe Justin. From the Central Coast we have Amy Thoma (though she is on leave as the Assembly Republican Leader, for whom she works, grapples with whether to let Amy continue to write for us…). From the Central Valley we have they ‘shy guy’ Mike Der Manouel, Jr. From Los Angeles we’ve got our high-volume producer, Mike Spence. From San Bernardino County, the one and old Brad Mitzelfelt. From Riverside County, the Howard Kaloogian’s best friend Phil Paule. From Orange County the irrepressible duo of Adam Probolsky and … Read More

One of my favorite Eagles songs is on their Hell Freezes Over album, “Get Over It.” There are days when I just want to hook a loudspeaker to the roof of my car and ride through the streets of California blaring that song.

The song came to mind the other day when Diane Schachterle of the American Civil Rights Institute (Ward Connerly’s 501(c)3) sent me a notice about an event happening in San Francisco this afternoon. While I would have liked to attend, it would have to be with three kids in tow so I won’t, but frankly, I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for it anyway. See, the “Discrimination… Read More

FR friend Shane Goldmacher (who writes for CapWeekly) has reported on his blog that conservative Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes has endorsed…Abel Maldonado in his bid for Controller. On one level, this is surprising because idoliogically and stylistically, Haynes and Maldonado’s primary opponent, former Assemblyman Tony Strickland are very much on the same page.

At first blush, this would simply seem to be a calculated ‘pay back’ from Haynes to Strickland, who has endorsed Haynes’ primary opponent in his race for Board of Equalization, conservative businesswoman Michelle Steel.

The key difference here, of course, is that Haynes and Steel are both hardline conservatives. So you can’t really say that someone is more or less conservative based on which of the two someone endorse. Either Haynes or Steel would be a marked improvement over Claude Parrish, who seems to relish the regulatory role of the BOE, instead of seeing it as a resource to come to the aid of taxpayers.

Anyways, I think I am… Read More

Having ADD as bad as I do results in me being able to only focus on one type of music at a time, and for now, it’s JR’s "Live At San Quention". The first song from that concert is "Big River"….my son totally digs it too…and it’s pretty timely given the story Dan Walters wrote today. I’ve professed to being no Dan Walters before and for having a complete lack of interest in policy, but I think I was one of the earlier folks around who was able to grasp the political ramifications (points for big words?) of a levee rupture in the Delta. Heck I think Schnur must have read one of my posts detailing my thoughts that if a levee were to break,… Read More

Fella’s it’s time fer a posse. Round ‘em up.

No, that’s not a line for a Wild Bill Hickock stage play, but it very well could be something that Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio may have recently said.

The NY Times is reporting that Sherriff Arpaio has rounded up a posse of 300 civilian volunteers to be on the lookout for illegal immigrants being smuggled across the border. (The AP wire is reporting that the posse consists of sheriff’s deputies as well as members of their 3,000 member reserve of trained civilian volunteers.)

To put this into the matrix of California politics, since that’s what we talk about here at Ye Old FlashReport, you need to read the post made last night by Duane Dichiara and the letter he posted that was penned by a certain congressman you may have heard of a time or two, Congressman Darrell Issa.

I’ll cut the good stuff because, well, it’s just that good. In his letter to Homeland Security Honcho Chertoff, Cong. Issa demands that his department immediately… Read More

David Drucker penned this piece in today’s Roll Call Magazine:

CALIFORNIA Businessman Will Reveal 50th District Plans Soon Millionaire businessman Eric Roach (R) may be out, but another millionaire businessman, Bill Hauf (R), said he is very likely in and will mount a challenge to ex-Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) in the 50th district GOP primary on June 6 < even as the former Congressman battles Democrat Francine Busby the same day in the special election to replace ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R). "I can tell you that if I go ahead it will be… Read More

A couple of weeks ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called together a group of leaders of taxpayer advocacy groups in his office in Sacramento. The purpose of the meeting was two-fold — for the Governor to restate his commitment to holding the line against any new taxes, and also to strategize about how to tackle the upcoming state budget negotiations. I asked FR friend Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, who was at that meeting, if he would put pen to paper (or is that fingers to keyboard?) and tell us all about that meeting. When reading his piece, featured today on the main page, I was especially pleased to hear that the Governor made it clear that his opposition is to new taxes and to NEW FEES. As Coupal points out, this will foreshadow a host of vetoes during this legislative session as the Democrats love to pass fee increases left and right. Coupal’s piece ends with a warning, though. Which is that holding the line on taxation is very important, but that the big challenge ahead of the Governor is the reigning in of spending…. … Read More

A couple of weeks ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called together a group of leaders of taxpayer advocacy groups in his office in Sacramento. The purpose of the meeting was two-fold — for the Governor to restate his commitment to holding the line against any new taxes, and also to strategize about how to tackle the upcoming state budget negotiations. I asked FR friend Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, who was at that meeting, if he would put pen to paper (or is that fingers to keyboard?) and tell us all about that meeting. When reading his piece, featured today on the main page, I was especially pleased to hear that the Governor made it clear that his opposition is to new taxes and to NEW FEES. As Coupal points out, this will foreshadow a host of vetoes during this legislative session as the Democrats love to pass fee increases left and right. Coupal’s piece ends with a warning, though. Which is that holding the line on taxation is very important, but that the big challenge ahead of the Governor is the reigning in of spending…. … Read More