IS PHIL ANGELES CRYING? I’m sure Phil Angelides is crying somewhere right now, depressed that he is not in Sacramento to sign the outrageous shift towards socialized medicine that has been passed by legislative Democrats and placed on the Governor’s desk. Much time has been spent on this page criticizing Governor Schwarzenegger for his own proposal to significantly increase the size of government and state government’s role in health care. That said, today is a good time to take a pause, and appreciate that the extreme agenda of Don Perata and Fabian Nunez is too far to the left, even for the port-side shift of Schwarzenegger. The Governor has vowed to veto AB 8 and he should be applauded for doing so. Perhaps if Mr. Angeles is bored, he can print out a copy of AB 8 on his computer, and sign the bottom of it. That’s about all of the relevance that he will have in this process — thank goodness!

THE LINE IN THE SAND ON REDISTRICTING REFORM Lost in all of the press on this healthcare debate is the… Read More

Just six years ago, our two oceans protection strategy crumbled.Radical Islam’s resurgence came swift and deadly.Central Europe faced the same resurgence just 324 years ago.

My family visited Vienna last summer. When we asked the hotel’s concierge where we would find Monuments of Vienna’s most important day, the Siege of Vienna by Muslim Jihadists in 1683, the otherwise bright guide didn’t understand my inquiry.

In Sept 11 and 12th of 1683, the Ottoman Turks, after years of planning, had Vienna under siegeby hundreds of thousands of soldiers. After hundreds of years and countless victims conquering Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania and most of eastern Europe, the Turks were determined to conquer Europe. The most effective soldiersfor the Turks armies were the legendary Janissary. Mostly composed of Greek and eastern European Christian boys seized from their families to create a "new soldier". Much like the modern day totalitarian armies, boys, as young as… Read More

I didn’t go to the California Republican Party convention this past weekend, but I did read Governor Schwarzenegger’s already-notorious speech. You can read it here.

I don’t think any serious Republican disputes the Governor’s assertion we need to bring more independents into the party. That’s not exactly a revelation. We are losing folks to the DTS column.

But it’s hard to take the Governor’s prescription seriously, in no small part because it comes from the Governor.

Let’s take this line for example:

But being a Republican is important to me. This party is important to me.

Really, Governor? The moment Phil Angelides won the Democratic primary, it was crystal clear you were going to be decisively re-elected. If the party was "important to you," expending serious resources to help elected other Republicans to statewide offices would have been a concrete way of showing that. The reality is Arnold is all about… Read More

Apparently the prison guard’s union is skulking about the capitol, looking for some crony to carry a bill that will give them a big, fat pay raise. They’re unhappy with the near-$1 billion raise that the state has already offered them as part of contract negotiations.

Rather than keep negotiating, they feel entitled to circumvent the state entirely and just ask legislators for a check. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I’m incensed by this flagrant abuse of power and access. But it might surprise you to know that another union, that of the California Highway Patrol -is also fed up with the infamous “Devil’s Deal” contract negotiated by the prison guard’s ultimate crony, Gray Davis.

The bill that CCPOA is floating is motivated by nothing but greed, greed and more greed. It keeps the tie to CHP salaries-nevermind that the union representing these dedicated, brave and hard working law enforcement officers wants nothing to do with CCPOA. This bill gives the equivalent of a whopping 23 percent salary increase over three fiscal years, to the tune of $882 million. And it will cost the state nearly $650… Read More

Update: AB 8 passes tonight by a vote of 45-31…heading for the Guv’s guillotine. [After terms like health care being "a right" were used in the debate.] I wonder who has "the right" to then pay for that "right", the children of parents who have to spend even more time at work to pay for this "right" conferred by goverment to others?Does government have the answer when it is only willing to add to the mandatesthat drive upcosts, nottackle the cost drivers, the litigation, thediscouragement of competitition, the illegal immigrants receiving benefits not playing by the immigration rules? We are a compassionate people that will help the deserving. This isn’t the answer.

After passing out of the Senate earlier 22-17, with 2 Dem "no" votes, the discussion is now on our floor, of taxing businesses to pay for health care for all. The Guv has sent a memo out promising a veto on this measure. This discussion could go for an hour or two, with a known outcome. Maybe we can come back later and address what drives… Read More

The fact that Sen. Don Perata is under FBI investigation is not news. However, I have had two contacts with folks in Sacramento that are teling methat rumors are swirling that he will be indicted in a week. Just after this week’s session is over.

If true, Perata becomes the main face of the ant-term limits campaign. Time will tell.… Read More

Amidst the steady stream of stories of ineffective bureaucracy, poor tracking, and management mishaps that cost the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) millions, we rarely see a story about the school district failing to pay its own. Just when we thought it could do that part of its job correctly, the LAUSD proves us wrong again.

According to The LA Daily News (August 27, 2007), "Seven months after Los Angeles Unified rolled out a $95 million computerized payroll system, school officials are prepared to pour at least another $37 million into the project to fix thousands of problems as [the district braces] for the start of the school year." We have become anesthetized to absurd figures concerning LAUSD’s waste, the United Teachers Los Angeles President explains, "[However, this situation is] an 8.9 on the Richter scale… It’s very bad[,] and it promises to get worse when [the] traditional school [year] starts." LAUSD’s interim chief operating officer explains that "the… Read More

From today’s WSJ Political Diary… (Thanks for the shout-out!)

Governor Moonbeam II

California Republicans met at their convention near Palm Springs this weekend and heard two starkly different messages. Their own "post-partisan" governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, called on them to embrace the fight against global warming, support huge tax increases required by his universal health care plan and otherwise move to the center. Otherwise, he warned, the GOP would be "relegated to the margins of California’s political life."

The governor’s message was received with tepid applause, with some delegates sitting on their hands. The atmosphere dramatically changed only minutes… Read More