Today there’s a good news story on the front page of the San Diego U-T about Denny Sanford, a philanthropist who just gave $100 MILLION to UCSD for medical research. A genuinely generous man with a vacation home in La Jolla, his avowed goal is to give away his billion+ dollar fortune during his lifetime. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/nov/03/ucsd-dennysanford-stemcells/

Such generosity is not at all uncommon among the truly rich, though many wait until they die to dispense such gifts. Frankly I think Sanford has the right idea — why not get the heartfelt thanks for such generosity while still alive, and live to see the good that such donations do? He’s EARNED it!

But there’s one aspect of the story that most will probably overlook. Sanford was born and raised in high tax Minnesota. Many years ago after some financial success he decided to buy a small bank business in South Dakota and to move to Sioux Falls. He took that 80 employee bank company and expanded it into the credit card business — two companies that today employ over 3,000… Read More

From San Diego Rostra:

“A recent Garin-Hart-Yang survey shows David Alvarez slightly ahead of Nathan Fletcher for the second spot in the San Diego mayor’s contest.

“Garin-Hart-Yang is a very reputable and likely expensive Democratic firm, also doing polling work for NBC, CBS, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, among others.

“If there is any question whether the Labor Council wants to win this thing and is willing to engage if polling shows Alvarez can make the run off, this might answer it.

“For the pundits automatically assuming a Kevin Faulconer vs. Fletcher run off, take note, there’s a couple of weeks of Donnybrooking left.”

See the polling results at Rostra.… Read More

California is about to mark the one month anniversary of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare.

Since it was first enacted by Congress three-and-a-half years ago, my Republican colleagues and I have warned California families that the Affordable Care Act would mean people losing their current health coverage, having to pay more out of pocket for lower quality care, an out-of-control government bureaucracy and rising costs for taxpayers.

I hate to say, “I told you so,” but this is exactly what Californians have seen with Obamacare.

The problems with Americans having difficulty accessing the website and signing up for a plan have been well documented. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Government officials, including those running Covered California, continue to refuse to release information detailing how many people have managed to fully enroll in a health plan. Taxpayers have a right to know this information.

Covered California is not the only out-of-control government bureaucracy. The same IRS officials who targeted people based on their political views or religious faith have the authority… Read More

The terms “Blue State” and “Red State” were coined about a dozen years ago by journalist Tim Russert and were based on the colored maps being used by the television networks to graphically display presidential election results. Although originally based on the arbitrary decision to label Republican voting states red, and those supporting the Democratic candidate blue, these colors have also come to represent liberal (blue) and conservative (red).

The latest Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Legislative Report Card demonstrates that, in terms of state representation, California continues to be the bluest of blue. But while California has a reputation as being ultra-liberal on a host of issues, for purposes of the HJTA Report Card, we focused solely on how legislative votes were cast on tax issues.

Taken as a whole, the Report Card shows that a preponderance of lawmakers actively support the redistribution of wealth, not from one citizen to another, but from all citizens to the government. This allows the majority party in the Legislature to continue to reward their most active backers, the government employee unions. Government employees in California… Read More

“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.”

– William Pitt, British Prime Minister, 1770

The alleged corrupt behavior of State Senator Ron Calderon has been at the center of California politics since the release by Al Jayzeera America last week of a sealed FBI agent’s affidavit detailing how Calderon supposedly pushed legislation that would benefit a particular business interest, in this case, a movie production company, in return for them “buying off” the Senator with payoffs.

“How could this happen?” — people will ask.

Obviously legislators are human beings, eh? We are all imperfect. So it makes sense that some will be morally lacking. That’s really no different than any other profession.

In the ideal world, everyone would be an upstanding citizen, a Boy Scout, and always do the right thing, even when nobody is looking.

I guess one might argue that politics, as a field, has the potential to attract a higher percentage of people with questionable ethics. What other professions are centered around… Read More

Ouch! That’s the cry of someone trying to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, usually called Obamacare.

Health insurance cancellation notices have gone out to millions of Americans. Many cannot get insurance at all. And for many who can, “premium shock” strikes those seeing their health plans canceled and renewed at higher rates.

Insurance industry experts are warning that two-thirds of already insured Americans will see their current insurance dumped into the hospital waste bin.

Obamacare is supposed to take care of people with pre-existing health conditions. But the actual “preexisting health condition” turns out to be already having private insurance. Obamacare means you have to sign up to find out whether that “condition” still exists — or has been canceled.

Another Obamacare bombshell about to… Read More

Here are some random thoughts for your intellectual consumption…

IDIOTS OF THE WEEK: San Francisco Supervisors Scott Wiener and Eric Mar. These two radical left-wingers have each introduced separate measures before their board that, if passed, would place before voters a two-cent per ounce tax on soda pop sold in San Francisco. Unfortunately, in a city that has embraced nanny-statism as much as Ess Eff has, one can no longer be surprised at these sorts of outrageous proposals. Wiener is the former Chairman of the San Francisco Democrat Party — and Mar was the principle advocate of already-passed big government regulation that prevents fast food restaurants from putting toys in meals unless those meals meet a certain level of nutritious value as defined by the city. It must be very comforting to be one of the shrinking number of parents in The City, knowing that you have your local government making so many parenting… Read More

Last week, a group called Free California announced its intentions to begin recall efforts against five Democratic legislators who voted in favor of stricter gun controls. Widely reported, the groups leader, Jennifer Kerns*, noted that they must listen to the voters and would use the recent recalls of two Colorado legislators as their roadmap.

*Authors Note: I emailed Jennifer for her take on the effort and as of this writing have received no response.

According to Josh Richman’s article in the San Jose Mercury-News, Kerns and her group are targeting ‘swing districts’ in an effort to punish those members for their gun votes.

This strategy is either fatally flawed or a thinly-veiled attempt to push Assemblyman Tim Donnelly’s nascent gubernatorial campaign, for which Kerns also serves as spokesperson.

This is not an objection to holding politicians accountable for their votes while in office. This is not an objection to being upset with a legislator for voting a certain way on an issue – especially one deeply held as guns and the 2nd Amendment.

My objection is that these recall efforts are poorly timed and highly unlikely to… Read More