California politico Steve Schmidt, former head honcho of the 2006 Schwarzenegger re-election and big wheel in the campaign of ersatz President John McCain was interviewed on the radio show of longtime FR friend Hugh Hewitt. Hugh posted the transcript of that interview up on his blog here.

On Miss California Carrie Prejean’s statement in support of traditional marriage:

Louis Winthorpe III has been supplanted as the most-famous "Louis" by former California Assemblyman Louis Caldera who yesterday did an appropriate sword-falling regarding his decision to approve the VC-25A flyover of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty area. (It’s not "Air Force One" unless POTUS is aboard). As we know from the teleprompter "whoops" story yesterday, President Obama was not aboard.

We hadn’t heard what had become of former Secretary of the Army, Caldera but I have now learned he landed at my alma mater (CSU system) as well as the University of New Mexico where it turns out after he left the office of university president, per his contract, he kept a tenured faculty position. Nice work if you can get it. He is currently serving in the Obama Administration as the head of the White House Military Office, the division that coordinates military-related travel, ceremonies, etc…

Here is the Journal’s coverage of the flyover kerfuffle and… Read More

The Academy has the Oscar, the TV folks have the Emmy and the American Association of Political Consultants has the Pollie. Today, I inaugurate the Snoozie. The Snoozie is warded to the most boring political advertisement during a campaign.

The winner for the special election of May 19th is…..Abel Maldonado and his web ad for Proposition F. A friend told me that a photo ofyours trulywas used in this ad as a “party boss” and that I should check it out. Some friend.

About a minute into the ad I figured F stood for the fork I would need to stab my leg with to focus. Mercifully, a picture of me, FR publisher Jon Fleischman, Art Torres and Nancy Pelosi appeared as part bosses.

A professional may have found photos of people that would be more recognizable, but hey. The bad part was there was over 3 minutes left to watch. Proposition F may really not mean anything, but the public relations value could be valuable, but not like this.

On the plus side, Maldonado wasn’t chewing gum while he lectured us.

You have been warned. Watch at your own risk.… Read More

I have been fascinated by the Governor’s insistence that Prop 1A will "solve" the problems that have led to the current budget crisis. As in Proposition 58, the Governor capitulated to the demands of the Democrats, gave them in this case their tax increase, and got nothing in return. The Democrats and their staff acted much like tailor in the Emperor’s New Clothes, and now the Governor is parading around the state showing them off. Just like the emperor in the story, this Governor is showing off just how little he got for his capitulation to the lefties in Sacramento.

I read Bill Leonard’s commentary on Prop 1A, and its flaws as a spending limit. His conclusion was that it would not be effective as a limit because of the loopholes. He did say it had a better reserve than the Gann limit, because Gann had no reserve, but remember, during all of the time that Gann was in effect, no reserve was necessary because Gann limited spending in the first instance, that is, when the money was first being spent, rather than after spending had ballooned. The salad days of the 80’s saw revenue grow as fast as it is now, but the state… Read More

As some great ‘philosopher’ once said, "Just because you’reparanoid doesn’t mean they’renot out to get you."

Yes, and just because the media is hyping this flu thing up the ying-yang, doesn’t mean there isn’t at leastsome cause for caution and concern.

So, actions by the State Department beg the obvious question. If the Feds are saying no to all "non-essential" travel into Mexico, why are they not limiting any travel from Mexico into the United States?

The message seems to be clear from the State Dept: We don’t want a bunch of folks traveling south of the border and getting sick, then bringing it back to the U.S. But it’s okay if the flu bug gets brought directly to the U.S. from south of the border.

The reason for that bit of logic seems obvious as well: We don’t want to offend anyone. How nice of the Feds, to not wantto hurt anyone’s feelings.

Congressman Duncan Hunter notes the apparent hypocrisy…

Limit Cross-Border Traffic Until Swine Flu is Contained… Read More

In San Francisco this weekend Mike Antonopoulos was elected Chairman of the California College Republicans. The vote for Chairman was 400 to 18, or thereabout. The Antonopoulos slate of candidates won by similar margins. Antonopoulos attends St. Mary’s College where he is in his fourth year.… Read More

Just boarded my Southwest flight from The OC to Sacramento — my first return visit to the roost of big government since the state GOP convention back in late February.

As always, my eyes are peeled for that one politico I need on my flight to prove the, “there is always someone I know on a flight to Sacramento” theory.

Well, once again, I am safe — as on this flight are two state legislators and a local politician.

Hanging off the left wing of this Boing 737 is Alex Padilla. On the right wing is Chuck DeVore. That leaves Laguna Niguel Councilman Paul Glaab and me to keep the plane flying straight… Which begs the question… Will we make it to Sacramento since this plane will be veering right the whole trip?

Wheels up!… Read More

If you still read newspapers, do you ever wonder how they decide what to run? By way of Instapundit, I found this interesting blog post by Doug Ross, “The curious case of 200 nearly identical headlines.” http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/04/msm-complicit-in-full-court-pr-push-for.html

Recently, Ross found so many similar stories on people who lack health insurance in newspapers across the country he collected them until he realized there were too many to count. The stores presented a one-sided look at the uninsured in America with statements like “1 in 3 Coloradans lacked health insurance of last two years.” And “1 in 3 are uninsured in Georgia, study says.” The stories relied on one source for its facts, Families USA. Families USA is part of the “Progressive States Network” with far-left groups like Acorn, the Center for American Progress, the Universal Healthcare Action Network, etc. They share a liking for bigger government and socialized medicine.… Read More