Today, in a sharp step away from the free-market principles of Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman, Govenor Schwarzenegger has entered into an alliance with the most liberal elements of our State Legislature to impose government price-controls on prescription drugs.

THIS IS HORRIBLE PUBLIC POLICY.

I cannot say it any better than Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia in the following statement just released from his office:

“Republicans agree that expanding access to prescription drugs is an important priority, but we have many serious concerns about this prescription drug plan.

“By forcing companies to cut drug prices through price controls, which is the practical effect of this measure, we will jeopardize the development of life-saving drugs for all 35 million people in our state, drive up health insurance costs for all insured Californians, and threaten the jobs of thousands of highly skilled workers in this critical industry.

“Using a heavy-handed approach to force drug companies to participate may have the unintended and dangerous consequence of taking away critical medications for vulnerable Californians… Read More

Last night Mike Osborn was elected Chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party by a 2/3 supermajority. It’s no great secret that the Ventura Republican Party has had a checkered and troubled past – torn and tattered by ideological and personal feuds. This overwhelming demonstration of support for Osborn gives the committee the rare opportunity to refocus on the basic tasks of a County Republican Party: registering new Republicans, enlisting and training precinct captains for advocacy and gotv programs, recruiting GOP candidates, and raising the money to accomplish those goals. None of those tasks are as fun as fighting over party leadership or passing resolutions, but for a political party to be meaningful those are the jobs that need doing.

Congratulations to the Ventura County Republican Party for an orderly election, and congratulations to new Chairman Mike Osborn.… Read More

OK, so we thought we knew how far to the left Phil Angelides is. We knew he was hanging out over there in the nosebleed seats high above left field with Mark Leno and Howard Dean. But now we see he’s barely in the ballpark at all.

Angelides has a bona fide, unabashed socialist working on his behalf. He’s making TV appearances on Angelides’ behalf and writing blog posts at a pro-Phil website.

And guess what else? He’s a union organizer, and he used to be a national official for the Young Democratic Socialists.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

OK, so we thought we knew how far to the left Phil Angelides is. We knew he was hanging out over there in the nosebleed seats high above left field with Mark Leno and Howard Dean. But now we see he’s barely in the ballpark at all.

Angelides has a bona fide, unabashed socialist working on his behalf. He’s making TV appearances on Angelides’ behalf and writing blog posts at a pro-Phil website.

And guess what else? He’s a union organizer, and he used to be a national official for the Young Democratic Socialists.

His name is Daraka Larimore-Hall, and on Tuesday he appeared as a surrogate for Angelides on Santa Barbara TV, defending Angelides’ plan to dismantle Prop. 13.

Larimore-Hall, who says he’s a PhD student in sociology, is one of the principal writers at a new website that insists it is not affiliated with the Angelides campaign, but posts campaign material and helps get people to Angelides’ campaign events.

You should read what Larimore-Hall’s Young Democratic Socialists are all about, taken from its website:… Read More

Like my favorite HBO series Carnivale, I’m taking a brief hiatus. I’ll be back blogging for FlashReport sometime mid-September.

Going on a trip or looking for a short book to read over Labor Day? Check out Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, forward by George Weigel, who wrote an interestingbook entitled, The Cube and the Cathedral.… Read More

Here are some thoughts, in no particular order, on the passing scene…

– At the CA Majority Report kickoff event, I was surprised how many Democrats I was meeting for the first time were quite candid in their expectation that Phil Angelides would lose. Some were senior Dem strategists.

– I know Ben Lopez. Ben Lopez is a friend of mine. Ben Lopez is not Lou Sheldon.

– I got irked that someone from the Governor’s Team tried to console me on the minimum wage increase by saying that at least we didn’t get stuck with indexing the minimum wage to inflation. Given that there zero GOP votes in the legislature to override a veto of ANY hike in the wage mandate, it wasn’t too much comfort.

– The most surreal moment of my week came when I saw the words “Flash Report” come out of the mouth of Gray Davis.

– The big education bond measure on the ballot should be called the “Blue County Bond” – a local school district has to put up matching funds to get the bond funds, but only liberal areas will pass local tax increases to create the matching funds.

– The OC Board… Read More

For a number of years now the San Diego Republicans and the Orange Republicans have argued good-naturedly which organization was most capable of doing the basic jobs of a county party: registering voters, recruiting candidates, turning out the vote, and raising money. The record has been back and forth, with surges in activity from either county that thinks it’s visibly slipping.

So as a San Diego partisan who lived and worked in Orange for a couple years in the Fuentes era, I was interested in an email that come through the pipes today describing what sounds like a little competition between the two counties. I like competition. Competition is usually pretty good in determining winners and losers. Looks like Orange County Young Republicans and San Diego Young Republicans have a little wager over which club can recruit the most volunteers for the Republican Party during the dog days of summer. I hear the winner gets bragging rights and BBQ – and that the losers are humiliated in a manner not befitting description for the gentle readers of this blog.

I also hear the Orange County Young Republicans are getting lapped like I did when I ran the Three… Read More

Over on the new Democrat site, two of the contributors are Gale Kaufman and Alan Arkatov. I probably would have been prepared to proclaim Kaufman to be the bigger union-hack of the two, just because she has a much higher profile, and has been so engaged on the front-side of pro-union causes. But I have now got some actual empirical evidence that officially gives the "Tip of the Cesar Chavez Grape Basket" to Kaufman…

Yesterday at the big lefty website kickoff event, I spoke with both Gale and Alan, and they both gave me their business cards… Only Gale’s was printed with the official union bug. Alan, does this mean you are ready to embrace paycheck protection? Maybe even become a GOPer?… Read More