Socialized Medicine: The final committee mark-up in the House for the socialized medicine bill finished late Friday evening with the bill passing by a vote of 31-28. Five of the "Blue Dog" Democrats (Gordon, Hill, Harman, Ross, and Space) who had previously opposed the bill, voted in favor of it, with the announcement of some minor modifications. Three other "Blue Dogs" (Matheson, Barrow, Melancon) voted ‘No.’ In essence, the bill is the same as it was before. What’s interesting here is that Committee Chairman Henry Waxman called for the vote on the bill when there were still 52 amendments pending that had neither been debated nor voted upon. The Chairman provided a vague promise that those amendments would be heard in September.

So why take a vote on a bill that supposedly isn’t done yet? This is pure speculation on my part, but I suspect that those who are pushing this mess (including the President and the Speaker) want to show momentum before the August recess. That’s to be expected, but the Republicans in Congress and the majority of Americans, who oppose this increase in taxes, costs, deficit, debt,… Read More

Federal judges have just told the state of California to release 43,000 prisoners due to prison overcrowding. Lets leave aside, for the moment, that the Democrats in the Legislature have caused this overcrowding because they have not allowed the construction of any new prisons in over 15 years (the Democrats have been waiting for this order for that entire time, since they dont think that criminals should be in prison). That is the real cause of this overcrowding. But this is a time to make lemonade out of this federally imposed lemon.

For years, the federal judiciary has been pushing itself more and more into the operations of state government. Tossing out the 1994 initiative prohibiting payment of welfare to illegals (and thus resulting in California having the largest welfare roles in thenation), telling how to spend our money, forcing us to provide better medical care to prisoners than most law abiding citizens receive, dictating spending, welfare and medical policies because some left wing interest group doesnt like the policy choices the state has made. The courts have turned the principle of federalism on its ear, intruding more and more into state… Read More

A recent email from Friends of the Earth caught my eye because of its involvement with interenational trade in Southern California and proposed regulations form So Cal’s air quality regulatory agency.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently held public workshop sessions to explore the concept of a vessel speed limit as a means to address air quality and emissions from ships transiting Southern California waters to and from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. You’d join me in being surprised to learn that the "Air Resources Board" might implement its mission through vessel speed limits in offshore and near shore waters.

And, you may also have heard that reducing vessel speed limits could help "save the whales."

Not long ago, a cruise ship impaled a fin whale in Pacific Northwest waters en route to the Port of Vancouver. The ship’s bulbous bow struck the whale in the soft underbelly and carried the animal on its hull into port, where the incident was discovered. It’s not… Read More

Congratulations to David Harmer, who as one of the Republicans running in the special election in Congressional District 10 in the East Bay Area, is now the officially endorsed candidate of the California Republican Party. In special elections, the State GOP's bylaws permit a pre-primary endorsement.

Harmer is an impressive candidate, a successful attorney with a strong resume of conservative involvement. His dad is former California Lt. Governor John Harmer, a great guy.

It's very likely that if I lived in CD 10, I would vote for Harmer in the September primary. That primary, on both sides of the aisle, is loaded up with a vast number of candidates. While technically anyone getting more than half of the vote in that primary, under the rules governing special elections, would win the election outright, there is more chance of President Obama passing an income tax cut for wealth Americans than anyone winning this race in September.

It's because of the fact that this race will be decided well after the primary that I voted against a pre-primary endorsement for Harmer as an elected party officer I believe the bar must be set… Read More

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that a panel of three federal judges ruled today that California must release 44,000 prison inmates in the next two years. According to the Bee’s Kevin Yamamura, 44,000 inmates amount to more than 1/4 of the state’s entire prison population.

Apparently California’s crowded prisons are violating the "rights" of the incarcerated. In their opinion the judges ruled, "…(T)he rights of California’s prisoners have repeatedly been ignored. Where the political process has utterly failed to protect the constitutional rights of a minority, the courts can, and must, vindicate those rights." These three judges have placed the “rights” of the imprisoned above the rights of law-abiding citizens. How long before one of these prisoners commits another crime? Can we expect lawsuits from future victims of these early-release prisoners?

Obviously, with the state in such a dire financial condition, building new prisons won’t be a priority for the legislature—especially when “vital services” like welfare can’t be cut. This should… Read More

California pork highlighted in this WSJ Political Diary Post from Steve Moore…

What Are They Shoveling?

The Obama administration is defending its slow pay out of stimulus money by insisting that the agencies are making sure the money is going for useful and efficient projects. Only about 8% of the money has been spent so far, even as unemployment has climbed every month. Auditing these stimulus projects to root out waste and pork is a worthy objective, since no one wants $800 billion in earmark projects for bridges to nowhere.

But the administration has recently started posting the projects that are funded on its website… Read More

Former Southern California journalist and long-time Capitol Hill correspondent for ABC News Linda Douglass is like many who have moved through the revolving doors of politics and the communications world. Linda, with whom I worked many times during my years on the Hill, is serving as the chief White House communicator on all things health reform related.

Today, she’s making news in Politico, the inside-the-beltway multi-media outlet, with an interesting direct-response to the Drudge Report regarding "coverage" of the health care reform debate.

The back story offers valuable insight into the evolving relationship between politics, the media, and the manner in which we communicate with the public. Earlier this week, Drudge/Breitbart posted headlines and links to stories with which the White House took exception. The White House returned the salvo with it’s own packaged "news" piece, hosted by Douglass. The line between news and… Read More

I just read a funny line from a Jack Sieglock news release touting his fund raising prowess and name ID. With just seven donors to his 2010 bid for the Assembly District 10 seat, Sieglock has topped the $100,000 mark ($100,000 came from himself).

But my favorite line in the release reads:

"Moreover, since the June 30th deadline, Sieglock has brought in an additional $50,000 in contributions and commitments."

Perhaps I have cause to be angry at my friend Dana Reed, one of the top political lawyers in the state who usually keeps me posted on important new developments in campaign finance law even though he rarely gets to send me a bill. Dana, has the FPPC ruled that candidates must track "commitments" to their campaigns? I doubt it. What a nightmare that would be.

I am a donor to Sieglock opponent Paul Hegyi so I doubt the Sieglock campaign will take advice from me. But this is a good lesson for other campaigns. Promoting commitments in a news release does not pass the smell test.… Read More