Most of us are confounded by the teenage drug user who cuts herself to ‘let the demons out’.

Likewise we should be equally disturbed by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s recent sit-down with the Sacramento Bee during which he pronounced his intention to sponsor legislation that would ban fund raising at certain times of the year.

There are so many things wrong with this idea.

**There is more – click the link**

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All of liberalism is one gigantic irony. Irony number 4,382: the big leftist organization is domiciled at www.moveon.org. Why this is hysterical is that the Democrats can’t Move On from anything. The latest evidence of this is the new ad by the California Democrat Party with clips of Arnold’s speech in New York in support of the re-election of George W. Bush. Of course, Arnold was polling at 70% at the time, and things change. But if all the Democrats have is some tie to Bush by Arnold, and this is the "big" reason to elect Angelides, it is truly pathetic. Democrats: Bush beat your asses twice, and he isn’t on the ballot in November. I can understand why you want to hide your candidate, but this is ridiculous and it isn’t going to work. If you can’t think of any other issues to run on just read conservative blogs and you will find plenty of good advice there.… Read More

Last night was one of those nights where you just feel like tossing your cell phone into the swimming pool, or in this case, my friend Mike Schroeder’s swimming pool. Last night there was an intimate fundraising event for Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona at the home of Mike and Susan Schroeder, but I ended up missing most of the festivities as I hunted for that one spot in the backyard of the Carona Del Mar home where my cell phone could get good signal.

I was on the phone quite a bit as there was talk that Bob Salladay of the Los Angeles Times had "gotten a hold" of an audio tape, or a transcription of an audio tape of the Governor, his Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, and a couple of others where there is some colorful talk about Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia, his predecessor Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy and Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia.

It took a while but I finally was able to have someone read to me a copy of the transcribed conversation — and when they did, I said to the… Read More

Last night was one of those nights where you just feel like tossing your cell phone into the swimming pool, or in this case, my friend Mike Schroeder’s swimming pool. Last night there was an intimate fundraising event for Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona at the home of Mike and Susan Schroeder, but I ended up missing most of the festivities as I hunted for that one spot in the backyard of the Carona Del Mar home where my cell phone could get good signal.

I was on the phone quite a bit as there was talk that Bob Salladay of the Los Angeles Times had "gotten a hold" of an audio tape, or a transcription of an audio tape of the Governor, his Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, and a couple of others where there is some colorful talk about Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia, his predecessor Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy and Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia.

It took a while but I finally was able to have someone read to me a copy of the transcribed conversation — and when they did, I said to the… Read More

I am sitting here with Mike Der Manouel, Jr, our Central Valley Correspondent. We just had come over the FlashReport transom an announcement from Californians for Schwarzenegger, announcing that Governor Schwarzenegger and ersatz Governor Angelides will be holding a debate on Saturday, October 7. (Mike points out the cleverness of a Saturday debate as no one will be watching…)

Of course, looking at things through the political prism, conventional wisdom is that the front runner wants to have as few debates as possible and the underdog would like to have as many debates as possible. Each debate presenting yet another potential opportunity for the front-runner to stumble.

So, as Mike and I have been discussing this, we both agree on a two points. The first is that the race for Governor is going to tighten up much more than it is now — as partisan voters settle into their comfort zone as election day approaches. We also agree that debates between Schwarzenegger and Angelides will be one sided, with Angelides… Read More

Yolo County’s strong arm tactics to takeover from private ownership the 17300 acre Conaway Ranch in eastern Yolo County has been thwarted. Eminent Domain was invoked over a yearago by the county since the owners wouldn’t sell, in order to ‘protect’ the ranch, ostensibly. The owners had been operating it as it had been for many years, as a rice farming operation and as duck clubs with much natural wildlife habitat. The owners were even awarded for their stewardship by wildlife organizations. But the county, sensingthat some of theownership, having a history of being in the development history [the horror!]may want to turn the 17300 acres into houses and strip malls, thereby the county must take the land to ‘save’ it! Never mind that about 15,000 acres is virtually undevelopable as it is so highly susceptible to flooding you would be out of your mind to try. Our helicopter ride with the Guv and Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff early this year gave me abirdseye view of the vast majority of the land under several feet of water, up next to the Sacramento River and it’s working, intact levee.

So what… Read More

Some of you may have seen Drudge‘s recent headline, "Fury as academics claim 9/11 was ‘inside job.’" I read it intrigued, as I always am, by these people who have a need to believe in more complicated versions of events. There’s this psychological demand in each one of them that "facts" exist to fit their worldview. They have to believe that President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, the CIA, and the United States military-industrial complex conspired to commit bloodshed in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania or the rest of their worldview won’t line up. They’ll actually experience cognitive dissonance for defending bin Laden, al Qaeda, Arafat, Hamas, Hezbollah, Ahmadinejad, Gaddafi, Chavez, Castro and others if they can’t point the finger at Bush et al for every one of the world’s ills. It’s beyond cynicism. It’s a pathology.

I’ve read the enthralling 9/11… Read More

Last night I did something I haven’t done much of since I moved to the Bay Area: attended a fundraising event for a GOP candidate. Jill Buck is running for the 18th Assembly District against Mary Hayishi, a Nunez appointee to the Board of Registered Nurses and public health activist (click here for more background on the Jill and the district).

I’ll post more on Mary Hayishi in the next day or so, but today I just wanted to bring FR readers up on the Jill Buck campaign. The 18th Assembly district has traditionally been considered a “safe seat” for the… Read More