The media, public and politicians have all lost their minds on the "health care" issue. The media doesn’t understand it, the public is being goaded into socialism and the same politicians that haven’t fixed anything in years think they have answers. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Stupidity reigns in the debate.

I blame the GOP. We had six promising years in charge of the entire federal government and didn’t reform a damn thing, in fact, we actually created the largest new entitlement program in 50 years, Medicare Part D, and then underestimated its cost by half. In doing so we abandoned the argument that government and health care are a terrible mixture, and so now we can’t even oppose HillaryCare on the grounds of limited government.

In Sacramento, the Governor’s "idea" is a new tax on providers. Can we channel his mentor, the late Milton Friedman, into the discussion? This is about as anti-free market and anti-capitalist as it gets. Worse, the California Restaurant Association and Hospital Association actually voted to support the tax. I can hear it now: "its the best we… Read More

"Everything is on the table," said Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday, when asked whether he would support a statewide sales tax, in this case, as part of a massive government intervention into health care in California. The Governor said that he could support placing a tax hike on the ballot on which Californians can vote. Presumably the Republican Governor, after negotiating such a "deal" for California taxpayers, would then advocate its passage as well. Shame on Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don’t know how to sugar coat this, so I will just say it like it is — he lied. He lied to me, he lied to his supporters and he lied to all Californians. When he campaigned for re-election last year, he said he was "moderate on social issues, progressive on environmental issues, and conservative on fiscal issues." I cannot remember a stump speech that the Governor delivered to Republican activists, and I heard quite a few as a grassroots supporter of his campaign, wherehe did not flat out state his opposition to raising taxes, period. There was no audible "asterisk" qualifying his opposition… Read More

Presidential candidate U.S. Senator Sam Brownback has confirmed he will be a speaker at the upcoming Western Conservative Political Action Conference in Newport Beach on October 12-13.

A copy of the current conference agenda is attached. Other confirmed speakers include Mike Reagan, who is the General Chairman of the Conference and will be leading a panel on the Conference’s theme, "Preserving the Reagan Legacy." Other top speakers who are confirmed include State Senator Tom McClintock, Dave Keene (Chairman of the American Conservative Union);Joel Fox, President of the Small Business Action Committee; Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.; Lew Uhler, President of the National Tax Limitation Committee; San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus; radio-talk show hosts Melanie Morgan (KSFO San Francisco), Gregg Jackson (WRKO Boston), and Mark Larson (1700 AM, San Diego); and Hoover Institute Fellow and author Dinesh D’Souza. A host of other conservative elected officials will be on hand, including a number of other presidential candidates to be confirmed, and the agenda is being updated daily as new… Read More

I’ve been dreading my birthday next month. Despite the anticipation of the outpouring of well- wishes from my fellow bloggers and readers of the Flashreport, I’ve been having a tough time with this one. It’s not the reality that I am aging. It’s notthe struggle to reconcile the middle-aged figure in the mirror with the high school kid who occupies my head. ..No, it’s, it’s…….

It’s because on this birthday my drivers license expires and I have been dreading the trip to the DMV to get the thing renewed.

Then, on August 26, I received a notice that I could renew by mail or on the internet. Sure, I thought. Now, not only is the DMV screwed up -but now they’re mean and they’re teasing us, too!

So I called their bluff.I went online that day at10:27:19 AM and ordered my drivers license. Took me 3 minutes. Even got a printed receipt. I have to admit, I dared to hope this would work.

Well, today my license arrived in the mail. It worked.

Now, Idon’t advocate turning healthcare over to the government, or trusting it to raise my… Read More

Today’s Capitol Morning Report outlines the announcement of GOP Assemblyman Benoit’s"There Ought To Be A Law" Contest for high school students. I know the object is to get kids involved in the political process and that is good.

And I don’t mean to pick on John. He is a good man, but the problem is that this contest presumes there should be more laws and more controls by a bigger government. Sen. Tom Harman did such a contest and then took the idea from one kid to force other kids to "volunteer" before they could graduate. Sen. Harman and this kid didn’t see that forcing someone to "volunteer" means you are no longer "volunteering".

Republican lawmakers should show leadership and help kids learn. They should sponsor "There Ought NOT To BeA Law" contests among high schoolstudents.Turn these kids loose on the thousands of pages of Education Code and have them come up with something that needs tobe repealed.

Shouldn’t we send… Read More

"Everything is on the table," said Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday, when asked whether he would support a statewide sales tax, in this case, as part of a massive government intervention into health care in California. The Governor said that he could support placing a tax hike on the ballot on which Californians can vote. Presumably the Republican Governor, after negotiating such a "deal" for California taxpayers, would then advocate its passage as well. Shame on Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don’t know how to sugar coat this, so I will just say it like it is — he lied. He lied to me, he lied to his supporters and he lied to all Californians. When he campaigned for re-election last year, he said he was "moderate on social issues, progressive on environmental issues, and conservative on fiscal issues." I cannot remember a stump speech that the Governor delivered to Republican activists, and I heard quite a few as a grassroots supporter of his campaign, wherehe did not flat out state his opposition to raising taxes, period. There was no audible "asterisk" qualifying his opposition… Read More

I would like to extend a very special FR “greetings” to the newest member of our blog team — Matt Rexroad! For those who do not know Matt, he is a seasoned veteran political consultant and activist. He is a Yolo County Supervisor (I know, most of you have never heard of Yolo County — it’s west of Sacramento County). He’s a husband and a father. And, of course, he’s a Republican. Matt has a keen sense of politics, is articulate, and occasionally funny. Please welcome Matt — his first post is below!… Read More

The situation regarding the appointment of Erwin Chemerinsky as the Dean of the law school at UC Irvine is another example of the one way street regarding political views in academia. When Chemerinsky and his liberal political views were not welcomed by conservative commentators the purists in academia went on a rampage. They claimed it was a violation of academic freedom.

The response to the outrage has been for UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake to do a complete u-turn (via a trip to Duke University) and welcome Chemerinsky to UC Irvine with a joint statement on "academic freedom".

At UC Irvine the faculty agrees with Chemerinsky so they demand that he be able to serve as Dean.

Meanwhile at UC Davis and with the UC Regents the view of academic freedom has a very different conclusion. This article in the Davis Enterprise explains how former Harvard President Larry Summers was "uninvited" to be a speaker at a meeting of UC Regents.

The UC Davis faculty does not agree with Summers so he is not allowed to speak to the… Read More