Better Tell Governor Brown and Step On It, Time’s Wasting

This was being handed to attendees waiting to enter Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium for Gov. Jerry Brown’s inaugural:

(Editor’s Note: Among the reasons for the precision of the May 21, 2011 deadline, as it were, are that it is 7,000 years from 4990 B.C. when Noah built his ark and survived the flood.    Read more »

More

Springing From a Nearby Scrub Room, Dr. Pan Medicine Man!

Not to pick on Dr. Richard Pan Medicine Man, the new Democratic Assemblyman from the 5th District, but he sure has set himself a very lofty bar for 2011.

This has nothing to do with the questionable judgment of the UC Davis pediatrician with a masters in public health from Harvard University scaling back his practice — which actually improves people’s lives  — in exchange for a sojourn on the Capitol’s equivalent of Monkey Island.    Read more »

More

A Lot Has Changed Since Jerry Brown Was Last in Sacramento

A phrase commonly used by Governor-Elect Jerry Brown during his election campaign was that he hasn’t been in Sacramento for 28 years and the state’s current problems are not of his creation.

GOP Gov. George Deukmejian succeeded Brown in January 1983.

The 72-year-old governor-elect has said he may not name a cabinet secretary for education – he didn’t have one before, he notes – and has indicated he intends to shrink the press office and legislative unit in the governor’s office closer to their size 30-some years ago.    Read more »

More

Guest Post by Cindy McNatt of the Orange County Register

I had a fascinating conversation the other day with a San Juan Capistrano rancher — Annie Haven of the Haven Family Ranch.

Not only does she raise free-range, grass-fed, hormone and antibiotic free longhorn and Angus cattle, she makes a delightful manure tea that is good for your garden and is as pure as the cattle that produce it.    Read more »

More

The Manitoba Herald’s Clive Runnels on Illegal Immigration

The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration.  The recent actions of the Tea Party are prompting an exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they’ll soon be required to hunt, pray and agree with Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck.    Read more »

More

Not the First or Last Time That California’s Treasurer Is Right

(Editor’s Note: This post is in “Angry Man” because California’s Capitol tries —  relatively scrupulously — not to express opinions in its “News” section. On November 15, Treasurer Bill Lockyer instructed his designee on the State Public Works Board to vote against early retirement of the debt on 11 state-owned buildings that are slated to be sold to a private entity and then leased back to the state.    Read more »

More

The Campaign Mailbag Runneth Over – Not for Long, Though

During the last two days of the last week of October another 37 pieces of campaign mail arrive.

Being residents of the 3rd Assembly District, which Democrats hope to wrest from Republicans, there is another flurry of missives condemning or praising Democrat Richard Pan, a pediatrician, and Andy Pugno, who claims to be a “proven and trusted local leader.”    Read more »

More

Mail That Follows Like a Tedious Argument of Insidious Intent

During a three-day absence from October 25 to October 27, more than 50 pieces of political mail were delivered.

The stack of mailers is about half as fat as Pascal’s Pensees, padded as the book is with a lengthy introduction by T.S. Eliot.

The stack is slightly smaller than Allen Ginsberg’s “The Fall of America – Poems of the States 1965 – 1971.”    Read more »

More

And For Your Viewing Pleasure — The Women’s Conference

Tune into the Women’s Conference the morning of October 26 via its live webcast and hear what First Lady Michelle Obama says to the estimated 30,000 attendees.

At 12:30 pm, there’s a lunchtime conversation between Diane Sawyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the high court.    Read more »

More

They Should Write Checks to Taxpayers, Not Ask for Checks

Shame, it’s been claimed, is a uniquely human characteristic. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Adam and Eve don’t feel ashamed being thread-bare until the old ball-and-chain chomps on the apple of knowledge.

“The only shame is to have none,” says Blaise Pascal, the 17th Century French mathematician, physicist and philosopher.

Apparently, this uniquely human characteristic does not extend to some members of the California Legislature.    Read more »

More