FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

Come on, this is nutsoid.

The California Attorney General allows anti-American Military art to be hung in a State of California Office Building.

“Wonderful news! Beginning this Friday, July 15, 2005, at 3:30 pm, the Office of the Attorney General will exhibit my political display, “T’ANKS TO MR. BUSH.” My display will remain on exhibit in the Attorney General’s Office until August 31, 2005. A reception for the exhibition will take place from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm. All members of the public are welcome.”

Pearcy also has his “Effigy Art” hanging in the lobby of the Sacramento Public Law Offices at 813 6th Street in Sacramento. This ‘art’ display features Pearcy’s “Bush Lied, I Died” effigy of a US Soldier and a hangman’s noose.

Lockyer have you lost your mind?

MORONS Both.

HT: Eric Hogue

Dan Weintraub, a columnist and blogger with the Sacramento Bee gives the Bear Flag League Special Election Page a special mention.

The Bear Flag League of bloggers, which I will feature in my column on Tuesday, has kicked off a meta-blog focused on the Nov. 8 special election. You can find it here.

Thanks for the mention, Dan.

Cross-posted to The Bear Flag League Special Election Page.

Honestly Kevin, we didn’t do it.

Hope you are up soon.

HT: Baldilocks

California Assembly Speaker Nunez, Controller Steve Westly and School Superintendent Jack O’Connell.

Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee has Errant educators, not governor, to blame for school deficits.

The vast majority of California districts don’t run deficits and it’s evident from the record that a lack of money, per se, is not the underlying problem but rather a dereliction of civic responsibility. Consistently, school board members and administrators in those problem districts have signed contracts with the CTA and other unions that outstripped revenue expectations, have refused to close schools as enrollments declined, and in other ways have failed to act prudently.

O’Connell and Westly could - and should - have made it clear that the failures of school trustees and administrators are primarily responsible for the troubled districts and could have included unions that get friendly trustees elected and then pressure them to approve unaffordable contracts. But that would have taken some courage, as well as intellectual honesty, and the two politicians just couldn’t resist the temptation to pander to the CTA and blame Schwarzenegger.

Dan Walters has it right. The local school systems often controlled by the CTA do not have the political will to control spending. The Unions do not care if taxes are raised as long as they get their cut.

And that is why the CTA and the Alliance for a Better California are running those nasty duplicitous television ads attempting to demonize the Governor.

The Governor has so far failed to answer but as Flap understands from talking to some representatives of the Governor HE’LL BE BACK and soon.

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo

HH has it right…….IRRESPONSIBLE

California Biotchnology companies worry about the impact of the California Special Election Propositions 78 and 79 on their business prospects. The San Francisco Business Times has this piece, Biotechs worry about ballot’s side effects.

Biotechnology executives are worried about unwanted side effects from what’s expected to be an $80 million campaign the pharmaceutical industry is readying over competing initiatives on California’s November ballot.

Pharmaceutical companies have raised more than $54 million, with Pfizer, Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline each contributing $9.8 million. But with the exception of $4.6 million from Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc. and a handful of smaller donations, biotechs are staying on the sidelines.

This is understandable.

Why should emerging technology companies who constantly battle these major pharmaceutical companies for their very lives (fight off take-overs and hostile recruitment of employees and management) put themselves out there to be beat up in the public arena?

Several executives expressed fear that joining with big pharma’s campaign will put them in the middle of a potentially ugly fight with a heavy-handed partner — one not interested in reaching a political compromise but looking to do whatever it takes to defeat its opponents.

The sheer size of the campaign led by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, is unfathomable to many biotechnology executives. The planned $80 million expenditure would be enough to fund the entire operations of PhRMA’s counterpart, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, for two years.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization has not taken a position on either proposition. BayBio, the Bay Area’s biotechnology association, has not taken a position on the ballot measures. It previously supported legislation with language identical to Prop. 78.

Though it’s likely the biotechnology industry will be forced to take a stand on the ballot measures by the fall, it is unclear how active a role it will take in the campaign.

Some executives are holding out hope that a compromise can be reached for a legislative solution that will spare them from being thrown into a bruising battle.

The legislature is on recess and the capital is abuzz with deal rumors.

PhRMA looks well financed for a fight. And…. biotechnology will join by Labor Day.

Stay tuned.

Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page