Within the next six months, the United States Supreme Court may well overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which recognized a woman's right to choose an abortion. In Whole Woman's Health v. Cole, the Court will decide whether the state of Texas has placed an "undue burden" on women's access to abortion services by […]
Month: January 2016
As Barack Obama marks his seventh year in office, the resurgent American economy is posing a major problem for his Republican detractors. After years of denouncing the President's supposed "out of control spending", "job-crushing taxes" and "job-killing Obamacare," the pathetic GOP claim that Obama "made the economy worse" can't pass the laugh test. After all, […]
And now for some advice for Republican friends. If you want to criticize President Obama on anything having to do with Iran, don't mention "Ronald Reagan" and "Iran" and "hostages" in the same sentence. It won't end well for you. After all, it wasn't Reagan's inauguration that secured the released of 52 Americans held captive […]
It is an article of faith among Republicans that federal spending is "out of control" under President Obama. For the stenographers who seem to make up the bulk of the American media, the image of Obama the "tax and spend liberal" is taken for granted. Too bad it's not true. As the latest 10-year budget […]
Years from now, Americans will look back at the Iranian hostage crisis that wasn't. One day after 10 American sailors were captured by Iranian patrols after their boats inadvertently drifted into Tehran's territorial waters, our servicemen and their equipment are back in U.S. hands. But the diplomatic thaw and rapid action by Secretary of State […]
Back in my days as a denizen of Silicon Valley, we start-up types used to joke that Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California was the single most important street in the world. After all, for almost five decades that one-mile mecca of the venture capital world has helped fund every high-tech transformation of the […]
President Barack Obama has yet to deliver his final State of the Union address, but the reviews from Republicans are already in. Texas Senator and 2016 White House hopeful Ted Cruz announced that he won't be attending, but nevertheless will be "disappointed" by the President's speech. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), probably best known for comparing […]
For months, conservatives have been warning Americans about the supposed "Ferguson Effect." Murder rates in cities like St. Louis, Chicago and Baltimore are rising, they claim, because police fear being criticized for doing their jobs, thus emboldening criminals to take advantage of their absence. But while there are plenty of reasons to doubt the Ferguson […]
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday called for an unprecedented constitutional convention to pass nine "amendments" designed to curb the power of the federal government. (If Abbott and his ilk really want to enshrine the power of "each State acting in its sovereign and independent character," they need look no further than the Confederate Constitution […]
The last days of 2015 brought some very interesting news about America's record-high income inequality. On December 29, Noam Schieber and Patricia Cohen of the New York Times revealed a "private tax system" that saves the wealthiest billions every year. In conjunction with the Bush cuts to income and investment income tax rates, between 1995 […]