From its inception, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement was attacked on all sides for a lack of clear goals and subsequent policy prescriptions. It’s as if pundits expected a succinct public affairs memo: 12 point font, 1-inch margins and clear policy recommendations to ease whatever woes have beset those who participate in the movement. As […]
Tag: Politics and Governance
If the president wants to win reelection, he needs to pass his jobs and debt bills. And by that I mean they need to fail. Since his election in 2008, the Republican Party has routinely come out against nearly everything the president has championed through Congress. Even when the president proposes policy ideas that […]
Austin needs public officials who can understand and base their decisions upon statistics. Austin also needs money, lots of money. Austin City Council planned to generate $3 million by extending parking meters downtown until midnight Monday through Saturday. Currently, parking is free after 5:30 pm on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday. The […]
There is something watching you. It can access your bank records, your credit records, who you texted on your cell phone, whether or not you are vaccinated … all without your knowledge. It isn’t an identity thief searching through your garbage, it is a highly sophisticated federally funded data center called a Fusion Center. […]
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Leadership in America
The January 8 shooting in Arizona was a tragedy. A democratic society cannot condone political violence, and all sides of the political spectrum quickly condemned the attack. Yet, instead of uniting people, this event had a polarizing effect on a nation struggling to reach a political consensus on a just about every issue. The […]
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” I remember clearly reading the First Amendment on the building […]
Since its inception, the United States of America has been a nation of immigrants where people from all over the world have sought opportunity and a more promising future for the next generation. Unfortunately, the U.S. immigration system has been broken for over two decades. Successive presidential administrations and Congress have failed to enact policies […]
According to the Case-Shiller Index, median housing prices doubled from 1987 to 2000 in major housing markets, including L.A., Miami, D.C. and San Diego. In less than half that time, from 2001 to 2006, housing prices in L.A. and Miami almost doubled, while prices in D.C. and San Diego shot up 1.5 times. Overall, nationwide […]
Once he locked up the Republican primary, Senator John McCain spent several months building a narrative for the general election. His operatives spent countless hours reciting Mr. McCain’s willingness to politically stand on principle. Television ads paired Senator Barack Obama with flimsy celebrities and mocked his followers as naïve idol-worshippers. In the process they cast […]
Austin’s Chief of Police, Art Acevedo, has made the following statement about undocumented immigrants: “The vast majority of these people are not criminal aliens, they’re economic aliens. They are not a threat to our public safety.” Chief Acevedo has a point. Over the past 15 years, the United States has experienced the largest wave of […]