Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye

With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages. 

Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down. 

Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.

On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.

F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!).  We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.

Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey.  The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.

Ridding the GOP of the Tea Party

It is time for California Republicans to confront the real enemies who are dragging them from defeat to defeat, and this means dealing with the Tea Party extremists in their own ranks.  Until the state GOP faces up to this it cannot be rebuilt, and 2014 is exactly the time to start.

Brave talk about picking up seats in Congress and the legislature should probably be set aside.  What can a Republican candidate challenging a Democrat run on next year, “Elect me and I will shut down the government, default on our debts, destroy your 401K, cancel grandma’s Medicare, and throw the world into recession”.  Lots of luck with that.

Nationally, Republican approval is at 28 percent, the lowest ever.  Want to guess what it is in California, probably well below that.  But nothing can be done until the Tea Party is defeated, and that means taking them out at the polls.

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Middle Class Can’t Afford California

Politicians of both parties like to boast how they work for the “middle class.” Well, there isn’t much of a middle class left in California, at least along the coastal areas.

According to data provided by Trulia, the three least affordable areas in America are San Francisco, where just 14 percent of homes are affordable to the middle class; Orange County, where I live, and where just 23 percent are affordable; and Los Angeles, at 24 percent.

Next is New York City, at 25 percent.

Then California picks up again, with the fifth-least affordable area being San Diego at 28 percent; followed by San Jose at 31 percent; and Ventura County at 32 percent.

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Hotel California

“I hate the [expletive] Eagles,” declares Jeff Bridges as the stoner-turned-detective hero of The Big Lebowski, the classic Coen brothers film study of Los Angeles.

But even if you aren’t a fan of the bestselling band of the ’70s, you’ve gotta give the Eagles this: Their most famous song was so dead-on that it now explains our state’s economic, geographic, and demographic realities.

You’re a Hotel, California.

As Californians pick up the pieces from the Great Recession, the trend is clear. The parts of our state’s regional economies that involve Californians serving other Californians—construction, real estate, government—have been hit hard. But the economic sectors that involve Californians serving people from elsewhere—trade, technology, and export-oriented pieces of media, entertainment, agriculture, education, and health—are mostly growing. So it’s more important than ever for us put on a hospitable face for the world.

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Why the Democratic Party Cannot Embrace Public Sector Union Reform

“Public employees have a private interest in taking more and more of the taxpayer-generated revenue for themselves. In other words, public employees have a private interest in diverting public funds from public services to their wages and pensions. In this sense, the increasing numbers of public employees and their increasing wages and benefits threaten to hollow out public services in our country.”  –Roger Berkowitz, Executive Director, Hannah Arendt Center

The above quote explains quite well the intrinsic conflict of interests that accrues to public sector unions. This conflict of interest is the primary distinction between public sector unions and private sector unions. It is the reason that private sector unions can muster strong arguments for their continued relevance in society, whereas the very legitimacy of public sector unions is questionable. And lest anyone suggest that calls for reform – if not abolition – of public sector unions emanates solely from the “extreme right wing,” consider the provenance of the above quote, and go away. The highly regarded, intellectually elite Hannah Arendt Center boasts perhaps the most impeccable nonpartisan, anti-ideological credentials of any comparable institution in the world.

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Legacy of Prop 8 Court Case Pops up in Pension Reform Initiative

Most ballot initiatives end with a severability clause declaring that if a portion of the new law is invalidated the remainder will remain in effect. Not so the pension reform initiative filed yesterday by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and a number of other mayors from around the state. Thank the action – or lack of action, really — of the governor and attorney general in relation to Proposition 8, the gay marriage initiative, for a new, additional section.

The proponents of the pension initiative state in a final section following the severability clause that if the initiative passes and is challenged in the courts, and the government refuses to defend the measure, the proponents will have the standing to defend the initiative.

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Small Business Owners Ponder ACA’s Benefits, Burdens

Jerry Schumacher’s Fullerton-based engineering firm seems like the perfect example of what President Obama would like to see from American business when it comes to health care. The company offers coverage to all of its full-time employees, and pays 100 percent of the monthly premium.

But Schumacher still lives in fear of the Affordable Care Act, the federal health insurance reform known widely as “Obamacare.” He thinks it can only make things tougher on him.

With fewer than 50 employees, Schumacher isn’t affected by the law. And even if the company payroll grows and surpasses that threshold, the most the federal law would require of Schumacher is to do what he does now voluntarily: provide affordable coverage for his workers. Still, he’s worried.

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