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.
Consumers Pay the Price for Lawsuit Abuse
We have all been bombarded with advertisements on the latest and greatest ways to lose weight and shape up. From crazy food diets to silly exercise equipment, they all promise to help you shed pounds with little to no effort.
Most people know the best way to be healthier is to eat better and exercise. For those people, we created a salad dressing that is featured on the Biggest Loser that tastes great but doesn’t have a ton of calories. We were and are fortunate to have our product and our small business featured on the show.
But with the increase in visibility and sales came a lawsuit. We were sued because a woman claimed that using our salad dressing caused her to gain weight. When asked how much dressing she used, we were told she used up to two bottles a day! Despite the absurd claim, we were forced to settle the lawsuit, because it was cheaper to do so rather than fight it.
California Can No Longer Coast
Poor Gov. Jerry Brown. He apparently still thinks it’s the 1970s.
He’s been saying lately that California’s progressive legislation – environmentalism, greater rights for immigrants, wealth redistribution – is setting the trend for the entire nation. A template for all to follow.
“We can do a lot of things in California to shift the (political) climate throughout the whole country,” Brown was quoted as saying last week.
Sorry, Jerry, but you may be stuck in a time warp. America doesn’t work like that anymore.
Why are the Airports Still Open?
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste and Democrats seem not to have wasted the fiasco over shutting down the government to defund Obamacare. But the greater crisis is yet to come and this provides an opportunity for Democrats and the Obama Administration to really get tough. The debt default is rapidly approaching, and that means the time is now for draconian tactics to defang the intransigent Republicans.
Thus far there is only one “tuff boy” on the lot, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, and he had successfully parried every attempt by House Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans to surrender by partially reopening the government. But a week into the shutdown, few people are really hurting, and virtually none represented by the GOP’s wing of tea party anarchists. It is time for No Drama Obama to show some backbone and make them hurt. He needs to become “tuff boy.”
California – Where Illegal Immigrants are Legal
It seems like a lifetime ago when the U.S. Senate passed a bill to revise our immigration laws. The bill — which was touted by some as the cure to our immigration problems — went to the House of Representatives and died. The House stated they wanted to deal with the issue in pieces and not have another monster bill like Obamacare or Dodd-Frank, each of which have massive unintended consequences. Without federal action, California is stepping into the breach to resolve the issue for all Americans.
This column previously wrote that to make any progress on immigration, two truths would have to be accepted: First, there would have to be legitimate enforcement of our borders with a real fence along the southern border. Second, that we would have to deal with the estimated eleven million illegal immigrants within our borders, and kicking them out was not a solution. Well, the leaders of California have taken hold of the second part while ignoring the first.
Donnelly vs. Maldonado
Abel Maldonado is the 2014 gubernatorial standard bearer for a new, pragmatic-moderate coalition emerging from obscurity within the CAGOP. But Tim Donnelly is also running for CA governor, and last week, former congressman George Radanovich (R-Fresno) threw in his hat. We only lack a Silicon Valley libertarian to have each GOP faction within the larger, national party represented.
Donnelly’s Run
Tim Donnelly’s campaign has been described by SacBee writer Dan Morain as “a faux bid for governor.”
Donnelly is a salesman who gained attention as a “Minuteman,” [who] won an Assembly seat in 2010 in a district that includes the mountains and desert east of Los Angeles and was re-elected last year. It is the best job he has ever had.
Why Did the California State GOP Accept Donations from Public Sector Unions?
As reported in the Sacramento Bee on Sept. 26 “Teachers union, SEIU open wallets to California Republican Party,” in recent weeks the California Teachers Association donated the California GOP $15,000, the SEIU Local 1000 donated $10,000, and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association donated another $25,000. Representatives of all three of these powerful public sector unions were present at the GOP convention in Anaheim last weekend.
As a proportion of total GOP fundraising in California in 2013, $50,000 is small potatoes. Under the leadership of their new chairman Jim Brulte, the California GOP has raised over $3.0 million so far in 2013, enough to pay off their debts and put them onto viable financial footing. As a proportion of total public sector union political spending in California, $50,000 is even smaller potatoes. Just the CTA, with 325,000 members who on average pay over $1,000 per year in dues – about 30% of which is used for political activities – spends around $100 million per year to influence politics. And nearly all of the money these unions spend is to support Democratic candidates and causes.