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.
The Err Apparent Critics
The reason you should have so little patience and tolerance for the many zealots in our community, namely politicians and activists, has to do with the maxim, “Those who don’t make mistakes don’t make anything.”
Our increasingly urbanized populace is completely dependent upon the production and delivery of food and energy to a class of people who are consumers only — consumers who have neither the land, the knowledge, nor the resources to satisfy their daily needs. What’s worse is that the consumer class tends to pay heed to those who make a living condemning the producers in our society. These professional critics pose as experts and critics to the masses whenever the producers appear to err. Yet, having no real-world experience, the critics are basing their criticism on idealized, fantastical notions of how things should work. (more…)
Can California Say ‘Yes’ To Everyone?
“There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally,” President Obama proclaimed in a 2009 speech to Congress. It was a memorable event in part because Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted, “You lie.” Editorial-page umbrage followed.
This month, the California Senate proved that, while Wilson was wrong to heckle the president, he had reason to challenge the sincerity of Obama’s pledge. By a 28-11 vote, the Democrat-controlled state Senate became the first U.S. legislative body to vote to expand health care to undocumented immigrants. Senate Bill 4 by state Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), would allow undocumented Californians to buy Affordable Care Act policies (assuming the feds grant a waiver), authorize residents up to age 19 to enroll in Medi-Cal regardless of immigration status and allow some adults to enroll in Medi-Cal regardless of immigration status. (more…)
Why it Makes Sense to Plan the Budget Around Potential Downturns
“The state Senate’s Budget chairman, Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), said it doesn’t make sense to plan the state’s budget around potential financial catastrophe. California could absorb mild downturns, he said, with such steps as reducing debt repayments,” the LA Times reported this week.
As the state budget deadline approaches, Senator Leno’s statement is short-sighted and clearly runs counter to our state’s recent history. Further, it belittles the significant struggles ordinary Californians faced when the state failed to plan for a severe downturn. For them, it is tough to forget the repeated cuts to California’s public services, higher taxes, growing long term debts, and overall instability. (more…)
An Outsider’s Guide to Running—and Losing—a California Election
Though Ted White’s classic, The Making of the President, is far better known, the best book I’ve read about what it’s like to run for political office is To Be a Politician by Stimson Bullitt. In the 1950s, Bullitt ran twice as a Democratic Congressional candidate in his home district of Seattle—and lost both times.
“Men and women are drawn into politics for a combination of motives,” he writes. “These include power, glory, zeal for contention or success, duty, hate, oblivion, hero worship, curiosity, and enjoyment of the work.”
I ran for California Secretary of State last year for an even simpler reason: I knew the office was underperforming, and I believed my work and scholarship made me uniquely qualified to fix it. (more…)
California Water Management Dilemma
We are witnessing the dismantling of the California water conveyance system that supplies drinking water for 25 million California residents and four million acres of prime farmland in the San Joaquin Valley.
Our water resources are being “Withheld” from the very people of this state who have shown what “Free Enterprise” can do not only for the well-being of all in California, but the entire nation. Unfortunately, several major environmental groups and complacent politicians are killing the freedoms that have been the bulwark of success in California. Let me explain.
Water is our most valuable renewable resource and Mother Nature gives it to California in copious amounts during most years. What we do with that water—water management—is critical to the future of the Golden State. (more…)
Celebrating Small Business
Wednesday was Small Business Day in Sacramento acknowledged by many of the legislature’s members who attended the event put together by the California Small Business Association headed by Betty Jo Toccoli. Members of the legislature recognized a small business in their districts from immigrants who started as dishwashers to owning their own restaurants; a bakery owner who makes treats for well-known athletes; to craft brewers, truckers and other small business owners.
All four legislative leaders, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Senate President Kevin de León, Minority Senate Leader to be Jean Fuller and Assembly Minority Leader Kristin Olsen all spoke. (more…)