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.
Losses and Wins for Small Business
It’s too early to assess all the bills of concern or hope for the business community given the last minute flurry of action as the legislature closed down for the year.
With bills whipping through the legislature in the closing day of session, small businesses are always on edge but there were minuses and some pluses for the business community.
The most high profile measure of concern to small business was the bill to raise the minimum wage. It’s out of the legislature and endorsed by the governor. John Kabateck, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business, thoroughly examined the position of small business on this bill in yesterday’s Fox & Hounds while beseeching the governor to veto it. Sorry, John, that’s not going to happen. (more…)
Despite Colorado Recall, CA Legislature Passes Gun Control Bills
The surprising recall election of two Colorado Democratic lawmakers Tuesday for backing gun control laws was a warning shot for lawmakers across America eager for more gun control laws.
Not for the Democratic supermajority in the California Legislature. More than two dozen gun control bills are being voted on this week. And while lawmakers are making a pretense of having difficulty voting for their passage, the bills are being passed. Several gun control bills have passed out of both houses of the Legislature and already await the governor’s signature.
“I don’t see anybody switching teams here,” quipped Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, in the busy Assembly gallery Wednesday. (more…)
Did Democracy Bankrupt Our Cities?
In a recent bracing post titled “Detroit’s Death by Democracy,” George Will located the root of that city’s problems not in its lack of economic diversification but in our very system of government: democracy. Will wrote that the Motor City’s recently filed bankruptcy provokes “worrisome questions about the viability of democracy in jurisdictions where big government and its unionized employees collaborate in pillaging taxpayers. Self-government has failed.”
This sort of argument is a very old one—and a very American one, because we demand so much of ourselves. Like many Europeans visiting the United States in the 19th century, the British diplomat Lord James Bryce marveled at the civic burdens placed upon Americans. “For the functions of the citizen are not, as has hitherto been the case in Europe, confined to the choosing of legislators, who are then left to settle issues of policy and select executive rulers,” Bryce wrote in 1888. “The American citizen is virtually one of the governors of the Republic.” (more…)
Prison Compromise, Working or Not, Is Good Politics
The absolute best political compromise is one where even if everything goes wrong, there’s someone else out there to blame.
Which brings us to the prison deal Gov. Jerry Brown cut with state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg this week.
For those who haven’t been following, judges all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled that overcrowding in California prisons violates inmates’ rights and needs to be fixed right now.
And “right now” means that by Jan. 1, California needs to have about 8,000 fewer inmates in its various state pens. (more…)
Dividing California
(Editor’s Note: In 1993, then state legislator Stan Statham offered a bill to divide California into different states, which passed the Assembly. In view of Siskiyou County supervisors’ vote to support the county seceding from California, we asked him to reflect on that effort.
Twenty years ago on June 10, 1993, I was able to convince a majority of elected officials in the California Assembly to allow California citizens to vote on whether or not our once golden state should be divided into three new states. The final vote was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. At that time, I was the Assistant Republican Leader and was supported by Democrat Speaker Willie Brown. The vote was 48 ayes and 27 noes. (more…)
Governor Should Veto Minimum Wage Increase
Late yesterday, the Governor and legislative leaders announced that a $2.00 increase to the minimum wage in California is in order and needs to happen.
Really?
A 25% minimum wage hike when nearly two million Californians are out of work – and small businesses in every community are dying on the vine?
When huge uncertainties and new costs of the Affordable Care Act are already hitting Main Street?
Really? (more…)