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.
Self-Regulation
“The ancients understood the regulation of power better than the regulation of liberty”. -Edward Dahlberg
Recently, I’ve been thinking about regulation – or rather, the threat of regulation – around media and marketing today. From the saber-rattling around the Omnicom – Publicis merger to the Do Not Track legislation re-introduced by Senator Rockefeller, marketing and governance must strike a delicate balance.
As our systems and offerings grow in complexity, it’s easy to point fingers at the other side citing self-interest at best (and ignorance at worst) for interference in “business as usual.”
Tom McClintock on Amnesty
Congressman Tom McClintock is against amnesty, or so he says. He’s against amnesty for an 18 year old high school valedictorian with straight “A”s who was brought here illegally as a child. He is against amnesty for the Latinos who labor in the fields in 100 degree weather picking crops for the McClintock table or for the hard working undocumented immigrant who cuts the McClintock lawn. He’s a hard liner on no immigration amnesty.
But now McClintock has announced that he’s found someone after all who deserves amnesty: none other than NSA leaker Edward Snowden, recently indicted for espionage. “I think it would be best if the American government grants Snowden amnesty, to get him back to America where he can answer questions without the threat of prosecution,” McClintock told a Sacramento television station. (more…)
Healthcare Law Could Spur Entrepreneurship
There is a lot of back and forth debate about the effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on businesses big and small, but it likely will also have implications on an untold number of ones that haven’t even started yet.
Certainly health-related startups will benefit as the large providers and insurance companies invest and partner with them to “fill in the cracks” as the big players try to adapt quickly to a new way of doing things. But ACA may just be enough to remove the shackles holding back so many aspiring entrepreneurs from making the leap into opening their own business. (more…)
Taxpayers Speak Out Against Unjust Fire Tax
For the second time in as many years, the State of California is mailing hundreds of thousands of fire tax bills to rural Californians who live in the so-called State Responsibility Area. The bills are hitting mailboxes even as the class action lawsuit I’m backing has finally received a green light to move forward.
As Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association is fond of saying, “the wheels of justice grind slowly.” Although I believe the lawsuit against the fire tax will ultimately prevail, it appears the trial won’t be until next year at the earliest.
Delayed justice means that hundreds of thousands of rural Californians, whether they can afford it or not, must write another check for up to $150 per habitable structure to the State of California to pay this unfair and unjust tax. (more…)
The 13 Year Old Lead Paint Lawsuit
A trial began a few weeks ago before Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg, an appointee of Governor Gray Davis. He is hearing a case without a jury to determine whether five paint manufacturers, including Atlantic Richfield, NL Industries and Sherwin Williams should be held liable and ordered to remove led paint from an estimated 5 million homes at a cost of about $1 billion.
Led by Santa Clara County, local governments sued the industry in 2000, alleging paint manufacturers knew of the dangers of lead paint as early as the late 1890′s and yet sold it to consumers without warning for decades. Lead paint was banned by the federal government in 1978 for residential use – 22 years before this case was filed. (more…)
Young Tech Tycoons Pushing Left Coast Ahead Of East In Democratic Power Structure
There are two deep-blue regions that are critical to the Obama administration: the Northeast and the coastal region between San Jose and Seattle that truly deserves the moniker of the Left Coast. They dominate the Democratic donor list, and provide the administration with most of its appointees and much of its ideological moorings.
Yet this common ground conceals a shift in the balance of power between these two blue strongholds. The power of the high-tech heavy Left Coast is waxing while the old Boston-to-Washington corridor is waning. Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post simply confirms this movement of the political tectonic plates.
The Rise of the Tech Oligarchs (more…)