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.
Filner Shows There Are No Secret Sins Today
A number of years back, there was a San Francisco mayor of whom it was said, “Three drinks and he thinks he’s invisible.”
He wasn’t.
Today, with the Internet and a camera in everyone’s pocket and a culture where people are willing to share their lives with the world in 140 characters or less, it’s hard to believe any politician can believe his peccadilloes will remain secret for long.
And then there’s Bob Filner. And Anthony Weiner. And all the other officeholders who go to bed at night thinking, “That will never happen to me.”
That may work for a while. Filner, by all reports, was a lout with women long before he became San Diego’s mayor last year. But while people may ignore the actions, however crass, of a backbench congressman, it’s different when you’re head of the eighth largest city in the country.
Forget The Governorship, GOP. Focus Down Ballot
Why are the Republicans even talking about winning back the governorship? It’s clear that they don’t have a candidate with a chance. And Gov. Jerry Brown has been so focused on locking austerity levels of spending in place that he’d stand a decent chance of winning a Republican primary. (Maybe Democrats should be asking who their candidate for governor is.)
No, better to focus the party’s very limited resources elsewhere. But where? Not the legislature, where the best the party could do would be to win back more than a third in both houses — which represents a poisoned trophy (the ability to do the sort of obstruction and hostage taking that convinced voters to give the Democrats supermajorities).
Here are three better places for the GOP to focus its energies.
Marketplace Fairness Could Mean Tax Cuts
The primary economic goal of conservatives should be to decouple the government from the economy at every opportunity, from prohibiting regulators from playing favorites to lowering taxes. As a recent report by eminent economists Donna Arduin and Arthur B. Laffer—and budgetary developments in Wisconsin and Ohio—demonstrate, the Marketplace Fairness Act would help forward pro-growth goals and conservative principles by creating a level playing field in the retail marketplace and giving states the ability to lower marginal tax rates.
The Marketplace Fairness Act seeks to tackle the disparity between tax collection regulations for online and offline retailers. Currently, online retailers are allowed to forgo collecting sales tax on the items they sell. Traditional, offline retailers are required to collect this tax. What this means in the real world is that online retailers get a tidy pricing advantage over their offline rivals, equaling whatever the sales tax is in their locality.
The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act
Aside from President Obama going after patent trolls, what is going on at the federal level on legal reform?
Recently, U.S. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas introduced legislation to reduce abusive lawsuits that plague the United States legal system. The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act (LARA) imposes mandatory sanctions for lawyers who file meritless suits in federal court. If passed, LARA would restore the mandatory sanctions that were removed in 1993 and hold attorneys accountable for lawsuit abuse.
Senator Grassley stated that, “law abiding Americans with a legitimate legal grievance are entitled to their day in court. But unscrupulous attorneys who file frivolous lawsuits stand in the way of valid claims. Frivolous lawsuits need to be weeded out of the system. Putting the brakes on frivolous lawsuits that damage the economy and clog the legal system will go a long way towards balancing the scales of justice, upholding the rule of law, and improving the public good.”
The True Cost of Limiting Smartphone Access
Imagine something that you could never live without.
For almost a third of Americans, that item is their mobile phone. According to a recent Pew Charitable Trust study, a mobile phone is more than just a communication tool; it’s a direct connection to health information, news, online banking and other services for many Americans. More and more, consumers rely on their smartphones to help them navigate everyday life. Smartphones are particularly important as an accessible and affordable alternative Internet portal for the 19 million Americans who do not have access to broadband Internet.
But a battle at a government agency, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), has the potential to increase the cost of smartphones, putting further strain on certain segments of the U.S. population who are already struggling to get by. Apple is seeking an over-reaching injunction that would bar various smartphones made by Samsung—sold by different carriers and at varying price points, from being imported to the U.S. If granted, it will ultimately lead to higher prices and less consumer choice.
Democrats Foolishly Blow an Easy Win
What’s wrong with those voters in Fresno and Bakersfield? Don’t they know the party bosses pick the candidates and their only job is to troop to the polls and vote for them?
Apparently not, since the Democrats just blew a safe Democratic Senate seat in a Central Valley special election in which the bosses achieved the amazing contortion of seizing defeat out of the jaws of almost certain victory.
Last February, popular Democratic Sen. Michael Rubio (D Bakersfield) resigned this Bakersfield-Fresno area Senate seat to take a job with Chevron. The district was overwhelmingly Democratic; President Obama handily carried it in 2008 and 2012, as did Gov. Brown and Sens. Feinstein and Boxer. Rubio got 61 percent in his 2010 election. (more…)