Middle East Affairs May 21st, 2012
Senator Alan Simpson calls it like it is on the budget. May 20th, 2012
Momentum Builds to Abolish Death Penalty April 26th, 2012
We wrote earlier on reconsidering the death penalty in Ohio – “Two of the major reasons often given for abolishing the death penalty are a respect for human dignity and a rejection of such an elective use of violence. Such ideas and ideals are often as important in foreign affairs as military and economic power … In 2007, 88% of the executions worldwide occurred in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. This is the company that we keep, and they are quick to point to the United States to justify their use of coercive power and the death penalty.”
- Connecticut abolishes death penalty
Calling capital punishment “one of the most compelling and vexing issues of our time,” the governor said he came to oppose capital punishment while working as a prosecutor. “I learned firsthand that our system of justice is very imperfect,” he said. “I came to believe that doing away with the death penalty was the only way to ensure it would not be unfairly imposed.” He also cited what he called its “unworkability.”
- Oregon Governor Says He Will Block Executions
“It is time for Oregon to consider a different approach,” Governor Kitzhaber, a Democrat elected last fall, said in a news conference in Salem on Tuesday afternoon. “I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer; and I will not allow further executions while I am governor.”
- Shifts Detected in Support for Death Penalty
In Texas, Dallas County alone has uncovered 30 wrongful convictions since 2001, the most of any county in the country. Former Texas governor Mark White, a Democrat, said he continues to support the death penalty “only in a select number of cases,” yet he says he believes that a “national reassessment” is now warranted given the stream of recent exonerations. “I have been a proponent of the death penalty, but convicting people who didn’t commit the crime has to stop,” White said.
A New Meaning for a Liberal Education April 12th, 2012
A liberal education used to mean studying the social sciences and humanities. Today, it means the politicization of every subject area. This article by Peter Berkowitz How California’s Colleges Indoctrinate Students. Peter’s article was inspired by the National Association of Scholars, which released a report about the lowering of standards in higher education.
- The extent of the tilt to the left has been growing and has now reached a magnitude not remotely matched in the past. In some areas it is so extreme that it amounts to virtual exclusion of any but left-of-center faculty members.
- The kind of leftism has also become considerably more extreme.
- The more that politics is relevant to a field of study (the most obvious cases being those of political science and sociology) the greater the preponderance of left-of-center faculty members and the more complete the exclusion of any but left-of-center faculty members. The point is worth emphasis: exactly where programmatic concerns would most suggest a need for a wider range of voices, that range is most likely to be absent. This pattern is strongly suggestive of a conscious intent in the hiring process.
- Younger faculty members are more solidly left-oriented than older faculty members, which means that the extent of the tilt continues to grow as retirements replaced by new appointments increase the imbalance.
- College faculty members have become far more likely to admit that activism is a goal of their teaching.
- The public is alarmed about the professoriate’s radical leftism to a degree that has not been true in the past.
Rethinking the Death Penalty in California April 10th, 2012
“We started with 300 on death row when we did Prop 7, and we now have over 720 — and it’s cost us $4 billion. I tell my Republican friends, ‘Close your eyes for a moment. If there was a state program that was costing $185 million a year and only gave the money to lawyers and criminals, what would you do with it?’”
Seeking an End to an Execution Law They Once Championed – New York Times 4/7/12
Health Care March 30th, 2012
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (read the bill, General Overview at Wikipedia) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Two cases challenging the legality of portions of the law have made their way to the Supreme Court and were heard during the week of March 26, 2012:
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Department of Human Health and Services vs. Florida |
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National Federation of Independent Business vs. Sebalius |
Health Insurance is for Everyone – Fareed Zakaria, Time Magazine, March 26, 2012
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Clarifying moments are rare in politics. They are the times when previously muddled issues are suddenly cast into sharp relief and citizens are given a look behind the curtains of spin and obfuscation. Over the last week, Americans were blessed with three separate clarifying moments… |
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Krauthammer: Obama Admitted To Medvedev That Second Term Will Be Hard Left |
I think that the key word here in that exchange was Obama saying to the Russians, ‘this is my last election.’ It’s not just that “I have another election and I’ll be occupied with other issues, let’s talk about this … this is the President himself saying, “I’ll be unleashed. I can govern hard left. I can do all this reset stuff in the future unmolested.” |
The release of the Schuelke Report on March 15th has exposed the broad miscarriage of justice suffered by former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens at the hands of Justice Department prosecutors. Stevens prosecution cost him his re-election bid to the Senate in November, 2008, which in turn cost Republicans control of the Senate. Senator Stevens was killed in a plane crash in August 2010, so he tragically did not live to see his vindication. We wonder if the Holder Justice Department will seriously investigate this matter?
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“The investigation and prosecution of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens were permeated by the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence which would have independently corroborated Senator Stevens’s defense and his testimony, and seriously damaged the testimony and credibility of the government’s key witness.” | |
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Seeking justice at the Justice Department – Washington Post |
“…last week’s report about the 2008 prosecution of the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was particularly disgusting. Independent investigators depict poorly managed prosecutors intentionally subverting justice. Stevens’s conviction undoubtedly contributed to his reelection defeat, which would mean prosecutors also subverted the electoral process.” |
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Ted Stevens and the department of injustice – Los Angeles Times |
“An inquiry tells the story of government lawyers who failed to live up to their professional responsibilities and thus failed to give the former Alaska senator a fair trial.” |