Debra J. Saunders from Creators Syndicate

President Obama Punts on US Deficit for 02/16/2012

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In February 2009 — having signed into law his $787 billion stimulus package — President Barack Obama made a pledge to the nation. "Contrary to the prevailing wisdom in Washington these past few years," the president noted, "we cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences to the next budget, the next administration or the next generation." Obama alr ...

Updated: Thu Feb 16, 2012

Obama Imposes Will in Contraception Compromise for 02/14/2012

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

From San Francisco, where I live, the controversy over the White House decision to require church-affiliated employers to provide contraception in their employee health care benefits has felt like an argument about the barn door's being open years after the horse got out of the barn.

In 1996, San Francisco effectively forced Catholic Charities to offer domestic-partner benefits for same- ...

Updated: Tue Feb 14, 2012

To Make Women Safe, We Treat Them Like Children for 02/12/2012

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The domestic-violence case against San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi did not start with a call from wife Eliana Lopez or neighbors who heard a fight getting out of control at the family's home on New Year's Eve. It started with a Jan. 4 phone call to police from a friend and neighbor, Ivory Madison, whom Lopez had visited on New Year's Day. According to a police affidavit, Madison videotaped ...

Updated: Sun Feb 12, 2012

Shaky Grounds for Prop. 8 Ruling for 02/08/2012

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Two of three judges on a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday found Proposition 8 unconstitutional. Judge Stephen Reinhardt stipulated that the ruling skirted the larger issue of whether same-sex couples have a right to marry. That's a shame, because at least an equal-right-to-marry claim makes for a clean argument.

Reinhardt praised himself for overturning Prop. 8 on " ...

Updated: Wed Feb 08, 2012

Gingrich Should Have Kept It in Vegas for 02/07/2012

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Losing candidates usually congratulate the winner — first by telephone and then in front of their supporters. Not Newt Gingrich. When he loses, Gingrich doesn't even bother to pretend to be a good sport.

Already, insiders are calling Newt's Saturday Las Vegas news conference the modern equivalent of Richard Nixon's pronouncement "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore.&qu ...

Updated: Tue Feb 07, 2012

CLASS Act Is Dead, but Obama Won't Repeal It for 02/05/2012

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

It says something about the brazen attitude of American politicians that Congress enacted a measure to create a program that was impossible to implement — and named it the CLASS Act. CLASS stands for Community Living Assistance Services and Support, a program that was supposed to offer voluntary long-term care insurance to workers who are 18 or older; its initials are about the only class ...

Updated: Sun Feb 05, 2012

Why Super PACs Outspend Candidates for 02/02/2012

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

"Hell is paved with good intentions," George Bernard Shaw wrote, "not bad ones." And Shaw never wrote about the unintended consequences of American campaign finance law or the Florida GOP primary, which provide ample proof that the more good-government types try to regulate money and politics the more convoluted campaign finance becomes.

Mitt Romney won 46 percent of ...

Updated: Thu Feb 02, 2012

Let Oakland Protesters Occupy a County Jail Cell for 01/31/2012

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Occupy Oakland is aptly named. When forces occupy a city, they know that occupied turf is not their home. They can maraud, loot, vandalize, abuse the locals, and then leave. They can treat other people's property as their own.

The occupiers don't have to clean up after themselves. They don't have to worry about paying for the workers who clean up after them, either.

Occupiers don' ...

Updated: Tue Jan 31, 2012

GOP No Longer Feels Need To Hide Its Incivility for 01/29/2012

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Last week, Sarah Palin stepped over the edge of civility. Fox Business host Eric Bolling played a clip of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on "Meet the Press" in which Christie said Newt Gingrich "has been an embarrassment" to the Republican Party.

"Poor Chris," Palin responded. "This was a rookie mistake. He played right into the media's hand." Pali ...

Updated: Sun Jan 29, 2012

Obama's Game Plan: Do Nothing for 01/26/2012

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Toward the end of his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama observed that Washington politicians should learn from the example of the U.S. military: "When you're marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails."

Obama recalled the successful Navy SEAL mission that, under his watch, took out Osama bin Laden and observed, "The ...

Updated: Thu Jan 26, 2012

Calculating Newt Gingrich for 01/24/2012

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

When Newt Gingrich called CNN anchor John King's decision "despicable" to begin last Thursday's GOP debate with a question about Gingrich's second wife, the Charleston audience responded with a standing ovation. Surely, I thought to myself, South Carolina Republicans are not going to vote for a candidate just because he is good at dressing down the media.

Then I saw a TV ad tha ...

Updated: Tue Jan 24, 2012

Perry's Death by Debate for 01/22/2012

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

When former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman exited the GOP presidential primary earlier this month, left-leaning columnists were bereft. Huntsman, after all, was the Republican most respected by non-Republicans. In December, New York Times number-crunching blogger Nate Silver laid out the case for "Jon Huntsman's Path to Victory." It turns out that path sustained itself through one state, New ...

Updated: Sun Jan 22, 2012

Obama Should Pardon Marines for 01/19/2012

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

President Barack Obama should pardon the four Marines who were captured on video as they urinated on three corpses, presumably dead Taliban.

After the video went viral last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the wisecracking troops may have committed war crimes. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assure him that the incident would b ...

Updated: Thu Jan 19, 2012

The Sheriff and the Accusations for 01/17/2012

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

After a New Year's Eve fight, former Venezuelan TV actress Eliana Lopez went to the home of neighbor Ivory Madison to talk about her husband's behavior. Madison later told police that she took video of a bruise on her friend's arm and had texts Lopez had sent that documented spousal abuse.

Because Lopez is married to newly elected San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, it's a big story. O ...

Updated: Tue Jan 17, 2012

Obama's 2012 Slogan: 'Can't Work With Others' for 01/08/2012

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

President Barack Obama is running for re-election with an unusual pitch: He can't work with others.

He only gets along with yes men. "I refuse to take 'no' for an answer," Obama said last Wednesday of his decision to make a "recess" appointment that placed Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Constitution, of course, gives the p ...

Updated: Sun Jan 08, 2012

Newt Gingrich Should Own Up to His Mistakes for 01/05/2012

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

As the results of the Iowa caucuses dribbled in, Americans got to see how the GOP candidates greeted victory and defeat. Top vote-getter Mitt Romney was gracious toward Rick Santorum, who came in second by eight thin votes, but uninspiring as he pledged to get America back to work. Santorum pronounced, "Game on," and then he hailed his Italian grandfather's decision to leave Italy to ...

Updated: Thu Jan 05, 2012

Not a Ringing Endorsement for 01/01/2012

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Mitt Romney may be the best candidate in the 2012 GOP primary, but that's not saying much. It's like being the best mayor of Oakland, Calif.

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota may not be ready for the Oval Office, but she's been a feisty challenger not afraid to take on Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry. She will emerge from the primary with more authority than she had when she entere ...

Updated: Sun Jan 01, 2012

Jerry Brown on Triumph and Tiptoes for 12/29/2011

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

"You don't normally end on a triumphant note. You enter in triumph, and you leave on tiptoe," quoth Jerry Brown at a Tuesday press conference to sum up the first year of his second stint as California governor.

For one hour, Brown was highly quotable: "I'm a reformed reformer," he offered. And: "Just because a bill is useless doesn't mean I should veto it."< ...

Updated: Thu Dec 29, 2011

I'm Dreaming of an EssEff Christmas for 12/25/2011

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah. My gift is a take on "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas," a humble effort to localize the classic tune to the beat of San Francisco's unique politics.

Happy holidays, and thank you for the gift of your indulgence.

I'm dreaming of an S.F. Christmas,

Where every Christmas ...

Updated: Sun Dec 25, 2011

Ron Paul: Turn on, Tune in, Drop out for 12/22/2011

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

I first met Ron Paul in 1988 at the Beverly Hills home of Dr. Timothy Leary, the one-time "turn on, tune in, drop out" LSD guru. Leary talked to me about how he was going to have his head frozen cryogenically when he died — it happened eight years later — and why he was hosting a fundraiser for Paul. The event showed that there is such a thing as being so far to the right, ...

Updated: Thu Dec 22, 2011