Debra Saunders from Creators Syndicate

Gang Injustice for 05/06/2008

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On Friday, California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office announced that it found insufficient evidence to file criminal charges in what has become known as "the De Anza rape case." The story began when a very intoxicated 17-year-old girl allegedly was gang-raped at a March 2007 party at the home of a De Anza College baseball player. Brown's review supports last year's decision by S ...

Updated: Tue May 06, 2008

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Gas-Tax Holiday a Loser for 05/08/2008

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In a desperate bid to exceed the expectation that she would lose big in North Carolina and win handily in Indiana, Hillary Rodham Clinton glommed onto John McCain's proposal for a summer holiday on the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gasoline tax. With her two-point squeak-by win in Indiana and double-digit loss in the Tar Heel State, it is clear that gambit failed.

Barack Obama stood tall ...

Updated: Thu May 08, 2008

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Don't Kill "The Cartoonist": Stand Up to Intimidation for 05/11/2008

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Months after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran 12 mostly unflattering cartoons that depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad on Sept. 30, 2005, mobs torched Danish embassies in Iran, Syria and Lebanon, and riots in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria led to the deaths of more than 100 people. Most American papers, including The Chronicle, ran stories about the controversy, but chose not to re ...

Updated: Sun May 11, 2008

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Hazy Thinking on Medical Marijuana for 05/13/2008

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

To those with family members who rely on medical marijuana to relieve chronic pain, the federal government's crusade against the use of the drug is an outrage. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 78 percent of Americans support allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana. Yet only one of the three major presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama, is calling for needed change in federal policy ...

Updated: Tue May 13, 2008

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City Hall of Love for 05/16/2008

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Four years ago in February, San Francisco City Hall was a chapel of love. Mayor Gavin Newsom had announced that — a 2000 voter-approved initiative that limited marriage to heterosexual couples notwithstanding — San Francisco would allow gay and lesbian couples to wed. More than 4,000 same-sex couples obtained licenses that would allow them to pronounce, "I do."

Firs ...

Updated: Fri May 16, 2008

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The Other Shoe for 05/18/2008

Sun, 18 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Barack Obama is like a shot of Botox. Support him, and you take 10 years off your face. You join the cool crowd. You become one with idealistic kids and Hollywood glitterati.

Clinton Democrats can't compete. They're on the outside looking in. They used to be hip. They were the bad boys who scoffed at finger-wagging conservatives. Now, they have traded in their saxophones for a pantsuit.< ...

Updated: Sun May 18, 2008

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Yes on 98, No on 99 for 05/20/2008

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Connecticut city's right to seize through eminent domain the waterfront homes of longtime residents for private development. The court held that, like the construction of schools and roads, economic development itself constitutes a "public use" under the Fifth Amendment. Both liberals and conservatives were outraged. As dissenting Justice Sandr ...

Updated: Tue May 20, 2008

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Obama-Clinton Ticket for 06/05/2008

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Of course Hillary Rodham Clinton would be willing to be Barack Obama's running mate. Look at her marriage and tell me she won't settle for second place. Clinton's adult life has been about doing — and enduring — whatever it takes to get a hold on the White House. On the road to the top, vice president trumps failed Democratic presidential candidate.

Late Wednesday, aides con ...

Updated: Thu Jun 05, 2008

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Foreign Climates for 06/08/2008

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Let me say this for Our Betters in Europe: Not only do they pay obscenely high gasoline taxes, and hence prices at the pump, but also, at least until recently, they've seemed happy to do so.

Don't think that Europeans didn't get a kick out of the outrage that followed after prices at American pumps surpassed $4 per gallon. When European visitors fill tanks for rented cars in America, the ...

Updated: Sun Jun 08, 2008

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San Francisco Schools' Special Salute for 06/10/2008

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wonder why San Francisco has a reputation as the American left's most intolerant city?

Consider the fact that concerned San Francisco citizens are now gathering signatures for a ballot measure advising the school board to overturn a 2006 vote to shut down the 90-year-old Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program.

You see, the San Francisco school board only recognizes the ri ...

Updated: Tue Jun 10, 2008

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Going for Broke, American Style for 06/12/2008

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When the GOP Congress passed and President Bush signed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, supporters hailed the measure as a victory for "personal responsibility."

Three years later, the bill has managed to dent the number of bankruptcies filed in America — from 1.6 million in 2004 to 850,912 in 2007, according to the nonpartisan American ...

Updated: Thu Jun 12, 2008

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Reporting for Duty -- Not for 06/15/2008

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Iraq isn't the big story this month. Gas prices are. In May, the Associated Press reported, U.S. military deaths plunged to the lowest monthly level in four years and civilian casualties were down sharply, too. Gasoline also hit $4 a gallon. And you don't see as many "No war for oil" bumper stickers as you used to.

The success of the Bush surge — with Iraqi forces having ...

Updated: Sun Jun 15, 2008

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The Russert Weekend RIP for 06/17/2008

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If folks in the news business wonder why the public hates us, they should look to the orgy of coverage over the untimely death of NBC TV's Tim Russert. It's not as if Russert wasn't an extraordinary journalist. On "Meet the Press," Russert gave the best-prepared interviews in Washington. He asked tough questions without the sort of ego-filled posturing that made the questions about h ...

Updated: Tue Jun 17, 2008

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The Dipstick Tipping Point for 06/19/2008

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"We can't drill our way out of the problem." Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said it. It's one of those bromides sincerely repeated by Democrats with such conviction that for years left-leaning audiences duly nodded their heads, never questioning whether the truism was indeed true. Until gasoline leaped above the $4-a-g ...

Updated: Thu Jun 19, 2008

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Return of the Math Wars for 06/22/2008

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

1997 saw the height of the Math Wars in California. On the one side stood educrats who advocated mushy math — or new-new math. They sought to de-emphasize math skills, such as multiplication and solving numeric equations, in favor of pushing students to write about math and how they might solve a problem. Their unofficial motto was: There is no right answer. (Even to 2 plus 2.) They were ...

Updated: Sun Jun 22, 2008

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McCain's Straight Talk Needs Sizzle for 06/24/2008

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

FRESNO, CALIF. — John McCain is a media consultant's nightmare.

He is so not tech savvy that he actually favors town hall meetings, which brought him to Fresno State University on Monday. He still cannot read a teleprompter. He hangs onto that microphone as if it is 1979.

McCain's supporters look at the charisma-oozing, swoon-inducing Barack Obama and sigh that the GOP nomin ...

Updated: Tue Jun 24, 2008

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The GOP Made Obama Do It for 06/26/2008

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It was no surprise when Barack Obama flipped on public financing last week. When it suited his goals last year, he pledged, "If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." When it didn't suit his goals, he ditched the pledge. And get this: Apparently he did it because the Republican ...

Updated: Thu Jun 26, 2008

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An Unlikely Ess Eff Supervisor for 06/29/2008

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Mike DeNunzio wants to meet at "the shrine." You know where that is, don't you, Debra?

Well, no, actually. I have no idea which North Beach shrine he means.

It turns out that DeNunzio wants to meet at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, in a church built in 1849 at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Vallejo Street. In the back of the church, there is a relic of ...

Updated: Sun Jun 29, 2008

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Rights, Arms and the Man for 07/01/2008

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Because of the inclusion of the M-word (militia), gun-control advocates have long argued that the Second Amendment applies to militia, but not to individual citizens.

Last week, the Supreme Court put an end to that nonsense when it ...

Updated: Tue Jul 01, 2008

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Rights, Arms and the Man for 07/01/2008

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Last week, the Supreme Court put an end to that nonsense when it ...

Updated: Tue Jul 01, 2008

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