Why Voters Should Tell Sacramento To Bag It By Debra J. Saunders
There are two kinds of people in California politics: those who want Sacramento to ban plastic grocery bags and those who just want state pols to pass a budget.
Commentary by Debra J. Saunders
Most Recent Releases
August 8, 2010
August 5, 2010
The Judge Has Spoken -- Whether You Like It or Not By Debra J. Saunders
"Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license," federal Judge Vaughn Walker wrote. So one judge overturned a measure approved by 52 percent of California voters in 2008 and upheld by the California Supreme Court in a 6-1 ruling.
August 4, 2010
The Rangel Center for Public Service By Debra J. Saunders
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- also known as the House ethics committee -- issued a Statement of Alleged Violation last week to Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. To sum it up, Rangel thought he could skirt the rules and get away with it.
July 27, 2010
Tasing Arizona By Debra J. Saunders
The Obama administration had gone to federal court to kill Arizona's new illegal-immigration law, scheduled to go into effect on Thursday. The Department of Justice argues that enforcement of the Arizona law "is pre-empted by federal law and therefore violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution."
July 25, 2010
Brown and Whitman Take a Policy Furlough By Debra J. Saunders
Today's question is: Why have both major candidates for California governor -- Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman -- failed to endorse the governor's authority to furlough state workers?
July 20, 2010
Love for Labor Lost By Debra J. Saunders
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- Australia is the rare major economic power that, under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, avoided a recession in 2009. The unemployment rate here is 5.1 percent. Yet the reigning Labor government is as fearful as Washington Democrats -- with a national unemployment rate of 9.5 percent -- of losing big in the next election.
July 15, 2010
Gillard's Personal Life Not the Prime Issue By Debra J. Saunders
When Julia Gillard, 48, orchestrated the ouster of Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whom she replaced, she made history as Australia's first female prime minister. But Gillard is much more than that. Gillard is the rare national leader of a modern country -- in fact, I cannot think of another, male or female -- who is not married and has never been married. Moreover, Gillard has not been a parent, and she's an atheist.
July 13, 2010
Should the U.S. Adopt Compulsory Voting? By Debra J. Saunders
HOBART, AUSTRALIA -- California GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has been taking a lot of heat for her voting record. Or non-voting record. The former eBay CEO didn't register to vote in California until 2002. She failed to vote in the 2003 recall election. She didn't register as a Republican until 2007. Too bad Whitman didn't spend her business-big-shot years Down Under. In Australia, it's against the law for citizens age 18 or older not to vote.
July 4, 2010
Kagan's Harvard Policy Was Vapid and Hollow By Debra J. Saunders
Elena Kagan famously wrote that Senate judicial confirmation hearings were "a vapid and hollow charade" in 1995. Of course, as a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, she gains nothing by being blunt, so who can blame her for taking the cagey route?
July 1, 2010
Justice for Oakland ... and for Oscar Grant By Debra J. Saunders
I wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News during the Rodney King riots in 1992. I remember the first time I saw the shocking videotape of a group of officers beating and kicking a lone black motorist. Then I followed the trial of four police officers, the not-guilty verdicts, the rage and the ugliness. Six days of rioting left parts of Los Angeles charred and 54 people dead.
June 29, 2010
In Washington, 'Disclose' Means Stifle By Debra J. Saunders
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR5175, also
known as the Disclose Act, by a 219-206 vote. "Disclose," you see, is an
acronym for "Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in
Elections."
June 27, 2010
Primary Voters Had a Right To Know About Settlement By Debra J. Saunders
Did GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman shove an employee when
she was CEO of eBay -- resulting in a $200,000 settlement for the employee?
June 22, 2010
If You Can't Budget, You Can't Govern by Debra J. Saunders
"If you can't budget, you can't govern," Rep. John Spratt Jr., D-S.C., proclaimed in 2006 when the House GOP leadership chose to dispense with passing a budget resolution.
June 20, 2010
University of Anarchy and No Consequences By Debra J. Saunders
When activists (who are not necessarily students) were able to delay construction of a UC Berkeley sports center by living in trees for 21 months, there was no review of what went wrong.
June 18, 2010
Obama's Inaction in the Name of Action By Debra J. Saunders
Note to President Obama: The catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill did not happen because Americans -- actually, the industrialized world -- have an "addiction to fossil fuels," as you suggested in Tuesday's Oval Office address.
June 13, 2010
Jerry Brown, California's Prince of Self-Transformation By Debra J. Saunders
As part of a union-backed "independent" expenditure campaign in support of Attorney General Jerry Brown's gubernatorial effort, the California Nurses Association has formed a retinue that trails GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman with a cartoonish figure named "Queen Meg." Have these true believers never noticed that the attorney general is the real thing when it comes to political royalty?
June 10, 2010
Old White Guy vs. GOP Woman By Debra J. Saunders
So much for the undeserved stereotype of California Republicans voting lemming-like for the most conservative, unelectable contenders. Tuesday, GOP voters rejected the most conservative candidates in favor of moderate hopefuls generally deemed to be more likely to win in November.
June 8, 2010
Hotel California's $36,000 Price Tag by Debra J. Saunders
In the United Kingdom, Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that his new coalition government will have to invoke austerity cuts that could affect Brits for years, even decades. New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie has turned into a conservative hero for telling an irate teacher who complained about her pay at a town hall meeting that she doesn't have to teach. Illinois Gov.
June 6, 2010
All Cog, No Machine; All Check, No Balance By Debra J. Saunders
I want to start a series of occasional columns about how in modern America, everything is so complicated that we can't get simple things done.
June 4, 2010
Flotilla's Goal Was Not Humanitarian By Debra J. Saunders
On CNN earlier this week, American Edward Peck, an activist who sailed with the Free Gaza Movement flotilla, asserted, "The purpose of the movement was humanitarian."
