2013 Politics Archive Stories

It's a rule of thumb in Middle East conflicts that whenever peace talks are announced, each side steps up the fighting so it can grab as much territory as possible before the cease-fire lines are drawn. This struggle for position is happening now in Syria, in the run-up to planned negotiations in Geneva next month that will be co-sponsor

As an immigrant and an engineer, I know the magnetic pull that the United States exerts on anyone who dreams of a career in science. From the time I watched NASA technicians on television during the first lunar landing in 1969, I resolved to get the best scientific education that my talents and circumstances would allow. That quest initi

Significant new questions are cropping up about a California Energy Commission program designed to assure there will be enough hydrogen refueling stations to make buying hydrogen fuel cell cars practical when they debut commercially between 2015 and 2017. One year ago, the commission pulled back more than $28 million in grants it had ten

What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity. All governments make mistakes, and all governments try to hide those mistakes. But the longer an administration is in office, the more errors it makes, and the harder they are to conceal. Just ask Richard M. Nixon, Ronald

The Heritage Foundation recently issued a comprehensive report showing that Sen. Marco Rubio's plan to instantly legalize 11.5 million illegal immigrants would add $6.3 trillion to the nation's budget deficits over the next 50 years. Heritage assumed there are 11.5 million illegals, but other estimates put the number at 33 million, which would m

Rarely since the Civil War have state officials anywhere in America been as close to openly defying federal authority as Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature are today. Brown averted a constitutional crisis in mid-May, when he acceded to the demand of a three-judge federal court panel and submitted a plan to reduce the state prison popul

It shouldn't have been this hard, but Secretary of State John Kerry has finally gotten Russia to back the peace plan on Syria that it endorsed in principle last June. This isn't a breakthrough but at least it's a beginning. What the U.S. and Russia seem to have realized is that a negotiated transition of power in Syria is better than a f

Near the 2012 election, and after bragging about killing bin Laden based on intelligence gained by water-boarding (a tactic he campaigned against), Barack Obama and his O-bots lied to us about Benghazi. O-bots are the many disciples in his administration and the media who, like robots, do Obama's bidding when it's asked for or implied. O

LOS ANGELES — In 1986, lawmakers decided the problem of illegal immigration had to be dealt with. More than 3 million people were living in the United States after crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas. A new law signed by President Ronald Reagan gave legal status and a path to citizenship to most of those unauth

One thing is certain as California heads for a new health insurance era under the Affordable Health Care Act, better known as Obamacare: Almost all parts of the state will need more medical professionals to serve the additional 2 million to 4 million newly-insured Californians. Should they, could they, mostly be physicians, or should oth

Every few months since at least 2006, The New York Times takes time out from brow-beating Evangelicals to praise them for supporting amnesty for illegal aliens. Most of the "Evangelicals" the Times cites are liberal frauds, far from "unlikely allies" in amnesty, as alleged. It is a specialty of the left to pose as something they're not i

The recent study estimating that there may have been 26,000 cases of sexual assault in the military last year stirred a lot of tough talk from the Pentagon and the White House over the past 24 hours. But the question is whether that outrage will translate into much-needed reforms within the armed forces. On that front, we have our doubts.

The US Senate approved Monday a measure that would create a more level playing field for retail stores by giving states authority to collect sales taxes on purchases made over the Internet. Now, it's up to the House, where passage is far from certain. That's too bad. House members who support the free enterprise system should like this b

WASHINGTON — Those who think we can protect US jobs by turning inward have got it exactly backward. In fact, we must look beyond US shores and pursue lucrative opportunities in world markets if we're going to drive stronger growth at home, create more jobs for US workers, and compete in a global economy. Expanding our reach

WASHINGTON — The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a very special trade agreement. It is so special that our government officials who are negotiating it want to keep it completely secret from us. It's like a special Christmas present so they want it to be a surprise! And to make sure it's a surprise, they won't even let a single member

On a sunny California day in 1983, a woman loading bags into her car trunk in a supermarket parking lot was suddenly confronted by a gunman who forced her into the car, tied her up and drove her away. Minutes later, in another parking lot, he blocked another car's attempted exit from a space and, with help from an accomplice, kidnapped o

WASHINGTON — It shouldn't have been this hard, but Secretary of State John Kerry has finally gotten Russia to back the peace plan on Syria that it endorsed in principle last June. This isn't a breakthrough but at least it's a beginning. What the US and Russia seem to have realized is that a negotiated transition of power in Syria i

In yet another bad decision, an education administrator asked me to give a high school commencement speech. The principal must know I write a column; he obviously hasn't read it. When I questioned his wisdom, the principal said, "Just give the kids some sound graduation advice." I asked, "Should I tell them I hear the Monsanto plant is h

Gov. Jerry Brown, construction labor unions and some others are determined to proceed with California's nascent bullet train, with the first tracks scheduled to be laid later this year between Madera and the south end of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. Brown, in fact, has used his appointive powers to ease the path of high-speed rail,

You can tell the conservatives liberals fear most because they start being automatically referred to as "discredited." Ask Sen. Ted Cruz. But no one is called "discredited" by liberals more often than the inestimable economist John Lott, author of the groundbreaking book "More Guns, Less Crime." Lott's economic analysis of the effect of

At his news conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama made a powerful plea for ending the humanitarian and diplomatic disaster created by the continued detention of more than 160 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, more than 100 of whom are engaged in a hunger strike that necessitated the dispatch of an emergency medical team. The problem is that Obam

It was gratifying to see the speed with which Congress was able to fashion a bipartisan solution to a part of budget sequestration that furloughed 10 percent of the nation's air traffic controllers. Of course, the accord had much less to do with interparty cooperation to keep tens of thousands of American air travelers safe than it did w

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There's a price to pay as the fuel mileage of the cars we drive increases! Increases in miles per gallon mean less gasoline is consumed. That means less fuel tax revenue for highways. Unless new revenue is found, the result is more potholes and more traffic jams. Many experts believe we should eliminate

FLINT, Mich. — The idea of a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax is being discussed — actually and tested in states like Oregon and Iowa. It would be an alternative to the federal gas tax, which is under review by Congress and could lead to a new system for funding highway construction and repairs when the measure comes up for r

When the Boston Globe conducted an online discussion of whether the lockdown of the city during the hunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was overkill, one of its columnists, Lawrence Harmon, weighed in: "Friday's lockdown was more than an abundance of caution. It was an overreaction. Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost to the local economy.