Free Republic

Knowing when it's time to quit UNION-TRIBUNE February 25, 2005 "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." – Henry David Thoreau Some of my friends wonder aloud if I am suffering some sort of "midlife crisis." They cannot fathom, for the life of them, why I would retire, in my mid-40s, from my writing job at The San Diego Union-Tribune; why I would forfeit my nationally syndicated column. Well, after nearly 15 years of daily deadlines, writing three to four editorials a week, in addition to a column, this seems as good a time as any to walk...

I don't consider myself a "racist" or a "bigot." But Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee apparently does. Because I happen to see the merit of a measure, proposed by two Arkansas state lawmakers, that would require anyone registering to vote in the Razorback State to prove citizenship and anyone applying for state services to prove legal residency. To Huckabee's mind, anyone who supports such a law has succumbed to "race-baiting and demagoguery." That would include yours truly. It also would include a majority of my fellow California residents. Indeed, in 1994, nearly 60 percent of voters in the Golden State approved...

A new Gallup survey is rather disquieting for those of us in the media. It finds that not even a quarter of Americans perceive either television or newspaper reporters to have "very high" or "high" standards of ethics and honesty. There are various explanations for that perception in the eyes of the public. But the belief here is that one major contributing factor is the public's perception that some of what they read on the front pages of the major dailies or watch on the evening news is politically slanted. Indeed, the public need look no further than coverage of...

I had the recent displeasure of appearing before the local chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, many if not most of whose members appeared to me to be committed atheists. The forum was supposed to consider "A candidate's religion. When does it matter?" But the discussion quickly disintegrated into an ugly attack on religion by the godless majority in the room. By the time the evening was over, I knew how the Christians felt when they were fed to the lions. Now, I'm no holy roller. I do not expect everyone to share my religious faith....

Kofi Annan should resign. Under his watch, the United Nations finds itself in the biggest scandal in its checkered history. A hearing last week of the U.S. Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations revealed the U.N.'s tacit complicity with Saddam Hussein in evading sanctions the international organization imposed upon the former Iraqi leader following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Although the United Nations was supposed to limit the oil lucre that flowed into the genocidal dictator's coffers – the better to prevent him from building up his military, from amassing a weapons arsenal – he nevertheless raked in more than $21...

Richard Nixon would have captured the 1960 presidential election but for five states he lost by 5,000 votes or fewer – Missouri, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico and Hawaii. Gerald Ford would have retained the presidency in 1976 but for two states he lost by no more than 5,600 votes – Ohio and Hawaii. Though the 1960 and 1976 elections were close, though they turned on a few thousand votes in a handful of states, the outcomes were faithfully accepted by the American people, by Republicans and Democrats alike. That's because neither Nixon or Ford demanded that the votes be recounted...

"We intend to enforce the fundamental constitutional right of every American to vote to ensure that the Constitution's promise is realized and that, in disputed elections, every vote is counted fully and fairly.' John Kerry, presidential candidate. "In 2004, Democrats will win the White House back the old- fashioned way by counting every vote.' John Edwards, Democratic vice-presidential nominee "Every American must be able to exercise his or her basic, nonnegotiable right to vote. This year, Americans deserve an error-free, intimidation-free, voter-disenfranchisement-free, chad-free, butterfly-free election.' Terry McAuliffe, Democratic National Committee chairman The party of Kerry and Edwards and McAuliffe continues...

WE INTEND TO ENFORCE THE FUNDAMENTAL

By a new election-year poll of black American voters intrigues. Only one in four says he or she is "enthusiastic" about John Kerry's candidacy, according to the survey, conducted by Black Entertainment Television and CBS News. And roughly half say that, if the Democratic presidential nominee supplants the Republican now in the White House, opportunities for blacks will stay the same (if not get worse). Yet, no matter the tepid black support for Kerry, the Massachusetts senator will garner nine of every 10 black votes come November. That's because blacks slavishly vote Democratic every presidential election. And it has been...

There he goes again. In a recent appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's annual conference, Bill Cosby told black Americans what many of us don't want to hear: That we bear much of the blame ourselves for the socio-economic problems that continue to beset far too many members of our population. It echoed sentiments the former sitcom star expressed six weeks ago at an event in the nation's capital marking the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education. In his latest remarks, Cosby dismissed the remonstrations of critics who dare to disparage him...

There's a typo on the cover of Bill Clinton's just-released memoir. The title reads "My Life." It should be "My Lie." In the 957-page tome, the nation's 42nd president revisits his adulterous affair with a woman young enough to be his daughter. "During the government shutdown in late 1995," he writes, "I'd had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between November and April." That corroborates Lewinsky's 1998 testimony before a federal grand jury that their sexual dalliances began in November 1995. But it contradicts Clinton's very own grand jury testimony that their...

There's a typo on the cover of Bill Clinton's just-released memoir. The title reads "My Life." It should be "My Lie." In the 957-page tome, the nation's 42nd president revisits his adulterous affair with a woman young enough to be his daughter. "During the government shutdown in late 1995," he writes, "I'd had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between November and April." That corroborates Lewinsky's 1998 testimony before a federal grand jury that their sexual dalliances began in November 1995. But it contradicts Clinton's very own grand jury testimony that their...

UNION-TRIBUNE June 11, 2004 I cast my very first presidential ballot for Ronald Reagan. That set me apart from most of my fellow black Americans, 90 percent of whom gave their votes to Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Walter Mondale in 1984. Advertisement Even as the nation mourns Reagan's passing this week, many blacks retain their animus toward the 40th president, as evidenced by the uncharitable remarks by several black leaders. "Black grandmothers like mine said always speak well of the dead or keep quiet," Rep. Major Owens, the New York Democrat told The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress....

I cast my very first presidential ballot for Ronald Reagan. That set me apart from most of my fellow black Americans, 90 percent of whom gave their votes to Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Walter Mondale in 1984. Even as the nation mourns Reagan's passing this week, many blacks retain their animus toward the 40th president, as evidenced by the uncharitable remarks by several black leaders. "Black grandmothers like mine said always speak well of the dead or keep quiet," Rep. Major Owens, the New York Democrat told The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress. "I choose to keep...

Don Hewitt just came out of the closet. In a recently published interview, the executive producer of "60 Minutes," the CBS news magazine show, admitted his partiality to John Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee. "I would bet I'll probably vote for Kerry," said Hewitt, the octogenarian. Of course, Hewitt insisted he has no Democratic or liberal political leanings. Just as the writers, producers and correspondents for "60 Minutes" deny a bias against Republicans and conservatives. Never mind recent well-publicized segments featuring explosive interviews with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, former counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke and Washington Post scribe Bob...

It's hard to believe that the war in Iraq started barely a year ago. If you listen to John Kerry, and his Democrat surrogates, if you follow the Iraq coverage in the major newspapers and on the network news, you'd swear the war had been going on for roughly a decade. That was, of course, the duration of major U.S. combat involvement in the Vietnam War, the hugely unpopular conflict, which claimed more than 58,000 American lives, to which the Kerry Democrats and their friends in the media liken the Iraq War. Their object is to dampen public approval of...

John Kerry has an Al Gore problem. Gore was exposed during the 2000 presidential election as a congenital fibber. Among other whoppers, he falsely claimed that his poor old arthritic mother-in-law had to pay three times as much for her prescription medicine, Lodine, as Gore himself paid for the very same prescription medicine for his poor old arthritic family dog. Kerry is a congenital flip-flopper. There hardly is any statement the Massachusetts senator has made, any principle for which the Democratic Party standard-bearer supposedly has stood, that he hasn't repudiated or abandoned to suit his vainglorious political ends. There are...

The recent court decision didn't make the front pages of the nation's newspapers. It didn't rate a mention on the evening newscasts. But it could, ultimately, have the same impact on property rights in America that, say, Brown v. Board of Education had on school desegregation. The precedent-setting case involved 275 San Joaquin Valley farmers whose water was taken from them by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a decade ago to accommodate two fish on the federal endangered species list – the chinook salmon and the delta smelt. In 1998, the Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District and Kern...

JOSEPH PERKINS THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE Immigration reform A reward for flouting the law January 9, 2004 'Granting amnesty encourages the violation of our laws, and perpetuates illegal immigration." So said President Bush this week, as he set forth his plan for a new "temporary" worker program. The program would not bestow amnesty upon the 8 million or so mostly Mexican illegals living in the United States. It would not confer citizenship upon them. But it would give undocumented aliens legal status, entitling them to remain in this country. So, to most illegals, "temporary" worker status would be almost as...

Moammar Gadhafi had a message this week for Kim Jong Il, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Bashar al-Assad. North Korea, Iran and Iraq "should follow the steps of Libya," he said, "so that they prevent any tragedy being afflicted upon their own people." Gadhafi's remarks follow his surprise agreement – announced by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair – to disclose and dismantle the North African country's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. Libya's leader wisely recognized that President Bush meant what he said in the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York City and...