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"Each week I wish to provide the reader of this column with thought provoking ideas that will hopefully, engage, anger, excite, and inform in such a way that the status quo will no longer be an option."
columns
Byron's Latest Article:
Does
California Need Infrastructure Improvements?
California politics 2003 has not lacked for interesting political fodder. Since
the announcement of the recall election, the Tonight Show has become a viable
forum to launch political aspirations and gubernatorial debates now include the
take home test format...
Taxation
Without Representation is the Rule of Law in Washington D.C.
The
House of Representatives approved the nation's first federally funded school voucher
program by a single vote, sending the Senate a plan that would provide $10 million
in private school tuition grants to at least 1,300 of Washington D.C.’s
68,000 students next year. The five-year pilot program won final passage on a
nearly party-line vote of 209 to 208.
Cleaning
Up the California Democracy
When 72 percent of eligible voters in California decided to stay home during the
last statewide election, it affirmed the Apathetic Party as the state’s
largest political affiliation. I have recently spoken with a number of young people
who possess no interest in participating in the October 7 recall election. Their
primary reason for embracing voter apathy is the belief that voting is irrelevant.
The argument is not without merit. The influence of big money in politics
remains pervasive. In the 2002 elections...
California's
Frustrating Democracy
In 1911, California voters approved the process for recalling elected officials.
It was part of the reform movement that also included a direct form of democracy
known as the referendum. Led by then Gov. Hiram Johnson, the purpose was to wrest
power away from the Southern Pacific Railroad and the political bosses of the
time...
An
Example of Compassionate Conservatism
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, who several weeks
ago at the American Bar Association convention called attention to the injustices
surrounding the federal mandatory sentencing laws...
Whom
Should We Blame?
Whom should we blame for a political atmosphere in California that would have
made P.T. Barnum envious? The convenient response is Governor Gray Davis. While
Davis is not blameless, he is also not alone. We, the electorate...
Prop
54: Will It Make California Better?
If Californians did not have enough to worry about; its the most recent budget,
utilizing a mixture of borrowing and finagling, will leave the Golden State with
a $8 billion deficit and cuts in services to the most vulnerable members of society;
there is the recall election that has become a circus attracting porn kings, action
heroes, and diminutive former child actor/security guards all seeking...
Affirmative
Action Can't Do It Alone
Few issues get the left/ right debate juices flowing like affirmative action.
Its place is reserved among the hallowed ground of other hot button issues like
abortion and gun control. It was deemed a victory for proponents when the Supreme
Court recently upheld the University of Michigan’s law school affirmative
action policy...
Total
Recall
The gubernatorial leadership of Edmund G. Brown Sr. made California the envy of
the world. From 1959 to 1967 Governor Brown was responsible for creating a public
education system that was second to none, infrastructure improvements such as
highway construction and waterways....
Leadership
& Straight Talk
Last week I had lunch with a friend who lamented that President Bush will win
reelection in 2004. I disagreed with my friend’s grim analysis because the
president has become vulnerable in two areas: leadership and straight talk. While
few (come to think of it none) depict the president...
That
Dog Won't Hunt
After C.I.A. Director, George Tenet took the blame for President Bush using fabricated
information in the State of Union address that Iraq was attempting to purchase
uranium from Africa to make nuclear weapons, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer
told reporters...
Equal
Protection For All and A Job For Elvis
After the Supreme Court recently ruled that there is something unconstitutional
when two consenting adults are arrested for something that other consenting adults
are allowed to do under the law...
Tradition
Is And Tradition Does
It is deplorable that in the 21st century professional sports teams continue to
bear the nicknames of Native Americans. The Chicago Blackhawks hockey franchise
is probably...
Honorable
Deception
Former cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short recently accused British Prime
Minister Tony Blair before the Commons foreign affairs select committee...
Standing
in the Way of Progress
Last week was the 40th anniversary of Alabama Governor George Wallace standing
at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt...
Makes
Me Wanna Holla
First, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently suggested publicly for the first
time that Iraq might have destroyed weapons of mass destruction before the war...
It
Does Matter
I believe that New York Times journalist Thomas L. Friedman is the preeminent
foreign affairs columnist in the country. He has won three Pulitzer Prizes, which
is approximately...
Favor
Ain't Fair
The week of May 19, 2003 is not one that high school basketball phenom Lebron
James will soon forget. He began by signing what is believed
The
Lion Sleeps Tonight
With the passing of Walter Sisulu the world lost one of the great pillars of social
justice and human rights. The first political mentor of Nelson Mandela and his
closest confidant...
Strip
Mall Patriotism
Last week the Dixie Chicks kicked off the U.S. leg of its Top of the World Tour
in Greenville, South Carolina their first since they have become the object of
boycotts, ridiculous slurs and satire, plummeting record sales...
Someone
Has to Pay For All This
Not long ago, a friend asked the following unassuming question: Where did we (The
United States of America) get the money to finance the war on Iraq?
Certain
Inaliable Rights
In the midst of a budget crisis possibly resulting in teacher layoffs, a group
of parents and teachers at the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley,
CA are engaged...
Ghettozing
James Baldwin
Recently, I found myself in one of those large, impersonal, mega book/music/cafe
establishments looking in the literary section for a hardcover version of James
Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain...
Bush
Arbor Politics
A unique aspect of African American slave life was the defiant nature when it
came to their spiritual worship. By rejecting the religious teachings...
Support
Our Troops
Is the phrase “Support our Troops” a colloquialism for abandoning
certain First Amendment privileges such as free Speech...
Lessons
Leading to War
The war is fait accompli (pardon the French); it's time for Mr. Bush to get his
fight on, all of the arguments to the contrary...
What's
In A Name
Shortly after the tragedy of 9/11 my father warned me of the need to change my
son's name to Fred, Sam or Joe. Because as my father stated, A name like Malik
will get stopped at the airport every time...
Bush
Needs a War
Recently I dreamt that Osama bin Laden, along with his entire Al-Qaeda network
boarded a plane for Washington DC, landed at Dulles Airport, took a cab to the
Justice Department...
Prove
It
During the time since Secretary of State Colin Powell made his case that Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein is in material breach of U.N. resolutions words like irrefutable,
convincing, overwhelming, undeniable, indisputable have filled the airwaves...
He
Ain't Heavy
I found the president's State of the Union address leaving a lot to be desired.
I do not think that a $370 billion dividend tax cut is the answer to jump- starting
the economy. I do not think that the United States...
Political
Acts of Courage
Those willing to go against their own prevailing stereotypes most often display
political acts of courage. The personal racist beliefs of Harry Truman did not
stop him from integrating the Army...
What
Is Compassionate Conservatism
Now that we are moving into year 3 of Bush 2 I think we should revisit the president's
mantra of "compassionate conservatism." Or to simply ask: what is compassionate
conservatism?...
Rush
to the Left
It was former president Harry S. Truman who said, "If you give the voters a choice
between a Republican and a Republican, they will choose the Republican every time...
Class
In the Session
The Republican Party often criticizes the Democratic Party for engaging in class
warfare. Republicans claim that such practices pit the middle class against the
rich and are divisive for the nation...
Where
the Real Trouble Lies
The current administration has created a foreign policy that has conveniently
and subjectively delineated the world into good v. evil with asterisks. The asterisks
are necessary for those times...
Republicans
Day of Atonement
The Republican Party, seeking its day of racial atonement, have decided to place
their decades of divisive politics on the back of their scapegoat, Senator Trent
Lott. Because the irrepressible Sen. Lott has been hell bent...
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