Recently in Issue Framing Category

About a week ago, Eljefebob wrote a piece about conservatives wanting to "starve the beast." The notion was that if government could no longer afford entitlement programs then entitlement programs would have to die. It was a brilliant plan because no one would argue for killing social security, medicare, or medicaid on their own. Thus, they could cut programs without directly opposing them. Brilliant. When Ronald Reagan (architect of starving the beast) entered office, he...

This appeared on CNN's Crossfire in 2004. Not much seems to have changed. We're still grossly partisan as a nation (or at least the politicians are), and the media are still hacks."I'm not your monkey" ... Jon Stewart, I love you.As you know, CNN cancelled Crossfire in January of 2005 -- more info in an interesting follow-up piece here: http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/01/4509.ars" ... most major media outlets, have a long way to go before the thinking public truly respects...

I have spent much of the last year or so writing either on the Chronicle or here about this and that. Most of the time the topic has trended to education, but I hate to dominate the conversation with shop talk. Recently, our conversations have trended towards poverty, welfare, and NASA. Now, those are three you normally don't see in the same sentence. It's high time we take stock in where we are and where...

The Conservative Case For Gay Marriage by Ted Olson is a must-read, no matter where you side on the issue.And I'm not just saying this because I agree with every word. :)Olson's article in Newsweek is a window into the case he is about to make against Proposition 8 in California.  It is a glimpse of the future and a shot across the bow of those who would use a tyranny of the majority to...

Some conservative bloggers and talking heads, including Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich, have accused President Obama of "ceding American sovereignty" over an executive order granting Interpol the same immunities and privileges granted other public international organizations with offices here in the US.This practice is an outgrowth of Ronald Reagan granting Interpol immunity from prosecution for official acts and from lawsuits in 1983 and the culmination of a request lodged with the Bush Administration when Interpol...

December 20, 2009   Representative John Culberson, 7th District514 Longworth Building Washington DC 20515-4307   10000 Memorial Drive, Suite 620 Houston, TX  77024-3490   Dear Representative Culberson:   Thank you for your response to my letter expressing my opinion on health care reform with another of your empty, partisan, form letters written by someone on your staff. I truly appreciate the time it took one of your minions to add me to the distribution...

Many of you may remember when Bob Geldof got a group of musicians together on behalf of Africa in 1984 and recorded a song whose proceeds went to famine relief in Ethiopia. (http://www.bobgeldof.info/Charity/bandaid.html)I don't know a group of musicians that I can get together, but I have written some new lyrics that are apropos this year.Check out this link to the original recording, but read along with my lyrics as it plays and see...

With the Copenhagen conference and "Climategate," the Internet and the media are abuzz with climate change.  I think more rational voices are being drowned out, though, by the bickering between those that have become polarized in the political debate.  (Gee, does that sound familiar?)  The lines between good science, good problem solving, and good policy have been blurred to everyone's detriment.  Let's try to unravel this Gordian knot a bit.First, the science.I was a climate...

Those of you that are music fans will easily recall the "Summer of Love" in 1967 when bands like the Beatles produced landmark albums like Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heartclubs Band and the whole scene in San Francisco was something to behold. Psychedelia replaced the bubble gum pop of just a few years before and everything had to have a deeper meaning. So called hippies even believed they could have an effect on politics and society....

With President Obama expected to announce a troop increase in Afghanistan somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 in a prime-time address to the nation on Tuesday night, I'll be interested in hearing the response of the deficit hypocrites in Congress, particularly the Senate. Let's see if those who rant and rave about the cost of health care reform hold the cost of war to the same standard, that it not add to the deficit. I'm...