The journey from there to here
Gideon MacLeish's Articles In Politics » Page 20
March 24, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
A news story yesterday revealed that my esteemed opponent in the upcoming race for Texas State House of Representatives is headed down to Austin to drum up his support for the school finance bill that will be the subject of the sixth special session of the state House and Senate to discuss this very issue. He's trying to be the knight in shining armour, declaring that he will cut property taxes to fund the schools, because the issue revolves around property taxes, state law, and a Texas Supreme ...
March 10, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
George Bush is once famously quoted as saying that the US would be easier to govern as a dictatorship if he were the dictator. While I've never heard this quote directly, I have often heard it attributed to him (mostly by critics). He appears to have taken steps to make the US easier to govern over the years. Operating with a solid base of UnConstitutional legislation from his predecessor, Bush used the tragedy of September 11, 2001 to further erode our rights and remove our government furthe...
March 10, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
Flashback to 1985. I was a 15 year old idealogue. A friend of mine and I climbed out of my 1976 Cutlass S (with swivel bucket seats...WAY cool at parties!) and went down into the dank basement of a church in my hometown. Around the table sat about 20 people, many of whom were college professors, doctors, and other intellectuals within the community. After I was introduced, I was excited, as they began talking about situations near and dear to my heart: The apartheid system in South Africa, th...
March 9, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
The Dubai ports deal has pointed out an amazing inconsistency among the left. Maybe they should have a little powwow and get their stories straight rather than rely on talking points to guide them in policy making decisions. You see, since September 12, 2001, the liberals among us have insisted that Islam is a "religion of peace", and that we shouldn't consider terrorist extremists as representatives of Islam. Over the last couple of years they've taken it upon themselves to relabel the terro...
March 7, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
Last year's film "Good Night and Good Luck" ressurrected the image of Joseph McCarthy, and I have found it interesting that many right wing pundits, in their zeal to attack George Clooney, have gone to great lengths to redeem the image of the tarnished senator. The movie about Edward R. Murrow's efforts to bring down McCarthy is one political movie that was necessary for Hollywood to make. In fact, it was long overdue. Many actors, screenwriters, and other entertainers lost their livelihoods...
March 6, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
While politics have always been heated because of conflicts of various sides, our ability to succeed has always been contingent on a minimum level of civility. Sure, many conflicts have been less than civil, but at the end of the day, politicians should make decisions as to the best interests of their constituents. The current flap with President Bush is no exception. Bush won his second term as president in 2004, and his term of office expires in January of 2009. After that, he cannot hold t...
March 1, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
As the debate rages on about the UAE ports deal, I have found a very interesting fact as I have listened to where various pundits fall on the issue. Oddly enough, opinions on the ports deal are NOT falling along party lines. This is probably the first area of politics I have found where Michael Medved, George Bush, and Jimmy Carter can all be found on the same side. I will be the first to admit, when I first heard about the ports deal, I had a bad feeling about it. VERY bad. And, in fact, had...
March 1, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
I just finished reading "Protecting Children from Child Protective Services" by Alan L. Schwartz. This is not the ravings of some anti-government conspiracy theorist against CPS, but of a worker who has seen the system from the inside and has several strong solutions. While Mr. Schwartz and I disagree on many issues, mainly the fundamental one of whether CPS should even exist in a perfect world, we have a common goal of the best interests of the children and families. One of the things that...
February 27, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
I've watched with interest the debate over the deal that would sell several ports in the United States to the United Arab Emirates from a British company. Although I must admit the deal had several alarm bells ringing in my head when it was first announced, I am starting to believe that this deal should, in fact, go through. While it is true that several terrorists have hailed from the UAE, it is irresponsible to consider that as reflective of the mood of the nation. Just as Lynndie England i...
February 19, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
When the cartoons satirizing the prophet Mohammed were published in a Danish newspaper and the Muslim community acted with outrage, we took notice. But was the outrage of the Muslim community genuine, or was it a staged attempt to feed the media examples of Islamic "persecution" to justify to the Western world the motivation of an Islamic suicide bomber, which is, for the most part, wholly incomprehensible to us? The fact is, I would be willing to wager a fair sum that not one individual read...
February 17, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
The biggest threat to the United States of America is not the Muslim terror cells that are believed to be operating in this and other countries with intentions of attacking us in large scale operations. It isn't right wing militia groups who hoard weapons in rural compounds and train their members to ward off a government attack. It isn't even the swarms of illegal aliens coming across our boarder, aided and abetted by their own governments, to make money to send home to their families in their ...
February 16, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
I participate in several Libertarian discussion groups. On one, I asked for references to businesses that make campaign materials, preferably those owned by Libertarians. I was directed to a business card company and a bumper sticker company. Yesterday I called the bumper sticker company, and discussed what I wanted for the campaign. We discussed sizes of the bumper stickers, colors, and wording. I left a lot of the decisions up to them, as I am not a designer (the extra cost for them to prod...
February 14, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
Link Oh, brother, this is nuts. Now, members of the media are questioning why Vice President Dick Cheney never took hunter's safety courses, implying that that was part of the reason the accident occured. There's one teeny weeny problem there: Texas state law, at least (he was hunting in the state of Texas, remember?) does not reuire hunter's safety for anyone born before 1972. So either the Veep is too young to hold the office (and has a case of progeria) or this law doesn't apply.
February 13, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
OK, pop quiz. True or false: as a United States citizen, the government gives you certain rights, as enumerated in the Bill of Rights? If you've been paying attention here, you would know the answer to that question is: false. While this is a commonly held assumption, it is, in fact, a misunderstanding that has led to our enacting numerous laws that are, in fact, in violation of the United States Constitution. The truth is, the Bill of Rights details rights that we HAVE as US citizens, tha...
February 12, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
I have often made the quite legitimate accusation against certain foreign bloggers that there are dynamics of our American society that they don't understand, and that they write in ignorance of some of those dynamics. Now I have to plead guilty to doing that myself. You see, in the recent uproar over the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper, I applied AMERICAN constitutional standards to my opinion, not those of Europe, or specifically the Danes. While my assessment of the situation w...