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Recent Articles | |
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by | February 1, 2012
Redistricting is always a blood sport. In 2011, the decennial redrawing of political boundaries in Texas was bloodier than usual. After the 2010 census, the state was awarded four new Congressional seats, to reflect an increase in population. How those seats were divided by the Legislature could determine who controls the next Congress.
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by | February 1, 2012
The state of Texas has failed in its collateral attack on the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But decisions in three federal courts sorting through redistricting the bills the state's Republican Legislature passed last year could determine how much protection the federal government is allowed to provide minorities when state legislatures pass legislation that dilutes the minority vote.read article »
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by | February 1, 2012
The old saying about southwestern weather — that it's a dry heat describes both a blessing and a curse, as William deBuys demonstrates in his wonderful new book, A Great Aridness. DeBuys, an accomplished New Mexico writer and conservationist, understands that a lack of water is what gives this iconic landscape its impossibly blue skies and unique wildlife.read article »
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by | January 1, 2012
The Republican primary process has served the purpose of winnowing out the Republican party's sideshow candidates. But not before they succeeded in inflicting real harm on the country — in small ways and in much larger ones, such as convincing a segment of the public that the scientific research on which the future of the planet depends is not valid.read article » |
by | December 15, 2011
With Newt Gingrich a suddenly serious candidate for the Republican nomination, it's time to take a close new look at his career thus far. "There were two things Newt was known for," a Republican staffer who asked to remain anonymous told me. "Throwing 99 ideas up against the wall — 95 would be absurd, but three would be brilliant and would stick. And creative destruction." Quite a few Gingrich reforms fall into the latter category.read article » |
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by | December 15, 2011
The Office of Technology Assessment, a nonpartisan federal agency, distilled complex information into essential reports and translated the best available science into a thoughtful range of policy options. It even saved lives. That was until Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" defunded it.read article »
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by | December 15, 2011
As Lawrence Lessig explains in his new book, "Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It," the disastrous nibble on the apple of temptation for American democracy was the change in the relationship between money and power. It may not have been a fall from Eden, but it was a headlong descent from the post-World War II democracy that was as close as we have come to economic and social stability.read article »
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