Cuando el Sol se Hizo a un Lado
El sol y la luna se encuentran sobre el Atlántico, en Portugal. Hay momentos en los que la naturaleza nos recuerda, de manera bastante abrupta, que nosotros no somos quienes llevamos las riendas. Estaba en lo alto de un acantilado en Sagres, Por...
When the Sun Stepped Aside
The Sun and Moon meet above the Atlantic in Portugal. There are moments when nature reminds us, rather abruptly, that we are not running the show. I stood on the top of a cliff at Sagres, facing the immense Atlantic, waiting for the moon to move...
Steve Hilton presenta una visión conservadora para California en foro de medios étnicos
Steve Hilton. Foto: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)   El candidato republicano a la gubernatura de California, Steve Hilton, presentó una visión conservadora para el estado durante un foro virtual organizado por American Community Media, argumentand...
Dar atención médica a inmigrantes le está costando a California más de lo previsto. ¿Está en riesgo la cobertura?
California está gastando más de lo esperado en Medi-Cal y los legisladores republicanos están señalando expansiones de cobertura que beneficiaron a los hogares inmigrantes.   El programa de atención médica de California, que cubre a casi 15 millo...
Perspectivas y Experiencias de los Latinos sobre el Idioma Español
Si bien la mayoría de los latinos en EE.UU. hablan español, no todos lo hacen. El 24 por ciento de todos los adultos latinos dicen que solo pueden mantener un poco o nada una conversación en español.   Más de la mitad de los latinos en EE.UU. que...

Bad day for California women politicos

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28 April 2009 Mary Theroux Print Email

The U.S. Senate has been termed “The Most Exclusive Club,” and with good reason: the power and benefits are enormous. Today, Sen. Dianne Feinstein is again in a spotlight for the benefits that have accrued to her husband from her access to such power: On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband’s real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.This follows previous allegations that her husband had also profited tremendously from her position on the Senate’s Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. To date, she’s easily dodged all such criticism and one will see if she continues to retain her Teflon coating.Meanwhile, an ally of Sen. Feinstein’s in her campaign to provide the government greater unchecked power in surveilling and wiretapping domestically has discovered that being a member of the club didn’t exempt her from being bitten from the beast she fed. Rep. Jane Harman of California was overheard by the NSA offering to get leniency for two former pro-Israel lobbyists on their pending charges of illegally disclosing national defense secrets:On Sunday, CQ [the Congressional Quarterly] reported that the NSA had wiretapped Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), listening in on a call in which she apparently offered a quid pro quo to a lobbyist group. Harman has vigorously denied the reports. Today, she appeared on MSNBC to express her shock and outrage that her phone calls were listened to, saying she was “disappointed” that the U.S. could have allowed such “a gross abuse of power.”Yes, Jane, there’s a reason this was supposed to be a government of severely limited powers. As P.J. O’Rourke so eloquently put it, “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” Time to go on the wagon?Mary Theroux is Senior Vice President of Independent Institute in Oakland