The immigration debate is once again dominating the news as members of Congress focus on the long- neglected problem of fixing our country's failed immigration laws. American lawmakers are now at a critical point. Enforcement-only legislation won't work and hasn't worked. Previous efforts to solve this problem by focusing exclusively on border security have failed miserably. In fact, during the past decade, the U.S. tripled the number of agents on the border, quintupled the budget, toughened our ... [full story]

Anywhere you go in Oregon, odds are good you will find evidence of gambling's popularity.  Driving to work, I pass an Oregon Lottery billboard.  Visiting a radio station for an interview, I see that the talk-show host had been playing poker on the computer. But what really surprised me was walking across a college campus and passing a series of posters, one advertising a student poker tournament, another reading "sex toy bingo" and a third advertising ... [full story]

The recent debate over immigration policy commonly depicts immigrants as undocumented, uneducated people who flood our borders without inspection. Although many immigrants who enter this country are unskilled laborers who provide essential services in many sectors of our economy, of equal importance to the immigration debate are the highly educated foreign professionals whose skills play a vital role in the enrichment of our economy. The U.S. economy has shifted significantly over the past 50 years. We ... [full story]

The Heritage Foundation plays key role in Massachusetts' new health care initiative A few weeks back, UC Berkeley's Nicholas C. Petris Center on Healthcare Markets and Consumer Welfare (named after the former California state senator whose legislative career was marked by his deep concern with California's health care issues) sponsored a seminar on health care. One panel examined the current status of California's Proposition 63 -- the State's 2004 mental health initiative funded through ... [full story]

Well, the good news is the President has finally come up with an immigration policy. The bad news is nobody can figure out what it is yet, but hey, give the man his props; he gave it a shot. Sensing what could be called a somewhat dissatisfied electorate in the same way a 13 acre glacier might be referred to as an ice cube, he delivered his long awaited speech on immigration and uncharacteristically revealed ... [full story]

On Saturday, May 13, when Senator John McCain (R-AZ) showed up to speak to the graduating class at the Reverend Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, hand shakes, smiles and hugs abounded. The key words of the day were “tolerance,” “respect,” and “understanding,” and the Senator’s overarching theme was his defense of President Bush War on Iraq. The Senator was nice; the Reverend was nice, the audience was nice. The bitter Republican Party presidential campaign of 2000 ... [full story]

Oh, you’re going to love this. Its the latest tripe being ground out of the ever busy Bush Administration sausage factory of spin. Now that the evidence about global warming is pretty much nailed down, meaning every scientist on the face of the planet agrees that not only are we neck deep in the middle of it, the bottom of our earlobes are starting to tickle; turns out, no worries. Its really good for us. ... [full story]

After Apple Computer announced its new video-capable iPod, the San Francisco Chronicle's Mark Morford, a controversial and ever-iconoclastic columnist, enthused that the new "sexy" and "delicious" device would usher in a future where pornography would be available at the flick of a finger. But Morford isn't the only one imagining the future of podcasting. In June, the Corporate Podcasting Summit in San Francisco will provide an introduction to, and workshops on, podcasting to companies that ... [full story]

Speaking of his new appointment to head up the Central Intelligence Agency, President George Bush called four star General Michael Hayden, "the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation 's history." Let 's hope Hayden isn't too much of a student of history. Otherwise, he might read the President's statements about Porter Goss, the man whose position he is filling, when Goss was appointed to head the CIA, 18 ... [full story]

Its almost dead solid meteorological summer and the crossing of the solstice seems to have inaugurated a season of good news/ bad news for George W Bush, the Democrats, Iraq, you, me, pretty much everybody. Allow me to illustrate. The good news is George W Bush pulled off a secret mission and flew to Baghdad in the dead of night. The bad news is he only stayed five hours and then came right home. The ... [full story]

CNN talk show host latches onto immigration On the May 23rd edition of Lou Dobbs' nightly CNN program "Lou Dobbs Tonight," the generally affable talk-show host, who has become the network's go-to-guy on immigration issues, repeated a racist conspiracy theory and ran a graphic provided by the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens to illustrate his point. For quite some time, Dobbs has made immigration issues an integral -- some might say dominant -- part of ... [full story]

The Republicans are fond of accusing the Democrats of being a party without ideas. Well, after watching the GOP trot out the trite tripe it passes off as ideas for the last couple of years, I'll tell you, no idea seems like a pretty damn good idea at this point. Estate taxes and gay bashing and flag burning seem to be their front burner issues. Which if you think about it is pretty cynical on their ... [full story]

If former Vice President Al Gore eventually decides to mount another run for presidency, it may be that the bashing he received from the right during the run-up to and premiere of "An Inconvenient Truth," his new highly-acclaimed documentary film warning of the dangers of global warming, was a motivating factor. Conservatives having a field day with the release of Al Gore's new film on global warming According to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, Gore's ... [full story]