MiamiHerald.com: Opinion

Unfair balance

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

As I was talking recently with the founder of a large American corporation, the conversation turned (inevitably) to healthcare reform. His employees in their 20s, on average, cost the company about $1,500 a year in health bills. Those in their 50s cost at least 10 times more. The effect of proposed healthcare reform -- which limits the ability of insurers to charge higher premiums for older adults -- would be, he said, a large shift of America's healthcare burden to the younger generation.

Regulating the financial market

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Below are excerpts from AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka's recent testimony before the House Financial Services Committee:Our members were not invited to Wall Street's party but we have paid for it with devastated pension funds, lost jobs, and public bailouts of private sector losses. Our goal is a financial system that is transparent, accountable and stable, that is the servant of the real economy rather than its master.

Florida (gone?) Forever

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Look out, Florida lawmakers, four former governors are conducting a full-court press to convince you to resume funding the state's farsighted land-conservation program, Florida Forever. Legislators should heed the governors' call. Floridians need all the open space we can get.

Mindless violence

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, spoke for a lot of Americans Friday when he described the shooting spree that left 13 people dead at Fort Hood, Texas, as a ``kick in the gut.''

Florida a battleground state . . . again

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

For Floridians, the most significant news to emerge from the off-year elections around the country is that the outcome of an obscure congressional race in upstate New York ensures that the Sunshine State will be a key battleground in the 2010 election cycle. Oh, dear.

The Daily ?

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:03 EDT

It's back to the future for Miami-Dade mayors

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

First, congratulations to Miami Mayor-elect Tomás Regalado and the reelected mayors of key Miami-Dade cities -- Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina.

The Honduran solution

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Under the prodding of U.S. diplomats, political leaders in Honduras have come up with a creative, albeit complicated, solution to help the country emerge from the paralyzing crisis arising from the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya on June 28.

Don't go drill crazy in the Everglades

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

In search of money to help pay off Miami International Airport's expansion, officials want the county to consider drilling for oil and gas at an old jet port that's now part of the Big Cypress National Wildlife Preserve as one potential way to get money.

Honey, I forgot to land the plane

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

To the many woes plaguing airline passengers -- smaller seats, higher ticket prices, fewer flights, etc. -- add one more: Piloting while distracted.

Healthcare system overdue for reform

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:00 EDT

The public option in the proposed overhaul of the nation's healthcare system was considered a poison pill that would kill serious reform. Now a hybrid proposal has surfaced that merits attention.

Local perspectives

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY`REDLAND RAISED' IS SMART CALL A visitor to Miami-Dade will surely notice downtown Miami's dynamic skyline, perhaps party on South Beach and, if heading to the Florida Keys, will pass palm tree farms and several nurseries, too.

Builder's arrest offers lessons, lost promises

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

Poinciana Park was to be the jewel of a revitalized Liberty City. It was billed as a $250 million retail and office complex rising from the barren landscape of a distressed area that smoldered during the 1980 riots.

Freeze credit card rates

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

When Congress passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights last May, we called it a long overdue response to the abuses of predatory credit-card issuers who have used every trick in the book to extract money from cardholders. As it turns out, we underestimated the greed and craftiness of the credit-card industry.

Juanita's Cinema Paradiso in Birán

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

There's little I can add to the big news about the secret kept for decades by Juanita Castro: Her valiant collaboration with the CIA to save from imprisonment and execution the democrats of the domestic opposition whom her brothers Fidel and Raúl crushed with such virulence. Her memoirs and statements testify to her private crusade.

Come meet your military neighbors

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Since the time of the American Revolution, this country has had a military comprised almost entirely of citizen volunteers. Until the First World War almost all of our wars were fought close to home, which helped the military retain high visibility and rapport with the civilian population. This gave the people the sense, and in many cases literally, that they were personally being protected. Frequently it was a father, brother or son fighting a hundred miles or less from home. The military were heroes, the good guys who were lauded in songs and novels.

A challenge for Miami port

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Despite the global recession, the sounds of construction are well underway along the pathway that brings about 2.1 million tons of general cargo to Miami's port each year after passing through the Panama Canal. Along the canal, cranes and bulldozers hum as reminders that, yes, in fact, things will get better.

Truman's advice for Obama

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Harry Truman could've taught Barack Obama a thing or two about how to deal with a hostile press -- basically, by ignoring it.

On Hamid Karzai's tightrope

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

With the ``reelection'' of President Hamid Karzai, if that's the right word for a process that featured fraudulent balloting and a canceled runoff, the United States now confronts the hardest puzzle of all about Afghanistan: How to improve governance there -- which most experts agree is essential to defeat the Taliban -- without taking even more control from Afghan officials?

Anything can still happen

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Anyone familiar with the Honduras crisis can be forgiven for being skeptical about the viability of last week's agreement to end the four-month deadlock between opposing political forces in that shaken Central American nation.

Is U.S. facing a dead end?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

The Obama administration may be going down a dead end. In an Oct. 13 meeting with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Obama said: ``Tell Raúl that if he doesn't take steps, I won't be able to go further.'' A few days later the Spanish foreign minister met with Raúl Castro. We don't know if he delivered the message.

Is trouble ahead for the Democrats?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Ayear after Barack Obama's election stirred broad hopes for change among American voters, persistent high unemployment and the spectacle of continued gridlock in Washington threaten Democratic dominance of the political landscape.

One-liners

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Promises were made but never kept. This will be the unfortunate epitaph of this administration if it continues watering down the solutions to the problems we face, whether they are single-payer health insurance or alternative energy.

Don't drop tests for high-school students

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

As a 23-year high-school teacher in the Broward County school system, I am appalled at the new policy of the School Board to allow students to be exempt from taking their midterm or final exams if they have an A or B average. In today's highly competitive global economy we should be making our curricula more rigorous, not less.

Where's the outrage?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Where's the outrage?What sort of headline is Army doctor blamed in base rampage to describe the worst attack ever on a military installation in this country?

Statement ``ill advised''

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Re a Nov. 4 article Jackson, UM leaders square off in which I am quoted as saying, ``I would not send my family to many of them,'' referring to Jackson Memorial Hospital's new doctors. At a recent meeting between the leadership of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Jackson Health System, I spoke in frustration about the complex and often difficult circumstances in which both institutions operate their shared public mission. As chairman of the UM Board of Trustees, I made a statement that was indeed ill-advised. For this I apologize.

Real energy efficiency

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

The Oct. 26 editorial, Uninspiring energy-efficiency standards, was long on rhetoric and short on specifics. I have proven that we can achieve real efficiency and do it with little or no financial pain or reduction in lifestyle. I reduced my usage by 40 percent.

Ashes of destruction

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

On 9/11 we were attacked by cowardly enemies who hate everything that our nation stands for. They hate our freedom, our innovative spirit and our good will. They label us imperialists who wish only to attack Islam and Muslim nations. What is our answer as a nation? We take 7.5 tons of steel from Ground Zero and use our innovative spirit to meld debris taken from the ashes of destruction into a new warship.

Not a cool idea

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Our president thinks it is a great idea to give some $200 million of our tax dollars to FPL so it can find new ways to monitor how we use electricity. The claim is that it would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 575,000 tons over 30 years.

Untrue rumors

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

The Humane Society of Greater Miami Adopt-A-Pet, a limited-admit, adoption-guarantee organization, merged with Pet Rescue on Nov. 1 and has faced more malicious remarks than ever before.

GOP wins taint Obama's image in Europe

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:22 EST

We are speeding toward climate ``catastrophe,'' U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the World Climate Conference in Geneva two months ago. The seas could rise 7 feet and wash over coasts, river deltas and low-lying islands, and the time to prevent the threatening flood is now, the U.N. leader said as he implored the world's leaders to sign a new climate agreement when the so-called Kyoto II conference meets in Copenhagen from Dec. 7 to 17.

Lessons from Virginia for the GOP

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:52 EST

After losing Virginia's governorship for the first time in eight years, some Democrats are trying to console themselves that Virginia is at its core a ``red'' state. This ignores not only that they won back-to-back governorships but also that Democrats defeated a sitting senator in 2006, took control of the state Senate in 2007 and won an open Republican Senate seat and three House seats in 2008 while carrying Virginia's electoral college votes for the first time since 1964.

Medical tourism: Outsourcing your health

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:22 EST

At a luxury hotel conference center in Los Angeles last week, ``international hospitals'' from Singapore to South America set up half an acre of colorful display booths in an attempt to attract more business from American insurers and employers. Glossy brochures and videos offered hip replacements, cancer treatments and cardiac care in Turkey, Thailand or Costa Rica. Send a patient and a companion on business class, the basic pitch went, and we'll give them deluxe private rooms, a concierge and a driver. You'll still save half or more of the U.S. cost -- tens of thousands of dollars.

An unusual prescription for healthcare

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:37 EST

In looking at healthcare reform, Congress and the Obama administration are missing a key remedy that could help keep Americans healthy, prevent disease and hold down costs. We urgently need to reduce the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause new and hard-to-treat diseases, and we can start with food animal production.

Don't target Afghan farmers

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:52 EST

There is concern that our continued efforts in Afghanistan are being undermined by widespread corruption within the administration of President Hamid Karzai. What few people are talking about is the opium cultivation and heroin production that is fueling this corruption. But should we do anything about it? Can we do anything about it? Not really.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

here On Aug. 16, pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., told his congregation that he prays for the death of President Obama. In a sermon titled ``Why I Hate Barack Obama,'' Anderson preached: ``I'm not going to pray for his good, I'm going to pray he dies and goes to hell.''

Saving the last lions of Africa

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

Just 50 years ago there were close to a half-million lions in Africa -- about 450,000 in all. Today there are between 16,000 and 23,000. And yet, unlike elephants (a far more numerous species), lions have no protection under the international accord governing such matters.

Huge deficits require tough decisions

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

We're close to our spending limit on the nation's credit card. The bank bailout, the stimulus package, the Iraq War, and the overall military budget: each is costing over $500 billion. Now the Obama administration is looking at two more hefty charges: a national health care plan and a surge in Afghanistan. It's time to make a decision. We can't do both guns and gurneys. After all, we're looking at a $1.6 trillion government deficit for 2009.

The best politicians money can buy

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Senate candidate Marco Rubio, once a distant underdog to a popular governor with a huge war chest, suddenly finds himself contemplating something he didn't have two months ago:

Dear Sarah: Keep up the great writing!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:00 EDT

(Confidential response of Sarah Palin's book editor to the first draft of her upcoming memoir, ``Going Rogue''):

Lawmakers' love affair with Big Oil

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

The mystery group trying to repeal Florida's ban on offshore oil drilling is winning converts the old-fashioned way, deploying a battalion of lobbyists and throwing campaign money at state legislators.

Man bites dog: PSC rejects FPL rate hike

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

Astrange and curious event took place last week.

Posting mug photos online -- foul, not fair

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

Everybody looks guilty in a mug shot. Ask Nick Nolte or Heather Locklear.

Yeah, we're shrinking, but not enough

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:00 EDT

If you picked up the most recent Time magazine, you probably saw a story captioned: ``A Shrinking Sunshine State.''

We're sick; the system's even sicker

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:00 EDT

It's easy to get distracted by the vaudevillian aspects of the health-care debate.

Hate the job, but, oh, those fringe bennies!

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:00 EDT

We hear the question all the time: Why would anyone in their right mind go into politics?

An act of appalling cowardice

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

We don't know why Faleh Hassan Almaleki came to this country in the mid-1990s, and it's unlikely he'll be able to tell us anytime soon. He's in jail in Maricopa County, Ariz., at this writing, in lieu of a $5 million cash bond. It hardly seems far-fetched, however, to suppose he emigrated from his native Iraq for the same reason immigrants typically seek these shores: America promises opportunity and freedom.

Injustice compounded in McKinney case

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Anthony McKinney got a life sentence for running down the street.

Sisters, your natural hair is beautiful to me

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

An open letter to African-American women: It's about the need to be beautiful, I know. As goals go, that one is neither extraordinary nor gender-specific. But it's different for women, isn't it? A man's sense of self worth is seldom endangered by crow's feet. On him people will say they convey ``character.'' On a woman, they convey wear.

Party trumps country?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

You figure the White House is probably feeling pretty good about itself right now.

Party trumps country?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:26 EDT

You figure the White House is probably feeling pretty good about itself right now. After spending much of the summer as a punching bag for conservatives, Team Obama has begun throwing punches of its own. It has unleashed its marquee figures to tee off on high profile GOP personalities and institutions in a coordinated effort to marginalize the opposition.

Balloon hoax exemplifies perverse era

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

For hours, the fear was that the boy would be found smashed to jelly somewhere, so my first emotion upon learning that 6-year-old Falcon Heene was actually safe in his family's Fort Collins, Colo. attic, was relief.

As you sow, so shall you reap, brother

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

We are gathered here today in sympathy with our brother, Rush Limbaugh.

Get ready for conservative Bible

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:00 EDT

So we may soon have ourselves a conservative Bible. Besides Fox News, I mean. This new Bible is from Conservapedia, a website that bills itself as a conservative alternative to the perceived liberal bias of Wikipedia, the user-edited online reference.

Left's been out for blood, too

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:14 EDT

For one, brief shining moment last week, I thought Nancy Pelosi must be the bravest American politician of the century, standing up to her own nutball constituency in the interest of American political politesse. After all, when she tearfully told a press conference that the partisan bombast should be dialed down several notches lest it turn bloody -- ``I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco, this kind of rhetoric . . . it created an environment in which violence took place'' -- she had to be talking about left-wing violence, right?

What's not being celebrated

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:00 EDT

If the Americans who fought World War II are the Greatest Generation, their children are the Greatest Erasers. That's why all week long you're going to hear Joni Mitchell singing about bombers turning into butterflies over Woodstock, and not Mick Jagger warning that rape, murder, it's just a shot away at Altamont.

The week ahead in movies and TV

Sun, 31 May 2009 17:35 EDT

BIG SCREEN The Hangover (R): May is too early to proclaim any movie the funniest of the year, but for sheer lowbrow, R-rated antics, filmmakers will have a hard time topping director Todd (Old School) Phillips' raucous comedy. It's about four friends (including Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms) who must retrace their steps the morning after a long night of hard partying in Las Vegas and figure out, for example, why there's a tiger in their bathroom.

Public challenge, private courtship

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:02 EST

With the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tape of Ronald Reagan's famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate is likely to be played and replayed. ``Mr. Gorbachev,'' he declared, ``tear down this wall!''

Succinct health bill

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Succinct health billThe Republicans are complaining about the length of the House's draft healthcare bill: 1,900 pages. To put their carping in context, the scholar Norman Sherry wrote a three-volume biography of one man, the English writer Graham Greene, numbering roughly 2,500 pages.

Not a dream for citizens

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Mirta Ojito's Nov. 1 column, One more terrible thing to waste, is an attempt to soften public opinion on the DREAM Act. The act would provide children of illegal immigrants the chance to seek a college education without fear of deportation and to qualify for scholarships and grants.

11/8/09

Friday, November 6