MiamiHerald.com: Opinion

Attitude and blame

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

You have to hand it to Sarah Palin. I don't mean you have to hand her the 2012 nomination. Nor do you have to hand her the $24.64 I overpaid for Going Rogue.

Woman of substance?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

I'm sure I would like Sarah Palin if I got the chance to meet her. We share many things in common. She is still married to her first spouse, as am I. She has a Down syndrome son. I have a brother with Down syndrome. We share the same faith and we both like the outdoors. She is conservative on economic and social issues, and so am I.

Enough stalling: Toughen ethics rules

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

As corruption scandals mount involving city commissioners, county officials and school board members in Broward and Miami-Dade, loopholes in state and local ethics laws have finally come into focus for public officials in denial.

Good news from the capital

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Some good news out of Tallahassee: Gov. Charlie Crist this week endorsed a statewide ban on texting while driving, a move that could save lives and prevent more carnage on our streets and highways -- if lawmakers sign on.

Cubans still in agony

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

The title of the latest Human Rights Watch report on Cuba succinctly describes the dismal state of civil liberties on the island since Raúl Castro took over for his ailing brother in July of 2006: ``New Castro, Same Cuba.''

The Daily ?

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:03 EDT

Trade trips with a purpose, results

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Miami-Dade is an international hub for trade and tourism. So it's to be expected that the county's trade and tourism executives would be traveling abroad to pump up business here.

Immigration reform, on again

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

The Obama administration has sent an important signal that it remains committed to overhauling the nation's immigration laws, an issue that has lost none of its urgency since Congress and President Bush tried and failed to enact substantial changes in 2007.

The Herald recommends

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Below are our recommendations for the runoff elections in Miami and Miami Beach on Tuesday.

Stop the waste of water

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Water managers call the new lawn-watering rules ``sweeping year-round water conservation measures.''

Victory for due process, rule of law

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

The American system of justice has won an important vote of confidence from the Obama administration, signaling an overdue return to due process and the rule of law.

Another Miami corruption mess

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

With one Miami commissioner suspended by Gov. Charlie Crist and another who has resigned to Mayor Tomás Regalado effective Monday, the Magic City will need more than a bag of tricks to right itself.

The Herald recommends

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Below are our recommendations for the runoff elections in Miami and Miame Beach on Tuesday.

The Herald recommends

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Candidates in two intense runoffs are competing for voters' attention for Tuesday's election. Given the low turnout on Nov. 3 (about 7,500 of 46,000 registered voters) that reelected Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and Commissioner Jerry Libbin, the four contestants up for two vacant commission seats are scrambling to stir voters' enthusiasm.

Freedom has no double standard

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Among the few things that Cubans can count on after 50 years under the rule of the Castro brothers is the subhuman, Draconian methods with which the regime lashes out against those who dare disagree.

All aren't able

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

As George W. Bush famously asked, ``Is our children learning?''

Julia will have a place at our holiday table

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

While my excitement bubbles as I plan our family Thanksgiving, which will reunite many who were together in Brockton, Mass. in 1969 a month before I married, I am still trying to digest the fact that Julia Child has been reincarnated with Meryl Streep's face while the November 2009 Gourmet is the last that will grace my prep table.

Give us a decision

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The residents of the Afghan capital are waiting for President Obama -- to make up his mind.

Obama right to take his time

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

President Obama has made no decision yet on where we are going and what we are doing in Afghanistan. But if the flood of leaks this week is any indicator he has, at least, decided what he is not going to do.

Common- sense care

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Calm. That's not a word one hears much these days, but calm is what some are urging in the wake of a new federal report on breast-cancer screening.

Let GOP duke it out

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

For Sarah Palin, with her personality and history, to tell Rush Limbaugh that Republicans should welcome primary fights within their own ranks is hardly surprising.

Stand firm, America

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Afew weeks ago, Cuban State Security agents beat up on the streets of Havana the internationally known Cuban writer and blogger Yoani Sánchez. The international community condemned the attack.

One-liners

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

I'd appreciate being told, once more, why, as an American citizen, I can travel freely to Communist China but am unable to travel to Communist Cuba without special license from my own government.

Wasteful washes

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Re the Nov. 17 editorial Stop the waste: What about another wasteful use of water in our community -- fundraising car washes? While I realize that nonprofit organizations can legally do this, these car washes are as much of a waste of water as too frequent lawn watering.

Let us fight child trafficking

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Unfortunately, most members of Congress and state and local officials aren't aware of the most horrific of crimes -- child trafficking. I recently met briefly with U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who is renown for being an effective workhorse in Congress, and briefed her on the severity of the crisis, which surprised her.

No apology necessary

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

I am grateful that during President Obama's recent trip to Japan he refrained from apologizing to the Japanese people for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Virtual conviction

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

I was offended by the Nov. 15 editorial regarding suspended Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, which virtually convicted the woman.

Redirect trade funds

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

The Nov. 17 article Trips off course? on the International Trade Consortium's (ITC) globe-trotting ways, points out that the agency had a grand total of five appointments for county business professionals with their foreign counterparts while traveling overseas in 2007-2008. No wonder they stopped quantifying the results of their questionable ``trade missions'' in 2005.

Over the top

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

I am a bit perplexed by the Nov. 15 Home & Design feature on Gil Dezer. Why did he let you photograph his real Porsche prominently displayed on his wall, but not the neon sign above his head flashing the word hubris for all of Miami to see?

Training minnows

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Training minnows So the Miami-Dade School Board has decided it's time for another round of ethics training for employees. This happens periodically.

Holder makes a reasonable decision

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:07 EST

Reasonable minds can disagree about Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other alleged Sept. 11 perpetrators in a Manhattan federal court. But some prominent criticisms are exaggerated, and others place undue faith in military commissions as an alternative to civilian trials.

Let's stick with mammograms

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:12 EST

On Monday, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force took a step backward in the fight against breast cancer. The task force announced that it would no longer recommend routine mammograms for women between the ages of 40 and 49, a group that accounts for about one out of six breast cancers. The recommendation is based on data that find that mammograms do reduce the risk of death in these women, but apparently not enough deaths to recommend that all women 40 to 49 should be screened.

Fighting a health-insurance coercion clause

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:52 EST

In 2006, long before there was an Obama administration determined to impose a command-and-control federal health care system, a young orthopedic surgeon walked into the Goldwater Institute here with an idea. The institute, America's most potent advocate of limited government, embraced Eric Novack's idea for protecting Arizonans from health care coercion. In 2008, Arizonans voted on Novack's proposed amendment to the state's Constitution:

Execution: We still can't get it right

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:37 EST

It has been a year and a half since the Supreme Court ended the nationwide moratorium on lethal injections, finding that Kentucky's three-drug protocol had adequate safeguards to protect inmates from ``cruel and unusual'' punishment.

If conservatives ran healthcare . . .

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:37 EST

If you're a progressive like me, and you're upset by the Stupak amendment, which bars federally subsidized insurance from covering abortions, consider this: What if we had a single-payer health-care system and someone like Jeb Bush or Sarah Palin were running the country?

No doomsday on the Maya calendar

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:02 EST

The world may not end two years from now, despite Internet predictions and this week's blockbuster disaster movie, 2012. On screen, the final day in the 5,126-year Maya calendar brings global destruction, and Los Angeles slides inexorably into the sea.

Castro's long goodbye

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:02 EST

On July 27, 2006, Fidel Castro nearly died during emergency intestinal surgery to stem internal bleeding caused by chronic diverticulitis. Since then, Cuba-watchers and obituary writers have been on high alert awaiting his demise.

Bypassing the aid trap in Pakistan

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:02 EST

Congress recently approved $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan for social and economic development. The bill incited controversy by requiring that the U.S. secretary of state report to lawmakers on whether Pakistan's civilian government keeps effective control over its military, because many observers accuse some in the Pakistani military of having tolerated or even aided Islamic extremists since the 1980s.

No-show jobs hard to find, good to get

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Angel Gonzalez quit the Miami City Commission and pleaded guilty to a corruption charge, all because he did something extra nice for his daughter.

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.

We can still afford to act like America

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

``We [should] wrap him in bacon and deep fry him at a state fair while Lee Greenwood stabs him in the face.'' -- Jon Stewart of The Daily Show on confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed

Has it made you happy, being white?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Dear Sammy Sosa: Are you happy with yourself now? Are you more confident and self-assured? When you look in the mirror, do you like yourself better, now that you are white?

Reflections on the execution of D.C. sniper

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

They killed a killer last week. I kept waiting to feel something when news came that John Allen Muhammad had been executed in Virginia. As a staunch opponent of capital punishment, I wanted some nugget of remorse at the knowledge that the government had taken his life.

U.S. Muslims also have died to defend us

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

A sampling from the web: ``Why are these Muslim invaders allowed to carry on freely in this country -- protected by outreach, Obama, and PC mental illness?''

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.

High-level musings from China

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

Dear Michelle: Sure wish you were here -- China is really cool. Hey, remember how Nixon kept repeating, ``It is truly a great wall''? Well, it really is big. Maybe we were wrong and he wasn't stoned after all -- just having a teachable moment.

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?

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.

Holder makes a reasonable decision

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:07 EST

One-liners

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

I'd appreciate being told, once more, why, as an American citizen, I can travel freely to Communist China but am unable to travel to Communist Cuba without special license from my own government.

Wasteful washes

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:00 EST

11/22/09

Friday, November 20