the weaker party

Primaries are won at the extremes while general elections are won in the center. Its a well worn truism of politics which is reconfirmed eac...

From today's Chron comes an example of the connections that illustrate much of what in fact happens in government: Gov. Rick Perry...

In another case involving the results of a law passed by the past session of the Texas Legislature, a Harris County Grand Jury declined to...

One of the major bills passed in the last Texas legislative session concerned high school steroid use--possibly driven by the issue's no...

The Supreme Court struck down the DC handgun ban by rethinking the original meaning of the Second Amendment. Since DC falls under federal j...

The Christian Science Monitor covers the election in Zimbabwe and, given that there is only one choice available for voters asks: Why hold ...

The Democratic Leadership Council released a report on the negative consequences of partisan gerrymandering . By their estimation, as many a...

The Supreme Court has also ruled that there is no exception to the Constitution's Confrontation clause (where it is established that on ...

The Supreme Court narrowly ruled against a Louisiana law that would have applied the death penalty for people found guilty of child rape. Th...

Robert Mugabe gives an effective lesson in how to hold onto power despite solid opposition. Kill them and deny them the right to hold politi...

From the New York Times comes a report detailing attempts by the Bush Administration to inject ideological considerations into hiring prac...

From the Los Angeles Times : Escalating a fight with Democrats on Capitol Hill, the White House on Friday invoked executive privilege in ref...

Students who responded to my online poll think the oil companies are primarily to blame for the increase in oil process, with the marker sec...

There was a worthy opinion piece in the Chron Sunday on the self-esteem movemen t and the damage it seems to be doing to American education:...

The Supreme Court has once again rebuked the Bush Administration for its handing of the detainment of terrorist suspects, this time their r...

In the May 10 th election, Alvin residents were given the opportunity to recall Jim Landriault , a city council member representing Distric...

I missed this story when it happened (2004) but apparently a recent Texas Comptroller attempted to remove the tax exempt status of the Unita...

Legislative assemblies have developed a variety of arcane procedures often meant to stifle dissent and smooth things for the majority. In th...

In response to a question I received about the ability of ex-offenders to vote I pulled this up from nonprofitvote .org : In Texas, ex-o...

The Supreme Court has issued a ruling scaling back the meaning of the equal protection clause. The case is Engquist v. Oregon Department of...

Public policy scholars speak of the unintended consequences of public policy, the solution of one problem can create others. The drinking ag...

One of the most notable political shifts of the past year or so has been in the relative strengths of the Democratic and Republican Party or...

Our conflicted attitudes about the status of 15 and 16 years olds (not quite children, not quite adults) is manifested in our laws. A curre...

The Sunday Chron ran an opinion piece from a man who recently served on a Harris County grand jury. He has harsh words about the process....

The National Journal tells us that a much publicized report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that stated that one in four t...

The city of Houston, perhaps in the interest of ensuring that it remains the energy capital of the world, is attempting to make itself a cen...

The first casualty of the $4 gallon of gas appears to be the almost two decades long run of the Ford F-150 pickup truck as the top selling ...

So you want to be a player in politics? A story in Quorum Report tells you how: Last week, one of the state Democratic Party’s premier numbe...

I've stumbled across a good looking site: muckety.com . It claims to detail the relationships that connect the various players and insti...

The NYT has a terrific piece today on two Washington DC insiders , one from each major party, each of whom is working on the vetting process...

I always get a bit of resistance from my students when I broach civil rights questions in terms of alcoholism or which hand one writes with....

Twelve people have voted on whether it was unpatriotic for a politician to not to wear a flag lapel pin. 4 - agree 6 - disagree 2 - not sure...

Of the ten people who voted in this poll, 6 - would prefer living peacefully in a despotic regime while 4 - would prefer living freely, but ...

Stuart Taylor Jr. and Rich Lowry argue that California Supreme Court's decision favoring gay marriage is indicative of the court's ...

The Chron reports on a study stating that the economy would lose close to $2 trillion dollars in annual spending if illegal workers would ...

Like a story with no end, the Texas legislature has taken on the issue of school accountability once again. In January the Lt. Governor appo...

The New Yorker has an amazing article outlining the trajectory of contemporary conservatism and it contains two stories outlining how Richar...

The Chron put a map together showing donations to candidates by zip code . Cool and a bit scary.

That's what Michael Barone calls the next American frontier in today's Wall Street Journal . The upcoming generation--many of you--...