It’s been a busy week. The Senate voted 78-22 to renew the Violence Against Women Act. Christopher Dorner, ex-cop turned cop killer, was finally tracked down near Big Bear, Calif. Leaders of the International Olympic Committee voted to drop wrestling from the Summer Games in 2020. And President Obama delivered a powerful State of the… Continue Reading
Category Archives: BILL’S BLOG
A License to Kill Americans: No Judge, No Jury
Have you heard? George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are up to their old tricks. It wasn’t so long ago that they cited congressional authorization for the war on terror, passed by Congress one week after September 11, 2001, to justify their use of rendition, torture and widespread wiretapping. Now Bush and Cheney are claiming… Continue Reading
Liberals Are the True Defenders of Freedom
Most inaugural addresses are not memorable. Second inaugural speeches are even less so. But President Obama’s second inaugural address is an exception. Only 18 minutes long, it will go down in history as one of the most powerful inaugural addresses ever. As a proud liberal, I am often asked: What do liberals really stand for?… Continue Reading
This is how we will be judged: saving our kids
By Bill Press Tribune Media Services As a member of the White House Press Corps, I’ve attended a lot of events at the White House. But none more moving or powerful than this week’s announcement by President Obama and Vice-President Biden of their plans to deal with gun violence. In the front row were parents… Continue Reading
Smear a bagel, not Chuck Hagel
By Bill Press Tribune Media Services OK, I want to admit right up front: I stole that headline. No, it’s not original with me. I stole it from the pro-Israel, pro-peace organization J Street. I stole it because it’s funny. And because it perfectly sums up the phony, trumped-up campaign against Chuck Hagel for secretary… Continue Reading
John Boehner Takes Republican Party Over Cliff
By Bill Press Tribune Media Services Well, what do you know? We didn’t go over the fiscal cliff, after all. In the end, the country was spared. Only the Republican Party was destroyed. Or, at least, severely damaged. Thanks to John Boehner. Commentators quickly ran out of words to describe what happened to the Republican… Continue Reading
Republicans Don’t Care About Sandy Victims
On the walls of the FDR Memorial here in Washington are etched these powerful words of President Franklin Roosevelt: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Republicans in Congress flunked that… Continue Reading
The NRA: Nothing for politicians to be afraid of
By Bill Press Tribune Media Services There’s no secret why, for years, politicians of both parties have been afraid to stand up and support tighter controls on guns: Because they’re afraid of the NRA. But, after the slaughter of innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School, that fear is all but gone. In the wake of… Continue Reading
Scalia Has No Right To Rule on Same-Sex Marriage
Once upon a time, Supreme Court justices were seen but not heard. The only time they spoke in public was to ask a question at oral arguments. Otherwise, they kept their counsel and spoke through written opinions or dissents. Sadly, that’s no longer the case. Today, a few of them are out in public spouting… Continue Reading
No Deal is Better Than a Bad Deal
By Bill Press Tribune Media Services If you really thought we were going to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, if you seriously believed Republicans in Congress would come to their senses and agree on a reasonable compromise then consider what happened in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Dec. 4. Even though I’m a proud… Continue Reading