Author Archive for Jon Wong
The GOP Race Is On: Who Has the Best Shot Against President Obama?
That said, the last few weeks in the 2012 Republican presidential primary has been, for a lack of a better term, turbulent.
No Need to Reinstate ROTC Just Yet
One of the largest applause lines in the State of the Union was the moment when President Obama mentioned his success in repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which barred gay and lesbian soldiers from serving openly. The extended standing ovation for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is not particularly surprising, given that it was one of Obama’s signature accomplishments, one of many that happened during last December’s lame duck session.
Rand Paul: The Mature Side of the Tea Party
To the average American, Rand Paul’s sudden emergence into the national spotlight has been quite dramatic. The news that a little-known Republican senatorial candidate from Kentucky seemed to disapprove of the 1964 Civil Rights Act caused quite a fervor, unnerving the Republican establishment and causing a stir among liberal talking heads, who gleefully saw this [...]
Health Care Flip-Flop
Judging by the dozen or so lawsuits filed by state attorney generals across the country against the recently passed health care reform bill and the raucous attempts to delay its passage, you would think that the ideas and policies in what they describe as “Obamacare” would be the absolute anathema of Republican and conservative values. [...]
UCDC On the Chopping Block
Last week, a large number of UCI students, like many others across the UC system, came out to protest massive cuts to public education and a tuition increase of 32 percent. With a projected $20 billion state budget deficit looming, there will undoubtedly be more massive cuts to the UC system, despite the fact that [...]
Mr. ‘Cosmo’ Brown Goes to Washington
The confetti and balloons have dropped and the Republicans have drained the last of their celebratory champagne. From Tuesday’s Massachusetts election results it would seem that the meteoric rise of Senator-elect Scott Brown has stopped President Obama’s entire agenda dead in its tracks, especially on the issue of health care reform. Pundits from every corner [...]
Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill is Just Plain Wrong
There’s a bill that has received increased attention from the American news media lately, and it isn’t about health care reform. In fact, it isn’t even a bill in Congress or in any other legislative body in the United States. It’s a bill that is making its way through the National Assembly of Uganda, a [...]
Elections: Backward Progress
If you’re a progressive activist, last Tuesday’s election results were, to put it mildly, crushing. Of the four big races receiving major national attention, three of them were clean victories for conservatives: Virginia’s gubernatorial election, New Jersey’s gubernatorial election, and Maine’s Question 1, a measure to overturn Maine’s newly passed same-sex marriage law. While progressives and Democrats could downplay the results in Virginia and New Jersey (Creigh Deeds was a very flawed candidate and Jon Corzine has suffered from numerous ethical and economic issues), the results in Maine could not be ignored.
LGBT Rights Come Out Into the Open
EQUALITY: Jon Wong recounts the cross-generational progress shown in LGBT marches in Washington DC.
No on Prop 8, Yes to 2012 Campaign
Despite the passage of Proposition 8 in Nov. 2008 and California’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of Proposition 8 in June, the battle for marriage in California is not over yet. Another fight over same-sex marriage is expected, and both sides are already preparing for the next round.
