Category Archives: In The News

Columnist Wins Several Major Awards

  By Walter Brasch | June 17, 2013 - 8:22 am | ,
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Democratic Daily columnist Walter Brasch has recently won several state and national awards for work published in 2012. Against statewide competition, the Pennsylvania Press Club honored him with first place awards for his column, special series (for articles about problems with the state’s new law on gas exploration), and religion. Also against state competition, he received first place in radio commentary from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association. The National Federation of Press Women awarded him 3rd place for his column, 3rd for social issues reporting, and honorable mention in special series. The National Society of Newspaper Columnist awarded him honorable mention for his column. In a four decade career as a journalist, Dr. Brasch has won more than 200 … Continue reading →

Standing Tall for Landowner Rights

  By Walter Brasch | May 19, 2013 - 8:04 am | , ,
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by Walter Brasch   Julia Trigg Crawford of Direct, Texas, is the manager of a 650-acre farm that her grandfather first bought in 1948. The farm produces mostly corn, wheat, and soy. On its north border is the Red River; to the west is the Bois d’Arc Creek. TransCanada is an Alberta-based corporation that is building the controversial Keystone Pipeline that will carry bitumen—thicker, more corrosive and toxic, than crude oil—through 36-inch diameter pipes from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast, mostly to be exported. The $2.3 billion southern segment, about 485 miles from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast is nearly complete. With the exception of a 300-mile extension between Cushing and Steele City, Neb., … Continue reading →

Former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates on Benghazi

  By Pamela Leavey | May 12, 2013 - 7:59 pm | , , , , , , , ,
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The Benghazi Kabuki theater continues as House Republicans push on with “hearing” that some are calling a witch hunt. An apt description… Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told CBS’ Face the Nation that ”some critics of the administration have a “cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces.”” Gates, a Republican who was appointed by then-President George W. Bush in 2006 and agreed to stay through more than two years of President Obama’s first term, repeatedly declined to criticize the policymakers who devised a response to the September 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. “Frankly, had I been in the job at the … Continue reading →

Loony Weekend Commences

  By Hart Williams | May 4, 2013 - 3:18 pm | , ,
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The Bonfire of the Hannitys focuses its annual loon-fest in Houston this weekend. Sarah Palin, looking more and more like a clever Alien simulacrum of what they consider a generic middle-aged SUV driver brought down the house with a paean to stupidity, as mellifluous as fingernails on a blackboard Continue reading →

Fiction and Non-Fiction in Manhattan

  By Hart Williams | April 26, 2013 - 8:00 am | , , , ,
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A nineteen year old kid tells the FBI various things and New York City reacts to the imaginary attack the same way a “pro-life” fanatic reacts to an imaginary baby. Beware: it is in this stew of raw emotions and bad fiction that Patriot Acts are foisted on us. When we lose sight of the difference between the real and the imagined, we become the slaves of anyone with a microphone and a slick story to tell. Continue reading →

Oh, THAT What the Boy Scouts Mean by Being ‘Morally Straight’

  By Walter Brasch | April 25, 2013 - 8:17 am | , , , ,
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  by Walter Brasch  Harry Strausser III owns a successful small business with 25 employees in Bloomsburg, Pa. As an undergraduate, he was a national champion in several forensics categories, and represented the Boy Scouts of America in national competitions sponsored by the Reader’s Digest. As a graduate student, he coached a college forensics team. He has never been arrested or suspected of any crime. Strausser is an Eagle Scout. He is also gay. The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America says he doesn’t have the right “core values” to be a Scout leader. Denny Meyer, who lives in New York City, wasn’t a Scout, but often tagged along with his older brother to Scout meetings. During college, … Continue reading →