Lance Simmens

It is with a mixture of bemusement and bewilderment that I watch the current machinations of the presidential political campaign and question the seriousness and resolve of a large portion of the American people. As an individual who has spent over three and a half decades devoted to the propositions...

The California High-Speed Rail Authority is listening and has heard the complaints, criticisms, and suggestions of local and state officials, individual citizens, and communities, and concluded that many of those concerns are valid. Subsequently, the Authority has put forth a revised business plan that makes significant changes in...

Infatuation with the middle ground
Is neither safe or very sound
If at the end of the day you find
Your lack of choice renders you benign

For those who risk choosing sides
Develop courageous bona fides
That provides them certain nobility
Rather than...

Long-term planning, visionary thinking, and the courage and wisdom to act upon what is in the best interests of society, regardless of the short-term consequences, political or otherwise, are the hallmarks of a progressive society. Our state and our nation have been built upon the bedrock of healthy competition and...

There is a raging debate currently underway in the progressive community over the extent to which the president either has or has not lived up to the promises delivered during the 2008 campaign and in subsequent speeches. It has left many of us wondering if in fact it was we...

Sometimes in life there are things that you are not prepared for. Sometimes the cruel ironies of life lend themselves to sheer incredulity and sometimes they create visuals that simply cannot be described by the most carefully chosen words. And oftentimes life's absurdities, usually assisted by mankind, simply defy even...

Dinosaurs live. I have seen them. One need not travel to Jurassic Park; a herd was sighted in Washington, DC last week. And while physically they may have evolved into human forms, the size of their brains is unnaturally small in relation to the size of their skulls. They are...

It is truly difficult to imagine a comparable period of time where a president has had to face so many momentous decisions on such a broad array of disasters under such withering cynicism from an opposition that seemingly questions his very existence. On alternating days questions arise as to whether...

The force unleashed by Mother Nature this past week is a stark and somber reminder of the limits to human power. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami were neither caused by nor could be corralled by the most monumental of human efforts. And if there is a singular lesson to be...

As we reflect on this country's history with the celebration of President's Day we do so in a tumultuous world witnessing vast and rapid transformation on a scale not seen in our lifetimes. Not only is the quest for more open democratic processes sweeping across the Middle East, but in...

The volatility of the electorate, borne of a frustration and anger over high unemployment and persistent uncertainty of what the future may hold is especially vulnerable to heated diatribe and flashes of white hot rhetoric. But let's take the recent events in Egypt and learn an important lesson: namely, democratic...

Listening and leading are not the same. Every time I hear elected leaders talk about how they were sent to City Hall, or the State Capitol, or Washington, DC to listen it makes me want to scream. Well listen to this, you are wrong. You were NOT sent to listen,...

A particularly troublesome and frustrating development in the contemporary political arena is the increasing acceptance of those questioning and denying either that climate change is occurring or the indisputable fact that it carries dramatic adverse consequences for the human species. This of course is compounded with the takeover of key...

If you want to restore "American Exceptionalism," you need to restore the middle class. The mantra of politicians at all levels of government this election cycle will be jobs, jobs, jobs, and appropriately so. The economy is slowly recovering from the massive hangover of misguided, ill-conceived, and flawed economic policies...

Politics being the art of the possible the recurring question on nearly every important announcement, decision, negotiation, and contentious issue remains "is this the best we can do?" And invariably the consensus, after much hand wringing, soul searching, and sober reflection is "yes." More often than not this reality is...

Can we finally put to rest the absurd notion that one political party is more enamored with spending than the other? Both Democrats and Republicans relish the opportunity to spend taxpayer dollars with little or no regard to the consequences of overspending: namely, deficits and debt.

The differences, however, lie...

Our current governmental structure is precariously poised on the horns of a dilemma. Thanks to the verdict rendered November 2, the ideological and philosophical divide is wider than before. If the American electorate, or at least those who made the effort to vote, intended to reflect an exhaustive and introspective...

You have to excuse me if I laugh, but all this public consternation over TSA pat-downs is silly. And it seems to me that those who scream the loudest are the very people who no one in their right mind actually wants to pat down anyway. I mean, look at...

The Tea Party patriots and the establishment Republicans were right after all. A mere three days after their historic refudiation of Obama's socialistic jihad against capitalism the country experienced the largest jump in new jobs statistics in the nearly two years that the occupation government has been in power. It...

In light of the increasingly violent nature of our politics it is extraordinarily difficult to hold one's emotions, passions, and natural inclination to strike out in check. The bullying and intimidation that has become all too prevalent as this election season draws to a conclusion dramatizes the ugly side of...