Elvira Arellano, perhaps America’s most famous illegal immigrant, was arrested earlier today in Los Angeles. Arellano had been holed up in a Chicago church for nearly all of the past year after defying the Homeland Security Department’s deportation order and fleeing to Adalberto United Methodist Church instead.

Since then Arellano has been a vocal public critic of America’s immigration policy. The Washington Post recounts a few of her activites thusly:| MORE ›

Forgive me for the shameless plug, but as some of you may already know, I assist with blog coverage for Real Clear Politics. We have put a lot of work into making Real Clear Blogs bigger and better, and hope everyone likes the changes.

We have added an actual blog component, and continue to feature some of the best debates, discussions and blog posts from around the blogosphere. So check it out, and please, give us your much appreciated feedback. 

Okay, that’s all. Infomercial over!

I’m depressed. Why? For the past ten months I’ve been having literary foreplay with a literary agent who told me she thought I was a ‘terrific’ writer, had excellent credentials and that she loved my work. She loved it so much that throughout this time, we spoke twice on the phone, and I shared with her 3 of my manuscripts. It seemed like she was pretty focused on having me as a client. That is, until last week when she told me no.| MORE ›

I’ve written rather prolifically in the past on neo-progressivism. I’ve often wondered what makes it tick, and what in fact differentiates it from genuine Liberalism. While there are certainly many things, I think one rather obvious aspect is the frequent reliance on “gotcha” politics. An interesting debate took place in the commentary section of my first post here at the Gazette regarding the reliability of an author I had quoted.| MORE ›

Mitt Romney had some good things to say about education yesterday:

Romney said he would work hard to improve schools but did not elaborate. When a woman asked him about how he would support arts and music programs that often are the first to be cut from tight school budgets, he said he was wary of too much federal involvement in education.

Recalling fondly his own high school glee club days, Romney said arts and music education spurs creativity that carries over into adulthood.| MORE ›

I don’t know if the cartoon character Popeye has much if any international appeal or awareness, but for those of us in the States, especially the Heartland States, Popeye was simultaneously (a) an inspiration to little guys like me, convincing us that we could hold our own against the bullies in our lives; and (b) our mothers’ way of convincing us to eat healthy foods we didn’t like.

(For those not familiar with the riff, it goes like this:| MORE ›

In Texas this week, Governor Perry celebrated the June passage of the state’s Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act in a ceremonial signing with schoolchildren at Clements High School in Sugar Land.

According to Perry:

“In a society where lawsuits long-ago replaced honest discussion, a culture of fear has led to limitations on our freedoms,” said Gov. Perry.| MORE ›

Dave Johnson of Seeing The Forest proposes the following:

Here is a lesson we should all learn from watching how the conservatives operate: don’t do what they do. We should always, always look at things the way they are, and not be blinded by ideology and preconceptions.

Bush and the Republicans have created a terrible, terrible mess in the Middle East. But we have to look at where things are today, and figure out how to make the world better starting today.| MORE ›