(6 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 23, 2012
NATO in Chicago: Protests Are Here to Stay, and the Warmakers are Afraid The all-out police presence in Chicago in response to the NATO protests reveals fears of the rich that mass unrest is just below the surface.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sinead O'Connor: Music's 'Uncooperative' Celebrity What are we to make of Irish singer Sinead O'Connor? She's back with a new album, "Why Don't I Be Me (And You Be You)?" and it's some of her best music in years. She also remains as outspoken and honest as ever, an artist whose sensitivity to the plight of oppressed people continues to resonate with her many fans.

(5 comments) SHARE        Sunday, October 12, 2008
Where Are the Slander Merchants Taking Us? The recent FoxNews investigative report on Barack Obama's "ties to controversial people and radical groups" on Hannity's America was a reminder of the almost startling degeneration of the American media in recent years. With a worsening economy, it's not such a stretch to see the ugly, violent rhetoric of the right-wing devolve even further into more direct, organized assaults on "liberal America."

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, July 13, 2007
SiCKO and the Health Insurance Rip-Off With SiCKO, Michael Moore has overnight taken the proposal for single-payer, government sponsored national health care from the fringes of national political debate to center stage. But it will take more than a movie to get the insurance companies out of the health care business. Now it's time for the movement-building.

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, July 24, 2014
The Progressive Sensibilities of James Garner Actor James Garner was a lifelong progressive, a critic of war and a man who believed in fair play for "the little guy." Reflections on the life of a Hollywood legend.

SHARE        Monday, September 22, 2014
The Mystery of Robin Williams: Reflections on Depression in a Troubled World It's always struck me how incurious many people are after someone commits suicide. How incurious to delve into the roots of pain. It's as if something so inexplicable has occurred that it's too uncomfortable, too futile, to even attempt to understand. Is it possible to explain what happened to Robin Williams?

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, January 1, 2011
Ringing in the New Year: From Austerity to Revolt? Sometimes the true state of our nation's affairs is revealed less in the lofty rhetoric of political leaders than in incidental news items. That's the case with the news that "austerity" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2010.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Mitt, Mormons, and Money While Tea Party conservatives criticize Romney for the blatant opportunism of his shifting political views, at another level Romney is the most consistent of politicians, at least when it comes to serving his class.

(11 comments) SHARE        Monday, May 18, 2015
White Racism Matters! As the Black Lives Matter movement gathers force and continues to grow, heralding a new era in the fight for civil rights and social justice, there is an education occurring in society. The enduring specter of racism is being increasingly exposed and challenged by a new, multi-racial generation of young activists, for whom it is understood that social justice begins in the streets.

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tunisia's Cry for Justice The people of Tunisia have taught the entire world that the cry for justice is more powerful than the tanks and torturers of despotic regimes. Who would have thought a month ago that Mohammed Bouazizi's desperate act setting himself on fire would eventually set an entire nation on fire? Such is the power of a people who are no longer afraid.

(3 comments) SHARE        Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Story of Parvin: Reflections on Hope in an Age of War and Intervention In a world weary with cynicism and global conflict, an Iranian feminist remembers a moment from the early days of Iran's Islamic Republic when one man's belief in Islam saved her life. The story of Parvin Najafi recalls the early fervor of the Iranian revolution, before the ayatollahs consolidated their power, and a history of U.S. involvement in Iran the mainstream media would prefer to ignore.

(4 comments) SHARE        Friday, August 6, 2010
Planet Hiroshima 2010 The threat of nuclear annihilation remains real. Yet the irony of our age is that for the first time in human history the science, technology, manufacturing and agriculture exist to eliminate all want. But in the context of a world also driven by the acquisition of corporate profits and entrenched class and nationalist divisions, the world's people instead face an increasingly uncertain and violent future. Or even the possibil

(5 comments) SHARE        Sunday, February 24, 2008
What Makes Someone a Campus Murderer? Murderers are made, not born. Yet as a society we seem remarkably uninterested in addressing the root causes of crime. Reflections on the NIU killings by a former NIU student.

SHARE        Friday, January 29, 2010
Are The Democrats Capable of Giving Us Anything? An analysis of why the Obama luster is wearing thin, and the crisis this poses for the progressive movement.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, November 23, 2013
Bush vs. Clinton in 2016? How is that the names Clinton and Bush keep coming up? Some pundits are now talking about a possible Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton race in 2016. But the more important question is why do the corporate politics represented by these names persist?

(4 comments) SHARE        Friday, August 12, 2011
Obama's Misdirected 'Courage' The tipping point in progressive illusions that President Obama is "one of us" may finally have been reached with the new bipartisan deal on the debt ceiling.

(11 comments) SHARE        Saturday, October 6, 2007
What Does It Mean to 'Support The Troops?' The "welcome home parade" for the 33rd National Guard Battalion from Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, was ostensibly "non-political." But this was true only if you happen to believe the U.S. occupation of Iraq is just a larger version of a Peace Corps service project. Relief at the return of loved ones is one thing; pretending that their mission in Iraq was somehow right and noble is another.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, September 29, 2011
Obama's 'Class Warfare'--Doing the Math In Italy, Britain, Greece, and elsewhere the rallying cry in the streets now is to reject the idea that working people should pay for a crisis caused by the rich and powerful. It is a stance that reverberates now among the young heroes of the growing Wall Street protests. The AFL-CIO and everyone who cares about social justice would do well to make that sentiment equally real in this country, to spread it far and wide.

(4 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 5, 2006
None Dare Call It Reason At a time when an old-line right-winger like William F. Buckley bluntly admits the U.S. mission in Iraq has failed, when even professional reprobate Henry Kissinger says a military victory is impossible, talk radio stars like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and other media warriors remain intrepid defenders of the heroic rightness of the President's war. What's wrong with them?

SHARE        Thursday, December 27, 2007
Broken Health System Demands More Than Conservative Apologetics The issue of affordable health care is acquiring an urgency missing from past elections. But that's not to say that the leading candidates are showing much inclination to embrace the only solution that really makes sense-non-profit single payer health care. Ironically, that hasn't stopped the right-wing junk media from accusing Clinton, Edwards, and Obama of being supporters of "socialized medicine."

(2 comments) SHARE        Monday, May 15, 2006
Border Guards Are Not the Answer Because Immigrants Are Not the Enemy President Bush has apparently been advised that leadership on the immigration issue means being pro-active, which is another way of saying send in the troops. The White House Deciderator's latest stab at deciding something involves plans now to significantly increase the presence of National Guard troops along the southwestern border. It's another clueless move by the White House.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Juno and the Right to Abortion The film Juno is not meant to be a social sermon. It's not even meant to be a serious drama. But any popular American film that explores the abortion issue, even comically, seems in this day and age destined to controversy. We can thank decades of hostile Christian Right hysteria over women's reproductive rights for that. But what should pro-choice viewers make of Juno?

SHARE        Tuesday, October 11, 2011
'Here Comes Trouble' Indeed Michael Moore's "Here Comes Trouble" offers equal touches of the bravado, humor, and passion that have made Moore a household name. But as remarkable as his contributions have been, I suspect the emerging popular social movement we are seeing unfold today in opposition to Wall Street's destructive polices will make an even more profound impact on the radicalization of American politics. Here comes trouble, indeed.

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, April 30, 2009
As Long As We're Talking About Socialism The Fox News/Republican right has high hopes the ensuing "tea party" protests inspired by Santelli's rhetoric will serve as a rallying cry for rousing the right-wing faithful against President Obama's economic recovery plan. Instead the public protests against "taxes and spending" turned mostly into a transparent exhibition of the Republican Party's desperation. But as long as we're shedding illusions, what about also divestin

SHARE        Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Devolving World of the Right-Wing Media Safely ensconced in their studios and offices, America's regiment of pro-war pundits barely pause to ponder the human sorrow of the war as they play their rhetorical games of one-upmanship with the hated liberals.

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 29, 2007
Bush Makes Clear Why a Health Care Revolt is Needed President Bush made clear which side of health care progress he's on when he recently stated his intention to veto a Senate bill to increase funds for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). So why do we put up with a leader whose SiCKO ideology blinds him even to the most basic needs of children?

SHARE        Friday, May 15, 2009
Swine Flu Threat Highlights Need for Single-Payer Will the day come when the list of great medical advances is expanded to include the wisdom that health care is something too sacred to be sullied by the dark brush of the profit motive?

SHARE        Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Bill Ayers and the Talk Media Circus The Obama-Ayers "issue" is just more spritzer water in the face of serious politics. It's more evidence of the media circus show U.S. politics has become. But why talk about unaffordable health care or spreading home foreclosures or a war with no end in sight? If you're one of the "great Americans" of the airwaves and you have no real solution to anything, why indeed?

SHARE        Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Where are the Candidates Who Embrace These Six Words? The recent best-seller, "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure," is an inspired compilation of six-word life stories. It makes you wonder. Where are the candidates who embrace these six words? "Bring All The Troops Home Now!"