Archive

Exploited by Your Tax Dollars

Exploited by Your Tax Dollars

McDonald's really stepped in it this summer when the fast food empire created a budget for its underpaid employees to help them make ends meet on the low wages they bring home after flipping burgers all week. At first, the McBudget didn't include any money for food or...

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The Real IRS Scandal

The Real IRS Scandal

For weeks, we watched Representative Darrell Issa and the conservative media circus concoct a "scandal" surrounding the IRS's handling of applications by tea party groups for tax-exempt status. The California Republican and his allies then sought to tie the Obama...

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An Opportunity to Work with Iran

An Opportunity to Work with Iran

This August, Hassan Rouhani will take office as Iran's next president, and the world will have a new face to confront on the issue of Iran's nuclear program. Rouhani, a moderate cleric, won a landslide victory in Iran's June presidential elections. He'll replace the...

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The Bully Party

The Bully Party

If our government were a card game, the American people would surely have realized by now that they're playing with a marked deck. The Republicans are cheating. In the 2012 elections, Democratic candidates for House seats collectively won about five percent more votes...

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Beefing Up Food Safety

Beefing Up Food Safety

In a 1968 comedy called The Secret War of Harry Frigg, Paul Newman is captured during World War II in Italy. After the prisoner of war spends several weeks trying to escape, his captor tells him some great news: The guards now have bullets in their guns. The Food and...

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Steve Cohen, Meet Al Capone

Steve Cohen, Meet Al Capone

Al Capone was a bad boy. How bad? He cheated on his income taxes. He went to prison in 1931 for that. Not for the people he gunned down, nor for any of the other gross illegalities the guy committed as a notorious Chicago mobster. Tax evasion landed Capone in the...

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Just Follow the Oil

Just Follow the Oil

Like the United States and most other world powers, Iran foolishly wants to be in the nuclear power business. Atoms offer energy diversity and national prestige, plus a lot of bucks for somebody. There are plenty of environmental and safety reasons to oppose the...

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The Mother Teresa of Global Retail

The Mother Teresa of Global Retail

Want to see pure altruism in action? Go to Washington, D.C. — not to the federal government's marble buildings, but to the real city, where ordinary folks live. There you'll find a business organization that wants nothing more than to serve the people, help improve...

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Reproductive Rights Get Gutted Again

Reproductive Rights Get Gutted Again

Despite the reproductive rights uprising inspired by Wendy Davis' heroic filibuster, lame-duck Texas Governor Rick Perry has continued his anti-choice rampage. By signing a contentious measure into law, Perry has made it much more difficult for Texan women —...

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