Archive
Mission Essential
It's getting easier to find people inside Washington's Beltway who want to cut the fat from the Pentagon budget. Scaling back military spending isn't just for the most progressive members of Congress anymore. Even the tea-partying Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) favors defense...
It’s Time to Move Forward on Climate
As President Barack Obama's second term gets underway, Americans are expecting big actions from him — especially on climate disruption and clean energy. The decision to block the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline should be the cornerstone of his positive,...
What about Gun Control Abroad?
A 14-year-old Honduran, Hasked Brooks Wood, perished when police in the town of Ahúas opened fire on him and other civilians riding in a boat down a winding river. This incident, in May 2012, didn't garner much U.S. media coverage. But it should have — because the...
Bulwark of Ignorance
The other day, House Speaker John Boehner accused Barack Obama of being mean to the Republican Party. Our president, he said, was trying to "annihilate" the party and "shove us into the dustbin of history." Would that it were so. If ever a political party needed...
A More Down-to-Earth CEO Pay Plan
When do societies start taking a new idea seriously? Easy. New ideas gain traction when starkly different sorts of people champion them. This process is beginning to unfold with the notion of a "maximum wage," the idea that we should limit the income of our society's...
Another Side of the Immigration Debate
Until a few years ago, Rosa Acosta had never even seen a flush toilet. She raised her 12 children in a tiny adobe home in rural Jalisco, Mexico. Several of her kids left it to work in the United States. One son, who left at age 12 to earn money as a farmworker in...
Retail Injustice
The Powers That Be say the bulk of America's middle-class manufacturing jobs are gone and aren't coming back. High-tech jobs are being outsourced, as is an increasing share of the work historically handled by our accountants, lawyers, and some other professionals....
Betting on Gambling
Tainted money For your state, When legislators Take the bait. The gambling industry's under-the-radar political heft got a shot of overdue publicity when Sheldon Adelson, its biggest mogul, tried to use casino profits to buy the U.S. presidency last year. Fortunately,...
Federal Budget Buster’s Last Stand
The Interior Secretary’s Gilded Throne
Does the name Dirk Kempthorne mean anything to you? He was a little-known Idaho politico before becoming George W. Bush's industry-coddling secretary of the interior in 2006. While Dirk was not big on protecting our nation's public lands and natural resources from...
