Rights and Democracy
The NFL’s Drugs vs Thugs Double Standard
The NFL's stance on illegal drugs is clear. If you're caught possessing or using them, you've automatically earned yourself a suspension. Consider Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington's case. He lost his entire 2014 salary of $2.9 million plus a few other...
Perry Imperils His Own Roadshow
Gosh, the 2016 primaries are a long way off, but look out: Here comes Texas Governor Rick Perry — riding his state's taxpayer dollars into another GOP presidential bid. Technically, he's not campaigning. Yet he's popping up from New York to California, holding press...
Do-Nothing Congress Does Something to Hide Its Debt to Lobbyists
When I heard our Congress critters are taking an extended vacation for all of August and part of September, I had two incongruous reactions: gratitude and anger. Gratitude, because their vacation gives us a five-week break from the spectacle of right-wing mad dogs in...
The Latest Crack in Our Broken Immigration System
In a bustling room at the Third Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico a group of white and Latino parishioners gathered for a workshop on immigration. They wanted to learn more about the issue. Julio Alvarez, a Mexican immigrant, was there to answer their...
Stone-Cold Immigrants
North Carolina’s Moral Freedom Summer
The Moral Monday movement is mobilizing again. This feisty coalition, based in North Carolina, is an inspiring model of workaday people coming together to reclaim their rights from far-right-wing politicians and plutocrats running amok. Led by the NAACP, tens of...
The Kochs Pay a Former Senator to Keep Money in Politics
The beauty of our country's present system of government is that anyone is perfectly free to buy a member of Congress. Isn't that what democracy is all about? Take the Koch brothers. Of course, these multibillionaire industrialists prefer to buy everything in bulk,...
Safeguarding Free Speech in the Digital Age
Representative Spencer Bachus stands out among conservatives. Representing Alabama's 6th district, he's built his political reputation as a supporter of fiscal responsibility, limited government and constitutional rights — with special attention to the First and...
Keeping Up with the Transit Turnaround
Residents of Lawrence, Massachusetts — a city of more than 77,000 people 30 miles north of Boston — can finally do something that many people take for granted: ride a bus downtown. As the Eagle-Tribune in the nearby town of North Andover reported, before July 1 you...
A Deluded Consensus on Discrimination
A wide majority of U.S. voters say black Americans who can't get ahead should blame themselves for their troubles instead of racial discrimination. That's one of the more startling findings from a recent Pew Research Center effort to bunch voters into categories of...
