Rights and Democracy
When Campaign Cash Equals Speech
Rigging the Electoral System for the Rich
A poll conducted late last year found that more than seven in ten voters think our election system is "biased in favor of the candidate with the most money." While nothing about this number is surprising — except, perhaps, that it's not even higher — it does reveal...
Billionaires Score Big Win with McCutcheon Decision
The Supreme Court's McCutcheon ruling dealt another 5-4 body blow to our democracy. To justify striking down limits that cap aggregate campaign contributions during a single election cycle, the Roberts Court ignored the way the world really works and made it far more...
Tech Titans Must Do More than Criticize NSA Snooping
In the 21st century, technology companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are the ubiquitous faces of corporate power. In the last quarter of 2013 alone, these five companies totaled $104 billion in revenue and made $17.5 billion in profits — with...
I Think They Can
Like that little choo-choo in the classic children's book "The Little Engine that Could," Moral Monday is the little movement that says, "I think I can" and keeps chugging up the hill. This new progressive coalition became a full-throttle citizen uprising in North...
Good News and Bad News about News
There's some good news about the news business for a change. The big headwound traditional media venues like newspapers and TV suffered with the advent of Internet ads is starting to heal. The bleeding has either stopped or slowed to a less-painful trickle for most...
Eavesdropping and Snooping for All
Hobby Lobby, Quit Your Needling
Hobby Lobby's position is really quite dubious: Using God to get into your uterus. It's needling its way into women's health. It's crafting strategies religiously stealth. The company's lawyers tell SCOTUS this amounts to abortion, And conservative justices believe...
Turning Professors into Martyrs
Margaret Mary Vojtko died last summer at age 83. Her death has turned her name into an emotional rallying cry for adjunct college teachers who are seeking justice from their schools. You see, Vojtko taught French classes for 25 years at Duquesne University in...
Bossy Is Bossy, Leadership Is Something Else
For someone who doesn't like the word "Bossy," Sheryl Sandberg sure likes to tell us what to do. "Lean in," "You can't have balance," "Get someone else to do your laundry for you." I'm not saying bossy's a good word. It can be used to paint girls as shrill. But it...
