Rights and Democracy
Obama’s DREAM Gambit
When Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced she was instructing all her agencies to stop automatically deporting young undocumented immigrants and grant them work permits, I celebrated.
Running for Magician-in-Chief
Our long national nightmare is over. Mitt Romney has won the Republican nomination for president. Let the etch-a-sketching begin.
Wisconsin’s Alien Seed
Walker will get to stay in office for the rest of his term, but he didn’t win the election — money did. This was a victory for the Citizens United edict issued two years ago by the Supreme Court’s five-man corporatist majority. This anti-democratic ruling opened the door for unlimited sums of corporate cash to barge into our national, state, and local elections and take charge. Walker is the first ugly sprouting of that alien seed.
Wisconsin Wakeup Call
We’re nice people out here in Dairyland. Just ask anyone — that’s our reputation. But the purple state of Wisconsin is a political microcosm of today’s divided America.
Recalling the Gilded Age
Organized labor, liberals in general, and President Barack Obama in particular got their heads handed to them by the good people of Wisconsin, with a little help from the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Our Press Freedom is under Fire
Freedom of the press, that inspired rallying cry of our democracy, is becoming a poignant memory. In its latest ranking of how such freedoms stack up worldwide, Reporters Without Borders ranked the United States No. 47. We certainly rate way better than China, which clocked in at No. 174 out of 179 countries, but this truly is a shameful grade.
Solidarity in Reverse
Letter from the Editor: Kaul’s Colson Column
Donald Kaul’s column on the late Charles Colson generated many letters to the editor published by the Des Moines Register and other newspapers.
The Changing Face of America
We’ve been hearing about it for years, and now the time has come. In May, the Census Bureau announced that for the first time, the birth rate of people of color exceeded that of whites: 50.4 percent to 49.5 percent.
The Truth’s Liberal Tilt
When you ask conservatives for proof of the “liberal media bias” they are so concerned about, you often get a response along the lines of, “The media are liberal because we say so! It’s obvious.” So I was happy to find a case where the familiar band of conservatives was saying they had actual proof, hard evidence, of how the media favors the other side over their own.
