Rights and Democracy
Lost Causes Can Win
It’s a David and Goliath struggle. The Occupiers’ tents are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the financiers. The Masters of the Universe control huge political budgets — the Chamber of Commerce spent $276 million to give Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives after the 2010 elections — while Occupiers survive on donated pizzas.
Buyer’s Remorse
Ohio voters elected tea-party-backed John Kasich as their Republican governor last year. One of his most prominent initiatives was legislation limiting public employees’ collective bargaining rights. Opponents collected 1.3 million signatures to subject his anti-bargaining bill to a referendum. On November 8th, Ohioans overwhelmingly voted to repeal Kasich’s bill, which they rejected by 61 percent to 39 percent.
The OMG Congress
You can tell politicians are getting nervous. They’re playing the “In God We Trust” card again.
The GOP’s Empty Rhetoric on Obama’s Immigration Record
The Obama administration, which is currently deporting a record 400,000 people each year, took a minor step to protect immigrants. Now many Republicans are accusing him of treason. “Potential illegal immigrants may surge across the border making it difficult for the border patrol,” said Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) at a recent hearing.
Protect the Public Schools’ Whistleblowers
It seems like new reports of scandalous cheating schemes or other wrongdoing at public schools emerge every week. From New York City to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the problem of school corruption is widespread.
What can be done? There’s no surefire solution. Teachers and administrators alike are under pressure to see that an increasing number of objectives are met. The pressure to achieve results can be unbearable. Waste, fraud, and abuse can happen in any bureaucracy — and public schools aren’t immune to those scourges.
The Great Local News Heist
If you turn on your local evening news, you may not notice anything out of the ordinary. But if you change the channel, you’ll think you’ve entered a parallel universe.
GOP Debates are More Entertaining than GOP Policies
I was out of the country for a couple of weeks and came back to be greeted by yet another Republican presidential debate. I was so pleased.
Prison Nation
The United States has more citizens behind bars, per capita, than any other nation. No, this quirk doesn’t reflect an especially felonious gene in our national DNA. Rather, it exposes embarrassing shortfalls in our public policy.
Dispatch from Occupy Wall Street
America needs a new phenomenon every once in a while. Now it has one: Occupy Wall Street.
Missouri’s Troy Davis
People who had never heard of Davis or had never thought much about the death penalty suddenly confronted Georgia’s senseless act of brutality. They asked themselves: how could the state kill someone in the face of so much doubt about his guilt?
