Steven Strauss

Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Reasonable people would agree that a bank having a history of involvement with fraud and mismanagement (and a recipient of one of the largest bank bailouts) shouldn't be writing bank legislation. Unless, of course, you are the U.S. Congress doing business as usual.

Maureen Ryan

TV critic, The Huffington Post

Tonight we found out that Bob is not truly a product of the great state of Wisconsin (your loss, Cheddarheads). His identity is as thin and fragile as the pathetic map tacked up on his office wall.

Tom Engelhardt

Editor, TomDispatch.com

Washington's urge to take control of the global communications environment, lock, stock, and chat room, to gather its "data" -- billions and billions of pieces of it -- and so turn the world into a secret set of connections, represents a remarkable development.

Melanie Curtin

Founder, Vixen On The Loose

This is in an attempt to spare both you, my fine male friends, as well as myself and other women, the cringe-inducing effects of such attempts at, um, seduction.

Dan Froomkin

Executive Editor, FearlessMedia.org

Even in this day of fragmented audiences and decimated newsrooms, major news organizations still have the ability to spark a national conversation around a given issue, by putting experienced, tenacious beat reporters on the story. So what's needed is a new beat, to cover secrecy itself.

Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett

Authors, 'Going to Tehran'; Penn State Professor and American University Senior Lecturer

If the Obama administration wants to engage a new Rohani administration effectively, and to put U.S.-Iranian relations on a more positive trajectory, it will need to overhaul U.S. policy in four fundamental ways.

Richard Branson

Founder, Virgin Group

It shouldn't just be left to politicians and community organizations to tackle the world's problems -- businesses should help, too. Although individually lots of businesses do great things, collectively they could be far more powerful and do much more good.

John Pavley

CTO @ The Huffington Post, Blogger

I believe the iron triangle applies to almost every human endeavor. From throwing a party to keeping a marriage alive for 28 years, no plan survives its first encounter with reality. The only real question is which corner of the iron triangle am I going to compromise on?

Dean Baker

Co-director, CEPR; author, 'The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive'

In this case the strong support of the public for these programs -- which cuts across party and demographic lines -- overcame the power of corporate money and the political elite. When push came to shove, not enough politicians were prepared to go against the strongly held views of their constituents.

Newt Gingrich

Former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives and GOP presidential candidate

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that bureaucrats throughout the government are routinely abusing their power to advance their ideology and that of the current administration. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the administration's aggressive obstruction of American energy.

Carole Brody Fleet

Speaker and Award-Winning Author, "Happily Even After…" and "Widows Wear Stilettos…"

This month's Dating Faux Pas Prevention continues with another subject of concern to many; what are the two of you going to talk about on that first date?

Matthew Cooke

Writer-director, How To Make Money Selling Drugs

Drug war supporters think Americans might tear apart the fabric of society if we were legally allowed to consume whatever plants or chemicals we chose. This is not based in fact.

Phyllis Cuttino

Director, Clean Energy, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Tesla's repayment of a Department of Energy loan nine years ahead of schedule is welcome news and another indication that use of electric vehicles is growing -- both here and around the globe.

Mike Weisser

The Gun Guy

We may be headed towards Round 2 of the gun control fight, in which case the NRA will begin kicking and screaming about how expanding the national criminal background check system will ultimately lead to the confiscation of guns. But is the argument really about "constitutional rights"? Or is the real argument about something else?

Mark Sandlin

PC(USA) Minister & co-founder of The Christian Left

Now, I love Superman but I will not be preaching about how Superman is like Jesus. There won't even be a children's sermon. Why? Violence. That's why.

Jon Soltz and Sen. Tom Udall

Recent history and the current intelligence on the ground supports the conclusion that the risks are just too great. After over a decade of war overseas, now is not the time to arm an unorganized, unfamiliar, and unpredictable group of rebels.

Melissa T. Shultz

Essayist, Award-Winning Journalist

Last year I wasn't as smart or as old. This year, on the occasion of my birthday, I'm making notes. I want to remember what I've learned.

Jordan Schultz

The Huffington Post's sports columnist, The Schultz Report

With the San Antonio Spurs leading the NBA Finals 3 games to 2, the question becomes, can Spoelstra respond? Will he stay with a smaller lineup, or will he re-insert Chris Andersen for some much-needed shot blocking?

Joe Robinson

Work-life balance, stress management educator, speaker, and author, 'Work to Live''

The stress epidemic has gone uncontested for too long. We can change that by becoming a nation of first responders, creating a social movement of people who reach out when someone is in need, who talk and listen, not look the other way, who can be Stress Lookouts and Disrupters.

Robert Kuttner

Co-founder and co-editor, 'The American Prospect'

We have almost reached a tipping point where majorities of Americans who want government to be on their side look in vain for a government that actually serves them.

João Vale de Almeida

European Union Ambassador to the United States

If EU and the U.S. can show that we want to open markets and resist protectionism even in this moment of crisis, it will send a powerful signal to the rest of the world about the continuing strength of the international economic order.

Jared Bernstein

Fmr. Obama administration economist; CNBC and MSNBC contributor

As the fiscal picture has improved, both through actions we've taken already and the improving economy, it's much tougher to make the hair-on-fire urgency case that drove this benighted debate in recent years.

Gordon Brown

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; UN Special Envoy for Global Education

Malala Yousafzai -- the 15-year-old Pakistani girl militants tried to assassinate -- is the first signatory of a new worldwide petition launched today after terrorists, hell-bent on preventing girls being educated, murdered 14 students at an all girls' college in Pakistan.

Adrian Grenier

Actor, filmmaker and entrepreneur

For too long we've exclusively emphasized punishment for non-violent offenders over treatment and rehabilitation. The current system is unbalanced, unsustainable, and unnecessarily cruel. It's time to legalize or at the very least, decriminalize all drugs.

Mark Moore

Founder and CEO, MANA Nutrition

Since I spend my days at a company that makes products to fight malnutrition, I could not help but notice that Theo Jansen was born just after one of the most noted and awful famines of modern times.

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

Lord Mayor of Belfast

Today, the Obamas saw a Belfast transformed by two decades of peacemaking which only bore fruit because of the dogged determination of Irish America. President Obama reaffirmed America's commitment to stand with the peacemakers of Belfast as long as we continue to push forward.

Jeff Madrick

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow; author, 'Age of Greed'

Our jobs conference in early June covered a wide variety of potential solutions to what we call the jobs emergency, from major macro policies to local activist ones. Given how little is done in Washington to solve the problem, it is stunning how many good ideas are out there.

Jeffrey Laurenti

Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation

Fresh from such a stunning upset, Rowhani will need quickly to show Iranians some results, in particular on the economic front. Rowhani now needs to persuade supreme leader Khamenei to give him the running room to try a new approach.

Dr. Peggy Drexler

Author, research psychologist and gender scholar

The first step towards getting a boss to loosen her grip is to remove any possibility from her mind that she needs to be that way. Get to work on time. Meet deadlines. Be productive. Make clients happy.