I have known Eric Garcetti since before he was first elected to City Council when we were involved in the west coast launch of a young progressive group called Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century. It may come as a surprise to some, however, that I am not...

The Miami Herald responded to House Republicans' intransigence by noting "[p]artisanship and precipice met in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday, and the Republican majority leapt into the abyss." Similarly, the Detroit Free Press explained that the vote was a victory only for "blind zeal and base politics."

This is an important election for all Americans, but especially for those of us in the tech community since decisions we make in November will impact the state of American innovation both in the short-term and for years to come.

On the one hand there is President Obama, who...

There is a long-standing strain in conservative thought that America is essentially a conservative country that has been led astray and duped by the "liberal media" and Hollywood. The most recent articulation of this view is in books like Obama Zombies and documentaries like The Obama Deception, which contend that...

The media is abuzz over what appears to be the implosion of the Romney campaign, with leading Republicans offering scathing "pre-eulogies" such as Peggy Noonan's statement that the Romney campaign is a "rolling calamity." Such a focus on the individual candidate's tactical ineptitude obscures the larger point that...

Our national charter begins with three important words -- "We the People." These words were on my mind on Independence Day as I toured Berlin, a city where the echoes of history surround you. It is a history of America at its best, in which American military and economic might...

Imagine if, prior to arguing Brown v. Board of Education on behalf of the NAACP, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall instead had been forced by pro-Jim Crow judges to pay substantial penalties for "grossly abusing the judicial process" by asserting what they deemed to be frivolous arguments. Had that...

As in past years, the sixth Tech Policy Summit held in serene Napa Valley highlights the very Silicon Valley-Washington divide which it seeks to bridge. While the SOPA fight, the passage of the CROWDFUND Act and greater tech engagement on Capitol Hill are major signs of improvement, the...

Tom Hayden, who is now the Carey McWilliams fellow at The Nation, has weighed in on one of California's hottest Assembly races just before the June 5th primary. Unfortunately, Hayden's column appears to be nothing more than a machine hatchet job, which is both a disservice to California...

Last week in Geneva the Internet elite gathered to celebrate the inaugural class of inductees for the Internet Hall of Fame at a very fitting moment. The Internet is experiencing a coming of age as not only has it surpassed television in terms of daily consumer usage, but...

With Mitt Romney's recent primary victories in Illinois, Maryland and Wisconsin, the inevitability factor has begun to set in and Romney is now the presumptive nominee having prevailed over an embarrassingly weak GOP field of candidates. The good news for Republicans is that by embracing Romney the brutal primary fight...

After Pope Benedict reiterated the Vatican's long-standing condemnation of the United States' 50-year-old embargo of Cuba, I noticed some chatter in social media that maybe the remarks could lead to a change in U.S. policy. After double-checking to make sure that pigs were not flying outside, I resigned myself to...

Pennsylvania's recent enactment of the so-called "Amazon Tax" via a press release from the Department of Revenue may be seen as a deft political move by Governor Tom Corbett to close a budget gap without enacting any new taxes, but viewed from afar the action is a cause for alarm...

History can be savagely poetic and may be on the verge of doing so again. As the Republican Presidential Circus reaches the doorstep of the Iowa Caucus, Newt Gingrich is inching up in the polls ready to emerge as the right wing's flavor du jour. Who better to be at...

Within two months of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. auto industry began converting all of its production to the war effort and ultimately was responsible for 20% percent of all war time production. That was then.

Months after American's second Pearl Harbor on 9/11, Stanley Tools, a major government contractor founded...

In its controversial decision to downgrade U.S. bonds, Standard & Poor's embraced the "conventional wisdom" calling for substantial cuts in government spending. Conventional wisdom, however, usually is more of a reflection of prevailing dogma than actual wisdom and, in the words of John Kenneth Galbraith, merely "serves to protect us...

While Los Angeles braces for the upcoming Carmageddon, the sense of horror felt over not being able to use 10 miles of freeway for a weekend is amplified by the fact that those who manage to survive will face yet another crisis a fortnight later when the U.S. government reaches...

Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger are just a few examples of how bank robbers have been glamorized in American pop culture; but they are mere poseurs compared to the legends of larceny. It is time we recognize the true rock stars of robbery -- the banks themselves...

Last May, I responded to Sarah Palin's "Christian Nation" and other controversial comments by suggesting that she take a bus tour to meet "real Americans," which would include stops at landmarks such as Antietam and end in Providence where Roger Williams established the first colony founded upon the principle of...

Republican budget guru Paul Ryan boasts that the budget passed by House Republicans is this generation's "defining moment" and "keeps America exceptional." Ryan is 100 percent right because the GOP plan makes the United States exceptional... as the only developed nation in the world that aspires to be Kazakhstan.

A...