Eighty to ninety thousand eligible voters in Pennsylvania could be disenfranchised because they do not have the photo identification required by the Commonwealth's new voter ID law. Passed in March with only Republicans voting for the bill and signed by GOP Governor Tom Corbett, the voter ID law...

Too many Americans have short memories and have forgotten when and how our current economic decline really began.

During the 1980 Presidential primaries, candidate Ronald Reagan advocated a "trickle-down" theory of economics. The idea was that tax breaks for the rich and corporations would be good for the economy. Sound...

"Paris in Spring." These words, evocative of floral gardens, sidewalk cafes, and wide boulevards, remind us that Spring is one of the loveliest seasons to visit this grande dame of cities. Knowing that I've lived there, when relatives or friends are planning to visit Paris, they often ask me for...

It is impossible to write about the impressionist art inside the museums of Normandy without describing the natural beauty and scenes from everyday life that inspired the works of art.

To see variations of light dancing on the flint arches and eye-of-the-needle openings of Etretat's white cliff's,...

If you read my earlier post, "Normandy: Birthplace of Impressionism Celebrated this Summer" you know that the entire Normandy region of France is paying homage to impressionist art this summer in the "Normandie Impressionniste" festival, which is being celebrated with special exhibitions and programs until September 6. The festival focuses...

Honfleur
One year ago, I was in Normandy covering the ceremonies commemorating the sixty-fifth anniversary of D-Day, marveling at the achievements of the Allied forces in 1944 that battled across Normandy, not only on June 6, but throughout that summer of liberation into September. This year, I find myself...

Dimock, PA - April 12, 2010 - Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, Montgomery County Commissioner and former congressman, Joe Hoeffel (D), spent the day listening to residents in Susquehanna County, in the northeast region of the state, whose lives have been changed by the effects of gas-drilling. After meeting with citizens in...

"Slavery is a moral evil in any society...more so to the white than to the black." -Robert E. Lee, Virginia

The magnolia trees and white-columned buildings are picturesque and Gone With the Wind tells a good, albeit one-sided story, but the truth is that the Confederate South was...

I don't know about you, but I am tired of hearing the mainstream media repeat the Republican mantra that "If health care reform passes, the Democrats will lose in November," and "If health reform doesn't pass, Obama's presidency is over." The conservative corporate cabal that controls this country has decided...

The Senate's latest proposal for health care legislation, as an alternative to the now watered-down public option, involves expanding Medicare to cover Americans beginning at age fifty-five. It also entails offering the same plans to Americans that federal employees--including members of Congress--receive. Under this proposal, the Office of Personnel Management...

"Is it not time to awaken from the deceitful dream of a golden age, and to adopt as a practical maxim for our political conduct that we, as well as other inhabitants of the globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue?" --Alexander Hamilton,...

Health Care Reform: Will Real Statesmen and Stateswomen Please Stand Up?
What would Senators Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Mary Landrieu do if they were offered the choice between spending their last dime and incurring debt to provide needed medical care for themselves and their loved ones--or...

PARIS -- September 22 -- The heated debate over healthcare reform continued last week in an unlikely place, the cobblestone courtyard of an apartment building in Paris. It was there that I encountered an American couple close to retirement age, but not yet retired, from Washington State and...

August 12 -- On a humid evening, in a non-air-conditioned church sanctuary, beneath mobiles of origami birds on which prayers are written, Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) held a town meeting, answering questions on health care reform with few interruptions. More than 500 people gathered in the sanctuary and overflow room...

To those who believe the Constitution does not include health care reform, I suggest that they re-read the preamble to the Constitution, which says that in order to form a more perfect union we must, "...insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense," and "promote the general welfare..."

Access...

Philadelphia, PA -- August 2: This afternoon, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, I saw the face of ignorance and hate--and it wasn't pretty.

When Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) came to the National Constitution Center to answer questions about health...

There are two separate but related, aspects to the confrontation between Harvard professor, Henry Louis "Skip" Gates and Cambridge police officer, James "Jim" Crowley last week. On one hand, there is the very real -- and vile -- issue of police profiling, which far too many African-American and Latino men...

Members of the Democrat-controlled Congress have a real opportunity to make history this year, by passing legislation to reform our costly and unwieldy health care system.

Speaking on the Charlie Rose program last week, Denis Cortese, President and CEO of the Mayo Clinic said, "We have no health care...

Opponents of health care reform have spread a few erroneous myths about the French health care system, describing it as "socialized medicine" that restricts the patients' right to choose their own doctors. This myth, among others, is not true.

Although the French government is working to reform their system,...

Whenever I hear Congressional opponents of health care reform attempt to scare the public by warning of "socialized medicine," I want to laugh. Aren't these the same fear-mongers who, as they deceived us into the Iraq War, warned us of "weapons of mass destruction?" They try to scare us with...