Last week several groups, including the United Steelworkers, petitioned the federal government to whack the latest trade mole -- illegally traded auto parts from China.

With President Obama announcing creation of a new trade enforcement unit in his State of the Union Address, the feds probably will investigate. But...

On Dec. 18, a dozen retirees, men and women in their 60s, 70s, even 80s, began occupying a median strip along Route 33 in front of the closed Century Aluminum smelter in Ravenswood, W.Va. In tents and under tarps, a small group stays overnight, despite hypertension, arthritis and other...

Four years ago, Cooper Tire told its workers they'd have to sacrifice to save the company. With a straight face, Cooper executives said it was essential for the corporation's survival that workers take tens of millions in pay and benefit cuts.

The workers understood the link between their livelihoods long...

In public squares across the country, Occupy protesters honor Rev. Martin Luther King's memory on this holiday devoted to him. Their tribute is more meaningful and enduring than the granite monument that President Obama dedicated to Rev. King in Washington, D.C. last year.

That's because the Occupiers are pressing for...

In America, when gangs of bullies torment school children, pushing them around and extorting their lunch money, parents know only one response effectively counters the abuse: confrontation. Running, whining, negotiating -- none of that works.

For the past year, since Republicans took the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives,...

'Tis the season of resolutions. With the new year comes pledges to quit smoking, get out of debt and spend more time with family. Gym memberships jump. Weight Watchers' profits fatten.

This also happens to be the season of political resolutions. It's that every-fourth-year event featuring presidential candidates in a...

In the iconic Christmas film, It's a Wonderful Life, an angel offers the beleaguered main character, George Bailey, the stark choice between a hometown named for a cruel banker or one created by and for the middle class.

The banker's town, Pottersville, is filled with bars, gambling dens and despair....

Amid prolonged, painfully high unemployment, ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer for the past year tirelessly advocated a simple solution: buy American-made products. She clearly explained the reasoning: every American dollar spent on an American-made product helps create an American job.

Defying Sawyer's admonition to search for "Made in America"...

It wasn't so much a vote as a proclamation of ideology last Thursday when Republicans filibustered Obama's nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The rebuff had nothing to do with the person, Richard Cordray, who even Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said appeared well qualified. Rather, it was...

MTV needs to stop giving that creepy vampire guy and moony human girl in the Twilight series the "best kiss" prize in its annual movie awards because it's Republicans who truly earned the trophy for the big wet smooches they lay on the 1 percent.

Just think of the GOP...

Most Americans, the 99 percent, feel the pressure of indebtedness. When they owe a friend a buck, their conscience bothers them until they're square. They pay their bills, working second jobs if necessary. They meet mortgage obligations even when underwater.

That's why there was a deficit Super Committee. Americans don't...

I want to thank you, thank you Thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you. ~ Natalie Merchant, "Kind and Generous"

This week's holiday mandates giving thanks. For many Americans, that is complicated by the harsh years since 2008.

There's the bitterness of...

Wall Street waged war on the American economy and middle class with its reckless gambling.

It wasn't Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac that crashed the economy. It wasn't the federal government. It wasn't hapless homeowners who were sold mortgages they couldn't afford. It was Wall Street financiers that aggressively sought...

Voting doesn't work anymore. If it did, Americans would get what they want -- or at least some of it -- from Washington.

But they don't.

Instead of the people's priority, which is jobs, country club conservatives in Congress stubbornly fixate on deficits. Instead of ensuring millionaires and corporations pay...

Americans have been worshiping a bull. Too many citizens, and particularly politicians, prostrate themselves to Wall Street's bronze idol.

They revere financial titans who pay themselves and their minions millions to manipulate money and gamble recklessly. Politicians gave tribute to the financiers with tax breaks and bailouts when the bankers'...

Republicans jammed together a mess of old, failed and vague schemes and called it a jobs bill. Sen. John McCain conceded the reason for the rehash: "Part of it is in response to the president saying we don't have a proposal."

They still don't. This despite the fact that...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his crew of country club conservatives this week brutalized the nation's democratic traditions to secure legislation demanded by big corporations and billionaire conservative financiers like the Koch brothers -- legislation stripping workers of collective bargaining rights.

Walker & Crew succeeded in terminating workers' rights...

Not like Valentine's Day, which is about love and chocolate, or Mother's Day, which is about sentimentality and breakfast in bed, International Women's Day is about equality and autonomy.

The first commemoration occurred on March 19, 1911, a time when most governments in the world, including the U.S. and...

It's illegal in America now to buy or sell a human being, but a recorded telephone conversation between a Republican governor and a guy he thought was a billionaire benefactor shows that it's still possible to own a politician.

Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker didn't have time to talk to...

Not the wars. Not greenhouse gasses. Not even the deficit.

The issue most important to Americans is jobs. Despite that, jobs failed to make an appearance in the State of the Union address.

The talk was all about business. Business was doing better. Business needed taxpayers to help pay for...