A destructive, disruptive federal government shut-down hinges on the outcome of an ideological argument over funding for Planned Parenthood. Apparently, similar ideological arguments over "killing Big Bird" and de-funding EPA re climate change have been at least temporarily resolved.

Most progressives are pro-choice people; we're livid that the Republican far-right...

While most of us are focused on domestic issues like banking and health care, a truly spectacular, world history-making event just concluded in the East Room of the White House. Specifically, Chinese President Hu, in response to a reporter's question, flatly stated that China has a long way...

Good news for civil libertarians ... well, at least the possibility of good news. Ironically, the root of the good news is that Congress sometimes has great difficulty getting things done.

It seems that, although several of the most controversial and draconian provisions of the Patriot Act and the Foreign...

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 -- A large group of Obama supporters and civil libertarians yesterday posted a national open letter to the President and companion petition asking for presidential action to press Congress to revise the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Anguish in the...

You'd better sit down, folks.

Article 31 of the Iraqi Constitution, drafted by your right-wing Bushies in 2005 and ratified by the Iraqi people, includes state-guaranteed (single payer) healthcare for life for every Iraqi citizen.

Article 31 reads:

"First: Every citizen has the right to health care. The State shall...

Just a few years ago, Republicans were in control of everything in Washington, having augmented their power by amoral deceit if not criminal conduct. As a result they lost everything. Their well-earned but involuntary demise must be devastating to them.

Recoiling, they have desperately been trying to regain power by...

Much is said today, as Senator Ted Kennedy is memorialized, about his extraordinary service to our nation, and I too rejoice in that. But I have an entirely different reason to celebrate today, even as we all mourn the passing of this remarkable man.

It was 1980, when Senator Kennedy...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has apparently never been exposed to the factual (vs. case law) history of the Constitution. In response to a question July 15 on judicial philosophy from Sen. Hatch, she said with no hesitation: "The Constitution creates the rights. It's immutable. The right [sic] that the Constitutions [sic]...