You see them hovering in the supermarket parking lots or on street corners. As they approach, you know they are going to be asking about money.

This time you really need to support them. But don't give them money! You need to sign their petitions by April 20... to get...

Its not like they have anything to prove. They are two of the most accomplished, popular American cultural icons. Yet Meryl Streep and Madonna have now in circulation two movies notable not only for their weakness, but for promoting reprehensible right wing figures. And both movies have been nominated for...

The Great Recession has shed a harsh light on American economic practices. Greg Palast, Matt Taibbi, Glen Greenwald and other investigative reporters and analysts have repeatedly shown how large institutions' financial practices undermined the national economy and impoverished local communities.

But one of the bright spots...

Evelyn Glaubman was outraged at the tax cuts for the rich. She fumed when they were extended. "These tax cuts hurt the schools, the cities, the roads," she complained. "They are part of the problems our country faces. I felt that I had to do something."

Glaubman called a few...

By any measure, Occupy Oakland's General Strike on Wednesday was a huge success. It was huge in that media estimates that between 7 and 10,000 protestors participated. And successful in tone and deed, a sometimes serious, sometimes festive exercise in shining a light on what has happened to our country......

As the tear gas clears and we tend to the wounded, there are a few things that you need to know about Occupy Oakland:

- Police Over-reaction: Tear gas and police batons have been used largely without warning to break up an overwhelmingly peaceful encampment... an encampment made up of...

San Francisco has been awash in art this season. Three major shows made the pioneers of modern art hard to avoid: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA)'s "The Steins Collect," San Francisco Jewish Museum's "Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories," and the de Young Museum's "Masterpieces from the Musée...

You can understand my confusion. Television loudly proclaimed that it was "Premiere Week," opening of the new season, or some such promotional designed to lure back the terminally bored or hopelessly forgetful. Call it the triumph of hope over experience.

A victim of this promotion, I naturally thought I was...

There really are no words of consolation. Despite our work together, last night's recall election fell just short. One could say that there were two victories... but that was when we needed three. One could say that we got our arguments out to people... but if so, why...

Fred Clark is a helpful guy. During the floods that ravaged Wisconsin in June of 2008, he went out in his tractor to help his neighbors. As rising waters threatened local businesses, Clark pulled equipment and property to safety, including saving the nearby business that recycled wood from old buildings...

Is there anything to be learned from Canada's elections last month? Is it portentous for progressives? A triumph for Harper's Conservatives, as the prime minister himself and many in the media would have us believe?

The Harper government did win what seems at first to be a resounding victory....

Fred Risser is a veteran Wisconsin State Senator. Actually he is the longest serving state legislator in American political history. Bald and bearded, quick to laugh, he is the genial grandfather at the family picnic.

But Risser was not feeling genial this week. Thursday he had been recognized to speak...

Wherever he goes, Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach is greeted with chants of "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He certainly has earned them. Erpenbach led the 14 Wisconsin Democratic State Senators out of state and into hiding so that Governor Scott Walker's outrageous union-busting legislation would not...

Far from the fear-mongering catch phrases of "Death Panels" and "Obama-Care," there is a bit of good news from the trenches of the battle for health care.

The California Nurses Association, one of this country's very best labor organizations, has just signed off on a ground-breaking agreement with Kaiser Permanente,...

After all the hand-wringing over symbolic issues, President Obama probably found himself with little leverage at his summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The red herrings needed to be refrigerated to clear the air. Taiwan seems to be more inclined to make its own peace with China, not ours. America's...

Canada's only federal Climate Change Bill was killed on Tuesday, leaving the country without a single climate change law, and no plan at all.

The Climate Change and Accountability Act (C-311) was voted down in the Canadian Senate in a surprise maneuver by the conservative Harper government. No debate was...

What makes for a great American? Try this on for size: Among her friends were Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, WEB DuBois, Jessica Mitford, Harry Belafonte and Maya Angelou.

When Nelson Mandela first visited the U.S. after being freed, he detoured his two stop tour to head...

As we watched the latest mining tragedy unfold at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, I remembered a story of a friend. When Aubrey told us his story, we laughed . . . nervously. "I remember as a kid," he said, "my dad strapping his gun on...