Carl Pope

Former executive director and chairman, Sierra Club

What is mystifying is why almost all of America's political class is willing to support a set of policy decisions whose outcomes will be to impoverish most Americans and weaken the nation.

Bob Greenstein

Founder and President, Center on Budget & Policy Priorities

In today's Senate debate on the farm bill, Senator David Vitter offered -- and Senate Democrats accepted -- an amendment that would increase hardship and will likely have strongly racially discriminatory effects.

David Ernesto Munar

President and CEO, AIDS Foundation of Chicago

Despite being a resource for people without coverage, it has the potential to disrupt existing doctor/patient relationships, something all of us -- and especially people with chronic, complex health conditions like HIV and other co-occurring diagnoses - want to avoid.

Robert Koehler

Syndicated writer

Like suicide, sexual assault is skyrocketing in the military. Why? Could it be that the problem is deeply structural? Could it be that it's related to the domination culture the military embodies.

Jared Bernstein

Fmr. Obama administration economist; CNBC and MSNBC contributor

Technology and tax law have led to the emergence of what international tax analyst Ed Kleinbard calls "stateless income," a phenomenon that was on full display at the Apple hearing yesterday.

Leilani Münter

Race car driver, environmental activist

Free market economics is touted by conservatives, and yet almost routinely now we are seeing legislation being introduced designed solely to block the competition that Tesla is bringing to the old guard.

Bill Chameides

Dean, Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment

One reason you don't want to have politicians mucking around in the nuts and bolts of science is that they often have a shaky grasp of the science at best.

Daniel Robelo

Research associate in the Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of Legal Affairs in Berkeley, California

This report is the first time that any multilateral institution anywhere in the world has critically analyzed the war on drugs and considered new approaches for the future -- giving equal weight to options like decriminalization and legalization in the process.

Barbara Lee

President, Barbara Lee Political Office and Barbara Lee Family Foundation

While women's numbers in the military -- and in elected office -- may be dwarfed by their male counterparts, women in Congress are giving new meaning to the phrase "pulling rank."

Lee A. Saunders

President, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO

Scott Walker and his tea party cohorts bought the snake oil of austerity. They forced the Badger State to drink it. And Wisconsin's families are suffering because the governor ignored the evidence that it is a toxic brew.

Valerie Tarico

Author, 'Trusting Doubt' and 'Deas and Other Imaginings'; Founder, WisdomCommons.org

When it comes to matters of individual conscience, Washington State voters have a don't-mess-with-us attitude that makes Texans look like cattle--and it goes way back.

Tom Engelhardt

Editor, TomDispatch.com

To destroy our planet with malice aforethought, with only the most immediate profits on the brain, with only your own comfort and wellbeing (and those of your shareholders) in mind: Isn't that the ultimate crime?

Stephen A. Brunton, M.D., FAAFP

Executive Vice President for Education, Primary Care Education Consortium

Like anything, when it comes to health care, there is a careful balance that needs to be achieved between doing what is best for the patient, and being prudent in managing costs to the system.

Ryan Campbell

Author, 'Chasing Romney'

If the GOP stands squarely in the way of reforming the "broken" immigration system, many political careers will be crushed in the wake of this vote.

Richard (RJ) Eskow

Writer; host, 'The Breakdown'; Senior Fellow, Campaign for America's Future

Apple's $100 billion in offshore profits is managed in Reno, tracked by accountants in Austin, and stored in Manhattan banks. That's called having your apple and eating it too. It's up to our leaders, not corporate executives, to fix this problem.

Tom Alderman

Media, Presentation and Speech trainer, speech writer and founder of MediaPrep

... fill in the blanks: Teapot Dome, Watergate, Iran Contra, Lewinsky... Benghazi? You may have noticed that every time one erupts, it's compared in heinousness to the last really big one.

Tom Hayden

Former State Senator and leader of sixties peace, justice and environmental movement. Director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center.

Where Garcetti goes from here is momentarily upward -- television interviews, magazine covers -- before his handlers guide his approach back to the mundane mess at City Hall. How will he try to reconcile with labor leaders used to having their way?