Spanish jazz guitarist Pere Soto was arrested and held in a jail cell when he tried to re-enter the U.S. from Mexico. He remains shocked and traumatized by his treatment by U.S. officials.

The Catalan has a Gypsy-jazz band, "Django's Castle," and has played in challenging ensembles which include...

Is America the meanest, least compassionate, most uncaring nation on earth? Maybe the people aren't, but the United States government certainly is.

There are men and women in Congress who would have you and me suffer and die rather than give up the money that insurance and other "health industry"...

People have been preoccupied with the preposterous lies that the Republicans have perpetrated on health insurance reform. At the same time, pundits repeat the conventional inside-the-beltway line that the Democrats are "off-message."

The reality is that Democrats don't have a message to be off of.

Yesterday, Roger Hickey from Campaign...

Rep. David Wu (D-Oregon) is holding a town meeting at this moment. There were seats for only sixty and I was not able to get in. People started lining up before dawn this morning in front of one of the Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital buildings where the meeting was scheduled...

President Obama never ceases to amaze us at what he can do.

Apparently he is a Communist Nazi Socialist Muslim Christian White Black Racist who was born in two places at once.

He is able to generate new government health care programs designed to kill people while at the...

This is nothing new. It started in my family. Like when my father told me he wanted to go to the fights "to see the Nigger get beat." And then my mother tried to persuade me to not listen to black R&B. Thankfully, my grandmother had sense enough not to...

That's not a facetious question. It is a very real one.

On June 1, I joined the 47 million other Americans who do not have health insurance. I could not afford to pay what COBRA was asking and so if any of my ongoing health problems reoccurs,...

While the world was watching the conflict in Iran, MSNBC was showing you cop video and convicts. When they did bother to take a stab at it, they offered the usual political hacks arguing and vomiting talking points.

OK, they bill themselves as "The Place for Politics." They never said...

The folks who were arrested in Georgia for attempting to help some poor soul stop suffering and die at the time and place of his or her choosing would not be in jail here in Oregon. They wouldn't even have an assisted suicide organization at all.

Thankfully, none of...

I would like to extend my personal thanks to George Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the members of the outgoing administration for their efforts over the past few weeks in trying to define the last eight years on every media outlet with the possible exceptions of the Jim...

A lot of people have done a lot of complaining about Congressional Democrats, especially Senate Democrats. Were they briefed about torture and illegal wiretapping? Did they know and do nothing? Are they complicit?

And who are they? Things have changed. They are under scrutiny. Ours, and Obama's

Today we know...

It's not all about the Benjamins anymore, baby.

Although it is still the defining principle in many people's lives, the concept that "Greed is Good," is dead. It rose to its despicable zenith in tandem with the rise of Reagan, and has been the guiding principle of industry, finance and...

They're missing the story again.

Remember when Hillary was a lock to win the Democratic nomination? And so was Romney? And watch out for Fred Thompson?

Obama winning? Not a chance.

Conventional media wisdom has been wrong much much more than it has been right.

So when 14 million people...

Republican leaders, from President Bush and John McCain on down, have fallen all over themselves to hail Barack Obama's election as the first African-American president. In McCain's concession speech, where he had to briefly calm down the mob he and Palin had stoked during the campaign with their...

Why anybody would second-guess President-Elect Barack Obama (It's still thrilling to type that) is beyond me.

Has he not done everything right? Who knows better than him and his people about what to do next? When people were screaming for him to attack, attack attack, he played rope-a-dope, stayed on...

How many I'll-never-forget-where-I-was-when's are happy memories? Think about it. From 9-11 on back to Pearl Harbor, since we've had instant mass communication, none of those moments are happy.

Last night was happy, and we'll never forget it.

We had some friends and family over last night. From 11 p.m., when...

Are you finding it hard to focus? When you think about the possibility of McCain winning next week do you feel lost and bewildered at what that would mean to your life? Do you feel like your head is about to explode?

Me too.

Are you hysterically ambivalent? Do you...

Seems that way. The Republicans appear to be following a script written by people who want to see them not only lose, but lose big and be humiliated and reviled at the same time.

What other explanation could there by for the sociopathic insanity of their campaign. One of these...

John McCain may have finally re-discovered a sliver of his humanity. It's too late, of course, and his candidacy was doomed anyway because of the depression of 2008 but for a brief moment the old bird looked like normal a human being.

He has looked off his rocker, to put...

While Democrats, most progressive bloggers and Obama supporters stand by idly, the GOP is once again ramping up the primary engine of the Department of Justice scandal -- bogus claims of voter fraud designed to disenfranchise thousands, if not millions, of low-income and minority voters. Once again,...