Saving one's country is a cause that attracts the kind of people who are actually capable of pulling it off: talented, practical, incorruptible leaders. Bickering party politics attracts the opposite kind: narcissistic, unimaginative slaves to special interest.

In the 1770's, the "Glorious Cause" of revolution attracted an amazing crop of...

In my high school, the gym teacher doubled as the U.S. History teacher. We passed each class ignoring him as he read questions from the back of the teacher's edition, just like in the famous scene with Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I think most Americans...

The business press wins over its readers with stories that inspire -- above all, the story of the inventor in a garage and her company that will change the world. Thomas Friedman has inspired millions of readers with that story over the years. Recently, though, he's stepped out of the...

After many successful seasons, a gardener decided he never wanted to get his hands dirty again and resolved to grow his garden without planting. He suggested to his neighbor that she could plant it and keep a portion of the produce, but she already had a garden of her own....

There is an easy way to get every willing American into a satisfying, prosperous living -- well, easy in the sense that it would work, it would be fulfilling, and we'd all have a lot of fun, but difficult in the sense that all of America would have to make...

A guy named ‎Thom Stark is making a movie that you should support right now on Kickstarter. He's an amazing guy who I first tracked down when I was writing my blog Revolution in Jesusland (a project documenting how "last will be first" Christians are taking leadership of...

Glenn Beck is Heath Ledger's Joker. I'm serious: same intonation, same delivery. It's terrifying because the guy actually exists in real life, and has millions of followers. Listen to the clips below and make your own comparison.

Americans are freaking out, as they should...

A storyline is solidifying around the topic of the administration's failure to lead. One great example is Steve Clemons' post yesterday on Edward Luce's big White House article....

The New Right is succeeding, despite being wrong about most things, because it has a comprehensive worldview. If you take the time to listen to Beck, Limbaugh, and any of the thousands of lesser-known hosts, you will hear them teaching a worldview that is well developed, comprehensive and, at least...

Robert Reich was the right guy to follow to last week's jobs summit. Reich has devoted a career to waking America up to economic reality: Capital is liquid and it's flowing away from the U.S. to countries where people are more educated, more efficient and poor. The core of...

Two days before Thanksgiving, the top headline here in Kansas City is budget cuts. Kansas Governor Parkinson is telling kids to expect larger classes; patients, more overworked staff; poor neighborhoods, even less assistance. Meanwhile, evidence of the president's stimulus spending is all around us: Whatever direction you head out of...

People are desperate for an explanation of the economy that actually makes sense. They're not getting it from the experts. My talks with "Norm" are a composite of recent conversations I've had with friends and family about what's going on with the economy. The first installment dealt with "

People are desperate for an explanation of the economy that actually makes sense. They're not getting it from the experts. My talks with "Norm" are a composite of recent conversations I've had with friends, family and neighbors about what's going on with the economy. This first installment deals with the...

Inside the Obama campaign, almost without anyone noticing, an insurgent generation of organizers has built the Progressive movement a brand new and potentially durable people's organization, in a dozen states, rooted at the neighborhood level.

The "New Organizers" have succeeded in building what many netroots-oriented campaigners have been dreaming...

Have you actually read the bill that Secretary Paulson and his Goldman assistants wrote for Congress? Not the current version (I shudder thinking about it) with all its inserts from financial industry lobbyists, but the first version. It was beautiful in its simplicity and proved that revolutions can be initiated...

This is a continuing Q&A on the financial crisis with Max Fraad Wolff. Max's work regularly appears in the Asia Times, The Prudent Bear and many other international outlets. His work can also been seen regularly on his site GlobalMacroScope.com. Based in NYC, he does contract research on international...

In the past 24 hours, Henry Paulson effectively committed up to a trillion dollars of tax payer money to bail out bankers and investors, and locked in fiscal policies of his choosing for the next several years. To try to understand the full implications of this, I asked Max Fraad...

Joel Hunter is a conservative, Republican megachurch pastor in Central Florida. He's giving the Democrats some free advice, if they care to hear it: Even if you stick with Roe V. Wade, you can show evangelicals that you are the pro-life party by showing us how you...

Last week, I introduced the co-author of Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne, who is a phenomenon with no equivalent outside of the born-again Christian subculture. He openly and unambiguously opposes capitalism and "empire," and because the source of his politics is the...

Shane Claiborne has an exciting new book out called Jesus for President, this one co-authored with co-conspirator Chris Haw. It's a beautifully designed, reframing of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation -- sort of an...