If ISIS Is Such a Threat, Why No Air Strikes?
If ISIS, the al Qaeda offshoot currently rampaging around Iraq, is the threat that the Obama administration says it is, why have there been no U.S. air strikes? Is it because we are once again falling...
View ArticleWhy Tim Sbranti Won
In most cases, political geography wins. Most pollsters or seasoned candidates acknowledge that one of the greatest assets a candidate can have is to represent the largest portion of any given...
View ArticleMajor Marriage Hearing Approaches (VIDEO)
Mark your calendar for Aug. 6: There's a major marriage-equality hearing that day, covering five cases across four different states. The number of lawsuits filed against marriage-equality bans has...
View ArticleNever Mind What the Constitution Says, Our Prison Sysem Has Run Amok
The practice of charging fines and billing fees to defendants dates back to the 1970s. The number of people behind bars has increased 700% by 2010. In the last 30+ years, prisons and courtrooms have...
View ArticleHow Do Witnesses Feel Testifying Against Accused War Criminals?
Witnesses who testify at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against accused war criminals often take great risks to do so. Yet, until now, their voices have been missing from discussions about how...
View ArticleWhen Rights Collide
Call this the year of clashing rights. On April 7, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) declined to hear the Elane Photography case, in which an Albuquerque studio refused to take...
View ArticleSorry, Starbucks: An On-Campus Degree Is Better Than an Online One
My niece is a smart, hardworking gal who recently received her master's in architecture and is having a hard time finding a job, like many Millennials. To make matters worse, she's facing more than...
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LICH Leftovers
This is the second in a series of posts on the 2013 New York City mayor's race and the issues facing post-Bloomberg New York. For years, Long Island College Hospital, a healthcare facility perched on...
View ArticleChris Christie, Anais Nin and the Enforcement of Motherhood
What do New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and writer Anais Nin have in common? Not a whole lot, Christie would probably say. But a case can be made for their similar positions on one major issue: the...
View ArticleMissing People: The Pain of Waiting
Imagine sweating through sleepless nights never knowing if your child would ever return home. The recent kidnapping of three teenagers in Israel by terrorists has shaken the Jewish world. The...
View ArticleIraq Is Beyond Cheney's Comprehension
Much has been said of former Vice President Dick Cheney's Wall Street Journal op-ed where he criticized President Barack Obama's handling of Iraq. Cheney's contribution to the discourse in Iraq is as...
View ArticleThere They Go Again
The House GOP Fantasy Conundrum on Immigration Reform and the Challenge Ahead Co-authored with Rocio Saenz, Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) It just doesn't...
View ArticleVietnam and Iraq: What Do They Have in Common?
What do the Iraq and Vietnam wars have in common? A lot, actually. Questions of legitimacy are probably the central issue. Who gets to control the government of a faraway region, and what does this...
View ArticleMissing Pieces in Analysis of Targeted-Killing Memo
After more than two years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit finally released a redacted copy of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memorandum on the targeted killing of...
View ArticleMoving Forward on Marriage: Reflections on the Third Anniversary of New York...
On June 24, 2011, New York became the seventh state to pass marriage equality, more than doubling the number of gay Americans who were able to marry overnight. It is clear now that New York was a...
View ArticleBoy Is Their Face Red
My Facebook friends are once again on the warpath. What has their knickers in a wad this time? It's those goofy Native Americans complaining about sport team mascots again. You know, like the...
View ArticleHarris v. Quinn: A Personal View
Following the progress of the latest anti-labor lawsuit, Harris v. Quinn, I'm reminded of the story of a homecare worker named Evelyn. She had recently arrived in the city, but by working hard, she had...
View ArticleMandated Paid Maternity Leave: It's Time to End the Divide Between the...
When we examine "have" and "have-not" issues in the United States, we usually think of the digital divide or the enormous gap between the rich and the poor or the difference in resources of city...
View ArticleGlobal Day of Protest Against the Drug War
Every year, the United Nations designates June 26 as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Sounds good, right? Who wouldn't want to help prevent the harms associated with...
View ArticleIt's Time Obama Lowered the Bar for Success in Iraq
The favorite color of foreign policy is grey. Iraq is the latest example of a muddle where success is the absence of failure and options fall into categories based on degrees of bad. In response to a...
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