Is Lethal Injection Cruel and Unusual Punishment?
This post was co-authored with Robert Wilbur. As the nation is horrified by another botched execution, a capital defense lawyer in Texas, a legal scholar in New York, and the former warden of San...
View ArticleA Cleaner, Safer Future Is Ours
As President of the Latino Victory Project, I've been fortunate to travel all over the country and meet Latino leaders at every level of government. Whether a city councilman, a state treasurer, or a...
View ArticleDrugs and Dollars
Even with the relentless spotlight on the Affordable Care Act, a new health issue is edging toward center stage: drug costs. The poster drug for this controversy is Sovaldi, a dramatically effective...
View ArticleIsraeli and Palestinians at Harvard: Part 3 of 9
The Security Fence Ever since the Treaty of Westphalia, the West has had and tried to impose on others international political boundaries. One of the tenants includes a general recognition of the...
View ArticleLGBT Civil Rights and Religious Liberty: The Challenge
Over the past two months there has been a flurry of concern and action regarding religion-based attacks on LGBT equality. These attacks are nothing new, of course, but as marriage equality is...
View ArticleMillennials Move Even Further More Left of Center
The millennials, (also referred to as Generation Y) are the group of Americans born between 1980-1998. They are a group that has been the intense subject of commentary and interest from consumer...
View ArticleMaking the Internet Work for Democracy
A level playing field for the Internet got a powerful boost this week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) threw his support firmly behind protection of Net Neutrality in any new Federal...
View ArticleKiwis in the Bronx
For years the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx in New York, home to St. Ann's Episcopal Church, was the poorest section of the poorest Congressional district in the United States. I recently had...
View ArticleIsrael's War on Gaza: American Jews Must Speak Out
I know how tough this is, but at some point, we have to overcome our tribal loyalties and speak out. The injustice we are seeing inflicted on a defenseless civilian population is just too massive to...
View ArticleThe Water of Life
I'm thirsty. Indeed, I'm overwhelmed by thirst, thinking about those who lack access to clean water. I'm thirsty for a different world. "In Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians lack water,...
View ArticleCoal and Oil Polluters Dominate ALEC Conference
By Nick Surgey of The Progressive Inc. and Connor Gibson of Greenpeace Who's pulling the strings at the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) conference in Dallas, Texas, this week?...
View ArticleMedicare: It's Only Getting Better with Age
As President Obama spoke in Kansas City this week, it marked 49 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson was not far from the same spot. On July 30, 1965, at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in...
View ArticleGaza's Future: It's Up to the International Community
The "barbaric violation of the cease-fire agreement," in the words of the White House spokesman, by Hamas when they attacked Israeli soldiers, killing two and taking one hostage, sums up the challenge...
View Article'Right to Farm' or Right to Funnel Illegal Money Into Missouri Campaign?
Today, the Missouri Farmers Union sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture calling for a formal investigation into the potentially illegal use of federal pork check-off funds for a...
View ArticleInstitutions That Minimize Abuse Share the Blame
In February, a hotel lobby camera recorded the aftermath of violence that is normally confined to the four walls of a home. In the video, football player Ray Rice dragged an unconscious woman, face...
View ArticleAmerican Media Biased Coverage of the Crisis in Gaza
As a Palestinian living in the United States, I must say that the reporting of Fox News and CNN has no connection to the reality that Palestinians know only too well. Their coverage is unfair and fails...
View ArticleCampaign Advice for Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes
There's no shortage of campaign strategy advice in this year's Kentucky Senate race. In that spirit, I'll add my own two cents. If I were advising the McConnell campaign, I would say... Don't screw up....
View Article9 Facts About the Israel-Palestine Conflict On Which We Can All Agree
Simply open your mouth on Israel-Palestine, and faster than you can blink you'll be labeled either a heartless Zionist or a Hamas terrorist. Both extreme labels are equally fruitless. If we cannot find...
View ArticleChanging Demographics, Bloated Budgets Shape Changing Fair Landscape Across...
Growing up in Delaware, Ohio, I always went to the county fair. Without fail, my little sister and I gorged on elephant ears, played carnival games and were flung about on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Delaware...
View Article61 Years After Armistice: Korea's Gratitude, Pride, and Hope for the Future
President Obama recently designated July 27 as "Korean War Veteran's Armistice Day." One day before the Proclamation was announced I attended a very moving ceremony commemorating the 61st anniversary...
View Article