Portside

Persistence and Solidarity are Key Ingredients

There's no reason to rollback the progress the ACA has made. But we should go all the way and dump the for-profit system.

Thousands of employees at the European aviation and defense giant EADS have taken to the streets across Germany to protest looming job cuts. The company had said it would have to overhaul its sluggish defense business.

Yet transparency is essential to democracy, so that citizens, rather than an elite, make decisions, especially when it comes to life-or-death issues.

Flame retardant,Walmart,Netanyahu,Black Friday,Afghanistan,pensions,Karzai

Do dogs "listen in" to interactions among human beings, and learn who it is best to beg from? Yup.

Vermont is the home of Ben and Jerry’s, maple syrup, Bernie Sanders and the first state to pass marriage equality. Now, Vermont will be known for something that will impact every resident in the state -- a single payer health care system.

Although the great red scare of the 1950s almost erased the anti-lynching song Strange Fruit from the public arena, the strange fruit allusion - lynched bodies hanging from trees – was one of genius. It had gotten under our culture’s skin, and as time went on, it seeped out of its pores.

Black Friday Wal-Mart protesters, including community members, demanded fair wages and better working conditions. As they reached the front of the store, their chants of "What do we want? Justice!" grew louder.

Way Down in the Hole (Tom Waits). Preachin' Blues (Son House). Stand Up, Stand Up for Judas (Leon Rosselson). Atheists Don't Have No Songs (Steve Martin). I'm on My Way to Canaan Land (Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry).