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Pete Townsend wasn’t thinking about Speaker of the House John Boehner when he wrote the song “Behind Blue Eyes,” but Townsend has said that the song is about the temptations that come with power, and it seems to be an ideal theme song for Boehner. Boehner came up from poverty through struggle. It took him 7 years to get through college as he worked several jobs to support his education. Now he is a wealthy man, perpetually tan, and third in line from leadership of this

Current efforts to address trafficking in persons are both reminiscent of and informed by the history of slavery and trafficking in the United States and elsewhere. In fact, trafficking in persons is often referred to as “modern-day slavery.” Historical grounding confirms that the reference to slavery, while not exactly on point, is relevant.
Colonial American indentured servants in bonded labor were sometimes called “white slaves” because they were primarily (but not all) of European descent and contracted to work without wages for a specified duration. The work usually lasted five to seven years, sometimes as part of an agreement or punishment after being convicted of crimes. Chattel slavery was driven by the desire for cheap labor–and this reliance on cheap labor continues in modern

Remember that evil offshore oil deposit that went out of control last summer, blew up a drilling rig and then spewed oil and gas into the gulf of Mexico for months until the government forced the oil companies to finally stop it? Well, surprise! It turns out it wasn’t the oil deposit that was out of control, it was the drilling companies. And today’s National Oil Spill Commission report puts it all on the table.
Unfortunately, the Commission’s recommendations don’t fit its findings. Why after documenting gory detail of corporate mismanagement, missteps, miscalculations and mistakes that paint a picture reminiscent of a Three Stooges episode, would your recommendations look like they were made after a run of the mill oil leak?
Why would you opt to continue limiting liability? Shouldn’t companies that cause disasters like this one be required to pay for all of the damages? If the Commission thinks not, what does that suggest about those in line for BP payments? Well, as long as we’re sharing the damages, maybe the companies could share some record profits

Dear Sarah Palin,
I am writing today about how you are responding to and how you will respond to the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the murders of six other people.
By way of introduction and background, I am a cousin of Congresswoman Giffords. I am also an ally of Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas doctor who provided abortion services and who was assassinated on May 31, 2009.
When the congresswoman’s offices were vandalized after her vote on healthcare reform, I wrote to her. As I recall, I congratulated her on her strong spirit in the face of that attack and other

As if the politics of the NFL labor dispute aren’t difficult enough for fans to follow, the economics of the matter are even more daunting.
In part that’s because we really don’t know the full economic picture — nor are we likely to. NFL owners have resisted repeated calls by the players (and fans) to open up their financial books and share the particulars. The onus is on the owners to provide this economic data because they are saying that they are trying to avoid a future “car wreck” by demanding more money to “grow the game” now.
Maury Brown, president of The Business of Sports Network, summed up the frustration felt by fans and players over the lack of hard economic proof of impending doom in a tweet yesterday to the NFL owners: “If you have information — financial info that can make a case why you’re willing to lockout the players — please show it.”
Brown was plugging a blog post he wrote for Forbes.com yesterday titled “Numbers Show NFL’s ‘Economic Realities’ for Lockout Unwarranted.”
From Brown’s post:
On the other side, the NFLPA has been playing up the “all politics is local” angle, telling civic and business leaders in various NFL cities that a lockout would be “devastating” to their local economies. These claims — displayed prominently on their website, NFLLockout.com — include: “If there is a lockout, an estimated $140 million would be lost in each NFL city” and “It is estimated that over 150,000 jobs would be effected [sic].”
The NFLPA’s strategy has gained some

Those in public service often sacrifice — whether time with family, more lucrative careers, or their privacy — but they should not have to sacrifice their lives. In light of tragic events like the shooting in Arizona on Saturday, we are faced with a challenge: to shy away from true discourse and retreat into fear, or push forward to make changes and build a better future.
I have been honored to work with fearless young leaders across the country who are standing up to do just that. New Leaders Council is committed to fostering emerging, progressive political entrepreneurs – influential leaders with a vision of a better world and a way to take us

At a moment when we need to tone down the discourse in our politics, why have a purely symbolic debate over health care repeal in the U.S. House of Representatives? The debate may take us back to the worst days of the health care discussion, when swastikas were commonplace at anti-reform rallies, and some talk radio and TV turned into hate radio and TV. Will opponents talk about “death panels,” or “killing grandma?” Will people carry signs that say “bury Obamacare with Kennedy” or wear t-shirts that say, “We came unarmed (this time)” when they rally outside the Capitol? Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine has already suggested that the Republicans retitle their bill, which is now named “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Act.” According to Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post the phrase “job-killing” is part of the official message of the repeal movement, as reflected in the dramatic and consistent increase in its use lately.
Catholics United, the organization I direct, saw firsthand just how the tenor of the health care debate led to political violence when we chose to stand by members of Congress who voted for reform. Two of these members, Tom Perriello (VA-5) and Steve Driehaus (OH-1), made national headlines when extreme rhetoric and violent actions were used against

Yesterday morning, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau e-mailed the campus community with regard to the horrendous mass shooting in Arizona that killed a federal judge, a 9-year-old girl, and several others while gravely injuring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the apparent target of the attack.
Like many others in the news media and on blogs and Twitter, Birgeneau chose to put the blame for the shooting on the “climate” of speech in Arizona, while lamenting what he sees as similar problems at his own institution. The key sentence: “A climate in which demonization of others goes unchallenged and hateful speech is tolerated can lead to such a tragedy.” The e-mail is produced in whole below:
Chancellor Birgeneau’s e-mail is very ill-considered for a variety of reasons.
First of all, there is so far no evidence that a “climate of demonization,” “mean-spririted xenophobia,” or “hateful speech” had anything to do with alleged killer Jared Loughner’s apparent decision to try to assassinate Giffords and kill or injure many

TWITTER: @GreenNewsReport.
The ‘GNR’ is also now available on your cell phone via Stitcher Radio’s mobile app!.
IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: The final report from the National Oil Spill Commission on the BP Gulf Oil Disaster; Haiti, one year later; Yet another shutdown of BP’s Alaska pipeline … PLUS: From a unique perspective above the Earth, a word about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a clean energy champion …. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link

Our reputation is important in life in so many ways. It is the sum of many parts that identify who we are in this world.
Prior to the Internet, reputation was all about how we were perceived in our local community. How did we treat people? What church or synagogue did we attend? Were we good neighbors? What activities and causes did we support? Did we obey the law?
Since then, reputation has expanded with the increasing complexities of our modern

There are two men on the corner. One is wearing an earphone while the other peers into the door of a building. All the neighbors know perfectly well why they are there. A dissident lives on one of the floors of the building; two members of the political police watch who comes and goes and keep a car nearby to follow him wherever he

Are we about to enter an era of postsecondary education reform comparable to what we’ve seen in the K-12 arena for almost 30 years?
In 1983, the U.S. Department of Education released perhaps its most famous and widely read report, “A Nation At Risk.” Referring to “a rising tide of mediocrity” in America’s elementary and secondary school system, “A Nation At Risk” described the stark challenges faced by American elementary and secondary education. The report became an immediate catalyst for the school reform movement of the last 27 years.
That reform movement included initiatives such as education secretary William Bennett’s “Wall Chart of State Performance Indicators,” the 1989 Charlottesville education summit between President George H.W. Bush and the nations’ governors, the subsequent bipartisan national education goals effort that spanned the first Bush and Clinton Administrations, George

When small people do things that create big stories we only confirm what they want. In their pitiful minds we make them a big deal. Their profile goes global. Their psychotic innermost thoughts become part of the national

The new Congress is beginning to consider various alternative energy and climate policies in the wake of last year’s collapse in the U.S. Senate of consideration of a meaningful, economy-wide CO2 cap-and-trade scheme. Among the options receiving attention are various types of renewable portfolio standards, also known as renewable electricity standards or clean energy standards, depending upon their specific design. These approaches, which focus exclusively on one sector of the economy, would be less effective than a comprehensive cap-and-trade approach, would be more costly per unit of what is achieved, and yet – ironically – appear to be much more attractive to some politicians who strenuously opposed cap-and-trade.
True enough, these standards can be designed in a variety of ways, some of which are better and some of which are

Gun violence in America results in over 30,000 deaths a year; more than 80 deaths and 200 gun related injuries everyday.
In the wake of the latest mass shooting in Tucson Arizona, where a mentally unstable 22-year-old gunman bought a semi-automatic pistol and large capacity ammunition clip at a gun store and killed 6 and wounded 14, including a Congresswomen and Federal Judge, members of Congress say they’re “shocked”.
That such a tragedy could happen to one of their own “just doing her job at such a commonplace” outside a supermarket, seemed surprising to the very group responsible for allowing criminals, terrorists and anyone, no matter how mentally unstable, to legally purchase guns in Arizona and in most states without detection.
After more than 15 years of being a lead advocate for gun violence prevention laws and putting up huge provocative billboards on the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park, attempting to change the debate in Congress and bring about reasonable national gun policy, maybe we’re reaching a tipping point.
Congress has allowed federal gun policy to be dictated by the special interest National Rifle Association in exchange for tens of millions in campaign contributions. The NRA virtually owns the Republican Party and has intimidated the Democrats, including the president, into

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned as the president of the College Board, it’s this: every person is born with the fundamental capacity to learn. The only question is whether that capacity is neglected or nurtured.
Unfortunately, even at the outset of the 21st century, lower income students remain underrepresented in higher education because of socioeconomic barriers like cost and unequal access to high quality schools. Five decades after the Supreme Court struck down “separate but equal,” higher education remains a privilege — one that often depends on a family’s financial

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” So spoke Walt Kelly’s Pogo. If you’re looking for someone to blame for the shootings and killings in Tucson, look no further. Sure, Sarah Palin is a classless, ignorant, greedy attention seeker; a fine example of Oliver Goldsmith’s wisdom that “every absurdity has a champion to defend it.” Of course, Palin’s sniper-rifle gun-sight image over Rep. Gabrelle Giffords was as despicable as so many of her public activities and utterances

Eagles v. Packers, Sunday, January 9, 2011
Stud of the week: Seriously? There isn’t one. I can’t think of a single player who didn’t make at least one major mistake yesterday.
So the 2010 season was bookended by losses to the

The Pentagon and the National Rifle Association have a lot in common these days. They’re in love with guns. They maintain powerful lobbies. They refuse to acknowledge the dangerous consequences of their