By Adriano Espaillat and David Sirota

State lawmakers face a crisis this year: how to address the health care issue without breaking the bank.

States are dealing with a double whammy of public outrage over health care prices and massive federal cuts to health care programs such as Medicaid. In response, states should consider health care mandate bills requiring big employers to provide a minimum level of medical coverage to their workers, just as they are required to pay workers a minimum wage.

The fight on this issue has been predictable. Politicians such as Republican Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., for whom big corporations like Wal-Mart have raised huge amounts of money, say health care mandates will hurt business. But this simplistic view misses a critical point: Mandates, when written properly, do not hurt the economy. They channel the energies of the free market and economic growth into addressing society's pressing problems. ...

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Bush Administration Policies on Domestic Surveillance
January 16, 2006
by Former Vice President Al Gore
(Released text)

Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America's Constitution is in grave danger.

In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.

As we begin ...   more »

I’ve been a different man since I developed SIA.



You know, when you’re young, you’re easily intimidated by the so-called mores of our society that dictates how you are supposed to act, what you are supposed to wear and what you are inclined to say.



All my life I heard from my two spinster aunts (no one would marry these viragos, harridans, “castrators:,” whatever God rest their heartless souls!) about all of the things that I was doing wrong and how I was rapidly becoming the black sheep of the family. Everyone in my family did things better than I ...   more »

I am going to suggest something that might at first seem like a polarizing suggestion.  So, work your way through it and stay with me. 

My argument is simply that although I love everything about Radio Left, it stirs deep passions in me and the rest, I am afraid that we are reaching principally only each other ie. we cannot thusly grow!

Why do I say that?

Today, more than ever everything is treated as a brand and that includes our politicians and the vehicles for reaching and influencing our politicians.

Radio Left, although it embraces what we want to ...   more »

Vonnegut