BY SHARON MARTIN Now that the gun debate is over, we can talk about the real causes of violence in this country. The debate is...

BY SUSAN ESTRICH What happened to that millisecond after the election when both the president and the speaker said they’d heard the message that Americans wanted the two parties to work together, wanted to make divided government work, and that they would do everything they could to make that happen? Gone? Shall we spend a lot of time pointing fingers and figuring out who is to blame? On the other hand, let’s skip it for […]

BY FROMA HARROP The people are sad. If holiday shopping is any measure of public mood, the joy vanished this year. The grade-school massacre depressed everyone, and now our rapid approach to the Fiscal Cliff has many scared and afraid to spend money. The Fiscal Cliff is a phony crisis dropped on us by the politics of threat. Rather than further their goals through the normal process, so-called conservatives are using threats against the economy […]

BY RICHARD L. FRICKER Although sad, something must be said about the way the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre wandered around the national media like...

BY JIM HIGHTOWER This being the season of giving, it’s worth looking back at some special gifts from November’s election that received little acknowledgement at the time. These victories came in campaigns that had no candidates – no Democrats, Republicans or other party designations. Rather, they were ballot initiatives – policy ideas put to a vote of people themselves. This is an exercise in direct democracy that was first proposed by the historic Populist movement […]