Batman's Take on 9/11 Era Politics? Drop the Fearmongering

Michael Dudley, City States

Movie Mix: "The Dark Knight" warns against what happens when a society abandons its principles out of fear.

Shock Jock Savage Spews Hate at Autistic Kids; Are His Enablers Ready to Abandon Ship?

Rory O'Connor, AlterNet

Media and Technology: 1 in 150 kids have some form of autism. Saying that it's all just a racket to make money is beneath contempt.

One in Four Americans Compare Their Workplace to a Dictatorship

Meg White, BuzzFlash

PEEK: Dictatorships are not good for businesses, or nations.

Three States Accused of Illegally Purging Voter Lists

Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

Democracy and Elections: The states are swapping data files to find duplicate names, but civil rights attorneys say they are not following federal law to remove them.

Is Starbucks a Sinking Ship?

Marie Cocco, Washington Post Writers Group

Starbucks is about to close 600 stores. It represents the excess that helped get us into the economic jam we face today.

McSexist: McCain's War on Women

Kate Sheppard, In These Times

Reproductive Justice and Gender: McCain is ignorant about pay equity, wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and likes to brag about his "sexual conquests" and visits to a strip club.

Fox News On-Air Racism Challenged by Huge Petition Drive and Hot Rapper Nas

Don Hazen, AlterNet

A rally outside Fox News headquarters led by Color of Change delivers 620,000 signatures.

Bush Seeks $12 Billion to Waste on Obsolete Missile Defense

Joseph Cirincione, Foreign Policy

Bucking the wishes of top Pentagon officials, Bush is pushing one of the largest military buildups in history.

Are You On the Terror Watch List? Good Luck Getting Off It

Ivan Eland, Consortium News

The TSA's "no fly" terrorism watch list contains between 400,000 and 1,000,000 names. If you're on the list by mistake, good luck getting off of it.

Living Without a Car: My New American Responsibility

Andrew Lam, New America Media

Environment: Giving up a car isn't easy -- even amid the gas crisis. But the covetous American way of life has become unsustainable.

Big Pharma Pushes Drugs That Cause Conditions They Are Supposed to Prevent

Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet

Health and Wellness: Yet again, women are the industry's main targets.

The U.S. Economy Is Socialism for the Rich

Michael Leon Guerrero, Movement Vision Lab

Free market capitalism in the United States is by no means "free." It's time we recognize this and move past the destructive neoliberal agenda.

U.S. Soldiers Kill Iraqi Governor's 17-Year Old Son

Ahmad al-Taii, Azzaman

War on Iraq: The provincial authorities in the relatively peaceful region have warned of "immediate measures" to avenge the killing.

America's Middle Class Can't Take Much More Punishment

Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Whether we like it or not, America is in the midst of revolutionary economic changes that are crushing the middle class.

How Scores of Black Men Were Tortured Into Giving False Confessions by Chicago Police

Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet

Rights and Liberties: More than 20 years after being tortured into giving confessions by Chicago police officers, dozens of black men remain behind bars.

U.S. Ranks #1 in Consumption of Pot, Cocaine, Smokes

Jordan Smith, Austin Chronicle

DrugReporter: Just in time for the Olympics, the U.S. takes the gold medal in several drug use categories, according to a recent WHO report.

Media Goof Again: Blackwater Isn't Going Anywhere

Jeremy Scahill, Comment Is Free

War on Iraq: Despite reports that the company is leaving the mercenary business, Blackwater's future is secure.

America's Got Water Problems, and No Plan to Fix Them

Elizabeth de la Vega, Tomdispatch.com

Water: The lives and income of millions have been upended by government mismanagement of water issues.

Obama's Huge Coup on Iraq: McCain Was Asking for It

Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch

War on Iraq: John McCain and the White House have been clearly dismayed and embarrassed by Iraqi govt. support for Obama's withdrawal plan.

Nine Senators, Including Obama, Introduce Bill to Help Vets Register to Vote

Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

Democracy and Elections: At issue is whether injured vets living at VA facilities will be helped to vote for president in 2008.

News You Might Have Missed: Court Confirms President's Dictatorial Powers

Andy Worthington, Andy Worthington's Blog

Rights and Liberties: A 5 to 4 ruling in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri legitimizes the president's right to indefinitely imprison "enemy combatants."

John McCain's Disaster Economics

Frank Rich, The New York Times

Election 2008: If voters got a fair presentation of John McCain's economic plan, the idea of him winning the White House would cause mass panic.

Nightmare on Wall Street: Washington Can't Bail out the Sea of Red Ink

Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Author Bill Greider explains to Moyers that the magic of the "free market" is coming to a close.

Beyond Hillary: How to Get More Women in Office

Ann Friedman, The American Prospect

Reproductive Justice and Gender: The Year of the Woman was 16 years ago, and the number of women in elected office has flatlined. We have yet to break the 25 percent barrier.

Dead Black Man Was Tasered Nine Times by White Cop

Steven D., Booman Tribune

PEEK: Who happens to like using his Taser quite a bit.

The Internet Is No Substitute for the Dying Newspaper Industry

Chris Hedges, Truthdig

Media and Technology: The decline of newspapers is about the rise of the corporate state, the loss of civic and responsibility to inform the public.

Speech of the Week - Gore's Energy Challenge: 'The Future of Human Civilization Is at Stake'

Al Gore, AlterNet

I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

McCain Opposes Contraception -- Pass It On

Katha Pollitt, TheNation.com

Reproductive Justice and Gender: He's voted against contraception for more than 20 years, and yet doesn't even care or know enough to explain why.

Angelina and Brad Give Birth to $11 Million Twins

Vanessa Richmond, The Tyee

Media and Technology: Brangelina is in the business of making us look. Does evolutionary psychology explain why it's impossible to look away?

The Taliban Strikes Back

Gary Brecher, AlterNet

ForeignPolicy: After six years of ignoring Afghanistan, things have gotten bad enough to force American officials to pay attention.

My First-Hand Experience With Government Spies

Dave Zirin, Huffington Post

PEEK: My Constitutionally protected dissent was monitored by the Feds.

Are Fannie and Freddie Screwed? Bush Hopes So

Scott Thill, AlterNet

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Bush has set about destroying the decades-old lenders for good, plunging his knife into the backs of programs that helped normal Americans.

Nine Reasons to Investigate War Crimes Now

Jeremy Brecher, Brendan Smith, The Nation

Rights and Liberties: Why we can't let the Bush Administration get away with its crimes.

Scary Politics in Alabama: How the GOP Framed Gov. Don Siegelman

Larisa Alexandrovna, Ig Publishing

Democracy and Elections: Once a popular governor of Alabama, Siegelman was framed in a crooked trial and sent to prison by the corrupt Bush administration.

D.C. Is Drowning in a Sea of Campaign Cash

Bill Moyers, Michael Winship, Bill Moyers Journal

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Follow the money -- it goes from your gas tank to the wine bars and steak houses of DC, where the payoffs from big business to politicians go down.

McCain Has No Clue on Tech Issues

Jonathan Stein, MotherJones.com

Media and Technology: Obama has positions on broadband access and using the Internet as a tool to increase government accountability. McCain? Big nothing.

Did Hollywood Execs Finally Get the Memo That Women Can Carry Movies?

Marjorie Rosen, Women's eNews

Reproductive Justice and Gender: A bountiful crop of summer movies starring women is outshining the usual male-driven action flicks. Let's hope studio heads get the message.