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I once had a legal dispute with a university department chairman over whether or not he had torn down the handbills I had posted announcing a campus talk I was scheduled to give. The chairman claimed he could not recall whether he had ripped down the notices. In the 9th Circuit Court hearing, Judge Stephen Reinhardt told the chairman's attorney from the Montana Attorney General's office that it was puzzling that the chairman's memory was so faulty....

The Bush administration’s open defiance of federal law and the US Constitution, in proclaiming its right to conduct unlimited warrantless surveillance of telephone and email traffic, has begun to produce a political reaction within US ruling circles....

Why this is not the party to rescue our nation from the destruction being spearheaded by the Fascist Republicans...

In Chile, former political prisoner Michelle Bachelet has become the country first-ever female president. Running on the Socialist ticket, Bachelet beat her billionaire rival in Sunday's election. Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured and died in prison after Augusto Pinochet seized power in 1973. She too was imprisoned by Pinochet's regime before fleeing into exile. We speak with Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman, Chilean torture survivor Emilio Banda as well ...

Al Gore made an exceptional speech at Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. Monday, January 16 2006 12:30 PM1/16/2006. This is a 96Kbps MP3 (mono) with audio of the entire 1h 6m 35s speech delivered by al gore....

On Tuesday, January 10, the Assembly Elections Committee voted 4-3 to pass AB 583, the Clean Money bill, to the Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations Committee vote may come as early as Wednesday, January 18! If the bill passes, it will go to an Assembly floor vote the following week. In order for AB 583 to remain viable, it must pass out of the Assembly to the Senate by the end of this month....

Bob Meyers of the Ruth Group writes: Bernie Sanders’ campaign to replace retiring Vermont Senator (and fellow independent) Jim Jeffords is the most important race of all in 2006. To explain Why Bernie? I was about to write a few paragraphs placing him the tradition of senators “Fighting Bob” La Follette (champion of the working poor and Bernie’s hero), feisty Wayne Morse (who cast one of two votes against Gulf of Tonkin resolution), J.W. Fulbright (who called our attention to the “Arrogance o...

Ralph Nader-- as concise and sharp as ever....

Sacramento - In his budget released today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stuck to an old script: increasing funding for the state's massively troubled prison system. Elected on a platform that promised to "blow up boxes," the governor continues to fall in line with expensive and ineffective "tough on crime" policies despite widespread voter frustration at pouring ever more resources into a failed prison system....

On the final day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on Capitol Hill, we look at the 1984 case of that pitted Samuel Alito against Pacifica Radio. The case - known as the FCC v. League of Women Voters - centered on the constitutionality of a law that prohibited the airing of editorials by any public radio and TV outlet that received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We speak with the attorney in the case, Frederic Woocher....