Kate Sheppard

Rebecca Traister makes the case for Dennis Kucinich over on Salon, imploring, “[B]efore walking listlessly down the aisle toward our impending union with tepid centrism, let’s rip our clothes off for one final, ill-advised fling with ideological honesty.” It’s true, and I suspect many of you think it to yourselves, perhaps even confess it sotto […]

Phoebe jumped on Michael Pollan‘s food bill column before I got a chance to, but it merits repeating: Read it. Why? Well, for most of recent history, American eaters have been the very last factor of importance in legislation on agriculture, most explicitly, in the farm bill. Farmers — the down-home, family farmers who grow […]

Over the weekend, 5,500 young activists gathered outside D.C. to rally action on climate change at the Power Shift summit. The three-day event, hosted by the Energy Action Coalition, drew together youth from around the country to discuss climate and energy issues, and to empower them to get out the vote back home and mobilize […]

Yesterday afternoon, John Kerry held a conference call with bloggers that covered a range of topics, from international accords to probably the hottest domestic topic, the Lieberman-Warner bill, or “America’s Climate Security Act.” On Thursday, the bill made it through its first (and fairly contentious) mark-up hearing. The disagreement between Dems is over whether the […]

The Boss‘s new album, Magic, hit the top of the charts almost immediately after its release three weeks ago, selling more than half a million albums – all without the help of play on corporate radio. Clear Channel has reportedly blacklisted all of Springsteen’s new songs, though they can still play the classics like “Born […]

Over on TPMCafe E.J. Graff offers the best argument for an all-encompassing ENDA amendment that I’ve seen yet: This is a topic that’s been debated ferociously within the community for fifteen years. The conclusion: lesbians and gay men won’t be protected unless the bill also includes gender identity. That’s the reason LGBT groups can’t knuckle […]

In seafaring news, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 17-4 in favor of ratifying the Law of the Sea today, moving the treaty out of committee and onto the Senate floor. There it will need to win two-thirds approval for the United States to officially join the more than 150 other nations. The last whip […]

The New York Times put together a fumbling attempt at a gotcha piece yesterday, trying to peg Barack Obama as either a liar or entirely too forgetful. The story’s argument seems to be that because he doesn’t talk much about living in New York or about his college experiences overall, he must be hiding something. […]

Several things from last night’s debate stood out for me. One, I agree with Ezra that Hillary Clinton‘s answer on driver’s licenses was on the right track, though she did try to tiptoe around directly supporting Elliot Spitzer‘s plan in New York. While others have criticized it, I think she gave a decent response to […]

Over the weekend, Barack Obama held his gospel concert tour stop in Columbia, S.C., complete with “ex-gay” musical star Donnie McClurkin, an inclusion that raised questions about the senator’s priorities when it comes to gaining supporters. As the Times reports, McClurkin made a point to incorporate his anti-gay messages in the concert: The whole controversy […]