[Coverage] about issues of civic importance add up to just 4 minutes daily;local government coverage -" including budget,law enforcement, education,layoffs,city and county government actions on health care,transportation and immigration-"get a whopping 22 seconds.That means people filing petitions to deny or revoke stationsapos; licenses.These petitions represent the only means the public has to hold local stations accountable.

40 senators -- including Senator Richard Durbin -- promised to vote "yes" on the public option...and more are promising every day.But as Senate Majority Whip, Durbin just announced that he would tell Democratic senators to OPPOSE all amendments, including a public option amendment, if offered on the Senate floor.Can you call Durbin immediately?Tell him voting "no" on the public option is a betrayal.

The op-ed pages of WaPost should be a place for serious debate about the direction of our country. But by hiring former Bush administration speechwriter Marc Thiessen -- the second former Bush speechwriter to whom it has given a regular column -- The Washington Post has crossed the line. Thiessen is a serial misinformer. And he shouldnapos;t be rewarded with the audience or credibility that a regular column provides.

Six Democrats have sided with banks, against the Landmark Student Lending Reform. Who are they? Bill Nelson (Fl.), Tom Carper (Del.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Jim Webb (Va.), Mark Warner (Va.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.). ...how do these people sleep at night or look themselves in the mirror?

The president is claiming thereapos;s $100 billion a year in Medicare/Medicaid "fraud and waste" but he knows thatapos;s itself a fraud. The mistakes cut both ways, with the government denying $10s of billions in benefits. And besides, most of the fraud that exists is caused by the private health sector.

2010 provides peace activists with many ripe opportunities to re-build the U.S. and international movements to abolish nuclear weapons, both by supporting some initiatives of the Obama Administration, but also by raising our voices as independent advocates for our agenda.

You may think we need to be in Afghanistan to protect our national security. You might not know as much as you assume ...

This is the second installment in our Social Security Worksseries. The first post focused on how Social Security works for America, and today we will show how Social Security works for women.

Rebuild and Retool America are basic steps and strides required to move the country forward economically.

The South Florida Raging Grannies are at it again in a hot new YouTube video, taking their singing activist aim at the Supreme Court "Gang Of Five".

A Second Wave of Foreclosures is Coming: The problem as seen on the macro level and the micro By Danny Schechter

Excuse me, but can I have a word with the 70% of Americans who continuing keeping their money in big banks, like Bank of America, CitiBank, Wells Fargo and such? Come closer. A little closer. I want to be able to give you a well-earned dope-slap while I ask;

On Wednesday, Kathleen Sebelius went in to chide the health insurance companies. Or at least thatapos;s what she was supposed to do according to the notes they handed the press before the event. Instead she wound up being very polite as usual and just pleaded with them to do the right thing and care about their customers. She canapos;t help herself, sheapos;s so soft. Thatapos;s why Obama picked her.

Pisces is the last sign of the Zodiac, symbolizing the completion of the human journey to wholeness. From Aries to Capricorn, there is a personal lesson to be learned. With Aquarius and Pisces, we are called to learn collective lessons of head and heart. With 6 out of 10 planets (+ Chiron, an asteroid) in these two signs, the cosmic story says itapos;s time for each of us to align our individual stories with the cosmic story.

The Obama-ites seem incapable of firm stands. They excite us by boldly addressing our economic woes, then they seduce us by proposing stout actions. But when it comes time to follow through -- itapos;s droopsville.

The real reason for the Iraq War has never been revealed. We know what the reason was not, but not what the reason was. My theory is that Bush and Cheneyapos;s rationale for invading Iraq was much grander, and much more nefarious, than any of the reasons ever publicly given to justify the invasion. The key to understanding it: follow the money.

There are the dispossessions as thousands have been forced from their homes into makeshift shantytowns, to both make way for stadiums and make sure that tourists donapos;t have to see any depressing scenes of poverty.

American liberals today should strengthen their inner-directedness and idealism and optimism and adaptability, so that they can effectively fight the conservative challenges of our time. With pluck and a little luck, liberals should be able to prevail against todayapos;s conservatives.

Their prosperity created more jobs than their numbers and because of the wise King the elderly went from the poorest demographic in the kingdom to one of the wealthiest. For generations the elderly venerated the memory of the wise King who had showered them with this wonderful proclamation. Few ever realized that their retirement program wasnapos;t about helping the elderly; it was about helping the young and about creating jobs.

With economic globalization, modern Western capitalism and the culture of capitalism are making inroads in pre-modern parts of the world today. In addition, U.S. foreign policy is promoting modern Western democracy and the culture of democracy in pre-modern parts of the world today. As a result, the clash of cultures is inevitable, but violence may not be.