ERIC LIU - Eric Liu is co-author of The Gardens of Democracy and creator of the Guiding Lights Weekend, a conference on creative citizenship.

This year I'll wrap up a decade as a trustee of the Seattle Public Library. Our board of five citizens has unusual authority. Appointed by the mayor, we are an independent operating body. The city council gives us a line in the budget, but how we spend those funds, on what programs, in what allocations across which neighborhoods, with what kinds of popular ...

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Free Market Economics made America an economic superpower that for at least two centuries provided subsequent generations of Americans more opportunities and higher standards of living. An erosion of our free markets through government intervention is at the heart of America’s current economic decline, stagnating jobs, and spiraling debt and deficits. Failures in government programs and government-controlled financial markets helped spark the worst financial crisis since the Great Depressi...

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Associated Press reports today that the average CEO compensation was over $9.6 million in 2011 - the highest mark since the AP started looking at compensation numbers back in 2006.

Meanwhile - wages for working people have barely budged - and it would now take the typical American worker 244 years just to make what their CEO makes in one year.
 
And among Fortune 500 CEOs...they make 380-times more than their average worker.

Are Wall Street banksters, oil barons, and corporate executives real...

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$137 million: Top CEO pay

$43,963.64: Top CEO pay per hour

9,096 years: Time it would take a worker at minimum wage to make that much.

3,489 years: Time it would take a worker at the median salary of $39,312 to make that much.

This is the highest mark since the Associated Press started looking at compensation numbers back in 2006. Meanwhile - wages for working people have barely budged.

Are Wall Street bankers, oil and corporate executives really worth that much money?  Should they be paid ...

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1. Facebook may have hidden information about weak revenue growth: According to one lawsuit launched since the company went public, Facebook “concealed crucial information” regarding weak revenue growth, failing to disclose a revised revenue forecast, much like Wall Street banks failed to provide key information about mortgage securities they were peddling before the financial crisis.

2. Morgan Stanley alerted “preferred” investors to Facebook’s poor growth forecast...

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In the first 50 years of the filibuster, it was used only 35 times. In the last two years, it was used over 100 -- often to prevent legislation from even being discussed. This needs to change -- it’s time for members to stop fighting and start fixing!

Register for a town hall teleconference with Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) at 7 p.m., eastern time on Thursday, May 24, to talk about how to fix the filibuster. We'll also be having a separate town hall with Governor Jon Huntsman (R-UT) at 7 p.m., ...

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PRINCETON, NJ -- The 41% of Americans who now identify themselves as "pro-choice" is down from 47% last July and is one percentage point below the previous record low in Gallup trends, recorded in May 2009. Fifty percent now call themselves "pro-life," one point shy of the record high, also from May 2009.

Gallup began asking Americans to define themselves as pro-choice or pro-life on abortion in 1995, and since then, identification with the labels has shifted from a wide lead for the pro-choice p...

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Ashley Dixon, a sophomore at George Mason University, anticipated more work in college than in high school. Instead, she has less. In a typical week, Dixon spends 18 hours in classes and another 12 in study. All told, college course work occupies 30 hours of her week. Dixon is a full-time student, but college, for her, is a part-time job.

“I was expecting it to be a lot harder,” said Dixon, 20, of Haymarket. “I thought I was going to be miserable, trying to get good grades. And...

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From Roll Call.

By David M. Drucker Posted at 12:01 a.m. on May 21

In a study that could annoy Democrats and perturb proponents of the “base election” theory, a centrist Democratic think tank is arguing that its party’s hold on the Senate hinges on political “moderates.”

Third Way, in a report set for release today, asserts not only that ideological moderates will determine control of the Senate in November, but that Democrats need to win more of these voters in 10 states with toss...

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PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans remain nearly as positive toward Hillary Clinton today as they have ever been over the past 20 years. The secretary of state's favorable rating remains at 66%, within one percentage point of her record-high rating in late 1998. Her unfavorable rating of 29% ties her record low since 1993.

By Judd Gregg THE HILL

Listening to the TV talkers and the purveyors of conventional wisdom, the conclusion is clear: The defeat of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in a recent Republican primary represents the death of the middle in American politics.

Our politics has for the most part always been played between the forty-yard lines. Unlike a parliamentary form of government where the majority party has all the power, our system is designed to be incremental — and it usually is.

...In the Sena...

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INDIANAPOLIS — Remarks by Senator Richard G. Lugar - May 8, 2012

From time to time during the last two years I heard from well-meaning individuals who suggested that I ought to consider running as an independent. My response was always the same: I am a Republican now and always have been. I have no desire to run as anything else. All my life, I have believed in the Republican principles of small government, low taxes, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and trade expansion. Accordi...

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By Michael Schudson

How can the United States claim to be model democracy if its citizens know so little about political life? That question has aroused political reformers and preoccupied many political scientists since the early 20th century. It can't be answered without some historical perspective.

Today's mantra that the "informed citizen" is the foundation of effective democracy was not a central part of the nation's founding vision. It is largely the creation of late-19th-century Mugwump a...

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EXCERPTED from a book to be released later this year: Why Can't We Talk? Dialogue as a Habit of the Heart.

“I think George W. Bush is a very good president.”

It was the summer of 2004. Jane and I were lounging on the screened-in porch at our father-in-law’s house, and she was (thoughtfully as usual) discussing her views of the presidential race. I do not recall my immediate reaction to her opinion of the president, but I’m sure it was some mixture of nausea, horror, and r...

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Take a look at separate measures that would protect women from violence, keep student loan rates low and build roads and bridges. Each is a widely shared goal and seemingly easy to enact. But the proposals are caught in pitched battles, each party adding language that infuriates the other.

As a result, the Democratic-led Senate and Republican-run House are writing legislation that dies right away or is assured of going nowhere in the other chamber. Instead of laws, the bills generate grist for f...

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ProCon website has a review of the 2010 Healthcare Reform statute.

I recommend that all voters study BEFORE becoming embroiled in debates without full information.  Can you remain open to the Pros and Cons without simply taking talking points from political party leaders, neighbors and family?

Are you a serious citizen?