Chaos descended upon the University of California campus this week when thousands of student protesters faced off against armed police after UC's Board of Regents approved a 32 percent increase in student fees, and also a 15 percent midyear tuition hike (it's still unclear if raising tuition midyear is...

The swift regression of the Republicans from an oppositional political party into a mob of screaming infants during the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial preliminaries has been well documented by Salon's Glenn Greenwald.

The right's typical accusations of "traitor!!" and "Al-Qaeda lover!!11" -- directed at anyone attempting to defend the...

You would think during a time of vast unemployment, wealth disparity, and economic instability that great minds would unite in order to imagine and build a new tomorrow in which the suffering of the masses could be lessened. Of course, that fantasy includes the provision that The Smartest Guys In...

The Transportation Security Administration has admitted to stationing "behavior-detection officers" at 161 US airports, including in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Los Angeles.

The officers can be anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, looking for passengers who seem highly nervous or stressed.

A few days ago, I wrote about Goldman Sachs's transition from a bank holding company into a public relations disaster machine. I argued that Goldman's CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, has been behaving like he wants to be attacked by a ferocious mob.

Now, it appears the Catholic church is determined...

The settlement of a 15-year-old lawsuit has resulted in the U.S. agreeing to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a "bugged coffee table."

Richard Horn, a former special agent with the Drug Enforcement...

The House voted yesterday and the anti-women's health Stupak amendment passed 240 to 194, with one member voting present.

Sixty four Democrats voted yes on the Stupak amendment, which effectively bans insurance companies from selling insurance plans that cover elective abortion on the individual and small group market.

Firedoglake

While much of the nation's attention has been focused on the sad story of Prop 1 in Maine, another much happier story has been unfolding in Washington where the gay and lesbian community took another step toward equality with the approval of Referendum 71.

R-71 expands domestic-partnership rights, and has...

On November 5, 1605, England held a celebration for the opening of Parliament. Guy Fawkes tried to spark a revolution by blowing up the building, and the royals inside, in protest over the Protestant leadership's treatment of Catholics, which included torture and hangings.

Unfortunately for Fawkes, he was nabbed before...

The Guardian reports that Professor David Nutt, the British government's chief drug adviser, has been fired after claiming that ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol.

So continues the journey to failure first instigated by the British and United States government four decades ago when the two governments...

Good news, everyone: The economic crisis is over!

Kind of. Today's New York Times reports

The United States has emerged from the longest economic contraction since World War II.

The nation's gross domestic product [GDP] expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the quarter...

The New York Times reports that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former...

It seems odd that in the midst of America's violent culture people are celebrating peace, but that's exactly what will be happening October 23. Allan Buchman, the founding artistic director of the non-profit organization, Culture Project has announced the group's latest event, the UN Day Concert: A Tribute...

The Obama administration has ordered pay cuts at seven companies with bailout aid, according to the New York Times:

The plan, for the 25 top earners at seven companies that received exceptional help, will on average cut total compensation this year by about 50 percent. The companies are Citigroup, Bank...

Paul Volcker must feel like he's going crazy. The former Federal Reserve chairman, current chairman of the newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and the man Austan D. Goolsbee, counselor to President Obama, calls a "giant," "genius," and "great human being," can't get any respect these days.

You see, Volcker...

The Guardian reports that a British mining corporation is facing a multimillion-pound claim for damages after protesters were detained and allegedly tortured at a plant the firm is seeking to develop in northern Peru.

This story is interesting for two reasons. First, it's a disturbing example of "corporate torture"...

Kathryn Winkfein, a 72-year-old great-grandmother, is better known as the woman who became the target of an officer's taser after she was pulled over for a traffic offense. The video footage below shows Winkfein arguing with the cop before he tasers her (twice,) while she screams and writhes on the...

Fight Club entered popular culture in 1999 when director David Fincher adapted Chuck Palahniuk's novel into a film that reflected the zeitgeist of modern America with its empty culture, obsession with aesthetic beauty, and slavish under and middle classes.

Warning: Decade-old spoiler coming up.

The film ends with the agents...

President Obama told Congressional leaders that he does not plan to substantially reduce forces in Afghanistan or shift the mission to "just hunting terrorists there," but he hinted that he remains undecided about the major troop buildup proposed by his commanding general, Stanley A. McChrystal.

The president is currently...

Today, the former Fed chairman told George Stephanopoulos that the U.S. economy was "getting close" to the point where it would stop losing jobs. Fantastic, but I have a couple questions: Why is Alan Greenspan still being asked about the economy, and what does it take, exactly, to become a...