The similarities between 21st century America and 19th century America are numerous and, for most of us, frightening. The 19th century is not a time that I want to revisit. It's not a coincidence that the 19th century gave rise to the first modern "labor rights" struggles, given the unsafe conditions, inadequate pay, unlimited hours, and government weighing in on the side of employers.

Did you catch the odd definition that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales offered up for the concept of "limited involvement" with the firings of U.S. Attorneys in his appearance before the Senate Committee Thursday?

Anti-abortion forces have been after the abortifacient drug RU-486 (Mifepristone) since it won FDA approval. Now an anti-abortion web site reports that Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma plans to submit an amendment to an FDA-related bill that would provide for suspending "the availability of any drug approved under FDA's subpart H category that has resulted in more deaths than lives saved."

Although you hear a lot of recent talk about how worker earnings are "beginning to catch up" with corporate profits, it's hard to find any real evidence of real progress in real earnings. It also ignores the fact that corporate profits themselves seem to have stalled.

For reasons that I consider obvious, there seems to be renewed medical interest in exploring the effect that poverty has on the health of the poor.

Smarmy insult slinger Don Imus is out at MSNBC and CBS Radio. The straw that broke the camel's back -- tossing a combined racial and sexual insult at a group of young women, many of them still teenagers, who had just completed a Cinderella season -- has been well covered, as has Imus' long history of saying things equally nasty.

Okay, this is just a question, and it's based on an assumption or two, so take it for what it's worth: Does Karl Rove's claim that he thought the RNC was archiving all his e-mails make sense, given the fact that Rove was investigated in the Valerie Plame affair?

The comments made by and subsequent firing of Don Imus by MSNBC and CBS Radio have exposed the media for the sideshow it really has become. In a world with better things to report, everyone is talking about Imus.

New Hampshire, the only state without a mandatory seat belt law, seems on track to narrowly pass one.

Does it make sense to dismantle a system of 26 technical libraries essential to research on the environment in order to save $1.5 million from a more-than-$8 billion budget?

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