Moderation at risk in US politics today
President Obama revised his long-standing position on the need for corporate tax reform to come closer to the Republican position and the other side continues to define compromise as cowardice.  This remains our single most important challenge today, if there is to be a future for democratic governance in America.

Boehner steps up to admonish one of his own
While immigration reform may remain stalled, the fact that Boehner told Republican Rep Steve King that "there is no place in this debate for hateful or ignorant comments from elected officials" is a potentially very good sign that perhaps more moderate voices within the party can still emerge.

Poverty rates for white Americans are rising faster than rates for Black Americans, slightly closing the gap, according to a recent AP survey.  Will our leaders now make race more salient, following the trend analyzed in New Jim Crow of offering a racial bribe to distract working class whites from a focus on class?  Or, President Obama has been recently highlighting, will we rediscover MLK's call to focus on the ways poverty and violence threaten us all, regardless of race?