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BY RICHARD L. FRICKER As the Oklahoma Legislature trudges to a close next month, Republicans have been busy taking government out of Oklahomans’ lives – except for women, and lowering taxes and closing loopholes, except for corporations and the oil lobby. The titular party leader, Gov. Mary Fallin, appears to have adapted well to her [...]

BY RON du BOIS Medical expenses have long been the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., an embarrassment to the “richest” nation on the planet. As I understand it, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has made it impossible to go bankrupt over medical bills in the U.S. If this is really the [...]

BY GENE POLICINSKI The First Amendment’s protection for free speech seems fairly unlimited – an unambiguous provision included in just 45 simple words that begin with “Congress shall make no law …” No intricate phrases, no flowery modifiers. We even have common way of restating the idea: “I can say what I want … I’m [...]

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BY KAREN WEBB Reince Priebus is reverting to the old male standard of trying to convince women that the GOP’s “war on women” is just all in our little heads. Well, obviously Reince hasn’t read all of the bills in the various state legislatures involving women’s rights. Latest analogy to convince women that this is [...]

BY RALPH NADER March Madness comes once a year. Media Madness is year-round. What the mass media choose to cover and feature try to turn the priorities of any sane society upside down. People of vice, war, money, spectator sports and business receive media attention – oftentimes ad nausem. People of virtue, peace, civics, health, [...]

BY SHARON MARTIN If you have an ounce of political sense, you’ve probably been riled up lately. You can avoid the news, but that’s like covering your eyes so you can’t see the Grizzly that’s lumbering toward you. It’s hard to be angry all the time. It’s bad for one’s health and it isn’t effective. [...]

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BY KAREN WEBB I cannot believe what I saw on Brian Williams [NBC]. Women are visceral about Hilary Rosen saying Ann Romney has never had a job or had to work. Are there really that many women who miss the point? I guess there are and they are stay-at -home moms with chips on their [...]

BY KAREN WEBB There is only one thing to say about last week’s exchange between Mitt Romney and Jay Leno: “What incredibly plu-perfectly cruel and inhumane person would vote for this idiot.” The only problem is most of the GOP agrees with this tortured logic when discussing the lives of people they neither understand, nor [...]

BY RALPH NADER The Republican Party has a sense of humor, however inadvertently. Its ardent advocates regularly accuse the Obama Administration of heavy-handed regulation of business. Tell that to the 100 federal poultry inspectors who just picketed the Department of Agriculture in opposition to a proposal that would allow those crammed, bacterial poultry slaughterhouses to [...]

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BY SHARON MARTIN A well-funded education system is good for the state’s economy. The results aren’t immediate; it takes time to educate, but if one is willing to stick around for the results, one will see that the better educated a state’s population, the higher the standard of living. The more citizens earn, the more [...]

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BY KENNY BELFORD As we approach the end of the comedy tour of the Republican primaries and debates, we can sum up in only a few points the defining position of that party as they prepare for the general election. 1. Our economy has serious problems, and we’re the best to fix them, since after [...]

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