Top articles shared by AlterNet journalists

Change.org is the web's leading platform for social change, empowering anyone, anywhere to start petitions that make a difference.

Peter Beinart, a political science professor at New York University, has long been a decidedly mainstream voice of the American center-left, a member in good standing of the Jewish establishment. Like many American Jews, Beinart has long identified as a "liberal zionist," and a dedicated supporter of Israel.

The National Review has repeatedly found itself in hot water over the past several months. In April, the conservative publication fired John Derbyshire for a "webzine" which crossed the line into outright racism. But the magazine's editors continue to welcome contributions from white nationalist, and noted Islamophobe, David Yerushalmi, as well as anti-Muslim advocates Robert [...]

Happy Independence Day, U.S. Americans! Iconic actor Andy Griffith, who played Iconic Sheriff Andy "Lonesome Rhodes" Matlock on the Iconic Teevee, died July 3 at the age of 86, and Wingnut America honored his memory with an outpouring of patriotic fervor, remembering how the late actor embodied decent small-town values, common-sense parenting, and destroying America by supporting the Illegal Alien Marxist Usurper Barry "Goober" Soetero.

Health Care Before The Court Before the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, the principal GOP lines of attack against the law were hyperbolic, but subjective: government takeover of health care, unconstitutional overreach, etc. From the moment the Court determined the law stands as an exercise of Congress' taxing power, though, Republicans have gone empirical.

Last winter in Iowa, Romney campaigned at a diner with his youngest son, Craig, who shared an anecdote from the Romney Olympics as an example of his father's competitiveness. Although Craig's wife, Mary, had just given birth, she competed anyway in the triathlon.

Somehow, like a drunk slipping on a wet curb, I ended up tumbling face first into the trash-choked gutter that calls itself PJ Media (Voices from a free America...!) and I figured: eh, when life gives you drivel, make drivel-ade. Fate somehow brought me to the latest post by Dr. Mrs.

Several weeks back, Israel was rocked by a night of right-wing race-riots targeting African refugees in Tel Aviv. The thuggery was frightening - refugees were attacked, African-owned businesses and stores were vandalized and a community was forced to hunker down behind closed doors in fear for their lives.

Governments should be more honest about the size of their debts and young voters would be wise to get politicians to pay them off as soon as possible, says economic historian Niall Ferguson in the first of his BBC Reith Lectures. The critics of Western democracy are right to discern that something is amiss with our political institutions.

Here's a headline you won't see, but should: "Scott Walker Spent 88% of the Money to Get 53% of the Vote." Political pundits will spend the next few days and weeks analyzing the Wisconsin recall election, examining exit polls, spilling lots of ink over how different demographic groups -- income, race, religious, union membership, gender, party affiliation, independents, liberals/conservatives/moderates, etc -- voted on Tuesday.

Wow, this was good: brussel sprouts and carrots with chilis, hoisin and black bean sauce. I took maybe two cups of brussel sprouts, cleaned 'em, split them in half and blanched them (a fancy way of saying I boiled them in salted water for about 3 minutes and then threw them into ice-water).

They are the ones presented this morning by John Sides, drawing on Pew analyses of positive, negative, and neutral press coverage of all Republican candidates and of President Obama through this past year. Here's the trend in coverage of Mitt Romney.

This essay is adapted from Chris Mooney's forthcoming book, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science-and Reality, due out in April from Wiley. I can still remember when I first realized how naïve I was in thinking-hoping-that laying out the "facts" would suffice to change politicized minds, and especially Republicanones.

Here's Politico playing scribe to the Romney campaign by dutifully recording their whining for posterity: No wonder Republicans are livid with the early coverage of the 2012 general election campaign. To them, reporters are scaring up stories to undermine the introduction of Mitt Romney to the general election audience - and once again downplaying ones that could hurt the president.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question.

John Nichols, a longtime columnist for the Nation and associate editor of the Madison Capitol Times, has chronicled the dramatic fight for the future of Wisconsin over the past two years in his book, The Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest from Madison to Wall Street .

This last 7 days has been a real banner week for the blogging heirs of Andrew at Breitbart.com; one stunning non-story after another, each one billed as a BOMBSHELL EXCLUSIVE, getting progressively more ridiculous in a crescendo of Obama-hating wingnuttery, building to a denouement of derp.

I went to the Yankees-A's game last night, enjoyed a number of very expensive beverages and some wildly unhealthy food, which was followed some hours later by a bizarre dream. I was working for some sort of organization -- it was a publication, but we were putting on an event of some kind.

Your online source for live updates & insights on tonight's critical debate...