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President Barack Obama’s decision to appoint Elizabeth Warren to set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) couldn’t have come at a more critical time.

The government’s Census statistics about poverty in America are lies.

Why can’t the folks inside the Beltway do something about it? Because they don’t hear or see us.

On Thursday, it was announced that 1 in 7 Americans now live in poverty – a disturbing fact which received little attention on Capitol Hill: The reluctance of political leaders on both sides of the aisle to directly confront the fact that growing numbers of Americans are slipping into poverty reflects a stubborn reality about [...]

More good news on the economic front: The percentage of Americans struggling below the poverty line in 2009 was the highest it has been in 15 years, the Census Bureau reported Thursday, and interviews with poverty experts and aid groups said the increase appeared to be continuing this year. With the country in its worst [...]

From TomDispatch today: A shocking report on the toll the American war has taken on ordinary Afghans, no matter what aspect of everyday life you choose to measure — Nick Turse, “How Much ‘Success’ Can Afghans Stand? The American War and Afghanistan’s Civilians”

Massive Book-Burning Project Now Operating at Thousands of US Universities & Libraries — NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

How do we produce real, lasting, positive change toward more democracy? Join Frances Moore Lappe on Saturday for a book salon, and find out.

We- as a society- have to agree that, to address our faltering education system, we need to invest in poverty alleviation.