John Boehner should work with all House members regardless of their party affiliation to get as much done as possible this year. Let's compromise. If we negotiate and both give a little, we can get this done.

If we want this to be a start, and not a finish, we've got to build even bigger and more powerful movements that push the successors of these gentlemen to meet what science demands. Today's an achievement for everyone who's held a banner, signed a petition, and gone to jail -- and a call for many more to join us going forward!

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Ironically, many if not most of the issues rural and urban folks care about are the same: good jobs, economic growth, a sound environment, and access to decent and affordable health care. But the urban/rural divide has become a steep one over the past two decades and it is often overlooked.

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The Democratic Party has core values that are very much in sync with most Americans. But this year, too many Democratic candidates lost sight of those core principles -- opting instead to clip their progressive wings in deference to a conventional wisdom that says bold ideas aren't politically practical.

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The Berkeley soda tax victory is a successful example of an empowered community insisting that the health of its children come before the profits of transnational corporations. If Berkeley can crush Big Soda, other cities can too. And if Big Soda can be defeated, other mega-corporations can too!

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ISIS uses Twitter and manipulates it, participates in documentaries, publishes its own magazine, and is making a film whose teaser, worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, is available online. This terrorist empire knows how to generate buzz.

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Pay-to-play restrictions constitute desperately-needed government contracting reform -- designed to preserve the integrity of the government contracting process and save taxpayer dollars -- not campaign finance reform. Even the Roberts Court may well see this.

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We are confident that China can peak its CO2 emissions by 2030 and earlier, but only if China is bold and ambitious in addressing its over-reliance on coal that is driving both air and climate pollution.

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If ALEC were an honest broker, it would recommend market-based solutions, like the Republican-inspired, acid rain cap-and-trade program championed by President George H.W. Bush. But that's not likely going to happen, because doing so would alienate its fossil fuel industry and trade association members.

Who is really to blame when the wool gets pulled over your eyes: you, for believing the con man, or the con man for being true to his nature?

If the new GOP leadership debuts by substituting a crusade against environmental protection and Obama for jumpstarting the economy, it won't be too long before many voters experience buyer's remorse.

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Landmark though the US-Chinese bilateral agreement may be, it is still much more about domestic Chinese priorities than trans-Pacific good will.

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Approaching its 35th anniversary, the strategy of maintaining such a structure of garrisons, troops, planes, and ships in the Middle East has been one of the great disasters in the history of American foreign policy.

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Why does it seem that no one in the small business community is discussing or getting active about a policy issue that has the potential to seriously impact our livelihoods?

Since Aug. 9 the public has been misled into equating "justice" for Michael Brown with a grand jury indictment against his killer, Ferguson officer Darren Wilson. But an indictment is not the justice Brown supporters are searching for, and its constant positioning as such by the media is tremendously damaging and dangerous.

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Obama needs to strongly show that no election instantly changes what the two parties believe, and that all this talk of waving red flags cuts both ways.

Coming from the world's two largest economies and two biggest carbon emitters, the new targets set by President Obama and President Xi Jinping have put the international community on notice: It's time to put up or shut up.