Are we really the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On Thanksgiving Day, 26-year-old law student Cesar Baldelomar was pulled over by a police officer in northwest Miami. So what was the reason for his stop? He was playing the song “F**K Tha Police” by N.W.A on his radio.

Torture is about as immoral and unconstitutional as it gets, but that’s not how Antonin Scalia sees it.

During an interview with a Swiss radio station last week, the Supreme Court Justice argued that it isn’t so clear that torturing people is wrong and ineffective.

He said,

Last night, with only hours to go before the government shut down, the House of Representatives passed the so-called “Cromnibus” bill to keep government running. As usual, Republicans used the looming deadline to force through massive cuts and more deregulation. And, once again, far to many Democrats went along with the Republican hostage-taking.

The Koch Brothers are trying to re-write history. Caitlin MacNeal over at TPM is reporting that the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has “encouraged” state high school teachers to start teaching a curriculum that was drafted by a Koch Brothers-funded group.

Conservatives are freaking out about the Senate torture report, and nowhere are they freaking out more than on Fox So-Called News. Host Andrea Tantaros, for example, went on a crazy rant after hearing that the report was being released and repeated “America is awesome” over and over again.

“The character of our country has to be measured in part, not by what we do when things are easy, but what we do when things are hard.” Those were the words of President Obama, when he was asked over the summer about the CIA’s use of torture in the months and years after 9/11.

The “Southern Democrat” is dying, but it’s not dead yet.

On Saturday, things got even worse for the Democratic Party. As many expected, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu lost in a runoff race to Republican challenger Congressman Bill Cassidy. To make matters worse, it wasn’t even close. With almost all votes tallied, as of earlier today, Cassidy was beating Landrieu by 14 percent of the vote.

Apparently, Mitch McConnell thinks that there wasn't enough spending in the last election. The incoming-Senate Majority Leader wants to slip a new campaign finance loophole into the upcoming budget bill.

Tax-dodging big banks and giant corporations are finally being held accountable…except for here in the United States.

Democrats blew it on Obamacare. That’s according to retiring Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who told The Hill today that he regrets that his party didn’t go far enough back in 2009 and 2010 when it was trying to push the Affordable Care Act through Congress

After filling up on turkey and stuffing, millions of Americans flocked to some of the nation’s biggest retailers this year for Black Friday savings. They stood in line for hours for a chance to grab deals like $199 for a 50-inch HDTV, or $29 for a 7-inch Android tablet. But millions of Americans lining up for bargain deals on the latest electronics isn’t a good thing. It’s a sign of the deterioration of America.

As the nation continues to react to the events in Ferguson, Missouri, many people are asking themselves, “Where do we go from here?”

Without immediate global action on climate change, today's teenagers will be forced to live with the consequences of our inaction. The World Bank has issued their third report of climate change, and it says that global temperatures could rise by as much as 4 degrees Celsius by the time today's teens hit their 80th birthday.

Democrats must embrace a pro-government platform, not run away from it.

Those were the sentiments of Senator Chuck Schumer today, in a speech given at the National Press Club. Talking about the reasons for Democrats’ losses on Election Day, Schumer said that those losses were proof that the American people and middle-class want a government that will work more effectively for them.

Malcolm MacDougall is dead, but he left us a really important message before he died.