Countering Glenn Beck’s Tea Party-oriented rally, labor and minority activist groups convened in Washington DC over the weekend, taking on an overtly partisan tone to energize the left-leaning base for the upcoming midterm elections. 

When the U.S. House Republicans unveiled their 21-page Pledge to America to set the legislative agenda in the likely event that they take control of the House this November, they ignited a firestorm of controversy on the Right.

Although more than three months of the fiscal year have passed and no budget is in place, that hasn’t stopped Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers from enacting hundreds of new laws affecting everything from classroom locks to kangaroo skins.