Occupy Des Moines protesters decide it’s high time to occupy the Democratic headquarters, and they won’t be the last; Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” gets more viewers than Fox News; and one of America’s most visible poets fell out of grace thanks to a racist poem. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

Occupy Des Moines is the Democrats’ problem

Former Obama fans now see the party as part of the system they seek ‘to undo.’

Obama’s war on civil liberties

Obama may prove the most disastrous president in our history in terms of civil liberties.

TSA Seeks to Expand the Airport Experience Into Everyday Life

The Los Angeles Times reports on the TSA’s VIPR program, in which roving teams of security agents bring the joys of the airport security experience into bus and train stations, highways, the subway, and other transportation facilities around the country.

Obama names former Carlyle group partner to Fed

Obama tapped Jerome Powell to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Jon Stewart more popular than Fox News, whose average viewer is now 65 years old

By losing 9% of their audience in 2011, Fox News’ prime time lineup now averages fewer viewers than Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

The End of Free Will? Neuroscience and the law

The field of neuroscience evolved so rapidly in the past twenty years that it will pose unprecedented challenges to the legal system in the decades to come, changing the way we understand crime and punishment, says neuro-pioneer Joy Hirsch, director of the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center at Columbia [University].

Money makes the world go ’round

Another sign of the failure of mainstream economics (one among an ever-increasing number) is the proliferation of new schools of monetary theory in the economics blogosphere.

A Green New Deal?

Seven weeks before Jill Stein declared her candidacy for president, the Lexington, Mass., physician outlined her priorities in a plan she called the “Green New Deal” – jobs, climate change, universal health care and peace.

Contractors’ Role Grows in Drone Missions

After a U.S. airstrike mistakenly killed at least 15 Afghans in 2010, the Army officer investigating the accident was surprised to discover that an American civilian had played a central role: analyzing video feeds from a Predator drone keeping watch from above.

Chicago Cardinal George sets new record for obtuse bigotry

Cardinal Francis George has made controversial comments comparing gay rights groups with the Ku Klux Klan.

OWS Fights Back Against Police Surveillance by Launching ‘Occucopter’ Citizen Drone

The police may soon be watching you in your garden picking your vegetables or your bottom. As police plans for increasing unmanned aerial surveillance take shape, there is a new twist. Private citizens can now buy their own surveillance drones to watch the police.

How to Save Venice: Make It Float

Everyone knows that on a sinking ship, you want to pump water out. But what do you do with a sinking city? In this case, the plan might be to pump water in.

As Deportations Rise to Record Levels, Most Latinos Oppose Obama’s Policy

Latinos disapprove by a margin of more than two-to-one of the way the Obama administration is handling deportations of unauthorized immigrants, according to a new national survey of Latino adults by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

The Mystery of Vachel Lindsay

How did the most visible poet in America—and a father of the Beats—become nearly forgotten?