Annise Danette Parker (born May 17, 1956) is an American politician and the mayor of Houston since January 2, 2010. She served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller from 2004 to 2009.

Parker is Houston’s second female mayor, and the first elected gay mayor of a major U.S. city

The idea that America’s best days are behind it is no longer just a rhetorical device: It’s conventional wisdom…But is it true? America is characterologically, almost definitionally, optimistic. The country, after all, was founded on the idea that anyone could come here and make a better life for himself. And for 234 years and counting, millions of people have done just that.

Synergizing the spiritual and the political

You can listen to a snippet of the song here:

“This book engages in the nearly lost art of reporting to tell us what’s going on in the many places that the elite media can’t be bothered to look.” — Bill McKibben

“David Sirota is a clear-headed and principled hell-raiser for economic justice.” — Naomi Klein

“After so many decades of fake populism — of revolts by the wealthy, red-state fantasies, and stock-picking grandmas — could we finally be looking at the real thing?” — Thomas Frank