Robert Kuttner, 9/18/11

Co-founder and co-editor, The American Prospect

Deficit reduction as a cure for a prolonged jobs recession not only mixes the message, it does nothing to put unemployed people back to work and it deprives government of the resources it needs to help the needy and get the economy back on track.

Mark Penn, 9/18/11

CEO, Burson-Marsteller

Obama should be working as a president, not a candidate. He should be claiming the vital center, not abandoning it. And most of all, he should be bringing the country together rather than dividing it through class warfare.

Mohamed A. El-Erian, 9/18/11

CEO and co-CIO, PIMCO

Global markets again find themselves in the uncomfortable back seat of a car driven erratically by policymakers. The hope is that policy responses in both America and Europe will enable them to build on last week's solid gains. But certain things need to happen first.

Bianca Jagger, 9/19/11

Founder and Chair, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation

Whether one supports or opposes the death penalty, a central tenet of the American justice system is that those who receive the government's harshest punishment must have been proved guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Too many doubts remain in the case of Troy Davis.

Lesley Ryder, 9/18/11

Recent Hamilton graduate

College athletes will never be paid a salary to play for their school. There are far too many logistical, economic and legal hurdles that would have to disappear before paying students could even become a reality.

Robert Reich, 9/18/11

Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Aftershock'

Apparently Obama will propose that people earning more than $1 million a year pay at least the same tax rate as middle-class earners. That's aiming mighty low.

Susan Liddy, M.A., PCC, CPCC, 9/18/11

CEO, Susan Liddy International

Rather than spending the rest of our lives feeling defeated, thinking things will never get any better, how can we achieve the health goals we set for ourselves and learn to eat for the purpose of providing proper nourishment to our bodies?

David Fenton, 9/18/11

CEO, Fenton, Inc.

The bankruptcy of one company -- Solyndra -- is being used by oil and coal company agents to portray solar electricity as a failure. It's an outrage how this story is being spun upside down while solar's success is ignored.

Pamela Haag, Ph.D., 9/18/11

Author, 'Marriage Confidential'

Somehow the feminist rallying cry of the 1970s, "I am Woman, Hear Me Roar" has slipped into the misperception, "I am Woman, Hear Me Whimper."

Michael Thornton, 9/18/11

Unemployment Issues Examiner

This American jobs disaster will not vanish if neglected, but what will vanish are the hopes, dreams and financial well-being of millions of hard-working Americans.

Greg Carey, 9/18/11

Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary

An early church meeting must have been a wild scene. Almost all churches included masters and their own slaves, the rich and the destitute, tradespersons and menial laborers.

Lorraine Devon Wilke, 9/18/11

Writer, photographer, rock & roll vet

Fame is a slut these days. Used to be you had to DO something to get her to put out: write a book, invent a vaccine, win an Oscar; accomplish something, anything. Pop stars aren't exactly curing cancer but at least they get up and sing!

Joshua Spivak, 9/18/11

Senior fellow, Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College

Pennsylvania's Republican Party may feel that a switch of their Electoral College allocation method may give them an edge on the 2012 presidential race. But their proposal is much more far-reaching than that.

Gabriel Lerner, 9/19/11

Sr. News Editor, AOL Latino and HuffPost LatinoVoices

To spread and glorify the words and actions by extremists like Ahmadinejad only prevents any sort of peaceful solution, and to see these governments, especially from my own birthplace in Latin America, befriending him, frankly, confuses me.

Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, 9/18/11

Developmental and clinical psychologist

Let's talk about the real reality here -- how damaging and dangerous negative comments are to the thousands of transgender and gender-nonconforming children who live their everyday lives among the adults who are so agitated by Chaz's participation on DWTS.

HuffPost Radio, 9/18/11

Arianna and Mary alternately agree and clash over the HPV vaccine -- women's health or big brother -- Obama & Jews in Queens & Israel, and the quiet crisis of growing inequality in America.

Michael Sigman, 9/18/11

Writer/editor, music publisher

What do Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have in common, aside from being musical geniuses who changed the world? They all worked with Andrew Loog Oldham while he was still a teenager.

Penny Herscher, 9/18/11

FirstRain CEO

Do women lead differently than men? Yes, usually. Do women face more barriers than men? Frequently. But do women sometimes hold themselves back ? Yes.

William Bradley, 9/18/11

Political Analyst, NewWestNotes.com

After a summer of action films, many of them rather indifferent, it's useful to consider two classic movies having their 20th and 25th anniversaries.

Matt J. Rossano, 9/18/11

Professor of Psychology, Southeastern Louisiana University

Slavery's depravity is so obvious to us today that it obscures the collective mental conversion required to achieve this bit of moral clarity. And religion is often cast an impediment to slavery's stigmatization.

John Lundberg, 9/18/11

Writer, Poetry teacher

An erotic poem by Frederick the Great was discovered in a Berlin archive this past week. The poem is entitled "La Jouissance," which can be interpreted to mean either general pleasure or, more specifically, the pleasure of sexual climax.

Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, 9/18/11

President, Levy Institute; Executive vice president and Jerome Levy Professor of Economics, Bard College

It's certainly not too early to ask: What would a post-euro Europe look like... and what are the alternatives?

Mike Robbins, 9/18/11

Motivational keynote speaker, coach and author

What if we did focus on what truly matters in our life all the time -- not simply because we experience a wakeup call, crisis or major life change -- but because we choose to?

Carolyn S. Miles, 9/18/11

President and CEO, Save the Children

The drought is only going to get worse. Rains predicted for October will likely be poor -- if they come at all. This hunger crisis will persist into next year. This has me worried that many more children may die. And they don't have to.