In March, Claude Allen, a top White House domestic policy advisor and favorite of Christian conservatives, was caught in a two-bit shoplifting scheme in which he’d return items he hadn’t actually purchased. At the time, Allen said there had been a mix-up with his credit card. He was lying. Yesterday, however, he managed to avoid […]
First up from the God machine this week is an unusual religion problem in a religious Texas town. Apparently, it has too many churches. They are not the words one expects to hear from a politician or a Southerner, and Leonard Scarcella is both: “Our city has an excessive number of churches.” Scarcella is mayor […]
Guest Post by Morbo [tag]James Dobson[/tag]’s [tag]Focus on the Family[/tag] is very upset because evolution opponents lost their majority on the [tag]Kansas[/tag] [tag]Board of Education[/tag] this week. The FOF “news” service ran an interesting story about the election. It is full of lies. Let’s parse it, shall we? Advocates of accurate science standards in public […]
Guest Post by Morbo I normally favor trying to work out disputes through dialogue and compromise rather than lawsuits. But sometimes people act so darn stubborn and backward that they deserve to be sued into the Stone Age. Case in point: the rubes in the Indian River School District in Georgetown, Del. As detailed in […]
For a couple of weeks now, my friend Tom Schaller has argued that Sen. [tag]Joe Lieberman[/tag] would not run as an independent if he loses next week’s primary to [tag]Ned Lamont[/tag]. Today, one of Lieberman’s colleagues predicted the same thing. A Democratic senator said Friday that if Sen. Joe Lieberman loses his [tag]primary[/tag] Tuesday by […]
I follow culture-war issues fairly closely, but the Pew Research Center conducted a survey with an interesting perspective on the hot-button issues. As the researchers see it, there can’t be a “war” because there aren’t two distinct sides. The so-called [tag]culture war[/tag]s rending America over such issues as abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research […]
The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have offered a sweeping indictment of the Bush White House’s casual approach to law-breaking in a new report, “The Constitution in Crisis.” It’s quite a document. TPM Muckraker’s Justin Rood spoke with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking Dem on the committee, about the report and its purpose. […]
Embarrassed by the length of previous years’ [tag]vacation[/tag]s, and the tragedies that have unfolded while the [tag]president[/tag] enjoys clearing some brush, [tag]Bush[/tag] will take an abbreviated August vacation this year, spending only 10 days at his Crawford retreat. The break began last night. As Nico noted, the president’s British counterpart is taking a different approach. […]
For a variety of reasons, it was disappointing to see groups with progressive agendas, such as the [tag]Sierra Club[/tag] and [tag]NARAL[/tag], endorse less-conservative Republicans like Sen. Linc Chafee (R-R.I.). It should be pretty obvious that a Democratic majority is key to the groups’ causes, so endorsing a Dem who shares the groups’ beliefs should be […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * In Connecticut, the Washington Post reports that Sen. Joe Lieberman (D) has given up on his GOTV efforts for next week. “Facing a likely defeat, Lieberman has scrapped plans for a massive […]