Sunday Discussion Group

Several years ago, David Plotz wrote a funny item for Slate about members of Congress from Oklahoma, which he labeled the nation’s worst delegation. Plotz’s piece is a little dated now, but he raised an entertaining question. This week’s discussion group topic is easy enough: what’s the worst delegation in Congress? There are, to be […]

It’s quite a caucus

It’s safe to say Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) has reason to worry. Rep. Robert W. Ney notified Congress yesterday that he had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury examining the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff, making the Ohio Republican the first lawmaker to receive such a demand in the expanding influence-peddling investigation. The subpoena, […]

Secession isn’t as easy as it looks

Guest Post by Morbo I’m sure it made perfect sense at the time: Religious and secular right-wing nuts would infiltrate and take over one state apiece and turn each into a type of laboratory for all of their kooky ideas. The Religious Right settled on South Carolina. There they would establish a type of theocratic […]

Border Ruffians: The Minutemen come to Vermont

Guest Post by Morbo If you’re like me, you probably lose a lot of sleep at night over fears that crazed residents of Quebec are going to swoop down into the country and steal your job, abduct your children and run off with your significant other. They may be bearing strange forms of cheese. Thankfully, […]

The Alito Catholic trap and how to stay out of it

Guest Post by Morbo If Samuel Alito is confirmed for a seat on the Supreme Court, he will be the fifth Roman Catholic on that body. This seems to unnerve some progressives. It shouldn’t. Alito’s religion is not relevant. What is relevant is his right-wing judicial philosophy. If Alito is to be opposed — and […]

‘Dad, I need a job!’: Attack of the unemployable right-wing losers

Guest Post by Morbo Earlier this week, the Carpetbagger noted Tony Mauro’s story in Legal Times about Jay Sekulow, the right-wing Christian attorney and greedy creep whose true god, it turns out, is Mammon. (Surprise!) There are many shocking revelations in this story, but one item jumped out at me: Sekulow apparently keeps his entire […]

Time for the Air Force to straighten up and fly right

Guest Post by Morbo The Air Force just can’t seem to get this religious freedom thing down. First comes word that the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has become a hotbed of Christian fundamentalist proselytizers. To remedy that, the Air Force announced new guidelines governing religious activity by service members and chaplains. That in […]

I’m skeptical about the value of this group

Guest Post by Morbo This post may open up a big can of worms, but what the heck. I take it readers don’t come here to be bored. Earlier this year, Harvard University President Larry Summers created a firestorm when he suggested there may be innate reasons why women are under-represented in the sciences. Summers […]

The inescapable need for congressional hearings

I’ve been thinking lately about a terrific column Jonathan Alter wrote a few months ago about Watergate — and what the scandal would have looked like if it had happened now. Alter’s conclusion, which is hard to argue with, is that Nixon would have survived. Why? In large part because of Congress. [B]ecause both houses […]

Tracing torture back to Cheney

Two weeks ago, Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s chief of staff at the State Department in Bush’s first term, made headlines for his blistering and unapologetic denouncement of the president and his foreign policy team. Yesterday on NPR, Dan Froomkin noted, Wilkerson took his charges one step further. NPR’s Steve Inskeep brought up U.S. policies towards […]