The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified the fringe-right American Family Association as a hate group, but that didn’t stop politicians from flocking to AFA’s religious-right confab in Iowa this weekend. Yesterday, for example, maybe-presidential candidate Newt Gingrich spoke at the event, and he praised another speaker we’re all familiar with: phony historian David Barton, […]
Reproductive Rights
From Burning Bushes to Crying Babies
For everyone who thought the culture warriors on the religious right would take a back seat at the Texas Legislature during this once-a-generation budget crisis, ladies and gentlemen, we give you exhibit A: During last week’s debate in the Texas Senate over the “sonogram bill” — legislation that would require a doctor show a sonogram […]
What’s the Emergency?
Both the Texas House and Senate have now released initial budgets intended to cover a massive state fiscal deficit that experts have placed as high as $27 billion. Cuts outlined in those budgets could mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in education — one lawmaker describes the effect on public schools as […]
Chilling Times
The shooting this morning of an Arizona congresswoman (who at this writing is in critical condition) is a chilling moment in American history. It appears that six people were killed, including a young child and a federal judge. Some have already noted that Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was featured last year in a map created […]
Rick Perry’s War on Christmas
In his 2008 book, On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For, Texas Gov. Rick Perry criticizes the American Civil Liberties Union for supposedly engaging in a “war on Christmas” by forcing schools to remove references to Christmas in holiday programs and decorations. Last year one of Gov. […]
