Harry's Place

This is a cross post by Paul Canning

Texas has become, like the Tennessee of the Scopes evolution trial, a modern day laboratory for the influence of ‘Xstianism’. That’s the spot on term invented for their sort of muscular, dominionist religiosity by the writer Andrew Sullivan.
Texan Xstians have taken over the body that decides what gets taught in [...]

Following up on my Election Day post:
–Besides winning in the Electoral College, Obama has also won the popular vote by 50 percent to 48 percent. However if he had won the first while losing the second, I can only assume (based on the 2000 election) that Republican partisans would have graciously accepted the result.
–The good [...]

All indications– based on clear-headed analysis of polling data rather than wishful thinking, imagined last-minute “trends” and conspiracy theories– are that Barack Obama will narrowly defeat Mitt Romney in today’s presidential election.
On the other hand, it’s close enough that I won’t be flabbergasted if Romney manages to eke out a victory. Nor will I be [...]

I’m no fan of conservative Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin (90 percent anti-labor voting record), but he has done something rare and laudable for a politician of any stripe: namely, stand up publicly to bigotry and extremism in his own ranks.
Sensenbrenner defended Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, against Republican [...]

After Mitt Romney’s eight-vote victory over Rick Santorum in the Iowa Republican caucuses Tuesday night– not eight percent, eight votes– here are a few developments in the race for the GOP nomination for president:
–Michele Bachmann’s shtick turned out to have a limited appeal, as she finished in sixth place with five percent of the vote. [...]

Just when you thought the contest for the 2012 presidential nomination couldn’t get any stranger and more entertaining (for us Democrats), Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman defected to Ron Paul’s campaign– four hours after attending a Bachmann event, where “he declined to speak to the crowd, citing dental work.”

Paul’s campaign touted the endorsement in a [...]

More-Pro-Israel-Than-Thou contests are rarely pretty or edifying– although they are not quite as bad as More-Anti-Israel-Than-Thou contests.
For one thing, trying to out-support others on Israel (at least here in the US) usually means adopting positions most closely identified with the Israeli far right when it comes to settlements, territory and general belligerence.
For another, you get [...]

Although Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination are now approximately nil, she continues to represent in many ways the id of the GOP Right.
So I have a feeling she wasn’t speaking entirely for herself at Saturday night’s candidates’ debate when she said:
“So what would I cut? I think really what I [...]

Birtherism isn’t the only thing that’s risen from the grave recently.
Steven Thomma of McClatchy Newspapers writes:
The Republican Party is catching flat-tax fever, setting up an election-year fight with Democrats over whether wealthier Americans should pay more taxes or get tax cuts.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney became the latest to punch the tax button Wednesday, telling [...]

Who had the most egregious response to President Obama’s decision to send 100 US troops to Africa to aid regional forces in the hunt for Joseph Kony, leader of the brutal and murderous Lord’s Resistance Army?
a) Rush Limbaugh, who– in a world-class display of ignorance– said on his October 14 radio show:
…Lord’s Resistance Army are [...]