“Restoring Honor” Draws 87,000 … Or a Million, Depending Who You Ask

CBS News hired experts to help it estimate that the crowd at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally this weekend was roughly 87,000 strong. An impressive number to be sure.Beck told the crowd he heard it was "between 300,000 and 500,000."…

Exposing the Tea Party’s Benefactors

On Saturday, Frank Rich did a great job picking up on Jane Mayer's now-famous article in the New Yorker on the Koch brothers and drawing some very important historical parallels between the corporate tycoons and extremist libertarians who are funding…

Krugman: It’s Witch-Hunt Season

Paul Krugman's Sunday column in the New York Times lays out what we're in store for if the Right can capture control of at least one chamber of Congress this fall:The last time a Democrat sat in the White House,…

More Conservative Demagoguery on Obama’s Faith

Right-wing leaders continue to feed into the increasingly-held belief that Obama is not a committed Christian, a view now held by one-fifth of Americans. From a Republican National Committeewoman to the RNC’s new media director and even Senate GOP Leader…

Focus on the Family’s New Target: Anti-Bullying Policies

Maintaining that “activist groups that want to promote homosexuality in kids” seek to violate the “innocence and purity of children,” Focus on the Family has launched the “True Tolerance” campaign to prevent “homosexuals” from capturing “the hearts and minds of…

Joe Miller’s Dangerous Views on Women’s Rights

After his dramatic upset win, Alaska Republican Joe Miller took a stunningly distasteful route when tweeting about his opponent: Senator Lisa Murkowski. Rumors in Alaska were flying that Murkowski, who is trailing Miller with vote totals without absentees and early-votes…

Can you imagine the Right’s reaction if a left-leaning or progressive group used this poster?

This is what a “non-political” event looks like?

Glenn Beck has said repeatedly that his "Restoring Honor" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial today would be "non-political." To people who showed up in the crowd or listened to any of the speeches… well, let's just say…

Claiming the Dream: Notes from Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Event

I wasn't able to stay for all of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally today (I missed Sarah Palin) but I was able to stop by for a significant chunk of the event.  And what an event it was.There were a…

Glenn Beck: Educator? Prophet??

God is speaking through Glenn Beck... or so he and many other Religious Right figures would have us believe. Despite an historical animosity towards Mormons like Beck from the evangelicals who control the Religious Right, his efforts to become the…

So-called ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ — Mayor Bloomberg on Daily Show says it’s all about the elections

"This is plain and simple people trying to stir up things to get publicity, and trying to polarize people so that they can get some votes." (Discussion of Cordoba House project begins around 2:00 mark.) The Daily Show With Jon…

48 Congressional Candidates have signed the Pledge to Protect America’s Democracy—Find Out Where Your Candidates Stand

Last month, we started asking candidates for Congress to sign a pledge to support a constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, and stop unlimited corporate spending in elections. Today, we’re announcing the first batch of…

Right-Wing Front Group Attacks Iowa Congressman with Vicious Anti-Muslim Ad

This is sick. Hatemongering against Muslims has reached the airwaves big time with the Right despicably promoting the view that Muslims exercising their constitutional right to religious freedom is tantamount to military conquest by terrorists. The Atlantic reports: The American…

When Will it Stop Being Cool to Be an Anti-Gay Republican?

Last night, Ken Mehlman, the man who orchestrated George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign--including, we can presume, its electorally popular anti-gay positions--came out as gay himself. Mehlman says he’s now working with American Foundation for Equal Rights to advocate for…

The Lingering Injustice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

The Don’t Ask, Don’t tell policy has been denounced by a vast majority of Americans, rejected by the leaders of the military, and, if Republicans decide not to filibuster, will be finally on its way out in this year’s Defense…

Tea Party Candidate Ken Buck Leading in CO-Senate

Ken Buck, one of a handful of Senate candidates this year riding a wave of Tea Party support to victory in his Republican primary, is no stranger to extremism. Yet the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll in Colorado shows him leading Sen.…

The Long-Term Consequences of Hateful Politics

Suhail A. Khan, who served as a liaison to faith communities in George W. Bush’s White House, writes this week in Foreign Policy that he finds himself increasingly alone as a Muslim Republican. Many American Muslims have conservative values, Khan…

Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Having a Sadly Unsurprising Effect

From TPM: The New York Police Department has confirmed to TPM that a cab driver in Manhttan was allegedly stabbed by a passenger who asked if the cabbie was Muslim, and says the incident is being treated as a hate…

New Groups Taking Advantage of Concealed Election Spending

Can we have the DISCLOSE Act now? USA Today reports that more than a dozen groups have been organized since June to take advantage of the lax election spending rules left by the Citizens United decision earlier this year…and most…

WI-Senate, Ron Johnson’s extremism takes aim at cultural center

Ron Johnson, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin running to unseat Sen. Russ Feingold, has been on a tear lately, apparently trying to out-crazy himself at every turn. Yesterday I read that he was pushing an absurd theory of…