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September 8, 2008 9:19 pm | By Willard
Need to Brush Up on Your Wonk Lingo?
Luckily, the good folks at the ACLU have your back. They've just posted the concluding installment of "Congress-ese," a series of blog entries aimed at teaching you stuff about Congress you didn't learn in social studies class. Find the answers to questions…
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September 8, 2008 1:31 pm | By Drew Courtney
Rep. Chris Smith Thinks You Don’t Have Any Values
At the RNC this week, Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey declared that America’s schools and universities have become “bastions of moral relativism,” and as a remedy for this, “Our students must find the God of the Bible and Biblical…
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September 8, 2008 5:00 am | By Stacey Gates
Voting Rights Opponent Appeals to Supreme Court
As expected, the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One (NAMUDNO), a public utility district in Travis County, Tex., filed a direct appeal yesterday with the Supreme Court from a unanimous ruling last May by a three-judge federal district court…
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September 5, 2008 10:46 pm | By Drew Courtney
Another Shot At Fair Pay
Via TAPPED, it looks like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will be up for another vote in the Senate this month. John McCain has opposed it in the past, and last time it was defeated in a procedural vote.…
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September 5, 2008 8:33 pm | By Willard
Reigniting the Culture War
For all the talk about reformers and mavericks, the Republican convention this week struck me as a return to the GOP's decades-old culture-war handbook, with speaker after speaker launching attacks on the "elites" in the media and Washington who supposedly…
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September 5, 2008 3:20 pm | By Willard
The New Normal
One of the amazing and historic things about this presidential campaign is that it's made us blasé about how amazing and historic it's been. No one's really talking anymore about the fact that the Democratic Party just nominated its first…
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September 4, 2008 5:43 pm | By Drew Courtney
Personally, I Liked Huckleberry Finn
The Anchorage Daily News has a nice rundown of Sarah Palin’s troublesome history of censorship. Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should…
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September 4, 2008 5:16 pm | By Judith Schaeffer
A Judicial Victory For Church-State Separation in Florida!
Yesterday, the Florida Supreme Court issued a ruling that rejects the latest efforts by the far right to undermine religious liberty in that state and pave the way for the return of a state voucher program. Just a few hours…
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September 4, 2008 2:50 pm | By Drew Courtney
Aren’t Rights a Good Thing?
In her speech last night, Sarah Palin mocked the idea that terrorists would be "read their rights." Well, setting aside the obvious complications that come from prosecuting an international “war on terror,” I’m perturbed by the idea that reading someone…
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September 3, 2008 2:45 pm | By Willard
Oh, What a Week
By the end of the Democratic National Convention last week my feet were aching but my spirit was soaring. I loved meeting People For members, and had a chance to connect with a lot of progressive advocates, political leaders, and…
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September 2, 2008 11:02 pm | By Josh
It’s Good to Be the AG – Forgetful Gonzales Gets Off the Hook for Mishandling Secrets
The Associated Press and Washington Post reported today that Justice Department investigators have faulted Alberto Gonzales for repeatedly mishandling national secrets during his tenure as Bush’s White House counsel and Attorney General. The eye-opening accounts reveal that Gonzales failed to…
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September 1, 2008 6:36 pm | By Judith Schaeffer
Governor Palin is Wrong; There’s No Scientific “Debate” Over Evolution to Teach
As soon as news broke last Friday that Senator John McCain had chosen the relatively unknown governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate, a media scramble began to find out more about her. In the brief period since…
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August 28, 2008 3:39 pm | By Willard
About That U.S. Attorney Scandal…
Hey, remember the U.S. attorney scandal? Fishy firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 for allegedly partisan reasons? It was a huge deal when the revelations first broke last year, but since then the mainstream media has, in classic MSM-ADD…
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August 27, 2008 10:06 pm | By Willard
Can Design Save Democracy?
The AIGA, a consortium of graphic artists, thinks it just might. In order to avoid the sort of poor election ballot design that plagued the 2000 election — remember butterfly ballots and hanging chads? — the AIGA has proposed several…
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August 22, 2008 10:49 pm | By Drew Courtney
Kathleen Turner vs. Susan Collins
Sure, we've been saying for years that Senator Susan Collins's votes on the Roberts and Alito nominations show how shallow her commitment to choice really is. But when Kathleen Turner is saying it, it just sounds different. So, without further…
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August 22, 2008 5:00 am | By Willard
Yo, CNN! Progressives Have Values Too!
Did you watch last Saturday's presidential candidate forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church? The media coverage has made me want to scream, hey, progressives have values too! Fortunately, we're doing more than yelling about it. With your support, People For…
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August 8, 2008 7:20 pm | By Willard
Olympic Fever at People For
The Olympics begin today -- with some very personal excitement at People For. David Banks, the son of Executive Vice President Marge Baker, is competing on the U.S. Olympic rowing team in Beijing. I know many of us will be…
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August 1, 2008 5:00 am | By Willard
Matching the Right’s Passion
This week gave me a sobering reminder of just how motivated and organized the Radical Right is. I think it's a real challenge to us to match their passion and commitment. On Wednesday, national and local Religious Right leaders convened…
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July 25, 2008 5:00 am | By Willard
Rededicating Ourselves to Human Dignity
I'm writing to you today from San Francisco, where it's been an energizing, thought-provoking week. Last night, Ambassador James Hormel, a member of People For's board, hosted an event at his home to help me get acquainted with some friends…
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July 24, 2008 9:08 pm | By Judith Schaeffer
Fourth Circuit Victory For Religious Liberty
If you read my post back in March after the oral argument before the Fourth Circuit in Turner v. City Council of Fredericksburg, Virginia, you know that it was quite an honor to have had retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra…