In Washington this week, the Senate will take up the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Passed by the House 241-185 in March, EFCA would make it much easier for unions to organize. Predictably, red state Republican Senators backed by an alliance of business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will likely prevent the […]

A new study released this week revealed that Americans' health care varies dramatically from state to state. It should come as no surprise that in general Southern states ranked at the bottom in almost every category. After all, whether the issue is health, education, working conditions, or virtually any indicator of social pathology, things are […]

University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier generally doesn't appear on anyone's list of moral exemplars in sports. His sideline tantrums, raging at referees and brief but bombastic tenure with the Washington Redskins didn't endear him to many outside of Florida, the state where he made his name. But this weekend, Spurrier showed surprising […]

The exploding U.S. attorneys scandal threatens to engulf the White House with the revelations that the Bush administration as early as February 2005 contemplated sacking all 93 prosecutors. But today's stories in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the LA Times reveal more than a White House determined to enforce loyalty to President […]

Life imitates art, or so it would seem when it comes to religious intolerance in the North American heartland. In January, the Canadian Broadcasting Company began airing Little Mosque on the Prairie, an upbeat comedy about a small Muslim community making its way in a rural Saskatchewan town. But in Harris County, Texas, the culture […]

In Seattle, the already fierce debate about public financing for a new basketball arena for the NBA's Sonics is about to get a lot hotter. As Dan Savage first reported yesterday, Sonics co-owners Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward contributed $1.1 million to fund the anti-same-sex marriage campaign of radical crusader Gary Bauer. The revelations come […]

The simmering controversy over the display of the Confederate flag by public entities remains a festering sore on the American body politic. And over the past week, voices from the left, right and center weighed in on the ongoing disgrace that is the public romance of the CSA banner in South Carolina, Mississippi and elsewhere […]

Out of Austin, Texas comes word that the president of the University of Texas is forming a panel to decide the fate of numerous campus statues depicting Confederate leaders such as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. President William Powers Jr. summarized the lingering controversy: "The whole range of options is on the table. A […]

The Avenging Angel, punisher of conservative miscreants, enjoyed another busy week delivering retribution to the wrong-doers of the right. In one of the least surprising political announcements in recent years, former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist decided against a run for the White House in 2008. After his SEC insider trading investigation, misuse of […]

As Tuesday's vote approaches, Democrats are buoyantly optimistic about their prospects for retaking control of Congress. President Bush is wildly unpopular. His handling of Iraq, the election's dominant issue, is backed by less than a third of the electorate. On issue after issue, voters across the United States support Democratic positions. And in generic Congressional […]