The loss of life in West, Texas, was tragic, but the tragedy itself is an illustration of the downside of the Republicans’ unstoppable zeal for deregulating industry at any cost. The cost in this case included the lives of 14 people who were killed when a fertilizer plant exploded on April 17. In the wake [...]

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the founding chair of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, is facing investigations into multiple charges of corruption related to what the Daily Beast called her “faceplant” presidential run in 2012. Nonetheless, Bachmann chose to prove this week that she is not a pariah among her extreme right-wing colleagues by relaunching [...]

The National Republican Congressional Committee announced today that it will no longer support Mark Sanford’s campaign in the special election for the open seat in South Carolina’s 1st U.S. House District. This dramatic announcement suggests that the trespassing charge brought yesterday against Sanford by his ex-wife Ginny, who is a popular figure in Republican circles, [...]

CNN is reporting that a man has been arrested in Monday’s bomb attacks on Boston Marathon. The man was seen in surveillance videos placing one of the bombs that went off near the finish line of the race. According to CNN, the suspect was described as dark skinned. UPDATE: NBC is reporting that this is [...]

The Republican National Committee is holding its spring meeting this week in a hotel in the heart of Hollywood. As these sorts of events go, this one has generated more speculation about the GOP’s rationale for choosing to meet in a place that is home to an industry Republicans revile, and vice versa, than it [...]

Two years ago, American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn released this video in which he informed his operatives in the United States that because of a loophole in America’s gun laws they could avoid background checks by buying assault weapons at gun shows. Gadahn’s implication was that it would be easy to assemble the arsenal [...]

Here’s one for the WTF file: The Republican National Committee is holding its spring meeting in Hollywood, of all places, next week. It is a mystery why Chairman Reince Priebus would choose Hollywood, one of the GOP’s favorite punching bags, as the site of their meeting, especially since it is situated in a state where [...]

In 21st century Jim Crow, it is not just African-Americans whose voting rights are being put risk by neo-Confederates. In North Carolina, the tea partyists who have recently taken over the legislature and governor’s mansion are targeting any group that reliably votes against them, including college students of all races. A bill filed recently in [...]