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All around the country, members of congress are canceling constituent meetings or beefing up security. When someone at a public meeting asks a question or makes a comment that seems even a little unbalanced, people tense up and exchange nervous glances

TIFFIN — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour isn’t quite ready to announce whether or not he will seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012. But, if he does, Iowans can expect to hear more of what he describes as “plain-spoken common sense and truth-telling.” Barbour told a group of Johnson County Republicans gathered for a spaghetti supper at Clear Creek Amana High School that he expects to make his decision regarding the 2012 presidential process by the end of April, and asked those who have not committed to “keep your power dry” so that he could have a chance to compete for their support

Stephen Colbert satirically skewered Talisman Energy’s “Talisman Terry” coloring book character Monday night, following the sad tale to its conclusion with the loveable “frack-osaurus” ultimately lighting himself on fire in a natural-gas-contaminated shower scene. Colbert took aim at Talisman and its 145 violations for various fracking infractions in a skit on the controversial natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing. The company’s coloring book has been widely lampooned for trying to sell the drilling technique, which critics say can contaminate groundwater, to kids.

As a postscript to yesterday’s fact-check of Marc Thiessen, a former Bush White House speechwriter and torture proponent, notice how Thiessen, appearing on

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr) The Republican Party of Sarasota County will host its 2011 “Statesman of the Year” dinner later this month, at which the party will honor Mississippi Gov. — and once-rumored presidential contender — Haley Barbour.

A single mother is in the media spotlight after joking to Obama that he is a hottie, with a smokin’ little body. Sarah Palin will be the top speaker at the

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (Pic by US Mission Geneva, via Flickr) Operation Rescue has joined other anti-abortion groups in Kansas in a campaign accusing U.S.

The Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO doesn’t just want Iowans to stand up for the rights of Wisconsin workers, it wants them to stand up for workers right here at home, and is planning a Tuesday rally in Des Moines. Wisconsin is not the only place where working families are under attack. Across this nation, the lives and livelihoods of working families are being attacked systematically by right wing fanatics bent on crippling or destroying the trade union movement in America

The Mormon church was widely credited with bankrolling the Proposition 8 campaign to ban gay marriage in California last November. But Focus on the Family

Sen. Obama’s latest campaign video, “Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis,” features William Black, the former deputy

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio would like you to think he’s the toughest anti-immigration cop in the world.

Nobody wants the first Saturday morning speaking spot -- the faces of the people who drag themselves into the CPAC ballroom bear the evidence of Friday night’s

The old Florida capitol (Pic by Diligent Terrier, via Wikimedia Commons) Leon Circuit Judge Terry Lewis will hear a legal challenge to the ballot title and summary of the state’s “Religious Freedom” amendment today.

Two weeks before the November 8 election, Ohio voters seem poised to stomp the aggressive collective-bargaining-curbing law, Senate Bill 5, that has unified

Ann Coulter’s speeches at CPAC are simultaneously the least surprising and the most headline-ready parts of the conference. Every year, the lines to get into

Human Rights First has just released a new report updating its previous study of criminal terrorism cases prosecuted since the early 1990s. Once again, it

Conservatism and activism often go hand-in-hand in the Supreme Court. Ben Nelson’s constituents think it’s okay to tax the rich for health care, but he

In a sit-down interview with the Colorado Independent in Denver this week, U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette said the natural gas industry should support full public disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing as a “protection” from potential litigation

It was just a matter of time, but right-wing bloggers, restrictionist immigration groups and now even some politicians are blaming illegal immigrants and the

With austerity measures and gay rights emerging as seminal campaign issues in the run up to the GOP nomination for president, former U.S. senator Rick

Helene Cooper has a good piece in The New York Times about the Obama administration’s evolving stance on Iran, but it leaves out something that’s going to be an