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A coalition of religious conservative groups will join forces the weekend prior to Thanksgiving to present “A Family Discussion With the Republican Candidates” at a Des Moines church. Four of seven candidates have confirmed their participation. In an email message sent Friday to supporters, Bob Vander Plaats , chief executive of The Family Leader , explained that the organization’s purposefully chose the weekend before Thanksgiving “in the hope of giving Iowans something to discuss at the Thanksgiving dinner table.” Working with The Family Leader, which is the political action arm of the state’s Family Research Council affiliate, are the National Organization for Marriage, a religious conservative organization devoted to opposing civil marriage for gays and lesbians, and CitizenLink, the national political arm of Focus on the Family

It read to me yesterday like the torture documents requested in the Senate intelligence committee’s intelligence authorization bill were probably documents from

A chief criticism of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, enacted in February, was that too large a portion went to tax cuts in lieu of spending. Critics,

From The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza: Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today

Reports are that at this week’s meeting of NATO foreign ministers, the Obama administration will press for the allies to contribute 10,000 additional troops to

The Awl explains how to vote, partially based on a Daniel Craig picture... ...but you’ll probably just pick the better-looking candidate. You can play

The news that dozens of House lawmakers are under scrutiny by ethics investigators -- reported last night by The Washington Post -- will likely stir a small

The Florida Senate is finishing up its work for today and won’t be meeting over the weekend, as was recently threatened by Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island. That means lawmakers will have until next week to figure out what will happen with its immigration-enforcement measure. # Haridopolos has suggested he’s interested in adding tougher provisions, including some that would bring the measure more in line with the House’s more-Arizona-like bill, but several members of the Hispanic caucus have already expressed opposition to the House approach — and reservations about the Senate’s. It’s not clear what changes will be made under the bill’s new carrier, budget chief J.D.

While high-profile, politically charged abortion battles are being waged in the Texas Legislature and Congress, the Texas Attorney General quietly issued a pair

Democratic Reps. Heath Shuler (N.C.) and Jim Cooper (Tenn.) will introduce a bill this week that would require each state to create a bipartisan redistricting

Days after the ACLU called for additional protections against sexual abuse of immigrant detainees, Human Rights Watch issued a report today demanding

Gov.

DENVER — As anticipated, President Obama this morning detailed his plan to use an executive order to ease the burden of student loan debt that presently presses down on tens of millions of Americans. Speaking in shirtsleeves and drawing on his own struggles with student debt as a young man, husband and father, Obama told the energized crowd in an event center hall on the downtown university Auraria Campus that he was determined for the foreseeable future to act wherever possible to relieve economic distress in the country without going through the gridlocked Congress.

Here’s something counterintuitive: the closer a person lives to Washington, D.C., the more likely it is that he or she watched the inauguration on

Daphne Eviatar is guest-blogging for Glenn Greenwald today. The following is cross-posted at Salon. Ever since The Los Angeles Times reported last weekend

He’s a Republican gladiator, not a conservative, said American Conservative Union chairman David Keene.

In stark contrast to the orange chicken canard about the treatment of Guantanamo detainees comes this disturbing Andy Worthington report on malnutrition at

Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall at a gay-rights event this weekend in Denver said he supports marriage equality for all Americans. Udall joins a growing list of lawmakers who have gone on record in support of ending the era where the federal Defense of Marriage Act and where constitutional bans like Colorado’s Amendment 43 blocked LGBT couples from the legal protections and advantages provided by the state through marriage