DEIB

Government Accused of Censorship

Staff / Truthdig Dec 19, 2006 The National Security Council has blocked publication of an article critical of the Bush administration's Iran policy, claiming that it contains classified information. The piece was written by two former government Mideast experts, who have accused the NSC of playing politics: "They don't want us to say how many opportunities this administration has missed to put relations with Iran on a better track." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Truthdigger of the Week: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift

Staff / Truthdig Dec 16, 2006 Truthdig tips its hat to the Navy lawyer who on Dec. 11 won a major ACLU award for his successful defense in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the U.S. Supreme Court case that dashed Bush administration efforts to try terror suspects in special military courts. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

New Jersey Gets Civil Unions

Staff / Truthdig Dec 15, 2006 Both houses of New Jersey's Legislature have approved the creation of civil unions, granting the protections of marriage to gay couples as required by a recent court ruling. The governor has said he will sign the bill, making New Jersey the third state to adopt civil unions. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Savage Goes ‘Straight’ With Colbert

Staff / Truthdig Dec 15, 2006 Stephen Colbert defines straight sex for gay sex columnist Dan Savage. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Probe Sought Into Evangelical Military Video

Staff / Truthdig Dec 12, 2006 A military watchdog group is accusing senior officers of coercing soldiers and airmen into adopting evangelical Christianity -- as demonstrated in a promotional video the senior officers appeared in. "We apparently have a radicalized, evangelical Christian Pentagon within the rest of the Pentagon," says the head of the watchdog group. Read about it here and here Watch the video here Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Public Money Used to Indoctrinate Prisoners

Staff / Truthdig Dec 11, 2006 Tax dollars are going toward an unlawful program of religious indoctrination in prisons, according to Iowa federal Judge Robert W. Pratt, who now finds himself fighting a battle against entrenched forces from evangelical ministries, prison corporations and the Bush administration. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Conservative Rabbis Issue Gay-Friendly Ruling

Staff / Truthdig Dec 7, 2006 A panel of Conservative rabbis has approved a relatively gay-friendly interpretation of Jewish law, paving the way for ordinations of gays and same-sex commitment ceremonies. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Critics Have No Love for Grandpa Cheney

Staff / Truthdig Dec 7, 2006 Dick Cheney is going to have another grandchild soon, this time from his openly gay daughter Mary (at left above). While the vice president expressed his joy at the announcement, advocacy groups spanning the political spectrum took the opportunity to sound off, with social conservatives bemoaning the horror of a fatherless childhood and gay rights groups pointing to Grandpa's history of hypocrisy on the issue. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Bush’s Pseudo-Watchdog Takes a Beating

Staff / Truthdig Dec 6, 2006 President Bush's puppet Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board held its first public meeting on Tuesday, getting an earful from civil liberty advocates and experts, including the ACLU's Caroline Fredrickson, who remarked: "Clearly, you've been fiddling while Rome burns." The group, though conceived by the 9/11 Commission and created by Congress, holds little power and its members serve at the pleasure of the president. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Colbert on Christian Conservative Hypocrisy

Staff / Truthdig Dec 6, 2006 Stephen Colbert mocks the Christian Coalition's rejection of Joel Hunter (last week's Truthdigger of the Week) as its president. Hunter wanted to expand the group's agenda to address the AIDS epidemic and poverty -- issues the Christian conservatives thought would cause people to confuse them with liberals, or perhaps Jesus. Watch it Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Robert Scheer: Becoming What We Despise

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Dec 6, 2006 The Founding Fathers won a war, but their true contribution to human history was to tackle head-on the reality that humans and their institutions can so easily become that which they despise. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

E.J. Dionne: Obama Wows the Religious Right

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Dec 6, 2006 Sen. Barack Obama's standing ovation at Pastor Rick Warren's church demonstrates why the Illinois senator is one of the hottest commodities in 2008 presidential politics. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )