By Corrie MacLaggan LEANDER, Texas, Feb 19 (Reuters) - First-term Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Tuesday staunchly defended h...

It's far too early to tell what the overall impact of the Occupy Wall Street movement will be on American politics. One year later, we know that the action in Zuccotti Park changed the conversation by putting economic injustice back on the nation's radar.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Monday that the TSA's security screening in U.S. airports needs to be more selective so grandmothers don't get "the spre...

I was born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany in 1948. From the day I became a naturalized US citizen, I have been as much an American as anyone. It is depressingly disconcerting, therefore, to hear the cacophony of voices accusing the President of the United States of not being "American," of being somehow foreign.

Michelle Bachmann and four Congressional colleagues released letters calling for an investigation on whether individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood have "had an impact on the federal government's national security policies."

Assaults on our constitutional protections are not new. They have been a recurring phenomenon for at least the last hundred years.

There is no other contemporary politician in the United States who reveals more about the sound and fury of the far right than Sarah Palin. Palin is nearly as important to our time as U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy was to the 1950s.

Throughout our history, unpopular groups have been targeted for the public's wrath in difficult times. Demagogues like King have been only too anxious to steer and cheer on this wrath.

During two of the most religious times of the year, shouldn't we pause and ask: When is some of the hatred and downright meanness that seems so prevalent in our political discourse going to end?

To this day, Peter King continues to describe the IRA as "a legitimate force" fighting British repression, which rather begs the question of how he views Hamas or Fatah.

By marginalizing a religious minority, King is sending a dangerous message to the Muslim community and the entire populous that runs counter to the very foundation of our nation.

Last night's resplendent Academy Awards ceremony put me in mind of a less opulent affair: the Associated Writing Program's annual conference earlier this month in Washington, D.C.

While the jury is out for today's Republicans, it's worth remembering Senator Margaret Chase as we discuss political rhetoric in the wake of Tucson.

America is not at war with Islam. But if Mr. King's hearings go as planned, it is a safe bet that lots of Muslims will believe the Republican party is.

Any group out there conspiring to subvert American democracy from within should hire the right wing as their PR machine; Newt Gingrich and friends have done a great job of destroying American values.