Jason Stanford Posts

It's easier to explain how three women became the first women to earn their Army Ranger tabs than why Congressman Steve Russell suspects they got preferential treatment.

New rule: No wishing for a Katrina to hit your city so you can dismantle public schools.

Donald Trump is a clown, but is he really so out of place in today's Republican Party?

It's a sign of the times that the dumbest answer in the presidential campaign so far yielded the deepest question. As usual, Ted Cruz started it.

All politics is local, and sometimes it's loco. In Texas, our most abundant resource is ludicrous politicians (see also: Gohmert, Louie), but as much as it pains me to admit it, the craziest congressional candidate this year comes from California where Carl DeMaio is in a tight race to become the latest lunatic in the asylum we all call Congress.

Let us pause to observe a moment of silence for a time when politics stopped at the water’s edge. That quaint notion of national unity was mortally wounded immediately after the attack in Benghazi, and finally succumbed to complications after a prisoner exchange for an American POW in Afghanistan.

The arc of history is long, but it does not always bend towards justice. In Texas, it usually veers off and gets lost. A year ago, 15 people died in the fertilizer plant explosion in West, forcing the Texas legislature to pass regulations, but these new laws had jack squat to do with fertilizer plants. Instead, the legislature passed a bill regulating women's uteruses.

After unsuccessfully mansplaining equal pay for three weeks, Greg Abbott, the Republican frontrunner for Texas governor, finally changed the subject by citing the work of conservative libertarian scholar Charles Murray, a "white nationalist" who opposes universal pre-K. "Oops" doesn't quite cut it, but this is more than a simple gaffe. Using Murray's research could lead Republicans toward education policies that rely more upon eugenics than on equality.

The next big teen franchise is about to explode over movie screens nationwide on Mar. 21, except this time the kids aren't scared of werewolves, zombies, dark wizards or sparkly vampires. The villain in "Divergent" is something they can't run away from and they can't kill: standardized testing. Kids these days live in a world in which their futures are determined by high-stakes testing, making "Divergent" a dystopia they can believe in.

Sandy Kress, the controversial testing lobbyist, is leading a new raid on school taxes. This month he registered to lobby for Amplify, the company that wants to replace textbooks with tablet computers, positioning him to grab some of the hundreds of millions of dollars Education Sec. Arne Duncan is offering to create pre-K tests.

A reality TV star speaks out about gays and loses his job, albeit temporarily. Meanwhile, a professional football player speaks out about gays and loses his job, apparently permanently. Fair?

Half a century ago, Sid Davis was the first journalist to learn John Kennedy had died. Instead of breaking the biggest the biggest news story in the world, he waited because he wanted to make sure he was right. It is hard to image a journalist making the same choice nowadays amid our modern cacophony of inaccurate reporting, but perhaps Davis has something to teach us.

Half a century ago, Sid Davis was the first journalist to learn John Kennedy had died. Instead of breaking the biggest the biggest news story in the world, he waited because he wanted to make sure he was right. It is hard to image a journalist making the same choice nowadays amid our modern cacophony of inaccurate reporting, but perhaps Davis has something to teach us.

Ted Cruz said he would go to Washington to change Washington. Well, he's done it. He's united Democrats and more than a few Senate Republicans in hatred of Texas' very junior senator and your new 2016 GOP frontrunner. But as much as Cruz sincerely drives me nuts, he might be the best thing that has happened to Democrats since the last big government shutdown.

The new requirements for No Child Left Behind waivers from the Department of Education have some bad news for America's teachers. The Obama administration wants states to use standardized tests to not only judge students and schools but now teachers as well lest we lose ground to China

This summer I took my sons on a civil rights tour of the South. I wanted them to see the best of our history, how we rose above the institutionalized evil of slavery and segregation to form a more perfect union. If I'd planned it better, we would have stopped in San Antonio, where the debate about extending anti-discrimination law to gays and lesbians has taken an ugly, if paradoxically encouraging, turn.

The Southern Poverty Law Center isn’t taking the creation of Georgia State’s White Student Union lightly, and is keeping it on its watch list because of its founder’s ties to white supremacist groups.

For Texas, it’s the end of an error. Gov. Rick Perry, who became governor before the inventions of the iPod, hybrid cars, and YouTube, will forgo re-election to run a public policy think tank at a third-tier public university. While most political observers assume this is a first step to a second run for president, others take this as evidence that Republicans lead rich fantasy lives.

As Gov. Rick Perry touts the Texas Miracle to lure businesses from New York, Sen. Barbara Boxer will hold a hearing this week on the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas. But back home in Texas where 16 fertilizer plants are as large as the one in West, officials are putting the lazy in laissez-faire by adopting a voluntary "fertilizer happens" plan.

Cornyn and Cruz are not only staking out their opposition in anticipation of the month-long debate, but new territory as well. Both Texas senators were for comprehensive immigration reform before they were against it.