Strip club owner’s dog shelter named for Gingrich opens.
Strip club owner’s dog shelter named for Gingrich opens.
Last September, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich retracted an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award he accidentally presented to Dallas strip club owner Dawn Rizos and refunded the $5,000 donation Rizos made to Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future. At the time, Rizos said she would take the money to build a shelter for unwanted pit bulls. The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that “Newt’s Nook: A Home For Pit Bulls” is now open:
A North Texas shelter for pit bulls has opened this week, thanks to a Dallas topless club owner’s contribution after Newt Gingrich’s conservative group snubbed her donation. [...]
Rizos says she decided to “make something positive out of his bad manners.”
She redirected the money to Animal Guardians of America’s sanctuary for rescued dogs in Celina, about 35 miles north of Dallas.
Gingrich didn’t attend the opening of “Newt’s Nook — A Home for Pit Bulls.”
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Beck’s Sexist Reason For Ruling Out Palin-Beck Ticket: She’d Always Be ‘Yapping’ Like We’re ‘In The Kitchen’
Beck’s Sexist Reason For Ruling Out Palin-Beck Ticket: She’d Always Be ‘Yapping’ Like We’re ‘In The Kitchen’
In recent days, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has indicated that she may be open to a conservative presidential dream ticket in 2012: Palin-Beck (or Beck-Palin). “I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I’m not there yet,” Palin told Newsmax. “But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He’s a hoot.” Fox and Friends plugged the idea yesterday morning and asked Palin whether she would run with Beck. She kept the door open, saying, “I don’t know. We’ll see, we’ll see.”
But just a few hours later on his radio show, Beck shot down the idea, saying he was “absolutely” ruling out a Palin-Beck ticket. He explained that if he had the number two job, Palin would always be “yapping” like they were in “the kitchen”:
BECK: I don’t think things are hoots. I don’t. I don’t think it’s a hoot. I would never use the word hoot, and I respectfully ask that every time my name is brought up she would stop using the word “hoot.” [...]
No, no I’m just saying — Beck-Palin, I’ll consider. But Palin-Beck — can you imagine, can you imagine what an administration with the two of us would be like? What? Come on! She’d be yapping or something, and I’d say, “I’m sorry, why am I hearing your voice? I’m not in the kitchen.”
Listen here:
A woman’s appropriate place on a presidential ticket, according to Beck, is in the number two spot. Otherwise, she should just “yap” away in a kitchen somewhere. Apparently, being a vice presidential running mate behind a woman is a serious challenge to Beck’s manhood.
When Newsweek ran a picture of Palin in a running outfit on its cover this month, Palin and many others criticized the magazine for being sexist. Beck joined the outrage, saying the “attack” on Palin was “dizzying” and “devastating.” He said Newsweek had reached “the highest of the lows” and added that the magazine now “sucks.”
Transcript: More »
27 Reasons To Give Thanks
27 Reasons To Give Thanks
We’re thankful President Obama is thinking long and hard about committing more troops and money to Afghanistan.
We’re thankful President Bush feels liberated now.
We’re (not) thankful Dick Cheney has elected to move from his undisclosed location to the media spotlight.
We’re thankful Al Franken has gone from playing self-help guru Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live to helping rape victims receive justice from their employers.
We’re thankful for the healing power of beer.
We’re thankful there are some on the right who think Glenn Beck is “incoherent,” “mindless,” “erratic,” “bizarre,” and “harmful to the conservative movement.”
We’re thankful for long hikes on the Appalachian Trail.
We’re thankful Michael Steele understands that he can’t “do policy” and that no one has any reason to trust his “words or actions.”
We’re (not) thankful for “birthers,” “deathers,” “tenthers,” or “tea baggers.”
We’re (not) thankful conservatives believe they love America so much that they can root for our President to fail and for our nation to lose out on hosting the Olympics.
We’re thankful NFL players refused to “bend over and grab the ankles” for Rush Limbaugh.
We’re thankful six companies have resigned from the Chamber of Commerce due to its denial of climate change science.
We’re thankful Falcon “Balloon boy” Heene wasn’t actually in the balloon.
We’re thankful Lt. Dan Choi and Lt. Col Victor Fehrenbach bravely spoke out against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
We’re thankful Shep Smith doesn’t always drink the Fox News kool-aid.
We’re thankful more than 80 companies refused to lend their sponsorship to Glenn Beck’s hateful rants.
We’re thankful there are progressive organizations in D.C. lobbying for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
We’re (not) thankful for the filibuster.
We’re thankful that more than 20,000 of you stood up to Bill O’Reilly’s harassment machine and called for impeachment hearings against torture advocate Jay Bybee.
We’re thankful that Iran’s authoritarian rulers live in fear of their own population.
We’re thankful we’ll no longer have to listen to nativist rhetoric on CNN and global warming skepticism on ABC News.
We’re (not) thankful for bailed out CEOs who think they’re doing “God’s work” by doling out billions in bonuses.
We’re thankful for the legacy of the Liberal Lion.
We’re thankful Bill O’Reilly won’t be following us home for Thanksgiving.
We’e thankful a “wise Latina” sits on the Supreme Court.
We’re thankful our boss helped rescue imprisoned American journalists in North Korea.
We’re also very thankful to have the support of readers like you! What are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments section.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Palin fuels presidential rumors: ‘I like’ the sound of ‘President Palin.’
Palin fuels presidential rumors: ‘I like’ the sound of ‘President Palin.’
Yesterday, Sarah Palin was greeted by a throng of supporters in The Villages, Florida — a retirement community northwest of Orlando. (Glenn Beck visited the same town this past weekend.) There were shouts of “We love you Sarah!” and “We want you to be president!” from the crowd. And Palin did plenty to stoke their hopes:
“I addressed her as ‘President Palin,’ ” said Debbie McMillan of Orlando. “She said, ‘I like that very much — I could live with that.’” […]
Sheila Schulte, 54, a resident of The Villages who was wearing a button on a red, white and blue scarf that read “Sarah Palin for President 2012,” leaned over and thanked Palin for serving as a great inspiration.
Palin responded, “You’re welcome and I like your pin.”
During her brief remarks, Palin encouraged the crowd to buy her new book. “You can read my story thus far — unfiltered by the media!” Aside from an interview with Fox News, Palin “took no questions” from the media.
SuperFreak Dubner Embraces ‘Climategate’ Swiftboating: ‘Everybody’s Scared To Be A Skeptic’
SuperFreak Dubner Embraces ‘Climategate’ Swiftboating: ‘Everybody’s Scared To Be A Skeptic’
Thousands of emails from the webserver of the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) — a top climate research center in the United Kingdom — “were hacked recently” and dumped on a Russian web server. Global warming deniers are sifting through the illegally obtained letters of private correspondence for “proof” that the scientific consensus on climate change is actually a global conspiracy to suppress “skeptics.”
This week, Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of SuperFreakonomics, embraced the fevered “Climategate” ravings of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and other global warming deniers in an interview with Fox Business Network host David Asman. Dubner purports that the hacked University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) emails reveal that the supposed consensus on global warming is because “everybody’s scared to be an outlier, everybody’s scared to be a skeptic.” After Asman compared climate scientists to Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler — Dubner did his own Glenn Beck impression, accusing “potent” scientists of “colluding” to “tell Al Gore what to say,” and “distorting evidence” to “make their findings be right for their position”:
You can’t read these e-mails and feel that the IPCC’s or the major climate scientists’ findings and predictions about global warming are kosher. You can’t. They may be, but if you read these you have to have a whole lot of skepticism about that. And of course, coming into Copenhagen these are going to have a big effect how the world looks at you. They’re going to say, “Wait a minute. You say these climate scientists have been telling us we have to stop burning fossil fuel tomorrow?”
Watch it:
The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio, Washington Times, and other news outlets are participating in this Swiftboat-style smear campaign, following the lead of actual Swiftboat smearer and former Limbaugh and Inhofe employee Marc Morano — instead of bothering to understand what the scientists were actually talking about in the hacked emails.
However, as climate scientist Richard Somerville explained yesterday, “The ice has no agenda.” Arctic sea ice is at historically low levels, Australia is on fire, the northern United Kingdom is underwater, the world’s glaciers are disappearing, and half of the United States has been declared an agricultural disaster area. And it’s the the hottest decade in recorded history.
By asking whether “we have to stop burning fossil fuel tomorrow,” Dubner — a top blogger for the New York Times — gets to the heart of why this bizarre theory of a cabal of all-powerful climatologists is getting support from conservative media and politicians. The incontrovertible science — based not on manipulated data but on decades of basic research — is that the burning of fossil fuels is drastically reshaping our planet’s climate and acidifying the oceans. And the only known way to restore conditions to those safe for human civilization is to dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels. Doing so, however, would affect the incredible profits and power of the oil and coal industries, and of their ideological allies.
In fact, if we stop treating our atmosphere like a sewer, the climate system will heal itself over time, potentially more rapidly than we expect. That our past inaction will continue to bear consequences into the future is a reason to act with greater swiftness, not to dither further. The longer we delay, the more difficult and expensive the challenge to reduce pollution while adapting to a hostile world becomes.
John ‘100 Years’ McCain: Afghanistan Policy Needs Less Focus On ‘An Exit Strategy’
John ‘100 Years’ McCain: Afghanistan Policy Needs Less Focus On ‘An Exit Strategy’
Last night Fox News, host Greta van Susteren asked former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) what he thought of reports that President Obama plans announce his intention to send 34,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan. McCain said he’s not concerned about how many troops Obama is sending, he just wants to succeed — regardless of whether we have an exit strategy or not:
VAN SUSTEREN: What do you think about that? Is that a decision that — that you think is a wise one or do you want the full 40,000 that was originally requested?
MCCAIN: Well, I’m not so much concerned about the number because I understand that it may be additional allied troops to help out, too. I’d like to look at the overall strategy. I would like to see the emphasis on succeeding, not on an exit strategy.
Greta, the exit strategy takes care of itself once you succeed just as it did in Iraq. But I’d like to hear the whole thing. I hope the president will make the right decision here. And I would like to support him if he does.
Watch it:
At least McCain is consistent; an exit strategy for the war in Iraq has been of little concern to him as well. When running for president, the Arizona senator and fervent Iraq war supporter said he would “be fine with” the U.S. military staying in Iraq for “a hundred years” and later “excitedly declar[ed] that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for ‘a thousand years’ or ‘a million years,’ as far as he was concerned.”
Indeed, as the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss has noted, McCain’s knee-jerk reactions to the crises in Iran last June and in Georgia last October, and now with his “no exit strategy necessary” policy, reminds the U.S. of the bullet it dodged last November by not electing him president.
Obama reportedly plans to announce an exit strategy in the coming days.
VIDEO REPORT: Eric Cantor Hosts Another Job Fair That Promotes Jobs Fueled By The Stimulus
VIDEO REPORT: Eric Cantor Hosts Another Job Fair That Promotes Jobs Fueled By The Stimulus
On Monday, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) hosted a job fair in his district at Germanna Community College. Like his last job fair in August, Cantor used it as an opportunity to gain positive local press and launch attacks against President Obama.
At the fair, Cantor told reporters that the stimulus has been an “utter failure.” But as the Washington Post has noted, nearly half of the “30 organizations participating” in Cantor’s event “were recipients of the stimulus.”
ThinkProgress attended the event, which attracted more than 600 people. Victor Zapanta produced a video report on Cantor’s stimulus-fueled job fair. Watch it:
So far, the stimulus has injected over $5 billion into Virginia, creating or saving at least 5,900 jobs. The money has helped local governments avoid budget cuts and layoffs, while spurring private investment by funding infrastructure and other critical projects. Many of the employers at Cantor’s job fair were a clear demonstration of the success of the stimulus:
– The Culpeper County School system will have a total of $4.1 million in stimulus funding to work with for the fiscal year 2010. The school system is hiring 7 people and the stimulus is helping to retain the over 700 people employed by the system. In March the Culpeper School Board, which is not authorized to levy taxes, approved a $70.6 million budget. As the Culpeper Star-Exponent reported, “the school budget includes $2.2 million in recently approved stimulus money.”
– Higher education institutions at the fair were encouraging job-seekers to go back to school. Many of universities, like Grand Canyon University, touts federal TEACH and Pell grants as a way to attend. The stimulus provided $14 million in Pell Grants.
– The Orange County Public Schools received at least $340,000 from the stimulus and is hiring 7 people.
It’s worth noting that among the job fair participants, more than half were from the public sector, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the CIA, FBI, Army and the FAA –- even though Cantor previously has criticized the stimulus plan for placing too great an emphasis on “preserving jobs in the public sector.” In Virginia alone, the Department of Defense has 83 projects totaling $75.7 million in stimulus money. It’s no wonder Cantor would feature the Culpeper Army recruiting center at his fair, especially since the Army in Virginia has received $61 million in stimulus money.
As the Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen observed, “the job fair at which Cantor trashed the stimulus wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the stimulus.”
Palin Suggests Reforming Canada’s Universal Health Care System: ‘Let The Private Sector Take Over’
Palin Suggests Reforming Canada’s Universal Health Care System: ‘Let The Private Sector Take Over’
Canadian comedian Mary Walsh (playing the character of Marg Delahunty) attended a Sarah Palin book signing in the United States last week and asked the “thrilla from Wasilla, the Alaskan Aphrodite” if she had “any words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so hard to try to diminish that kind of socialized medicine we have up there.”
“Keep the faith and that common-sense conservatism,” Palin said to Walsh, who was being pushed out of the store by bodyguards. “It needs to be plugged into Canadian policies too. Keep the faith!” Palin cried out.
After the event, Walsh waited in the loading dock of the Borders bookstore “close to where Palin’s bus was parked.” Palin came over and energetically encouraged Walsh to “keep the faith” again and suggested that Canada needs to reform its health care system to “let the private sector take over”:
WALSH: Ms. Palin, I tried to ask you a question inside, but I didn’t hear your answer! The Canadians! Ms. Palin!
PALIN: Well, my answer was too keep the faith. My answer was to keep the faith. Cause that common sense conservatism can be plugged-in there in Canada too. In fact Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed. So thank you, keep the faith.
Watch it:
In Canada, “the private sector” is already “a crucial part” of the Canadian health care system. The federal government finances the basic health care plan, (through a “Medicaid-like arrangement in which Canada’s 10 provinces and 2 territories jointly fund” the system), but care is independently organized and managed by each province or territory. Canadians spend billions on private supplemental coverage and physicians work in private practices. Everyone has access to care, and patients “can see any doctor they want anywhere in the country with no copays or deductibles.”
While the system has longer waiting periods for certain elective surgeries, research suggests that Canadians do enjoy better access to care and “superior” health outcomes compared to Americans. According to a Commonwealth Fund of deaths that could have been prevented “with access to quality medical care in the leading 19 industrialized countries,” the United States ranked last and Canada came in sixth.
Perino: ‘We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.’
Perino: ‘We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.’
Last night on Fox News, host Sean Hannity whined — as he usually does — about how the Obama administration doesn’t use the term “war on terror” (which is actually a good thing). Former Bush administration spokesperson and current Fox analyst Dana Perino joined in, complaining that no one is calling the massacre at Ft. Hood a terrorist attack. She then made this astonishing statement:
PERINO: And we had a terrorist attack on our country. And we should call it what it is. Because we need to face up to it so that we can prevent it from happening again.
HANNITY: I agree with you. And why won’t they say what you just so simply said?
PERINO: They want to do all of their investigations. I don’t know. All of the thinking that goes into it. But we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term. I hope they’re not looking at this politically. I do think we ought it to the American people to call it what it is.
Watch it:
Of course, the terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 — eight months into President Bush’s first term. But also, conservatives like to claim that the Bush administration prevented any terror incidents in the U.S. since 9/11. But they conveniently forget the anthrax attacks on U.S. news organizations and members of Congress over the course of several weeks beginning on Sept. 18, 2001.
REPORT: At Least 40 GOP Lawmakers Fail A Principle Of The ‘Purity Test’
REPORT: At Least 40 GOP Lawmakers Fail A Principle Of The ‘Purity Test’
Yesterday, Republican National Committee member Jim Bopp unveiled a resolution to deny funding of candidates who do not uphold right-wing conservative values. The resolution, termed a “purity test,” is being touted as a mechanism for actually avoiding the party schism that occurred in the NY-23 special election, when the Republican Party nominated a moderate who violated several of the resolution dictates.
As the Hotline has noted, the resolution, if adopted, would boot key Republican candidates running for the Senate next year. National Republicans recruited Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) to run for the Senate, even though they have bucked conservative orthodoxy in the past.
ThinkProgress has conducted an analysis that finds at least 40 current Republican members of Congress have violated at least one principle of the purity test:
Purity Pledge #1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill
– The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus) was passed with support from Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
Purity Pledge #2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare
– Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) voted for the health reform bill passed by the House.
Purity Pledge #3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation
– The Waxman Markey cap and trade clean energy bill was passed with support from GOP Reps. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Mike Castle (R-DE), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Dave Reichert (R-WA), and Chris Smith (R-NJ).
Purity Pledge #4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check
– In 2007, the House passed the Employee Free Choice Act with support from Republican Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA), Don Young (R-AK), Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Peter King (R-NY), and Steve LaTourette (R-OH).
Purity Pledge #5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants
– The McCain-Kennedy 2006 immigration bill would have “legalized millions of undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. if they paid fines, paid back taxes and learned English.” Republican Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Dick Lugar (R-IN), George Voinovich (R-OH), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Bennett (R-UT), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voted for the bill.
Purity Pledge #6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges
– In 2007, both Republican Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) cosponsored resolutions opposing a troop surge in Iraq. In the House, Reps. Bob Inglis (R-SC), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Dean Heller (R-NV), Walter Jones (R-NC), Tim Johnson (R-IL), Mike Castle (R-DE), Howard Coble (R-NC), Ron Paul (R-TX), Tom Petri (R-WI), Fred Upton (R-MI), and Steve LaTourette (R-OH) supported a resolution opposing the Iraq surge. In addition, Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Ed Whitfield (R-KY), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), John Duncan (R-TN), and Tim Johnson (R-IL) have signed onto a letter opposing a troop surge in Afghanistan.
Purity Pledge #7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat
– Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Dick Lugar (R-IN) both voted to remove North Korea from the state-sponsors of terror list. Sen. Lugar also voted against a 2007 resolution urging action against Iran. In the House, Reps. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Ron Paul (R-TX), and Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) voted against further sanctions against Iran in 2007.
Purity Pledge #10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership
– Earlier this year, Sen. John Thune’s (R-SD) “concealed carry” gun amendment failed to receive the 60 votes it needed to pass. Republican Senators Dick Lugar (R-IN) and George Voinovich (R-OH) opposed the measure.
Already, conservative leaders like RedState’s Erik Erickson are saying that Bopp’s purity resolution doesn’t even go far enough. On Monday night, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann noted that President Ronald Reagan violated 6 of the 10 purity tests. “Ronald Reagan was a Democrat?” asked Olbermann, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
ThinkFast: November 25, 2009
ThinkFast: November 25, 2009
The latest USA Today/Gallup poll has found that public confidence in President Obama’s handling of the war in Afghanistan has plummeted. The poll finds that 55% disapprove of the way he is handling Afghanistan, and only 35% approve, a sharp reversal from his 56% approval rating four months ago.
The USA Today/Gallup poll also finds 42% of Americans are opposed to the passage of a health reform bill this year, while only 35% support it. Similarly, a recent CBS News poll reports only 40% approve of the proposed health care plans, while 45% disapprove.
“The percentage of Americans who believe global warming is happening has dipped from 80 to 72 percent in the past year,” but “a majority still support a national cap on greenhouse gas emissions.” The increase in climate skepticism “is driven largely by a shift within the GOP.”
Senior Fed officials “expect the unemployment rate to remain in the 6.8 to 7.5 percent range at the end of 2012 and said it could take ‘about five or six years’ from now for economic activity to return to normal.”
Phillip Carter, the Defense Department official in charge of closing the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, “has resigned after only seven months in the job.” Carter resigned last Friday for “personal reasons.”
Huckabee Shies Away From Criticizing Limbaugh, Citing Fear Of His Big Microphone
Huckabee Shies Away From Criticizing Limbaugh, Citing Fear Of His Big Microphone
Last month, President Obama visited Dover Air Force Base to honor 18 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. One family allowed the media to photograph the return of their fallen member. Soon after, the right wing went straight into attack mode. “It was a photo op precisely because he’s having big-time trouble on this whole Afghanistan dithering situation,” hate radio host Rush Limbaugh said.
But Mike Huckabee took a different tack, calling the right-wing attacks “deplorable.” “I think it was the Commander-in-Chief of our military paying respect to a dead soldier, and I’m grateful that he did that, and I was proud of him for doing that,” Huckabee said. In a recent interview, CBS’ Katie Couric asked Huckabee if he was criticizing Limbaugh, but Huckabee declined to take the bait:
COURIC: Were you referring to anyone in particular or anyone specific because I know Rush Limbaugh had criticized the day before you made that statement.
HUCKABEE: No one in particular. I wasn’t criticizing Rush. He’s got a bigger megaphone and microphone than I do and I’m not going to get into a war with him. It wasn’t about Rush Limbaugh; it was about the general tenor. I read editorials, I heard people on commentary shows.
Watch it (starting at 31:05):
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Huckabee, a potential GOP candidate for president in 2012, apparently knows the dangers of criticizing the Party’s de-facto leader. Numerous Republicans over the past year — including RNC Chairman Michael Steele — have criticized Limbaugh at one point or another but then came crawling back to apologize.
After conceding, then unconceding, then conceding, then unconceding, Hoffman now concedes.
After conceding, then unconceding, then conceding, then unconceding, Hoffman now concedes.
On Nov. 16, ThinkProgress reported that failed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman told Glenn Beck that he was unconceding the NY-23 special election, even though the winner, Democrat Bill Owens, was already in office. Shortly thereafter, however, Hoffman’s spokesman said that they weren’t unconceding the race. But then on Nov. 19, Hoffman posted a statement on his website, this time making clear that he was actually unconceding the race, citing concerns about voter fraud at the hands of ACORN and labor unions. Today, Hoffman has put out another statement, this time saying that he is conceding:
Yesterday, the remaining ballots were counted in the 23rd Congressional District special election. The results re-affirm the fact that Bill Owens won.
Since, the morning of November 4th, many of my supporters have asked me to challenge the outcome of this race. Their concerns centered on the veracity of the new voting machines used, for the first time, in the majority of the eleven counties that make up the Congressional District. Over the past three weeks, we nearly cut Bill Owens’ lead in half. Sadly, that is not enough.
How the recession is affecting Thanksgiving.
How the recession is affecting Thanksgiving.
While many Americans will be sitting down to a hearty Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, too many others will go hungry. With the current recession and increasing unemployment, the number of Americans who lacked enough food hit a record high in 2008, and charities can’t keep up. A look at what’s going on around the country:
– Phoenix: “Donations aren’t meeting demand this year” at St. Mary’s food bank. They’re hoping to receive 26,000 donated turkeys, but by Monday they were only halfway there. “A lot of people who used to give as donors are now coming to us and asking for food,” said St. Mary’s Jerry Brown. “These 3 days are going to be make-or-break whether or not we’re going to be able to feed everybody this year,” Brown added.
– Mississippi: The Mississippi Food Network, which supplies non-profits throughout the state, has decided that it cannot provide turkeys this year “for the first time ever.” It expects to feed nearly double the number of people as it did last year and the cost of turkey has gone up.
– Houston: Organizers are expecting 25,000 needy people to show up at the convention center on Thursday, but they are almost “in the panic mode” as “more than a dozen companies that financially supported the dinner in years past have pulled out, and 60 percent of the remaining donors have scaled back their donations.” As of Saturday, they had fewer than a third of the number of turkeys they need and lacked “the traditional Thanksgiving Day vegetables.”
– Boston: The Greater Boston Food Bank gave out 38,000 turkeys last year. This year, a ticker on their website shows they have collected just 4,200 so far.
Hunger relief agency Feeding America found that 99 percent of food banks reported increases in demand for emergency food aid. But due to weak donations, 78 percent have had to reduce the amount of food provided and 55 percent have had to turn people away.
Dick ‘Five Deferments’ Cheney Talks About War From The ‘Perspective’ Of U.S. Troops
Dick ‘Five Deferments’ Cheney Talks About War From The ‘Perspective’ Of U.S. Troops
In a new interview with right-wing radio host Scott Hennen, Vice President Cheney again criticizes President Obama’s national security policies, harping on his belief that Obama is “dithering” on Afghanistan and endangering U.S. troops. To make his point, Cheney talked about the “perspective” of men and women serving on the front lines:
I worry that there’s a lack of understanding there of what this means from the perspective of the troops. You know, if you’re out there on the line day in and day out and putting your life at risk on a volunteer basis for the nation, and you see the Commander in Chief unable, to or appearing to be unable, to make a decision about the way forward here — you know that raises serious doubts. Nobody wants to think of volunteering to be participate in that kind of operation. [...]
It may in part be inexperience on Obama’s part. It may be that there’s confusion on the staff. But I’m not encouraged by it.
Listen here (beginning at 2:20):
Cheney really doesn’t have any more authority on this subject than Obama does. He neither served in the military, nor has he been Commander-in-Chief. As the New York Times noted in 2004:
Eventually, like 16 million other young men of that era, Mr. Cheney sought deferments. By the time he turned 26 in January 1967 and was no longer eligible for the draft, he had asked for and received five deferments, four because he was a student and one for being a new father.
Bush administration officials also seemed to think that they were soldiers in the military, with former White House press secretary Tony Snow saying that President Bush was on the “front lines” and “in the war every day.” In April 2007, First Lady Laura Bush said that “no one suffers more than their President and I do” during wartime, and Bush would speak on behalf of U.S. servicemembers to bolster his policy ideas. “The [military] families gathered here understand that our troops want to finish the job,” Bush said in 2007 during a speech opposing Iraq redeployment.
Seattle Chamber of Commerce: Unlike the U.S. Chamber, we’re ‘environmentally progressive.’
Seattle Chamber of Commerce: Unlike the U.S. Chamber, we’re ‘environmentally progressive.’
It is becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the right-wing lobbying giant, is not actually the “voice of business” when it opposes climate action. Yesterday, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce became the latest organization to distance itself from the national chamber’s reactionary stance on global warming and clean energy legislation. In a policy statement, Chamber President and CEO Phil Bussey said, “The Greater Seattle Chamber is one of the most environmentally progressive business organizations on the West Coast”:
In short, we are the “captains of our own destiny” and our positions are not dictated by the U.S. Chamber on this or any other matter.
“The incident,” the Puget Sound Business Journal writes, “again underscores the fact that the business community, far from being monolithic, is just as politically diverse as the rest of the country.”
petition @chamberpost: The US #Chamber does not represent me. It is Not My #Chamber! http://act.ly/1cc #notmychamber #p2
The Boulder Chamber is completely unaffiliated with the U.S. Chamber. They are a membership association and we have chosen not to be a member. . . . We are committed to Boulder's environmental, economic and social sustainability. As is appropriate, the Boulder Chamber reflects the community values in which we live, work and play.
Dobbs Embarks On His Political Career, Claims He’s Reaching Out To Latino Groups To ‘Bridge’ Differences
Dobbs Embarks On His Political Career, Claims He’s Reaching Out To Latino Groups To ‘Bridge’ Differences
Since Lou Dobbs left CNN, he has been mulling a run for office — possibly even for president. Yesterday in an interview with WTOP radio, Dobbs said that part of his strategy to transition from being a media figure is to reach out to all the Latino organizations he alienated while at CNN:
DOBBS: And for the first time, I’m actually listening to some people about politics. I don’t think I’ve got the nature for it, but we’ve got to do something in this country, and I think that being public arena means you’ve got to part of the solution. By the way, I’m reaching out right now to Latino groups, to the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable — all of the groups with whom I’ve been in an ongoing debate, to try to bridge some of these conflicts and try to create solutions. And I think we’re well on our way to doing that.
Listen here:
ThinkProgress spoke with Lisa Navarrete, vice president at the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. Navarrette said that Dobbs had not yet reached out to the group at all.
Dobbs did recently do an interview with Telemundo, in which he said that he was one of the Latino community’s “greatest friends.” However, he also falsely denied ever saying that undocumented immigrants are bringing leprosy to the United States, instead attacking the interviewer for even bringing up the subject. If he wants to start to “bridge” the differences with the Latino community, maybe he should start by not only apologizing for portraying undocumented immigrants as carriers of diseases, but also as criminals and invaders intent on conquering the United States for Mexico, as well as for promoting dangerous nativist conspiracy theories.
Transcript: More »
A Dobbs run would immediately activate Hispanic voters who are predominately Democratic party supporters. In 2008, Hispanics went for Obama 67 to 31 percent. Next time around, they'll be a much larger chunk of the electorate -- Hispanics are one of the fastest growing populations in the country -- and, if Dobbs runs, not only will they be weighing all of the issues that are important to all voters, they'll also be facing a candidate whose careless smears of illegal immigrants and embrace of Minutemen groups have made him a symbol of xenophobia. If that doesn't boost turn-out among that community on election day, I don't know what will.
Pelosi warns of history repeating itself ‘if we pull our punch’ on job creation.
Pelosi warns of history repeating itself ‘if we pull our punch’ on job creation.
With the unemployment rate above 10 percent and states across the country facing budget shortfalls, Democrats in Congress are looking at various measures to spur job creation. At the same time, though, deficit-mania has infected the political world, including the White House, which is reportedly going to “focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010.” On a conference call today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explained how she plans to reconcile deficit complaints with the need to pass an adequate jobs bill:
We’re never going to decrease the deficit until we create jobs, bring revenue into the Treasury, stimulate the economy so we have growth. We have to shed any weakness that anybody may have about not wanting to be confrontational on this subject for fear that we’d be labeled not sensitive to the deficit. … The American people have an anger about the growth of the deficit because they’re not getting anything for it. … So if somebody has the idea that the percentage of GDP of what or national debt is will go up a bit, but they will now — and their neighbors and their children — will have jobs, I think they could absorb that. … If we pull our punch, as they did in the mid-30’s, we shouldn’t be surprised if history repeats itself.
Listen here:
During the Depression, President Roosevelt’s policies brought the unemployment rate down to 14 percent, from 24 percent, by 1937. But then, as Paul Krugman explained, Roosevelt “mistakenly heeded the advice of his own era’s deficit worriers. He sharply reduced government spending, among other things cutting the Works Progress Administration in half, and also raised taxes. The result was a severe recession, and a steep fall in private investment.” The Wonk Room has more.
O’Reilly: ‘Jesse Watters Is Responsible For Bill Moyers Leaving’ PBS
O’Reilly: ‘Jesse Watters Is Responsible For Bill Moyers Leaving’ PBS
On Friday, distinguished veteran PBS journalist Bill Moyers announced that he was retiring from weekly television. “I am 75 years old,” he explained, noting that “Bill Moyers Journal” had been having a “good run of it,” so he felt “it’s time.”
Last night on his Fox News show, Bill O’Reilly used the news to attack Moyers and his journalistic ethics. He also claimed that his producer, Jesse Watters, was solely responsible for Moyers resigning. “Now I think we — Jesse Watters drove him out of PBS,” said O’Reilly. “I think Jesse Watters is responsible for Bill Moyers leaving.” Watch it:
In 2007, Watters ambushed Moyers on the street outside his home. O’Reilly had Watters harass Moyers after the PBS journalist ran a program about impeaching President Bush. O’Reilly claimed that Moyers symbolized “Americans who want their country to lose in Iraq, based upon hatred of all things Bush,” which he determined was a good reason to send his henchman to Moyers’ house. According to O’Reilly, this one interview was what drove Moyers out of his job two years later.
Of course, what O’Reilly didn’t show was a 2008 confrontation between Moyers and Fox News producer Porter Berry, which didn’t go as O’Reilly had planned. This time, Moyers turned the tables on Berry and called O’Reilly a coward for sending out producers to do his dirty work and for refusing to appear on his PBS show. Watch it:
Last night was a prime example of O’Reilly’s inflated ego. He has also taken sole credit for saving Christmas, lowering gas prices, John McCain being behind in the polls in October 2008 (because the senator refused to appear on The O’Reilly Factor), and Spanish prosecutors deciding to drop an investigation into the Bush administration’s torture regime (because O’Reilly threatened a Spanish boycott).
Later in the segment, O’Reilly added that another reason that Moyers is retiring is because PBS was mad at him for not being tough enough on Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a 2008 interview.
Transcript: More »
RNC Hires ‘Father Of The Modern Attack Ad’ To Run Communications Shop
RNC Hires ‘Father Of The Modern Attack Ad’ To Run Communications Shop
Yesterday, a senior aide to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, Trevor Francis, resigned from his position as communications director. “Trevor’s talents will be missed at the RNC,” said Steele in a statement. “We have accomplished a great deal in the year he was here. He worked tirelessly, as did the whole team, on the victories in Virginia and his home state of New Jersey.”
But Politico’s Jonathan Martin reports that Francis’ abrupt departure was not by choice, quoting two Republican strategists who say that Francis was “pushed out” because Steele “didn’t feel he was getting enough credit for the GOP’s electoral success earlier this month.” Steele apparently attributes this to a communications failure by Francis.
Francis is being replaced by Alex Castellanos, a CNN contributor who fashions himself as the “father of the modern attack ad.” Castellanos is no stranger to the RNC, having received four payments totaling $434,336 from them for media work since July. Castellanos has also been a key player in the effort to stop health care reform:
– His political consulting firm, National Media, was the ad buyer for the insurance industry group America’s Health Insurance Plan’s (AHIP) recent ad blitz attacking Democratic health reform plans.
– In July, he wrote a memo for the GOP leadership on how to kill health reform that emphasized the use of buzzwords to characterize Democratic plans — like “risky” and “experiment” — but most importantly defined the ultimate goal: “If we slow this sausage-making process down, we can defeat it.”
– He has repeatedly used his pundit perch on CNN to attack President Obama’s health care reform effort, calling it “a big gamble” and an “expensive trillion-dollar experiment.”
Before the health care debate, Castellanos was best known as the creator of the racially-charged “Hands” advertisement, which ran on behalf of former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC). In May 2008, Castellanos defended sexism during the 2008 campaign by saying that sometimes it’s “accurate” to describe a woman as a “bitch.”
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