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Parkinson Foundation Debunks Limbaugh’s False Smears of Michael J. Fox

By ThinkProgress on Oct 24, 2006 at 8:18 pm

Rush Limbaugh has repeatedly attacked actor Michael J. Fox for appearing in television campaign ads promoting stem cell research. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, appears “visibly racked by tremors” in the ads.

“He is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Limbaugh told listeners yesterday. “He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act. … This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.”

According to the National Parkinson Foundation, Limbaugh has no idea what he’s talking about. The Washington Post reports:

[I]n an interview in Ladies Home Journal’s September edition, Fox said he was taking a medication that causes jerking, fidgeting and other abnormal involuntary movements, known as dyskinesia. Fox said he was taking another medication to lessen those side affects.

An official of the National Parkinson Foundation said movements like those exhibited by Fox are the result of taking medication to treat the disease, which would otherwise result in rigidity.

“When you see someone with those movements, it’s not because they have not taken medication but because they probably have taken medication for some time,” the official said. “If you don’t take the medication, then you freeze.”

Limbaugh continued the assault today, calling Fox’s video “an attack ad” that is “filled with disinformation about embryonic stem cell research.”

Politics

Snow Falsely Claims Bush Said ‘Stay The Course’ Only 8 Times (Actually, It’s At Least 30)

By ThinkProgress on Oct 24, 2006 at 5:52 pm

On Sunday, President Bush told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that his Iraq policy has “never been stay the course.” (Today, Rumsfeld disagreed, calling suggestions they were backing away from the phrase “nonsense.”)

Moments ago on Fox News, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said “we went back and looked today and could only find eight times where he [Bush] ever used the phrase stay the course.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/10/staythecourse.320.240.flv]

Apparently, the White House research team isn’t very good at “the Google.” ThinkProgress has documented 30 times that Bush has used the phrase to describe his policy in Iraq:

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Yglesias

Root Causes

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 24, 2006 at 4:55 pm

A quarrel between friends as Ezra Klein and Dana Goldstein kick around the paucity of female pundits. Both make good points. Both, however, also concede the relevance of the (very true) fact that you see a lot more male interest (as reflected in, say, New York Times op-ed submissions or American Prospect job applications) in the field. I actually think this is a bit of a red herring. After all, when you’re talking about the highest levels of the professional the nature of the applicant pool doesn’t matter at all.

Nobody’s going to turn down a job as an op-ed columnist at the Times or the Washington Post and you’re talking about a universe of maybe two dozen genuinely elite pundit jobs from which you have the entire universe of professional writers (and, as the case of Paul Krugman attests, actually a somewhat wider universe) to choose from — Virginia Postrel instead of John Tierney, say. It’s at least plausible that there’s a real applicant-pool problem at lower levels, but not at the highest levels. And I’m certain that if women stopped being underrepresented at the highest levels, the applicant-pool would start evening out soon enough. After all, the paucity of women at the very top of the field — the most prominent portion of it — is naturally going to discourage people from thinking that they should seriously try to get their feet in the door.

Security

Rumsfeld Agrees Bush Is ‘Not Backing Away From Staying The Course’

By ThinkProgress on Oct 24, 2006 at 4:47 pm

Faced with widespread disappoval of its Iraq policy, the Bush administration launched a coordinated effort this week to convince Americans it has never had a stay-the-course strategy in Iraq. On Sunday, President Bush said, “We’ve never been stay the course.” White House Counselor Dan Bartlett disavowed the label again yesterday.

But in a radio interview today with Sean Hannity, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed that the Bush administration isn’t planning to shift its strategy. Rumsfeld called media reports about Bush’s reversal “nonsense,” and said “of course” Bush is “not backing away from staying the course.”

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

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Full transcript: Read more

Politics

Administration Sends Troops Info on Foley Replacement, Doesn’t Mention Other Candidates

By ThinkProgress on Oct 24, 2006 at 3:50 pm

Last week, U.S. troops received messages from the State Department and the Pentagon explaining how to vote in the congressional race in ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-FL) former district.

The emails provided detailed instructions explaining how to vote for Foley’s replacement, Joe Negron, but failed to even mention the two other candidates in the race:

On September 29th, Mark Foley resigned from the United State House of Representatives. He also withdrew as the Republican Candidate for the House of Representatives in Florida’s 16th District.

Pursuant to Florida Law, the Florida Republican Party nominated Joe Negron as the Republican Candidate in the 16th District replacing Foley. Pursuant to Section 100.111(4) of Florida Statute, Foley’s name will remain on the ballot for both absentee and regular ballots. Any votes cast for Foley will count towards the total of the substitute candidate.

Voters from Florida’s 16th Congressional District should be aware that any votes cast for Mark Foley will be counted toward the total of Joe Negron. Additionally, voters who wish to cast a vote for Joe Negron should cast their vote for Mark Foley.

Read the full text of one of the State Department emails HERE.

There is no mention in this email of the other candidates in the race, Democrat Tim Mahoney and independent Emmie Ross. As a result, Mahoney had to issue a separate message to soldiers yesterday explaining that troops could also vote for him or Ross. Mahoney’s letter also included instructions on how soldiers could vote for Joe Negron.

Climate Progress

The Solution to Pollution is … Delusion?

By Joe Romm on Oct 24, 2006 at 3:18 pm

The Bush administration has once again walked away from the most cost-effective strategy for reducing future pollution.

“An Energy Ruling That’s Simply Hot Air,” is how the Washington Post put it:

A proposed “energy conservation standard” that the [Energy] department unveiled Oct. 6 moved the energy-efficiency needle almost imperceptibly for home gas furnaces — to 80 percent from 78 percent, the standard set in 1989. The agency rejected an option to raise the standard to 90 percent, which would have saved more energy and trimmed heating bills for consumers in colder climates.

The only thing missing from this excellent story is an explanation of why the best way to reduce future pollution is to use energy more efficiently (since that avoids generating the pollution in the first place). The Bush administration keeps repeating that technology is the solution to our energy and pollution problems – but the only technology the Bush administration seems interested in is long-term, breakthrough technology.

The two problems with the wait-for-breakthroughs strategy is 1) we no longer have time to wait for new technologies (at least if we want to avoid catastrophic warming) and 2) It is a delusion to think that newer technologies can automatically outcompete existing technologies with their vested political interests and well-established delivery channels.

Once new technology becomes existing technology, the Bush administration seems to lose complete interest in it. After all, this energy standard for new efficient furnace technology was strongly supported “by both energy conservation groups and some manufacturers.

If the only technologies this administration supports are hypothetical future technologies or existing technologies that have no political opposition whatsoever, then it is difficult to understand what their solution to pollution is.

Yglesias

New Column

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 24, 2006 at 3:02 pm

On Bush’s addled concept of diplomacy:

So, probably, to get them to do what we want them to do, we’re going to have to offer some kind of concessions or reassurances that they want. This is what used to be called “diplomacy.” Alternatively, we could — without warning and for no real reason — just announce a new national space strategy designed to cope with far-fetched scenarios but that can only be viewed as a major affront to the interests and sensibilities of other major powers like Russia and China.

This is precisely the sort of thing the Bush administration doesn’t seem to think about. And they don’t think about it because they don’t really understand what diplomacy is. To them, it’s simple. Diplomacy means talking. The alternative to diplomacy is coercion. If you want a country to do something, you might try to get it to do that thing through threats — either of military force or of economic sanctions. In situations where coercion is impossible or undesirable, they resort to their version of “diplomacy,” talking — saying what it is you want the other country to do, over and over again, in hopes that they will do it.

Read the whole thing! Or not.

Politics

Hastert testifies over page scandal.

By ThinkProgress on Oct 24, 2006 at 1:45 pm

Television cameras unexpectedly caught House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) entering the ethics committee meeting to testify about the Mark Foley page scandal. It was not previously known that Hastert would be testifying. ABC reported yesterday that the “investigation of how the Republican leadership handled the issue has provoked turmoil and finger-pointing in Hastert’s office.”

UPDATE: The AP has more.

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Politics

Don’t Count Your Models Before They’ve Hatched

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 24, 2006 at 1:44 pm

Ezra Klein touts a new statistical model forecasting “an expected Democratic gain of 32 seats with Democratic control (a gain of 18 seats or more) a near certainty.” Ezra remarks, “All the usual disclaimers apply, but things would have to go mighty awry for this election to slip through the left’s fingers.”

Well, let me offer some disclaimers. One is that there are two kinds of models based on historical data. One kind looks at the historical data, devises a model that fits the historical data well, and then offers a prediction based on the model. That’s what these guys have done. In another kind of model, you do the same thing and then, having offered your prediction, you wait for the election outcome and it turns out that your prediction was good. Then, next time around, the same thing happens. That is to say that in the second sort of situation your model is not only based on historical data, but has an actual track record of success. I’d be a lot more confident in a model with a track record, since there are actually any number of formulae that might fit the historical data well.

More concretely, I still worry that we might see a new al-Qaeda video aimed at tipping things toward the GOP. I wish more liberals were out there putting this worry and Brad Plumer’s argument about it, out there before it happens.

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