Think Progress

FLASHBACK: In Bush era, Inhofe decried ‘chilling effect’ of probing White House ‘regardless of administration.’ - Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who attacked investigations into the political interference on global warming regulation by the Bush White House, is now calling for probes into Obama’s “Presidential czars” who are taking action to crack down on greenhouse pollution. Yesterday, Inhofe sent a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson demanding “all correspondence and records” from [...]

Chamber Of Commerce Rewrites History: ‘We’ve Never Questioned The Science Behind Global Warming’ - Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Tom Donohue, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO
Energy companies are abandoning the sinking ship of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in droves over its opposition to clean energy action, whether by the EPA or by Congress.
Under pressure, Chamber president Tom Donohue today claimed the Chamber “continues to support strong federal legislation and a [...]

ThinkFast: September 23, 2009 - Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

President Obama “is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan,” including a plan advocated by Vice President Biden “to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda.” Despite launching a new strategy in March, the review comes amid deteriorating conditions, the recent disputed elections, and Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s dire report.
The [...]

First-Class Cornyn Offers Weak Defense Of His Exorbitant Travel Costs: Texas Is A Big State - Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has tried to portray himself as an upstanding lawmaker dedicated to fiscal restraint. He has frequently criticized “wasteful spending” in the federal government and even called President Obama’s spending plans “reckless.”
Last month, Politico published a chart illustrating the transportation costs from the offices of all 100 U.S. Senators. Topping off [...]

Anonymous Senate hold put on Harold Koh. - Thursday, June 4th, 2009

When Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh was nominated to be top legal counsel at the State Department, the right wing unleashed its hysteria, charging Koh of being an “transnationalist” who was bent on imposing Sharia law in the U.S. Now an anonymous senator has placed a hold on Koh’s nomination, a source told Talking [...]

National Review Falsely Accuses NASA Scientist James Hansen Of Violating The Hatch Act - Friday, June 27th, 2008

On Monday, NASA scientist James Hansen commemorated the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking testimony declaring that “the greenhouse effect is here” by again speaking on Capitol Hill. Though he reiterated much of what he’s said many times before about climate change, Hansen sparked controversy when he said that if CEOs of fossil fuel companies “don’t [...]

Dead Kennedys singer responds to Savage: How the hell does he get away with stuff like this? - Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Earlier this week, after Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) was diagnosed with a brain tumor, right-wing talker Michael Savage offensively mocked Kennedy’s condition by playing the Dead Kennedys song “California Über Alles” and reading aloud its lyrics on his radio show. In an expletive-laden interview with the Boston Phoenix, Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra responded [...]

McCain Claims ‘No One’ Believes Iraq ‘Diverted Our Attention’ From Quest To Catch Bin Laden - Monday, March 24th, 2008

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) continues to deny that the Bush administration’s turn to Iraq in late 2001 had any effect on the battle at Tora Bora, according to the LA Times yesterday:
“I know of no one who believes attention to Iraq at that point diverted our attention from Tora Bora,” McCain said. … [...]

White House Refuses To Disagree With Views Of Global Warming Deniers - Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Hundreds of people who don’t believe that humans contribute to global warming are currently congregated in New York City for a conference sponsored by the energy-industry funded Heartland Institute. Many of them, in fact, don’t believe that global warming even exists.
Conference participants include weather anchorman John Coleman, who wants to sue Al Gore to [...]

Five More Advertisers Abandon Michael Savage’s Hate-Filled Radio Show - Monday, February 11th, 2008

In November 2007, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) kicked off a campaign urging “radio listeners of all faiths to contact companies that advertise on Michael Savage’s nationally-syndicated radio program to express their concerns” about the conservative radio host’s anti-minority tirades. Since then, Brave New Films and a coalition of interfaith leaders have joined CAIR [...]

C-SPAN Gets Savaged By Right-Wing Radio Listeners - Friday, June 15th, 2007

Last week, right-wing radio host Michael Savage was presented a Freedom of Speech award at Talkers Magazine’s annual New Media Seminar. C-SPAN, which aired portions of the two-day event, chose to not air Savage’s acceptance speech because the conservative talker only appeared in a pre-recorded DVD speech.
Savage is now claiming he is a victim [...]

ThinkFast: May 30, 2007 - Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

The Bush administration is “nearing completion of a long-delayed executive order that will set new rules for interrogations” by the CIA. The order is expected to “ban the harshest techniques used in the past,” including waterboarding, “but to authorize some methods that go beyond those allowed in the military by the Army Field Manual.”
“More than [...]

Fox News Segment Falsely Claims That Denver Blizzard Casts Doubt On Global Warming - Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

Today, prominent climate skeptics Pat Michaels and Dan Gainor appeared on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto to argue that the recent snowstorms in Denver prove there is a “Northeast bias” on global warming. Both agreed with Cavuto’s claim that if “more of those who support global warming did not live in the East [...]

ThinkFast: December 12, 2006 - Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Democratic congressional leaders announced yesterday they plan to “place a moratorium on all earmarks until lobbying changes are enacted.”
President Bush met yesterday with three retired generals and two academics who disagreed with the Iraq Study Group’s plan “to reduce the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq and to reach out for help to Iran [...]

Virginia Asks Global Warming Skeptic To Stop Calling Himself ‘State Climatologist’ - Monday, August 21st, 2006

Patrick J. Michaels — a prominent critic of mainstream global warming science — bills himself as the “state climatologist” of Virginia to bolster his credibility. The State of Virginia has had enough. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
The governor’s office has sent a letter to the University of Virginia requesting that Patrick J. Michaels not use his [...]

LEAKED MEMO: Coal Industry Coordinating Propaganda Blitz Attacking Global Warming Science - Thursday, July 27th, 2006

A secret memo by the coal industry details a coordinated campaign to spread misinformation about global warming. The memo expresses fear that if the government addresses climate change — through a carbon tax or regulating greenhouse gasses — it will cut into their profits.
Their solution: “support the scientific community that is willing to stand [...]

The Climate Skeptic Playbook - Wednesday, June 21st, 2006

Jason Steort’s “clarification” of his misleading National Review cover story is accompanied by a letter-to-the-editor by Pat Michaels. Mr. Michaels is the one who told Steorts that 2002 was a “high-water mark for Antarctic ice” based on a grossly inaccurate interpretation of a study by Curt Davis.
In his letter, Michaels backs away from [...]

Steorts Issues ‘Clarification’ On Misleading Global Warming Article, Makes Another Error - Friday, June 16th, 2006

ThinkProgress has documented several critical errors in the National Review’s June 5 cover story on global warming, “Scare of the Century.”
In the new issue of National Review, Steorts owns up to one of his errors in a “clarification” letter to the editor. Here’s an excerpt:
CLARIFICATION
My article “Scare of the Century” (June 5) quoted University of [...]

Key Fact In National Review’s Global Warming Article Is ‘Completely Wrong’ - Friday, June 2nd, 2006

In the June 5 global warming cover story in the print edition of the National Review, scientist Curt Davis said author Jason Steorts completely misrepresented his study to argue that Antartica gained ice between 1992 and 2003. Steorts now maintains he omitted the fact that Davis’ study only covered the eastern interior of the continent [...]

National Review: ThinkProgress Doesn’t Have The ‘Slightest Idea What They Are Talking About’ - Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

Jason Lee Steorts of the National Review has published a column taking issue with our response to his cover story on global warming, “Scare of the Century.” The response is useful because it more explicitly exposes the tactics of Steorts and others trying to muddy the debate:
1. Discount the consensus of thousands of scientific experts [...]