Think Progress

SuperFreak Dubner Embraces ‘Climategate’ Swiftboating: ‘Everybody’s Scared To Be A Skeptic’ - Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

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 [...]

Ollie North Launches New War Against ‘Cap And Tax,’ ‘Bird Eating Machines,’ And The ‘Myth Of Global Warming’ - Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Lt. Col. Oliver North (Ret.) has launched a new war against the “cap and tax” plans of President Barack Obama and the “socialists in Congress.” North — when not serving as a Fox News correspondent — runs the Freedom Alliance, an organization supposedly dedicated to “defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a [...]

The Board Of The ‘Voice Of Business’ Is A Republican Money Machine - Saturday, November 14th, 2009

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which purports to be “the voice of business,” is run by a Republican money machine. As the nation’s largest lobbying shop, the Chamber is spending millions of dollars from its corporate members against President Obama’s progressive agenda of health care, energy, and financial reform. The Chamber claims that the “board’s [...]

Diane Sawyer Uses Glenn Beck To Attack Al Gore For Not Eating ‘Tofurkey’ - Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

ABC’s Good Morning America host Diane Sawyer sandbagged Vice President Al Gore this morning with an attack by Glenn Beck. Gore was appearing on the show to discuss his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. Smiling, Sawyer introduced a mocking clip from the Fox News pundit. “Here’s Glenn Beck,” she [...]

Jon Stewart Praises ‘SuperFreak’ Author: ‘I’m Sorry You’ve Taken So Much S**t’ - Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

On last night’s Daily Show, host Jon Stewart heaped praise on the contrarian approach to global warming taken by SuperFreakonomics author Steve Levitt, a University of Chicago economist. Stewart was dismissive of the widespread criticism of Levitt and co-author Stephen Dubner, asking, “Have you stepped on a secular religion?” Stewart, often a tough interviewer, coddled [...]

McCain To Make His 15th Appearance On A Sunday Show This Year - Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been booked for yet another Sunday talk show appearance this weekend — this time on CBS’ Face The Nation. Despite a “wildly unsuccessful presidential campaign” last year and his comparative irrelevancy in the U.S. Senate, this will mark the 15th time McCain has appeared on a Sunday talk show since [...]

SuperFreakonomics Gets Climate Change Super Freaking Wrong - Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Today is Blog Action Day, with thousands of blogs discussing global warming. Matt Yglesias, the Wonk Room, and now ThinkProgress have participated.
SuperFreakonomics, the forthcoming sequel to the pop-economics bestseller Freakonomics by economists Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, devotes 44 pages to a contrarian view of climate change, calling global warming a “religion.” Much [...]

Beck: Obama should turn down the Nobel and give it ‘to the Tea Party goers and the 9-12 Project.’ - Friday, October 9th, 2009

Engaging in a bit of explicit blog-baiting on his radio show today, Glenn Beck declared the naming of President Obama as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient “the last nail in the coffin” for the credibility of the Nobel committee. Beck conspiratorially claimed that the award revealed that “these progressives are extraordinarily powerful and this [...]

President Barack Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize. - Friday, October 9th, 2009

The Nobel Committee announced early this morning that President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Obama has “created a new climate in international politics,” the committee said in its announcement, referencing Obama’s agenda to reduce the world’s nuclear stockpiles through [...]

Al Gore: ‘We have a moral duty to pass health care reform.’ - Monday, August 31st, 2009

Former Vice President Al Gore, who endorsed universal health care well before most other elected Democrats in 2002, told a meeting of Tennessee Democrats Sunday that the country has “a moral duty to pass health care reform this year.” Gore implore activists to mobilize to “give President Obama the victory our country needs”:
“We have a [...]

Texas Secessionist To Health Care Reform Advocates: ‘Go Back To The U.S. Where You Belong’ - Monday, August 31st, 2009

On Friday, ThinkProgress reported that “tenthers” in Texas were set to hold a pro-secession rally in Austin this weekend. According to the Texas Observer, upwards of 200 people attended the rally, where one speaker declared, “We hate the United States!”
The organizer of the event, Daniel Miller, a leader of the Texas Nationalist Movement who [...]

Right-wing global warming deniers protest Clean Energy Summit. - Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Yesterday, the Center for American Progress Action Fund hosted the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, a gathering attended by Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Harry Reid, Steven Chu, Hilda Solis, and many other experts. Unsurprisingly, right-wing protesters – many of whom are global warming deniers – also gathered at the venue. The Wonk Room’s [...]

ThinkFast: August 10, 2009 - Monday, August 10th, 2009

Offering the first personal account of “his dramatic rescue of two jailed journalists from North Korea,” former President Bill Clinton said, “I was asked to do a job. I did it to the best of my ability.” Clinton added that he did not want “to say anything that could in any way play any role [...]

Right Wing Attacks Clinton’s Successful Trip To Free American Journalists In North Korea - Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Yesterday, super-hawk John Bolton was upset that President Clinton, along with a group that included Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta, went over to North Korea to negotiate the release of two imprisoned American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. “It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists,” Bolton said. Even after [...]

ThinkFast: August 5, 2009 - Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accompanied by President Clinton and CAP President and CEO John Podesta, arrived back home in California this morning after being held for five months in North Korea while reporting for Current TV. Current co-founder Al Gore released a statement, reading, “Our hearts go out to them – and [...]

EXCLUSIVE: Infamous Astroturf Lobbying Firm Behind New Anti-Health Reform Group - Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

The new anti-health reform front group known as the Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights, is being managed by the lobbying firm known as the DCI Group. After being contacted by ThinkProgress this afternoon about its sponsorship of CPPR’s press conference last week, DCI Group staffers acknowledged that they coordinate PR for the front group. Not [...]

Cal Thomas compares Sotomayor to ‘white supremacy’ advocate G. Harrold Carswell. - Monday, June 8th, 2009

On Fox News Sunday this weekend, conservative columnist Cal Thomas declared that “as usual,” Rush Limbaugh is “absolutely right” when he calls Judge Sonia Sotomayor a “racist.” Thomas complained that the media has a “double standard” when it comes to covering Supreme Court nominees accused of racism, citing two judges nominated by Richard Nixon — [...]

Ted Olson to team up with Bush v. Gore foe to challenge Prop. 8 in federal court. - Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Former U.S. solicitor general Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who argued opposite each other in Bush v. Gore, are now teaming up to “represent two same-sex couples filing suit after being denied marriage licenses because of Proposition 8. Their suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court in California, calls for an injunction against [...]

Shimkus: ‘Corporate Titans Are My Friends’ - Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Today, conservative extremist Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) engaged in a one-man debate whether corporate America is good or evil. The Republican Party’s attempts to characterize the Waxman-Markey green economy legislation as economic catastrophe have been neutered, as the bill has gained the support of a broad coalition of corporate America, poverty advocates, labor unions, and [...]

Gore: Cheney is in no position to talk ‘about making the country less safe.’ - Friday, May 15th, 2009

On CNN’s American Morning today, former Vice President Al Gore hit back against his successor, Dick Cheney’s, claims that President Obama’s policies are making the country less safe. “Obviously, I strongly disagree,” said Gore. “You know, you talk about somebody that shouldn’t be talking about making the country less safe, invading a country that did [...]