Think Progress

ThinkFast: November 18, 2009 - Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Afghanistan today “for a surprise visit on the eve of the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai.” Clinton, who is making her first visit to Afghanistan as secretary of state, “will attend Karzai’s Thursday inauguration to a second term, showing U.S. support for his government, after an election which [...]

ThinkFast: November 13, 2009 - Friday, November 13th, 2009

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others accused of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks will be put on criminal trial in New York. The move is “the first set of decisions before a Monday deadline on how to deal with the more than 200 [...]

Maddow Rips Rep. Pete Hoekstra For Leaking Sensitive National Security Information - Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Last night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow accused Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee and current gubernatorial candidate, of leaking sensitive intelligence information to the press. Hoekstra told the Washington Post this week that Maj. Nidal M. Hasan had e-mail conversations with a radical Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Aulaqi. Maddow excoriated [...]

ThinkFast: November 2, 2009 - Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Afghan officials cancelled the country’s run-off presidential election set to take place this Saturday after challenger Abdullah Abdullah announced his withdrawal from the race. The officials declared President Hamid Karzai the winner. An election commission official “cited security and financial concerns about the cost of the vote.”
According to a summary of the FBI’s interview with [...]

Fox’s Chris Wallace Conducts Sycophantic, Softball Interview With Rush Limbaugh - Sunday, November 1st, 2009

When the White House snubbed Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace of an interview with President Obama in September, Wallace defended his program by claiming it is a “truly fair and balanced show.” This morning, he had an opportunity to demonstrate his fairness, but failed miserably.
During his 30-minute on-air interview with Rush Limbaugh, Wallace [...]

Chamber Of Commerce President Questions Climate Change: ‘Is Science Not Right? I Don’t Know’ - Monday, October 26th, 2009

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a PR offensive after a series of high-profile member defections due to the Chamber’s denial of climate science and its aggressive lobbying against clean energy legislation. Earlier this year, Chamber officials pledged to put climate change science on trial in a “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century.” [...]

REPORT: ‘Duplicitous’ Campaign Of Insurers To Charm The Public While Secretly Killing Reform - Thursday, September 17th, 2009

NOTE: This is the third installment of our series — Meet Your Insurance Company Executive: An Interview with Wendell Potter.
This week, ThinkProgress spoke with Wendell Potter, a former VP of communications at health insurance giant CIGNA, about exactly how insurance companies derail reform and preserve the status quo. Working in public relations for CIGNA, Potter [...]

The Health Insurance Industry’s ‘Duplicitous’ Campaign To Kill Health Reform - Thursday, September 17th, 2009

ThinkProgress spoke with Wendell Potter, a former VP of communications at health insurance giant CIGNA, about exactly how insurance companies derail reform and preserve the status quo. Working in public relations for CIGNA, Potter had a direct role in multiple campaigns in the past to minimize public outrage at insurance company abuses, defeat legislation aimed [...]

ThinkFast: September 14, 2009 - Monday, September 14th, 2009

In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, President Obama pledged that he will “own” any health care legislation that gets passed. “You know, I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it,” he said. Obama added that the legislative debate had become “a big circus instead of [...]

ThinkFast: September 3, 2009 - Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

President Obama will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, where he will “add more specifics to his vision for overhauling the nation’s health system.” According to a senior administration official, “the president’s goal is to be ‘much more prescriptive‘ than he has been, mapping out ways to merge proposals and ‘move Congress toward [...]

In KY, McConnell Brags About Stimulus Projects, Requests More Money; In DC, McConnell Says Stimulus Should End - Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) demanded a halt to stimulus spending, saying money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should be diverted to paying down the deficit. McConnell, who lead the opposition to the stimulus in the Senate, has been an ongoing critic. “You do have to wonder, though, whether the stimulus has had [...]

American flags not welcome at oil Astroturf rally. - Thursday, August 20th, 2009

At a “grassroots” rally organized by the American Petroleum Institute in Houston on Tuesday, activists bearing American flags were turned away. Oil company employees were bused in to the “Energy Citizens” gathering to hear billionaire Drayton McLane Jr. attack President Barack Obama’s clean energy agenda as an economy-destroying energy tax. However, grassroots tea-party activists told [...]

Rep. Markey Reveals Five More Forged Astroturf Letters - Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Last month, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) announced a congressional investigation of the DC lobbying firm Bonner & Associates. The firm, which has a long history of astroturfing, was caught forging anti-clean energy reform letters — purportedly from groups representing women and people of color — to Congress. Coal front group American Coalition for Clean Coal [...]

Leaked memo: Big Oil manufacturing ‘Energy Citizen’ rallies to oppose clean energy reform. - Thursday, August 13th, 2009

The American oil industry, working with a coalition of business interests, plans to manufacture rallies in opposition to clean energy reform, an internal document reveals. According to the plan acquired by Greenpeace, the American Petroleum Institute (API) will “coordinate transportation” for oil industry employees to “Energy Citizen” rallies targeting U.S. Senators in 21 states. [...]

Israeli Consul Recalled After Authoring Memo Critical of Israel’s Approach To Obama Administration - Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Last week, an internal memorandum written by Boston-based Israeli consul general Nadav Tamir was leaked to the Israeli press, causing a media “firestorm” in Israel. In the memo, Tamir writes that the US-Israeli relationship is suffering as a result of Israeli hostility towards President Obama’s efforts to bring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an end:
During [...]

Pelosi rejects anti-health reform protests: ‘I think they’re Astroturf.’ - Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs” around the country. These town halls on health care have been marked by “incomprehensible” yelling from angry conservatives, many of whom don’t even live in the district of the meeting they’re attending. Yesterday, a reporter asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) whether they [...]

More ‘Town Halls Gone Wild’: Angry Far Right Protesters Disrupt Events With ‘Incomprehensible’ Yelling - Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Since members of Congress have been returning home to their districts for the August recess, a consortium of industry-backed right-wing groups have been planning ambushes to harass Democrats for supporting health care reform. ThinkProgress obtained a leaked memo from a volunteer with Tea Party Patriots, a website sponsored by lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and [...]

Durbin Responds To Lobbyist-Run Efforts To Harass Town Halls: We ‘Won’t Fall For A Sucker-Punch Like This’ - Monday, August 3rd, 2009

ThinkProgress reported today on the growing number of angry right-wing activists viciously harassing Democratic, as well as moderate Republican, members of Congress on health care reform. Jonathan Cohn wrote that these tactics represent “classic astroturf organizing, in some cases bankrolled by the health care industry.” The insurance industry is sending staff members to over 30 [...]

Right-Wing Harassment Strategy Against Dems Detailed In Memo: ‘Yell,’ ‘Stand Up And Shout Out,’ ‘Rattle Him’ - Friday, July 31st, 2009

This morning, Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls. For example, in one incident, right-wing protesters surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and forced police officers to have to escort him to his car for safety.
This growing phenomenon is often [...]

ThinkFast: July 31, 2009 - Friday, July 31st, 2009

Col. Timothy Reese, an adviser to the Iraqi military’s Baghdad command, recently wrote a blunt memo stating that it is time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.” “Extending the American military presence beyond August 2010, he argues, will do little to improve the Iraqis’ military performance while fueling growing resentment of Americans.”
Karl [...]